Parallel Parking
Authors: Natalie Standiford
Copyright © 2006 by Parachute Publishing, L.L.C. All right reserved.
First eBook Edition: October 2009
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and
not intended by the author.
Cover photos from top left,
© PhotoAlto/Veer, © Digital Vision/Veer, © PhotoAlto/Veer,
© Ryan McVay/Getty Images, © Stockbyte/Getty Images,
© Stockbyte/Getty Images, © Katrina Wittkamp/Getty Images.
ISBN: 978-0-316-08903-6
For John, Jim, Sam, Willard,
and Dad, who taught me to drive a stick shift.
Contents
4 Look Out, We’re All Going to Die
Autumn in the Spring
To: hollygolitely
From: your daily horoscope
HERE IS TODAY’S HOROSCOPE: CAPRICORN: Open your mouth and close your eyes, and you will get a big surprise….
W
elcome! Happy birthday to me!” Autumn squealed.
“Happy Sweet Sixteen, Autumn,” Holly Anderson said, dodging a balloon.
Autumn Nelson had transformed the ballroom of the Carlton Bay Country Club into a shrine to herself. A rock band was setting
up on a stage in the back of the room while a DJ spun tunes in a corner. Also onstage were two giant blown-up photos of the
glory that was Autumn, past
and present: a baby picture and a recent glamour shot, with full makeup and long brown hair blown back by a fan. Each table
was adorned with a large photo of Autumn at a different age.
“Let’s see…” Autumn led Holly and her two best friends, Lina Ozu and Madison Markowitz, to their assigned seats. “You’re
all together at table six—which you can recognize by this adorable picture of me at age six, missing my front teeth. Is that
not the cutest?”
Holly looked at the picture and shuddered. Hair in braids, nose covered with freckles, mouth gaping wide to show off the missing
teeth, Autumn looked like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz… as a vampire.
Two thin, lanky boys, Walker Moore and Stephen Costello, joined them at the table. Walker, with spiky brown hair and an easygoing
smile, was Lina’s boyfriend. Stephen, pale and serious, was Mads’.
“This party wins ‘Most Self-Indulgent Sweet Sixteen of the Year,’” Stephen said. “So far.”
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Holly said. “Lina and Mads turn sixteen this summer.”
“This bash will be hard to top,” Walker said. He lay the giant photo of Autumn, age six, facedown on the table. “I can’t eat
with that thing staring at me.”
“My parents can’t afford anything like this,” Mads said.
“And mine would rather die than be so splashy,” Lina said.
Autumn climbed up onto the stage and took over the mike. “Hi, everybody! Thanks for coming to my party. Please sit at your
assigned table, and don’t switch around! I hate it when people do that. The band had this great idea, where every guest can
come up and sing a song dedicated to me, if you feel like it. They can play practically any request, so don’t be shy! And
don’t try to slip out into the parking lot to sneak smokes or drinks, because Chloe will be out there for half the party—my
dad’s trying to get her to cut down on smoking, so she has to do it behind his back. And if she sees you, she’ll probably
tell on you, because that’s the kind of person she is. Just thought I’d warn you. More later!”
She left the stage. Holly glanced at Autumn’s father and his girlfriend, Chloe. Chloe, red-faced, yammered something into
Mr. Nelson’s ear. He put an arm around Chloe, trying to comfort her. Autumn regularly ranted about her in her blog, Nuclear
Autumn.
The band played a rocked-out version of “Autumn in New York.” They were already pushing the Autumn theme a little hard. Stephen
and Mads danced. Holly, Lina, and Walker drank ginger ales and ate crab balls and shrimp cocktail. The sixth person assigned
to their table was
Holly’s locker neighbor, Sebastiano Altman-Peck.
“I’m going up there,” Sebastiano said. “I’ve got a special song I want to sing to the birthday girl.”
“What is it?” Holly asked.
“You’ll see.” Sebastiano got up on stage and spoke to the band’s lead guitarist. “Okay, Autumn,” he said, taking the microphone.
“This is for you. Happy birthday!”
The band burst into “American Idiot.” Sebastiano belted it out. Holly looked to see if Autumn was offended, but she laughed
and took it as a joke.
“Sebastiano’s pretty good,” Lina said.
Mads tugged on Stephen’s sleeve. “Let’s go up and sing a duet. How about, ‘You’re the One That I Want’?”
“Uh, nah.” Stephen looked uncomfortable. “You go up and sing. You don’t need me.”
“Sure, I do,” Mads said. “Come on.”
Stephen shook his head.
“Why not, Stephen?” Holly said. “You can’t be any worse than Ingrid, and she’s up next.”
“I can’t sing in front of people,” Stephen said. “It’s physically painful for me.”
“Really?” Holly said. “Physically painful?”
He nodded. “Please don’t try to make me, because I won’t.”
“I’ll let you off the hook this time,” Mads said. “But
you can’t stay this way the rest of your life. Singing is fun!” She stood up. “I think I’ll do something from
Grease,”
she said.
Up on the stage Ingrid finished singing “And I Love You So.” A tall, lean guy with shaggy blond hair took her place at the
mike. He wore a tie knotted over a T-shirt, punk rock style, and black sunglasses. A hush fell over the room. It was Sean
Benedetto.
Mads sat down. “I’ll sing later,” she said.
Mads, as Holly knew, had a wicked crush on Sean. Stephen or no Stephen.
Sean sang an old Aerosmith song, “Dream On.” His voice wasn’t that great, but his stage presence was stunning. Unlike most
of the other kids, he had no self-consciousness whatsoever. He sang full throttle but held back just enough to maintain a
sense of mystery, to leave the listeners wondering what was on his mind. He rocked his hips, keeping the mike close to his
lips. The girls in the audience swooned and screamed as if he were a real rock star. And Holly had to admit, watching him
onstage, that he could be a rock star.
She’d always considered Sean a little silly and kind of full of himself. She never quite got why Mads was so obsessed with
him. But now, seeing him sing, she had an inkling. She couldn’t help swooning a little bit herself.
She glanced at Mads, who looked as if she were in a trance. Her shining eyes followed Sean’s every thrust and spin. Holly
felt sorry for Stephen, who sat beside Mads, good-naturedly bopping along with the song. Every once in a while he looked at
Mads, who seemed to have forgotten he existed. Then he looked away, as if he wanted to pretend that whatever it was he saw
in her face wasn’t there.
Sean left the stage and was immediately mobbed by girls. Holly didn’t see his girlfriend, Jane Cotham, among them. In fact,
Jane wasn’t anywhere in the room.
The band took a break, the DJ came on duty, and Mads pulled Stephen onto the dance floor as if nothing had happened. Maybe
that was why Stephen was so cool about Mads’ obvious crush on Sean. Either he didn’t notice it, or he did, but realized that
it didn’t affect her feelings for him or get in the way of their relationship. It was like a movie star crush, totally unrealistic.
Holly danced with Sebastiano, which made her thirsty, so she went to the bar for a glass of water. Sean came up beside her
and ordered a beer, which the bartender refused to give him. Sean took it in stride and changed his order to Red Bull.
“Want to step outside for a smoke?” Sean asked Holly. “That chick Chloe is busy choking down shrimp, so the coast is clear.”
“I don’t smoke,” Holly said.
“Me neither,” Sean said. “At least, not very often. But I feel like stepping outside anyway.”
Holly shrugged. “Okay. Some fresh air would be nice.”
Sean pushed open a door marked EMERGENCY EXIT. Holly braced herself for the blare of a fire alarm, but it didn’t come. They
found themselves in the club parking lot, surrounded by fancy cars.
“So where’s your girlfriend?” Holly asked.
“We broke up,” Sean said. “It was getting to be a real drag, you know?”
“Who dumped who?” Holly asked. She knew it was none of her business, but something about Sean made her bold—and she was pretty
bold to start with.
“Hey, who do you think you’re talking to?” Sean asked.
Holly just grinned and shrugged.
“All right, she dumped me,” Sean said. “Don’t tell anybody.”
Holly laughed. “I won’t. Why did she dump you?”
“Who knows? She said it was because I was too young for her. That didn’t bother her two months ago. I think she likes some
other dude. That’s cool. It happens. Good luck, whatever.”
Holly remembered Mads telling her that she’d seen Jane kiss another guy more than once. So Sean’s theory was probably right.
Her heart went out to him. Jane must have hurt him, but he was trying to cover it up.
“Is that your Bug?” Sean nodded at Holly’s yellow Volkswagen Beetle across the parking lot.
“Yeah,” Holly said. “How did you know?”
“I’ve seen it around school. And it’s got a Rosewood parking sticker on it. And you look like the Bug type.”
“Really? What type is that?”
“Usually a girl,” Sean said. “They go for those ‘cute’ cars in pretty colors. But also kind of funky and not stuck on status
and all that bull. Plus there’s that built-in vase with the flower on the dashboard. That’s pretty femme.”
“Somebody stole my flower,” Holly said. “I loved that purple daisy.”
“Really? That’s not cool.”
“I made the mistake of leaving my car unlocked at school,” Holly said. “I didn’t know an RSAGEr would stoop so low.”
“Now you know,” Sean said. “They’re just as wack as anybody else. Now me, I drive a Jeep. Black.” He pointed to it. “What
do you think that says about me?”
“Definitely masculine,” Holly said. “Simple, functional, yet fun. Ready for action. Up for anything.”
“That’s me,” Sean said. “On the nose.” He tapped his nose, then hers. His fingertip was warm and fleshy. “Did you see what
Autumn’s dad gave her for her birthday?”
“How could I miss it?” Autumn’s birthday present was parked in the club driveway—a BMW convertible with a big red bow on top.
“What do you think that says about her? Or her dad?”
“That he’s got money and he wants everybody to know it,” Sean said. “And he’d rather give Autumn stuff than pay attention
to her. Not that I don’t sympathize. The girl can talk forever, and maybe one percent of what she says is interesting.”
Holly laughed again.
“And if Autumn likes her ride, it says she’s a showoff and likes attention,” Sean said.
“Which we already knew,” Holly said.
“Sure, but now other people will know it, too,” Sean said. “I’m really into cars. Maybe you can tell. I think they’re like
a language. Someone should make up a philosophy or something, like, The Benedetto Theory of Cars, where the whole world is
described in car terms. I think I’d get the Nobel Prize.”
“Or at least a People’s Choice Award,” Holly said.
“Go ahead, make fun of me. I can handle anything you throw my way.”
“I believe it,” Holly said.
“Had enough fresh air?” he asked.
“We should probably go back inside,” Holly said.
He reached out to open the emergency exit door, but it was locked from the inside. “Guess we’ve got to go around to the front,”
he said to Holly.
When they returned to the ballroom, everyone was dancing. Sean led her to the dance floor.
“Come on, let’s see how a VW driver moves,” he said.
They danced for one song, and then dinner was served. Holly went back to her table.
“Dancing with Sean—how’d that happen?” Lina whispered to her.
“Did Mads notice?” Holly asked.
“She was in the bathroom with me,” Lina said. “I walked back in here first, saw you two on the dance floor, and turned Mads
around, saying she had crab in her teeth.”
Holly thought it was a little silly that Mads had to be protected from seeing her dance with Sean. It was just a dance. It
didn’t mean anything.