didn’t have a child here, either, but she had an ease about her that Marie envied.
Her brooding was cut off by the appearance of Leo by her side.
“There you are. I was starting to wonder if you’d turned into a pumpkin.”
She tried not to smile. She didn’t want to be so easy for him to amuse. “I think it was the carriage that turned into a pumpkin, not Cinderella.”
“Whatever.” He hitched his head toward the center of the gathering, where Gabby and Daniela were still smiling and laughing. “Come on.”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“Are you kidding? She would murder me in my sleep if she found out you were here and she didn’t get to say hello. Actually, no, she wouldn’t wait for me to fall asleep. She’d just do it here, in cold blood. Do you want my blood on your hands?”
“I do need someone to drive me around this weekend.”
“Follow me.” Leo cut a path for them through the crowd, nodding at the occasional parent. As they passed Dorothy, who was huddling with Glinda the Good Witch, he leaned over and spoke low in Marie’s ear. “Contrary to appearances, Dorothy and Glinda are first-class bullies.”
“Is this the source of the social trouble your sister is having?”
“I think so. She seems to want to be friends with them, but I’m not sure why. They seem awful.”
“Like the Plastics.”
“Like the what?”
“From the movie Mean Girls.”
“I haven’t seen it.”
Marie was tickled that she could pull out an American pop culture reference Leo didn’t know. “The only thing to do, really, is to wait it out. Grow up and have your revenge.”
“Is that what you did?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Lucrecia von Bachenheim,” he said without hesitation.
She was surprised he remembered her actual name, given that he’d been calling her Lucrecia von Whatever yesterday.
“Well, I’m not sure I really achieved revenge. I guess my revenge is more in my position, but I was born to that, so I can’t really take credit for it.”
“Did Lucrecia von Bachenheim address the United Nations yesterday?”
She was saved from having to respond, because they’d reached Gabby, but she took his point. In fact, his point made her smile to herself.
“I told her you were here but that you wanted to keep things locked down,” Leo whispered.
“Hi!” Gabby whisper-yelled. Then she started to curtsy. It was impossibly cute and completely unnecessary, so Marie, before she could overthink it, intercepted her with a hug. See? She could do this.
“You were wonderful!”
“I can’t believe you came!”
Marie glanced at Leo. It wasn’t like she’d been planning to come.
Leo winked at her. “She said she couldn’t miss it.”
“Gabby, you were so good!” A voice from behind Marie caused her to turn, but not before she’d caught sight of the look on Leo’s face.
It was Dorothy, with Glinda by her side. Hmm.
Gabby stiffened. “Oh, I only had one line. You guys were the ones who were so good!” Her enthusiasm was clearly forced. Marie had no idea precisely what these girls had done to Gabby, but she found herself inclined to dislike them on sight. That inclination was ratified when Glinda outright ogled Leo in a way that was entirely inappropriate for an eighth grader to look at a grown man. “Hi, Leo.”
“Girls,” Leo said, and Marie wondered if he was stressing the word to remind them of the age gap.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Dorothy said to Marie, the formal phrase making her sound like a little girl impersonating an adult.
“This is my friend, Marie,” Leo said quickly, and though she appreciated that he was rushing to introduce her like that so her cover wouldn’t be blown, Marie had changed her mind on that front. What was a little unwanted attention if it would earn Gabby some social capital?
So she lifted her chin, tried to channel her mother, and said, “Good afternoon. I am Marie Joséphine Annagret Elena, Princess of Eldovia, and I’m a friend of Gabriella’s.”
Well, eff him. Leo didn’t know whether to laugh or to whoop in victory. The bomb Marie had dropped on Rosie and Allison, aka Dorothy and Glinda, literally struck them dumb, something he would have thought impossible.
Marie took advantage of their silence, waiting only a few beats before turning to him and saying, in that snootily regal tone of hers, “Gabriella, Leonardo, Daniela, shall we be going?”
“Why yes, Your Royal Highness,” he said—no fake honorifics this time—“I think we shall.” He held his arms out wide, intending to encompass all three of the amazing women