CHAPTER NINE

Sulking, Karen went to her room and remained there with her door shut tightly until it was nearly time for us to go to the party. I was afraid to knock. One look at her after Ava’s tirade, and I knew she was casting most of the blame on me. With her being so bitter now, I wondered if I even should attend the party to meet her friends. If anyone gave me a compliment, I expected she would complain about her mother, claiming she could have done more for me. I could easily see her turn to me and say, You should have said you wanted to look like I helped you to look. I felt like such an idiot after spending so much of my time on you.

Eyes would widen and turn to me, and even though they might not come right out and say it, they would blame Karen’s bitterness on me. I was already inciting discord in the community’s most perfect family. Her doting friends would have it written large on their faces: When you bring someone who is practically a stranger into your house, and your mother seems more protective and concerned for her than for you, trouble surely is starting, like mold behind a wall.

Just before my grandmother Mazy had died and I had begun public school, I experienced what it was like to be singled out and held responsible for something really terrible, which in this case was the death of a boy in a car accident. I supposedly had put a curse on him, done something “witchy” that Mazy had taught me how to do. When your classmates isolate you, whisper about you behind your back, and follow you every moment with eyes of accusation, you’re lonelier than someone alone on the moon. I saw how that could easily happen to me here. Karen was the Saddlebrook. If she breathed fire in my direction, I’d have to walk through fire at home and practically anywhere else in this community, especially the school. Why would anyone side with me?

Of course, this was a precarious way to begin the journey through a new life anyway. This would be the first party with kids my age and hers that I had ever attended. I was unsure of myself as it was, not only worrying that I might say something to contradict the story Daddy and I, reluctantly, had concocted but also worrying that anyone who looked or listened to me would realize how long I had been isolated and how limited my contact with kids my age had been. Everyone at this party would surround me and likely rain down a storm of pelting questions. I was under some suspicion as it was, simply by being someone new, especially with the background they believed I had. Should I act very shy or simply troubled and sad? I could get away with that. After all, as far as Karen’s friends knew, I had recently lost my mother and came here out of desperation.

From the first day here, Daddy had given me advice that was really a map to how to safely lie. “When you’re asked a question, ask yourself the same question before you answer. I find that to be a very helpful technique.”

But how was I going to do that at a party where everyone would be interested in the new girl? Even if I repeated the questions in my head, that would not guarantee a safe response. And my hesitation would surely telegraph that I had something terrible to hide. Maybe I needed more time to emerge slowly, like some creature crawling out of a cocoon, in this case a cocoon not of my own making, I thought. Was this party worth the risk? I could go to Ava and say I was feeling too sad to go to a party after all. Her answer could be, In that case, getting your mind off it might be the best way to help yourself. How hard could I protest?

I did want to do here what I had failed to do back at Hurley, make friends, be invited to parties, and enjoy hanging out with girls my age. The conflicts inside me felt like they were tugging on both sides of my heart. Leap in and become the teenager I used to dream about being from the window of Mazy’s house, or withdraw like some creature and bury myself in sadness? I wanted to do the former very much.

But Karen had pounced on me the first day for not knowing who Ed Sheeran was. What other faux pas would I commit? What other questions would I stir up with my vague replies? I could easily find myself once again the big topic in a school. I’d even be more dependent on Karen than I was now, and she wasn’t exactly worried about my happiness at the moment. Her promise to be my ally seemed thin and forgotten, a bubble Ava had popped with a single harsh breath.

It was as if sibling rivalry had found its way through a keyhole into this house, even though Ava and Karen did not know it could exist because they didn’t know who I really was. But right now, Karen was suffering just as any sister might. How was I supposed to blend into this family if Ava continued to use me as a tool to teach Karen? I practically could feel Karen’s gloom across the hall and through the walls. She was probably wishing I had never appeared.

Certainly, now there would be none of the preparation Karen had promised, the social chatter and rundown of the girls and boys I’d meet. What if I liked someone she hated, or vice versa? All this walking on thin ice was already churning me up inside. If I was ever concerned about being a stranger in a strange land, I was surely that now. But before I could plan something, Ava came bursting into my room with a tube of lipstick as she had promised, holding it up like the torch held by the Statue of Liberty.

“Here. This is the proper lipstick for your complexion, your hair, and what you’re going to wear.”

I took it and thanked her.

“Now, let me see your new phone,” she demanded.

I hurriedly gave it to her. What did she expect to find? I had yet to use it. Was she going to take it back? Had Karen said something about me calling someone nefarious from back home? How could I continue in this house, sitting on a time bomb, anticipating disaster with every new look and every new word? I actually glanced at the door, thinking that any moment I might just run out of this house and this world. I wouldn’t even say goodbye to the father who had not said goodbye to me.

Ava pressed some numbers and letters and then handed it to me.

“My number is now in your phone under Aunt Ava. Your uncle will be taking you and Karen to the party,” she said. “I’m telling Karen that you’ll both be picked up at eleven thirty. If something disturbs you, don’t hesitate to call me, even if Karen disapproves.”

Disturbs me? Even if Karen disapproves? Was she appointing me as someone to spy on her daughter?

“What would disturb me?”

She ignored me, looked at her watch, and then changed her expression completely from concern to annoyance when she looked at me again.

“What are you doing? You should have started to dress. I specifically bought you what you wanted for tonight, but you don’t simply throw everything on. I bet you haven’t even cut off the tags. On more than one occasion, Karen left home for an event with tags still dangling from her new clothes and embarrassed me.”

“I’ll make sure they’re off,” I said, almost too low for her to hear.

“You don’t sound too grateful about it. Don’t you want to go to this party?”

“I don’t know anyone well enough yet to party with her or him, so I’m nervous.”

“Really?” She shook her head. “Yes, I believe you. Something is really missing in this generation, especially when it comes to socializing. Having a conversation without a phone between you and someone is almost like being in a foreign country where no one speaks your language.”

“I didn’t have a phone before now,” I reminded her. “I never had a personal cell phone.”

“I know. I was thinking how odd that is, especially since you were on your own so often.”

“It’s not odd. It was expensive for us, and I wasn’t into gossiping and small talk.”

“Um,” she said, still looking suspicious. “Your mother was a little too aloof, perhaps.”

“She wasn’t aloof, Aunt Ava. She was overwhelmed. This is not an easy world for a woman alone, especially one with a child.”

She stared at me, her eyes shifting from annoyance and anger to a softer, more sympathetic look. It occurred to me instantly that at one time, for years, in fact, she was the same sort of woman. The difference between her and my fictional mother, of course, was money. Perhaps that didn’t make it all right after all. Maybe it never did. Could I ask? Would I dare? Daddy would surely be very upset.

“Well, still, how do you expect you will make new friends if you don’t socialize? Karen thinks she’s a social butterfly, Miss Sandburg Creek. Just float alongside her and try not to drown in her ego. However, try to be a little more particular about those you choose to confide in than Karen is. And don’t let Karen’s judgment sway your own about what to do or whom to like. Her judgment about people isn’t exactly stellar, unfortunately.”

It was on the tip of my tongue again to ask why she was so critical of her own daughter. What else should I know? But I didn’t have the courage, and maybe Ava’s telling me those things would only drive a wider wedge between Karen and me.

“Considering what you’ve been through these last few days, being bubbly, chatty, and silly might make you uncomfortable, I know. It’s understandable, but I don’t want to discourage you from going. Distraction is sometimes the best cure for unhappiness. It doesn’t cure it, but it puts it on a back shelf for a while.”

Just what I had anticipated her saying, I thought.

“Okay,” I said.

I could see that prolonging this conversation only skirted the border of Daddy’s and my deception. I shouldn’t have told her I never had a phone. What teenager didn’t? Even poor people in India, the Middle East, and Africa managed to have cell phones. I could have simply forgotten it in my haste to leave or accidentally left it on the plane or the bus. But I certainly didn’t want to keep talking about it and my fictionalized past. Right now, fortunately, she was more interested in fashion and appearance than truth.

“Go look in the mirror and put on the lipstick. I want to see if I chose right for you.”

I did it exactly the way Karen had instructed and then faced Ava. She nodded.

“I was right. Put it in your purse,” she said.

I hesitated

“What? You don’t like how you look?”

“No, I like it. I…”

“What?”

“Really don’t have a proper purse to take to a party.”

“Why didn’t you mention that when we went shopping?”

“I didn’t think of it. Sorry.”

She sighed deeply. “Follow me. I’ll give you one of my own,” she said. “Well. Come along. I have other things to do,” she snapped from the doorway.

I hurried to follow her. Celisse was still here with Garson downstairs. I could hear her singing something in French to him. We walked past Karen’s closed door and into Ava and my father’s bedroom. It was my first time seeing it, and the perfection in the decor was almost breathtaking.

The Victorian-style king-size bed had an upholstered headboard with a blue tufted look in the pink frame. There was the same tufted design on each side of the bed, framed and set in the wall. The large area rug matched the designs on the comforter and the blue bench at the foot of the bed, along with the nightstands that coordinated with the bedframe and the dresser, framed mirror, and curtains at the large window to the right. One of the nightstands had been moved to make room for Garson’s cradle, which was also the same color blue. I wondered if that was Ava’s side of the bed or Daddy’s. Somehow I believed that he would have to be the one to get up in the middle of the night and not her.

“Your room is beautiful,” I said.

“I designed it myself. Your uncle is like all men, color-blind when it comes to furniture.”

Yes, he told me what you thought of his taste, I thought. I vaguely remembered my mother saying something like that about Daddy. She believed that everything would be stark, white, ghostlike to him.

“It all seems brand-new, not even used once,” I said, thinking of their formal living room. I thought it wasn’t an obsession with cleanliness so much as it was with perfection. I never recalled this being so important to Daddy. It was almost a military dedication to Ava and how her house would be viewed. I suspected it might have something to do with what her father would think. So many currents of emotion and rage ran under the floors of this family home.

Careful, Saffron, I thought, or you’ll be swept away.

There was a nook on the right that encompassed the large vanity table, which boasted shelves neatly stocked with what looked like anything and everything a woman would desire for her hair and makeup. All of it lined up perfectly. The chair was the same light blue. To the right of the nook was a door that I could see opened to a marble floor and counter in the large bathroom.

“Let’s get what you need.”

Ava turned left to the practically wall-to-wall walk-in closet. I followed slowly, not sure she wanted me to go in with her. At the door, I nearly gasped aloud at all the clothes and the shelves of shoes. It looked like enough to be a store’s inventory. At the end of the closet, there was another full-length mirror, table, and chair. The closet ceiling had a skylight, and the same dark-brown wood floor ran the length of the closet. She plucked a purse off a shelf and handed it to me.

“I don’t think I’ve used it more than twice,” she said.

“It looks quite expensive.”

“It isn’t. It’s a little overstated, but it will complement what you’re wearing,” she said. The denim blue purse had a knitted top handle and shiny rhinestones. “These are called butterfly buckled flaps, easy to close and open, so keep your eye on it. You can put your phone and wallet inside and…”

“My wallet is kind of…”

“What?”

“Manly and beat-up,” I said. “My real father left it behind but with nothing in it.”

It had been Mazy’s father’s wallet, actually.

“Your mother never bought you a wallet of your own?”

I didn’t answer. Another drop of suspicion trickled out of her eyes like invisible tears.

She sighed. “You sound more like you were a homeless person. You have to speak up when we’re shopping and you need things,” she said in a tone suggesting I was exhausting her with my needs. Her expression grew stern again. “I know you’ve been here only a short time, but you’re part of the Saddlebrook family now. Despite Karen’s disinterest from time to time in her appearance, we do not look raggedy and disheveled, especially in public. People here actually look to me to make decisions about their own fashions and other important things. Presentation is at least half of the impression you will make, on strangers especially. I don’t know why your generation is so unaware of that.”

She paused, aware of how harshly she was lecturing me. I was a little terrified. Someday she surely would tear the wrapping off the fictional life Daddy had created for me.

Her face softened. “I realize all this was not a priority for you and your mother.”

“No. Our priority was more like survival,” I said, maybe too sharply, but I didn’t like standing in a pool of purple fear. Almost every other minute since I had arrived, I wanted to run.

Her eyes seemed to snap with ire and fury at my defiance. They calmed slowly like the flames on a stove being gradually reduced and turned off.

“Well, thankfully, that no longer need be your priority here,” she said. “Your uncle should have made that clearer to you. You’ll realize it all soon enough,” she said softly. “I hope.”

“What are you giving her now?” we heard.

I turned to see Karen in the bedroom doorway, her hands on her hips.

“Why didn’t you see that she had a proper purse?” Ava demanded.

“Well, I didn’t check through everything she brought,” Karen whined. “And she didn’t tell me. How was I supposed to know?”

“You make it your business to know. You’re presenting your cousin to your friends. She’s part of your family now,” Ava reminded her, and then reached down to produce a zippy wallet.

“That’s one of your Louis Vuittons!” Karen cried. I looked from her amazed expression to Ava. I didn’t know exactly who Louis Vuitton was, but from the tone of her voice, I knew it was something very expensive.

“Well, make sure she doesn’t lose it, Karen.”

Karen stood there with her mouth still open. I took the wallet and put it in the bag.

“I don’t even have something that expensive,” Karen moaned.

I felt like I should suggest I’d give this one to her and take one of hers.

“You just get what you need and put it in that wallet,” Ava ordered me.

“I don’t see why the lipstick you gave her is so much better,” Karen said, folding her arms under her breasts.

“I know you don’t,” Ava said sadly. “Despite everything I’ve taught you.” She turned to me. “Go on. Do what I said. Get your things. Your uncle is waiting for the two of you downstairs in the den. Your curfew is eleven thirty, Karen.”

I hurried out, smiling at Karen, who was still glaring at her mother. In my room, I transferred money and my ID from Mazy’s father’s old wallet to my beautiful new one and zipped it closed. I put it in the purse along with my new phone, dressed, and put on my new jean jacket. Then I took one last look at myself with the purse off my shoulder. My appearance did excite me. I hurried out. Karen silently joined me on the stairs. At the foot of them, she turned.

“When we get there, I’ll introduce you to the ones I think you should talk to. Don’t start talking to anyone unless I’ve introduced you, especially any of the boys, no matter how they look or smile at you. I’ll try to be at your side as much as possible.”

I couldn’t laugh at her tone of superiority. Maybe I wouldn’t recognize the dangers. I had so little experience with boys, and yet something inside told me Mazy had shaped my instincts well, so well that they were much better than Karen’s.

“Thank you. You look very nice,” I said.

She grunted. “Not as nice as my mother thinks you look. DADDY!” she screamed, squeezing her hands into fists at her sides and closing her eyes with the effort. “WE’RE READY TO GO.”

My father came up the hallway. He appeared tired, even a little shaken, more like how he was the night I had arrived.

“You guys look great,” he said. “Remember, no—”

“Drugs or alcohol,” Karen recited. “We’re the Saddlebrooks. We can’t be seen doing human things.”

“Your name is Anders, not Saddlebrook,” Daddy told her sharply. He glanced at me, looking like he was afraid I might say something about my name.

“Yeah, well, I know that, Daddy. You need to remind Mommy,” she said, and turned to go out to the garage.

Daddy stepped closer to me. “You really do look nice, Saffron. But you’d better keep your eye on her,” he warned.

He started toward the garage.

Why was I suddenly the adult in the room? I thought. A whole new list of responsibilities and things for which I could be blamed rolled out ahead of me. I got into the rear of the car. I wondered if I would ever sit up front with my father again if Karen was with us. I was always to be the girl in the back, the unfortunate relative searching for crumbs of love and kindness.

“What did you do at Grandpa’s so long?” Karen asked him as we drove out of the garage. She could so easily sound like her mother, demanding answers, not asking questions.

He looked at her, surprised. “Business,” Daddy said. “Why?”

“Didn’t he want to know about Saffron? Isn’t that why he summoned you?”

“Summoned me?”

“That’s how Mommy says it. So?”

“Of course he wanted to know about your cousin. Tomorrow night’s dinner is going to be special,” he added. “To help make her feel like part of the family. Don’t forget about it.”

“How could I? Mother will probably be kneeling beside my bed tonight while I’m sleeping and whispering in my ear how I should behave and dress.”

There was a long moment of silence, and then Daddy laughed and laughed, hard. Karen turned back to me, revealing how surprised she was at his reaction. I had no idea why he was laughing. He was behaving as if he had drunk too much alcohol or something. Maybe my going to this party was making him more nervous than it was making me. Or perhaps there had been a great deal more to his meeting with Amos Saddlebrook concerning me.

I smiled back at Karen, but inside I was really shaking as we continued on. This party would be a bigger test than my going to a new school. There would be eyes on me the way there were at school, but there would be no respite, no bells ringing to break up the day and give me a chance to recuperate and review some of the things I had said. It was funny how I thought, maybe feared, that kids my own age would see through all the fabrication faster and more easily than Ava or Dr. Stewart. My hope was that most of Karen’s friends would be like Karen… more interested in themselves.

If that was true, I’d be safe.

As soon as Daddy slowed down and turned, I knew this was going to be quite the special place. All the houses on this street in this part of Sandburg Creek were quite big, with most having private gates. We paused at the entrance to the driveway of one, and the gate, as though it had eyes, began to open.

“Margaret Toby’s father is president of the Sandburg National Bank,” Karen told me. “They’re even snobbier than we are.”

“We’re not snobby, Karen,” Daddy said. “We’re just…”

“Snobby,” she insisted.

Another car had just parked, and Tommy Diamond and a slightly shorter but much stouter boy, with hair down to the base of his neck that was so blond it gleamed in the front lights, stepped out and started toward the front entrance. As soon as Daddy stopped, Karen opened her door and shouted to them. She slammed the door behind her.

“Hey!” Daddy shouted. “Wait for your cousin, Karen.”

“Hurry up!” she shouted back at me.

I opened the door.

“What happened at Mr. Saddlebrook’s? Did the chief of police tell him anything?” I quickly asked.

“No. Everyone believes everything we’ve told them. The police chief isn’t about to stir up a family problem for the Saddlebrooks. No worries. You’re doing great. Have a good time, Saffron,” he said.

I looked at him. He was so casual about this. Why was he so confident in me? Didn’t he understand how hard all this was for me?

“Be careful,” he added, just as I closed the door behind me.

Careful?

I watched him drive off and then joined Karen to meet up with Tommy and his friend, a boy named Chris Loman who was also on the basketball team.

“You guys look great,” Tommy said.

Karen stepped a little in front of me. “My mother and I have been helping Saffron with her clothes and makeup and stuff.”

“Good work,” Tommy said, smiling at me and not looking at all at Karen.

“Well, she came here with practically nothing,” Karen emphasized. “I had to help her buy what was in fashion and choose what to wear tonight.”

I looked at her. She hadn’t, of course.

“Lucky she had you,” Chris said. His words hung in the air as both Karen and I were trying to decide if he had been serious. “You’re such a fashion expert.”

He laughed, and Karen punched him.

“Hey, that’s a foul,” Chris moaned, rubbing his shoulder vigorously, exaggerating how hard she had hit him. Both he and Tommy laughed and went ahead to open the front door for us.

“Queen Karen,” Chris said, with an exaggerated theatrical bow.

“This is probably what you’ll do after high school,” she said. “Doorman.”

She smiled at me, and we entered, but as I passed closely, I glanced at Tommy and saw how hard he was looking at me. It wasn’t exactly a chill that it sent down my spine; it was more like a hot flash that settled around my heart and had me rush ahead as if I was afraid he’d read my thoughts or feel the slight trembling in my body.

“Everyone’s in the basement,” Adele said when we entered the hallway. She was waiting for us at the door to the stairway. “Margaret’s parents just left, but her brother is up in his room, and we’re supposed to check on him every hour. Hi,” she said, as though she just realized I had come with Karen. Before I could respond, she saw Tommy and Chris, who had entered but were talking softly to themselves, probably about us. She yelled to them. “Down here!”

“Hi, Adele,” Chris said.

Karen raised her eyebrows and leaned in to whisper. “He likes her, but she can’t stand him.”

I saw Adele’s smile and didn’t think it was that false. Karen seemed jealous of everyone. I wondered how she kept any friends or, as Aunt Ava had suggested, if they were really her friends. We all started down the stairs, the music and laughter flowing up at us.

The basement was large. It looked like it ran the length of the house, with a bar, tables, and chairs. The walls were all in a dark paneling, and the coffee-white floor consisted of wide wood slats. There was an actual jukebox on the far right and funny vintage late-twentieth-century posters on the walls. One wall had plaques of some sort and a small glass case with some trophies in it. At the moment, there looked to be about fifteen other kids. Four boys were playing darts on the left side of the basement.

Tommy stepped up beside me as I looked toward the case of trophies.

“Margaret’s father was a star quarterback on his college football team.”

“Oh,” I said. I didn’t look at him. His lips were so close to my ear I would swear he kissed the words to me.

Karen seized my left forearm to pull me away and start introducing me to girls and other boys I had not yet even seen at school. Her introduction began with “This is my cousin from California who had to come here to live.” Some began to ask where exactly I was from and how I liked it here. I started to answer, but if they showed interest, Karen pulled me to meet someone else. I didn’t resist. In my mind, it was working in my favor.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw boys ripping beer cans out of a case and handing them out to anyone who wanted one. Margaret, Adele, and Vikki waited for us to make the rounds. They were sipping something suspicious from paper cups.

“My parents won’t return for a good three hours,” Margaret told us. “You’d better sample the punch now so you can sober up in two and a half hours. And no one better throw up!” she shouted over the music.

There was lots of laughter. Some of the boys poked and pushed each other, obviously accusing them of not being able to not throw up or reminding them of some previous occasion when they had. I had no really accurate way to judge them, but I thought they were all acting a little immature. When the beat of the music changed, a few kids started to dance, and voices grew louder.

“You’d better not tell my parents about the punch,” Karen warned when I refused a cup Margaret offered.

“Maybe you’ll tell her yourself,” I said.

“What?” She looked at Adele, who shrugged. “Why would I do that?”

“Maybe you won’t be able to help it.”

The other girls laughed. Karen smirked and gulped the cup of punch she had. She turned to get another. The moment she stepped away from me, the girls began their questions. They sounded like Karen had dictated their dialogue.

“Why weren’t you ever here?”

“How do you like our school?”

“What was it like where you were?”

“Did you ever see movie stars?”

They were asking so many, so fast, I barely got out an answer to the first question. Rather than bring up the fiction of my family feuds, I told them we didn’t have money to travel. More of the partygoers were drawn to the circle around me. I could feel the panic pooling in my chest, especially when Karen poked her head in to reveal that my mother and her father didn’t get along.

“They didn’t talk to each other for years, but we’re trying to make her feel comfortable. I mean, she has no one else, really.”

Their looks of pity actually made me feel sick. I resisted the urge to charge up the stairs, call Ava, and go home.

Suddenly, I felt someone grab my right hand and pull me away. Tommy wanted to dance.

I had never danced with a boy, of course, except in my imagination. When I could, I played music in my room and, following the way kids my age and a little older danced on television, imitated their steps and moves and, I thought, became better and better at it. One night, Mazy watched without my realizing she was standing there. When I finally did, I stopped as if I had been caught doing something illicit. She stared at me a moment, and then she smiled.

“You’re very good,” she said. “When the time comes, you’ll stand out for sure.”

Her comment had surprised me, but because I no longer felt that I was doing it in secret, I danced more, occasionally getting up while we were watching television together and dancing to the music. She smiled and clapped and then grew very sad.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s almost time for you to be out there,” she said, nodding toward the front of the house. It was a good year or so before she would enter me in the public school, but I never forgot the look on her face, a mixture of joy, pride, and deep fear.

Well, I was out there now. Would her fears be realized?

Tommy was a very good dancer. I stood there practically not moving when he began.

“I’m not very good,” I said.

“Then I’ll get you to be better,” he replied, and tugged me to step out farther, away from the others. I glanced at Karen. She looked like she wanted to rip out my heart. She was sipping the punch quickly, more like gulping the second glass, too.

Maybe I was simply tired of seeing her jealousy; maybe I just wanted to feel free, loosen up, and forget about the image and the story Daddy had created for me. Something clicked inside me. Tommy’s eyes were electric, daring. I slipped into the rhythm and the music like someone stepping into a lake or a pool to swim. In seconds, I was fully submerged, my body moving as if it had a mind of its own, all caution scattered like grass seeds in the wind. I could hear the cheers and encouragement and saw the look of delightful amazement on Tommy’s face. After a few more moments, I didn’t look at anyone else. No one else dared to join us. It was as if we had risen above them. I no longer heard anything but the music. When it ended, everyone except Karen applauded. Now they were pouncing on her to get more information about me.

Tommy reached for my hand.

“C’mon,” he said. “Let’s get something cold and soft to drink.”

“You don’t drink beer or loaded punch?”

“I’m an athlete,” he said. “A serious athlete. I have a good shot at a scholarship. We don’t need the money,” he added. “I want the acknowledgment.”

“That’s great, Tommy.”

I noted that he had to make the point about his family being well-off. Around these kids, I guessed that was quite important.

At the bar, he poured us both glasses of a fruit soda. Our dancing had encouraged others. We sat on the stools and watched them. I saw Karen was talking at her friends rather than with them. Chris was teasing her.

“What do your parents do?” I asked Tommy. I didn’t want to add, since you don’t need college money, but it was clearly underlying the question.

“My father’s a corporate attorney, and my mother is a family doctor,” he said. “I have two younger brothers, twins, eleven years old.”

He waited, expecting me to tell him about myself, but I said nothing. He sipped his drink and smiled.

“I like it that you’re a mystery,” he said. He leaned toward me. “All the other girls are open books, especially your cousin.”

Oh, Karen wouldn’t like to hear that, I thought. She and Adele and Vikki were heading toward us.

“Uh-oh,” Tommy said. “The Three Musketeers.”

“Everyone is asking me where you learned to dance so good,” Karen said. I was going to say, Dance so well, but I might as well light a stick of dynamite between her legs, I thought.

“In my room,” I said casually.

“You said you didn’t know who Ed Sheeran was,” she said.

I looked at the other two and some of the kids who drew closer to hear. Why was she doing this to me? She had promised to keep everyone from picking on me. Ava had really driven a wedge between us, I thought.

“We had this CD player and my mother’s discs, which were mainly music from the seventies, eighties, and nineties. It was her collection. You know I didn’t have a cell phone, so I didn’t download any up-to-date stuff.”

“Didn’t you ever go to a party?” Adele asked, her eyes wide with amazement.

Everyone around us was waiting for my answer, especially Karen. I had been hoping to concoct something in private so she would help me avoid this moment in front of the other kids. But right now, I no longer trusted her anyway.

“Because my mother and I traveled and lived in many different places, I didn’t make friends as easily as you all have.”

“So you didn’t go to parties?” Adele pursued like a trial attorney.

“No,” I said.

“You had a computer,” Karen charged, her face lighting up with the clue. “You could listen to music on that.”

“I just got it recently,” I said. “One of my mother’s boyfriends bought it to get her to like him more. It didn’t work. She dumped him a week later, but I kept the computer.”

They all stared, ironically amazed at what appeared to be my honesty. Karen sipped her drink. She was struggling with what to say next. Everyone’s looks turned from amazement to sympathy.

“Maybe you’ll help me get more up-to-date now,” I told Karen.

“Good idea,” Tommy said. They were all nodding as if his words dropped down from the god of happiness or something.

“I’ll send you some good links,” Vikki said. “What’s your email?”

“Oh, I haven’t set that up yet. Karen will help me,” I said, smiling at her. “Right?”

“Right. Let’s get something to eat,” she told Adele, and the three walked to where the food was spread out on a table.

“Well, that was like walking on hot coals for you,” Tommy said.

I shrugged. “I’m not looking for their sympathy. My life was harder than all theirs, but I’d rather not dwell on it.”

“Makes sense to me. You want something to eat?” he asked. “Just sit here. I’ll get a plate for you.”

“You will?”

“I’m a team player. Didn’t you hear? Besides, I’ve got to get you some fuel to keep dancing.”

He brushed his hand over mine and went to the table. I took a deep breath and looked at some of the kids who were staring at me. I smiled. Some smiled back; some quickly turned away. When Tommy returned, we ate and talked, mostly about school and his ambitions.

“Whatever hardships you went through, you kept being a very good student. Melina filled me in on you. She was very impressed with you, and she’s not easily impressed with anyone.”

“Really?”

“I’m sure you’ll do something great.”

“I haven’t been that ambitious. Reading and studying kept my mind off other, not-so-nice things,” I said.

“Must be like being on another planet now.”

“There are aliens here,” I said, looking around and nodding. He roared and clapped.

Every once in a while, he touched my hand, mostly at the end of something he had said. It was almost as if he was trying to be sure I remained beside him. He had nothing to worry about. I felt safer, since most didn’t want to interrupt us.

We danced some more. Despite Karen’s muttering, no one was really nasty to me. I did notice Chris spending more time with Adele, and because of that, Karen reluctantly talked to a nice-looking red-haired boy named Billy London, who I learned was the student government president. He was paying lots of attention to her. Maybe she wouldn’t be so jealous now, I hoped. However, I had the amusing suspicion that the kids here wanted to talk to her more because of me. They were hoping she had greater, maybe even uglier details to share.

Toward the end of the evening and that eleven-thirty curfew Karen and I knew was coming, Tommy took my phone number.

“Maybe you’ll be able to go out with us after the big game next Tuesday night,” he said. “We’re playing for the division championship.”

“Really? Where’s the game?”

“Home court,” he said. “We played these guys a month ago, at their place. Long bus ride, but we beat them by four points. Chris made a big basket that night. Amazing hook shot.”

“That’s great. What team are you playing? Karen might not remind me, and I don’t want to look totally stupid.”

He laughed. “I’ll tell you all about them, our strategy, everything, this week,” he said. “It’s Hurley.”

“Excuse me?”

“Hurley. They’re pretty good. Going to be a big game. Lots of fans on both sides. The gym will rock like it’s in one of your California earthquakes, believe me.”

I felt my whole body tighten.

“Hey, don’t look so worried. I’m just kidding. Besides, we’re going to beat them for sure,” he said, and took my hand.

I smiled.

Hurley.

Inside, I was crumbling like an iceberg on an unexpectedly super-warm day.