Chapter Eight — Sandra

Sandra paced across Gracie’s bedroom with her two best friends sitting on the edge of the bed, watching, obviously amused. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” She ran a hand through her long hair. There weren’t any tangles, but the repetitive motion made her feel better.

Gracie raised her hand, like she was in a classroom. “Do you mean the part where you went insane and decided that to ‘stick it to the man’ you were going to stop going to school? Or the part where you are returning to the school you dropped out of so you can go to a dance with the principal’s son?”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Sandra shook her head in frustration. “The fact that Blair is Principal Howell’s son has nothing to do with why I’m going to the dance. I’m—” Her voice broke off. She had nearly admitted out loud that she really liked Blair. That he was the one who occupied her thoughts when she woke up, and the one who kept her up at night when she was trying to sleep.

But she couldn’t say any of that.

It would make it real, and there was no way something between her and Blair would ever work. There were too many barriers.

“You like him,” Amanda sang, a grin on her face. She looked way too happy, bouncing up and down on Gracie’s bed.

“No, I don’t,” Sandra said, though her voice didn’t hold much conviction.

Gracie’s grin matched Amanda’s. “Ooh, you really like him. This just got so much better.”

Sandra groaned and buried her face in her hands. “What am I going to do?”

“Buy a dress, that’s what,” Amanda said.

Another groan escaped Sandra as she resumed her pacing across the room. “The dance is only a week away and I can’t come up with the money for a dress before then.”

“Borrow one of ours,” Gracie said, jumping off the bed and walking toward her closet. “I’ve kept all mine.” She shoved aside a bunch of shirts and pants that blocked the dresses that hung in the back. With a quick glance and a calculating eye, she pulled out a few and laid them out on the bed. “These are the ones I think would go best with your eyes. A couple of them were my mom’s when she was our age, so they’re a bit retro, but they’d look amazing on you.”

Sandra blinked a couple of times, not sure if she was ready to try on dresses quite yet. She had just been asked to the dance a couple of hours before. But she was short on time, and anything Gracie had in her closet would be more Sandra’s style than what she would find in Amanda’s. No offense to Amanda, but her style was a bit more…trendy…than what Sandra was comfortable with.

“All right. Let’s see what you got.”

Sandra knew Gracie’s dresses would be more eccentric, but she immediately counted out anything that would peg Sandra as either a gypsy or an artist, or both. Gracie growled in frustration when Sandra rejected the fourth dress in a row without having tried any of them on.

“How am I supposed to help you?” Gracie asked, throwing the dress down on the bed. “You would look amazing in any of these, and you won’t even give them a chance?” She held up the last one she’d pulled from the closet, but frowned, like she expected Sandra to reject that one too.

Except, Sandra didn’t.

Even on the hanger, she knew this was the one. It wasn’t her usual style, and yet it was absolutely perfect. She grabbed the dress from Gracie’s hand and took it into the bathroom. Once she’d changed, she came out and stood in front of the full-length mirror on the back of Gracie’s bedroom door.

Sandra’s breath caught.

She looked stunning.

The dress was a pale pink with silver flowers embroidered on it. It hit her mid-thigh, and the long sheer balloon sleeves gave it a bohemian vibe that worked for Sandra in all the right ways.

Gracie and Amanda both rushed to her side.

“Oh my gosh…that dress was made for you,” Gracie said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Actually, technically it was made for my mom. This is one of the ones that had been hers.” She released a loud squeal, startling Sandra. “We have to show her.”

Before Sandra could protest, Gracie was dragging Sandra out the door and down the stairs. They found her mom helping Gracie’s younger brother with his homework at the kitchen table.

“Mom, look,” Gracie said as they burst into the room.

Gracie’s mom had the same red curly hair as her daughter, but it was pulled up on top of her head with some of the stray curls brushing her cheeks. She glanced up, and her eyes widened. “Sandra, that dress fits you far better than it ever fit me. You are absolutely gorgeous.” She stood from the table. “I think I still have the earrings that I wore with it.” She bustled from the room in search of them without asking if that was something Sandra would like. When she returned, she held what looked like a pearl bracelet, or maybe a short necklace. “They were right where I thought they’d be.”

Wait, those were earrings? They couldn’t be; they were much too long.

But sure enough, Gracie’s mom held them up, and Sandra saw the hooks that would loop through the ears.

“That’s really nice of you,” Sandra said. “But I couldn’t. You’ve already been kind enough to let me wear your dress—”

“Nonsense,” Gracie’s mom interrupted. “You can’t wear the dress without the earrings.” She handed Sandra the dangling earrings and motioned toward the downstairs bathroom. “Try them on and see what you think.”

Sandra took the earrings, more out of obligation than anything else. She didn’t want to seem rude or ungrateful after everything they were doing for her. As she stood in front of the bathroom mirror, she slid them into her ears. They were longer than any earrings she’d ever worn, and they nearly touched her shoulders.

And they were perfect.

Gracie and Amanda appeared behind her in the mirror, both with stunned expressions.

“You’ve always been pretty,” Amanda said. “But you’ve just taken it to a new level.”

“Earrings don’t have that kind of power,” Sandra said, biting back a smile.

Gracie spun Sandra to face her and then took a step back, looking Sandra up and down. “These ones do.”

Sandra felt her cheeks warm. “You’re my friends. You have to be nice.”

“Oh no we don’t,” Amanda said. “And you know it.”

Yes, Sandra knew it. She and her friends loved each other so much that they didn’t skirt around the truth. If Sandra didn’t look as amazing as they said she did, they wouldn’t have said it.

“Thank you,” she said. She sucked in a quick breath, determined not to show the overwhelming emotions she felt. Sandra didn’t cry in front of people. Ever. And she wasn’t about to start now.

Now, all she had to do was avoid Blair for the next few days. With the way she’d acted when he’d shown up at her house, she couldn’t be trusted around him. She’d probably do something dumb.

Like kiss him or something.

* * * * * *

“Your mom is going to love this,” Sandra’s dad said as he blew wood shavings from the jewelry stand they’d just finished making for her mom’s birthday. They’d been meaning to get to it for several weeks, but as usual, work had gotten in the way. It wasn’t like her dad had a choice, but Sandra missed these weekend afternoons in the garage, working together. He held the stand up for her to see. “Think you can handle the paint job this week? Then we can give it to her when we surprise her with dinner Saturday night.”

It wouldn’t be much of a surprise, considering they ‘surprised’ her with dinner every year on her birthday.

Oh, shoot.

The dance.

“Um…any way we could surprise mom with dinner on Sunday instead?”

Her dad cocked an eyebrow. “Sunday isn’t her birthday.”

“Yeah, I know. But you see, the thing is, the Valentine’s Day dance is on Saturday.”

Sandra’s dad studied her for a moment. “I know it’s your senior year, but there will be other dances you can go to. I’m sure Amanda and Gracie will understand.”

Sandra gave a quick nod, but then realized he might see that as her agreeing to ditch the dance and instead shook her head. “I’m not going with them. I mean, I am, but not just them.”

“You have a date?” His mouth quirked up in what looked like a mixture of surprise and delight. “You’ve never gone to a dance with a boy before.”

Way to rub it in.

He must have seen the annoyance she felt because he quickly followed it up with, “Not that you couldn’t have. You just never seemed interested.”

There was some truth to that. But all the boys at school were so lame.

Except Blair.

Too bad she hadn’t realized it earlier.

“Do you think mom will be disappointed?” Sandra asked, rubbing her arms. She had stayed warm in the cool garage as they had worked on the jewelry stand, but now that they were finished, the chill was settling in.

“Not at all. She’ll be thrilled.”

Sandra was relieved seeing the grin her dad wore. Too often his features were strained with the stress of keeping up with work, and it was nice to see him genuinely happy for her.

It also made the guilt about the past week explode to the surface.

She knew she needed to tell them about what had been happening at school. They would be more hurt if they heard about the situation from Principal Howell than if Sandra explained her side of the story first.

“Dad, there’s something else I need to tell you.”

He watched her expectantly. When she didn’t say anything for a moment, he didn’t rush her, but waited patiently. Sandra had always appreciated that about him.

“I haven’t been going to school this past week.”

Rather than look surprised, her dad nodded. He didn’t say anything, expecting her to continue.

“You see, I’ve been studying really hard and turning in all of my assignments and doing really well. I’ve completely blown through everyone’s expectations for me.”

Her dad nodded again. “That’s always been one of your greatest strengths—you’re not a quitter.”

His words pierced her, and she read between the lines. She’d never been a quitter…until now.

Sandra’s words spilled out. “But see, last week I had a physics test and I did totally awesome. I knew every single answer and finished before anyone else in the class. But Mr. Lindley doesn’t like us bringing up our test when we’re finished because he thinks it makes the other students feel rushed, like they’re not going fast enough. So I was waiting for everyone to finish, but I was really tired and fell asleep. Just my luck, he thought I was looking at this other girl’s test.”

“He thought you were cheating.”

“Yeah,” Sandra said, grateful for her dad. He had always been easy to talk to. “But when I tried telling my side of the story to Principal Howell, she didn’t believe me and gave me an F on the test.”

She stopped and watched for her dad’s reaction to this terrible news, but he was still watching and listening. Curse his patience. He should be up in arms, defending his daughter’s honor.

Sandra must not have explained it clearly enough. “Principal Howell threatened me, Dad. She said if I ever cheated again, it wouldn’t just be an F I would receive on my next test.”

Her dad still stayed silent, studying Sandra. This time she decided to try his tactic. It was his turn to say something, and she’d wait until he did.

It was another minute until he leaned back against his workbench and folded his arms. “And this led to your decision to stop going to school, is that right?”

Good, he understood.

“Yup.”

His gaze was soft, but intense at the same time. “Did it ever occur to you that you’re the only one who is being hurt by choosing to handle it this way?”

His words made Sandra feel queasy; he wasn’t on her side.

“I’ll still graduate.” Probably. She needed to do the math, but she was pretty sure. “Plus, now I can spend my time on other things. Like college applications. The university’s distance education here has a library science program—”

“You’re missing the point,” her dad interrupted.

“Which was what, to let people walk all over me?” Sandra paused. Something wasn’t adding up. “Why weren’t you angry, or at least surprised, to learn that I was no longer going to school?” Come to think of it, her dad had barely shown any emotion at all. The realization of what that meant made her wish she had a tub of cookie dough. “You knew. You’ve known this whole time.”

Her dad gave a guilty smile. “We talked to Principal Howell several days ago.”

Sandra gaped. No wonder he was taking this so well. “And you didn’t say anything?”

“We were waiting for you to come to us.”

Either they were the coolest parents ever for trusting her that much, or they were insane. Probably a bit of both. But now Sandra felt worse knowing that she hadn’t trusted them enough to tell them what was going on.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

Her dad straightened and placed a hand on Sandra’s shoulder. “I’ll admit it, we’ve been a bit worried about you this week.”

“So why didn’t you say something?” Sandra said, exasperated. “I hated feeling like I was sneaking around behind your back. You could have saved me from all that.”

Her dad grinned, his eyes teasing her. “But then you wouldn’t have learned anything.”

She stuck her tongue out. He was right. She totally deserved the angst she’d felt the past week. Not that she’d ever admit it.

“Yeah, yeah.” Her gaze dropped to her feet. With her toe, she traced a heart in the wood shavings on the floor. “So…are you going to make me go back?”

Her dad was silent, and she eventually looked up at him. He was watching her again in his calm, sometimes infuriating way.

“No. You’re eighteen now. It’s your decision.” His gaze wandered around the garage, eventually pausing on the jewelry stand they’d just made, and then resting back on Sandra. “I know you think you’ll still graduate, even without attending the rest of the year. Because you are old enough, you won’t be in danger of truancy. But I still think it’s a mistake.”

Sandra gave a small nod. “Duly noted.”

Her dad turned to leave, but then stopped and looked back. “Oh, and as long as you’re going to be home by yourself a lot more now, let me remind you about the ‘no boys allowed’ rule.”

Sandra’s cheeks heated up. “Dad, that’s never been a problem.”

“No, but now that you have yourself a hot date to this dance, who knows what could happen?”

Okay, now her cheeks were burning. As in, on fire. She groaned. “Please never say that again.”

Her dad released a laugh that shook his whole body. “Which part?”

“All of it.”

He grinned. “I’m not making any promises.”

Sandra didn’t expect him to, nor did she want him to.

His smile faded. “Now, where to hide this jewelry stand until you can paint it...”

“Don’t worry, I got it.” Sandra took the stand from her dad.

“You know I love you, right?” he asked, his gaze holding hers.

Sandra’s lips pulled up into a half-smile. “Of course. And right back at ya.”

“Your mom too.”

“I know, Dad.” She gave him a side hug with her free hand before going inside the house. She checked to make sure the coast was clear before sneaking the jewelry stand up to her room.

Her heart felt light and free, now that she was no longer sneaking behind her parents’ backs. And her dad had been right. She’d learned something important about herself.

Sandra had hated the sick feeling she’d had every morning, watching her mom pull out of the driveway. Despite what others thought of her, Sandra was not meant for a dishonest life. Her conscience wouldn’t stand for it.

She was not a liar. She wasn’t a cheater. And she didn’t know how, but she was going to prove it.