"You haven't seen him since we moved, right?" Reece asks. Rhiannon shakes her head. "Well, what did he say when you told him you weren't coming anymore?"

"Not much." Rhiannon shrugs. "I asked if I could call him to talk, but he said it was a bad time. It feels like lately, it's always a bad time."

"So, what else?" Reilly asks when the silence fills the room for too long, no one knowing what to tell Rhiannon. "Because I have no idea what's going on with any of you anymore. So spill." When no one speaks, she continues instead. "Fine. I'll go. Because my life is actually super boring right now, and there is basically nothing to tell. I like some of the people I've met here, but it's not the same. Mostly, I just miss my friends from home."

"Is it possible that your new friends don't know you, because you aren't telling them about a huge part of yourself?" Reece asks. I guess she and Reilly had a similar conversation to the one we had on the bleachers.

"Do you feel like your straightness is a huge part of you?" Reilly responds, sounding uncharacteristically sa.s.sy.

"No comment. But mostly, yes. Thank you very much. And no pressure from me one way or the other, you know that. Just discussing the possibilities."

"Noted."

I doubt any of us planned it this way, but things continue to unravel from there in the best possible way. It turns out, we all had things to say to one another that we'd been keeping inside since the move to Fairview, for some reason or another.

Rhiannon even admits that she didn't hate absolutely everything about Fairview. And she thought that coming from a small town background could be more of an a.s.set to her then coming from a city for college applications if she can find a way to work herself into this town somehow. But the real shocking confession of the night, at least for me came from Reece.

She took a big breath. "Okay, here's mine. I have friends here already, and all that. But I'm a little bit jealous of how well Reagan has done here. I mean, her life in Fairview is better than what it was back home. She took what she had already and built on it. That is kind of awesome."

Reilly and Rhiannon both nod in what I can only interpret as agreement, causing me to become even more confused than I was a minute before. Jealous of me? It's not like I'd done anything special while here in Fairview. Yeah I had friends, and possibly even a guy who liked me. Okay, almost definitely a guy who likes me. But these were all things that Reece had had a million times before. When I point this out to her, it doesn't seem to sway her in the slightest.

"Those things are easy for me though. And they aren't for you. You're taking a drama cla.s.s, for G.o.d's sake. You're doing all of these things, and you have this big life I never would've guessed you would've had if things had stayed the same back home."

I stop and think about that one, because in a lot of ways she's right. My life has changed a lot from what it had been a year ago, and not just because I'm living in a different state. And, at this point my sisters don't even have all the information on just how well I am doing. So I cave and tell them everything about Kent, right up to the almost date I might've had tonight. Everyone is excited and shocked all at once. And while they are pumped that I might've had a date, they all seem to think it is so typically me that I was tricked into going on it rather than getting there on my own. And I can't exactly argue.

"Not that it matters anymore. I'm here with you dorks, instead of it with him."

"It's eleven at night. You'd be stuck here with us anyway." Rhiannon points out like that will make this less her fault.

"You get what I mean. I could have had my first kiss tonight. But no. I mean, not holding it against you." Yeah, right. "Okay, I sort of hold it against you." I stick out my tongue and hope that Rhiannon is already in a place where we can joke about tonight's events. She doesn't make a face back, but she doesn't snap at me either. So I'll take it.

I'm not sure how, because I'm not particularly comfortable, but somehow all four of us manage to find spots on the bed that work well enough for us to fall asleep. Reece spreads out over the course of the night, taking up more than her fair share of the bed, but I've always been comfortable sleeping curled up in a tiny ball near my pillow. And when I wake up the next morning, I feel better than I did the night before.

To my surprise, I'm the first one awake. Even Rhiannon is still fast asleep, snoring softly with one of her arms flopped over Reilly's head.

A quick look at my phone shows me it's only six o'clock in the morning, and way too early for me to be getting out of bed on a Sat.u.r.day, even if I'm already feeling like I had a good night's sleep. Adding to a good morning's sleep can only make this better, right? I drift back off eventually and don't stir again until everyone else wakes at the sound of our parents banging around in the kitchen downstairs.

We all get up without saying much of anything, but I feel more connected to all of my sisters than I have in a while. We needed this. Not Rhiannon running away, but some time together, just us.

The magic is broken a little once were all seated in various parts of the kitchen, eating breakfast and back to our phones. But Reece keeps looking up at me every couple of minutes. And I get the impression that my sisters are texting each other but not me, leaving me to wonder what they could be plotting. Because with the three of them, the options are pretty much endless.

It's only at lunch time that the three of them finally corner me and let me know what's been going on, despite the fact that they've been denying anything and everything all day.

"You might want to hop in the shower," Reece says. "That'll give your hair time to dry, and maybe Reilly can do something with it."

"Why would I want to do anything with my hair?" I stand up and move away from my computer, mostly because I'm feeling like a cornered animal being watched by three hungry dogs. "What's wrong with my hair?"

"Your hair is fine. But we thought you might want to do something a little fancier for Kent tonight."

Um, what? I repeat the thought aloud.

"You're going on a date tonight," Reilly announces, clapping her hands together.

"We felt bad about last night." Rhiannon shifts uncomfortably. "Okay, I felt bad about last night. But we all came up with the idea of making it up to you."

"So you decided to trick me into my second date in as many days?"

"This was a little more on the up and up." Reilly shrugged. "At least this time you both already know it's a date."

I glare at all three of them until I realize what they did. "Wait, you talked to Kent? How did you get his number?"

"Rosie. We take art together, remember? We've been talking a little," Reilly says with a twinkle in her eye. "So I got in touch, and she was on board with this idea. She reached out to Kent, and now the two of you are meeting up for dinner tonight."

My heart flutters as I accept that this might be happening. "And Kent is okay with this?"

"Have you not checked your phone recently?" Reece asks.

I practically dive back at my computer desk and grab my phone. There's a text message waiting from more than fifteen minutes ago. From Kent.

Kent: Rosie just filled me in. Are you okay with this? Because if you are, I am completely on board.

I don't respond, I'm grinning too hard to think of any cohesive words to respond with. Instead, I flip my phone over and make my sisters read what he said.

Reilly is practically giggling with me equally. "Respond to him!"

Well, I already know he's in for this insanity. So writing back seems like a pretty safe bet.

Reagan: It's a date.

As one, the four of us squeal together, and I'm even jumping up and down a little right along with Reece. I've got a date tonight. With a guy who actually knows he's going on a date with me.

Oh boy, I am so not ready for this.

Chapter 26.

Dinner at Lizzie's probably isn't the most elegant first date that's ever happened, but as far as I'm concerned, it's perfect. Kent and I sat at a small table in the back of the restaurant that had been set up with a couple of candles. We did our best to ignore that Lizzie was probably texting updates to Rosie the whole time we were there. But it was a really nice time and the two of us talked about almost everything, with very few breaks in the conversation.

Unfortunately, my guess that Fairview doesn't have many places to go, even on a Sat.u.r.day night, was dead on. The weather is a lot milder than yesterday, but wandering around still feels a little pointless when there is no destination in mind.

"Maybe we should have just gone back to the movies," Kent says apologetically. "At least we would have something to do."

And while originally I was disappointed we weren't going to be doing the movie theatre thing again, because it meant I have to be on and functioning like a dateable person for an entire night, I'm glad we did this instead.

"Don't worry about it. This has been fun." I look over at Kent to see if he agrees and find I'm already nodding. "Yeah. This is definitely better than yesterday."

I follow Ken's lead as we take a left turn into an empty park. The playground equipment and path around the gra.s.s are all covered with the latest layer of snow, and there's no one else in sight. We end up on a bench near an old oak tree, and I huddle into my coat for warmth. I'm not even trying to hint at anything, but a minute later Kent hesitantly puts his arm around me and pulls me closer. "This is okay?"

I nod, too nervous to speak. I don't think the two of us have ever been this close together, and even in this cold open air, I can almost sense the heat coming off of him and smell the faintest hint of cologne.

When I get up the nerve to look over at Kent, our faces are only inches from one another. He's already looking at me.

"Are you okay?" Kent asks already starting to pull his arm away.

"No, I'm fine. Don't go." Kent smiles and settles back around me. I'm close enough to hear a small sigh escape his lips. "Honestly, I'm nervous." I don't say out loud why, but I'm hopeful he's reading the situation the same as I am. Because as far as moments for first kisses go, this one is kind of perfect. Now I need the courage to make to happen. My nerves are all based on my own possible inept.i.tude. I've never done this before, and I don't want to screw it up.

But first, I need to look at him long enough to give me a chance for this to happen at all. He won't kiss me if I keep looking away.

I force my eyes to stay locked on his, trying to convey my meaning in how I'm looking at him.

"I'm nervous too. Somehow, I've managed to get a date with this gorgeous girl, and now she's letting me hold her close to me. I'm going to mess this up at any second."

"That's my life pretty much all the time. Just one stray thought away from ruining everything."

"You've been perfect. That first day I saw you I knew you were someone I wanted to talk to, and you've blown me away every day I've seen you since then. You have nothing to worry about."

I don't say anything because all thoughts have left my head. It seems like he's even closer to me now, like he's inching his way forward without appearing to move at all.

I'm not sure how I get up the courage, but I make myself move my head forward just the tiniest bit, angling it as I go.

This is happening.

Everything else falls away when his lips touch mine, at first just the softest graze against my bottom lip, but soon we're completely connected and my whole body is tingling.

Before I can let myself worry about anything like where I'm supposed to put my hands, or how much I'm supposed to move my mouth, Kent pulls away.

For second, we stay there, inches from one another, eyes locked. But then he whispers, "Well, I think it's safe to say neither one of us screwed that up."

I giggle and it's enough to erase any of the tension without ruining the magic of this moment.

"No. I think we can do better." I bite my lip, and move toward Kent yet again, eager to see what else we are capable of.

Chapter 27.

Standing behind the curtain for my cue to go on stage, I'm more nervous than I have been for the rest of the semester. Combined. Knowing that Kent's out there with the other half of the cla.s.s, and that Mr. Sullen let me sneak Reece and Rhiannon in to see my exam performance as well, there's a good chance I made a major mistake. I'm about to embarra.s.s myself and I would be better off if a third of my family wasn't here to see the humiliation in person. Over Christmas I'd gotten it in my head that I'd be more confident having them here, but it only makes the stakes seem higher.

Kent's and Jen's performances already happened, Jen doing a cla.s.sic take on Alice in Wonderland with costumes that obviously exceeded the budget they were supposed to use, and actually some decent acting. Kent's group managed to make the cla.s.sic story much more violent than the original.

So far, three different people in my performance have forgotten their lines. So at least the bar isn't set all that high for my couple of lines as the king of hearts.

In the end, our group decided to gender swap Alice in Wonderland. I'm not exactly sure what kind of statement we're supposed to make, but it's been fun if nothing else.

And like that, the trial begins and I do my best to look confident as I walk onstage with everyone else. Most of the people from the last scene have disappeared to hide themselves in the small area available to us offstage in the cla.s.sroom. I can practically feel almost twenty sets of eyes on me directly, even though someone else is talking right now, so it could be all in my head.

But I'm here now, and this is happening. Besides, somehow my drama grade ended up being my best of the semester, at least going into exams. So if I can manage not to screw this up, I might actually have something to show for myself. Not a new potential career option, but still almost impressive showing in the cla.s.s that everyone probably thought I would drop out of as well.

And before I can overthink it, I'm saying my lines and gesticulating in what I hope is a dramatic fashion, pleading with my deranged spouse to spare the young boy who has shown up in our kingdom to wreak havoc unknowingly.

I end up getting my head chopped off and breathing a sigh of relief when my turn on stage is finally over. I do not understand how this plot twist ended up in our version of the script since I had very little to do with that and instead did most of the visual stuff for our group. And if nothing else, our version of Wonderland looks awesome.

I fish my phone out from where I'd been hiding it in my costume, and take a behind-the-scenes picture to send to Nadine later. Rhiannon has also promised to take pictures of my big moment to share with our parents. Or for me to accidentally delete so no one can ever see ever again.

The lights come up, and it's all over. Our group disperses after an enthusiastic round of applause from the audience. A few people are shooting my sisters weird looks, but I guess people at school don't get to see more than a couple of us together at any time. I rush over to them as they are talking with Kent.

"Well, that's done." I lean my head against Kent's shoulder before he pulls me into a hug.

"You did great."

I glance at my sisters for confirmation and find Rhiannon making a face. I can trust her not to lie to me. "You didn't embarra.s.s yourself," she says, grinning.

"I'll take it. That's all I was going for."

"Thanks for coming guys, you should probably go before the cla.s.s wraps up." They say their goodbyes and disappear back out into the hallway, off to eat their food in the limited time they have left in their lunch period.

"Don't listen to them," Kent says. "I thought you were awesome."

"I definitely wasn't, but that was a lot of fun."

"Still happy that it's over?"

"Oh yeah."

"Well, I'm still holding onto hope of you joining drama club next semester. We've even dragged Rosie out a couple of times, so I'm not giving up on you yet."

Drama club starts at the beginning of the next term, when the drama cla.s.sroom becomes a music cla.s.sroom and Mr. Sullen becomes an English teacher until the new school year.

As though summoned by my thoughts, our teacher joins us, Jen in tow. I'm pretty sure Frank is still somewhere in the back, taking off his costume. He had been banking on being the cheshire cat before we went with our gender swap idea. Instead, he ended up as Dinah.

"Well done," Mr. Sullen says, clapping slowly. "We had a great showing this year. And I hope you will all be back next year for our junior level course."

I smile politely, but don't commit one way or the other. I've kind of loved taking drama this semester, but the idea of doing it when there are other, non-public speaking oriented cla.s.ses available to me, still seems like a foreign concept. Somehow, I suspect I'll give in.

If nothing else, Mr. Sullen has become one of my favorite teachers. I'm already kind of hoping I can rework my schedule a little next semester to have him for English along with Frank.