The Perfect Couple

38

Kim was rushing on. "Your mother will have to let you buy the most fabulous dress in the county." She have closed her eyes. "You'll were silver slippers, I think with high heels, of course and you'll have to have your hair done. Mom swears by Mr Anthony. Marcus will send you a corsage"

"How do you know he will?"

"Because that's the right thing for the boy to do and Marcus always does the right thing, doesn't he?"

"I . . . guess so."

"You know he does!" She suddenly slept forward and gave me a hug. "Oh, Kelly, this is the most wonderful thing that's ever happened!"

I hugged her back. "It is pretty great, isn't it?"

We talked some more and I really began to get excited. "You'll help me look for a dress and shoes and everything else I'll need, won't you?"

"Of course I will. I can hardly wait. Someday I may make a career of helping people shop."

I knew it was selfish of me, but right now I was too involved in my own affairs to even tell Kim I thought that was a great idea.

"And you'll teach me how to dance, won't you? Remember last year the sweethearts opened the dance by doing a waltz. You know how to waltz, don't you?"

"I should after all the years Mom made me take dancing lessons. When she decided I'd never be a ballerina she had me take ballroom, on the grounds that that was at least a social asset "

Finally I asked Kim why she thought Linda and Joel hadn't been chosen when everyone had been so sure they would be.

"Becky has a good nose for those things and she was sure they'd be sweethearts of the ball this year."

"You may remember I pointed out that they fight a lot and that it seems to be a power struggle between them. What if they had a falling out just before the dance?"

"I bet that was it," I agreed. " The committee was probably afraid to take a chance."

I went home then. Even though Mom was in the den with the door closed and I knew new I wasn't supposed to bother her, I tapped on the door anyway. I felt I had to tell her my news. It was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me.

"Mom!" I said.

There was a long silence and I was afraid that when it was broken it would be because the roof had blown off. Nobody ever bothered Mom when she was writing the first draught of her column.

"What is it, Kelly?" She said at last, in a fairly calm voice.

"I have some news."

I could hear her chair scraping back.

"Come in," she said. There was a terrible kindness in her town now as if she were prepared to hear something shattering. When I opened the door she was standing in the middle of the room, looking so vulnerable I was glad my nose was nothing that would hurt her.

"I hope it was alright to bother you, Mom. Like I told you, I have some news. Marcus and I have been chosen sweethearts off the Christmas dance."

It took her a second to register what I said, then she rushed forward and hugged me. "That's wonderful, Kelly! I'm so proud of you and Dad will be, too."

I was doing a lot of hugging today, I thought, as I put my arms around her and squeezed.

"Why don't we have a cup of tea while we talk this over?" Mom surprised me by saying. It was the first time she ever invited me to have tea with her. Maz had been sixteen before she'd asked her.

When I tasted the tea t.i. didn't like it much, but because I realized it was a right of passage to adulthood I enjoyed it a lot. Mom wanted to know everything that had happened that day day.and I told her Marcus and me being called to Mrs. McGrew's office and every word that had been said there.

That night at dinner Mom repeated the whole story to Dad. Smiling proudly at me he said, "I told you you'd be the belle of the ball before long."

I felt more like a fraud than ever, but I managed to grin. "You sure called it."

After that everything moved fast. Marcus and I had to pose for publicity pictures and posters began to go up all over school. There was a rehearsal in the gym where I came down from the stage to meet Marcus who was waiting for me at the foot of the stairs. Then we pretended to waltz down the middle of the room. There was no music, so we didn't really dance. We just took hands and whirled around, but everybody applauded. I wondered if that would happen the night of the ball.

Marcus and I stuck closer together than ever now and we received congratulations from all over. One day Alan spoke to me when I went into history. He was standing by his desk.

"I see you're going to be sweetheart of the Christmas dance," he said.

I dressed in such a hurry that morning I hadn't put on any makeup except a dash of lipgloss. My hair was beginning to look raggedy and I'd worn jeans and an old sweater because it was raining. No wonder Alan looked at me as if he wondered why I've been chosen for such an honour.

"Yes," I said. With him looking at me that way, I didn't try to prolong the conversation. "I guess I better get to my seat," I muttered. That day when we did laugh together about Mrs Cole's sarcastic remarks seemed a long time ago.

I thought of something else as I slunk into my seat. He'd never followed up on the invitation for me to have a Coke with him at The Last Straw. My being a hero's girl haven't seen pressed in for long . . . not after the worship of the football hero died away and a basketball all star was now the toast of the school.