The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back (16 page)

"Mattie, I didn't…"

I had no desire to listen to him. My feet finally started working and I walked backstage, away from prying eyes.

I hadn't gotten far when Jake reached out to take me by the arm, turning me to face him. "Leave me alone," I hissed at him.

"You need to let me explain. I did not write this speech. Scott did. I know that's no excuse. I should have gone through it before I read it out loud."

I yanked my arm away from his grasp. I couldn't think straight when he touched me. I was so angry, but I had to consider the facts. I thought of the speech and how little it had sounded like Jake to me. I had seen Scott hand him those cards. "Why should I believe anything you say?"

"I have never lied to you. I may have made a couple of bad choices recently, but I've never lied to you."

Everything inside me wanted to believe him. The words, "I believe you," came to the tip of my tongue. I clenched my teeth together to keep them from escaping.

"Why didn't you just write it yourself?"

He must have sensed that I was softening. "Because last night I had to choose between writing the speech and seeing you. I chose you."

How could I not melt? I knew how busy he was. After he said that, I probably would have accepted any explanation to excuse his behavior. Somebody had drugged him. He had an evil twin. He had a time machine and would go back and undo it. Anything.

I wished I felt nothing for him. Instead I was angry and hurt, but underneath it all? I definitely still loved him. I couldn't believe that I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

If he was playing me, he was amazingly good at it.

I wanted to test him. "Ella's dating Trent. They're serious."

Jake looked really confused. "Um, okay. Good for Ella?"

"You're not upset? You're not jealous?"

"Why would I be? I told you that things with me and Ella were over." He sounded so sincere and so bewildered.

Maybe Mercedes didn't have the simplest explanation. Maybe the simplest explanation was the one that my heart believed. That Jake liked me. That Scott had set me up to be embarrassed and Jake really didn't know anything about it.

Jake took a step toward me, and I took a step back. That made him stop. He looked and sounded hurt. "I'm so sorry that happened. I told Scott I was thinking about dropping out because I didn't have time for it, and he said he would take care of it and help me because he wanted us all to do student council together."

What did I say to that? "Okay." His problems with his idiot friends were not really my problem.

He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Look, if I win, I'm going to decline."

"I don't need your pity."

"It's not my pity. What happened today was wrong. Listening to you up there, you really believe in something. You want this school to be a better place. I was just doing this to make my friends and my dad happy. You should be president. And I won't have to decline because now I probably won't even win."

Jake and Ella. King and Queen of the Land of Delusion. In what universe would Jake Kingston not win the election? "That's nice and everything, but you sort of just humiliated me in front of the whole school, so I'm going to go now."

But before I could leave, the curtains got thrown aside, and a fire-breathing Ms. Rathbone stood there. "Mr. Kingston, in my office
now
."

"Can I just…"

"Now!" She stormed off and Jake looked at me apologetically.

"I have to go. I know I don't deserve to ask you this, but will you come to the masquerade ball tonight? I think we need to talk more about this."

No
, my head screamed.
Tell him no! What is wrong with you?

What was wrong with me is that I was in love with him and wanted to believe him. "Fine. I'll think about it."

He gave me a grin and started to say something else, but Ms. Rathbone shrieked at him from the back of the auditorium and he ran out onto the stage and down the steps.

I didn't need to think about it for long. The answer would be no.

Ella called Bill and explained the whole situation to him, and he actually left his studio to come and pull me out of school early. I stopped by the cafeteria to vote for myself (and took great satisfaction in crossing out Scott and Mercedes's names and writing in Trent and Ella's names instead) before I went home.

Once we got there, Dad asked me if I was all right. I told him I would live, and that apparently was good enough for him to head straight back to his painting.

Ella rushed me into her room and closed the door. "Just so you know, that speech totally backfired. People didn't think it was cool," she informed me. She said the general consensus seemed to be that he was a jerk and I handled it well. He had the higher ground and he basically kicked me in the face. "People felt bad for you."

"So I'm getting the pity vote?"

"A vote's a vote," she declared.

"Jake says that one line wasn't his fault."

"Oh, obviously," Ella said as she went into her closet. "Scott was totally bragging about having written it to anyone who would listen."

Jake had been telling me the truth.

It was like the sun coming out after a thunderstorm. Suddenly everything seemed brighter and warmer. I felt all glowy and happy inside.

"Ella? I think I need your help with something."

She stuck her head out through the closet door. "What's that?"

"I need you to take me shopping. I'm going to the masquerade ball tonight."

Chapter 15

I didn't know human beings were capable of making the sound that Ella made. I covered my ears.

"I am so excited! Let's go!" she squealed as she grabbed her purse.

"Go where?"

"To the mall! We have so many things to do to get ready for tonight!"

I don't know what Ella had in mind, but I wasn't interested. "This isn't an excuse to shop. You know I hate shopping."

She looked like I had just insulted her favorite deity. "This isn't an excuse. Trust me when I say you don't have anything you could wear tonight. And it isn't possible for you to hate shopping. You just haven't been with me. And we can use our credit cards!" She grabbed her purse and then grabbed me.

"Dad! We're taking the car!" she called out as she dragged me outside.

He said something back, but we couldn't hear him. As I got in the passenger seat I realized that it was the first time I'd ever heard her call my dad that. She had always called him Bill. I guess things really had changed between them. Especially since she now seemed so eager to use our Dad-issued credit cards.

"Okay, so we have to get a dress obviously." She started ticking things off on her fingers. "And shoes. And accessories. And depending on the dress, possibly a new bra and underwear. Jewelry, maybe."

I already felt overwhelmed. Walking into the mall didn't help. I avoided this place like I avoided Mercedes and Scott. Ella took in a big breath and looked calmer. It was like she had come home to the mother ship.

"Let's go get a dress first." Everything swirled past in a haze of color and sound. She walked into a shop and started expertly pulling dresses in every color and piled them on top of my open arms. After she had pulled nearly every dress off the rack, she told me it was time to try them on.

The saleswoman had to help me get the mountain of clothes into the dressing room. Resigned to my fate, I tried on the black one first.

"Nope. No black tonight. No khaki or red or blue like our uniforms. Let's try something pretty and bright. With your skin tone, you would look amazing in jewel shades. Try a purple or a green or dark blue."

Per her dictatorial instructions, I put on a purple one next. I pushed the curtain aside and Ella clapped her hands together. "You look amazing! Try on some more!"

I didn't know it was possible to hate clothes this much. The grumpier I got, the more excited Ella got. She loved every dress and every dress looked "so awesome" on me.

Finally I tried on the last one. It was an emerald green color with skinny straps and a low back. The fabric was silky and soft, and it made a whispering sound when I put it on. The dress came in tight at the waist, and the skirt flounced out around me. It was so girly looking. I hurried up to get it on so Ella could tell me which one I should buy and I could be done.

But when I walked out, Ella fell silent. She got up and walked around me in a circle. "Oh Tilly, that is the one." I had stopped looking at my reflection about eleven dresses ago. Ella stepped aside and I could see myself in the three-way mirror. And I looked…wow. I didn't look fat. Or Goth. It even went with my fuchsia hair. It tucked me in at all the right places and the twirly skirt hid everything else.

She was right. This was the one. I actually felt sort of pretty in it. And I had never felt that way before.

So, I burst into tears.

Ella put her arms around me, and sat me down on the bench in the dressing room. She turned my head so that my tears wouldn't fall on my dress. "What's wrong?"

I ignored my policy on not discussing Jake with Ella, but in between sobs I told her everything Mercedes had told me.

"That evil, little….oh, I don't even know anything bad enough to call her! She's so obviously lying just to upset you. You can't believe anything she said. Jake asked you out on a date. He asked you to meet him at the ball tonight! And where will Mercedes Bentley be? At home. Feeling jealous of you and sorry for herself."

"But what if she was right? What if he is using me to get to you?" I just couldn't let it go.

Ella sat quietly for a minute before saying, "I know exactly how to prove that she was wrong. I can prove to you that Jake wants you and not anybody else."

"How in Buddha's name are you going to do that?"

She flashed her credit card. "I am going to do a total makeover on you." I started to protest but she held a hand up. "I know how you feel about it, but listen. I am going to make you unrecognizable. Best of all, it's a masquerade ball. You'll be this gorgeous mystery girl, but he will blow you off because he will still want Mattie."

Despite what I always told Ella, secretly I wanted a makeover. What '80s movie heroine would be complete without a fantastic makeover? Andie making a prom dress out of her mom's old dress in
Pretty in Pink
. Clair making over Allison in
The Breakfast Club
.

Truth be told, I was a little afraid I'd look the same. That there would be no difference between "before" and "after." It was easier on my ego to just say no.

But if my life could be like the movies, the makeover would let the hot guy realize how awesome I am inside and out, and he would fall for me (although he had already secretly fallen for me and just couldn't admit it yet).

"Okay, fine, you win" I finally mumbled, while Ella squealed. She ripped the tag off of my dress. "I promise you, you will not regret this!" Holy Buddha, now she was Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother all rolled into one.

Ella had her credit card out and had already paid for the dress before I even changed back. I sort of didn't want to take the dress off, which felt strange.

Then something even stranger happened. I got a message notification on my phone. Jake had posted to my Facebook page. All he said was, "Looking forward to tonight." It made my heart do little flips.
Jake Kingston wrote on my Facebook wall
! It was out there for anyone to see. Not that I had many friends, but it felt…so…public. It made the heartache and hurt that I had just been feeling slip away.

Before I could tell Ella about what happened, she dragged me to an accessories type store, because they had specially ordered masks for our ball. Ella picked out a green one that matched my dress, with black and silver feathers on the edges. The mask itself covered not only my forehead and nose, but most of my face. Only my mouth and eyes were visible. "So he won't recognize you," Ella said.

"Isn't this fun?" she asked as the clerk handed her the bag. It was the opposite of fun, actually. I felt so totally stressed out. My head throbbed. This had become a very bad idea. Maybe I should skip the dance. Even if Jake was looking forward to it.

At the shoe store, I tried to stop her. "I'm pretty sure they don't make high heels in a size ten."

"Sure they do. They make heels big enough for Paris Hilton's huge feet." Her eyes got big. "Not that I'm saying you have big feet!"

Of course I had big feet. It was part of the ugly stepsister/way too tall thing. But Ella couldn't be convinced that high heels were a Bad Idea. I'd spent my whole life trying to be shorter, and now she wanted me to add a good three inches?

"Here," she handed me a pair of black shoes. We didn't have much color or style selection, but they seemed okay. I slipped them on, and the pounding in my head got worse.

"Stand up."

"I can't. I can't walk in these. I'm going to permanently maim myself."

"You will be fine."

"I'm going to break both of my ankles." I tried to take a few tentative steps and had to grab onto Ella to stay upright. "No way."

"We'll practice when you get home. It's not that hard."

Ella grabbed me some dark, sheer stockings and took me to a salon. I tried to tell her we would never get an appointment, but she steered me inside. Apparently, once I'd said yes, she'd texted her favorite stylist, Andre, and he had moved his schedule around to accommodate her.

I sat down hard in his chair, daring him to say something.

He picked up several chunks of my hair. "Oh my, it's very, uh, pink."

"I was thinking we'd do a deep red," Ella said. "I've always though Mattie would look amazing as a redhead."

"And you wanted some extensions too?" Andre asked while he looked at my reflection in the mirror.

"Yes, and waxing, of course."

"Oh, of course," he nodded, as if it were perfectly normal to use hot freaking wax to tear things off of your body.