And now we’re back in the living quarters.” Jonathon’s mother completed her tour of the White House.
“I love what you’ve done,” Kara said. “I watched the television special where you talked about how you redid all the rooms. But seeing them in person. Wow.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Mrs. Jackson smiled. “But I’m afraid I have to go now. I have another meeting in a few minutes. Jonathon, you take good care of your guests.”
“Of course, Mother.”
“Now you can take us to all the secret passages,” Kara said after Mrs. Jackson left the room.
“Secret passages?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Kara folded her arms. “Tunnels going from here to a safe house miles away. Bookcases that are doors.”
“You watch way too much TV.” Jonathon shook his head. “We do have a movie theater, though. And we get the stuff that isn’t even in theaters yet.”
“Ooh.” Kara jumped up. “Do you have Mission to Atlantis? I am dying to see that.”
“I’ll call and find out.” Jonathon pulled out his cell phone and walked away.
“While you’re doing that, I need to run to the room,” Addy said. “Be right back.”
“Looks like it’s just you and me.” Chad smiled at Kara.
Greek god is smiling at me. At the White House. Oh yes. I could die happy right now.
“So you like movies?” Chad sat on the couch and Kara joined him.
“Love them.” Kara’s heart raced as Chad’s knee brushed hers.
“What’s your favorite?”
“I can’t pick just one.” Kara tried desperately to focus on the conversation and not on how incredibly good-looking Chad Beacon was. “It would be like asking you to pick your favorite song.”
“I see your point.”
Kara looked over at Chad to find his eyes on her. He’s looking at me! Chad Beacon is looking at me. I should say something. Something funny. Or smart.
“So where are your parents?” Seriously, Kara? That’s the best you could come up with?
“Hagerstown, Maryland.” Chad stretched out his legs.
“Hagerstown?”
“They love museums and Hagerstown has several.”
“Ah.” Kara looked from Chad’s perfect face to his arms. Also perfect. Focus, girl. “And you didn’t want to go along?”
“They like to have little getaways without me every once in a while.” Chad smiled.
“Romantic getaway in Hagerstown?” Kara said.
“Well, there are lots of museums there.”
“Good for them,” Kara said. “So what do you do after this?”
“Finish up history for school. Do some more traveling, then I start on my next big project.”
Kara’s eyes widened. “And what’s that?”
Jonathon walked over before Chad could speak. “We are on for an eleven o’clock viewing of Mission to Atlantis.”
“Yes.” Kara stood. “I’d hug you, but I guess I’ll leave that to Addy.”
Jonathon’s face turned several shades of red right as Addy came back into the living room.
“What’s going on here?” she asked.
“Mission to Atlantis in”—Kara looked at her watch—“forty-five minutes. I think Jonathon deserves a thank-you.”
“Thank you, Jonathon.” Addy looked confused. Jonathon cleared his throat.
“Hey, Kara.” Chad motioned with his head toward the door. “I think I left something in the gym. Want to come with me to pick it up?”
“I’ll go, Chad.”
“No, no.” Chad smiled at his friend. “You stay here. Relax. I know my way around. I just got the grand tour, after all.”
Kara followed Chad. “Nice plan. Very subtle.”
“You think?” Chad laughed, walking down the hallway toward the stairs. “I thought they might like some time alone together.”
“So you didn’t really leave anything in here?” Kara pointed to the gym—a state-of-the-art room filled with every kind of exercise equipment imaginable.
“No, I did.” Chad walked to a weight machine and picked up a towel lying on the cushioned seat. “I left this towel just sitting here. My mother would be very upset about that.” Chad headed to a wicker hamper in the corner of the room and threw the towel inside.
“We should probably give them a little more time than that.” Kara smiled at Chad.
Chad sat on a stationary bike. “You’re right. So tell me how you and Addy met. You were on a TV show?”
“Yes, a competition to win a date to prom with Jonathon.”
“I remember talking to Jonathon while that was going on. He wasn’t crazy about the idea.”
“Addy told me he did it to help boost his dad’s approval ratings,” Kara said. “And it worked.”
“Did you like being on the show?”
“I liked parts of it.” Kara thought back to her two months in Nashville. “I loved when we got to perform. That was fun. I didn’t love golf. I didn’t love the catty girls. I did love getting to room with Addy.”
“She seems very nice.” Chad began cycling.
“Addy is terrific.” Kara walked to an elliptical machine and began walking. “She’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”
“You guys seem very different.”
“Totally different.” Kara laughed. “Addy is very reserved. She hated being on the show. I am definitely not reserved. That’s probably why we get along so well.”
“Interesting.” Chad slowed. “Jonathon is reserved too. He knows how to work the crowd—having the president for your father forces that on him—but he doesn’t seek out the spotlight.”
“What about you? Are you Jonathon’s opposite? Is that why you get along so well?”
Chad stopped cycling. “I don’t know if I’m his opposite. We actually have a lot in common.”
“How did you meet?”
“I was at a party a few months after I won America’s Next Star, and he was there with Janie Smart.”
“The Disney channel diva? He dated her for a while, right?”
“Too long.” Chad shook his head.
“You didn’t approve?”
Chad paused. “She was very . . . fake. Pretty, talented, all that. But she only ever talked about herself. Not the kind of girl I’d want to see Jonathon end up with.”
“You don’t have to worry about that with Addy. She’s as real as they come.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“So, anyway, you were at the party, and Jonathon was there with Janie and . . . ?”
Chad smiled. “Right. We ended up at the same table. Janie spent most of the night talking to one of the Disney Channel producers, so Jonathon and I just started talking. We found out we both like sports, and we hate chemistry, and we really dislike all the hype that goes into being a celebrity.”
“Yes, all that money and attention. It must be so difficult for you both.” Kara arched an eyebrow at Chad. Then she froze. I can’t mock Chad Beacon. What am I thinking? Now he’s going to hate me. Why didn’t I just ask about sports? That would have been safe. But no, open foot, insert mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Sure you did.” Chad’s perfect smile widened. “And it’s a good reminder. I am lucky. Sometimes I forget that.”
Kara sighed, relieved that Chad wasn’t angry at her. “I plan to be famous someday. Tell me what’s terrible about it so I’m prepared.”
Chad’s laugh was deep and Kara thought it fit him perfectly—a manly, honest laugh. “Don’t let anyone make you someone you’re not.”
“Have you had to be someone you’re not?”
“No.” His smile faded. “But lots of people have tried. Thankfully, I have great parents. They make sure I don’t get too full of myself.”
“Well, that’s something we have in common.” Kara heard her phone ping and pulled it out of her pocket. “I have great parents too. The best.”
“I don’t know about that.” Chad stood.
“Addy says to come back.” Kara showed him her phone. “The movie is going to start soon.”
“Too bad.” Chad held the door open. “I wanted to give them more time.”
Kara thought her legs would give way underneath her when she saw the way Chad was looking at her. I think he’s flirting with me. The most beautiful boy on the planet, and he’s flirting with me.
The two made their way back upstairs and were quickly ushered into the movie room—complete with stadium seating and plush leather chairs. White House staff members brought the foursome fresh caramel popcorn and the soft drink of their choice. Kara sat with Addy on one side and Chad on the other. As the lights dimmed, Kara sat back and prepared herself to enjoy this blockbuster, trying to remember everything about it so she could tell all her siblings about getting to see it two weeks before it was scheduled to release in theaters.
Mission to Atlantis was just as good as Kara hoped, but she had a hard time focusing on the screen because Chad was sitting next to her. She let her own script play in her mind.
Chad: I think you’re beautiful, Kara.
Kara: I think you’re beautiful too, Chad.
Chad: Not as beautiful as you.
Kara: Oh, stop, you’re embarrassing me.
Chad: I’m sure you have boys lined up at your door. And I’m just a lowly superstar whose first album just went platinum. But would you consider, I don’t know, going out with me?
Kara: Oh, Chad. You’re right. I do have boys lined up at my door. But you can come to the front of the line.
And then he leans over, brushes my hair from my face, and—
“What did you do that for?” Kara shielded her eyes from the bright lights.
“Movie’s over,” Jonathon said.
Addy rubbed her eyes.
“Did you fall asleep?” Kara looked at her friend.
“Someone woke me up at the crack of dawn this morning.”
“I’m sorry,” Jonathon said.
“Oh no.” Addy stood. “Not you. Her.”
Chad stood and Kara looked up. Way up, watching as Chad rolled his neck. “The White House song. I’d like to hear more of that. Maybe I could record it.”
A duet. Kara McKormick and the Greek god. Oh yes. It could be the theme song of our first movie. The first of many. He’ll have to rescue me from dangerous situations in each one. He is a god, after all. But he’ll give up his immortality in the end to be with me. It’ll be beautiful. We’ll walk down the red carpet together, hand in hand. The interviewers will ask how we manage to have such great chemistry together week after week and he’ll say—
“Mr. Beacon?” Bull, Jonathon’s large but friendly Secret Service agent, opened the heavy mahogany door, Kara’s fantasies once again interrupted. “Mommy’s on the phone. You left it in the sitting room.”
Chad took the phone from Bull’s massive hand. “Thanks, man.”
“That’s what babysitters are for.” Giving Chad a playful punch, Bull walked back to his post outside the theater.
Chad spoke to his parents briefly. He’s so respectful. Kara listened to Chad on the phone. Of course. He is perfect, after all.
“They’re on their way,” Chad said. “Dad insists I get over to one of the museums tonight. They’re reenacting a battle from the Civil War, and he thinks it’ll go perfectly with what we’re studying right now. I get to write a paper on it.”
“Slave drivers,” Kara said, sad to see Chad go. I just need a little more time. At least ask for my number. Something.
“No.” Chad walked toward the door. “I told you my parents are great. Really. But they’re also quite passionate about my education. And my dad thinks there is no more important subject than history.”
Jonathon slapped his friend on the back. “My dad says the same thing.”
Chad agreed to meet his parents outside the city so they wouldn’t have to drive in rush-hour traffic. One of the White House chauffeurs was enlisted to take Chad to the meeting point. Kara hoped that Chad would invite them along, but Jonathon informed the girls they were invited to dinner with one of the senators from Florida.
Disappointed, Kara said good-bye to Chad.
“I hope to see you again,” Chad said.
“Me too.” Kara watched as Chad walked away, willing him to turn around, ask for her number, kiss her, lift her in his arms, and carry her away with him.
All she got was a wave.