A flawless long program.
The camera pans across the celebrating crowd. It cuts to her family. The Bell parents are hugging and laughing and crying. And beside them, Calliope’s crazy-haired twin is whooping at the top of his lungs. My heart sings. The camera returns to Calliope, who hollers and fist-pumps the air.
No! Go back to her brother!
The commentators laugh. “Exquisite,” the man says. “Her positions, her extensions. There’s no one like Calliope Bell when she’s on fire.”
“Yes, but will this be enough to overcome her disastrous short program?”
“Well, the curse remains,” he replies. “She couldn’t pull off two clean programs, but talk about redemption. Calliope can hold her head high. This was the best performance of her career.”
She puts on her skate guards and walks to the kiss-and-cry, the appropriately nicknamed area where scores are announced. People are throwing flowers and teddy bears, and she high-fives several people’s hands. Petro puts his arm around her shoulders, and they laugh happily and nervously as they wait for her scores.
They’re announced, and Calliope’s eyes grow as large as saucers.
Calliope Bell is in second place.
And she’s ecstatic to be there.
Chapter thirty-three
The wig comes on, and I’m . . . almost happy.
There’s something wrong with my reflection.
It’s not my costume, which would make Marie Antoinette proud. The pale blue gown is girly and outrageous and gigantic. There are skirts and overskirts, ribbons and trim, beads and lace. The bodice is lovely, and the stays fit snugly underneath, giving me a flattering figure—the correct body parts are either more slender or more round. My neck is draped in a crystalline necklace like diamonds, and my ears in shimmery earrings like chandeliers. I sparkle with reflected light.
Is it the makeup?
I’m wearing white face powder, red blush, and clear red lip gloss. Marie Antoinette didn’t have mascara, so I felt compelled to cheat there. I’ve brushed on quite a bit over a pair of false eyelashes. My gaze travels upward. The white wig towers at two feet tall, and it’s adorned with blue ribbons and pink roses and pink feathers and a single blue songbird. It’s beautiful. A work of art. I spent a really long time making it.
And . . . it’s not right.
“I don’t see me,” I say. “I’m gone.”
Andy is unlacing my buckled platform combat boots, preparing to help me step inside of them. He gestures in a wide circle. “What do you mean? ALL I can see is you.”
“No.” I swallow. “There’s too much Marie, not enough Lola.”
His brow furrows. “I thought that was the point.”
“I thought so, too, but . . . I’m lost. I’m hidden. I look like a Halloween costume.”
“When don’t you look like a Halloween costume?”
“Dad! I’m serious.” My panic rapidly intensifies. “I can’t go to the dance like this, it’s too much. Way too much.”
“Honey,” he shouts to Nathan. “You’d better get in here. Lola is using new words.”
Nathan appears in my doorway, and he grins when he sees me.
“Our daughter said”—Andy pauses for dramatic effect—“it’s too much.”
They burst into laughter.
“IT’S NOT FUNNY.” And then I gasp. My stays crush my rib cage, making the outburst labored and painful.
“Whoa.” Nathan is suddenly beside me, his hand on my back. “Breathe. Breathe.”
I was already nervous about going to the dance and seeing my classmates. At least I won’t be alone—I’m meeting Lindsey and Charlie there—but I can’t go like this. It’d be humiliating. I need Lindsey here; she’d take control. But she’s in the middle of a murder-mystery dinner party, and Charlie has wagered a month of school lunches that he’ll solve the mystery before she does. It’s important to Lindsey that she wins.
“Phone,” I pant. “Give me my phone.”
Andy hands it to me, and I dial Cricket instead. I’m sent directly to his voice mail, like I have been all afternoon. He called this morning to make sure I was going to the dance, but we haven’t talked since. I keep fantasizing that we can’t get in touch because he’s on an airplane, planning to surprise me by magically appearing at my school during the first slow song, but it’s most likely a snowstorm wreaking havoc with his connection. Tonight is the Exhibition of Champions, and Calliope is performing in it. He has to be there.
But tomorrow . . . he’ll be home.
The thought temporarily calms me. And then I see my reflection again, and I realize that tomorrow helps nothing about tonight.
“O-kaaaay.” Andy pries the phone from my death grip. “We need a plan.”
“I have a plan.” I tear at the pins holding the wig to my head. “I’ll take it apart. I’ll do a modern reinterpretation of it in my own hair.” I’m flinging the pins to the floor like darts, and my parents step back nervously.
“That sounds . . .” Nathan says.
“Complicated,” Andy says.
I rip off the wig and throw it onto my desk.
“Are you sure you want to—” Nathan’s words die as I wrench the pink roses from the wig. Half of them tear, and Andy clamps a hand over his mouth. The songbird is yanked off next. “It’s fine,” I say. “I’ll put them in my own hair, it’ll be fine.” I push the rest of the wig to the floor, look up, and cry out. My hair is matted and tangled, bushy and flattened. It’s every bad thing that can happen to someone’s head, all at once.
Andy gingerly removes another stray pin as I try to tug a brush through the disaster. “Careful!” he says.
“I’M BEING CAREFUL.” The brush snags in my hair, and I explode into tears.
Andy spins around to Nathan. “Who do we call? Who do we know who does hair?”
“I don’t know!” Nathan looks blindsided. “That queen with the big order last week?”
“No, she’d be working. What about Luis?”
“You hate Luis. What about—”
“I’ll wear the wig! I’ll just wear the wig, forget it!” I feel my black mascara trailing through my white face powder as I trip backward, and my right foot lands on the wig. The chicken wire structure underneath it smashes flat.