In the Shade of Groves [COMPLETE]

Chapter 5

It's been a week since my first rehearsal of "Murder in Room 202". The rehearsals, much like the fundraising meetings, follow the same agenda every time. Everyone breaks into their assigned groups and works on their tasks. My mother is more convinced than ever that letting me join her club is more of a hindrance than a help. So far, I've made a couple dozen posters, all with a respectable amount of glitter. I wonder if I can use poster-making as a talent for the pageant, or how this helps my resume for Princeton. They may not find taking photos useful, but they can appreciate a well-made poster.

At play rehearsals, I continue taking photos of people performing their parts and Ross designing costumes. I could have stopped going after the first time but since I told the teacher I would come back, I felt I had to. Also, I felt this strange need to befriend Ross even though he absolved me. Despite my attempts at casual conversation, I get the sense I annoy him. So, I've decided to let it go. At lunch the following week, I try to bribe Loli and Raven to help me hang posters around town.

"Please, I have almost a hundred posters and it will take me hours to hang them all myself," I plead with them.

"I would but I'm on a hot creative streak right now and I don't want to break it," Raven replies.

"Loli, I will buy you a gelato," I plead.

Loli looks at Raven then me before answering, "I'm behind on homework and I have a test tomorrow."

Loli has never been behind on anything a day in her life. She's the kind of overachiever Minnie is, and my mother wishes I was. I get the feeling they're both avoiding me for some reason. Admittedly, I've been more absentminded than usual and not taken too much interest in our lunch conversations. I've been too busy after school with yearbook, the play and the fundraiser to spend time with them outside of school. They're also probably still mad about losing seats in the senior section. Right on cue to rub salt in the wound, Candice skips over to our table.

"Hey Paisley," she says completely ignoring Loli and Raven.

"Candice."

"My mom told me you and I are going to be in a fundraising pageant this year," she beams down at me.

I speak through a grimace, "Yes."

"Do you know what your talent is going to be?" She twirls her hair around her finger.

"I've got a couple ideas." Truthfully, besides my ironic talents like poster-making, I've got nothing. I can take really good photos but that's not a talent that performs well onstage.

"I'm going to do a cheer," she smiles down at me.

Of course she is. After my sister graduated last year, Candice became head cheerleader and flaunts the position way more than Minnie ever did. She wears the uniform or some sort of regalia almost every day. Not to mention her "captain" bow.

"If you need any help let me know. Any sister of Minnie's is a friend of mine," she skips away.

Candice forgets that we were friends first. We went to grade school together and she used to come over almost every weekend for sleepovers. Things changed when we got to middle school. I really wanted to be a part of the school's book club but she wanted to try out for cheer. She tried to convince me to do it with her, but I knew cheerleading wasn't for me. Minnie, on the other hand, was the varsity captain as a seventh grader and thus very popular. After Candice made JV, she had little need for me and spent most of her free time with my sister.

"You didn't tell us you were doing a pageant!" Raven practically yells.

"Yeah, I thought you were just making posters for your mom's club," Loli adds.