CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Hello. I was told to find the most beautiful girl in the world at this address, so I’m guessing that you must be Mattie. I’m here to ask if you’d make Jake’s life Some Kind of Wonderful and go with him to the prom.”

My mouth refused to cooperate and form sound.

“Blink twice if that’s a yes.”

I settled for nodding.

“Great! That means these are all for you.”

There, on my front porch, stood John Hughes’s redheaded muse. The actress who had starred in my all-time favorite movies. “You’re . . . you’re . . . Mol . . . Mol . . . Mol . . .”

Ignoring my inability to finish words, she smiled and handed me a massive bouquet of white roses, and with shaking arms, I took them.

This could not be happening. I passed the flowers over to Jennifer, and I saw that both she and my dad were just as stunned as I was.

“And here.”

Then she gave me several DVDs that she had autographed. They had just become my most prized possessions.

“I heard you were a fan,” she said.

That was a bit of an understatement. I again nodded enthusiastically and then immediately stopped. I kept telling myself, Don’t be weird. Don’t be weird. Don’t be weird. But the rest of me didn’t seem to be getting the message.

She must have been used to making people go dumb when they saw her because she gestured toward the driveway and kept carrying the conversation. “Come on. There’s a driver waiting to take you to the dance, and I’m going to ride along with you on the way there and answer any questions you might have.”

I gave my DVDs to my father and followed behind the actress. Dad and Jennifer, still in shock, stood in the doorway and watched us go.

“Your dress is pretty,” she told me.

“My sister made it out of another dress.” Just like in Pretty in Pink. Only I didn’t say that part because of the celebrity-induced daze I was currently in.

The driver held the back door of the limo open, and I crawled inside after the actress. “Your boyfriend must really love you.”

“Yeah” was all I could manage. She was right. Jake did love me, and he did get how important this promposal was to me, and he’d given me the most amazing, perfect one in the entire universe.

This actress owed her career to John Hughes. Because he’d seen something special in her and made her a star. It was something I could relate to on a very personal level—Jake had seen something special in me and made me feel like a star.

After a few more minutes of her trying to make me feel comfortable, it finally worked. My tongue loosened, and I was able to ask her questions about her experiences. She told me funny behind-the-scenes stories and had me either laughing or being completely in awe of her for the entire ride.

“Did you want to take a selfie?” she asked, and I realized then that nobody had taken any pictures of us together. Jennifer had really dropped the ball. And I definitely wanted photographic evidence. I fumbled with the button on my clutch and finally wrangled my phone free. Rather wisely, she took the camera and took several pictures. My hands probably would have shaken too hard to have a single clear shot.

“And . . . we’re here. Enjoy your prom!”

“Thank you. I’m so glad I got to meet you. You’re my favorite actress ever. Ever.”

She laughed as the driver opened the door for me. “Have a good night, Mattie!”

I stood on the sidewalk and watched as the limo pulled away from the curb. It was then that I realized I was not at Victor Kim’s house. In fact, I’d been so caught up in my conversation that it hadn’t registered that we’d been driving for a long time.

They’d left me in front of the Alban Havelock Hotel. The one Jake had brought me to a couple of weeks ago when he told me he wanted to be an architect. Only it looked totally different.

The windows had all been replaced, the graffiti had been painted over, and the roof looked brand-new. The murder-death-kill building had been revitalized and no longer looked like it had been rejected as a set for a horror movie for being too scary.

A purple carpet led from the sidewalk to the front doors. Two large men stood by the doors and opened them up for me, allowing me inside.

My prom committee had been here. A table had been placed next to the door to take tickets and stamp hands. I saw the photographer setting up in the lobby, near the front desk. There were lights on everywhere, and the flooring had been replaced. There was no more weird smell. In fact, the scent of fresh paint hit me. Jake had been right. This old gal was beautiful when she was scrubbed clean.

I heard the sound of music and headed over to the ballroom. The walk seemed a lot shorter now that I was no longer worried for my life. The massive ballroom doors had been propped open, and there were too many things happening in the room for me to take everything in at once.

It was completely decorated, with every cheesy and amazing thing we’d picked out from our catalog. The giant carriage was off near the left wall, the massive clock about to strike midnight hung above the middle of the dance floor, and the large cardboard castle was up on the right side. All the restoration in this room had been finished. The wooden floors redone, the ceiling mural fixed, the columns and pillars returned to their original glory, the chandeliers bright and sparkling. It was beyond beautiful. I walked through the purple-and-silver balloon archways to enter the room.

Then I registered that the DJ was playing “If You Leave” by OMD. Just like in the movie Pretty in Pink.

Or in my case, pretty in purple.

Then I saw my boyfriend in a tuxedo that had obviously been tailored just for him. It amazed me that after all this time together, he could still make my heart race, my lungs feel too tight for my body, and my stomach flutter just by smiling at me.

I made my way over to him and realized that there were little pieces of candy all over the floor that I had to kick out of my way.

His eyes swept appreciatively over me, from my head to my feet. “Tills, you take my breath away. You are gorgeous.”

I definitely knew the feeling. But before I could say as much, he kissed me, so passionately, so intensely, that it made me feel like my entire body was made out of light.

When he released me, I asked, “How did you get her to come to my house and ride with me?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “My dad knows a guy.”

Of course. “What’s with the stuff all over the floor?”

Jake winked at me and reached down to pick up two foil-wrapped pieces of candy. One was a solid color, the other one striped. “These are Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses because what kind of promposal would it be for you if candy wasn’t involved?”

“I seriously love you. But this is going to be a huge mess when everybody else arrives and steps all over them.”

“We’ll get the underclassmen to pick them up. And if we miss a few, I’ve already paid the cleaning deposit.”

“Sweeter words have never been spoken.”

“Wait, I’m not done.” He put the candy into my hand. “And now that I have Hugged and Kissed the ground you walk on, will you be my date for prom?”

How cute was he? I wrapped my arms around his neck and said, “Well . . . I’ll think about it.”

He pulled me in closer. “I think I could probably convince you to say yes.”

“You probably could,” I agreed. “Why is all the prom stuff here?”

His arms went around my waist, and we began dancing slowly together. “Ella told me how upset you were about the prom being at Victor Kim’s house. So I called Mr. Biltmore and talked him into letting us have it here. The thing that finally clinched it, though? Apparently it was that interview you did about your mom. Turns out Mr. Biltmore is a massive fan of your father, and then he gave me his blessing. That’s why we have the security out front. To only allow students in and make sure they’re not destructive while they’re here. And to give you and me some time alone before the dance starts.”

“Yep. Just you, me, and the DJ.”

“He sees nothing. He hears nothing.”

I laughed. “That’s not going to work out too well since he’s in charge of the music.”

Jake kissed me again, with me giggling against his lips.

“And you got the whole prom committee here to set up without me knowing.” That was why Ella had been so excited for me to go to the dance recital. She hadn’t had to lie to me about where she was going or figure out a way to keep me from finding out.

“Yep. Anybody can go to that French place you loved. But I looked into the history of this hotel and found out that no prom has ever been held here before. We are the first. No matter how many schools come after, we’ll always be the first ones. And that makes it pretty special.”

“You’re what’s making it special.” One of the DJ’s lights hit the chandelier just above us, turning it pink and purple for a brief moment. “I can’t believe how different this place is from the last time we were here.”

“Yeah, last time they’d been focusing on the stuff you don’t see. Electrical, plumbing, installing the state-of-the-art kitchens. Which, by the way, two of Shoshana’s dad’s best chefs are back there in that kitchen cooking for us right now.”

I heard excited voices, and I turned to see all the members of our student government arriving. The freshmen and sophomores would be taking tickets and helping out with the refreshment tables, making sure they were stocked. They worked so that the juniors and seniors could enjoy the dance. There were also some underclassmen from the yearbook and the school newspaper, ready to take pictures of this fabulous event.

Ella arrived about ten minutes later and ran over to me. “Jennifer texted me about Jake finally asking you! How amazing was your promposal?” she asked with a squeal.

“Beyond amazing. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

A song with a serious beat started, and Ella grabbed my hand. “Let’s go dance!”

I kicked off my high heels and followed her. It wasn’t quite time for the rest of the students to arrive, and we were the only ones on the dance floor. But we didn’t dance to impress anyone or to get attention. My sister and I were dancing it out—all our excitement and happiness, the way we’d been able to overcome all the obstacles that the universe had thrown in our way. We were young and awesome and here, together, and in this moment, everything was absolutely perfect.

A few minutes later, we were joined by Jake and Deacon, who danced every bit as goofy as we were. My sides had started to hurt from laughing so hard.

This whole day had been seriously good. I had helped fix someone else’s family and their issues, and my wonderful, hot boyfriend had arranged it so I could meet and spend time with my favorite movie star, and then he had secretly set up our prom in this cool, vintage building that no longer smelled like animal carcasses and/or made me think I was going to get murdered by a sociopath.

I saw the rest of our class start to trickle in. Some claimed tables to sit at and eat. Others quickly joined us and started dancing.

Jake and I danced, we talked to people, we took pictures together, we drank a ton of punch and ate more of the castle cake than we probably should have, and then we danced some more.

And because it felt like only moments had passed, I was surprised when Ms. Rathbone went to the microphone and tapped on it to get everyone’s attention. “If I may have your attention, we have the results for your prom king and queen.”

My phone was in my purse so I couldn’t check the time, but this meant the prom was almost over. Hours had passed in the blink of an eye.

Time really did fly when you were having this much fun.

“Your prom king is . . .” She opened an envelope and announced to the surprise of exactly no one, especially me, “Jake Kingston!”

Jake squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek before going up to accept the award for yet another popularity contest. They put a crown on his head and handed him a scepter. They looked good, but both were basically spray-painted plastic.

“You’re next,” I told Ella, and she just gave me a look. Ha. As if the girl who’d won every queen title since she’d started at Malibu Prep wouldn’t take this last one.

“Your prom queen is . . . Mattie Lowe!”

“She does know that’s not how you pronounce ‘Ella Christensen,’ right?” I asked my sister. This had to be some kind of mistake. I was not the prom queen type.

“Get up there and accept your crown!” She pushed me with both hands until I started walking, shocked at the hollering and applause and the people calling out my name.

How had this happened? A year ago I had exactly one friend. No one knew me. They didn’t even know my name. And now? Now they had voted for me to be queen?

Ms. Rathbone put the little sparkling tiara on my head and handed me my own scepter.

“Congratulations,” Jake said as he wrapped his arm around me.

“I’m the prom queen. I sort of want to gag.”

“Oh, you love it.” He knew me too well.

“Okay, I kind of do. But you know this only happened because I’m dating you.”

“No, it happened because you’re you, and you’re amazing.”

I glanced up at the ceiling, in large part to stop the sudden tears from falling and ruining my makeup, which would make my sister kick me.

“What are you doing?” Jake asked.

“Just checking for buckets of blood.”

“Stop it. Enjoy your moment. Royal wave.” He lifted his hand up, waving like a beauty pageant queen, which made me laugh and dried up my tears. I copied him, and we both waved to all the people who were still cheering for us.

This was almost as good as being with Jake.

He grabbed me in his arms and, to the delight of the crowd, dipped me backward and kissed me deeply before letting me stand upright again.

Thanks to the love of my family, especially my sister, and the love of a guy as fantastic as Jake, I had changed.

From outsider to insider. From underdog to student body president. From hiding my true self to being exactly who I was. From hating so many things in my life to embracing them and moving past them.

I had gone from ugly stepsister to prom queen.

And as I held Jake’s hand and looked down at my sister’s giddy expression, I got the distinct feeling that we were all going to live happily ever after.