“And your father?”
“He just wants me to be happy.”
Cheryl began massaging moisturizer into Elaine’s face. “I think you should pursue a job in fashion. I know! Change your major to business and make clothes on the side. Sell them on campus and take lots of photos. When you graduate, go to New York and present your portfolio of designs to some big shots at a design house.”
Elaine was loving this fantasy. “And what about Jim?”
“Jim Pendal is so good-natured that he’ll follow you anywhere. You just need to make him fall in love with you now so that he changes to UCF. You twomustbe together during college or some girl will snatch him up before he finishes the first year. Jim is pure husband material. He won’t last long out there with all those hungry, grabbing girls.”
Elaine was laughing. “So tonight I’m to stand up against the very strong personalities of Gena and Dane and make Jim like me so much that he decides to go to school with me and... What? Marry me and live happily ever after? While I’m some famous clothes designer in New York, that is?”
“Why not? Besides, I made a few calls.” That seemed to be all Cheryl was going to say, but Elaine stared at her to tell all.
“I’m good at imitating voices. ‘Our boys are gonna win! And if they don’t, I’ll nail their hides to a fence post.’”
Elaine was wide-eyed. Cheryl sounded exactly like their coach.
“Would you like some tea, ma’am?”
“That’s English.”
Cheryl quickly ran through half a dozen accents, then mimicked three teachers. It was when she spoke so much like their common enemy, Gena, that Elaine nearly fell off the table laughing.
“I’m afraid to ask. What did youdo?”
“My mother has a friend who owns a very nice Italian restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Let’s just say that, due to some phone calls that Gena and Dane received, there is going to be a major mix-up of who is supposed to be where. Those two are going to the restaurant instead of the dance. There might even be another misunderstanding about ages and they might be served bottles of champagne. Or maybe it’s sparkling apple juice in a champagne bottle. I forget which.”
“Are you saying that Jim is mine for a whole evening?”
“Or longer.” She took Elaine by the shoulders. “I’ve seen you with other people. You’re funny. You’re creative. You’re smart. But if you keep staring at Jim like he’s something to be worshipped, you’ll never see him again. Let him see the real you. Show him what he’s missing by being chained to a dog like Gena.”
Elaine was looking at her in wonder. “Why don’tyouhave a boyfriend?”
“You think I don’t?” She put her hands up. “I’ve said too much. I want you to get in the shower and wash that conditioner out of your hair now. We still have work to do and only a few hours to do it. Mark is going to get a workout tonight.”
“Who is Mark?”
Cheryl nodded toward a red leather case on the table. “My Mark Cross is full of things that are going to show the world the beauty that is within you.”
“Mark better put on his work clothes because he has a big job ahead of him.”
Cheryl laughed. “Go on. Get cleaned up...”
Elaine looked as though she’d come out of a trance of memory, but there was a smile on her face. “Cheryl gave me one of the best nights of my life. Jim and I sat with his friends—the glamorous people of the school—and I wason. Like a spotlight had been turned on inside me, I lit up. I thought,This is where I belong. With these people.And you know what? They never said it out loud but they were glad to be around Jim without his little entourage of Dane and Gena. We laughed and danced and were full of the joy of being young and alive.”
“And what happened afterward?” Sara asked.
“Jim went back to Gena and I took Cheryl’s advice to act like I didn’t mind. But that night at the dance had put a crack in the dam. The other girls loved the dress I wore and asked me to design theirs for the prom. A couple of times one of them would be talking to Gena and they’d leave her when they spotted me so they could show me a color they liked or a fabric. Sometimes just to chat. About two weeks later, Gena started throwing accusations at Jim and she broke up with him. He asked me to go to the prom with him—which I did. It was another magical night and that’s when we started talking about going to college together.”
“You started all this by saying that you knew someone who hated Cheryl enough to kill her,” Jack said. “It seems like Gena would be angry atyou.”
“I thought she would be, but Gena was not only a control freak, she was also a spy. When we met that first time in the bathroom, Cheryl told me to act like I didn’t know her. After she helped me, she still insisted I keep up the charade. I didn’t like doing it, but I listened. Then, the first Saturday after graduation, I saw her outside the ice-cream shop and I asked her to go in with me. I was dying to tell her that her plan worked. We were sitting there with big chocolate malteds, laughing together, with Cheryl congratulating me, when Gena came to the table.
“I’d seen her at school and I thought she’d be furious at me for picking up the boyfriend she’d thrown away. She’d given me some dirty looks but she’d never said anything. I thought I’d misjudged her, that she was actually a gracious loser.”
Elaine paused, as though what she was about to say was hard for her. “Gena came to our table and didn’t so much as look at me. Her eyes were only on Cheryl and she said, ‘You did this, didn’t you?’ She jerked her head at me and said, ‘This one is too innocent to pull off what she did all on her own. All she knows how to do is make cow eyes at my boyfriend and cry herself to sleep.’”
Elaine paused. “When I look back on it, I know I should have stood up to her and defended my friend but she really scared me. Gena sneered at Cheryl and said, ‘I knew that if I watched long enough I’d find out who really took my life away from me. There’s nothing innocent aboutyou. When you want something, you go get it. I had everything planned and you destroyed it.’”
