Then Seph asks, “Is that a book behind the bananas?”
Kayla is peeling one of the oranges when she says, “Dani must’ve left it there.”
“Dani? Like Danielle Bautista?”
Kayla nods.
“Like class president, future dictator Dani?”
She looks up from the orange in her hands to swoop in as Dani’s defense. “She’s actually a big supporter of democracy.”
I choose to leave the discussion about Dani’s politics for another day. “Why would her book be in one of your parents’ offertory baskets?”
“Oh, I didn’t get the basket from my parents,” she explains. “The fruits are from Dani.”
Seph and I exchange looks then, and I momentarily forget that I’m supposed to be ignoring him. I must not be the only one who thinks sending a fruit basket sounds like flirting. Didn’t Ma’s whole thing with Dr. Derrick start because she got so turned on when he gave her a care package? In a Venn diagram of romantic gestures, I’m pretty sure care packages and fruit baskets go in the same circle.
I should know if there’s something going on with Kayla and Dani, right? I mean, Kayla’s my best friend and I’m alwaysveryaware of Dani’s presence.
“Dani gave you a basket?” Seph clarifies.
“Yeah,” Kayla says like it’s no big deal. “There’s an open forum at our Honesty Club meetings so she knows how nervous I was about singing,” Kayla shares, her face starting to drip with kilig. “I think I mentioned once how it’d be so nice to be given a fruit basket, and I guess she remembered. The fruit basket is to congratulate our band.”
I thought Kayla only reserved this giddy look on her face for Kathryn Bernardo. She looks like she has a whole banana stuck in her cheeks from how hard she’s smiling.
Momentarily pausing my silent treatment toward Seph, I tell him to pass the book in the basket. It’s a copy ofTo All the Boys I’ve Loved Before—a movie that Kayla has been obsessed with since the dawn of time. When I turn to the page that’s flagged, I notice the writing on the bookmark.
Orange you glad you joined Honesty Club? I am. Always thought you were one in a melon :)
Below some fruit doodles, there’s a question written in the same handwriting.
Wanna go to prom together?
Oh. My. God.
“Kayla!” I exclaim, and she almost drops her orange. “You got a promposal!”
“What! Where?” Kayla scans the auditorium instead of the book I’m holding.
I show her the bookmark so it’s loud and clear. “Dani asked you to prom!”
And it’s like I can almost hear the fireworks going off in Kayla’s head. Her voice is so quiet when she asks, “Are you sure it’s Dani?”
My hand turns over to the back of the bookmark that’s labeledProperty of Danielle Bautista, Saint Agnes Student Council President.
Then the banana-size smile envelops Kayla’s whole face. “Can’t believe that Dani is a banger for me.”
“A bang what?” Seph asks, and I tell him it’s an inside joke.
Kayla keeps gazing at the bookmark, but I catch how her shoulders start to slump. “I can’t believe I missed the promposal.”
“But you havepromto look forward to,” Seph interjects.
Her shoulders slump even farther.
“My parents are never going to let me go,” she says, her hands fiddling with the orange peels. “And I don’t know how Saint Agnes feels about two girls going together too…”
Right. This is the same school where Sister Marissa freaked out when one of our classmates dared to show up with a pixie cut. The next day, our school handbook had a new rule that students should have hairstyles that displayed “proper feminine expression”—whatever that means.
