A Symphony in Shorts

Save Me! [Part 3]

I woke up on the floor of the living room. My side hurt and my hair was soaked to my forehead, but I felt well rested. Turner was relaying the past night to Mom, who had come home late from work, and Dad, who had just stepped into the room from a long sleep in his study (he had fallen asleep while waiting for a call on hold). Surprisingly, Turner never mentioned Zane.

The doorbell rang. "Raizel, Brooke's here!" Mom called. I quickly finger combed my hair and went to the door.

"Raizel!" Brooke yelled.

"Brooke!" We embraced like people that haven't seen each other in eternity. "Where were you after school yesterday?" I felt like a cop interrogating a suspect.

She bit her lip similar to the times when she usually wasn't sure how to answer a question. "I was at Ham's house."

"Oh. Uh . . . what were you doing at Ham's house? Working on another award winning science fair project?" I asked, hopefully. I already had a pretty good idea of what she was doing but I had to know for sure.

"No," she whisper-snapped. She smiled reassuringly at Mom. "I was tutoring him. He's going to get kicked out of the School if he doesn't bring his grades up."

"Oh, thank goodness!" I sighed, placing a hand over my frantically beating heart. Brooke glared at me.

"Anyway," she continued. "I was wondering if you wanted to go to a party at Ham's house tonight. I'll take you if you are at my house by seven." She beamed but it didn't touch her eyes.

"Um . . . I guess I'll go. Is Heather coming?"

Her face scrunched up. "Oh, yeah. I'll talk to her. Definitely. Just remember: my place by seven." And she hurried out the door.

"You're going to a party?" Mom asked. She had been messing with Turner's T-shirt and had heard the entire conversation. She stared at me with nervous eyes. "I thought that maybe we could go to a movie tonight. Maybe we could even go get some ice cream and dinner."

"I know what you are trying to do, mother, but I'm going to the party. But don't worry; I'll be extra careful. No drugs and no alcohol. This is my first party and I'm going to take it easy, okay?"

Mom looked upset so I helped out the rest of the day with the chores. We mostly cleaned up the feathers that sprinkled the ground. When it was an hour 'til seven, I changed and went to Heather's house.

"I don't think you should go to the party," Zane said, matching my pace.

I frowned at him. "I'll be careful. When something bad happens, I'll zip out of there faster than Sonic the Hedgehog."

"What if someone fell off the roof? You'd leave, right?"

"Of course I'd leave, but I doubt that would happen. It's a private school party. The worse that could happen is someone spiking the punch." I shrugged, yet Zane still didn't look convinced.

Once I rang the doorbell to Heather's mansion, he disappeared again. Heather opened the door with a grand flourish of her arms and concluded it with a courtesy. She looked very pretty in her sky blue sun dress. In addition to being an accomplished member of the popular crowd, she was also an honest-to goodness fashinista. She said bye to her parents and joined me on my walk to Brooke's house.

Brooke was standing on her lawn. "You guys ready to go?" We nodded. At this moment, Heather made a courageous move.

"What the heck are you wearing?" she gasped.

Brooke was wearing the shortest shorts I've ever seen and a very revealing shirt. "I'm wearing my party clothes. This is a party we're going to, remember?"