Pride & Princesses (33 page)

     
Brooke kept her glasses on and her tops buttoned but upped the smile factor and her nice girl ways also seemed to be working. You had to give her credit for having her own mind – for once.
 

    
Strangely, the ways of the Princesses did seem to, shall we say, be bearing fruit and Mark and Jet and the rest of the football team had never been so popular...’

    
My new entry took longer than expected. I had to write about meeting Mark in the park and also add the other news I’d heard via various Princesses. The diary was a good way of telling Mouche about the horrendous fact I’d discovered:
Mark had actively stopped Jet from dating her.
 
I tapped my pink-feathered pencil on my desk. I knew Mouche wouldn’t be back from the shelter before 3pm, so I had most of the afternoon to finish my essay. Then, I remembered something else I needed to add to the diary.
‘It seems the streets aren’t safe from either Knightly’s (Mark’s sister was yesterday seen visiting a clothing store with her aunt, according to a text from Ella) or Princesses (Teegan’s older sister –Missy, the casting assistant – was earlier in the day seen breakfasting with our florist, Tim, who is totally a closet case according to Mouche).

    
 
Suddenly, I thought about Joel. As it turned out, Joel had emailed me twice.

    
‘He’s
practically obsessive
,’ Mouche noted.

    
We added these emails to the chapter titled,
letters
and to the one where Joel apologizes for abruptly leaving and twice asks me,
can you come to New York?
(I emailed him to say –
maybe next year)
so I think that might have put him off but there is no way I’m quitting the play to be with some guy offering no more than a transient weekend – who did he think I was?

     
Boy-rating was starting to make me analytical, and occasionally a little bit angry, not an emotion I’d previously allowed myself to express.
Mrs Robinson’s
guide would have something to say about that: i.e.
stay contained
...) In
The Good Girlfriend
guide it says, ‘
never write love letters...make sure your date writes the love letter.’
We are modifying the rules to include incidental notes and emails as love letters! So, although Joel was forgiven for running off after kissing me (very passionately) I realized Joel was not exactly the stable boyfriend material the
Boy Rating Diary
craved. At least dating and rating a variety of boys had taught us to be highly selective.
 

   
‘And let’s face it,’ Mouche said, ‘people (i.e. Princesses) are only too happy to see you paired up with the most inappropriate males (for example, Martin’s son).’

   
I am holding in my hand
notes of the dates thus far (prior to consolidation
). I’m reading them during my quick lunch break. The notes are lying on my desk along with some of the more recent ones in Mouche’s drawer. I’m just about to get to them:

Here are some more juicy details about the dates that occurred this past week:

Mouche Macintosh:

    
The game has expanded. Mark is interested in Phoebe. I am interested in dating Mark (for the ultimate United Nations experience) and Phoebe says, ‘go for it.’ So, I don’t think she’s really interested. She says ‘strong and silent’ isn’t as hot as it’s supposed to be. We went for brunch. Phoebe said, in the interests of the game, she didn’t object.

   
The date was okay but no real fireworks or anything. Mark spent the whole time asking me about Phoebe and I think they suit one another. The Princesses are throwing themselves at all the boys on our list. The guys seem to be strangely bettering themselves though. Maybe they’re not so dorky after all. And in the interests of sharing, I have thrown Jet into the ring. He even took Teegan flowers! Maybe our original rules were flawed.

   
Could it be that the Princesses have discovered that showing enthusiasm is not a bad thing? Are we all learning from the fake truce and really beginning to be nice to each other? Could it be possible that we are making like friends for real this time? And is this for the greater good, not just for our dating game, but the good of teenage society?
   

   
Teegan, Tory, Brooke and Freya have each had one date a piece. They are added to the FAKE diary but the fake diary has become REAL; The two diaries have merged – we are beginning to trust the Princesses! I’ll let them do the talking in their own words (they also added more identifying factors) So, here is what you’ve all been waiting for: A list of the dates so far:

Date: Teegan and Jet

Place: Breakfast @ Sunrise Puppy School (since I have a new Chow
Chow
puppy and Jet offered to help train him!)

At first, all Jet could do was talk about Mouche and how she won’t talk to him. I followed every rule in the list, and he was surprisingly responsive. I wore the very cool cardigan fashion, loosely buttoned but with a demure polka dot scarf because his eyes nearly popped out when I went up to him before rehearsal and said, ‘hi, Jet...I’ve often wondered why we’ve never dated...’

    
‘Huh?’ he said. Then he kind of laughed as if his friends might be listening.

     
The dogs liked him a lot which is a good sign.

     
I took a pro-active stance as per The Guide.

 
Items gained:
a pair of gloves. It was slightly windy and Jet insisted on buying me the fine woollen gloves I admired at the Sunrise General Store on the way home.

 
Kisses gleaned:
one (on the hand) when my new puppy was let loose and dragged off his leash. I made a yelping cry and insisted Jet kiss my wrist better.

Rating:
9/10 (Jet loses a point for being already taken. I think Mouche holds firmly in her manicured fingers, a place in his heart.)

Tory and Jack Adams

Identifying factors
: home cinema

Alcohol consumption:
none, drinks diet soda

Job and personality:
high school junior, film obsessive

Kisses
: one, on screen, between the actors; I put my arm around him and he had to rush out of the room as I whispered, ‘I hear you like to make…adult movies.’

Items gained directly:
a copy of La Dolce Vita

love letters?
he’s promised to send me an email of his top ten list of all time great action films

Possibility of re-date:
maybe, if I can find an ancient copy of Solaris. The good stuff; we are all thinking of starting a Sunrise Movie Club which has to be a pro-active venture.

Rating: 6/10

lost 4 points for luring me into his ‘studio’ when I thought he wanted an interview for a reality TV show and to make out; but what he really wanted was to show me some old 1960’s French film he’s mad about. Jack seems to be quite the romantic at heart.
    

Brooke and Tom Allen

Identifying factors:
high school senior, obsessed with investing his money; where he gets that from is a mystery

Alcohol consumption:
none, but Tom raided his father’s study looking for hidden bottles and spent half an hour trying to locate his father’s misplaced Financial Review

Job and personality:
high school mathlete and economics major. This was the most boring date of all time, plus contrary to the ‘dot point list’, Tom has the makings of a bad value system. Is he reformable?

Kisses:
one, but loses points because I had to initiate it; I know! The boy rating diary has encouraged me to be far more adventurous than I normally would have been on a first date.

Items gained
: another sweater - his mother offered it to me when it got chilly (ah, I believe that was cashmere, girls; project success!) and he told me not to bother bringing it back (does that mean she didn’t like me? ) Ah dahrrr, Teegan (who was way jealous and trying not to show it) wrote.

Mouche edited this section with an interjection, ‘you should donate to the homeless charity, Brooke. We have way too many sweaters now...’

Items gained directly:
monetary advice, ‘priceless’ according to Tom’s dad. Love letters? Doodles on the back of a drink coaster with love hearts and hugs: ‘Does this count as a love letter?’

Possibility of re-date:
not sure, Tom doesn’t invest time in high school relationships that won’t go anywhere. Besides, his mother wants him to marry, ‘a descendant of the Vanderbilt’s...’ but, learning about the NASDAQ wasn’t as dull as I expected and we did hold hands watching the financial news.

Rating:
6/10 – room for improvement

Freya and Peter Williamson
–local production of Guys and Dolls, Peter was more interested in taking notes on the choreography than practising it with me over ice-cream at the Sunrise Diner. Ten for effort. He was dressed in shoes with lights and tiny wheels on the soles of them, so he could roll down the pavement like a ten year old. Everyone stared as he moon walked past.

Rating
:6/10 for exuberance and the fact he didn’t seem to care what anyone thought about him.

To be continued...

Chapter 20

The Lake House