“Yes,” I say, already dragging Wills down the hall towards the staircase. “Thanks for … um … stopping to say hi.”
He waves at me as we go. “Perhaps we’ll talk again sometime soon.”
I can’t get us out of their fast enough. He seems strange, and it’s weird that he is so interested in my family and my life, but I think he doesn’t mean anything by it. He was looking at me weird tonight, but I chalk it up to him just being an academic. That’s how brainy people are sometimes, I guess.
The next morning, Wills and I sit for our SAT retake test. We’re both nervous and excited—we’ve worked so hard for this, and we have a lot riding on this next set of scores. Blair and Dana wait outside of the room for us, and they each give us a hug for luck before we go in.
Wills and I sit beside each other and give one another a last look before the test begins. When the clock starts, it’s pencils to paper, and this time neither one of us looks up until we’re done. It’s grueling, even worse the second time around … but at least, this time, I’m fairly certain I didn’t completely bomb.
Either way, it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Whatever that test score is, it’s out of my hands now. As soon as we step out of the testing center, I’m immediately embraced by Dana and Blair, who are pacing outside.
“You’re done!” Dana exclaims excitedly as I hug her in return.
“I am! Thank God that’s over!”
Blair lets me loose and eyes me cautiously. “How do you think you did on it?”
I smile nervously. “I feel like I did pretty well this time. Definitely better than last time, at least.”
Wills is all smiles. “I don’t know about you …” he says, “but I’ve taken this test enough times to know I totally aced it.”
We won’t get test scores back for several weeks, just in time to meet college application deadlines, but we’ll worry about that when the time comes. For now, there’s only one thing left to do—celebrate.
And here, that means ice-cream and brownies in the cafeteria. I’m riding so high that I barely pay any attention to the fact that Victoria is sitting alone at a table not far away. If anything, it’s just another reason to celebrate. Every moment Astor isn’t at her side is a reason to celebrate.
“I know this is just chocolate,” Blair tells us with a smile on his face, “but we’ll do it properly when we have the Christmas party down in the wine cellar.”
Dana looks surprised. “A Christmas party? What wine cellar?”
I look at the boys, “Please, you guys are the experts.”
I went to a party in the wine cellar last year when Victoria and I were still friends, before Halloween … and it left me with some mixed feelings. I’m not sure if I’m really looking forward to going to another party there now, but my common sense tells me that I have nothing to worry about. This time is different. Now, the same boys who tormented me last year adore me more than anything, and they’d never let anything happen to me.
Blair has gotten stuck describing the rapture of the cellars down below the school like they’re the ballrooms of a palace, not a gritty set of dark, damp rooms meant for storing casks of wine.
“Oh no, it’s top dollar, Dana. We just happen to have a key, thanks to Astor, so we go down and take the liberty of using the room now and then. We’ve never been caught. It’s pretty swanky.” Blair assures her.
Wills nods. “It’s like a five-star speakeasy. Top notch.”
Dana is amazed. “Really? Here at the school?”
“Oh yeah. It’s really nice,” I agree with the boys. Maybe I was letting my past experiences cloud my memory of it. With all the lights and candles, it really was quite nice. “There’s even a library that I may never get you out of.” I tease her and share a glance with Blair. He gives me a sympathetic smile and squeezes my hand.
Dana suddenly looks a little dubious. “Hold on a second, when is this party taking place?” she glances over at me. “We still have that science project to work on … unless you’ve forgotten, again.”
I promise her I haven’t, but, of course, I have.
“What science project?” Blair asks curiously. “I mean, the party is technically tonight … but how long can it take?”
Dana launches into telling him all about it. She uses the same fondness to describe the experiment that he did when he described the wine cellars he’s hoping to drag us down to.
“Hold on a second,” I finally say, cutting her off before she launches into a full-on explanation of all the chemical compounds involved in the project. “We’ve got the whole day and a half ahead of us … but only if we actually get started now.”
I manage to drag her off to the science lab before she bores either of them with the details of our project, and we finally get to work. I’d hoped to have a little time before the party starts to get ready, but it ends up taking longer than it should just to gather the materials required for the experiment. Dana picked it out because the aptly named “rainbow flame” seemed appropriate, and I just followed along since I knew she’d end up doing most of the grunt work either way.
I just wish she’d chosen something a little less … flammable.
After the little incident at Blair’s, I’m not keep to see a re-do.