I'd only just gotten to school the next day when a familiar voice chided over the intercom, "Can we have Evelyn Caverly in the front office please? Again, we need Evelyn Caverly in the front office."
I glanced at Cameron, who shrugged and kept walking to his locker, and then turned to head to my guidance counselor's office. I'd probably gotten another email setting up a meeting with her that I hadn't checked.
"Hi, Mrs. Barrett," I said when I sat down in the familiar red chair and set my backpack at my feet. My guidance counselor was sitting in her chair facing me with a folder with my name on it spread out in front of her.
"Evelyn," she said, smiling. The smile itself was sort of fake, and a little too wide to be believable, but at least she wasn't frowning. "How are you doing?"
I pressed my back against the chair and crossed my legs, pressing my lips together. How she expected me to talk to her about all my problems, I had no idea.
"I understand if it's a little difficult to talk about," she said. Now she brings out the trademark guidance counselor lines? "I'm here if you do want to discuss it, though."
We sat in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. I sensed she was waiting for me to say something—I was waiting for her to dismiss me so that I could get to math without missing too much of Mr. Robert's lecture.
Finally, she cleared her throat and said, "Your grades have increased steadily."
"Yes."
She flipped to a certain page in her folder and added, "You even managed to clinch an A in art."
I thought back to my dandelion. I'd barely even touched it in class the previous day—it looked fake and like a fantasy to me now.
"If you ever need to talk to me about your sister or anything, I'll be here." She sounded eager to dismiss me, and her voice was edged with fatigue. "You can go now so you're not late to math."
Not looking back at her, I heaved my backpack over my shoulders and swung open the door to leave her office.
"Evelyn?" she called after me—I heard her putting up my file and already beginning to type on her computer. When I turned around, she said, "I'm sorry if I misjudged you a little initially. I had no idea you had everything you did on your plate." She nodded as if in acknowledgement to me. "I commend your attempts to raise your grades on top of everything else."
Smiling hesitantly at her, I shut the door behind me and headed towards pre-calc. I arrived just as the bell rang and slid into my seat after handing in my homework.
The school day dragged. During art class, I pretended to color in my dandelion while really not even touching my paintbrush to paper at all. Mr. Olson didn't say anything, even though I knew he saw what I was doing. Instead, he spent a lot of time dissecting the guy next to me's drawing of the girl. She looked sort of like me.
I ate lunch with Ashley and the girls again, firstly because Ashley invited me to and secondly because I was tired of eating with Cameron's rowdy senior friends. Cameron offered to sit with me, but after I pointed out that just because we were dating didn't mean we had to eat lunch together every day, he relented.
"The prom's this weekend, you know," said Ashley excitedly as I sat down and began twisting spaghetti around my fork. "What are you wearing?"
"I don't have anything to wear," I admitted, and to my surprise none of the girls at the table exchanged shocked glances. I guessed an orphan wasn't supposed to own a prom dress.
"We're going to have to fix that," said Ashley. She flipped her long hair over her shoulder and said, "I'm taking you dress shopping with me tonight, and on Saturday you're coming to my house to get ready before the dance."
I actually smiled without even trying. "I'd like that a lot."
~*~*~
After school, I walked the short way from the school to Belinda's Skyport Café. It felt wrong of me to just quit my job, and I figured a little bit of money for college would help, anyway.
When I opened the door, the glass bell jingled, and I saw Melissa at the front counter taking a customer's order. She waved at me, and after the customer wen to sit down she said, "Belinda was having me take over your shifts for now, but she said you can take them back if you wanted to keep working here. I think she's in the kitchen if you want to talk to her."
Setting my bookbag behind the counter, I opened the swinging door into the kitchen and poked my head inside. Sure enough, Belinda was cutting up fruits and veggies and separating them into large plastic containers.
"Hey, Evelyn," she said, barely even looking up. I waved hesitantly and then came to a stop in front of the table. "How are you doing?"
"Fine," I said, even though my voice sounded a little strained. I cleared my throat and then leaned back against the wall.
Belinda finally glanced up at me, and I saw that her eyes were filled with concern. "There's always a spot open here for a job, if you want," she said. "I understand if it'll take a while before you come back, though, or if you decide not to come back at all."
"No, I want to come back," I said. "I need the money. When can I start again?"
"I expect you back at three thirty promptly tomorrow afternoon." Belinda said it seriously, but she was smiling. "And congratulations on the prom, by the way."
I could feel myself blushing a little as, hiding a smile, I let myself out of the kitchen and grabbed my bag from the counter.
Since I didn't have a ride back to the home for girls, I walked back to school and worked in the library until Cameron was done with soccer practice. At five thirty, he came in, looking thoroughly sweaty and exhausted.
"It's a scorcher outside," he said as I began packing up my bag. "Sure am glad to be going home."
I swung my backpack over my shoulder and Cameron took my stack of textbooks, shifting his soccer bag to his other hand. "I'm going shopping for a prom dress tonight," I said.
"Make sure you tell me what color it is."
Rolling my eyes, I stepped back outside. It wasn't as hot as when I had walked back from the café, but the sun was still beating down intensely and there was little respite from a breeze. I was relieved when I got inside Cameron's SUV and he cranked up the air conditioning.
"Final exams are coming up," he said as he turned out of the school parking lot and onto the main road. "You've been studying, haven't you, Caverly?"
I wrinkled my nose. "No. Should I be? I forgot all about them."
"They're in a little more than five weeks," he said. "And are you in any AP courses? Because those tests are in three weeks."
"Do you think I'm taking any advanced classes?"
He flicked on his blinker. "You're smart enough for it."
We drove the rest of the way in relative silence. Cameron turned up the radio until it was softly playing, and I cracked my window so that a light breeze was entering the car as we drove. I decided the heat actually wasn't that bad—it wasn't nearly as hot as it would get during the summer.
What did this summer hold for me? Would I still be living with Sara and the dozen other girls in that three-story house, or would I have a bedroom of my own again? And what about Clare? Would she ever wake up?
I was gripping my seat so hard my fingers were cramping when Cameron pulled up to the curb and I was forced to gather my bags and climb out onto the lawn.
"Have fun dress shopping," he said as I unbuckled my seatbelt.
I leaned over and quickly kissed him on the cheek, then grabbed my things and hopped out. He waved and then drove away, the car disappearing around the bend while still accelerating.
Though I hadn't even begun to think about where I'd get the money for a prom dress, I was still excited to go shopping as I stepped inside the house and began the trek upstairs to my room. Maddie was already inside, playing quietly with her elephant stuffed animal. I thought about how much she hated taking the bus from school, but how she was forced to now.
"Hey, Maddie," I said, hugging her quickly and then beginning to unpack my books on the carpet. "How was your day?"
She shrugged, her bottom lip sticking out. "I'm worried about Clare," she said.
I froze, right in the middle of opening my history textbook to the proper page. It took me a few seconds to recover before I said, "She's fine. She's probably just trying to rest up so she's all better when she wakes up. The doctors would have told me if something was really wrong."
"Maybe they did, and you just haven't told me."
I glanced at her and saw the way she was studying me determinedly, her six-year-old features puckered up. I had to smile as I said, "I wouldn't hide anything from you, Maddie. Do you have any homework? You need to get that done."
And so she worked on her reading worksheets while I tried to puzzle through my history reading, and when Ashley texted me to say she was waiting outside of the door, it took me only a few minutes to pack up and say goodbye to my little sister. When I opened the front door, Ashley immediately enveloped me into a giant hug.
"I'm so glad you're hanging out with us again," she said, looping arms with me as we headed out to her car. "I missed you so much."
I had a hard time concentrating on dress shopping even though I was enjoying myself, and I spent most of my time thinking about Clare. I knew that she would have loved to be thumbing through the endless racks of gowns with me, searching for the perfect one.
I did end up finding the perfect dress, but it took me a long time. After trying on two or three less than satisfying picks, I finally selected a coral and sheer white floor-length gown---when I tried it on, it was perfect.
When I looked at the price tag, I began to put it back on the rack, but a hand grabbed the hanger and pulled it away from me.
"It's the least I could do after I was so awful to you," she said, heading towards the register.
It was dark when we drove back, and I was jittering my legs nervously and twisting my hair as Ashley navigated the curvy roads back to Sara's home. When she finally pulled smoothly up to the curb, I thanked her and grabbed my purse. We'd agreed to keep my dress at her house, since I'd be going over there to get ready, anyway.
"Bye, Evelyn," she said, waving cheerfully as I went to close the door behind me. "Keep smiling."
I jogged up the steps to the front porch and twisted open the door, still thinking about my dress. I couldn't wait to wear it. In fact, the whole idea of prom was so new and exciting to me that if I thought about it too long I began to get bubbly inside.
The first thing I saw when I opened the door was Katie. She was sitting on the living room couch, her eyes wide and her face pale, twisting her hands nervously around each other. When she saw me, she stood as if she'd been struck my lightning.
I knew the problem even before I had to ask. "What's wrong?"
She seemed so weak, so worried, but she had the strength to answer my question. "It's Clare."
A/N: Only two chapters left after this! The end is coming...