I was the one plotting three moves ahead now. Dad not coming shifted my strategy. Maybe in a way that might even work better in my favor. Introducing myself to Dr. Pembleton—and regretfully explaining that my father wasn’t well enough to attend—might be the checkmate I needed.
Maybe. If I moved my pawns right.
“Alice!” a woman, Ms. Jennings, called to us as soon as we stepped into Alderton-Du Ponte’s foyer. Since it was warmer out, there was no one at the coat check station to take jackets, but Ms. Jennings still lingered. She smelled faintly like cigarettes and Chanel no. 5, her blonde hair coming undone from its manicured updo. “Dear, I’ve been waiting for you! It’s just dreadful in there. No one’s had near enough to drink yet.”
Mom gave a light laugh. “It’sSenior Night. Hopefully, they save the drinking for their own homes so the kids can have their spotlight.”
“Or just until after the ceremony,” I said, to which Ms. Jennings shot me a wink.
She peered around us, as if someone would magically spawn over Jamie’s shoulder. “David didn’t come with you?”
And Mom’s face fell, though she tried to hide it. “Oh. No. He wasn’t feeling well enough.”
A wave of awkwardness washed over our little group. Ms. Jennings was close enough with Mom that she didn’t really buy the lie. She still gave a sympathetic nod.
“The Pembletons,” I said, drawing Ms. Jennings’s eyes back to mine. I schooled my features into something more gossiping, less desperate. “Are they here?”
Ms. Jennings’s eyes brightened. “Theyare. And they brought their son—he’s actually kind of cute! Thin thing. A little on the nerdy side, but—” She broke off as she glanced at Jamie. “Well. Nerdy is okay, isn’t it?”
Jamie awkwardly tapped his book against his side.
Son.Son?Dr. Pembleton had a son? For a moment, I felt unsteady, as if my heels were suddenly too tall. “How old is he?”Would he aid in my plan or throw a wrench in it?
“Ah, he graduated high school last year, I think?” Ms. Jennings’s expression turned knowing. “Why do you ask, dear?”
Dr. Pembleton had a son close tomy age. Which meant another door opened, if I wanted to walk through it. My strategy shifted in real time, anticipation whipping through me.
“Maybe you could introduce me,” I said to Ms. Jennings, even though I wasn’t exactly surethatwould be the best idea. It could go one of two ways. She could beclassy about it, praising me without making it seem like I’d asked her to. Or, with her flair for dramatics, it could be nothing short of disastrous.
But that, too, could play in my favor. Decisions, decisions.
Ms. Jennings caught at my hand, tone turning conspiratorial. “Ihaveheard they’re looking for their eccentric son someone to settle down with.”
C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-T-O-R-I-A-L, I spelled out in my head.
And then, almost like something just occurred to her as she looked at my throat, Ms. Jennings paled. She dropped my hand, and while still looking at me, she spoke to Mom. “Oh. A-Alice. Eleanor. I did forget to mention?—”
“She can’t go in yet!” a new voice called, this time from the direction of the hallway that led to the ballroom. “Not until the twins get the Daisy seal of approval.”
The frantic clatter of heels filled the air, and a petite girl wearing a deep red gown hurried toward us. Immediately, the letters desperate to form a word in my mind scattered, once more turning fallen sand. Daisy Carmichael. My best friend.
The slit in her dress would’ve been scandalous had Daisy not been short. And I meantshort. Five-foot-three with lifts, a questionable five-foot-one without them. Her vibrant red hair was loosely twisted up and out of her face, with a few pieces escaping. She didn’t have much on in terms of makeup either, her own freckles shining like beautiful little stars on her skin.
Ms. Jennings began drawing Mom toward thehallway, eyes still shifting. Mom exchanged a look with me—don’t be long—to which I nodded.Got it.
Daisy looked me over thoroughly, eyes starting from my feet and scaling their way up. I held perfectly still, imagining my features as she scanned them. “As expected,” she said with a bob of her head. “The prettiest girl at Alderton-Du Ponte looks her part.”
I wanted to impress everyone else, but when Daisy said it, I couldn’t help but snort. “Shut up,” I said lightly, and she winked.
She turned to Jamie, going through the same scrutinizing path she’d done with me, and her face fell when she reached his neck. “James.”
Jamie didn’t flinch. “Daze.”
“Sometimes I think you do it on purpose,” she grumbled as she stepped up to him. Even in heels, her head only came up an inch below his shoulders, but that was also partly because Jamie was freakishly tall. I’d been taller than him for his whole life when we were kids. During sophomore year, he’d shot up to a wobbly six-four. He still moved awkwardly sometimes, like he hadn’t quite gotten used to his long limbs. “Come here. You can’t go in looking like someone tried to strangle you with your necktie.”
James tried to lean away. “I’m going to take it off after the stage, anyway?—”
Daisy grabbed the back of Jamie’s neck, using all her might to keep him. She forced his brown eyes to meet her green ones. “Stay.”
