Chapter Fifteen
Despite the stress of the last few days, after I woke up and showered the next morning I felt happy and refreshed. I knew I'd see Holt that day, and I couldn't wait to be near him. The thought of Mrs. Cheshire made me a little uneasy, but I pushed it away.
Once I had showered I pulled on a blue t-shirt and white jean shorts, applied a bit of makeup, and headed downstairs. As usual my brown hair was hopeless. I knew I wouldn't see Holt until later, so I definitely wanted to hang out with Carley. With everything going on, I'd barely seen her the past couple of days. I wanted to see Nick as well, and I wondered if there were any developments between the two of them that I needed to hear about.
Carley's door was closed as I passed and the kitchen was empty, so after I made a bowl of cereal I sat down in front of the TV and flipped through channels until I found one that was playing a movie. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but once I saw Molly Ringwald and Emilio Estevez I knew it was The Breakfast Club. Nothing like eighties romance movies in the morning, I thought. I sat back with my cereal and waited for Carley to wake up.
I had a long time to wait. After The Breakfast Club ended and there was still no sign of her, I went outside to read. It was too nice a day to be inside watching TV, and if I waited until afternoon to go out it would be really hot and muggy. In a little while I heard a car coming down the road before I saw it, and when I looked up from my book I saw Nick turning into the driveway. I watched him park in his usual spot and hop out.
"Morning," I said, grinning at him as I closed my book.
"Hey, Autumn. How are you?" asked Nick cheerfully as he came up to the porch.
I heard a stomping from inside the house and knew Carley must be up at last. "Good," I said, answering Nick's question.
Nick came up the steps and sat next to me, eyeing the front door. A breath later Carley banged her way onto the porch. She was wearing a sundress with pink and yellow stripes, and a scowl.
"Morning," she said, looking at Nick but carefully avoiding me.
"Morning," we both said in unison, then smiled at each other.
Carley rolled her eyes.
"Nick was going to take me shopping for the Solstice Party," said Carley, finally looking at me.
"What? Why didn't you tell me? I need to go," I added, irritated. "I don't have a dress either." It was just like Carley to blow me off.
"I would have told you if you'd been around or answered your phone," she answered icily.
"Oh," I said, but I thought Carley was being a bit overly dramatic. I'd missed one text from her, not like a thousand, and most of the time I has been with Holt she had been with Nick, so it seemed to balance out. But if she wanted to be mad, then fine.
"You can just come with us," Nick offered. Carley attempted what would have been a withering glare, but Nick didn't notice it. The fact that he missed the face she made just made her more irritated.
"Look, Carley, I'm sorry, I've been busy the past couple of days," I pointed out.
"We've been busy too," said Nick. He took my book from my hands and examined the cover. "It's not like there's been tons of time. Plus, we're spending today together."
"Yeah, until one of her many guys calls," Carley muttered. She sat in the blue rocking chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
"What?" I said sitting up straight. That was too much.
"Nothing. Never mind. Yeah, you're sorry. Okay. Let's go," she said. Without another word she headed for Nick's car while Nick looked at me apologetically.
"She's just missed you, that's all," he said, handing the book back to me.
"I can tell," I said, following him off the porch to his car. Carley was already buckled into the front seat, so I was forced to take the back.
"We going to the mall?" Nick asked cautiously.
Carley only nodded, then turned the radio up loud enough so that it would be hard to hear what anyone said. Nick raised his eyebrows at me in the rearview mirror but didn't comment.
Carley was obviously in a bad mood, and she was going to take it out on me, but I didn't think I'd done anything wrong. I had had a lot to deal with over the past couple of days. She had no idea and it wasn't like I had been intentionally avoiding her. Plus, as Nick had said, now we were going to spend all day together.
By the time we got to the mall, all three of us seemed to be in a bad mood. While he was driving Nick had tried to talk to Carley a couple of times and she'd simply turned the music up louder. He'd finally given up and glared at the road ahead. And I was mad that Carley was mad and Carley was just mad.
I'd never been to this mall before, but I quickly realized there wasn't much to it. As Carley had explained when I first arrived, the biggest mall in Maine was in Portland, and we were way too far away for that. This one had a couple of local dress shops and some places to eat. The town looked a lot like Castleton except that many of the buildings were bigger and more of them were made of brick.
Nick quickly made an excuse to go off without us, saying something about wanting to check out the video game store down the street.
I really didn't want him to leave me alone with Carley (and it looked like she felt the same way), but he dashed off before either of us could stop him.
Without a word, Carley headed for one of the dress stores.
"I don't get why you're so mad," I said, keeping up with her as she speed-walked. "It's only been a couple of days and you've been hanging out with Nick. When he was lost that night I went looking for him."
"With Holt. You went looking with Holt," said Carley bitterly.
"You told me to," I said, exasperated.
"So," said Carley, "you shouldn't lead him on!"
"Wait, what are you talking about?" I asked, incredulous. How was I leading anyone on?
"Don't play stupid," said Carley. "You don't even like him."
Ah, now I got it. Carley didn't realize how much I cared about Holt and how much I didn't want to hurt Samuel and his family, or how caught in the middle I was. She thought I was just bored and trying to fill up my summer.
"Wait, Carley, since when do you think I'm all calculating about guys? Who have you been talking to?" I asked, stopping to put my hands on my hips.
"No one," she said, flouncing ahead.
I caught up with her again. "Carley, why do you think I'm leading Holt on?"
"I've just been hearing stuff about the two of you," said Carley evasively, refusing to look at me.
"From the Cheshire girls, I bet. You should know better than to listen to them," I said. I felt my stomach turn. Had they gotten to my friends too? Poisoned their minds against me?
"They came up to me while Nick was picking out a video game yesterday. They said I should tell you to stay away from Holt for your own good." Rolling her eyes she said, "Autumn, how could you be so stupid?"
I took hold of Carley's arm. "Listen to me, Carley, you can't believe anything they say. It's poison."
"Yeah, right. What would they get out of it?" she asked.
"You have no idea," I said. "Just please don't believe them. I like Holt. A lot, and I'm going to keep seeing him. They can't tell me what to do."
Carley thought about what I had said, and finally she shrugged. "Fine. Let's go shopping."
I was relieved. Carley had been pissed before and I was worried she'd do something drastic like kick me out of the house. Who knew what the Cheshire girls had been saying to her.
The dress shop we went to was a funky second-hand place. It was covered with racks and racks of clothes, so much so that it was hard to find paths around the place to see anything. There was only a little light coming in, which made it difficult to see the woman knitting behind the counter. But I could see that she had gray hair and lots of makeup on, and her clothes looked like a perfect advertisement for what was in the store.
"Awesome," Carley breathed.
Carley and I started looking through the dresses. The woman behind the counter ignored us and conti
nued to knit. Eventually Carley found a dress she liked, a short, purple one with just a few sequins around the bodice. I found a couple that might have been okay, but neither ended up fitting me very well and I couldn't sew to save my life, so I had no way to tailor them. I waited for Carley to come out of the dressing room to show me her dress.
"Cute," I said, walking around her to see it from all sides.
"I love it," she replied. "Do you think Nick will like it?"
"He'll love it," I said, smiling.
She bought the dress and we headed for the next shop. Carley had her dress, but I still needed to find one. "So, what about you and Nick?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. I was shocked to see Carley's face turn bright red.
"What about it?" she asked, pretending to rummage through her bag. For a minute I let her pretend, since her face was getting redder by the second, but finally I just had to ask.
"Do you like him?" I pushed. "The two of you spend a lot of time together. He's always over at the house."
"I, I don't know," she stammered. "Sometimes I think he likes me and sometimes I think he just wants to be friends. I know he gets annoyed when I talk about other guys, but he talks about girls sometimes too. You should have heard him go on about Susan."
Susan was very pretty and very nice, but I knew Nick didn't really like Susan. If every girl who was pretty or nice could date any guy who was nice, we'd all have a lot less trouble finding boyfriends. (Yes, I was sticking myself into the "nice" category. Sue me).
"You should tell him," I encouraged her. "Tell him how you feel."
"Yeah," said Carley. "That's not going to happen, but thanks for the suggestion!"
I rolled my eyes, but I had to leave it at that. I didn't want to push her, because I knew that if I did she'd just get more stubborn. Plus, Nick could deal with Carley on his own without me butting in. He clearly wasn't ready to tell her how he felt yet anyhow.
We tried two more stores, the only other dress shops around, but I had no luck finding a dress. I didn't even find a dress I KINDA liked. Maybe I was making it too hard, but I wanted this perfect, gorgeous dress, and the ones I'd found had all been nice, or fine, but none had been amazing.
After we left the last shop Carley said, "Autumn, I don't know what to do. You have to have a dress."
"Isn't there any place in Castleton I can look?"
"There's a dress shop I guess you could try," said Carley, "but I've never been in it, so I don't know if you'd find something there."
"Maybe I'll just go there," I said, putting sunglasses on against the bright midday light. "Or wear something I already have."
After we finished shopping, we headed back to meet Nick. He was waiting for us by his car and looked sweaty under his baseball cap. I hadn't realized how much time had gone by, but it was now way past lunchtime and really hot outside.
"Let's get home and eat something," said Carley, noticing how wilted Nick looked.
"Alright," he said, unlocking the car for us. "I see you two patched things up."
Carley and I grinned at each other.
"I don't understand girls," Nick muttered. We both just giggled.
After the three of us finished lunch at Carley's house, Nick proposed going swimming. Carley was all for the idea, but I really wanted to find my dress. Nick was tired of being dragged dress shopping, so I said I'd be fine going to the store - The Last Buttercup - on my own.
I left the house soon after Nick and Carley and headed toward the Castleton downtown. When I walked past the Roths' house I hoped I'd see Holt or Susan outside, but I didn't see anyone.
I hadn't used the shortcut through their garden since that first day, but at least now I knew why it had had such an effect on me. Carley had grown immune over the years with the protection of the salty air, but it was the first time I'd been exposed to Fairy flowers. Even though Holt had said it probably wouldn't do anything to me anymore, I didn't want to take the risk.
The Last Buttercup was very close to UP UP and Away, so I had passed the front of the store before. The window was always filled with brightly colored clothing displays that seemed to change every time I went by.
As I walked into the shop I saw that it wasn't as crowded as the stores we had been in that morning. Buttercup was also a lot bigger, with all the dresses in the back. The floors were a light wood, lighter even than the floors in UP UP and Away. The woman working in the store gave me a friendly smile but continued to talk to a customer who was already there.
I made my way around to the dresses and started sifting through them, but I wasn't really in the mood for shopping. For me it had to be something I really wanted to do, and at this point I was hot and tired. I found two dresses I liked, one a light blue and the other a bright yellow, but once I was in the dressing room trying them on I knew neither was what I wanted.
Still, I kept looking. I was so caught up in finding the right dress that when I heard the front door open I didn't even bother to turn around to see who had come in.
Anyhow, it was right then that I saw it. Tucked into the back of the store was a white dress that I had somehow missed the first time I passed it. I hurried over and pulled it out, examining it closely. It was short with a white belt that would cinch my waist. It was perfect; now I just hoped it would fit. I was sure I could find jewelry to go with it and I was just about to pay for it when I heard a simpering, cold, familiar voice behind me.
"What is that for, can I ask?"
I spun around to see Lydia and Leslie. They had come up behind me and boxed me in while I was examining my dress. I saw quickly that I couldn't get to the cash register without asking one of them to move.
"Aren't you getting a little tired of this?" I wanted to know. "I can't possibly be that interesting."
Leslie, the long-haired one, gave me a cold smile. Leaning forward she said, "Samuel told us to leave you alone. And we will, but we just want to make it clear how very bad it will be for you if you go near Holt."
I glared back at her. "Look, I'm tired of being told what to do and I'm definitely not going to be told what to do by you. So forget it." It was the most forceful I'd ever been in my life, but these girls were bullies and I hated bullies.
Leslie moved back a bit. "Oh, look, it bites. You think you're so cool now that you know our little secret? You have no idea what you're messing with. But you will." Her eyes were black pinpricks of anger glaring at me, and I could feel her cold slamming into me. She was trying to overwhelm me, trying to show that she would win, that I was just a human, while she was a Fairy of the Winter Court. I could see faint traces of the designs under her skin that normally Fairies tried hard to hide. Hers weren't like the designs I'd seen on Susan, they weren't of foliage, they were of large winter mountains and snow falling.
"Leslie, get hold of yourself," Lydia hissed beside her as her eyes darted frantically around the room in case anyone saw Leslie turning into a Fairy. Leslie's hair was turning white on the ends, like it was covered in frost.
She pulled away from me, taking deep breaths. Lydia was trying to hold her, but she shook out of her grasp. Her eyes were wild-looking, and it was the first time I understood just how scared I should be of her. I expected her to say something else about Fairy power but all she said was, "You'll never pull that dress off, by the way," pointing to the white dress I still held.
My body felt like it had been blasted by ice cold air from a fan, and I started to shiver. Leslie could tell I was freezing. She gave a dark smirk and sauntered away, with Lydia trailing close behind her.
It took me a long time to calm down and get my breathing under control. I kept pacing around the back of the store, ignoring the odd look the woman working there gave me, trying to warm my freezing body.
Once I was calm again I paid for my dress and left the shop. Stepping out into the summer warmth helped, but still, all I wanted to do was get home. Leslie had threatened me and I knew she had used more than words, but I wasn't sure what I shoul
d do about it. Samuel had told her to leave me alone and she hadn't. I wondered what she thought I would do if I did ever accept Samuel's Rose, since then I would be queen and rule over her. It would almost be worth accepting his Rose just to see the reaction on her face. Ha. But apparently she didn't care.
I completely avoided the Roths' house on the way home. I didn't want to risk anyone, especially Holt, seeing me like this. I knew I was pale and probably shaking, and I knew that if I saw him right then I might start crying.
And I was determined not to cry. What I wanted to do was fight. I was tired of people, especially people like Leslie, trying to tell me what to do. It was none of her business, and one way or another that was going to have to become clear to her. There was trouble brewing, and it was starting with certain members of a family named Cheshire. I had a lot to do before the Solstice Party.
I walked faster.