With a huge yawn, she said, "I want to go back to bed."

"Why don't you shower and get dressed? Then you'll be more alert. Have you done all your algebra?"

"Almost."

"I'm serious when I say your grades mustn't suffer because of this cheerleading business."

"I know, I know. I'm going to take a shower. Is my red sweater clean?"

"Your red sweater? It's going to be warm like yesterday," Mom predicted. "It'll be too hot for a sweater."

Christy rose and ambled from the table. "Do I have anything else that's red?"

"Why?"

"Oh, never mind. I'll find something to wear."

It took twenty minutes, but Christy finally decided on a dress she hadn't worn in a long time. It was a summery cotton dress that badly needed ironing after being scrunched up in the closet for so long.

If her mom proved right and it was another warm May day, Christy thought she would look fresh and stylish, like the rich girls at her school. They seldom wore the same thing twice and had a variety of accessories to match everything in their wardrobes.

Christy pulled her hair back and worked at brushing her teeth an extra long time. With a wide cheesy grin in the mirror, she examined her work and thought her teeth looked okay. Her hair looked pretty good today too.

Amazing! How often does this happen?

"Christy?" called Mom from the hallway.

Christy was working to apply mascara on her bottom lashes without leaving skid marks.

"You need to leave in about five minutes."

"Five minutes?!" Christy jammed the mascara wand back into its holder. "I didn't finish my homework!"

"What have you been doing all this time?"

"I took a shower and did my hair, and then I had to iron my dress..." She opened the bathroom door, displaying the finished product.

"Goodness!" Mom exclaimed. "You look as though you're going to church or something."

Just then the phone rang, and David answered it. Christy could hear him say, "Hey, dude! When are you going to take me skateboarding again? Huh? Yeah, she's still here."

Christy dashed to the phone. She knew it had to be Todd. s.n.a.t.c.hing the receiver away from David, her voice came out as light and pretty as she felt. "Good morning!"

"Hey, how's it going?" Todd's easygoing voice made her feel as it always did: full of antic.i.p.ation for when she would see him again.

"Do you have to work this weekend?" Christy asked.

"Tomorrow I do. I thought I'd come down to see you tonight, if that's okay with you and your family."

"Of course! You know you're always welcome. What time do you think you'll get here? I'm sure you can have dinner with us."

"Five-thirty okay?"

"Sure."

"Cool. I'll see you then. Later."

"Bye, Todd. Have a wonderful day!"

But Todd had already hung up. He always hung up first. And Christy would always hold the phone, listening to the dial tone, letting her imagination fill in the blanks, since Todd's phone conversations were usually short and to the point.

Christy's parents adored Todd. Her brother idolized him. Once when Todd had come down on a Sat.u.r.day, he had spent several hours skateboarding with David and then helped Dad paint the living room. After dinner when he started to wash dishes, Christy picked up a dish towel and joined him, realizing this might be the only time she would get to spend alone with him.

That's when she realized that with Todd, there would probably never be such a thing as the two of them "going out." Their time together would be with her family and with their friends, and it would be just as much fun as if the two of them went somewhere alone. It felt so natural to Christy that she was amazed when one of her friends at school had said that she and her boyfriend had been going out for three months and he hadn't met her parents yet.

"Mom," Christy called out, "Todd's coming for dinner tonight, all right?"

"He is? What time?"

"Five-thirty. Is that okay?"

"All right!" shouted David. "Is he bringing his skateboard?"

"I didn't ask him, but David, don't beg him to spend all his time with you when he gets here, okay?"

David smirked and marched past Christy, s.n.a.t.c.hing his lunch sack off the table.

"Mo-om!" Christy groaned. "Would you tell David not to bug Todd like he always does?"

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do!"

"All right, that's enough." Mom stepped between them. "You're both going to be late for school."

"Mom?" Christy asked, oblivious to her need to get going. "I was wondering something." She paused. "If, well, do you think Dad would let me go to the prom with Todd, I mean, if he asked me? Since this is his senior year and everything?"

"Oh, Christy! How can you ask me something like that when you're supposed to be walking out the door?"

"Do you think Dad might make an exception if it was Todd?"

"I'm not even going to try to answer that. We'll have to talk about it. Now get going, both of you!"

During first-period history, Christy thought about going to the prom with Todd. Getting a new dress. Having her hair done. It made her feel like Cinderella.

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a practical dream-one that needed to come true. After all, this was Todd's senior year, and she was about the closest thing he'd ever had to a girlfriend.

She laid her right arm across her open history book and moved her wrist back and forth slightly. Her gold ID bracelet caught little slivers of light, shimmering with promise. Christy ran her finger over the engraved word Forever. She had felt it many, many times since Todd had given it to her last New Year's Eve, and she knew its touch by heart.

You don't reality how good you have it, Christy told herself. She had Rick as a good buddy at school and church. And she had Todd. She would always have Todd. She just knew it.

We have to go to the prom! It's one of those "forever" memories that a couple like us should have, she thought.

The bell rang and history was over, with an a.s.signment of two more chapters to read over the weekend. Christy grabbed her books and hurried to meet Katie at her locker, their usual meeting place.

"Cute outfit!" Katie said, her bright green eyes scanning Christy's outfit. "What's the big occasion?"

"Katie, do I look like a girl who is about to be asked to the prom?"

"Oh, I get it. You figure if you look the part, your fairy G.o.dmother will be able to spot you in the vast sea of us hopeful romantics, all wishing to be asked to the prom," Katie said with a dramatic twist of her wrist in the air and a swish of her copper-colored hair. "She'll pick you out of the lot of us and make your wish come true because you look as though you deserve it."

Christy laughed quietly and looked around, hoping n.o.body had seen Katie's performance. "A girl can dream, can't she?"

"What about the minor detail of your parents?"

"That's the part I'm being extra hopeful about. I asked my mom this morning, and she didn't exactly say no. I mean, I know he would have to ask me first, but I told her since it's his senior year and everything--"

The shrill bell interrupted Christy, so she finished with, "It doesn't hurt to set high goals, now does it?"

Katie laughed and bubbled with her usual enthusiasm. "Wouldn't that be great! If your mom didn't say no, then she's probably getting ready to say yes. That's how my parents are. I'm sure your mom will say yes. And when she does, I'll ask Lance to go with me."

Christy looked wide-eyed at her friend. "Do you think he'd go with you? What am I saying? Of course Lance would go with you. Do it, Katie! Ask him!"

"First you find out if you're going," Katie said.

The halls began to clear.

"Yikes!" Katie squeaked. "We're going to be late. I'll call you after school. I hope you do great on the algebra quiz!"

Oh no! I forgot all about the quiz! Christy thought in a panic.

All during her next cla.s.s, Christy crammed for algebra. But it was no use. Her mind was too full of prom dreams to let anything else in. The quiz was impossible, and she knew she missed at least half the problems.

Christy tried to ignore the sour feeling in her stomach as she recalled her mom saying, "Your grades mustn't suffer because of this cheerleading business!"

"Next Friday," Mrs. James, the cheerleading adviser, said, "you need to be here right after school to dress for try-outs. Tryouts will be in the gym beginning at three-thirty. Any questions?"

"Yes." Renee stepped close to Christy and mumbled under her breath, "What do we have to do to keep Christy from coming?"

"What was that?" Mrs. James asked.

"Oh, I just was saying how fast tryouts are coming," Renee said.

Christy clenched her teeth and swallowed hard. This daily hara.s.sment was eating a hole inside her. What have I ever done to you, Renee? Why are you so mean to me? It's not fair, and I won't let you treat me like this any longer!

Christy determined that she would beat Renee in the tryouts. She would show her and the others that she had the strength and ability to beat them all. It was the only way she could think of that would allow her to get back at Renee.

The girls ran through the routines with mechanical precision, and Christy gave it all she had. By next Friday she would be cheerleading material, and she would prove to Renee that she deserved to be on the squad.

Christy began to take on the same determination about the prom. She would find a way to talk her dad into letting her go. If she tried hard enough, she could find a way-she just knew it.

That antic.i.p.ation and determination made Christy feel more excited than usual about seeing Todd that night. Her heart brimmed with expectations. She directed some of her nervous energy into showering and fixing her hair and makeup with extra attention.

Her mom had been right about the weather; it had been a warm spring day Christy carefully scrutinized her wardrobe. She had only five minutes before Todd was supposed to arrive, not that he was ever on time.

He tended to be pretty casual about everything. He usually wore shorts-even in the winter. He would probably have shorts on tonight.

Christy decided on capri pants with her favorite red knit sweater.

Rick thinks I look good in red. Does Todd think the same thing?

She pushed up the sleeves and took one last look at herself in her bedroom mirror before scooping up her ID bracelet from the dresser and fastening it securely.

"You smell good," Mom said as Christy cheerfully set the table for five. "What is that perfume?"

"Midnight Gardenia. Remember, I got it for Christmas? I'm almost out." Then she thought but didn't add, I've been saving the list few squirts for when I see Todd. He told me once when I had it on that l smelled exotic.

"Do you think Todd likes lasagna?" Mom asked. "I've never served it when he was here."

"I'm sure he does. You know how he always says the worst part about living with his dad is that he lives on microwave dinners. Besides, Todd likes whatever you make."

Christy thought it funny that even her mom wanted to please Todd. He had a way of making people feel like doing nice things for him.

As an only child whose divorced dad traveled all the time, Todd impressed adults as being more responsible and independent than most seventeen-year-olds. Without trying to, he also seemed to make adults want to lend him a helping hand, just because he was such a "nice young man," as Aunt Marti would say.

"Oh, someone called while you were in the shower. David took the message." Mom slipped on a pot holder and slid a cookie sheet full of garlic bread into the oven.

"Who was it?"

"I don't know. Ask David. He's out front."

Christy stepped out onto the front porch and yelled for her brother, who was nowhere in sight. She caught a whiff of tiny white jasmine blossoms climbing up the trellis by the porch and remembered how awful this rental house had looked when they moved in last September. The only thing on its barren porch then had been a smashed clay pot. Mom had done amazing things with hanging and potted plants, and Dad had built a trellis archway at the front steps.

The jasmine seemed to be twisting its way up the trellis a few inches more each day. She thought of how romantic it would be one starry night this summer for Todd to escort her up those steps and kiss her good night under the fragrant canopy.

"David!" she called. What if it was Todd calling to say he would be late? "David!"

"What?" He appeared from around the side of the house with one of the neighborhood kittens in his arms.

"Who called? Mom said you took a message."

"It was that guy."

"What guy?" Christy asked impatiently.

David dangled a long blade of gra.s.s above the kitten as it eagerly batted at it. "I wish Dad would let me keep this one."

"David! Who called? Todd?"