Silent Singer

Chapter 4: The Big Apple

Everly

"When are you gonna stop being mad at me?"

"Hmm...Maybe when you get me some pineapple and strawberries on a stick."

"Done!" She said handing me a platter of assorted foods in record-breaking time. I had never seen a human move faster than that in my whole life.

"Still not forgiven," I said with a sly look.

"Ugghhhh!" She grunted out.

"But I'll at least talk to you."

"Yay!!!"

"We will be arriving in New York in 5 minutes," the airplane's overhead speaker blared.

"Aren't you guys just so excited!" A girl named Hannah who was also our roommate, asked.

"Um yeah, sure," I replied.

__________

Mia, Hannah, and I were all set up in our hotel room by 6:00 p.m. so we decided to go downstairs and get something to eat from the night food bar.

"Yum! Doesn't this steak look delicious Everly?" Mia asked with delight.

"Sure does, let me get in on this!" I said. I'd had steak once before for New Year's at Mia's house, and I loved it.

With a plate full of steak, potatoes, cherry desserts, and fruit I went back upstairs to eat, but as I was about to walk in I heard Hannah and Mia secretly whispering.

"I'm worried...The ball is in two days! And we don't have any dresses! And Everly doesn't have the money to get one... I feel bad."

"Hey, we can get them early morning Friday, and, well...My family has quite a bit of money...I could buy her one."

"Really? But I know how Everly is, she would never let someone buy something that expensive for her."

"Oh really now? What if we made her give us something back in return?"

"I like the way you think," Mia said with a devilish grin exposing her pearly white teeth.

Aww, I couldn't believe Mia and Hannah were being so nice! But I was kind of worried about what they wanted...

"Hey guys...I'm back!" I said walking into the room.

"Oh hey, Everly! Mia and I were just um...Talking about your interest in music! Yeah, that's it..."

___________

We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. Even though it was a lot chillier in New York than Arizona, it was still a very comfortable temperature.

"Which one are you guys going to?" Hannah asked flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Well, Mia and I are going to the art program, though I never really liked drawing."

"I can still only draw stick figures, but I can draw blueprints very well. Anyways, I'm going for architecture. My parent's own 6 huge hotels around the world, and I inherit the businesses. My twin brother is 5 minutes younger than me, so I get it, and I'm going to see how much the guide actually knows about architecture," she said smirking.

"Wow. I never knew that about you. My father owns 3 restaurants, but he and my mother are getting divorced, so I never learned about business running and that kind of stuff. But I do know about art."

"Mia is an amazing artist. She won so many art fairs I lost count."

"It's true. I've been drawing since I was two," she said with a shy smile.

We heard a knock on our door telling us we were leaving in 20 minutes, so we got our purses and headed out of the hotel.

_________

We finished our classes at about 7:30 so we decided to put our swimsuits on and go down to the pool. My swimsuit was blue with a outline that had a huge curve in the center exposing my sides. Mia's top was a red halter-neck that had X's down her chest. And Hannah's top was strapless and white with wavy fabric over it.

When we walked in everyone was staring at, whom I thought was Hannah and Mia, but then I heard someone call out.

"Hey, green-eyed baby! Why don't 'cha come over here?"

"M-me?" I stammered; I should have known they were talking about me. I had green eyes, Mia gray, and Hannah blue.

"Yeah baby, let me show you a good time," the blonde guy said with a wink.

"How about you piss off!"

"Yeah ya pervert!"

"Aww, you guys are no fun! See you next time babe," he said winking again then leaving with his hound dogs.

"Ugh, what jerks."

"Man. I feel like I've seen him before, somewhere... Oh I know! He's a Calvin Klein model! His name's Jake Rossphel. I wonder what he's doing here."

"Model or not. He's still a jerk."

"Maybe he's here for the masquerade ball?"

"Ohhh good idea Everly."

"Can we stop talking about guys and go swim?" Mia asked looking at the pool like a lost puppy.

"Sure." I laughed.

_______

Hannah and I were woken up early the next morning by Mia banging two pots together.

"What the fu-"

"WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!! THE BALL IS TONIGHT WE NEED TO GO GET- HPRPJFNDKDNJG," she yelled as I smacked a hand over her mouth.

"Mia shut up. I'm pretty sure everyone across the state can hear you."

"Alright now that I got your attention, hurry up and get dressed. We have to go shopping before all the dresses are sold out! I knew we should have bought them ages ago. I told you, Everly!"

"Hey don't blame it on me!"

"Okay, guys. Mia's right. We really should get going."

"Ugh okay, what time is it?"

"5:30..." Mia mumbled.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I NEED MY BEAUTY SLEEP!" Hannah screamed throwing a pillow blindly at Mia.

"Oh boy, this was gonna be a long day."