Last Dance by Caroline B. Cooney Page A

She said, “No, really, tell me.”
    Lee hoped for the sake of Westerly High that this girl did not represent the typical I.Q. He walked around her and aimed for Gary. He figured if he could get Gary headed for the terrace, maybe he could get the rest of them.
    Molly was enraged.
    Her expertise was boys. She rarely winked at one who didn’t wink right back, and a smile from Molly always meant a smile from the boy. Who was this kid, anyway? Well, whoever he was, she didn’t like him. He was cute, too. Not very tall, which was too bad, because Molly preferred height in a boy, but very muscular. Like a wrestler. Of all the boys here, he was the one she would most like to see in bathing trunks.
    She thought briefly of shoving him in the pool. Being soaked would take away a little of his snobbery and reveal a little of his body, too. He’d have to peel off that jacket then, wouldn’t he?
    Beth Rose and Gary and Anne and Con were tiptoeing along the narrow stone strip between the geraniums and the deep end of the pool. Kip and Mike Robinson had taken off their shoes and were sitting on the edge, dangling their feet in the water. Two couples were dancing on the cement, to the music from a radio one of them had brought. It was like a separate dance; the popular kids were having their own down there while the ordinary kids were up in the ballroom.
    Molly watched Con. Anne was in front of him, and his hand went to her waist, to guide or to caress, Molly could not tell.
    The purse thing had worked nicely. It took them fifteen minutes to find it, and Con didn’t believe Anne when she claimed she hadn’t put it there. Con was now making an effort to be nice to Anne: an effort which, if Molly knew Con, he could not keep up very long. Con liked things to go smoothly or not at all.
    I know how to handle Con! Molly thought. I deserve Con. He ought to be mine. It’s my waist his hand should be on!
    Anne turned slightly just as she got to the end of the geraniums and faced Con. She pursed her lips as if to kiss him, but Con didn’t lean forward to kiss Anne. He concentrated—or pretended to—on his balance.
    Balance? Molly Nelmes thought. Balance. Or lack of it?
    For the third time the unknown wrestler/waiter ordered everybody away from the pool.
    Molly slid between the two dancing couples and up behind Gary and Beth Rose, Kip and Mike, and Anne and Con.

Chapter 4
    M ATT SLOWED DOWN SLIGHTLY . He didn’t come this way often and he was afraid of missing the turn to Emily’s house. His heart was beating harder, and he was laughing at himself. “What are you, a knight in shining armor?” he teased himself. “You think M&M’s going to be standing in the driveway in her green dress with the silver knots, her arms held out, so you can sweep her away to safety?”
    It was exactly what he was thinking.
    He loved the whole idea.
    He and Emily had saved a life six months before and the afterglow of doing that had stayed with them both a long time. Now the idea of protecting Emily, of being the one she waited for to give her a better life, was another glow. Matt was grinning, alone in the car, happy about the whole idea.
    He adored Emily.
    Plus, he was slightly superstitious. They had met by such an accident—both of them showing up at a student convention neither of them much wanted to attend—both sitting down with a sigh where there happened to be empty seats. Then finding each other there, and never even knowing what the convention was about afterward: just talking, talking, talking, as if there would never be enough time to share all the thoughts they wanted to share. Matt truly loved Emily.
    He slowed down, squinting into the glare of the sunset, trying to read the street signs.
    Out of Maplewood shot a bright red Corvette. A beautiful, very expensive car. Normally Matt checked out cars very carefully, because he loved them, and his happiest days were when his latest car magazines arrived in the mail. But this time his eye