When I walked into homeroom on Friday morning, Taylor grabbed my wrist so hard that I thought I was going to lose my circulation and then my hand to gangrene.
"Ow," I said, yanking my arm back. "What is up with you?"
"Come talk with me in the hallway," she said, before scurrying out of the classroom.
I glanced over at Lana, who was staring at me in confusion. I had originally planned to use the first few minutes before class started to coax Billy and Lana into a conversation, but clearly that was going to have to wait. "Sorry," I murmured, before following Taylor into the hall.
"You look like you're about to explode," I said. "What's going on?"
Taylor ignored my question. "So you know how you're playing matchmaker for Lana and Billy?"
"Yes," I said, lowering my voice. "But this is a secret, so don't shout it out to everyone."
Taylor's eyes glinted. "So like... do you want to help me with my love life too?"
I paused. "Wait... what?"
Now Taylor was the one who lowered her voice, and her words came out so fast that I almost didn't catch everything. "The girl on the art forum, Clarissa... we kept talking, even after the whole thing with my mom. And she was just being really sweet and flirty so... last night I asked her out to coffee and she said yes."
My jaw dropped. "Oh my God, Taylor. Seriously? That is amazing."
She nodded. "I just decided: screw my mom, this is my life. And I'm going on this date whether she wants me to or not. So... it's happening. Tomorrow morning." She shook her hands, as if they had fallen asleep. "I'm so nervous. But like... it should be fine, right? She's been nice to me so far online, and really cool, so why should she be any different in real life? And we friended each other on Facebook so I know what she looks like so it's not like that will be a surprise... and Jessa, she is hot."
She glanced around to make sure there were no teachers in sight, and then pulled up Facebook on her phone and typed "Clarissa Lowry." She flashed me the picture, and I whistled beneath my breath. "Wow," I said. The girl staring back at me had natural fiery red hair that flowed in these thick, beautiful curls. Her cheeks were speckled with a light spattering of freckles. And she had these pale blue eyes that seemed to look right through you. "She's gorgeous."
"I know." Taylor slid her phone away and then looked me straight in the eye. "So do I have your permission to spill everything to you afterwards? Because I think I'll probably be having a panic attack and psychoanalyzing every thing I said."
I laughed. "Of course. Just stop by after the date. I'm not doing anything..." I trailed off, making a connection. "Wait, tomorrow? I'm actually going to the lacrosse game with Lana in the afternoon. It's kind of a part of my setting her up with Billy plan."
"I can meet you guys there and fill you in on the gossip. I'm sure Lana will enjoy picking the date apart too." Taylor's eyes were aglow. "I just... I can't believe this is actually happening to me. I kind of thought I would never meet anyone—at least for a long time, you know? But I'm so excited."
"You should be! This is awesome news."
"Gah," she gushed. "Okay, okay. We can go back in."
I laughed. "Maybe your good juju will rub off on Lana and Billy?"
Taylor grinned. "You know, it's kind of funny seeing you so invested in Lana's love life. Especially since you completely forgot about her last week. I mean, what's in it for you?"
Although she said it in jest, the only thing I could do was giggle nervously as we walked back into class.
I ended up being too late to work my magic in homeroom, but I was ready for our afternoon at Billy's.
Billy and Samantha shared a used car, a forest green Toyota with a bent front bumper. However, from the way Lana stared at it, eyes wide, you would have thought we were in front of a horse-drawn carriage, outfitted with a coachman and a bottle of champagne.
The Toyota lacked any complimentary beverages, but it did have a coachman—of sorts. Sam stood in front of the car, arms wrapped around a large stack of papers, bouncing on her heels impatiently.
When she saw us approach, her face wrinkled. I wasn't sure if it was because she didn't know that Lana and I would be carpooling with her, or if she was confused by Lana's appearance. The Devil had changed up her look today. Gone were her preppy skirt and crisp white blouse. She had traded it for a soft pink dress that fell to just above her knees and a set of pink diamond earrings. She looked like a sentient lump of cotton candy.
"Hey," I said to Sam by way of explanation. "We're in Billy's group for a US Government project. We're working on it a bit this afternoon. He said he could give us a ride."
"Ohhh right," Sam said, checking her watch. "He sure is taking his time."
"He's probably changing out of his gym clothes," Lana said.
Oh my God, I thought. She memorized his class schedule. But luckily Sam didn't notice.
"He should hurry up," she mumbled. "I have a lot to get done today."
"That reminds me," I said, "did Taylor ask you about hanging out on Monday?"
"Oh..." Sam said, not looking particularly pleased. "Yeah, she mentioned that. What were you thinking of doing?"
"Um... I don't know, just hanging?" Whenever I spent time around Sam, I had a difficult time talking; her frazzled energy seemed to short circuit my thoughts. It's why I didn't hang out with her unless Taylor was involved.
"Huhh..." Sam said. "I mean, next week is kinda crazy before the dance but... I think it should be okay. To hang out for a little bit."
"Okay cool," I said, feeling the heat in my cheeks. "We'll see you then, I guess." I turned away from her, both to hide my embarrassment and to see if Lana approved of the progress I'd made, but Lana was no longer paying attention to me. Her eyes were locked on the school doors where Billy and Peter Thatcher were walking out.
Although there probably couldn't be two more dissimilar people, the two were making small talk as they walked through the parking lot—well, Billy was doing most of the talking, but Peter's mouth moved every few second or so, which was a feat in itself. I was actually surprised that Peter looked more calm than usual...until he got closer to the car. As soon as Peter's eyes fell on Sam, a look of terror crossed his face.
I wonder what she did to him, I thought, looking over at Sam, but her eyes were on her brother.
"There you are!" she said, holding out her hand. "Keys, please!"
Billy's skin was glazed with sweat as he dug into his pocket and tossed his sister the keys. I could see Lana's eyes nearly falling out of her skull. "Can we blast the AC? We just had this insane basketball tournament. They think Devon tore his ACL."
"Sure."
Sam slid into the driver's seat and, much to Lana's disappointment, Billy claimed shotgun. I'm sure she had wanted to snuggle against him in the back seat—sweat and all—but this was probably a good thing. I didn't trust Lana to act normal around him, at least not yet; she still had this crazed 'Devil' energy around her, excitement mixed with a complete lack of social awareness. I didn't think I could make her completely normal in the span of a week, but I could try to reign in some of her more outrageous tendencies. Patience, I thought to her as we climbed into the back with Peter.
The ride was uneventful, except for the fact that Peter sat with his arms wrapped around his body, as if worried he would catch the plague if his shoulder even lightly brushed against mine. Within minutes, we reached the Stevens house, a place I had only been to once before with Taylor when she returned to pick up her retainer that she had left in Sam's bathroom after a sleepover.
Sam disappeared upstairs without so much as a goodbye—typical, I thought—while Billy led us into the family room.
Billy sat down first, giving Lana her chance to saddle up next to him on the couch while Peter and I claimed the two armchairs.
Lana dug through her bag and pulled out the assignment. "Okay," she said, all business. "So we have two weeks to write an eight-page paper on the health care system and then make a PowerPoint answering these questions." She waved the page and her eyes swept over the assembled group. "So, how often do you think we should meet? Every other day? Every day?" She looked at Billy hungrily.
I tried to stop my jaw from dropping. Luckily, Billy jumped in with his good-natured laugh. "I don't think we need to meet that often," he said. "Maybe once next week, and then one more time the week after that? I think once we form an outline of what we need to write about, we can split up the work and consolidate it at these meetings."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," I said before Lana could open her mouth and try to argue with him. "Why don't we draft everything out today and then plan to meet next week on Wednesday?"
Lana shot me a glare, but I ignored her. She was coming on too strong, yet again, and that was not how she was going to win Billy's heart. Plus, Wednesday was the perfect day to have our next session. It was two days before the dance: prime time for Billy to ask her out.
Billy thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, I can do Wednesday if it doesn't take too long."
Peter raised his hand, a timid lift of his arm. "At that point, can I... Skype in? Or... work via Google docs or something?" The poor guy looked like he was drowning in the armchair, his eyes constantly darting to the staircase. "Is that all right?"
"I'm okay with that," I said, knowing that if everything went according to plan, Peter wouldn't be needed on Wednesday.
Peter looked marginally more relieved and relaxed just a hair into the chair.
"Okay then," Lana said. She sat up a little bit, as if wrangling all of her disappointment into a little corner and setting it aside. "Then why don't we figure out how to divide this up now?"
We spent the next thirty minutes planning out our project in broad strokes. We were hoping to each have a rough draft of our part done by Wednesday so that we could spend the following week editing everything in a Google Doc. Lana didn't seem to care about the later pieces of the project—after all, she would be back in the Underworld after the dance—but she still participated, which I appreciated; after all of this was over, I still wanted a good grade.
I was actually somewhat proud of her as the meeting went on. After her initial upset, she dialed down her nervous energy and her creepy clinginess and started acting normal. She even cracked a few jokes that made Billy laugh.
Peter, on the other hand, only grew more uncomfortable. And it became very clear that it had something to do with Sam. There were a few moments when she came running down the stairs to go into the kitchen: once for a glass of water, another time to get a working pen, and a final time to make some popcorn. She had walked into the family room after that, offering everyone a handful, and Peter turned as pale as a ghost. When she finally left, Peter looked like he was about to throw up. "Excuse me," he announced suddenly as he got to his feet and bolted out the front door.
Billy and Lana exchanged concerned glances, and I realized that this was the perfect opportunity for them to have some alone time. "Let me see what's up," I said, getting to my feet. "You two stay here." And before either of them could protest, I too was out the door.