Page 77 of The Kissing Booth
‘You got us the Royale?’ Kaitlin shrieked, voicing what most of us girls were thinking. The Royale was a totally extravagant hotel, all white and gold and marble.
Tyrone nodded. ‘Yup. The budget managed to swing it, but we’ll be tight pressed on the decorations and the band, unless we bump tickets up a little.’
‘Well, we can do that,’ I said. ‘It’s the Royale. Nobody will care if they have to pay a little more to go there.’
‘True,’ he said, and everyone nodded to show they agreed with me. ‘Well, anyway, we really need to figure out food, a band, the tickets and—’
‘We need a theme,’ one of the girls said, planting her hands down on the table.
Faith jumped in her seat excitedly. ‘We should totally do, like, medieval! I saw this show where they had a medieval theme and it was awesome!’
‘No,’ all the boys said, almost simultaneously. I giggled at the horrified look on Lee’s face.
‘How about black and white?’
‘That’s hardly summery.’
‘Vintage? Like, the sixties or something? Or, no – we should do, like, the Roaring Twenties! The guys would all turn up like gangsters in flashy suits, and you know they had those – oh, what do you call them? – the flapper dresses. It’d be so cool,’ Bridget suggested excitedly.
‘Um, no,’ someone said flatly.
‘Do I get to take a gun,’ Tony joked, ‘if I’m Al Capone?’
‘That would totally work,’ one of the boys said sarcastically. It was Max, from my English class. ‘Prohibition era? At a school dance? Because nobody’s going to try and smuggle in alcohol and get school dances banned.’
‘Well, we could have a masquerade—’
‘Yeah! Oh my God, yes! That’s awesome!’
I groaned and banged my head down on the table before sitting back up. ‘Oh, come on! Don’t you think that’s just so overdone?Everybodyhas a masquerade these days. It’s even all over TV. There’s got to besomethingelse...’
‘We already had that stupid Hollywood theme or whatever the hell you called it for the Winter Dance,’ Eric grumbled. ‘At least the masquerade thing is kind of cool.’
‘But it’s been done so many times!’
‘I agree,’ Lee said.
‘Of course you do,’ I heard Tyrone mutter as he shook his head at us.
‘Hey, we could always have a mini carnival,’ said Lily with a gleam in her eyes. ‘You know, with a fortune teller, cotton candy... another kissing booth.’
‘So long as Elle’s running it I’m all for that,’ laughed Tony, one of the seniors, winking at me. I just rolled my eyes and hoped I wasn’t blushing. All this time, and they were still bringing up how I’d made out with Flynn at the kissing booth.
‘No, we’re not doing that,’ Lee said, sounding so much like Noah I did a double take.
‘Well, anyway,’ Tyrone said, clearly getting impatient now. ‘Everyone in favor of a masquerade?’
Everyone bar Lee and I raised their hands.
‘Then it’s settled. Lee, Elle, can I count on you guys to do the posters and the tickets?’
‘Sure,’ we sighed at the same time. While Tyrone basically dictated what we were to make, without giving us a particular design, everyone else split up the rest of the duties between them.
Don’t get me wrong – I was really looking forward to the Summer Dance. It would be amazing – especially since the venue was the Royale. But I hated the prospect of having to get a date.
The dances at our school were for juniors and seniors. The Winter and Summer Dances were huge events here. For the Winter Dance I’d just gone with Lee as friends, since he didn’t have a girlfriend at the time.
But now he’d ask Rachel.
