Snark and Stage Fright by Stephanie Wardrop

cheat off of anyone and (2) cheating off of me in math would be a guarantee of failure. He put the sketchpad on the white wicker nightstand and looked at me. “You have to like me kind of a lot if you’re drawing my portrait.”
    “I do. I’m just … out of my depth here.”
    He rested his head on my shoulder so I couldn’t see anymore how his hair was sticking out in lots of directions, some of his curls matted and some having gone haywire overnight. I figured such disarray meant that he hadn’t been to the bathroom yet and had come to see me first thing upon waking up. I wondered if he had even waited for the first glint of daylight to knock on my door and this thought made my heart stop for half a second.
    “If you want to go back to Longbourne … ” he began.
    “I want to be with you,” I declared as I rested my head against his. “I’m just not too good at all of this.”
    He put his arms around me and said with his mouth against my shoulder, “After the wedding today it will all be over. Then it’s just us.”
    “That sounds good,” I said, and when we kissed I forgot my concern about the freshness of my breath. I just thought about how good it felt to be held by him and how demented I would have to be to lose him.
    After a few minutes, he brushed some hair out of my eyes and looked at me intently, saying, “These people who make you so nervous—they’re my family, and they’re part of me, of who I am … ”
    “I know. Remember how long it took me to figure out how lovable you are?”
    He rolled his eyes and lamented, “And that should have been so obvious!” as he pulled me tighter to his chest.
    We kissed as the sun came up and the little birds in the trees sang their songs to us. Then we knew the day had to start whether I wanted it to or not and Michael decided to go for a run before breakfast.
    “I’ll make breakfast,” I declared as he reluctantly slid off the bed and shook out his limbs. “As a thank you-slash-hostess gift to your mom and dad. I’ll make pancakes?”
    “Ah, the pancakes of penance.” He laughed, then added quickly, “not that you have anything to atone for with them.”
    “Do you think your mom will mind if I use the blueberries she bought on the way here?”
    Michael grinned loftily as he turned from the door and said, “She’ll be thrilled. Just double the batch because my dad will eat about ten of them.”
    “Seriously? How do you Endicott boys stay so skinny?”
    He grinned as he turned to the doorway. “Haven’t you gotten the picture yet, Georgie? It’s superior genetics. Ow.” He ducked to evade the pillow I threw at him. “I’ll see you after my run.”
    He returned half an hour later, glistening and red in the face, just as I was delivering a second stack of pancakes to his father’s plate. Dr. Endicott had greeted me that morning with a hug and the promise that I would not see Forrest Ritter at the ceremony or reception as his invitation had been revoked. I’m not sure how Dr. Endicott had accomplished that and I didn’t really want to know. My goal was to simply survive the day without humiliating anyone, least of all myself.
    After breakfast, I took a long bath and fretted for a long time over the possibility of doing anything with my hair besides leaving it in its usual artlessly layered state. I considered calling my sister Tori or even Cassie for advice but just gave up. Maybe I’d get lucky and fall off another porch, breaking a limb and getting a pass on the whole event. But when I came downstairs and saw Michael looking truly dapper, I thought it might actually be worth braving his family all day just to see him looking so handsome. He wore a light-colored suit over a dark rose shirt and a green and dark pink striped bow tie—and I swear to you it did not look at all dorky. Still, I must have smirked when I saw it because he said, “Go ahead and laugh, but trust me—most of the men will have on bow ties.”
    “And not just those