The Dance by Christopher Pike Page B

them. She had huge breasts and a big nose. Jessica gave her a kiss. Everything seemed to be happening so fast. Pats on the back, smiles, hugs, kisses. But none of them were from Polly or Sara, and Jessica had started to look for them when Bill Skater came up and shook her hand.
    “I knew you’d get on the court,” he said.
    “If you knew, why didn’t you tell me!” She giggled, giving him a quick hug, which took him by surprise.
    “Well, Jessie, you didn’t ask.”
    She felt brave. She felt like a tease. “So I didn’t. So why don’t you ask me something?”
    Such boyish blue eyes. He gave her a sexy look—with his face, it was the only kind he could give—but his voice was hesitant. “Do you want to go out tonight?”
    The icing on the cake. Maybe she’d get a scoop of ice cream later. “Absolutely!”
    She was a princess. She had a prince. She gave him her number, another hug, and went to find her friends.
    She accidentally bumped into Clair instead, in Sara’s locker hall, far from the hustle and bustle. Clair was alone. She in fact looked lonely. But they shook hands and she offered Jessica her congratulations.
    “Four little princesses,” Clair said. “Sounds like a bad fairy tale, doesn’t it?”
    “It’s amazing about that time,” Jessica said.
    “I wasn’t surprised. Is Maria a friend of yours?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Give her my regards.”
    “I will.” Jessica smiled. “Aren’t you excited?”
    Clair turned to dial the combination on her locker. “Ask me in a couple of weeks, when they call out my name during the dance.”
    So that’s how it was. “Maybe you’ll be asking me.”
    Clair paused, giving her the eye. And now she smiled, slow and sure. “You may as well know, dearie, I can’t lose.”

Chapter Six
    Unknown to Jessica, Sara had watched the announcement of the homecoming court. But she had shied away from congratulating her best friend for a couple of reasons. First, as she had told Jessica in the car that morning, she thought Jessica had become overly preoccupied with the whole queen business. Second, with the loss of the money and Russ’s getting fired, she was in a rotten mood and was afraid she’d say something nasty just when Jessica was enjoying her high moment. The fact that these two reasons were contradictory didn’t make any difference to Sara. In reality, she was happy for both Jessica and Maria, and not the least bit jealous. She wouldn’t have wanted to be a princess for anything. Being ASB president was enough of a pain in the ass.
    She needed money and she needed to get Russ’s job back for him. She didn’t know which troubled her more. She was still smarting from his comments. She liked to think she didn’t care about being popular. She had always thought of herself as subtle. But if Russ honestly believed—and it didn’t matter whether he was right or wrong (although he was most definitely wrong)—she was using her position of authority to seduce him, then maybe there was something lacking in her approach. It was a possibility.
    He was not at school today. All right, she’d worry about him the next day. Big bucks and fat Bubba were what mattered now. She followed Bubba as he left the varsity tree after the announcement, watched him disappear into the computer science room. It was general knowledge that Bubba dealt in the stock market, and after checking around campus, she found out that he did extremely well. He was, in fact, a genius when it came to turning a few dollars into a few thousand. Knocking on the computer-room door and turning the knob, she hoped he didn’t charge for advice.
    He was already at a terminal, typing a million words a minute on the keyboard. He dimmed the screen the instant she entered, but appeared happy to see her. He offered her a chair.
    “What do you think of our new batch of princesses?” he asked.
    “I was surprised Maria Gonzales and Cindy Fosmeyer were selected,” she said. “Maria’s probably the quietest