Serial Hottie (17 page)

Knowing how hard it must be for her to be grounded on Saturday night for basically no reason, I felt like I owed it to her to return the favor. Instead of “get lost, loser” I glared at Angela and said, “Whatever.” After all, she’d been right about the clothes. And it’s not like anyone was going to see whatever she did to me tonight. It couldn’t hurt to let her do it just this once, right?

Actually, it hurt quite a bit. As soon as I’d agreed, Angela squealed and dragged me off to her bedroom. There was all kinds of scrubbing and pulling and poking and prodding involved, and then she pulled out these tweezers and went after my eyebrows. I never knew that whole “beauty is pain” thing was literal.

Forty-five minutes after she’d started, Angela declared that the only thing left was to put on the dress she’d gotten me for my birthday. It was a strappy, knee-length sundress thing. “Casual but classy” she’d called it.

I’d never worn a dress before in my life. I told her I wasn’t about to start now, but she insisted, saying that if it didn’t fit me then she would give me the receipt and I could take it back and exchange it for something else.

After I broke down and put the freaking thing on, Angela marched me into her bedroom to look in her full-length mirror. She hadn’t allowed me to see myself before now and I was definitely afraid to look.

It wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. She’d gone really subtle with the hair and make up. I still looked like myself, just a cleaned up version of me. At least that’s what I thought anyway, but when Angela dragged me downstairs to show my parents you’d think she’d transformed me into Julia Roberts or something.

My mom gushed so lavishly I thought she might burst into tears. My dad however, after being quite startled, frowned. “Angela,” he said, with a weary sigh. “Is this really necessary?”

“Dad!” Angela gasped.

And even my mom turned on him this time. “Really, Steve, be nice. She looks beautiful. Ellie, you look fantastic.”

Mom and Angela waited for my dad to agree but he just reached up and rubbed his temples like he suddenly had a massive headache.

Almost as if it were fate letting my dad off the hook, the doorbell chose that precise moment to ring. My mom answered it, and when she called for me my heart gave out. Who could possibly be coming to see me now? For the first time since they’d left, I was really glad the J’s were out of town. If not even my own father could handle seeing me like this, then no way they could. They’d probably disown me.

My mother called for me again, and my dad and Angela went to see who it was, but I didn’t move. The only person that could possibly be standing at my door right now was Seth. Mr. Saturday Night Slasher himself. I was not about to let him see me all cleaned up and pretty like some sort of sacrificial virgin being brought to the alter for slaughter.

“Hey Mr. Westley,” I heard someone say.

I knew the voice instantly and was so surprised to hear it in my house that I forgot all about the dress I was wearing. “Dave?” I asked, coming around the corner into the living room.

My dad had been smiling at Dave as he shook his hand. My dad knows Dave fairly well, since he’s played golf with his dad for years. But when Dave saw me he stopped shaking Dad’s hand and his eyebrows went up. Way up. It made my dad’s frown come back.

Behind Dave were Greg and Sanchez. “
Westley?
” Greg asked, nearly dropping the gum from his mouth, his jaw was hanging so slack.

“Oh, for the love of!” Dad groaned. “Do you see? Do you see what my problem here is Karen? How can you encourage this?”

Suddenly Dad’s stress made perfect sense to all of us. Mom sighed.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked Dave quickly before my mom could say something to Dad about puberty.

“A bunch of us are getting together to watch the UFC prelims,” he replied. He was having trouble staying focused. “You down, or what?” Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and he laughed. “Westley, what
is
that?”

Dave was pointing at my outfit. “Nothing.” I sighed. “I was just taking it off.”

My sister grabbed me before I could stomp up the stairs. “Oh, no you’re not. I just spent forty-five minutes making you look fabulous. You can go just like you are.”

“I’m not showing up to fight night in a
dress
.”

“Nah, it’s cool Westley,” Dave said, holding back laughter. “You look…” He had trouble finding a word. Behind him Greg and Sanchez were still staring at me like I’d grown a third arm. When Dave finally said the word “nice” they snickered.

“So come on,” Dave said. “Let’s go. First round starts in ten.”

“Got room for one more?” Angela asked Dave.

“For Angela Westley?” Dave grinned. “Always.”

I gagged at Dave trying to flirt with my sister and then turned to her. “
You
want to go to
fight night
?”

“I want to do anything that will get me out of the house right now. Plus, I want to see everyone’s reactions to my hard work.”

I looked at my dad. He was still looking very grumpy. “I’m sorry, David,” he said. “My girls aren’t allowed to go out on Saturday nights right now.”

“Oh, yeah, Mr. Westley, I get that whole serial killer thing. That’s why I brought the guys with me.” Greg and Sanchez puffed up their chests when Dave pointed at them—trying to look tough. “There’re three of us. We’ll go straight there, Angela and Ellie will never be alone, and there will be parents home. Then we’ll bring them straight back here after it’s over. I promise I’ll never let them out of my sight.”

Not that I didn’t appreciate the jailbreak, but I was surprised that the guys were willing to make the effort.

Dad shook his head stubbornly. “I don’t think so—”

“Mom!”

Angela threw my mom a desperate look and to my surprise Mom gave her a knowing smile in return. “Steven? May I have a word with you in the office please?”

Oh great. Now Mom’s as bad as Angela with the matchmaking bit.

When my parents were out of the room Dave laughed. “Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said your dad was freaking out over this serial killer thing.”

“Yeah, and you morons really weren’t helping the situation any with all your gawking,” I said. “Drool much?”

For a split second Dave looked startled, but he quickly smirked. “Don’t flatter yourself, Westley. It takes more than a dress to get me excited.”

My parents came back in the room then. Mom looked smug. Dad looked beaten. “There will be adult supervision?” he asked and Dave nodded. “And you’ll go straight there?” Dave nodded again.

Dad held out for a few more seconds even though it was clear he’d already lost the fight. Finally he sighed. “I want you home by midnight,” he told Angela and me. Then he looked at just me and said, “And take your sister’s cell phone with you. I want you to call me every hour.”

As my dad went on with his instructions, I wondered how much of this was because of the serial killer and how much was the dress.

“And you have the pepper spray I got you, right?”

“Steve,” Mom said, finally putting a stop to Dad’s rambling. “They’ll be fine.”

Dave threw his arm over my shoulder. “We’ll take good care of her, Mr. Westley.”

Dad’s frown grew even bigger and he looked at Angela. “This is your doing,” he accused. It was definitely the dress making him upset. “She’s your responsibility.”

Angela understood his meaning as much as I did. “Don’t worry, Dad,” she said, beaming proudly at him. “I know what I’m doing.”

Dad eyed Dave’s arm around me again and grumbled, “It’s not you I’m worried about.”

After my dad stomped out of the room, Dave asked, “What was all that?”

I looked up at him like he was an idiot and shrugged his arm off me.

Angela rolled her eyes and said, “She’s daddy’s little girl. He’s having a hard time adjusting to the new and improved Ellie.”

“He’s not the only one having a
hard
time with it,” Sanchez muttered.

I elbowed him in the stomach as hard as I could on my way out the front door, forcing him to double over. “How’s that for hard? Pervert.”

On the way to the fight, Angela talked Dave into stopping at Rachel’s house. I tried to tell her that Rachel, who was even more popular than Angela, would never agree to go to fight night with a bunch of juniors, but she insisted. Of course Dave wasn’t going to argue if it meant he got to show up with both Angela and Rachel.

When we got to Rachel’s house Angela dragged me out of the car. “What do you need me to come for?”

“Because even if she doesn’t come I still want her to see you. She didn’t think I could make you pretty.”

Angela knocked on the door, waited about two seconds and then let herself in. “Rachel!” she called to a dark house. “We’re here!”

“What do you mean ‘we’re here’?”

That’s when the lights flew on and about a zillion people jumped out yelling “Surprise!”

Surprised does not begin to cover it. It was so unexpected that I didn’t even know what was going on until my sister turned to me with an expectant face saying, “I know you didn’t want a party, but you looked so miserable yesterday, how could I not?”

“You threw me a surprise party?” I asked, still not quite believing it.

“I had to. It’s your sweet sixteen. I couldn’t let it be just dinner and fireworks with your parents. What kind of big sister would I be?”

As the shock faded I whirled around. Dave, Greg, and Sanchez had come in the door behind me and were watching me with rather amused expressions. “You knew about this?” I asked.

“You didn’t tell us it was your birthday,” Dave said, grinning. Greg and Sanchez looked just as proud to have been in on the secret. “Angela found me at the fireworks last night.”

I looked back at Angela, incredulous. “But I didn’t just invite all my friends,” she said, defensively. “See? I had Dave help me get your friends here too.”

I finally looked around the room and sure enough all the guys from the park were there. Even Kowalski. And they all looked very excited to have surprised me for my birthday. It was a little overwhelming. I mean I knew we were friends and all, but a surprise party? And Dave, Greg, and Sanchez going through all that trouble to get me here? I didn’t realize I was so well-liked.

“So?” Angela asked nervously. I think she was afraid I was mad at her. “What do you think?”

I continued to stare at the sea of people smiling at me and felt this strange lump in my throat. “I think this was pretty cool of you Ang,” I admitted. And then, because it felt like we were coming dangerously close to some kind of sister bonding moment, I added, “Except for the part where you tricked me into wearing a freaking dress.”

Everyone burst into laughter. “And that’s why we love Ellie,” Dave said, plopping his hand down on my head and ruffling my hair.

That must have been the signal for the party to begin, because everyone stopped paying attention to me and began mingling. I batted Dave’s hand away from my head and he laughed again. “Happy Birthday, Westley,” he said, and then disappeared into the crowd.

As soon as he was gone I mentally began counting.
Five… Four… Three…

“Oh, my gosh, Ellie, Seth was right about you and Dave! You’re perfect for each other.”

I gave her too much credit. Next time I’d have to start at three.

“Uh, Seth didn’t say we were perfect for each other, he said we were chummy. And, yes, he’s right, we’re
friends
.”

“But you could so be more. I’m sure of it. I don’t even think it would take very much.”

“I thought we were all about Seth,” I argued just for argument’s sake.

“But Ellie you don’t even like Seth, and you’re right, he’s kind of creepy.”

That surprised me. “What makes you say that?”

“I went over there this morning to invite him to the party and found him buried in a pile of books about personality disorders. I asked him if he wanted to help me plan the party and he said he was too busy. When I asked what he was doing he said, ‘Figuring out how to make Ellie fall for me.’”