Teaser Tuesday - CLOCKWISE

Launch day for CLOCKWISE is coming soon and I thought I'd do a little teaser each Tuesday up to the launch week of Sept 26-30. Here's the first one. What do you think? 

A large, colorful new poster hung on the wall near our table. I caught Lucinda’s eyes darting towards it repeatedly.     

“What’s up?”

“The Fall dance is in two weeks,” said Lucinda.

 With a mouthful of chili I said, “Yeah, so what?”

  “I think we should go.”

 I examined her dark eyes and wondered if she’d gone mad. “We never go to dances.” I sipped a bit of soda.

 “But, this is our last chance.”

 Did I miss something? “Our last chance for what?”

 “It’s our last chance to practice for, like, the junior prom.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t exactly planning on going to that.” I took another bite.

 “Casey,” Lucinda wiped her mouth with a napkin. “If we don’t practice for the Junior Prom we won’t know what to do at THE Prom.”

  “So, you want to go to the Fall Dance in order to practice for the Junior Prom in order to practice for THE Prom?”

   Lucinda nodded with a big wide smile.

  “But, THE Prom’s still two years away and I probably won’t go to it anyway.”

   Lucinda blew her bangs out of her eyes. “You totally have to go to THE Prom. It’s like a rite of passage or something. The Fall Dance is a chance to learn, to see how it’s done.” She pulled a compact mirror out of her purse and checked her teeth.  “Also, we don’t want to screw up due to ignorance at the Junior Prom and thus screw up at THE Prom.”

  She had been thinking about this. A lot. “Okay. So, this is sort of a fact finding mission.”

            “Yes, totally.”

            “No actual dancing?”

            “Of course not.” Lucinda shuddered.

            “I don’t know.” I put all my garbage on my tray. “It sounds risky.”

            Lucinda reached into her purse and pulled out two strips of thin, shiny cardboard.            

            “You already bought tickets?” I said through clenched teeth.

            “Casey,” Lucinda cocked her head and said gently. “It will be fun.”

            She thought it would be fun. I thought it would be a nightmare.