The Facade by Judy Corry
Cambrielle
“I heardMrs. Johnson is assigning us new lab partners today,” Elyse said as she slid into the seat beside me in our Culinary Arts class. “Think she’ll let us stay partners?”
“I wish,” I said, looking around the room at the rest of our classmates filing into the tables. Everyone wore their number two uniforms—the girls with their cream-colored blazers over their white shirts, pink and burgundy skirts and neckties, and maroon socks. And the boys with their navy blazers and slacks, and pink and burgundy ties.
I hated that I had to wear the same school uniforms every day since I much preferred the clothes in my own closet, but at least they’d gone with cuter uniforms this year. Last year’s were just atrocious and the boxy fit had done no favors for my somewhat fragile body image.
Mack walked into the room a moment later, his tie already loose around his neck as if it had been a long, rough morning even though it was only second period. He stopped at the first table and said something to Porter Cunningham about basketball tryouts being next Monday. After Porter confirmed that he still planned to try out for the team, Mack gave him a fist bump and then started chatting about what they’d done to improve since last season.
I was about to turn back to Elyse and ask her who she wanted to pair with for the lab when my attention was drawn to the door as the tall, dark, and handsome soccer player I’d had a crush on since last spring walked into the room.
Yes, I was staring at Ben Barnett.
“Looks like Ben cut his hair,” Elyse whispered, seeming to notice how my attention had been immediately captured by the senior god walking toward the back corner where his buddies sat.
“He did. And it looks so good,” I whispered back with a sigh.
Just yesterday, Ben had been sporting an afro. But now his hair was shorter on the sides, making him look almost exactly like Regé-Jean Page who played the Duke of Hastings in the first season of Bridgerton—the show that I was so obsessed with that I’d had my mom help me throw a Bridgerton-inspired soirée just a week and a half ago.
“Don’t you think he looks just like Regé-Jean Page now?” I whispered to Elyse who was a fellow Bridgerton fan.
Elyse furrowed her brow and studied the six-foot-four athlete. With a shrug, she said, “Kind of.” She turned back to me and spoke in a lowered voice. “I mean, I always thought Mack looked more like him, but I guess I can see it now.”
“You think Mack looks like Regé-Jean Page?” I raised my eyebrows, surprised at the comparison.
“Yeah.” Elyse nodded. “I mean, can’t you see the resemblance? It was kind of the first thing I thought of when I met him.”
I turned to look at Mack who was still talking to Porter, trying to see what Elyse was talking about.
“They have similar jawlines and eyebrows, don’t you think?” Elyse leaned closer to whisper about the boy whom she’d had a crush on before she found out he was her half-brother. “And when I first saw him, his hair was almost identical to Regé-Jean Page’s. Plus, don’t you think that if Mack didn’t shave for a few days that his scruff would look exactly like the Duke of Hastings’?”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to picture the boy I’d known since we were kids as the Duke of Hastings—as the guy wearing an old-fashioned suit and cravat that I sometimes daydreamed about riding horses with when I wasn’t daydreaming of Ben.
And sure, now that Elyse mentioned it, they did look a lot alike. I guess Mack might even resemble my celebrity crush slightly more than my real-life crush did.
But that didn’t mean Ben didn’t look amazing with his new haircut.
Because he did. He looked downright gorgeous.
I shrugged dismissively and said to my friend, “I still like Ben more.”
“Well, I never said you needed to like Mack just because I think he looks more like Regé-Jean Page than your beloved Ben,” Elyse said with a chuckle, amusement in her amber eyes.
“I would hope not,” I said with a smirk.
I considered teasing her about how I wouldn’t dare move in on the guy she’d just been crushing on but stopped myself just in time—making her even more embarrassed over what had been a completely innocent crush at the time wouldn’t do our friendship any good. Even though Elyse hadn’t even been at our school for two full months yet, I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt our friendship.
I’d always wanted a sister, and even though her identical twin was the one who would probably end up marrying my brother Carter someday, I’d gotten close enough to Elyse over the past few weeks that she really did feel like a sister to me.
The bell rang a minute later. Our teacher, Mrs. Johnson, who taught all of the family and consumer-science classes at our school told us about how we’d be switching up our cooking lab partnerships and that all the people on the first two rows would be coming up to draw their new lab partner’s names from a bowl she had prepared with names of the students on the last two rows.
“Looks like being partnered up together is out of the cards for us,” I said to Elyse with a sigh.
“Sadly,” she agreed.
Then looking around at the eight students who sat on the last two rows and seeing Ben among them, I turned back to Elyse with a half-smile on my lips and whispered, “But maybe the universe will smile down upon me and I’ll draw Ben’s name.”
“Well,” Elyse said. “If you get that lucky, then I better get partnered with Addison because I’m pretty sure she’s the only one back there who can follow a recipe.”
Mrs. Johnson had the front two rows gather in a line. One by one, we each pulled a small slip of white paper from the glass bowl she held to determine whom we’d be sharing a kitchen with for the rest of the semester.
I was third in line, and as the red curly-haired guy ahead of me pulled out his partner’s name, I made a wish in my head.
Please let me pick Ben. Please let us be partners so he’s forced to notice me.
After the guy ahead of me moved away from the line, I reached into the jar with a slightly shaky hand. Touching a few slips of paper with my fingertips, I closed my eyes and pulled out the one that felt right to me.
I didn’t look at the paper right away. Instead, I went back to my seat so I could open it without all eyes on me. Once seated, I opened the folded-up slip of paper. And written there in Mrs. Johnson’s elegant cursive were three letters that made up the most wonderful name in the world as far as I was concerned.
Ben.
My stomach immediately flipped, and I couldn’t keep a huge smile from taking shape on my lips as I caressed his name with my gaze, hardly believing my wish had come true.
I get to work alone with Ben for over an hour every other day for the next several weeks.
The universe had finally heard my wish of getting on my dream guy’s radar. And I hadn’t even had to use my Kelana costume to do it.
If I didn’t have a whole classroom full of people around me, I’d probably jump around and do a little dance to celebrate how excited I was to finally, finally spend some one-on-one time with Ben.
Elyse slid back into her chair beside me and after looking at my face, a knowing smile slipped on her lips. “You picked Ben, didn’t you?”
“Yes!” I whispered, my smile widening. “Who did you get?”
Elyse unfolded her paper, revealing the name.
“You got Mack?” I said with a smile, figuring he was probably the next best choice in our class after Addison since Elyse and Mack knew each other.
But when I looked at Elyse’s face to catch her reaction, it had gone pale. Under her breath, she whispered, “No.”
I frowned. “You don’t want to be partnered with Mack?” I asked in a low voice, glancing around us to make sure Mack was oblivious to our exchange. He was currently leaning back in his chair and talking with the guy next to him.
Elyse just shook her head, a solemn look on her face as she said, “Things are just kind of weird right now.”
Oh.
Yeah, I guess they probably would be.
While she and Mack hadn’t ever gone on a date or anything like that, they had flirted a ton before they found out they shared the same father.
They were making the best of the situation right now, and I knew their parents were trying to help make the transition to integrate their families go as smoothly as possible given all the circumstances. But I could understand how it might be a little weird to work alone with a guy whom you were trying to see in a different light than you had originally.
Elyse folded up her paper again and released a long sigh. “Maybe it’ll be okay. Maybe it’ll turn out to be some good brother-and-sister-bonding time.”
But when I studied her eyes, I knew she wasn’t quite ready for something like this.
“Now if you will all go introduce yourselves to your new lab partners—” Mrs. Johnson’s voice sounded loudly from the front of the room after everyone had finished drawing their names, “—then we can get started baking.”
Elyse scooted her chair away from our table as everyone else on the front two rows made their way back to their new partners. But before she could stand, I snatched the paper with Mack’s name on it from her hand and slipped the piece of paper with Ben’s name into its place.
“What are you doing?” Elyse stared at me, her eyes wide.
“I’m helping you out,” I whispered back.
She reached over to try to give me the paper back. “You don’t need to do this, Cambrielle.”
But I just shook my head and closed her fingers over her new lab partner’s name. “It’s fine.”
“But it’s Ben,” Elyse said with a shake of her head. “You can’t give him up for me.”
“It’s really fine, Elyse,” I insisted. “I don’t mind working with Mack.”
It would probably be way less awkward for me to work with him instead of Ben, anyway. I was bound to get all anxious and mess up all the recipes if I was worried about impressing my lab partner.
Elyse seemed to study me for a moment, as if gauging whether I was really sincere. And then after a long pause, she swallowed and said, “Thank you. I promise to return the favor.”
“Don’t even worry about it.” I waved the thought away.
But she said, “I’ll talk you up to Ben. I’ll tell him how awesome you are.”
“Please don’t.” My eyes widened and I put my hand to my chest. “That’ll only make it obvious that I like him.”
Elyse nodded. “Okay. But I’ll pay you back somehow.”
I stood from my chair. “Just find out what costume he’s planning to wear to the Halloween dance, and we’ll call it even.”
“Done.”
“I sawyou traded Elyse names before coming back here,” Mack said in a low voice near my ear once we made it to our cooking station. “You traded Ben to be with me?”
“You saw that?” I asked, surprised that he’d been watching us.
“And here I thought you just told Nash last night that you were going to talk to Ben.” Mack grabbed two aprons from one of the drawers, handing me the red one while keeping the black for himself. “This was your chance. Why’d you chicken out?”
“I-I didn’t chicken out.” I took the red apron and put it over my head.
“You didn’t?” He arched an eyebrow, clearly not believing me. “Then why the last-minute partner trade? You can’t tell me it was because you have secretly always wanted to make fantastic dishes in the kitchen with me. Because if that’s the case, we could have just done that at your house this week.”
“Yeah, it’s not that,” I said. “It’s, um…” I tried to think of an excuse that would cover up the real reason—that Elyse didn’t want to be his partner. But when nothing came to mind, I sighed and said, “I guess I might have been overwhelmed by the thought of cooking with him for the rest of the semester.”
Overwhelmed with joy, that is.
But I couldn’t tell Mack that now, could I?
Mack glanced at the station across the room where Elyse and Ben were currently reading over a recipe together.
He turned back to me. “You really like the guy?” His deep, brown eyes looked skeptically at me, like he couldn’t understand why I would like someone who was tall, gorgeous, and popular like Ben.
“Yes,” I whispered, since it was dumb to deny it when he’d already heard the truth yesterday in my room.
“Well, then how about I help you out?”
“Help me out?” I asked, suddenly worried he was going to walk right over there and ask Ben and Elyse if they wanted to trade back partners.
“Yeah.” Mack shrugged as he started tying his apron behind his lower back, the muscles in his triceps bulging against the sleeve of his white button-up. “I mean, I personally think you could do better than him, but if you really want to get to know Ben better, I can set something up.”
“Really?” I furrowed my brow, wondering if there was some sort of catch.
“Sure,” he said. “Carter talked about riding ATVs on the trails with everyone after school. Want me to invite Ben? I’ll be your wingman.”
My heart raced at the thought of Ben coming to my house.
He’d come to the back-to-school barbecue we’d thrown at the first of the year, and then I’d totally stared at him all night at the soirée a week and a half ago. But those had been big and more crowded events. He’d had all his other friends around him the whole time to keep me from going up and talking to him.
Having him come riding with us would be a lot more intimate. He might actually make eye contact with me for the first time, since it would be harder to make myself invisible in the crowd.
My fingers went tingly as I thought about it. Was I really ready to be forced to talk to him?
Because up until now, I’d been able to imagine that the only reason why Ben wasn’t asking me out was because he just hadn’t noticed me yet or had the opportunity to see how amazing I was.
But once we talked and actually said a few words to each other, what if he went right back to ignoring me again? I’d know for sure it was because of me.
“Why the hesitation?” Mack sounded like he couldn’t imagine why I had to even consider this golden opportunity he was offering me.
“I’m just thinking,” I said.
I looked over at Ben and Elyse. They had already started pulling together the ingredients for today’s chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe and he looked super adorable with his eyebrows squished together as he seemed to be trying to figure out which measuring cup to use for the flour.
Mack leaned closer, and in a low voice that sent chills racing down my spine, he said, “I think I heard Ben say something about preferring brunettes over blondes. You could be exactly his type.”
My heart swooped in my chest at the thought of Ben actually being attracted to someone like me. He’d always seemed to go for the taller girls with long legs before—which was how you’d describe my friends Scarlett, Elyse, and Ava way more than how you’d describe me.
I was barely five-foot-two, and sadly for me where my previous dreams of being a prima ballerina were concerned, I was much more torso than legs.
You miss all the shots you don’t take. I heard my dad’s voice in my head.
And so far, I was excellent at stalling at the free-throw line instead of shooting my shot.
So after taking one more look at Ben who was handing Elyse a silver measuring cup I sighed and said, “Okay. If you don’t mind, then I’d love for you to be my wingman.”
