Red(74)
“We’ve been best friends since preschool! She seriously won’t talk to me because my hair is four shades lighter than she thought it was?”
“Two minutes! Everyone upstairs now!” hollered Brenda.
Ivy stood up and offered Felicity her hand. “We should go,” she said. “We’ll talk about it later, okay? Ten more minutes and this will all be over.”
Felicity considered just staying there in the hallway until the pageant ended. What was the point of putting herself on display for hundreds of judgmental eyes, just so everyone could watch her lose? But then she thought of her brothers and the Vaughns and Ms. Kellogg and Jonathan. They were still out there rooting for her, and they would want her to hold her head high and finish what she’d started. She couldn’t let them down.
Felicity let Ivy pull her to her feet and lead her up the stairs to the stage.
She tried to get Haylie’s attention again, but her friend stood motionless at the front of the line and pretended not to hear when Felicity whispered her name. Donna Marie, who was back at the podium in a different dress, asked the audience to give a big round of applause to all the Miss Scarlet contestants. The girls starting filing onto the stage, and Felicity followed them out into the glare of the lights.
“Aren’t they gorgeous?” Donna Marie squealed. “Look at those dresses, just like tropical flowers. Well, ladies and gentlemen—girls—the most exciting moment of the pageant is upon us! Right here in this envelope, I hold the name of this year’s Miss Scarlet! It’s time to crown her now.”
The audience went wild as Georgia appeared from stage left, holding the Miss Scarlet crown on a red velvet pillow. The rhinestones twinkled furiously under the stage lights. The twelve girls on the stage clasped hands as Donna Marie tore open the envelope containing the winner’s name. As Felicity entwined her fingers with Ivy’s and Ariel’s, she thanked the universe for placing her between the only two competitors who wouldn’t recoil from her touch. Both girls squeezed her hands, and she felt just a tiny bit stronger as she squeezed back.
“This year’s first runner-up, who will take Miss Scarlet’s place if she is unable to perform her duties, is … Madison Banks!”
In all the pageants she had attended, Felicity had never seen a less happy first runner-up. Madison, whose gold-sequined gown was painfully bright under the lights, scowled as she stepped to the front of the stage to acknowledge her applause. When a pageant volunteer presented her with a huge bouquet of red roses, Madison looked as if she might eat her. “The fact that she didn’t win just made my life,” whispered Ivy, who wasn’t even bothering to clap. Felicity nodded. She glanced over at Haylie and gave her a supportive smile, but her friend wouldn’t meet her eyes. She was visibly trembling and gripping Cassie’s hand with bone-crushing force.
“And now, Scarletville, the moment you’ve all been waiting for,” announced Donna Marie. “This year’s highest-scoring contestant, in a rare unanimous decision by the judges, is … Haylie Adams!”
The entire shrieking crowd was on its feet in an instant, and Felicity cheered, too. For the first time since becoming an official strawbie, she experienced a moment of genuine happiness, even as she watched her mom storm up the aisle and out of the auditorium. The press photographers rushed the stage like children mobbing an ice cream truck and vied for the best shots of Haylie, who was screaming, laughing, and crying all at once. Her chandelier earrings caught the light of countless camera flashes as she jumped up and down, unable to contain her joy. Donna Marie had to hold her down so Georgia could pin the crown to her hair.
A pageant volunteer draped a Miss Scarlet sash over Haylie’s shoulder, and another heaped her arms with red flowers. As Haylie raised her hand in the beauty queen wave she’d been practicing since first grade, confetti cannons erupted on both sides of the stage and showered everyone with glittery paper streamers.
“She deserves it,” Ivy shouted over the noise. “She was seriously amazing.”
Felicity nodded. “I’m glad she won.”
“Let’s go say congratulations.”
Haylie’s parents fought their way onto the stage and swept their daughter into their arms as she repeatedly screamed, “I won, I won, I can’t believe I won!” Ivy and Felicity waited for Haylie’s mom to release her. When Haylie finally noticed them, she launched herself directly at Ivy, nearly smothering her with the enormous bouquet. After a long moment, she let go and turned to Felicity.
And as Haylie looked at her, Felicity saw something slam shut behind her best friend’s eyes.
She reached for Haylie anyway, but her friend was stiff and awkward in her arms and pulled away after only a few seconds. Felicity wanted to shake her and say, Haylie, I’m still me. I’m exactly the same person I was an hour ago. But instead, she just said, “Congratulations, Hays. I’m so proud of you. You really deserve this.”
“Thank you.” Haylie smiled, but it was a polite, distant smile. Then she pushed past Felicity and was gone.
Parents were swarming the stage now, and as Felicity watched them embrace their emotional, sparkle-clad girls, a wave of loneliness engulfed her. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Whether she won the pageant or not, her friends and family were supposed to be there when it was over. There were supposed to be flowers and kisses and congratulations. There were supposed to be shoulders to cry on.