Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,66

chat with the others who sat at our table, and I thought I noticed that Dan Hillinger, one of Michael’s friends, seemed to particularly like her. I wondered if he would ask her to the upcoming dance. Michael had told me that through high school, the six of them usually went to the formal dances in a group, although now and then one of them would include an outside date.

I knew that Brea was toying with the idea of inviting a boy from my class to be her date. She thought he liked her, but he didn’t seem to have the nerve to actually ask her out. Brea was so much the opposite of Anne that it was sometimes hard to believe that they had been best friends for years. Brea was tall and athletic, and although she might have been considered striking, she was not exactly pretty. She eschewed any makeup or hair fussing, which annoyed Anne to no end. I knew that Anne and I had more in common when it came to primping and cosmetics, but Brea didn’t seem threatened by me at all. While we didn’t have the instant rapport that I’d felt with Anne, Brea was kind to me, pleasant to talk with, and very secure with her role in the group around the lunch table.

I had observed too that Jim Shuller seemed to rest his eyes on Anne more than on anyone else. I remembered her telling me that he had been the one to warn her about Nick, the loser who’d broken her heart last summer. I wondered idly if Jim had had a greater motivation than Anne realized for wanting her to stay away from Nick. It was tempting to listen to his mind for a bit in order to get Anne the inside scoop, but I knew meddling could be dangerous. I decided to watch only with my eyes and hope that Jim would act on his feelings toward Anne sooner rather than later.

Craig Donalson was the quietest of the group. He was a football player, and Michael had told me with pride that Craig had won a scholarship to a Florida state school. Apparently, he was not only an athlete, but also an excellent scholar. He and I had had our longest conversation to date about Shakespeare; I was amazed that he knew the plays so well.

It was mind boggling for me to realize that I actually had a small group of friends. Michael had definitely helped by introducing me to Anne and the others, but Cara I had found on my own. Or rather, she had found me, thanks to Nell. Irony abounded.

We had come to the end of October, and the weather was still beautifully warm each day. The daily afternoon thunderstorms that I had come to expect had disappeared. I missed the changing of the leaves and the chilly evenings that were common in the north this time of year, but I knew I wouldn’t miss the long winters.

I broke the news of the Harvest Moon Dance to my mother after school on Friday. Michael had dropped me off on the way to work, with the promise to pick me up before lunch the next day for our date at the nursery.

My mom was sitting at the kitchen table having iced tea and flipping through the mail. She had been preoccupied lately with one of her projects; it was a more involved children’s book, with lots of intricate illustrations. She loved the work, but sometimes she seemed to be in another world.

“So…” I cleared my throat as I wandered into the room. “Ummm… there’s a dance at school, some kind of harvest dance, I guess, and Michael asked me to go with him.”

My mother shook off her absent look immediately. “A dance? Like a real, dressy dance?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I mumbled, hoping against hope that she wasn’t going to let her excitement get too out of hand.

“Oh sweetie!!” My hopes were dashed as her voice rose several octaves. “That’s wonderful! We’ll have to go shopping for a dress and shoes… I haven’t found a good hair place yet, but maybe I can ask around. . .”

“Mom!” I needed to nip this in the bud. “Listen. We can get a dress and shoes, that’ll be fun, but no hair appointment, no big deal, okay? I want to keep this low key.”

“Why?” The vibes of excitement and giddiness were still rolling off her, and I felt guilty once