Chapter
Fourteen
After
the game
Sunrise
won their first game in a semester (Ryan scored the winning goal) and students and
family members crowded into the school gym, swiftly decorated for the occasion.
The two youngest Bennet sisters were the
first girls on the dance floor.
Mackenzie, seated with her brother and
Darcy and a few of Darcy’s new friends from the basketball team were busily spiking
the fruit punch. Some members of the
team started laughing when Rebel grabbed the Rys Wickam and tried to force
him to dance with her.
Mackenzie, who’d promised her new Princess
friends she’d be over to join them in “Just a moment”, couldn’t resist a few
snide words to Darcy who looked on, bored.
“Have you ever seen a girl make such a
stupid spectacle of herself, Darcy?”
“Not really, but this is the first time
I’ve been forced to attend one of these lame homecoming dances.”
It was true. Darcy’s father had called and
warned him that if he didn’t “fully integrate himself in school activities,” it
would affect his decision to fund his college applications. Darcy knew he had
no power until he turned twenty-one and could release part of his trust fund
and take over the property in New South Wales.
Ryan and Mackenzie’s situations were similar, so they had to “put up”
with the school socials and rules. They took a few selfies on their iPhones and
texted them to their parents as proof of their attendance. I guess it’s, “Put
up but not shut up” Mackenzie whined.
Mackenzie was busily picking some lint off
Darcy’s shirt after she’d posted her fake smile on Twitter.
“Oh well,” Mackenzie said, “I suppose I
should grace those irritating little fashionistas with my company. Perhaps I
could teach them something about mixers.” Mackenzie had already started to live
up to her reputation as the haughtiest mean girl that had ever graced a school
notorious for mean girls. (note: Pride
& Princesses - the prequel to
this story!)
But returning to my novel… Darcy thought Mackenzie
was generally quite funny although he knew Ryan wouldn’t be pleased by his sister’s
open snobbery.
When Mackenzie walked over to our table,
Shiloh and Paige dutifully made room for her. Or really, Paige made a move.
Already she couldn’t stand Mackenzie’s falseness, but she was always polite and
the fact that one of Paige’s best friends, Coco Madison (who Paige had known
since grade school) had just arrived was all the excuse Paige needed to excuse
herself and go over to the table where ‘refreshments’ as the Princesses had
labelled them, were available.
“Oh Coco, I’m so happy to see you”
“Me too, Paige. I missed the game. You
know, I have my baby brother to sit and my parents are going through the whole
separation thing and I had to stay until dad got in. It’s all right though, I
think they’ve sorted out custody and things like that.”
“What a nightmare, I’m so sorry Coco.”
Coco was a dance major who did debate as
her elective. She and Paige were now officially in charge of the scenery for
Spring Awakening.
“You know, it’s really fine. I’m just glad
they’ve both found a way to stay in the same area so I can keep coming to
Sunrise and keep being a founding member of the Princesses,” Coco laughed,
“though it all seems to have gone a bit pear shaped since we let Mackenzie in.”
“Wonder which one of the new guys Mr Sparks
will choose to play Moritz,” Coco whispered to Paige, flicking her blonde bangs
off her face. Mr Sparks had been teaching drama in New York but decided to
return to Sunrise on secondment. He’d taught at the school over a decade ago
and was way cray cray. But in a good way. He took a lot of medication for his
anxiety but he was never short on enthusiasm for his own productions and I
should know. I’d been in a few of them during elementary school when they
needed some ‘real kids’ to make up cast numbers.
“I don’t think the newbies do creative
studies,” Paige replied.
“Oh, well, we always need guys. I’m sure
they’ll be lured by the promise of extra credit. Hey, I heard all about the
grumpy looking one,” Coco gestured to Darcy, who was glancing over at them and
frowning.
“What did you hear?”
“Only that you bested him in debate club
and he’s still getting over it.”
“Oh, that. Well, the truth is he was going
pretty well, I think he might even have won, then he just stopped. I have no
idea why.”
“Well, maybe we’ll find out. Quick, he’s
coming this way.”
At this point a lot of seniors and juniors
and some dance electives had taken to the floor. Because Sunrise was a Performing
Arts School many of the dancers were very impressive.
Although Paige’s younger sisters may have
started out looking like a joke they were now partnered with two of the schools
best guy dancers and were leading the way and appearing to have a very good
time as the DJ played some dated music from the turn of the century – classics
from 1999-2009.
So many people were on the dance floor and
the atmosphere was so good, that Paige and Coco were slightly obscured from
view by the time Darcy had been joined by Ryan – who’d managed to wander over
to talk to Shiloh – under the guise of actually talking to Mackenzie.
It was Ryan’s problem, really, Darcy thought.
He was just way too backward in coming forward. Of course, Darcy wouldn’t
hesitate to talk to a girl he really liked but there was an oversupply of
pretty girls here. In his eyes, Paige was the prettiest tonight, but it was
easier to remain aloof.
