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Eddie was waiting for me outside of the cafeteria when I came downstairs.
“How did it go?” he asked.
“Chloe saved the day,” I said, trying hard not to smile.
He sighed and scratched his head. “That’s good. Look, I’m really sorry about everything, Janie.”
“I know you are, and you should be. But I figure you still have time to make it up to me before graduation.”
His eyes lit up. “I’ll do anything.”
“Well, you can start by being my date for prom,” I said, still trying to maintain a stern façade.
“Really?” A slow smile crept over his face. “But what about your college boyfriend?”
“You’re going to college this fall, right?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“I guess that’ll do.” I spared him half a grin.
“But what about everything I did wrong?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Wrong is such a relative word. I mean, I’ve never had a boy raise the dead for me before, and you did it twice.”
Eddie smiled then, and it was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. He scooped me into his arms and laid a kiss on me that made my toes curl, and I didn’t even bite him. It was perfect.
The weeks flew by faster, now that they weren’t filled with certain dread and loathing. I didn’t see much of Matilda, since she had taken to hiding out in Wayne’s closet and shed, but we did talk on the phone for a few minutes after school each night. I kept her up to date on all the prom planning that Chloe and I were doing. She also gave my sketchbook back, but I didn’t really want it anymore. Chloe almost killed me when I tried to throw it away. I let her keep it, after she swore a zillion times that she would never ever let another soul look at it.
Denise finally got onboard with the masquerade theme, since everyone else was excited about it. She still didn’t like me. Big surprise there. I wasn’t a fan of hers either. Danielle was growing on me though. She had even stopped wearing so much makeup, and she was surprisingly helpful with the refreshment planning. In the few months I had spent pretending to be her friend, I had never really gotten to know her. She was hoping to follow in her mom’s footsteps after graduation and was all set to go to culinary school.
Chloe really took charge after our big win. She made up flyers for a costume shop in town and convinced them to offer a rental discount on their Victorian formalwear. She also took up orders for custom masks. Eddie and I helped her make up a series of molds, and she decorated dozens of her creations with feathers and beads. Some even had bits of leather and flowers sewn into them. She said the extra project would really round out her portfolio.
When prom night finally crept up on us, Chloe and I snuck Matilda past my parents and up to my room to get ready. The Dr. Who painting she had given me after the prom committee win was hanging above my bed. I couldn’t believe that she hadn’t kept it for the art show. It was really the best painting she had ever done.
Matilda had begun to turn green again, and the little red circles were back under her eyes.
“I don’t think I can do this,” she said, sighing at herself in the mirror. “I haven’t even been able to let Wayne look at me for the last week. I make him turn the lights off, and I’ve eaten all the baking soda out of his mom’s pantry.”
Chloe made a face. “You poor thing.” She shuffled around in her bag and found a small coffee thermos. “I brought you a little pick-me-up.”
Matilda took the thermos from her and popped it open. She swirled the murky contents around. “What is it?”
“Chicken blood. I squeezed it out of the chicken myself. My mom is going to be pissed when she goes to cook dinner tonight, so don’t let it go to waste. Bottoms up.”
Matilda shrugged and swallowed it down. The green faded out of her skin and her cheeks plumped once more. “Thanks,” she said, handing the sticky cup back to Chloe. “Janie’s really lucky to have a friend like you. The Ds would have never looked out for me like that.”
“Well, this fairy godfriend isn’t for sale. I’m doing this for Janie. She seems to think you’re worth helping out,” Chloe snorted.
“Yeah.” Matilda smiled at me. “I really should have been nicer to you when I was alive.”
“And after you died.” Chloe snorted again. “I think Janie would have been happy if you had just ignored her. The spray foam in the locker was totally rotten, by the way.”
Matilda’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t do that. That was Denise.”
“Denise?” I huffed.
“Yeah. Mitch said something about inviting you to one of his parties at the playground, and she flipped out.”
I had to smile. Mitch was a meathead, but apparently he had been crushing on me long before the Matilda makeover. Who knew?
Chloe pondered on that revelation for a minute. “Well, I guess I don’t have to feel too bad about giving you this then.” She laid a wardrobe bag out across my bed and unzipped it, revealing a silvery beaded dress. The sleeves were low and folded out into a sheer cape.
Matilda’s blue eyes glossed over. “This is for me?”
Chloe nodded. “And this goes with it.” She opened a hat box on my bed and pulled out a matching silver mask. The jowls dipped down into cute little kitty cheeks, and long, sparkling whiskers stretched out from its pink nose. A white tulle veil formed a little cap behind the pointy ears.
Matilda touched the mask gently. “I can’t thank you enough,” she said.
“Yeah, well you can try.” Chloe grinned playfully. “And for you,” she said, turning to me with another hat box.
I had told Chloe to surprise me, and boy did she ever. My mask was a glossy lilac. Twisted black vines framed the eye holes and the butterfly outline, and black beads dangled down on either side. It matched the colors of my corseted gown.
“You’re the best, Chloe. Where’s yours?” I asked.
She pulled a blue gown out of the last wardrobe bag and showed us the matching feathered mask she had made to go with it. We were set. After two hours of primping and curling and fussing over last minute details, the doorbell finally rang.
“Girls,” my mom shouted up to us. “Your chariot awaits.”
Chloe hesitated at my bedroom door. “I think I’m just going to drive myself. I don’t want to be a fifth wheel and have to sit in a car with a bunch of necking kids,” she said, trying to joke her way out of the sudden nerves.
“You’re not going to be a fifth wheel,” I laughed. “I knew you were going to be too busy with the masks to worry about finding a date, so I ordered one for you.”
“You did what?” Chloe gaped at me.
“He’s super cute, and you don’t even have to worry about where he puts his hands. Promise.” I pushed her out of my room and towards the stairs. Matilda followed us, now that she was unrecognizable in her mask. We had decided to call her Honey for the night, in honor of her notorious nickname, the Hun.
Wayne, Eddie, and Benny waited for us in the living room. I had called Benny the week before to ask him about prom. He was tickled, and he was eager to meet the guy I had finally settled on. Chloe finally stopped struggling with me when he took off his mask and she realized who her date was.
“You girls better stop roughhousing or you’ll mess up those pretty dresses,” my mom warned while my dad fiddled with his camera.
Eddie was a dream in his tuxedo and the leafy Green Man mask Chloe had fashioned for him. He gave me a shy smile and took my hand, slipping a lily corsage onto my wrist. “You’re stunning,” he said, lacing his fingers through mine.
“You kids need to line up in front of the fireplace. We need to document this night for our grandchildren.” My dad shook his camera at us.
We shuffled around until he could see us all through his lens. Matilda was awkward at first. It had been some time since she’d been around this many people. The fact that she was posing as Wayne’s out-of-town date helped a little, but I could tell that her nerves were stirring at the thought of the crowd we were about to submerge ourselves in.
After the group picture, my dad had Eddie and me pose for a few with just the two of us. He asked us to remove our masks for one of the shots, and I thanked my lucky stars that he hadn’t asked us to remove them for a group picture.
When my dad finished up, and we were all seeing spots from the camera flash, we stumbled out into the front yard. Benny had rented a stretch limo. The big white boat rested against the curb, waiting for us to board so that we could be whisked away to the night of our lives.
Chloe squealed and squeezed my hand. “Eat your heart out, Cinderella.” We climbed inside and took off for Jasper High.
The cafeteria transformation was better than any I had ever dreamed up, and that was saying something, since I had dreamed up some pretty elaborate plans. The ceiling and walls were covered by a thick layer of black balloons. There were several park light globes scattered around the edges of the room, and they provided just enough light to set the mood. The student council had raised some money for the event too, so we were able to afford fancy little etched champagne flutes with the date and prom slogan on them. The committee had settled on “A Night of Illusions.” It was cheesy and ironic, and I hadn’t had anything to do with it.
As we settled in, a slow song crooned out over the speakers, and Wayne pulled Matilda out onto the dance floor. They looked happy, even though they had both decided that this would be their last night together. Matilda was handling her official parting with far more grace than I would have been able to muster.
Eddie rubbed his shoulder against mine and cleared his throat. “You wanna dance?”
“I don’t know.” I grinned. “I was thinking maybe we could act bored out of our minds, stick our noses up in the air, and say we have better things to do.”
Eddie laughed, and I took his hand. We found an opening and squeezed in between our masked classmates. We fumbled around, accidently bumping into other dancers and stepping on each other’s feet. We laughed and tangled our arms together. It was blissfully normal, and it was perfect.
It seemed so very obvious now. It felt like I had known all along, but I had been blinded by my own ambition. You couldn’t force love by removing the competition. If Eddie hadn’t raised Matilda from the dead, Wayne and I might have very well been at prom together. But it wouldn’t be true love. I would still be his second choice. I wasn’t Eddie’s second choice, and seeing his glowing smile and shining eyes beneath his mask, I knew now that he wasn’t my second choice either. Wayne would always be my childhood sweetheart, but Eddie held my heart in a way that no average boy ever could.
The big finale of the evening came when Danielle took the microphone and announced that it was time to crown the king and queen. No one seemed too surprised when she called up Denise and Mitch, but their victory was short-lived. Amanda and another masked cheerleader joined Danielle, once Denise and Mitch finished their royal slow dance. They set up a small table with a framed picture of Matilda from her junior year. Danielle waited for everyone to quiet down again before she produced another queen crown.
“We all miss Matilda,” she began. “And I think we all know that if she was still here with us, she would have made a good run for the crown. So in honor of our fallen classmate, we’ll be naming her as an honorary prom queen in our senior yearbook.”
Everyone clapped, and then Danielle opened the mic for students to come forward and share their fond memories of Matilda. It seemed almost poetic that she was able to witness the sappy display, but when I glanced over the crowd, she was nowhere to be found.
I spotted Wayne over by the punch and slipped away from Eddie to go talk to him. “Where’s Matilda,” I asked. “She’s missing her very own class memorial.”
Wayne gave me a stricken look. “She went outside. She said that she needed some air, and she wanted to be alone for a minute.”
“Which door?” I set down my drink and followed his finger to the back exit of the cafeteria.
Matilda was sitting on the sidewalk outside with her head in her hands. I knelt down beside her and pulled off my mask. “What are you doing out here? It’s your big night.”
“Janie,” she groaned. “Those people in there hate me. This is a joke,” she said, just as Denise claimed the mic and began gushing about how much she loved and missed Matilda.
“Wayne doesn’t hate you. I don’t hate you,” I added.
“Yes, you do,” she laughed bitterly. “And you should. God, I made your life hell, before and after I died. You probably hate me more than anyone.”
“That’s not true.” I folded my dress under my legs and sat down beside her. “I mean, you were a royal bitch. I think we can agree on that. But you taught me a lot in the few short months we spent together. I can’t say it was all roses, having a zombie fashionista hijack my wardrobe, but you taught me things. Not just about clothes and makeup and manipulating the general populous, but about myself.”
She laughed. “Yeah? You know, for the last few months you’ve really been my only friend. You know me better than the Ds ever did, and you can’t even get up there to share a fond memory, because you’d be committed if you did.”
I shrugged. “I don’t need to share my memories with all those people. I have them, and that’s good enough for me.”
Matilda gave me a weak smile. “This is really it, you know? I’m going to be gone for good tonight. You’ll finally have your chance with Wayne.”
“I don’t need a chance with Wayne. I have Eddie.” I grinned at her surprised face. “Let’s go back inside. What is it that cheesy poster in Nader’s office says?”
Matilda laughed. “Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we might as well dance.”