hate lying to her, but the last thing I need is Mom chatting with her friends about my “new hobby.” Plus, it’s just a little white lie. No biggie. But if that’s the case, why do I have to constantly tell myself to stop thinking about it?
I check myself in the mirror. I’ve decided to wear a cute full skirt that stops at my knees and a sheer blouse with a chemise underneath. My hair has been painstakingly curled to create a wavy mass. It’s funny how it takes so much time and so many steps to make one’s hair look effortless.
When I get to the radio station, I check the supplies I bought earlier along with the Allison Blair fan craft stuff. There are fake flowers, super glue, ribbon, ping-pong balls, blue face paint, crazy false eyelashes, and blue tights.
Sitting in my parked car, I fashion a choker out of the ribbon and glue some fake sunflowers onto it. I put another flower ribbon on my wrist. Another flower goes in my hair. I’m almost an elven princess.
As always, the second I start to feel happy about something and like everything might be okay after all, things I don’t want to think about pop into my head. Things like I just straight up lied to Mom, which makes me a horrible daughter. And worse, I have to tell Logan I can’t go to the convention.
And when I tell him why, there’s a really good chance he’ll say, “Screw you and the Lumina you rode in on.” Or he might just put on some big, puppy-dog eyes and talk about all the things I’m going to miss. Good-bye, cosplay contest. Good-bye, having #400 signed by the author and the artist. Good-bye, getting my picture taken with Logan and Stan Lee. But I have to be up front with him.
So much for a fun, relaxing night of LARP.
The security light over the door to the college recording studio clicks on when Logan and another guy, I assume the mysterious Ben, step outside. I check my makeup in my rearview mirror. I’m going to have to redo it after the face paint, and yet, I still throw on some extra lip gloss.
I wait for Ben to get into his Jeep and drive off before I get out of the car. Logan stops midstep when he sees me. This shouldn’t make me as happy as it does, especially not when I’m planning to give back my NerdCon pass as soon as he gets into my car.
“Wow, you are definitely elven royalty material,” he says.
Maybe the NerdCon pass can wait a few more minutes.
“I can’t believe I’m actually going to do this.”
“You’re going to love it, don’t worry.” We climb into my car, and he turns to me. “Thanks for the ride, by the way. Vera had swim lessons, Jonah wanted a ride to the library, Mom had grocery shopping to do, and Dad had the van at the shop, so it was just easier to let Mom take my car.”
He’s rambling again. I make a mental note to put a voice recording app on my phone so I can catch that brand of adorkableness next time.
“It’s no problem at all.”
On the drive to his house, the thought hits me I’m about to do one of the nerdiest things anyone can do. Dressing up as an elf princess so I can go frolic with other people pretending to be fantastical beasts? It’s crazy, right?
But then it occurs to me I might not actually get to do this craziness because of the NerdCon thing. Might as well get that over with before I get too attached to my new life as an elf.
I take a deep breath and start rummaging in my purse while trying to also keep an eye on the road.
Then Logan starts going off about the game. “There was this one time when we had to go up against a gargoyle, which is one of the most powerful beings in the game, and I had to track him down because I was the only one who had this aura-identifying power,” and on and on. He’s so into it, it just makes me wish I could be that free. Free to talk about something other than Allison Blair without my friends looking at me like I screwed up the halftime dance routine. He finishes the story with lots of flailing and sound effects, and all I can do is grin, my fingertips grazing