Chapter Four
“How did it go with Mason?” Emmaline asked me when I met her in front of her house the next morning. She handed me my slate and books, reminding me that I was getting behind on homework.
We began walking to school.
“Magical.” I told her as much as I could about the previous night before we got to school. The shock on her face was evident when I told her about him showing up in the middle of the night. I didn’t get to all the sweet things he said at the top of the tower, but I did get to the ride up on the lift.
With so many people around us once we were sitting at our desks, we moved on to talking about the mystery program that would be coming on the radio the next night.
As soon as Mr. Web began droning on, I had trouble staying awake. The lack of sleep from the previous night was getting to me.
When the lunch bell rang, I ate my sandwich quickly and left everything else untouched so I could lay my head on my desk and sleep through the rest of the hour. We had to eat inside because a light powdering of snow was falling.
After school, Emmaline and I walked outside. “Maybe we can finally go window shopping today,” I said a little sleepily.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Emmaline said. “I know you told me yesterday that we would, but you also told Hayden you would do something with him.”
“Hello, you two,” Hayden said as he walked up behind us.
“That’s right,” I said as my memory began waking up. “Maybe we could all do something together.”
“Why don’t we go to my house?” Hayden suggested. “We can eat something and get our reading and arithmetic done on the back porch. It’s enclosed, so we won’t be cold.”
“That’s a great idea. What do you think, Emmaline?”
“Okay. If you’re sure you don’t mind, Hayden,” she said.
“Of course not.” So we turned to the left and made our way to the neighborhood Hayden lived in. It was one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Chicago.
When I was a little girl, I always looked forward to visiting him because he had the finest toys and the backyard had been expertly designed by their gardener and landscaper. Little trees were cut into heart shapes and evenly planted around the grounds. A garden of statues, flowers, and bushes with colorful berries stood in the middle of it all. It was always fun to explore. As I grew older it just felt like a second home.
His father and mine grew up together in Missouri, both in middle class families. Both graduated from college with business degrees. Hayden’s father moved to Chicago and hired a couple of new designers to create and market an original line of women’s dresses and accessories, calling it The Vimage Line. Within its first year his business took off, so he called my father and offered him a job. He and my mother moved to Chicago immediately, and two years later I was born. While my father has done really well here, Hayden’s has made a fortune.
We turned into Hayden’s neighborhood. The street was lined with enormous sweeping yards and long driveways that led up to immaculate mansions. We didn’t have to go very far to reach the white house with black shutters that he lived in. The front lawn was even more picturesque than usual with the life size figures of people in ice skates and reindeer wearing sleigh bells all over it.
“Alexandra and Emmaline are here, Mother,” Hayden called out when we walked in the front door.
“I’m in the kitchen,” she called back. We hung up our coats and followed the smell of cinnamon to the kitchen. “Hello, Hayden,” his mother said as she hugged her son. “Hello, girls. I just finished baking these cookies if you’d like some.” She held out a plate of sugar cookies.
“Thank you, Mrs. West. They smell wonderful,” Emmaline said.
“And your pink dress is lovely. It goes really well with your red hair,” I added. Even in the middle of winter she wore bright spring colors.
“Thank you, Alexandra.”
“Could we take some of these out on the back porch?” Hayden asked. “We were going to do some homework out there.”
“Of course. Take the plate and I’ll bring you some milk in just a minute.”
We thanked her before we left to walk through the hallway that would lead to the back of the house. As we passed several family portraits hanging up on the wall, I thought of how much Hayden looked like his father. They both had that handsome, sophisticated look about them that stars in the movies always had.
“Maybe you could spend the night over at my house tomorrow,” Emmaline said as we walked.
“Yeah, then we could listen to the radio show together,” I said.
“And we could finally go shopping. We could get new dresses to wear to the Winter Ball. It’s only a week away and we’ve never been to one before. It even falls on your birthday this year!”
“But most people go with a date, and if you don’t have one you have to sit around and wait for someone you don’t know to ask you to dance. Then you have to figure out what to say to him. And what if no one even asks you?” The whole thing just sounded scary.
“You worry too much. We don’t have to stay for that part. We could just go to see the Christmas show they put on in the beginning and then leave. It would be fun to dress up and do our hair to go to a ball.”
We walked through the door onto the porch and went to sit at the big, round glass top table in the back corner. A vase filled with thin branches, each dotted with purple or blue berries, had been placed in the center of it.
“Actually, Alexandra, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” Hayden said as he pulled my chair out for me. He did the same for Emmaline. “Maybe you would consider going with me. I would have asked you last year, but we were out of town.”
I stared at him in surprise. “You’re asking me to a dance?”
“Yes, I’ve always hoped I would be able to take you to your first dance.”
My mind was spinning. Was he asking me to go as his date? Of course he was. But that would leave Emmaline alone. And things were uncertain with Mason. I wasn’t sure what I was to him since he’d never actually said. Then a thought came to me. What if he asked me to go with him? What if I was able to go to Chicago’s famous Winter Ball with Mason? Maybe Hayden could go with Emmaline instead.
“Thank you for inviting me, Hayden, but could I think about it?” I asked him, hoping I wouldn’t hurt his feelings.
“Sure.”
“Here you are,” Hayden’s mother said in her singsong voice as she carried a tray with three glasses of milk on it to our table. We thanked her before she went back to the kitchen.
We ate a few more cookies and began working on the arithmetic problems we had been assigned. We spent a good two hours doing homework together. I had the most to do, so Hayden and Emmaline spent part of that time helping me with mine.
My mind wandered to the ball a few times. I imagined the fun Emmaline and I would have shopping for a dress, and Mason holding me close as we danced together all night long. I decided to try and bring the ball up to him somehow. Hopefully he would ask me to be his date.
When we were all finished, I started pulling my books together and stacking them up. “Thank you for helping me. I still need to read that book, Handel Horror, for Mr. Web, so I should probably go,” I said.
“I’ll walk you both home.” Hayden stood up, leaving his books behind.
“Just give me a second,” Emmaline said as she got her books together.
We said good-bye to Hayden’s mother on the way out and then walked quickly toward Emmaline’s house. The snow from earlier that day hadn’t stuck, but it felt like it was much colder outside than it was when we left school.
“So you’re spending the night tomorrow, then?” Emmaline asked when we reached her house.
“Definitely.”
Hayden and I waved to her and then continued walking.
“I’m curious, why do you need to think about going to the dance with me?” Hayden asked as we turned the corner. “I thought yo
u would have accepted.”
I cringed inside. “You kind of surprised me, and I was thinking how Emmaline would be going all alone if I went with you. She sounded like she was really excited about it.”
“But no one’s asked you yet?”
“No.”
“So it’s not because of Mason?”
It felt like answering honestly would have been mean. “I don’t know.”
I could feel him staring at me in the silent moment that followed, but I refused to look over at him. “You just met him and we’ve been together for years,” he said.
I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that. “I know.”
“Okay, well why doesn’t Emmaline come with us?”
“She wouldn’t come if you and I were going together.”
“Then why don’t we all go together, as friends?” I shook my head. “It sounds like you’ve already made up your mind,” Hayden said.
“Not exactly.”
We reached my front porch and Hayden turned to face me. “Well…let me know when you decide. And call me if you need anything.”
“I will. Thank you, Hayden.”
He put on one of his forced smiles as he turned to leave.