Part 9 (2/2)
”No!” Serena and Jade both gasped.
I nodded sadly.
”That's so hars.h.!.+” Serena said.
”She cut school for the whole day,” Jade said. ”We're in ninth grade, Serena; this isn't baby stuff anymore. You cut school for one day and you could totally wreck your college chances. It could go on your transcript. You think the compet.i.tive colleges want someone who just ditches school?”
”Whoa,” Serena said, and I thought.
”I mean, it stinks, but can you really blame Allison's parents? She's lucky she's not suspended.” She turned to me with a disappointed look on her pretty oval face. ”Where did you and Roxanne Green go, anyway? I hope it was worth it.”
”It kind of was,” I couldn't help saying, especially because in truth I actually hadn't suffered any consequences. Maybe I'd feel different if I'd really been caught and screwed up my whole future, which would probably be murky at best even without radically stupid moves on my part like cutting school. Still, the more I thought about not being able to do Tennis Europe, the more relieved I felt. It was weird, because I'd begged to be allowed to go only a few months earlier, and now it felt like a too-small hat had suddenly been removed from my head.
The bus was pulling up to school by then, so we grabbed our stuff and trudged off toward the side entrance of school.
”So?” Jade asked again. ”Why aren't you telling us where you went when you cut?”
”I already told you,” I said as we approached Jade's locker. ”We went into the city.”
”By yourselves?” Serena asked, shocked.
”Yeah. Roxie used to model, and-”
”She really did?” Serena asked. ”I thought that was just a rumor.”
”Rumors aren't always false,” Jade murmured.
”Cool,” Serena said, sounding, as always, vaguely astonished.
”She's done commercials and catalogues, lots of stuff,” I told them as Jade completed her morning locker-c.r.a.p-sorting ritual. ”Anyway, we went to this open call for models for this magazine called zip zip.”
”I love zip love zip!” Serena shrieked. When she caught Jade's condemnatory look, she continued in a forced whisper, ”Well, it's the hottest magazine, isn't it? Roxie is in zip zip?”
Roxie flumped up just then, and said, ”Apparently not.”
I looked at her and she half smiled back. ”No call,” she said. ”So, I guess I wasn't moe again.”
”Who's moe?” Serena asked.
”Inside joke,” Roxie said, and I caught the split-second tightening in Jade's face. Roxie apparently didn't, because she just forged right ahead, saying, ”I don't know if Allison told you guys, but we went to try out for this cover-model contest, the New Teen or something. There were probably close to a thousand girls there, don't you think?”
I shrugged. Jade and Serena were looking from Roxie to me and back like we were aliens.
”They would've called by yesterday if we'd made the next round. Did they call you, Allison?”
”No,” I lied.
”Me neither,” she said. ”So I guess that's that. Oh, well, I still think we're gorgeous, don't you?”
I half shrugged, half shook my head. Jade made a disgusted clucking sound as she rearranged her books at the bottom of her perfectly neat locker. She cannot tolerate bragging.
”Anyway,” Roxie continued, either oblivious to or ignoring all the little psychodramas she was causing, ”I'm kind of down in the dumps about it and thinking, What the h.e.l.l, it's Memorial Day weekend and I have no plans and nothing exciting going on, so do you guys want to make it a party Sat.u.r.day night? Or we could do Sunday, whatever; I'm flexible. My parents are going to Bermuda with clients.”
”Um,” Serena said. She and-I have to admit-I both looked at Jade to see how she'd respond.
She smiled. ”That sounds great, Roxanne,” Jade said evenly. ”But unfortunately Allison and Serena are coming with my family to our place in Sag Harbor.” She turned to check her lip gloss in the little round mirror she had affixed to her locker door.
”Oh, well.” Roxie shrugged. ”It was an idea. Have fun, then, you three.”
Just as she was turning away, I said, ”Actually, I'm not going.”
All three of my friends looked shocked, although once again I may have been the surprise winner in the who-did-I-shock-most contest.
”Grounded,” I explained.
Jade put her arm around my shoulder and said, ”Oh, Allison.”
I closed my eyes, feeling almost as terrible as I was pretending to feel.
”She got caught cutting,” Jade was explaining to Roxie. ”You didn't get a call from the school?”
”She had permission,” I said quickly.
”Oh, Double Shot, that totally sucks,” Roxie said. ”When did your parents find out? Who called?”
Uh-oh, I thought, but said, ”They wouldn't say.” I kept my eyes closed and felt Jade's arm tighten around me. She smelled, as always, clean and s.h.i.+ny from her floral shampoo. I thought, but said, ”They wouldn't say.” I kept my eyes closed and felt Jade's arm tighten around me. She smelled, as always, clean and s.h.i.+ny from her floral shampoo.
”Your mother lets you just skip school and go into the city for the day?”
Roxie half shrugged and nodded at the same time. ”I guess.”
Jade slid her eyes away, making it clear what she thought of Roxie's mother's parenting philosophy. ”Well, this school takes stuff like unnecessary absences and cutting really seriously,” Jade explained quietly. ”You really have to be careful. You don't want to be one of those girls who just foolishly throws away her future.”
As Jade was leading me away, with Serena fast at her heels, I heard Roxie, behind us, saying, ”No. I want to be one of those girls who throws away her future with brilliant forethought.”
In spite of myself, I had to smile. Just a little bit, and mostly on the inside.
12.
WHEN I I WAS YOUNGER WAS YOUNGER, I used to wish my mom would be around more, like other kids' mothers. On playdates, their moms would sit at the kitchen table and ask us about our day and give us cookies or even sandwiches with the crusts cut off. At my house, no crusts were cut off and a snack was laid out by Gosia, our housekeeper, and it was sliced apples and cheese. n.o.body asked about our day.
It wasn't that I ever thought Mom was a bad mother or a slacker. I was actually very proud that she, like other kids' dads, rode the train in to work and held the Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal folded into a little origami square and read the hieroglyphics streaming across the bottom of the news on TV. I loved that she could walk faster in heels than other moms in their Merrills on the rare occasions she made it to a cla.s.s breakfast, and it truly didn't bother me that I usually had to read my haiku first because she'd need to slip out ASAP to get to her office. folded into a little origami square and read the hieroglyphics streaming across the bottom of the news on TV. I loved that she could walk faster in heels than other moms in their Merrills on the rare occasions she made it to a cla.s.s breakfast, and it truly didn't bother me that I usually had to read my haiku first because she'd need to slip out ASAP to get to her office.
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