Confessions of a High School Supermodel

Chapter 17

17

With a smirk and a casual flip of her tousled blonde locks, Sundance stalked off, presumably to go work off some tension on the dance floor.  (Or more likely, to go hunt for celebrities lurking around the party and make them take photos with her.)

Once she was safely gone, Maddie turned her attention back to her plate of food.  Rocking out to 1D could certainly build an appetite!  Her plate of cold pasta and hardened garlic bread didn’t look particularly appetizing anymore.  Not to mention her chocolate cake had alfredo sauce soaking into the icing.  Let me see what else they have, she thought to herself, wrinkling her nose. 

Maddie slowly walked down the length of the long table, scanning its contents for something that looked appealing, while still holding onto her precious signed One Direction poster.  Chips and salsa?  Watermelon slices?  Macarons?  Maybe a brownie?  Wait!   Is that… cotton candy?

Maddie could see a white pastry box with holes punched in the top and a single paper cone of fluffy pink cotton candy sticking out of one of the holes.  Just one left!

Maddie had absolutely loved cotton candy ever since she was a kid.  One day, when she and Cassidy were little, their parents took them to a carnival with their grandfather.   The whole car ride there, Maddie and Cassidy had chattered excitedly about the cotton candies their parents had promised to buy them.  However, when Grandpa Fox finally joined them, he’d given Maddie’s parents a long lecture about how sugar rots kids’ teeth and the cost of dental work was going up these days. 

“You’re giving them pure sugar, you know that?  They’re going to get cavities!  Give the girls a glass of water instead!” he’d grumbled. 

So instead of the cotton candy the girls had been looking forward to, they were given bottles of water to drink.  

“Ice cold!  Yum, how delicious!” Grandpa had chirped. 

Maddie and Cassidy had been furious and wouldn’t stop sulking and pouting; the whole way home, the girls cried as if their hearts were breaking.  To this day, Maddie and Cassidy still had never fully forgiven their parents for The Cotton Candy Fail. 

Ever since that day when the sugary treat had been so cruelly deprived from her, Maddie had developed a slight obsession with cotton candy.  Whenever she went to a fair or carnival, she would insist on getting a huge cotton candy for herself.  She also bought the bagged cotton candy at the supermarket, but that never tasted quite as good or as fresh.  It was a personal dream of hers to one day buy herself a cotton candy maker of her very own. 

At the party, Maddie’s mouth watered at the sight of the fluffy sugar floss sitting temptingly on the table.  Just one piece left, perfect! she thought to herself.  Just as she was reaching out her pink manicured hand for the last cotton candy, another hand reached out and grabbed it.

“Yes!  I got the last one!” a voice boasted.

Maddie’s eyes traveled up the hand, up the arm, and finally up to the face of the cotton candy thief.  She found herself staring into the bright green eyes of a tall, handsome boy with ruffled brown hair and a sheepish smile. 

It’s always the cute ones who think they can get away with anything, Maddie thought irritably, trying not to notice how good-looking he was.  Cute guys think that all they need to do is just flash those pretty green eyes and they can get whatever they want!  Well, I don’t care who he is, this cotton candy is all mine!

 “Hey!  I was about to take that!” Maddie protested. 

“Well, you were too slow, weren’t you?” the boy replied teasingly.