“Whoa.” Nathan is suddenly beside me, his hand on my back. “Breathe. Breathe.”
I was already nervous about going to the dance and seeing my classmates. At least I won’t be alone—I’m meeting Lindsey and Charlie there—but I can’t go like this. It’d be humiliating. I need Lindsey here; she’d take control. But she’s in the middle of a murder-mystery dinner party, and Charlie has wagered a month of school lunches that he’ll solve the mystery before she does. It’s important to Lindsey that she wins.
“Phone,” I pant. “Give me my phone.”
Andy hands it to me, and I dial Cricket instead. I’m sent directly to his voice mail, like I have been all afternoon. He called this morning to make sure I was going to the dance, but we haven’t talked since. I keep fantasizing that we can’t get in touch because he’s on an airplane, planning to surprise me by magically appearing at my school during the first slow song, but it’s most likely a snowstorm wreaking havoc with his connection. Tonight is the Exhibition of Champions, and Calliope is performing in it. He has to be there.
But tomorrow . . . he’ll be home.
The thought temporarily calms me. And then I see my reflection again, and I realize that tomorrow helps nothing about tonight.
“O-kaaaay.” Andy pries the phone from my death grip. “We need a plan.”
“I have a plan.” I tear at the pins holding the wig to my head. “I’ll take it apart. I’ll do a modern reinterpretation of it in my own hair.” I’m flinging the pins to the floor like darts, and my parents step back nervously.
“That sounds . . .” Nathan says.
“Complicated,” Andy says.
I rip off the wig and throw it onto my desk.
“Are you sure you want to—” Nathan’s words die as I wrench the pink roses from the wig. Half of them tear, and Andy clamps a hand over his mouth. The songbird is yanked off next. “It’s fine,” I say. “I’ll put them in my own hair, it’ll be fine.” I push the rest of the wig to the floor, look up, and cry out. My hair is matted and tangled, bushy and flattened. It’s every bad thing that can happen to someone’s head, all at once.
Andy gingerly removes another stray pin as I try to tug a brush through the disaster. “Careful!” he says.
“I’M BEING CAREFUL.” The brush snags in my hair, and I explode into tears.
Andy spins around to Nathan. “Who do we call? Who do we know who does hair?”
“I don’t know!” Nathan looks blindsided. “That queen with the big order last week?”
“No, she’d be working. What about Luis?”
“You hate Luis. What about—”
“I’ll wear the wig! I’ll just wear the wig, forget it!” I feel my black mascara trailing through my white face powder as I trip backward, and my right foot lands on the wig. The chicken wire structure underneath it smashes flat.
My parents gasp. And the last remaining vision I had of entering my winter formal as Marie Antoinette disappears.
I pull at my stays, forcing room to get air inside my chest. “It’s over.”
There’s a thud beside my window as someone drops into the room. “Only the wig is over.”
I lunge toward him instinctively, but my dress is so heavy that I crumple face-first into my rug. My gown falls around me like a deflated accordion. I didn’t realize it was possible to die of embarrassment. But I think it might actually happen.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Cricket drops to his knees. His grip is strong as he helps me sit up. I want to collapse into his arms, but he carefully lets go of me.
“What . . . what are you . . . ?”
“I left Nationals early. I know how important the dance is to you, and I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t want you to have to walk in alone. Not that you couldn’t handle it,” he adds. Which is gracious of him, considering my current status. “But I wanted to be there, too. For your big entrance.”
I’m wiping rug burn and mascara from my cheeks. “My big entrance.”
My parents are frozen dumbstruck by the sudden appearance. Cricket turns to them apologetically. “I would have used the front door, but I didn’t think you’d hear me. And the window was open.”
“You’ve always been . . . full of surprises,” Andy says.
Cricket smiles at him before swiveling back around to me. “Come on. Let’s get you ready for the dance.”