A Grave Problem

21. A Winter Wonderland

The night of the dance, Mia's dad drove her over to Carmine's house. The boys weren't going to be showing up for another three hours or so, but they'd wanted plenty of time to get ready. Luckily, Carmine's two older sisters were home from college for the weekend and had been more than happy to help their baby sister and her friends. As soon as Mia and Anna got there, they were hurried upstairs. Carmine's oldest sister, Catherine, had turned the bathroom into a makeup-littered mess, and her sister Claire's room was now a dressing room.

Anna had ended up buying that green dress, and Mia had found a red one trimmed in black. Carmine had even managed to pick out a pale purple dress, despite being so picky Mia had worried she'd never find anything. Once everyone was dressed, they took turns with Carmine's older sisters. Catherine did everyone's makeup, and Claire took care of the hair. Mia had thought the whole process would take about an hour at most, so she was surprised to see they'd somehow managed to use up almost all the time they'd given themselves.

It was just before 5:00 when the girls finally came downstairs. The boys weren't supposed to show up for another half an hour, so now all they had to do was wait. They had just sat themselves down on the couch when Carmine's mom came hurrying out from wherever she'd hidden herself.

"Oh! You girls look wonderful!" she exclaimed. "Let me take some pictures of you."

She grabbed her camera and whisked them out the door and into the back yard. At first, all of the attention was great; it kept Mia too busy to be nervous. But after the excitement of it all wore off, she could feel her stomach starting to twist itself into knots. She didn't want to admit she was nervous, but she couldn't help it - she really liked Zev. And since she hadn't bothered to go to any school dances last year, this was not only her first high school dance, but also one of her first real dates with Zev. At least her friends were going to be with her. Mina looked over at them. Carmine seemed to be doing ok, but Anna was managing to look even more nervous that Mia.

"Are you ok?" Mia asked when the three girls finally had a minute alone together.

"I'm fine." Anna said, shaking her head vigorously up and down.

"You don't look fine." Carmine pointed out.

"I'm ok, really. I'm just nervous." Anna let out a deep breath. "This is the first time I've been to a dance in a long time."

"How long?" Mia asked, curious.

"...About two hundred and eighty years." Anna said after a quick calculation. "I just hope things go better this time."

"They will." Mia promised, trying to remember if Anna had told her what went wrong the last time.

"Yeah, don't worry." Carmine told her. "Luke's a really nice guy, and even if things aren't perfect, at least we'll all have fun."

Anna nodded.

"Thanks." she told her friends.

They settled into silence, and Mia's own worries started coming to mind. She didn't think anything would go wrong, but this was her first dance, and she didn't know what to expect. Her heart was racing, and even though they only had about fifteen more minutes to wait, it seemed like the longest fifteen minutes of Mia's life. By the time the boys finally showed up, Mia would have sworn the night was half over.

Luke's dad had driven them over, and the girls went out to meet them as soon as they heard the van pull up. Luke got out of the front seat, dressed nicely in his suit. His hair was still a little unruly, even though Mia could see he'd tried to comb it down. He made his way towards the girls, but Mia's attention had turned towards the back door of the van, which had slid open. Zev was the first one out, and Mia had to admit, when he dressed up, he looked nice. He smiled at her as soon as he saw her, and headed over. Out of the corner of her eye, Mia saw Conner get out of the van, followed by a lanky girl she recognized vaguely as being in her chemistry class. Tala, she thought her name was. The four of them walked up the front walk, followed by Luke's dad.