Bridgeport Academy 2

16

"I can't believe you're saying that to me!" Yara exclaimed. "You look like a movie star."

"I don't look like a zucchini?" Alex glanced down at her dress as she headed over to the makeup tray on top of her dresser. She picked up a tube of concealer and held it out for Yara. "This stuff is amazing but it's too light for me."

"No one is going to mistake you for a vegetable."

"Thanks." Alex examined Yara's face critically. She had nice skin, strong cheekbones, and incredibly long lashes—she never wore makeup, so it might be nice to give her face a little more color. "How do you feel about lilac eye shadow?"

Ten minutes later, Kae peeked her head in the door; she was wearing a strapless dress and a pair of strappy red sandals. "I don't look too out of season, do I?" Her hair hung in damp waves across her bare shoulders. "I just loved the way this dress makes my boobs look bigger." She thrust them forward. "They look bigger, don't they?"

"Yeah, when you do that," Alex teased. Chris wasn't going to be the only one all over her tonight. Even though her dress wasn't revealing, the bare shoulders and deep, shadowy V of her cleavage were going to drive all the boys wild. Alex examined her own face in her mini–makeup mirror before dusting a teensy bit of shadow at the corners of her eyes.

Kae checked out both of them. "You both look great." She smiled shyly at Yara. "You're Yara, right? I think I'm in your Human Figure Drawing class."

"It's such a great class," Yara gushed. "As long as I don't have to pose anytime soon."

"Maybe if we got to wear these clothes, it would be fun." Kae twirled around and let the skirt spin out in a circle around her.

"I think I'm gonna change. Not my makeup," Yara added quickly. "But this dress is so not me."

"But that's the point of wearing different clothes, you don't have to be yourself tonight," Kae pointed out, looking in the mirror and twisting strands of hair near her forehead and clipping them back.

"Maybe." Yara shrugged. "But I don't like looking in the mirror and not recognizing myself, you know?" 

From outside came a strange honking sound, almost like the horn Alex used to have on her pink bicycle. The girls dashed to the window, and Alex pulled up the shades.

"What the hell was that?" Kae asked nervously. "It sounded like something dying. Owls don't sound like that, do they?"

"Only when they're on crack," Yara joked. "That must have been a goose." 

Alex stared out into the darkening evening but couldn't see anything other than bushes and trees. Another call came, this time closer, and the three girls jumped. Alex's heart started to beat faster and she pushed up the window and stuck her head out. 

"Oh my God," she shrieked. Quincy, dressed in black with two stripes of black reflector paint beneath his eyes, was wedged between the brick wall of Waverly and an over-grown lilac bush. 

"Shhh..." he whispered, putting his hands on the windowsill. "Aren't you going to invite me in?"

Giggling and feeling like a complete rebel, Alex grabbed one of Quincy's strong hands and helped him through the window. "Aren't you supposed to be at dinner with your parents?" she demanded happily.

Quincy shook his hair, letting loose a flurry of pine needles. "We had an early one." He glanced at the other girls and pointed at Kae. "Hey, Kae, right?"

"Yeah." She glanced at Alex nervously. "How'd you know?"

"You've got some fans." He grinned his irresistible grin at her.