Prom Date Read online

  “I’ll just call you Pippi Longstocking.” Devon frowned at Cassidy’s outfit. The plaid flannel shirt and worn jeans weren’t too awful, but those black rubber boots—really? “You look just like a farmer. Seriously, that’s what you’re wearing tonight?”

  “It’s just youth group,” Cassidy glanced at Devon, then rolled her eyes. “Not a beauty contest. Although you do look lovely.” Her sarcasm massacred the compliment.

  “Well, excuse me for caring about my appearance.” Devon made an exasperated sigh. “I thought that was one of the conditions of being in the DG, Cass. We were supposed to up our game. Remember?”

  Cassidy just laughed. “Yeah, whatever. Sorry, I didn’t have time to change. My mom was trying to kill herself working on our raised beds. She’s got a bunch of seedlings she wants to plant next week if the weather cooperates. Anyway, she looked like she was about to have a heart attack, so I just had to jump in and help. I worked right up until it was time to leave, but at least I washed my hands.” She held out a hand for inspection.

  “Eww.” Devon turned up her nose. “Your hands might be clean, but those fingernails are disgusting.”

  Cassidy just shrugged. “Yeah, Mom told me I should’ve worn gloves.” She turned to smile at Devon. “Hey, I’m really glad you came. There’s supposed to be a new youth pastor tonight and I’ve been looking forward to meeting her.”

  “Her? The youth pastor is a woman?”

  “Well, she’s a co–youth pastor. She’s sharing it with Jarrod.”

  “Oh.” Devon extracted her phone from her purse. “I haven’t heard from Emma and Felicia in the last hour. Wonder what kind of mischief they’re getting into now?”

  “Hopefully no mischief.”

  After Cassidy parked her car in the church parking lot, Devon opened her door to turn on the overhead light then held up her phone to take a picture of Cass. “I’m sending this to Emma.” Devon laughed as she texted the message. Off to YG with Pippi.

  “Ha-ha,” Cassidy said wryly. But she did pull down the visor mirror to look at herself. “Well, there’s not much I can do about this now. And if I take the braids out my hair will just be all kinky and frizzy.”

  “Better just leave it,” Devon said as they got out of the car. Besides, she thought as she looped her purse handle over a shoulder, walking toward the building with a spring in her step, this meant less competition for the guys.

  Devon hadn’t been a regular attendee of youth group since middle school. Oh, Emma had talked her into going a time or two, but for the most part Devon was just not that into it. However, as she followed Cassidy into the brightly lit room, she was surprised at how crowded it was—and even more surprised at the abundant selection of guys. Although she recognized a number of them from Northwood Academy, there were several others from her old public high school too. And a fair amount she didn’t even know.

  They were barely in the room before several guys came directly toward them—including Lane (who Devon knew was into Cassidy) and Isaac (Emma’s main crush) as well as Kent (Abby’s guy) and Marcus (who had taken DG girls to dances before). She could tell by their expressions that they were glad to see her. And why not?

  “Hey, guys,” Devon said in a friendly tone. “What’s up?”

  “Did you see the latest photo from Emma and Felicia?” Isaac held up his phone right in front of Cass to see.

  “I just checked my phone and didn’t see anything new.” Even so, Devon leaned in to see better. “No way!” she cried as she recognized the actress standing between Emma and Felicia. “Is that really—”

  “Jennifer Lawrence!” Isaac beat her to the punch.

  “That is so cool!” Cassidy exclaimed.

  With everyone crowded around, it was hard to see much, so Devon fished out her own phone and was soon staring down at the smiling faces of her two friends with Jennifer Lawrence smiling in between them. Go figure!

  “Emma said they ran into Jennifer in front of a popular restaurant and she was really normal and nice. She let them grab the selfie before the paparazzi leaped in and took over,” Isaac explained. “Emma said they’d been spotting lots of stars this evening—you know, because of the Oscars tomorrow—but this is the first selfie with a real celeb. Pretty cool, huh?”

  Devon couldn’t believe it. Emma and Felicia were down in Beverly Hills actually rubbing elbows with the stars. She glanced up from her phone to see that the guys were all clustered around Cassidy, talking and joking and laughing. Meanwhile, she was off to one side—and suddenly feeling pretty left out.

  She slipped her phone back into her purse then attempted to move back into the clump of friends. Their conversation had shifted, and Isaac and Marcus were talking about something that happened to them at the Rose Bowl a few weeks ago. For a bunch of guys, these boys were pretty chatty. And Cassidy was right in the midst of them, almost acting like she was part of this “good ol’ boys’ club.” That made Devon feel jealous. Why was she the one being left out?

  She reached over and gave a playful tug on one of Cassidy’s pigtails. “Hey, guys, what d’ya think of our little Pippi Longstocking here?”

  Lane broke into a grin. “I was just about to say something, Cass. Nice look you got going there.”

  “I, uh, I was working in the garden and didn’t have time to change,” Cassidy said with what seemed like embarrassment.

  “Hey, I think you look great.” Marcus slapped her on the back. “Real earthy.”

  Isaac pointed to Cass’s feet. “And I really like those boots. Nice touch.”

  “Seriously?” Devon frowned at him. Was he kidding?

  “Yeah. I like it. Kinda country chic,” Isaac told her.

  “I bet someone like Jennifer Lawrence might dress like this,” Kent added. “Very laid-back and cool.”

  Cassidy’s face lit up. “Thanks, guys.”

  Devon felt dumbfounded. The guys actually liked Cassidy’s farmer getup? And here Devon had spent more than an hour putting herself perfectly together—and she knew she looked hot. Yet none of the guys seemed to be looking at her much. And none of them were paying her compliments. What was up with that? What was wrong with these guys?

  But there was no time to obsess over the strangeness of this because someone up front was announcing that it was time to get started. The music tempo was picking up, and people were starting to sing along as they hurried to find seats. As Devon stood next to Cassidy, who was beside Lane, she felt seriously confused. Was it possible that she didn’t understand guys quite as well as she pretended to? Or were these particular guys just really, really weird?

  Although everyone around her was singing with enthusiasm, Devon just stood there. It wasn’t that Devon was intentionally trying to be obstinate, but she didn’t really know these songs. Besides, it felt insincere to sing along to words that she wasn’t too sure she believed in. At least that’s what she told herself as she kept her mouth tightly shut. As they continued to sing, she looked around the room, trying to see inside of these seemingly happy faces.

  Were these kids really as happy as they seemed? Or was this all just an act? Put on your happy mask for youth group night. She glanced at Cassidy and, although Cass seemed happy too, it didn’t really strike Devon as insincere. After all, Cassidy was pretty open and up-front about her beliefs. Certainly, the girl wasn’t perfect. And usually—although sometimes it took a while—she admitted it when she was wrong.

  The guy who’d been leading the singing—a Jarrod somebody—began introducing a strikingly attractive and exceptionally stylish tall blonde woman named Samantha Robertson. “Sam’s degree is in psychology.” He chuckled. “But don’t let that scare you. She’s actually quite nice.” He paused for them to laugh. “And she’s also a certified counselor who gets teens. More importantly, she loves the Lord. Right, Sam?”

  Sam nodded, giving the group a big sparkling smile as she told them how glad she was to be a part of the youth group team. “I can’t wait to get acquainted with you all i
ndividually,” she said with enthusiasm. “And I want everyone to know that I’m a really good listener. At least that’s what my friends say.” She handed the microphone back to Jarrod, and he announced that tonight he was going to do something different.

  “I know it will sound a little weird, but hang with me here. I want us to divide up into two groups for a change. Half of us will be with Sam and the other half with me.” He made a slightly devious-looking grin. “Guys go with me and girls stay here with Sam.”

  This was followed by a lot of loud groans and complaints, but Jarrod just waved them off. “Come on, guys, it’ll be fun. And we’ll all get back together again after we’re done.” He invited the girls to remain in the youth group room and explained where the guys would meet. Suddenly everyone was moving.

  “Come on up front,” Sam called out to the girls. “Fill up the front rows here.”

  Cassidy grabbed Devon by the arm and dragged her to the front row—and way out of Devon’s comfort zone. She cringed inwardly as she slumped down in the chair. This was nothing like what she’d expected. Why had she even come here tonight? Was there any way to get out without making a spectacle of herself? Sam was sitting on a stool, smiling happily at the girls seated all around her. Like the pretty princess about to address the peasants. Everything about Sam looked picture-perfect—reminding Devon of Amanda Norton, a girl who’d turned out to be a stuck-up snob.

  “I’m so glad to be here tonight,” Sam said cheerfully as everyone quieted down. “I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you girls. And I’ve actually been praying for you. It’s really great to see you face-to-face.” She took in a deep breath, pausing for a moment. “I know that some of you—maybe all of you—were disappointed when Jarrod broke us into two groups. To be fair, it was my idea. I wanted to have you girls to myself for one evening. And”—her eyes lit up—“I want to talk about something that I think all you girls can relate to . . . the opposite sex.”

  Devon could sense the other girls getting more interested now. And despite Devon’s nonchalant exterior, she felt a bit more intrigued as well.

  “But first I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I hope that if you feel like you know me, you’ll let me get to know you.” Sam began talking about how she was born in Southern California into what sounded like a perfect sort of home. “But that’s how it looked on the outside,” she confided. “If you looked inside our house, you’d see how crazy dysfunctional it really was. My dad was a highly functional alcoholic. And my mom was addicted to pain pills. To make matters worse, they fought all the time—and my dad was abusive to my mom. When I was just five it all blew up, and the police were called in, and I wound up in foster care.”

  The room was so quiet that Devon could hear the clock ticking. But Sam definitely had everyone’s attention. Especially Devon’s.

  “The upside of that whole mess is that my mom went into a treatment program and began to recover from her addiction. But my dad went his own way and by the time I started school, my parents were divorced. Mom and I were really poor and my dad didn’t pay any child support, but at least the fighting came to an end.” She paused to look around the room. “Okay, you’re probably wondering what this story has to do with the opposite sex, right?”

  A few girls nodded, but Devon wasn’t even sure she cared. She actually wanted to hear the rest of Sam’s story.

  “So I grew up without having a dad in the home. And by the time I was about thirteen or fourteen, well, the boys were starting to notice me.” She laughed. “I’m sure you guys know how that can be.” Some of the girls laughed too, but a lot of them didn’t—the girls, Devon realized, who probably weren’t being pursued by boys.

  “Anyway, I was so starved for male attention—because of not having a dad in my life—that I pretty much devoured the attention that the guys were giving me. And for a year or so, I was running pretty wild. Mom and I had never really gone to church or anything. And my moral compass was pretty much missing . . . or broken. Although I had this inner sense that I was headed for a disaster—and after having seen what a mess my parents had made of their lives, I realized I didn’t want to follow their example.”

  She took in a deep breath and pushed her long blonde hair over one shoulder. “So—straight out of the blue—I decided to go visit a church that some of the kids at my school went to. I still can’t quite remember what prompted me to do that. I mean, it was so out of character. I guess it was just God.” She grinned. “And that night, I heard—for the very first time—the gospel message of how God loved me so much that he gave up his Son in order to have a personal relationship with me.” She slowly shook her head. “I couldn’t really comprehend everything, but it resonated deeply inside of me and I believed it. I gave my heart to God that night. That was ten years ago and I can still say it was the best decision I ever made in my life.

  “And here’s my main point—and how this relates to the opposite sex, since I know some of you are dying to know—when I came to the full realization that God was my Father, I no longer craved that male attention like I had before. I was able to keep the guys at arm’s length.” She laughed. “Well, most of the time. But I discovered that God filled that empty spot in my life—a spot I’d been trying to fill with a boyfriend. It was so freeing and good. That’s a place that I hope and pray all of you will come to be at. And I’m guessing some of you are already there.”

  She held out her open palms, like she was extending an invitation. “So now I’d really like to hear from you guys. I want to open this up for Q&A. And since it’s just us girls, you can bring up any topic or question you want—and I will do my best to answer you. Okay?”

  Although Devon had plenty of questions, she didn’t raise her hand to ask a single one. But she did listen carefully to the girls who did. And she studied Sam closely as she answered each one of them with what seemed like fairly honest and open answers. Devon was trying to determine if this young woman was really who she seemed to be . . . or something else. But for some reason Devon thought that she could probably trust her. Just the same, Devon wasn’t really sure what to do with that kind of trust. For some reason it all made her slightly uneasy.

  4

  There was little in Emma’s life that had ever made her feel particularly special. A petite blonde with a naturally shy personality, she just wasn’t the kind of girl who stood out in a crowd. Not like Devon or Bryn could do. They were the flashy DG members—the “headturners.” Even Cassidy, with her practical, no-nonsense style, was better at attracting attention than Emma. Abby, with her brains, athleticism, and confidence, always seemed to outshine Emma too. And to be honest, Emma liked it that way. For the most part.

  “Don’t you want to look glamorous for this?” Felicia asked Emma as they stood together in the hotel bathroom. Felicia was sporting the sparkly red cocktail dress that she’d worn to the Christmas ball last December, and there was no denying that she looked hot.

  “It’s not like we’re going to actually be on the red carpet,” Emma reminded her. “We’ll be sitting in the bleachers, remember.”

  “I know, but this is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.” Felicia paused from styling her sleek black hair. “I want to feel like a star too.”

  Emma studied her image. The blue sundress had been okay for sightseeing today. The weather had been unseasonably warm, plus the dress was just plain comfortable. But compared to Felicia she looked pretty boring.

  “You sort of look like a tourist,” Emma’s mom said from the open bathroom doorway. “Why don’t you put on your pretty green dress from the winter ball? It looks so festive and fun on you.”

  “Yeah,” Felicia urged her. “When will we ever have another evening like this?”

  Emma frowned at the slightly wrinkled sundress, then giggled. “Okay, you guys talked me into it. Why not?”

  Before long, she and Felicia were downstairs in the hotel lobby, snagging a couple of selfies as they waited for their ride. Emma fe
lt like a million bucks as she observed various bystanders curiously watching them then whispering among themselves.

  “It’s like they think we’re celebs,” Emma whispered to Felicia.

  “Yeah, I’m glad you changed into that dress.” Felicia grinned.

  “I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Emma told Felicia as they went out to get into the hired limo that was part of the prize package.

  “It seems kinda surreal—like it’s all going to fall apart before we get there.” Felicia got a worried look. “You’ve got the tickets, right?”

  “In here.” Emma patted her sparkly little purse, then, following her mom’s direction, questioned the driver to be sure he knew their destination—which was only about a mile away, but too far to walk in fancy heels.

  “It might take longer than usual,” he explained. “But there’s some Evian water back there if you girls need a drink.”

  “This is so cool.” Felicia giggled nervously as she reached for a bottle.

  “I do feel like a star,” Emma confessed. “And we need more selfies to send to our friends.” They took a few moments to get some shots in the back of the limo, holding up their drinks like a toast.

  “Here’s to a big night,” Felicia told Emma as she texted the words to go with their pics. “Hey, here’s a message from my little sister. Sofia must’ve gotten ahold of my mom’s phone.” She laughed as she read the words. But then, just like that, her smile vanished. “Oh, no.”

  “What’s wrong?” Emma asked with concern.

  “It’s—uh—I’m not sure.”

  “What do you mean? What did it say?”

  Felicia stared down at her phone. “First Sofia said to have fun. Then she said not to worry about . . .” Felicia held the phone up for Emma to see, pointing to two words that said looky mia.

  “Looky mia?” Emma tipped her head to one side. “Is that Spanish?”