Winter White (10 page)

“Savannah, your mom is sitting directly across the field,” Lea pointed out.

“Don’t let her see me,” Savannah hissed, ducking behind Lea. She peeked out from behind Lea’s shoulder and frowned. “Oh, God! The football team is laughing at us! I am not doing this.” She thought for a moment. “I’ll be the first Ingram in history to not make cotillion.” She covered her face with her hands. Mira didn’t tell her that the red paint ran all over them. Others started to murmur their agreement and fears. Their cotillion class was quickly falling apart.

“You guys have got to be kidding me.” Izzie stood up to face the others. “You can’t handle one little dare? You guys are supposed to be the perfect belles.”

“We
are
belles,” Savannah snapped. “And doing this”—she motioned to her ensemble—“will ruin that.”

“No, it won’t,” Izzie told her. “If anything, this will just make you look cooler. Everyone is going to know we’re doing something mysterious if we stand up and sing together. It will all be over in five minutes, and then you can dive under
the bleachers and hide until our next initiation. But if you don’t do this,” she warned, “there won’t be another one.” Lea paled. “So? Everyone with me? Let’s do this!”

Mira couldn’t believe Izzie’s take-charge attitude. Her Gaga look was sort of kick-butt. Maybe that helped, because the others seemed to listen to her. A few stood up with Izzie. Savannah, Lea, and Lauren were the final three to join them.

Izzie looked satisfied. “Okay, then. On the count of ten, we sing. One, two…”

They attempted to do Gaga proud. Mira sang the best she could, the whole time scanning the crowd for Kellen. Thankfully he wasn’t there to witness her humiliation, but Hayden was. He was sitting in the bleachers a few rows up, and he had a look of deep satisfaction on his face as he videoed the whole thing on his phone! Great. He’d show this to all her future boyfriends. Even if he didn’t, she was sure someone else would humiliate them all by posting this on YouTube.

“
Sit down!
” a guy wearing red face paint barked as they came to the chorus.

“Shut it!” said another guy.

Someone threw a paper cup at Lea, and then a rain of wrappers started coming down on them. Savannah looked like she might burst into tears, but Mira started to laugh, and so did the girl standing next to her, who had a black lightning bolt painted over her right eye and her strawberry-red hair
piled on her head in an oversize bow. She thought her name was Charlotte. They had never really talked before. Now they were both hysterical from the adrenaline of embarrassment, and Charlotte had her arm draped around Mira’s.

When the Gagas hit their last off-key note, the group flew out of the stadium as fast as their feet would carry them. Savannah, Lea, and Lauren kept running, but Mira, Izzie, and some of the others stuck around. Most were laughing as they tried to fix their hair and remove their crazy makeup. Everyone was talking a mile a minute about what they had just pulled off. Mira had to admit, it was insane, but probably the most adventurous thing she had done in a long time. Izzie, the one cotillion participant who
hadn’t
dreamed of making her debut since she was seven, was the one who had gotten them to complete their first assignment. She wanted to thank Izzie, but the minute she saw her sister’s deadly expression, she decided that might not be the best idea.

“You’re dropping out, aren’t you?” Mira said quietly.

Izzie tried to run a hand through the gel in her hair, but it got stuck. “I was ready to quit an hour ago.”

Mira’s heart sank. It was official. She was doing cotillion alone. She couldn’t blame Izzie for wanting out. She didn’t know what she was getting into when she agreed in the first place. But when she looked at Izzie, she saw that she was smiling.

“Then I thought about missing everything they’re going
to do to Savannah. They clearly don’t like her.” Mira perked up. “And watching that might make this whole stupid initiation thing worthwhile.”

Mira tried not to get excited. “Just to be clear, this means you’re staying?”

Izzie smirked. “I’m not going anywhere.”

It might not have been the reasoning Mira was looking for, but she’d take it.

“
Go
, Mimi!
Go!
” Izzie shouted, jumping up and down so hard that the metal bleachers shook beneath her feet. She tried to scream loud enough to be heard over the crowd in the cavernous Harborside Community Center pool, but that was pretty tough to do especially when Kylie’s cowbell was louder than all of them.

“You go, squirt!” Kylie screamed, ringing her cowbell furiously.

Izzie had no idea where she had gotten the thing, but Kylie said the bell was good luck. Kylie used to bring it to all of Izzie’s swim meets, and she figured the same luck would apply to a junior team meet. She rang the bell faster as Mimi Grayson—the guppie whom Izzie had taught swim lessons for a year—inched out her competitor and raced to the other
end of the pool. Izzie could feel her voice give out as little Mimi hit the wall, the buzzer sounded and it became official. Mimi had won her first-ever swim race.

“Wow, who knew a race among seven-year-olds could be this exciting?” Callista put two fingers in her mouth and gave a loud whistle.

Izzie laughed. “You can’t beat this kind of excitement on a Saturday morning.”

“It beats watching two screaming toddlers while your brother snores and your sister refuses to answer your calls,” Kylie said. Izzie patted her arm. She knew Kylie got stuck on babysitting duty way more than any sister deserved. When Kylie’s mom gave her the morning off, she jumped at the chance to join Izzie for the peewee meet. Kylie looked relaxed in jeans and a striped tee, her bedhead disguised under a Braves cap.

“My original plans weren’t much better.” Callista pushed her glasses up on her nose. “If I wasn’t here, I’d be at Starbucks by myself reading the
New York Times
.”

Izzie knew what it was like to be a full-time babysitter—she had been one for Grams the last six months she lived with her—and what it felt like to be an outsider. She felt bad for Callista. It had to be hard being from New York City and not knowing a soul in Emerald Cove. That was why, when Callista asked if she could see the community center Izzie talked so much about, Izzie didn’t feel funny about inviting her along with Kylie.

“Are you going to go down and congratulate the squirt?” Kylie asked Izzie. They watched the curly-haired kid accept high fives from her teammates.

“You should,” Callista agreed. “Didn’t you bake the team victory cookies?” Izzie had told her all about her star pupil.

“Victory cookies.” Kylie shook her head. “You are such a mush.”

Izzie watched the girls and boys standing by the edge of the pool, listening to their next instructions from Coach Bing. He had also been Izzie’s coach in Harborside. “I don’t want to distract them. I’ll see them when the meet is over.”

“Did you give lessons to most of the kids on the team?” Callista asked.

Izzie nodded. “Most mornings before lifeguarding and sometimes after, too.”

“Did you get paid well for lessons?” Callista asked, and Kylie laughed.

“Are you kidding?” Kylie hugged Izzie, practically smothering her. “This crazy girl did it for free. It ate up a ton of her free time, let me tell you.”

Izzie shrugged. “Group lessons are pricey. Even those fees are waived here sometimes. My coach waived mine,” Izzie said, remembering. “When he saw how well my mom taught me to swim, he said there was no way he’d feel right about keeping me out of the pool.” Izzie kept her eyes on Mimi, who was talking a mile a minute to a girl in a bright
orange swim cap. Izzie had always had a soft spot for the tiny brunette, even though she was supposed to be impartial. Maybe it was because Mimi’s story so closely mirrored her own. Mimi was being raised by her grandparents.

“Free lessons. That’s pretty generous of you,” Callista said.

“That’s Iz,” Kylie said, ringing her bell again. “Generous to a fault.”

“That’s incredible,” Callista said admiringly. “Not everyone would be the same way. Especially when this place had so many memories of your mom.”

Izzie saw the memories flash in front of her like ghosts. “Yeah, that was hard a little bit. The smells, the sounds… Once in a while, when I’m here, I even forget she’s…” There was no need to finish that sentence. While Harborside Community Center held mostly good memories, sometimes it did make Izzie sad.

“And yet, even if this place bums you out sometimes, I bet you’d rather be living here than Emerald Cove any day,” Callista said bluntly, then blushed. But that could have been because it was hot in the room. She took off the cardigan she had on over her tank top. “Sorry. I shouldn’t get so personal.”

“No, it’s okay,” Izzie told her. “This is the only life I’d ever known, and I loved it. Emerald Cove gives me a lot of opportunities I’m thankful for, but if things had turned out differently, and my mom were still alive, then yeah, warts and all, I’d rather be here.”

“I wish you were still here, too,” Kylie said quietly. “But I’m happy you’ve got a family now.” Izzie leaned to her left and bumped shoulders with Kylie affectionately while keeping her eyes on the next heat, which was about to start.

Izzie couldn’t help noticing how different this pool was to the state-of-the-art one at Emerald Prep. The tiles surrounding the pool here had to be from the seventies, giving the place a dated vibe. There were cracks in the ceiling, the roof tiles leaked, and the single-pane windows had seen much better days. They had a permanent film over them that made the sky outside always seem cloudy. There was only one pool, and it had two lap lanes that had to be put up or taken down depending on the class going on at the same time. Izzie’s high school pool had six lap lanes, a separate stroke pool, and even a sauna. There was so much Izzie wished she could give back to Harborside and the community center the way it had given so much to her.

“I can understand wanting to be in two places at once,” Callista told her. “I was a military brat. We moved every two years from the time I was two till I was sixteen. Just when I started liking a place, we moved again.” She wiped her glasses, which kept fogging up. “You want what you can’t have, I guess.”

“That’s true.” Izzie knew she felt that way sometimes.

Kylie pointed to the pool. “You’ve been spotted, Ms. Celebrity Coach.” Mimi must have noticed Izzie because the
whole group was jumping up and down and waving instead of paying attention to the meet. Coach Bing blew his whistle to bring them back in line. Izzie smiled.

“I can tell this place does a world of good,” Callista said, leaning her elbows on her knees and watching the team. “I will keep on Bill about doing shout-outs for the center where he can, okay?”

“Thanks.” Izzie was grateful for all Callista had done. “I appreciate you listening to me go on and on about my old life. Kylie has to hear about it all the time, but you didn’t sign on when you agreed to spend your morning off with me.”

Callista put an arm around her and looked across the pool. “Any time, my friend.” Suddenly she felt her stiffen. “What is your dad—sorry, Bill—doing here?”

Her eyes followed Callista’s. Bill had walked into the pool area with the director of the community center. Both Bill and the director looked serious.

“Did you tell him about the meet?” Callista asked. Izzie shook her head.

“Whoa, is he fighting with the director?” Kylie asked. “Not cool.”

They seemed to be in the middle of a heated conversation. Usually in public, Bill was always “on.” He never missed a handshake. Here, several people noticed him, but he was too busy to say hi or even smile. What was he up to, and why hadn’t he told Izzie he was going to be there? Izzie’s foot
started to tap the bleachers madly. Her mind was spinning. Maybe Bill was backing Ingrams’s bill again. He wouldn’t. Would he?

“What is he doing here?” Callista wondered aloud. “He didn’t have a stop here on his schedule unless…” She stopped herself and side-eyed Izzie worriedly. “Don’t stress. I’m sure whatever his reason is, it’s a good one.”

“I’m sure it is,” Izzie seconded. But looking at the steely expression on Bill’s face, she wasn’t sure she believed that.