Ashes to Ashes

THE PROM COMMITTEE HAS ONLY MET TWICE SINCE the new year. Rennie was the head of the committee. I guess I’ve pretty much taken over her job, but only because I’m good at making lists and keeping track of things. Rennie never wrote anything down. I was basically her secretary.

I open up my notebook, start going down the checklist, and say, “So far we’ve only sold twenty tickets to prom. We really need to work on outreach, you guys.”

“Actually, I’d like to address that,” Alex says from the other end of the long library table.

I’m careful not to look directly at him. “What is it, Alex?”

He looks out at the table. “It’s been brought to my attention that—”

Reeve chuckles, and it makes Alex’s mouth snap shut. “Sorry. You just sound like Principal Tortola.” Reeve looks at Derek and makes a smirky face, and Derek smirks back.

Alex continues as if Reeve didn’t speak. “It’s been brought to my attention that some people feel the price of prom is too expensive, and that some people who’d like to go can’t swing it.”

“What do you mean?” Ash asks, frowning. “Who’s been telling you that? Your chorus friends?”

“It’s just a lot of money, when you stop and think about it. Last year tickets were, what, fifty bucks? And now they’re a hundred? That’s crazy.”

I speak up. “It’s because Rennie changed the venue from the Water Club to that club in the city, remember?”

Derek groans. “It’s gonna take us an hour to get there.”

“Plus, the point of prom is to celebrate the end of high school with the whole class,” Alex says. “I mean, twenty tickets? Half of those were bought by the people on this committee! If it’s just going to be us like always, why are we even bothering?”

I press my lips together tightly. It wasn’t my idea to move prom! I wanted to keep it at the Water Club so we could get nice pictures on the dock. “You guys were all sitting at this very table when Rennie brought up the idea of having the prom off island. Not one person objected.”

“Rennie had a way of convincing people,” Alex admits.

“Oh, wait up!” Derek says. “Speaking of Rennie, Lil, do you know if our flight back from Jamaica is direct?”

I frown. “What flight?”

“For spring break.”

Alex groans. “Weren’t we just talking about prom?”

I completely forgot about our spring break plans. We made those plans before Rennie’s death, before everything. Rennie had found some package online through a travel agency that included airfare and hotel at an all-inclusive resort. We gave her the deposit money last summer, before school started. “Um, I don’t even know if that’s still happening,” I say. Everyone’s staring at me, slack-jawed. “I mean, I don’t know if she ever gave the second half of the deposit or what. I don’t even know which website Rennie found the deal on.”

Reeve lifts his head off the table. Underneath he grabs my hand and gives it a quick squeeze.

Derek groans. “Are you serious? But you were, like, her right-hand man . . .” His voice trails off.

I bite my lip. This isn’t my fault. It’s not like I was in charge of the trip. Any one of us could have asked Rennie about it.

“Well, then, where’d the money go?” Ash demands.

Reeve and I exchange a look. I’m sure he’s thinking what I’m thinking. That there is a very good possibility that Rennie used that money on something else—like, say, her over-the-top New Year’s Eve party—and was planning on paying it back with the cover fee she charged that night for people to get in. She’d done it before with cheerleading money. But there’s no way I’m saying it now when she isn’t here to defend herself. “I have no idea.”

Ash pouts, “If this trip is ruined, I don’t know what we’re going to do. Everything else will be booked up.” She casts a dark look in my direction. “Thanks a lot, Lillia.”

“Hey, how is this her fault?” Reeve demands. “If we lost our spot, we’ll just go somewhere else.”

“How?” Derek snaps. “I don’t have money to put toward a new trip. I gave Ren everything I had saved.”

Alex starts packing up his things. “Look, don’t worry, guys. If we can’t go to Jamaica, I bet my uncle Tim will let us take his boat.” He turns his back on Reeve and me, and to the rest of the group, he says, “He’ll hire a crew to take us. They’ll cook for us and everything. Trust me, it’ll be better than Jamaica.”

Everyone starts talking at once, all excited, and I get up to throw away my lunch. Reeve follows me over to the trash cans. He whispers, “I have a feeling we’re not going to be welcome on Tim’s boat, Cho.”

“Fine by me,” I say, and I mean it. With everything that’s happened this year, I really am fine to sit this one out.