Pride & Popularity (16 page)

I found out our school held morp in January so all of the proceeds could go toward prom in April. Traditionally, the guy a girl asks to morp is the guy she is secretly hoping will ask her to prom. So imagine my complete and utter surprise when a desperate Taylor barged into art class one Friday and asked me to help him find a girl to take him to morp.

“I need help,” he said desperately. “Will you help me get a date to morp, please?”

His eyes were almost aquamarine today.
Why is it guys usually have the prettiest eyes?
I tried to make sense of what I had heard. “Let me get this straight. You need someone to ask you to morp?”

“Yes, immediately! Will you help me?”

You need help finding a date to morp? You?
“But why?”

Taylor sat in the chair next to me. “Because of Sydney Ellis.”

“Sydney?” She was probably one of the rudest cheerleaders I had ever known. Where Kylie would at least fake like she liked you, Sydney was your typical movie “mean girl.” “What about her?” I asked.

Taylor collapsed forward on the table and buried his face in his hands. “She’s just asked me to morp. I don’t know what to do. I haven’t answered her yet, thanks to her perfect timing. She asked right as the bell rang. But I’ll see her next hour and she’ll be expecting my answer then. I need someone else to ask me now, so I can tell her that I’m already taken. I really don’t want to go with her.”

No, you really don’t.
“Let me make sure I understand. You, Taylor Anderson, need help finding a date ASAP to morp, correct?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

“Yes, but it’s so unexpected I wanted to make sure I heard you correctly.”

“So you can help?”

“Well, yeah. I can help you find someone. Now let’s see, there’s a whole room full of girls. Just choose one. Anyone.”

“Really?” Taylor sat up.

“Yes, really. As a matter of fact, I could get any girl in the school to take you. Who would you love to go with more than anyone else? I’ll ask her. Then, bingo, she’s yours.”

“I don’t think she wants to go with me.”

I rolled my eyes as I stood up. “Please, Taylor.” Then it hit me just as I was about to walk away to get my art supplies ready. “Oh! You mean Kylie?”

“What? Kylie? No.” He pushed himself up and followed me over to the shelves.

“Oh?” I shrugged. “So who is she?” I reached up and pulled out Taylor’s scratchboard, then my own.

He walked over to the sink and collected the scratch-art knives we needed. “I don’t want to say,” he responded once we sat down. He looked a bit embarrassed.

I sighed in frustration. “O–kay. You know, this whole Sydney thing could’ve been avoided if you had just picked another girlfriend by now. I mean seriously, it’s been a month, hasn’t it?”

“Five and a half weeks,” Taylor grumbled.

“See? That creates too much talk. You need a girlfriend. You’ve never gone that long without one. If you already had one, Sydney wouldn’t have asked you.”

Taylor shook his head. “I’d rather not have a girlfriend right now. I really would just like to have a girl ask me to morp.”

I caught the incredulous look that passed between Madison and Alyssa as they slipped into their chairs.
Yeah, they’re probably really shocked right now. Kind of like I was about three minutes ago.

“Okay,” I tried again, “how about Emma? She would love to go with you.”

“No.”

I found one syllable answers could annoy me. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to lead her on, you know?”

“Look, Taylor, what do you want from me? I’m trying to help you, okay?”

“I just don’t want to go with Emma, all right?”

“So you already have a girl in mind, right? And you don’t want to have just any girl ask you? You’re only going to settle for this particular one?”

“Yes.” He looked relieved.

“Great. Then who is it? I’m one hundred percent positive she’ll say yes.”

“I’m positive she won’t want to go with me.” He looked like a child whose Christmas gift had been stolen.

“Are we back to that again?” I exclaimed. “Sheez! Of course, she will want to go with you. Don’t worry, I’ll ask her. Believe me. She’ll be all ecstatic and tell all of her friends. And—what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Taylor’s eyes really were the prettiest blue I had ever seen.

“Who are you taking to Morp?” he asked.

“Ah—I don’t know yet. Someone who can dance,” I hesitantly replied.

“Dance?”

“I don’t mean like perfect or anything, but definitely not afraid to move.”

“Why?”

“I love to dance. And if I’m spending money to take a guy to this thing, I want to know I’m going to have fun.”

“Oh.” Looking pensive, Taylor turned away. He glanced over at Madison and Alyssa and commented on their art work.

For a moment I just stared off into space as I debated his problem. “Hey, how about this!” I beamed. “It’s perfect. I will ask you to morp. Then you can say you were asked.”

“I—I can?” he stammered as his face lit up.

“Sure, with no strings attached. It’s great! Then we can both go with who we really want.”

His face fell. “I can’t do that.”

“Why?”
You are seriously beginning to bug me.

“B–because it would be a lie,” he answered. “I want to be asked for real. I don’t want to lie.”

“Well, sheez. If you don’t tell me who this girl is and you won’t let me just kind of pretend to ask you, then what in the world are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I need help.”

More than you realize.
“Taylor, I would love to help you, but I can’t if all we’re going to do is go round and round with this.”

His gaze caught mine, and he took a breath that seemed almost nervous. “Chloe, I just want the girl to ask me for real.”

I froze for a moment as I tried to decipher that gaze. And then it was like a light bulb exploded in my head.
Oh my gosh. He wants
me
to ask him. Me? How could I have been so dense? He can’t be serious, can he? I can’t. I’m not going to do it. No way. I can’t even stand the guy. There is no way I can put up with him for a whole evening. I’d rather go out with Collin. He’ll have to find someone else.
Silently, I turned away from Taylor and started to work on my art project.

“You have to ask Taylor,” Alyssa said. Her steps were hard put to keep up with mine as I rushed out of the art room after the bell rang. I was so intent on leaving as quickly as possible, I was surprised that Madison and Alyssa had caught up with me.

“Yes,” Madison said. “Any fool could see he wanted
you
to ask him to morp.”

“Are you sure? I mean, we all realize the significance of this dance. Maybe he hasn’t thought it through properly.”
There is no way he likes me.

“Are you kidding me? Taylor has had five and a half weeks to think it through.”

“Come on, you have to help him,” Alyssa pleaded.

“He did help you with Mr. Young,” Madison pointed out.

“Okay, yeah. But, that was forever ago.” I shook my head.

“What about when he came to our party and was really funny and nice to everyone?” Madison tried again.

“And he paid for your dinner with Collin,” Alyssa said.

“And he broke up with what’s-her-name for you!”

“Anne,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, well, he did,” Madison said.

I had begun to cave. “But I can’t stand Taylor. He’s rude.”

“When?” Alyssa challenged.

“Well, to Blake,” I said.

Obviously, Madison wasn’t impressed. “Where’s Blake now?”

“Uh—”
Okay, so I can’t fight that one.

“Just ask him,” Alyssa practically begged. “The guy is desperate. I don’t know how many guys would’ve gone to the lengths he’s has to try and convince you to like him.”

“Put him out of his misery, please. It’s just a dance.” Now Madison sounded like she was begging as well. “You really don’t want to make him go to morp with Sydney, do you? No guy should ever have to do that.”

Yeah, but this is Taylor we’re talking about. He probably deserves it.
“Are you really, really sure he’s not trying to get back at me somehow?”

“No!” both girls almost hollered at me as we stopped in front of Mr. Young’s class.

Nothing like being put on the spot.
With a groan, I gave in. “Fine. Who sees him next?” I asked.

Madison said, “He’s in Ms. Solomon’s with me.”

Alyssa ripped a sheet of notebook paper out of her binder, then handed me the sheet along with a glitter pen.

“Write,” she commanded.

After a second of hesitation I wrote:

I was worried about putting the heart down. I didn’t want Taylor to get any more ideas. But we had run out of time. And since I always drew a heart instead of writing “Hart,” I figured it didn’t matter.

“I’ll make sure Taylor gets this.” Alyssa smiled. “Okay.” I watched as she sealed my fate and put the note in her pocket. The bell rang. By the time I had walked into my English class Madison, and Alyssa were gone.

I knew Taylor had gotten the note when he hollered from across the crowded hall after school, “Thank you, Copper Top!”

I could’ve died of embarrassment when everyone turned to look at me. Since it was Friday, it was a real good thing I wouldn’t have to face anyone at school for three more days.

Later that night, Alyssa and Madison tormented me relentlessly. But all in all, they were really happy for me. By Sunday, I still hadn’t told my parents. The only one of my family members who knew was Cassidy. I had hoped to talk to Taylor on Monday to go over details before I told anyone we were going together.

If I was completely honest with myself, I was surprised at how much I looked forward to morp—more than I thought I would. I was pretty darned excited about it, which was how I found myself as I practically ran to art class Monday morning: excited. I couldn’t wait to see what Taylor thought of my ideas. But I didn’t count on one small thing. I
wanted
to plan for morp, but I couldn’t. Taylor wasn’t there.

After roll call, Ms. Bailey made an announcement. “Taylor Anderson will no longer be in our art class.”

Maddi and Alyssa looked shocked too. By the gasps around the room, I realized we weren’t the only ones who were surprised.

“He has transferred out of this class due to a schedule change,” Ms. B. explained. “He will be attending art at another hour.”

What? Why didn’t he say anything? That’s not like Taylor at all. You would think he would’ve had us all plan a farewell party in his honor. Didn’t he know it was going to happen? Is this something last minute?
And then an idea popped into my head.
Did he transfer because of me?