“Hey Zoe. I love your outfit,” Madison gushes.
I can feel myself blushing. “Thanks. You look great too.” I offer sincerely. She’s wearing a tiny white skirt and deep blue blouse. Between the heels on the stilts she’s wearing and the miniscule skirt, she looks like a model, all long legs and bouncy hair.
“Is that jacket Marchesa?” Katelyn asks, touching the lapel.
I look down. My dress is a flowing crème color with small flowers that hits me just above the knees, the jacket is a soft green that’s got brass buttons and little cuffs. You wouldn’t think you could mix a girly dress and a military style jacket, but somehow, Carlos assured me, it works.
“Yeah. Spring collection, I think.” I say absently.
“Oh, we have got to go shopping together some time!” Madison begs.
“Have you picked up your dress for Homecoming yet?” Cassidy asks, joining the group.
“No, not yet.”
Madison claps gleefully. “We should go this weekend. I know this amazing boutique—“
“Has anyone seen Kaylee today?” Becca cuts in, stepping into the slow moving group.
The twins shrug, Bruno mutters a, “No,” before turning back to the discussion he’s having with his guys. Madison shakes her head.
I frown. “I um, I saw her yesterday. She was pretty sick. I think she went home early.”
Becca looks concerned, but Madison waves it off. “She’s still playing the grief card to get out of class. Tacky if you ask me.”
“Still,” I offer as politely as I can, “Maybe you should go check on her, Becca? I’m sure she’d appreciate it.”
Becca stares at me for a second, then her gaze shifts to Madison whose face is scrunched up like she’s trying to speak telepathically. Finally Becca shakes her head. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’ll get here when she gets here. Where were we? Planning a shopping trip?”
We reach my locker and the whole group stops, everyone talking and making jokes. It takes me a full minute to see it, to process the whole scene, but when I do, I glance over to Logan who is pressed against the wall opposite me.
“Congratulations, Zoe. You did it.” He waves at the girls, who are alternately talking to me and flirting with the guys. The bell rings and no one moves, everyone looks at me expectantly. I smile. “See you guys after class.”
You’d have thought I was the queen giving my subjects leave to depart my presence. Bruno kisses me quickly on the cheek and walks off with Austin, Cassidy and Becker saying a very graphic goodbye before splitting up and heading for class. The twins smile and Madison informs me that she wants to ride to lunch with me, if that’s alright. I nod sweetly, trying not to look as stunned as I feel. As they bounce away I overhear Madison talking to Becca.
“…so much nicer than Kaylee. Cooler too.”
As I walk past, Logan claps. “Not only have you made it into the herd, I think they just elected you their leader.”
“Great,” I mutter under my breath. “Queen of the lemmings.”
Other than a few strangers casually striking up conversations with me as if now, for some reason, I’m worth talking to and a couple of between class PDAs with my cute new boyfriend, the day is fairly uneventful. The people gawking at me are still unnerving, but I’m getting used to it. I’d ventured over to invite Carlos, but he had already promised to help the Bio teacher get set up for a lab over lunch. He kisses me on the forehead with a promise of pizza later. He’s just as surprised by my new status as everyone else and I can tell there are a million questions he’s dying to ask.
“Okay, Zoe Bowie. I’ll come over tonight and we can chat.” He promises, hugging me tightly.
He releases me quickly and I turn to see Bruno approaching. For the tiniest moment I’m sure there is about to be some kind of macho pissing contest but Bruno just holds out his hand to Carlos, who shakes it firmly.
“Hey, I don’t think we’ve ever met officially. I’m Bruno.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Carlos.”
Bruno grins, slipping an arm around my waist.
“Zoe talks about you all the time. You wanna go with us for lunch?”
Carlos smiles widely. I guess an invitation from me isn’t nearly as big a deal as an invite from Bruno. “I’d love to but I have some stuff to do here.”
Bruno nods, “Tomorrow then.”
“Sure, I’d like that.”
And just like that Carlos is in the herd whether he wants to be or not. The grin on his face tells me he’s pretty happy about it. I wave and let Bruno lead me to his truck. Glancing back over my shoulder I see Carlos give me a What just happened? look.
Even lunch, I have to admit, is kind of fun. I’m getting to know the twins, who are both planning on going pre-med after a gap year in Europe, and somehow, cementing my place as alpha female of the pack. At one point Madison makes a rude comment.
“I bet she ditched just to meet up with her new mystery guy. She’s such a slut.”
I lower my chin, my voice tight and strong. “Ease off. Kaylee’s been going through a lot.”
She laughs sourly, “How do you know what she’s been going through?”
The other girls stare at me. There is challenge in her voice. I flick my hand.
“Well her boyfriend just died, she’s been sick, and her best friend is calling her a slut behind her back. And those are just the headlines.”
Her face puckers like I’ve slapped her.
“Besides, have any of you bothered to check on her? See how she’s doing?”
Shamed silence. I shrug.
Becca quickly changes the subject but Madison shoots me a meek glance that is filled to the brim with guilt. Good. I may not like Kaylee, but no one deserves to be turned on by their friends.
I turn to Bruno, wrapping my arm through his. He grins and kisses me.
Cassidy sighs wistfully.
“You guys are a shoe in for Homecoming King and Queen.”
I jerk my face toward her.
“Huh?” We’ve been dating for like three seconds and suddenly we are the plastic cake toppers?
She rolls her eyes. “Come on, everybody sees it. You two are, like the new perfect couple.”
I raise an eyebrow.
Bruno leans over, whispering, “It’s one of her theories on human social behavior. Cassidy wants to be a Shrink.”
“Psychologist,” she corrects.
“Well, you have the first part down,” Darla jokes from Austin’s lap. “You’re already a Psycho.”
Cassidy wads up a napkin and throws it at her good-naturedly, then she turns back to me.
“It’s a fact that in adolescent groups, people will seek out a ‘perfect couple’ to emulate. They look to them for social cues on how a relationship should function.”
I wrinkle my nose. “That’s nice to say, I think. But no relationship is ever perfect. I mean,” I look at Bruno. He’s kind of perfect. Handsome, sweet, kind, and smart. He’s everything a girl could want, the whole package. So why do I feel like something is missing? “We haven’t even been together a full week. Eventually he’s going to witness my unbelievable troll-like bed head and decide I’m not worth the trouble.” I try to keep my tone light and he chuckles.
“No amount of bed head could do that,” he says, kissing the tip of my nose. “Now if you were to tell me you’re a Redskins fan, that might be a deal breaker.”
I scrunch my face. “Redskins? Oh, you mean that practice team the Cowboys like to beat up on so much?”
That remark earns me an enthusiastic hug and a high five from Becker.
“See? She is perfect.”
Katelyn is staring at me blank faced. Aby pats her hand, “Football, sweetie.”