Famous in a Small Town(19)
Is that what happens when you leave home?
Ciara:
Hmmmmm No
Same life. Just relocated Sophie:
But you belong to both places
Or do you not feel like that anymore?
Like home isn’t home
Ciara:
These are deep questions for this time of night Sophie:
It’s this time of night that makes me think them, lol Ciara:
Well let me think
I would say home is still home But this is home too
So like two homes, but one life Sophie:
Do you like it better there though? Is one home better than the other?
Ciara:
It’s different
I like it a lot
But that doesn’t mean I like Acadia any less After all, you’re there
Sophie:
And mom and dad
Ciara:
And mom and dad too
Now get some sleep!!
Sophie:
Okaaaaaay
Ciara:
Miss you lots
Sophie:
twelve
I sent a message off to the chat the next day: Let’s meet at TZ2. Want to talk about fundraising stuff. I wanted everyone there at one time, ready to hear my plan.
Brit, Dash, and Flora were seated on the lumpy old couch, Terrance and August in a couple of plastic lawn chairs. August hadn’t been inducted into the WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY group chat yet, but I texted him separately—Want to hang out at Terrance and Dash’s house?
So he had his first introduction to Teen Zone 2—the pole shed tucked in one corner of the Cunninghams’ backyard, the fence on one side, a tall elm on the other. It was pretty decently sized, red with a white garage-style door that we left up when the weather was good.
“Why do you call it Teen Zone Two?” August asked.
“Teen Zone One was already taken,” Brit replied.
“It’s not Teen Zone One, it’s just Teen Zone, period,” I said.
“Like how it’s not The Fast and the Furious One,” Terrance supplied.
Dash nodded. “Or how it’s not Star Wars One.”
“No, it’s definitely called Star Wars One,” Brit said, just to be contrary.
“It’s named in tribute to the youth corner at the library,” I told August.
“Star Wars One?”
“Teen Zone Two.”
“That makes more sense.”
“Nothing about this makes sense.” Brit looked at me. “Why are we here again?”
“Okay.” I moved to stand in front of the open door to address everyone. “I’m guessing you’ve all seen my idea for fall festival.”
Terrance nodded. “We build giant corn effigies and people pay to burn them in an empty field.”
“That’s not—”
“I love it. Sold. Fuck yeah,” Brit said.
“About Megan Pleasant,” I said. “About how we should invite her to play a fundraising concert at Fall Fest.”
Brit made a face. “Oh, that idea.”
“Why don’t we just propose it to the booster club?” Terrance asked.
“Because I think this would be a fun thing for MPASFC to take charge of. We could bring it to the booster club if we manage to get a lead. And if not, then we’ll just … pretend it never happened.”
“Sophie’s super good at that,” Brit said to August, and I threw a pen at her.
“What’s your plan?” Dash asked, kind enough to stay on topic.
“Well, it has multiple steps,” I began.
“Of course it does,” Brit interjected.
“I made a presentation.” I went over and opened up my dad’s laptop where it sat atop the Ping-Pong table.
“Nooooo! Sophie!” Brit threw the pen back at me. “This is summer vacation! No PowerPoints, geez.”
“But … it highlights all my points.”
“Condense your points.”
I sighed and closed the laptop.
“Okay. A multipronged approach. First, social media outreach—I already started that. We contact Megan on every social network possible. We don’t spam—like we don’t want to be obnoxious—but we politely mention our situation and ask her if she’d be interested in coming to town. And we talk about how important it is to us to go to the parade, and how great it is for Acadia, and how much we love her.”
“This is so many words,” Brit said.
“The PowerPoint has visuals; it would make it easier to remember—”
She waved a hand. “Second prong.”
“We look for local contacts. She grew up here. Her family moved away, but they must still keep in touch with people. Someone here might be able to get in contact with her, or her parents. Someone’s gotta know something.”
“So what?” Terrance said. “We go out and interrogate people for info on the Pleasant family?”
“We go out and politely ask around.”
“You’ve said ‘politely’ twice now,” Brit said.
“Yeah. For your benefit.”
She looked scandalized. “I’m a delight.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Third prong,” Dash prompted.
“Megan is playing at the Illinois State Fair this summer. We could get tickets and go, and like make signs or something, try to get her attention. Especially if we can drum up some buzz online, she might notice us, and maybe we could try to convince her in person.”