KRISTEN’S ROOM
Thursday, July 23
11:33 A.M.
“THE COMMITTEE IS ASSEMBLED,” announced the computer-generated voice.
Kristen sat at her white IKEA desk and lowered her eyes, unable to face what she had done, or the people she had done it to.
| EINSTEIN (Layne Abeley) | BILL GATES (Danh Bondok) |
| Disguise: tweed coat, bushy mustache, wiry gray wig | Disguise: glasses, light blue button-down, dark blue blazer |
| Expertise: physics | Expertise: technology |
| OPRAH (Rachel Walker) | SHAKESPEARE (Aimee Snyder) |
| Disguise: wavy black wig, gold hoop earrings, pumpkin orange blouse | Disguise: gray bald-in-the-front, curly-in-the-back wig, mustache, white collar sticking out of a black cloak |
| Expertise: anthropology (the study of humankind, not the cute and affordable shabby-chic store) | Expertise: affairs of the heart and the Romance languages |
“What do we stand for?” she asked under the cover of her Cleopatra wig.
“BOB,” they answered.
“And what does BOB stand for?”
“Brains over beauty!”
Kristen sighed and then decided to just say it. “I am officially resigning as the leader of the Witty Committee,” she told the grass-stained hem of her white silk goddess dress.
“What? Why?” Bill Gates screeched. His unconstrained passion forced Kristen to lift her eyes. “We thought you called the meeting to thank us.”
“Well, that too.” Kristen felt like she had one of David Beckham’s fur balls in the back of her throat. “What you did for me last night was—”
“Not last night, girl.” Oprah shook her head. “Today.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Skye got her acceptance letter to Alphas this morning, didn’t you hear?” Shakespeare smirked. “And I am pleased to say I wrote her entire essay with a quill.”
Einstein, Oprah, and Bill applauded.
Kristen grinned but wasn’t exactly sure why. “What did you do?”
“I got rid of her for good.” Shakespeare smiled. “Heaven knows I was no help when it came to last night’s tech circus. So I contributed in my own way and wrote a brilliant essay in iambic pentameter.”
“Seriously?” Kristen grabbed the sides of the screen and kissed it like it was Aimee’s face. “I thought you guys were mad at me.”
“We were,” Layne said, using her best German Einstein accent. “But after the Witty Committee rescued me from the country club cops, we thought about all the stupid things we did when we were in crush mode. And we decided to forgive you.”
“Like what?” Kristen giggled in anticipation.
“You know the hole I drilled in the pipes at Briarwood?” Layne smiled sheepishly. “The one that caused the wave pool to leak and destroy the whole facility?”
Kristen speed-nodded. She had no idea where this was going, but she certainly remembered getting the news before summer break that the boys’ school had collapsed and was submerged underwater.
“Well, I did it because I wanted my crush, Dempsey, to go to OCD.” Her cheeks turned bright red. Surrounded by the silver wig, she looked like a Christmas tree ornament draped in tinsel.
“No way!” Kristen covered her mouth in shock. “How did you know it would work?”
“The OCD manifest states that in the case of emergency, one school will take in the other.” Layne shrugged. “It was a no-brainer. He gets back from Bali mid-September. I can’t wait to tell him the news. I’ve already reserved a locker for him next to mine.”
Kristen’s hand was still on her mouth as she shook her head in utter disbelief.
“And I intercepted Skye’s first essay so she’d stay in Westchester.” Bill Gates dabbed his forehead with a screen-cleaning cloth.
“Since when do you like Skye?” Kristen squealed, feeling one percent jealous. Even though she didn’t like Danh in that way, she liked that he liked her. And she loved that he liked her more than Skye.
“I don’t.” Bill’s neck was starting to break out in red blotches.
“Tell her,” Oprah gently nudged.
“I like you,” he blurted. “I was hoping she’d stay here, Dune would stay with her, and you’d be free.”
“Awwww, Bill.” Kristen touched her heart. “I’m so, so—”
“It’s okay.” Bill smiled like he meant it. “I’m moving on.”
“You see,” Shakespeare spoke up, “I agreed to wear this stupid costume and write with a feather because I like Bill.” She looked up, so it appeared she was making love-eyes at Bill on Kristen’s screen. Bill glanced down at her quadrant and smiled.
The two giggled as if they had already made it official with a lip kiss or two.
“Don’t you just love all this honesty?” Oprah gushed.
“So you forgive me?” Kristen asked everyone, but mostly Layne.
“If you promise one thing.” Layne tucked a wiry gray wig strand behind her ear. “Help me get Dempsey next year before someone else snatches him up.”
“I swear.” Kristen lifted her pinky, knowing Dempsey was a total LBR. The blond, green-eyed chubby gamer who worked the lighting board for the Young Actors’ Program at the community playhouse would be lucky times ten to land a girl like Layne.
“Then you’re forgiven.” She lifted her pinky and touched it to the camera on her computer. For a second, her quadrant was filled with an oversize pink finger.
“What are you going to do?” Shakespeare asked.
Kristen’s happy bubble popped as her thoughts were forced back to Dune. She had no idea what she was going to do. No idea how to live with this sadness for the rest of the summer. No idea how to convince him to give her a second chance.
“Knock, knock,” a boy’s voice said from her bedroom doorway. “Can I come in?”
She was about to find out.