A Formal Affair by Veronica Chambers Page A

caffeine.
    She rejoined the SoBees and took a checklist out of her oversize hobo bag. “We have a ton of work to do—”
    â€œMy thought exactly,” Dorinda said, taking the checklist away from Carmen and using it as a coaster for her latte. “First things first, though. Who are we going to support for queen?”
    April looked up from her brand-new hot pink iPad and gave her friend a “duh” look. “Is there any question? Carolina. She’s pretty. She’s smart. She’s stylish. And she’s our friend.”
    Maya nodded. “I couldn’t agree more. I met Shakira once at the radio station, and she looks a little bit like her. Carolina is right out of the C.G. handbook. She’s the definition of ‘queen.’”
    Carmen, unaware that there was such a thing as a C.G. handbook, made a mental note to check it out. She moved Dorinda’s coffee and retrieved her checklist. “You guys, can we focus? There are about a hundred things to do on this list, and we’re only weeks away from the big event. I know I’m new at this, but it seems like we’ve got a lot more important things to discuss than who’s going to be queen.”
    Dorinda, Maya, and April exchanged glances, then burst out laughing. Then Dorinda reached over and patted Carmen’s arm, as though soothing a crying baby. “Silly, the whole point of the winter formal is to elect the queen. We have to make sure the queen is as wonderful as the dance.”
    Carmen could barely suppress a groan. These girls were nuts. “I thought the whole point of the winter formal was to create a magical evening that our classmates will never forget.”
    Dorinda placed her fingers, in the shape of a W , on her forehead. “Whatever. They’ll never forget the winter formal, because it’s when we crown the queen.”
    Carmen took a deep breath. This was going nowhere. And even though Carmen was now as invested as the SoBees were in her candidate’s becoming winter formal queen, she knew from all her experience planning quinces how much work and coordination it took to plan for such a big event. The crowning was only one small piece of the puzzle.
    But if all the SoBees cared about was the contest and the girl who wore the crown, then, fine. She would whip them into shape by speaking their language and would couch all of her requests in terms of the way it affected the crowning of the queen.
    â€œ O-o-o-o -kay, Dorinda,” Carmen crooned, in the calmest voice she could summon. “And do you care at all about what kind of decorations are on the wall or what kind of food is served when the queen is crowned?”
    Dorinda shrugged. “Hmmm. Let me think about that.…Not really.”
    Okay, so maybe there was no common language. Carmen was at her wit’s end. “Well, who do you think is going to pull all of this together?” she asked, jumping to her feet and waving the checklist in the air.
    â€œYou,” Dorinda replied, almost sweetly. “That’s why Ms. Ingber assigned you to be the project manager. She knew that you were the perfect person to get the job done. We always find a super-duper workabee to pull all the party details together for us.”
    Dorinda stood up and threw her coffee cup into the trash. “Meeting’s over.”
    April looked at her watch and grimaced. “OMG! We’re late. It’s the Last Call sale at Neiman Marcus, and there is a pair of sixty percent–off stilettos with my name on it.” She turned to Carmen briefly to add, “But good job on being so organized.”
    Maya stood up as well, and she and April tossed their coffee cups into the trash with basketball player– like precision.
    â€œI love you for being such a kick-ass project manager,” Maya said insincerely before giving Carmen a never-touch-the-skin air-kiss.
    â€œThat checklist is genius ,” Dorinda added.
    And