“Not completely sure yet. Mom and I are moving to the city to stay with my grandfather.” “That’s great. I’m headed there too. I’m going to try for the journalism program.”
“Well,” Katie said with a grin, “as Mr. Greene wisely pointed out, you need to work on that confident voice and stop listening to people who don’t know what they’re talking about.” She didn’t mention that the famous journalist was her grandfather. “Fair enough,” Mason said, laughing.
“Deal. I’ll just listen to you. I think you’ve got a lot of promise.” Katie laughed too, because he had copied Leonard’s exact tone and phrasing from the day before.
“Hey,” Mason said suddenly, holding out his hand, “how about we go to prom together?” “Brittany may not survive that,” Katie said, rolling her eyes in a perfect imitation of the local queen bee. “You know,” she added, “that may be half the fun.”
The dress turned out beautifully, flattering her in all the right ways. Her hair looked perfect, and her spirits were high. Watching her daughter, Susan could barely hold back tears at how lovely she had grown up to be.
The reaction from their classmates when Katie arrived with Mason was mixed, to say the least. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and Brittany’s name came up more than once. Brittany herself stood there staring at the pair, her face flushed with anger, but for once she said nothing.
Holding tightly to Mason’s hand as they stepped into the decorated gym, Katie felt like a princess. She was leaving behind the dirty floors at the community center, the cafeteria scraps, and the small, hard life she had known—and walking straight toward something better.
