Her accent was so thick that it came out “Say-ra,” and I smiled, hugging her when she stood up.
“Okay, fine, Sara, then.”
“That’s better,” she said with a wink. Then she looked up at Bee.
“Beeee, darlin’, how are you? Didn’t your mama say you were at some sort of . . .” Her face clouded for a second. “What was it again? A camp?”
“Cheerleading camp,” Bee said quickly, and I hurried on before Sara could ask any more questions.
“So how is all of this going?” I nodded up at the stage, where a handful of girls were milling around.
Sara gave a wave of her hand. “The Lord is testing me, as usual. I swear, I would rather wrangle kittens than try to get a bunch of teenage girls to follow instructions, but what can you do?”
Her brown eyes narrowed slightly, taking in the two of us. “Are you girls here to volunteer? Because I am not gonna lie, I could use some help, especially from someone as organized as you, Harper. From the way I heard it, you practically ran Cotillion back in the fall.”
She shook her head, glossy waves falling over her shoulder. “Of course, not even you could hold off a freaking earthquake. What a mess.”
That was one word for it. But I smiled at Sara and shook my head. “Actually, we’re here to sign up. For the pageant.”
Sara’s heart-shaped face wrinkled in a frown. “Well, that’s real nice, honey, but sign-ups were last week. You know I love you, but I can’t let you join up this late. It wouldn’t be fair.”
I bit back a smart reply. There were maybe twenty girls in the whole pageant, so it wasn’t like me and Bee joining up was suddenly going to tip the whole thing into chaos. But snapping at Sara wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and Aunt Jewel always said you gathered more flies with honey than vinegar.
So I put on my most honeyed smile and let my own accent drag out a little as I simpered, “I knooow, I’m so late. But to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d have time to do the pageant this year, and then I was dusting Mama’s curio cabinet. You know, the one right by our front door?”
Sara nodded, a little hesitant, and I decided it was time to lay it on thick. “And I saw Leigh-Anne’s picture in there, from back when she won, and I . . .” I let myself trail off before biting my lower lip. “I felt like it was something I needed to do. I’ve followed in her footsteps in so many things, and the Miss Pine Grove pageant seemed like the final piece.”
It was loathsome and heinous and probably made me a bad person, taking advantage of Leigh-Anne’s death. But being a Paladin sometimes meant doing things like this, no matter how yucky I found it. If Bee was right and the last trial was tied to this pageant somehow, I sure as heck was going to be in it.
And yucky or not, it worked, because a sheen of tears suddenly appeared in Sara’s eyes. She looked up at the ceiling, dabbing at the skin under her eyes with those French-manicured nails. “Oh, honey,” she said, her voice thick. “You are exactly right. I don’t know why I was fussing about deadlines and sign-up sheets.”
She pointed one of those sharp nails at us. “But promise me that neither one of you is planning on singing ‘The Greatest Love of All’ or ‘Hero’ as your talent. If I have to hear either of those two songs again, I will eat a gun.”
When Bee and I shook our heads, Sara gave a relieved sigh and handed us sign-up forms. “Fill these out and get them back to me by next Monday. That’s the next rehearsal.”
“We can’t rehearse today?” Bee asked, gesturing up at the stage. A girl I didn’t recognize—she either went to Lee High, the big public school on the other side of town, or was one of the girls from a neighboring county—was tap-dancing like her life depended on it.
But apparently Sara had already broken enough of her rules today, because she gave a very firm shake of her head. “Absolutely not. Not until your paperwork is sorted out.”
“That’s fine,” I said quickly. I needed time to prepare myself for pageant practice anyway. Just coming in here had been weird enough. But, hey, if my trial ended up being public humiliation, at least I’d given the Ephors a heck of a setting.
Agreeing with Sara made her happy, because she flashed that super-white smile at me again. “Good. So are y’all gonna do the Festival, too?”
I wrinkled my nose. The Azalea Festival was the big fair on the outskirts of town. We had it every spring, along with the pageant, a giant bake sale, and this thing where people drove around looking at old houses with girls in hoop skirts out front.
The fair was like any carnival—rides, fried food, cheesy games, and oversized stuffed animals. I’d never been that crazy about it, even as a kid, but I’d always gone. The last few years, it had been a double-date thing with Ryan, Bee, and Brandon, and I’d kind of been looking forward to skipping it this year.
“Ooh, I hadn’t thought about that!” Bee said, slipping her arm through mine again. “We ought to go tonight.” Her brown eyes were warm when she looked down at me and added, “It might cheer you up.”
I was pretty sure a cheesy town fair couldn’t cheer up anyone, but, hey, I was already doing this pageant. In for a penny, in for a pound, I thought, and smiled back at her. “Sounds great.”
Chapter 20
WHEN I GOT HOME, David’s car was parked against the curb, and I took a deep breath.
My parents were still at work, so David must have used the extra key like I’d told him to.
He was already in my room when I came up, standing at my desk, fiddling with his phone.
“Hi,” I said, and he glanced up quickly, fumbling to put his phone in his pocket.
“Hi.”
I inwardly cringed. This was ridiculous. A few days ago, he had been my boyfriend. In fact, the last time he’d been in this room, we’d done a fair amount of making out, and now I was standing in my own room, feeling awkward and . . . oh dear Lord, was I blushing?
Shaking my head, I tossed my bag next to my desk and put on my most no-nonsense voice to ask, “So what’s up?”
David blinked behind his glasses. There were circles under his eyes, and I wondered if he was still having trouble sleeping. I could ask him that, right? I mean, that was Paladin/Oracle business, not girlfriend stuff. And the more I focused on Paladin stuff, the easier it was not to feel angry or hurt or any of the other things I’d been feeling since that afternoon in his car.