If Lulu thinks that I'm getting up that early again to attend a 7:00 a.m. workout class, she is out of her pretty little mind. I can barely keep awake now. Mr. Hunter is going on about Homer's Odyssey like we haven't all read it a gazillion times before. I can barely move my leg, it's already getting sore from that weird knee flexing thing our Pilates instructor talked me into trying. At least I'm better off than Nick over there. Poor boy, with his crutches leaning against his desk. I would almost feel sorry for him if every girl in school wasn't offering to carry his books. What is that awful beeping sound coming from the classroom speaker?
"Everyone." Mr. Hunter called for our attention. "I need to visit the secretary's office for a moment, our new shipment of The Iliad books has just arrived."
Yeah right, Tamara said that Mr. Hunter has been visiting the secretary a lot lately. I'll bet she has something waiting for him. What was Jenny thinking? She totally rolled all those beads in the wrong direction. That stage felt like it wasn't level anyway. Billy was so ready to take over after that, just couldn't stand the thought of any one else having a shot at getting lucky with his girl. He must have been up late last night, can't stay awake any better than I can in class right now. He's been letting his hair grow a little longer in the back, it looks good on him. Oh crap, not that I would ever admit that out loud or anything.
"Psst! Hey Billy, wake up."
I knew that he was bound to know the inside story about what I saw after the play.
"What is it, Harper?" He stretched without looking back at me as he spoke.
"Where's Jane? I have to talk to her. I had no idea that she was that awesome."
"Yeah, those costumes were amazing."
Okay my first thought, at least turn around when I'm talking to you, dude.
"I looked really good in mine even though my foot kept getting caught in the tulle lining as I walked. Whatever. It was Jane that really put on the show before the after party."
"What show?" Well, now Billy turned around to look at me. His eyes changed from sleepy to serious like he actually had no idea about the real performance.
"Wait, are you serious? You really don't know about the fall out? It was epic. I thought that you guys were like Siamese friends or something. Maybe I can be her new best friend now, then she can introduce me to that hot guy who said that he helped her to fix the costumes."
"Dammit, Harper, what happened?"
Billy is so stirred-up right now. Honestly, It's adorable.
"Well, if you don't know about it already than maybe it's not anyone's business. Nevermind."
"Harper, if you don't tell me right now what happened to Jane, I'm going to have you kicked-off the next casting call."
As if he could make that happen. Could he? Oh, I can't keep a secret anyway. Even Nick is paying attention to me now.
"Okay, so I was looking for Jane to help me with getting my fabulous ballgown put away and that's when I saw Ms. Clark talking to her about some people that wanted to meet her; a tall brunette woman and oh-my-Pradas a drop-dead gorgeous hottie. Jane went like from having the blues to shocked in three seconds. It was intense. None of them noticed me so I kept on watching to see what would happen. Jane said the lady's name first, it was Grey. Can you believe that? She's like some kind of fashionista bigwig and her name is a boring color like..."
"Harper! Focus! I'm about to go out of my mind to know what happened to Janey."
Billy just doesn't appreciate all the fine details.
"Well, you should have been there. So Grey wants to know why Jane is there at our high school play. Jane says that it's a side project that she has been participating in outside of work. Grey is Jane's boss! That Eli hottie works with Jane. Then Grey gets upset cause Jane is making her own designs outside of Donovan Decker. My Mom has three Donovan Decker belts and a sun dress that she got while on vacation in..."
"Harper!"
"What!" Even Nick is interrupting me now. "Jane looks petrified cause she's been caught red handed. Eli tries to smooth it over by admitting that he helped Jane. He thought that it was a worthy cause. Then Ms. Clark comes back. She hadn't joined you guys at the cast party yet. Jane kept looking at the stage door like she was ready to run faster than Cinderella at midnight. Ya know, she could've left BOTH of those glassy slippers behind for me on her way out. Ms. Clark said something about what an accomplished student that Jane was. Jane looked so defeated. I guess she can't take a compliment."
That girl is so strange. Billy is holding his breath, I hope that he doesn't pass-out before Mr. Hunter gets back.
"Ms. Clark also said that Jane saved the day when she presented that generous check to her from..."
"Wait, a check?" Billy pressed his fingers to the side of his head. "No, Jane, she didn't give that up..."
"I wasn't finished here — that's when Eli interrupted Ms. Clark. He said to Grey that Jane wants to be a designer and that she has great potential but that it would be a while before she was ready for that. Grey kept looking at Jane and Eli. Well, it was obvious that Eli knew she was a White Marsh student. You would think that this Grey would know where her interns are coming from. She was clueless. Grey squared up her shoulders and shook her dark curly dark locks and told Jane that she was on suspension until she could decide what to do about her extracurricular aspirations. Then she left."
"Oh, poor Janey." Billy was covering his face with is hands. Here's where he is going to pass-out, I thought.
"So, anyway, Jane just collapsed to her knees right there in front of all four of us. Ms. Clark took off for the party. I stepped back into the shadows still holding my dress. Eli stayed. He touched Jane on the shoulder and told her not to worry, that he understood now what she was hiding and that he could smooth things over with Grey soon. He said that it was the least that he could do after what he had done to her. I'd almost give up my Fossil vintage clutch bag to know what that was."
Billy's right hand still against his face was curling into a fist.
"Then again, maybe I wouldn't. Eli left to follow Grey. That's it."
"What about Jane? Did you speak to her?" Billy seemed to recover.
"No, of course not, Billy. It was like she was in her own strange Jane world as she sat there alone on the backstage floor. I came to the cast party late. Oh yea, that's right. I remember seeing you there, with your arm around Zoe, laughing about some risqué new improved lines to use in the play."
Mr. Hunter returned with a box-load of books to impose upon us for more boring homework tonight. Billy looked at me a couple more times. I thought he was going to start asking more questions. Like I said, he should have been there.
I know it's a little weird getting the story from Harper's perspective, the scene would've been so heavy and sad on Jane's behalf without Harper's ridiculous yet amusing spin on it. Besides, its fun to play the Harper attitude while writing. I hope that you've enjoyed this one.