PRIDE & PRINCESSES: A Pride and Prejudice (type) of teen story (Sunrise High #1)

The Missing Page (chapter nine)

Chapter 9

The Missing Page

    “Of course not. You can’t count an audition as a proper date. Well maybe just this once,” Mouche said.

    “Great,” I said. “Then it’s your turn next.”

    “Of course, I’ve already put myself out on a limb through a series of texts that have resulted in the Fall Fling that can totally count as date three...”

     “Ahhh! That’s so exciting. When’s date two?”

     “Ah... Jet and Mark want to meet us this afternoon near Santa Monica Pier to go swimming before we drive home...”

    “Are you serious? What should we wear?”

    “We should go shopping for swimsuits after lunch. I still have my emergency fund from working during the holidays.”

     “...mmm...I have exactly ten dollars...but, I have my dance leotard in the car...”

     “Okay, perfect. We’re meeting them at 1pm.”

     So, I’m standing at the foot of the escalator, adjusting my boot zipper, checking to see if I’ve  developed blisters and thinking it will be a warm day in the South Pole before I get a movie part, since It’s pretty obvious I didn’t  get this one. Moving right along though, I’m all excited about the impending date when I see Teegan’s face (upside down) as she brushes s by me near the cinema complex.

     Then, when I stand up I bump into Matt and his boyfriend. I say, “Sorry” and they say “hi” and Mouche giggles.

    “You know, Phoebe, men rarely humble themselves. It says here in How to Date the Undateable @ p8; “Men rarely apologize...apologies display weakness.” So remember that.”

     Mouche and I decide to go to a healthy looking cafe for lunch before checking out Victoria’s secret and Marcy’s.

     We add extra detailed notes, in the cafe, on all the boys in our diary.

     “I can call this The Seduction Cafe in my notes next week...” Mouche says. I flicked through the previous entries. At that stage we were reading more guides to dating than actually dating but all of that was about to change.

      “Always be pleasant and eager – how else do you get what you want?” I can hear Mouche’s  voice reading from The Good Girlfriend (page 19) in my mind as we both collapsed in peals of laughter under the pile of titles such as, “A Woman’s Guide to Blissful (and Married) Love” (our mother’s mothers gave them that when they were teenagers). That particular title fell out of Mouche’s tote when the waiter brought us our chicken burgers and fries.

   “I thought we were supposed to be eating healthily...”

   “This is not so bad, as long as we add ketchup. Ketchup has lots of lycopene which is good for you,” Mouche said.

    While we were munching away, Freya and Teegan entered the cafe - just to put us off our food. Mouche hurriedly scrunched her notes and stuffed them into her bag.

    “Hi Girlfriends,” Teegan said. “I think I nailed it.”

    “Two auditions in one week,” Tory added.

    “Mmm...”

    “Busy pretending to be friends again?” I asked.

    “Well of course you nailed it, Teegan,” Mouche added. “Isn’t your cousin the casting assistant?”