Some Kind of Wonderful (13 page)

Chapter 22

PARTY IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

W
ait, Flan,
seriously}
You had a
boyfriend
this whole week?"

Camille and I were on the phone late on Sunday night. Even though I knew breaking up with Adam was the right thing to do,
I was still feeling pretty bummed about it, so I texted Camille around eleven.

BOY TROUBLE. YOU AWAKE?

She called me back immediately, and when I started to tell her the story about my conversation with Adam, she busted out laughing.

"I'm sorry, it's so not funny. I totally want to be here for you right now. Share your pain with me . . . it's just, I mean
. . . you never brought him up
once
the whole trip! And we even talked about boys!"

"It's not funny," I protested. "Okay, it kind of is." Soon, I was laughing, too. "The fact that you never even knew about
him, and you and I spent every second together for the past few days, is clearly a sign that I just wasn't that into the relationship."

"Who knew you were so coy? And here I thought you were totally into Rob. He told TZ he thought you were 'breathtaking.' So
poetic."

"Oh, God," I said. "Not even."

"He's probably writing girly songs about you this minute."

I sighed. I was still feeling sad and couldn't help but wonder what Adam was doing this minute.

Camille picked up on my pause. "Hey," she said. "I know you're going to be okay, Flan."

"Yeah. I think I just need a break from having a boyfriend for a while," I said.

"I hear you. There are way too many guys for us to have fun with on this island to be tied down right now."

"Sign me up," I said. "When does the fun begin?"

"When's your last final?" she asked.

"Friday morning."

"Me too."

"Okay," I said. "Friday night. My house. Big party."

And this time, when Camille said she'd be there with bells on, I knew that this party would be a vast, vast improvement over
the bomb of a party I'd thrown in Nevis.

When I hung up the phone, I heard a knock on my door.

"Flan," my mother said. "What are you doing still awake?"

As I went through the whole story about Adam with my mom, she rubbed my back the way she used to when I was a little girl
and couldn't sleep. It never failed to make me feel better about everything from a failed test to a sprained ankle to a lost
Tiffany's charm bracelet.

She smiled at me. "You're growing up. And what you did tonight was a very mature thing to do. This is a time of a lot of changes
for you, Flan, and I think you're handling yourself just beautifully."

"Thanks, Mom."

"I know something else that will make you feel better," she said. "I had brunch with the dean of Thoney this morning. Everything
is all squared away for you to enroll in the spring. You're good to go . . .
if
you decide that's what you want."

As all the ups and downs of the past week flew through my mind, I suddenly realized that a lot of the ups had to do with things
at Thoney, and a lot of the downs were things I could leave behind at Stuy. At first, I'd been so reluctant, because I didn't
want to feel like I was quitting. But now, I didn't feel like that at all. I just felt like I had a much better understanding
of what it was that was going to make me happy.

I smiled at my mom. "I'm glad I gave Stuy a try this fall. But Thoney is starting to seem like a better fit."

"Phew"
my mother said. "And I thought I was going to have to bust out all my old yearbooks to convince you of all that Thoney has
to offer."

I laughed.

"I think we need to celebrate," my mom said. "What would you say to a big old-fashioned family party here on Friday night?
Would that put a cramp in your social schedule?"

Sometimes my mom is so awesome—and so clairvoyant.

"I think I could fit it in," I said, laughing.

As the week went by, it became clear that there were a lot more things to celebrate than just my decision about school. For
one thing, as Camille reminded me, I was single and fabulous. And I had already completed four of my finals and aced them—even
Algebra, which could have been my downfall. On top of that, Patch finally got around to opening his Princeton letter, and
(surprise surprise) he got accepted early. Emerald Wilcox had been sleeping in our guest room all week—she and Feb were planning
on redecorating the house—and her half birthday was coming up on Friday. And, as if all that weren't enough, my father had
just closed the deal on the massive bungalow my parents had stayed in while we were in Nevis.

A huge bash was definitely in order.

Emerald and Feb had taken it upon themselves to organize and execute the Half Birthday/ Congratulations/Good Luck/Nevis Forever
party of the century. Originally, my mom had hired Harrison & Shriftman to plan the party, but when Emerald and Feb produced
resumes to show her their mounds of event-planning experience, she had to agree to hire them.

To their credit, they did put in a lot of hours to ensure that the party would be a success. But all week, our kitchen looked
like a war zone. I decided to hole myself up in my room to escape it and to cram for my last two finals, so I could enter
Thoney with a respectable high school transcript.

During study breaks, when I'd wander down into the kitchen for some mac and cheese and Fresca, I had to weed through all sorts
of floor plans and light fixtures and even a giant box of glittering Judith Leiber pinatas just to find my way to the fridge.

By Friday night, my house was totally decked out. Emerald and Feb had organized each different fete in a different room of
the house and given each one a different thematic seasonal twist.

For Patch, the future college freshman, they'd decked out the living room with autumnal Back to School decor.

For Emerald's half birthday party, the kitchen was in full springtime bloom—a shout-out to her real birthday in May.

My parents' new property acquisition in Nevis was a Summer Lovin' theme in the greenhouse on our roof (partially to keep the
adults' party separate from the kids' party down below).

And last but not least, I was given winter, for the season when I'd be entering Thoney. Emerald and Feb had set up heat lamps
along our back patio and strung twinkling white Christmas lights all over the place. Feb helped me pick out a sparkling silver
slip dress and apply matching eye shadow to my lids. A giant diamond snowflake pifiata hung overhead.

Everything was perfect. I sat down on one of the silver swings Emerald had strung from the trees in the yard. I could hear
the various parties inside beginning to buzz, but so far none of my friends had shown up. I pumped my legs lightly and began
to swing. I was thinking about whether I felt really grown-up right now or very much like a kid. As the baby of the family,
it was no new feeling to be the youngest at the party, but the last few weeks had been such a time of transition and growing
up that I also felt really mature.

So much had changed. I no longer felt like I needed to have Adam to fall back on—or any guy for that matter. Kennedy Pearson
was a threat to me no more. I'd finally come to terms with the fact that there was no sense in forcing a best friendship with
Meredith and Judith, when it was mostly making all three of us miserable. And perhaps most surprisingly, I wasn't at all paranoid
that no one wrould come to my party tonight. I'd lived through party throwing hell once already this week, and here I was.
I'd survived.

Just after eight o'clock, my first guest stepped out into the yard: Camille. She was wearing a black halter dress, and her
long, long dirty blond hair was swept to the side in a loose braid. When she stepped out into our backyard, her jaw dropped.

"Whoa! Hello, Snow Queen," she said.

"Welcome to the Winter Wonderland," I said, standing up to give her a kiss.

"This party rocks . . . but I'm a little confused," she said. "I just narrowly avoided being forced into a keg stand by Patch
in your foyer. And why was Emerald blowing out candles on only half of a cake?"

I laughed. "Feb was the mastermind behind this shindig."

"Say no more," Camille said, picking up a bubble wand that blew bubbles in the shape of snowflakes. "So what are we celebrating
this season? Your singleness and fabulosity, I'm guessing?"

I paused when I realized I still hadn't told Camille that I'd signed the final paperwork to enroll at Thoney this morning.

I pointed to the ice sculpture in the middle of the garden, which Feb had had engraved with BYE BYE STUY, OLE THONEY.

Camille looked over at me with a huge grin on her face.

"You decided?"

"I decided!" I yelled, matching the expression on her face.

The next thing I knew, Camille had slung herself around me, and we were spinning in a circle around the backyard.

"This is the best news I've heard since I found out Pinkberry was coming to the city!"

We laughed and hugged some more.

"So, this is where the party is!"

I turned around to find TZ coming down the steps. He was decked out in a Ferragamo sweater and was accompanied by a nicely
dressed crew of guys— including Danny, whom I almost didn't recognize because his muscles were covered up by a sweater; Rob,
who I almost didn't recognize without his guitar looped over his shoulder; and Alex Altfest, who I definitely
did
recognize, especially when he gave me a tight squeeze and whispered in my ear, "I was wondering when you'd invite me to one
of your famous parties."

I wanted to do something cute and coy like wink at him or give him a witty comeback, but all I managed to do was turn beet-red
and say, "I'm glad you're here."

When I'd recovered from my blushing incident with Alex, I turned around and realized, to my pleasant surprise, that the entire
yard had filled up with my friends.

"Flan's coming to Thoney! Flan's coming to Thoney!" Camille shouted to anyone who would listen. She was practically doing
cartwheels as she raced around the party to tell every single person she could find.

"Good news travels fast,"TZ said. "Looks like you have a lot to look forward to."

"If your social life at Thoney is anything like this party, I would say you do," Rob agreed.

I looked around the party that had formed around me and thought about how right everything had felt about my decision to switch
schools. I'd invited both Meredith and Judith to come tonight, but both of them had already left town for Christmas break.
I wasn't exactly sure what the future would hold for the three of us—there might not be any more Boy Circles in our near future,
but I knew that I would definitely make an effort to keep in touch. Maybe having a little bit of space would be a good thing
for our threesome.

But for now, I could just kick back and revel in the fact that the music was pumping, the lighting was perfect, and everyone
was laughing and having an awesome time. I had to hand it to Feb and Emerald; this party put my Nevis party to shame.

"Having fun?" Feb said, coming up from behind me.

I put my arm around her, and we looked out at the revelers below. "Thank you so much, Feb. I'm having an awesome time."

"Don't thank me. I just bossed some people around and hit the clearance aisle at pinatas.com."

"Yeah, but my last party was nowhere near as—•"

"Don't be so modest, Flan. This party's awesome because you have a ton of friends who want to celebrate with you." She squeezed
my hand. "Don't ever tell Emerald I said this," she said. "But some of her guests have been spotted sneaking out here. Apparently
the vibe is just a lot more chill."

"Obviously," I laughed. "It
is
winter."

"Yeah, right," she said, giving me a wink. "You know it's you."

Chapter 23

HOME IS WHERE THE MINI DISCO BALL IS...

T
he
next day, SBB called me early in the morning. The crew had just finished wrapping up the
Bonnie
and Clyde
set, and she was flying back from Texas.

"First things first," she said. "I must stop by to check in on my steamer trunk. I've been such a neglectful mother."

When we left Nevis, I'd had her trunk shipped back in cargo, and it had been sitting in my dad's parking spot in the covered
garage across the street ever since. Talking on the phone with Sara-Beth, I could look out our library window and see the
massive thing sitting like sunken treasure in between two Beamers.

A couple of our neighbors were circling it, probably wondering whether they were seeing things— just like I'd been wondering
when I first saw it come off the plane on the beach. Now I noticed that my neighbor's two twin daughters were beginning to
climb up the sides of the trunk as if it were playground equipment. SBB would definitely not like grimy two-year-old handprints
on her precious happy place.

"Um, why don't you swing by my place on your way back from the airport?" I suggested.

When SBB arrived at my place, she looked even more energized than normal. She'd had really short bangs cut bluntly across
her forehead and was wearing all black except for her hot pink snow boots.

"How's my baby?" she asked me, plopping down on the leather couch in my living room.

"I'm good, thanks," I said. "But I do wish you'd been in town last night. We had the sweetest—"

"Not you, Flan, sorry," she said. "My happy place. I just want to make sure it's still in one piece."

"Oh," I said, laughing and sitting down next to her. "Yep, it survived the trip. That trunk was a lifesaver, SBB. Thank you
so much for the loan."

"Phew"
she said. "I was a little concerned. I know what you did when you were entrusted with a frog in Bio last month. I didn't want
you releasing my trunk back into the wild."

"No danger of that," I said. But I had to admit, I was a little surprised SBB hadn't asked me about the rest of the trip.
I'd been in pretty rare form the last time she'd seen me.

"What's that face?" she said. "Chin up, frowny, you'll get wrinkles." She put two fingers around the corners of my mouth and
turned my lips up. "What do you think," she said, "that I'm putting my trunk before you?"

"No . . . I don't know . . ."

"Flan,
I knew
you
were fine the rest of the week." She rubbed her hands together conspiratorially. "I had a spy in Nevis."

"What do you mean, you had a spy?" I said.

"Don't you remember Guy?" she said. "You know, the pool guy? I had him report back to me via e-mail every day to discuss how
you were doing. I didn't want to be overbearing and bug you all the time, but I was worried about you. I wanted to make sure
you were okay."

"So you hired the pool guy to spy on me?"

"More or less, yes," she said with a shrug, like this was a completely normal thing to do.

"Wait, were you behind the apology pancakes from Meredith?" I asked. Suddenly, everything that happened on the trip seemed
to have a double SBB meaning.

"Not entirely," she said. "But Guy did tell me that your friend Meredith wanted to spell out her Tm sorry' in parsley on top
of an omelet. That's when I interfered. Obviously I knew you'd prefer chocolate chip pancakes!"

"I can't believe this," I said.

"No biggie. And anyway, when I heard Camille was in town, I was able to lay off a little bit. I knew you'd forget about all
the drama and just have a blast. Rumor has it that girl's got it going on."

"SBB, you're too much," I said, hitting her lightly with a pillow.

"I'll tell you who's too much," she said, fending off my attack. "Jake freaking Riverdale."

"Uh-oh," I said. "Don't tell me he's still being a total micromanaging control freak."

"Um, actually . . . there's some news I should probably spill," she said. "Hold on." She took out her keys. "Let's go get
into my trunk before I dish the whole story."

We walked outside and crossed the street. Once we made it inside the garage, I glanced around to make sure no one else was
there, knowing how crazy we'd look to any of my neighbors if they caught us lounging in a steamer trunk with the disco ball.

But then, my intrigue over the Jake Riverdale story outweighed any anxiety about being taken for a crazy person, so I climbed
in next to SBB.

"Okay," I said. "Spill."

"Well," she said, squirming a little. "JR and I . . . well, we kind of . . . fell in love on the set."

"Excuse me?" I said.

"It's true!" she said, throwing out her arms in a big open shrug. "But don't worry; I already told him I'm keeping my name."

"Oh," I laughed.
"Phew."

She nodded gravely. "Sara-Beth Benny isn't just a name anymore, after all. It's a brand-now, too. Did I tell you I'm starting
my own perfume line?"

"Hold on, back up. Perfume talk in a minute. First, I need to know all the details about you and Jake Riverdale. How did you
get together? When did you two stop drinking the Haterade? What about your hot pilot from Nevis?"

"Oh, Luke's ancient history! And with JR, it was a whirlwind of things. The south was just such a perfect background for a
romance. We'd go line dancing every night and, you know, one thing led to another, and suddenly, we were mugging down. That's
how they say 'making out' in the south."

"You lost me at 'line dancing.'" I said, shaking my head.

"Love makes you do crazy things," she said. "Anyway, it's all so new, and I really don't want to jinx it." Her eyes darted
from side to side. "Or let a single detail leak to the press." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "So, let's change the subject.
Tell me more about your trip. Our darling espionager only picked up on so much, being male and all."

"Okay," I said. "Here goes."

As we settled back against the Murphy Bed, I delved into the whole trajectory of the trip—from good, to bad, to worse, to
borderline agonizing, and then finally to totally awesome.

"Hmm," SBB said when I was all talked out. "This TZ character. Very interesting development. Guy sent me a picture of him
from his cell phone, but it was too blurry for me to make out any good details."

"SBB, I cannot believe your stalking tendencies! I'm surprised at you. And I feel slightly violated."

"Oh, please," she said, shrugging off my surprise with a wave of her hand. "I have paparazzi on me at all hours, and I've
lived to tell the tale. You can handle it for three days. Plus, I only had your best interest at heart."

"Okay, but can this be the last time you hire foreign men to spy on me?" I asked.

"Deal," she nodded. "I'll even make it up to you with brunch. My treat."

I hadn't realized how hungry I was until she mentioned brunch. "Great idea," I said, standing up. "Where should we go?"

"Sit down," she said, giving my shirt a yank. "We'll have it delivered here from EJ's. It'll be like breakfast in bed!"

Thirty minutes and a strange look from the delivery guy later, we spread the food out in front of us. SBB nibbled on her egg
white omelet and stole several large bites of my Belgian waffle.

"So after everything you went through on this trip," she said, "do you feel like you had your happy ending?"

I nodded. "And now I think I'm going to have a happy beginning."

"What do you mean?"

I paused. I knew SBB wouldn't judge me, but I was still getting used to telling people about Thoney. Finally, I swallowed
my waffle and my hesitation and said, "I decided to transfer schools again. Stuy was a good experience, but I guess I am a
private school girl after all."

SBB's eyes lit up. "You know what," she said, "I had a dream the other night that you were going to Thoney and were totally
ruling the school.
Weird."

"Was Zac Efron in it, by any chance?"

"No, Flan, it wasn't
that
kind of dream. Sorry." She laughed.

"So do you think I'm making the right choice?" I asked her.

"Absolutely." She nodded. "After we finished shooting, JR and I took a few days off and went down to Savannah to veg out.
And that was when I realized that falling for him was the right decision. Just like you with school. Sometimes, I think all
you need is a vacation to clear your head and show you what it is you really want."

"Are you equating your desire for JR with my desire to have an easier time in high school?" I said, shaking my head at her.

"Shhh,"
she said, practically covering my mouth with her hand. "I swear I just saw that sleazy tabloid reporter from
AM New York.
We're not supposed to leak the details of our love to the press until a week before the premiere."

"Sorry," I said, even though I was pretty sure that the person she saw was just Mrs. Kelmer, the oldest tenant on our street,
who'd lived in the same brownstone for the last eighty-five years.

"Anyway," SBB said, recomposing herself, "I know you're going to have a better time at Thoney. But I must warn you. High school
is hell wherever you are. I'm sure there will be some haute drama going down there, too. But of course, none that you won't
be able to handle."

"I know, you're right," I said. "I'm not trying to run away from anything difficult. I'm just trying to find the right fit."

"Omigod. Speaking of the right fit," SBB said. "I must take you home with me right now."

"Why's that? Is Jake lounging around in tight-fitting pants?"

"Better! Okay, maybe not better. But I just got a shipment from Zac Posen. His new line is ready and not a single piece in
the collection fits me. Can you believe it? It's torture. I do hate you for being so tall, but I can't stand to see so much
good couture go to waste."

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" I said.

SBB stood up, whisked the remnants of our brunch into a trash bag, and closed the happy place for business.

"You
do
have a first day of school coming up, don't you?" she said. "And let's face it, this
is
Thoney.

You're going to have to look seriously chic if you plan to rule
that
school."

"I don't know about ruling the school," I said. "Let's just aim for being happy there."

"Flan," she said, putting her arm around me and leading me back to her brownstone. "Don't underestimate the clairvoyant power
of my dreams. If I say you're going to rule the school, you're going to rule the school. Now come on—let's see if Zac sent
any extra long pairs of pants!"

I just laughed and followed her inside. I was so lucky to have a best friend who fit me perfectly.