Gilbert and Louis Rule the Universe: First Impressions (23 page)

“What?”
Rowan really looks
bewildered
.

“Hideous.”
Maddy
never minces words.

“Ladies, our mission here is clear.”
I say, and I wink at
Maddy
.

“Rowan, come with me.”
Maddy
takes Rowan upstairs to restyle her.
We all bound out of our chairs to follow.

When we get to
Maddy’s
room she says, “Rowan, you are a pretty girl.
You just need to…”
She is searching for the words.

“Show off the goods!”
Riley shouts. We all laugh.

Rowan blushes.

“Are you okay with this?”
I say to Rowan.
She nods her head enthusiastically.

“Well then, let’s get started.”
Maddy
says.

“Alex, hair and make-up,”
Maddy
orders.
Gilbert mock salutes her and goes to the bathroom to grab a hair brush and make-up supplies.

“Leah, go in my closet and start pulling out outfits.”

“Riley, I will need you to pick out some jewelry and shoes.”
Maddy
is shouting out demands and we are executing them to the best of our ability.
I run into the closet and start pulling cute sweaters and tops.

“Just throw them out here,”
Maddy
yells.
Out fly items of clothing until there is a pile on
Maddy’s
bedroom floor.
Then one by one,
Maddy
picks up the clothes and holds them in front of Rowan.
“Yes. No. Maybe,”
Maddy
says and throws each item into their different piles.

Gilbert grabs a brush and pulls out Rowan’s ponytail.
Her beautiful chestnut hair flows down around her shoulders. “Much better,” Gilbert says.
Then she goes over to
Maddy’s
dresser and picks up the make-up she has gathered.
A little light blush, some mascara and lip gloss.
She doesn't want to overdo it, I mean, come on, we are only in seventh grade.

Maddy
makes Rowan step out of her baggy corduroys and step into some snugger jeans.
She holds up a plushy sweater with soft pink and white stripes.

“This is it,”
Maddy
says.

Riley hands Rowan some cute brown boots.
They are a little big, so Rowan puts on an extra pair of athletic socks.
What we won’t do for fashion.

Gilbert takes a look at her and at the last minute throws a pink headband in her hair.

We all step back.

“So, what do you think?” Rowan asks.

“Wow,” is all I can say.
She looks super pretty.
This is a whole new Rowan.

“You look awesome.” Riley says.

“Gorgeous,” Gilbert comments.

Maddy
looks smug.
“Damn, I am good.” She says and we all laugh.
Maddy
opens her closet door wide to let Rowan see herself in the
full-length
mirror.

I get nervous for a second.
I don’t want Rowan to think the way she looks has anything to do with how we feel about her.
I mean she looks great in these new clot
hes, but it is just
superficial
.
She will always be our friend no matter what.
I have all these thoughts but don’t have any way to express them, so I am relieved when Rowan says, “I look great!”

Surprised by her own outburst, she gives us a shy smile and you can tell she is stoked on her new look.
Whew!

“Let’s go, girls!”
Maddy’s
mom calls from downstairs. With the new Rowan in tow, we all run to the car.

*   *  
*

We walk into the party together.
Sophie’s house is super nice.
It has this huge entryway with stairs going up both sides to the top floor.
Right in the middle of the entryway was a large table full of enormous boxes with fancy wrappings.
There are so many presents some people began to pile theirs on the floor.
The five of us had gone in on an iTunes gift card for her so we slip our meager little offering between a beautifully wrapped box from Bloomingdale’s and a huge box from Toys ’r’ Us.
The living room is done up with white, black, and pink streamers and balloons.
There are flowers everywhere and an enormous cake shaped like a shoe box with pink high heels on top.
The back patio is covered with a black and white checkered dance floor and there is a DJ spinning tunes next to the pool.
Floating lights bob in the pool.

For my birthday, Gilbert and I went to the Olive Garden with my dad.
The waiters sang to me.

We head over to the buffet table.
You can count on these kinds of events to be full of good eats, and we are definitely the kind of girls who hang out close to the food.
The table is covered with mini grilled cheese sandwiches, sushi rolls, chips and pretzels, cut veggies with fancy dips, cookies and cupcakes.
Yum.

I pick up a mini grilled cheese and survey the room.
Sophie is there with the Super Six.
They are all totally ignoring the other guests and seem to be vying for attention from the cute DJ.
I think he is a local high school student.
Melinda is seated on the couch with some of her friends petting Sophie’s cat.
Some of the boys in our grade are outside sliding across the dance floor in their socks.
As I pick up my second mini grilled cheese I see Jimmy walk through the door.
He sees Rowan and lights up.
He walks over to us.

“Hi,” he says to her.
He looks at her and his face kind of
squinches
up like he is thinking about something really hard.
“You look different.”

Rowan looks nervous.
“Different, bad?”
Rowan asks and starts to play with her hair.

I go into full panic.
Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no.

“No, good.
You look….”
He is searching for the right word.
“Pretty.”

Whew.
Jimmy really is a sweet guy.

He finally took his eyes off of her and looked at the rest of us. “Oh, hi.”

“Hey, Jimmy,” we answer.
“What did you bring her?” Riley asks, gesturing towards the present he was holding in his hand.
You can tell he wrapped it himself.
It is an odd shape and there seems to be more tape on it than there is wrapping paper, and the paper has Chanukah menorahs on it.

“I got her a model of the Hubble space telescope because I once overheard her say she likes stars.”

I am sure that she meant movie stars, but whatever, that is still pretty thoughtful.
“Great gift idea,” I say.
Jimmy looked at me to see if I am being serious.
I really am and I give him a smile.
He smiles back.

“Let me show you where to put it,” Rowan says, and they walked off hand in hand.

After they leave we go back to grazing over the food table.
I pick up a sushi roll and eye it suspiciously.
Just as I am about to put it into my mouth
Maddy
says,
“Hey Riley, Winston’s here.”

Riley is right in the middle of taking a bite of a red velvet cupcake, and she turns to look.
Sure enough there is Winston talking to someone in the corner. His back is to us and he is blocking our view of his companion.
Winston takes a step back and we can now see the person he is standing with is a girl.
In fact, they are talking suspiciously close.
The girl is petite and blonde; she isn’t in our grade so she must be one of Sophie’s sister’s friends.
Sophie’s sister is a year older.
We see Winston pick up a strand of the girl’s hair and gently tug on it.
What the…?

Riley puts the half eaten cupcake back on the tray and starts to head over.
She looks pissed.
Gilbert,
Maddy
and I look at each other.
We don’t know what to do so we follow her.
I grab a handful of pretzels on the way.

Riley stomps over to Winston and the girl.
“Um, hi,” Riley says, but it isn’t a friendly hello.
It is more like a hi that says, “What the hell are you doing?” Winston turns and looks to see who is interrupting him.

“Oh, hey, Riley,” Winston says coolly, like Riley is just a girl he knows from school and talking to this new girl was no biggie.
He doesn’t even look embarrassed or sorry.

He turns his back on Riley. “Where was I?” Winston says to the blonde.

Oh, no you didn’t.

This time Riley taps on Winston’s shoulder hard. “Excuse me.”
She says a little too loud.
You can see her clenching her fists.
Rowan and Jimmy are now behind
Gilbert,
Maddy
,
and me.

“What’s going on?” Rowan asks.

“
Shhh
,” I say and nod over towards Winston and Riley.
Rowan looks just as Winston turns to face Riley again, clearly annoyed.

“Winston, can we talk?” Riley says through gritted teeth.

“In a minute,”
Winston says and turns around again.

Riley, and really all of us, are floored.
She looks to us and we look back at her. None of us are sure what to do or say.
Out of shock, Riley starts to walk back towards us.
But then I can see her eyes narrow.
Riley isn’t the kind of girl to back down from a fight. Dealing with four brothers and sisters, Riley is used to being in conflicts for many different reasons.
Like, one time when she was little, her older brother stole her Barbie doll and Riley kicked him so hard in the you-know-
whats
that he had to stay home from school for two days.
She turns on her heel and walks right back over to Winston.