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sers of brown and pink. Her backpack and big brimmed hat were of pink and brown, with lime green piping.
“These young people are members of the Achievers’ Club,” Tris was saying, then told about Kaylin’s love of astronomy. “Her ambition is to prove that the planet Pluto does exist.”
One by one the girls came out, and each time Tris told of their accomplishments. Maybe these girls weren’t the most popular in school, maybe they weren’t of the “in crowd,” but they had indeed accomplished a lot in their young lives.
At the end of the first round, to Jecca and Lucy’s great surprise, out walked Rebecca wearing one of Jecca’s creations.
Jecca’s mouth dropped open and she looked at Lucy. “When? How?”
Lucy shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Jecca looked to her left and saw Roan grinning at her.
“Rebecca says that her greatest achievement in life so far,” Tris said into the microphone, “is talking her parents into putting on this fashion show.”
That made everyone laugh and applaud, then Rebecca went up on her toes, her hands over her head, and gave a perfect ballerina pirouette. Obviously, her years of ballet had paid off.
The tempo of the music increased and out came Nell’s friend Davie. As she’d said, he wasn’t an attractive child, but from the way he strutted down the runway, he had a lot of personality. He stood still at the end, and one by one, the girls came out again. They walked down to Davie, he took each girl’s hand and led her around the end. He was the epitome of a gentleman—until he turned back to the audience and wiggled his heavy brows. Everyone laughed.
At the end, Rebecca came out again in the last of Jecca’s designs, and when Rebecca walked past, Davie sneaked a kiss on her cheek and he followed her back toward the curtain.
Jecca thought that was the end of the show, but then the music hit a crescendo, Davie turned back, and started running. He got two-thirds of the way down, then he jumped and did a perfect back flip. He landed exactly at the end of the runway, one knee down, and he held his hand straight out.
“I present to you,” Tristan said loudly, “Miss Jecca Layton, the designer of the beautiful clothing that you have just seen.”
A high school boy put a couple of steps at the end of the stage, and he held his hand out to help Jecca up the stairs.
Jecca, embarrassed buembouple oft pleased, looked at Tris, who was smiling at her. She turned to look back at Lucy. She should be onstage too, but Lucy’s chair was empty. Lucy had run away from the spotlight.
Young Davie stood up and looked back at the curtain. The music changed again, and from the back came all of the girls, the first ones who’d worn the manufactured clothes, then Nell’s friends—the members of the Achievers’ Club—and they were all wearing Jecca’s clothes.
She had only seen the outfits all together in Lucy’s workroom, and she had to admit that they looked good on the girls.
Beside Jecca, Davie went back down to one knee, and the girls moved to the edges of the runway. The curtains parted, and six big, muscular high school boys, wearing athletic uniforms, were carrying Rebecca on a chair.
Beside her, Nell put her hand in Jecca’s. Between the music, the laughter, and the applause of what had to be four hundred people, they couldn’t hear each other. Jecca mouthed to Nell, “Did you do this?”
Nell shrugged in a way that said she had.
Jecca squeezed Nell’s hand and let her eyes say how proud she was of her. In the end, Nell had come up with a scene-stealing show that made Rebecca the star. Nell had put herself above past transgressions.
The boys set Rebecca down center stage, and Savannah came from the back carrying a pink and lavender birthday cake with nine candles on it. Rebecca blew them out in the showiest display ever seen.
With her arms raised, Rebecca walked forward to the end of the runway and stood there in front of Davie. All the girls turned on their heels in a well-rehearsed move and marched toward the back.
Jecca wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do, but she followed Nell to the back, where she paused just behind the curtain. She wanted to see what happened next.
Davie took Rebecca’s arm in his and led her back to the curtain where, to thunderous applause from the audience that was now on its feet, the two kids took a bow. Davie slipped behind the curtain, Rebecca took another bow, then she too went to the back.
Jecca stayed by the curtain. It was chaos inside, with a dozen girls giggling and talking at once. She was pleased to see that none of them seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the clothes that Jecca had designed.
“You did it,” Tris said as he put his arm around Jecca’s shoulders and kissed her temple.
“I had nothing to do with the show. I just drew some pictures. Everyone else did all the work.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” he said. “But thank you for finding out about Nell and fixing the problem. Uh oh. Here comes Savannah. She’ll have a dozen things for me to do.”
But Savannah wasn’t looking at Tristan. Her eyes were only on Jecca, and she was holding out her hands to her.
