And yet there’s a catch. My anonymity. I’d have to give it up, something I’ve never thought of doing. Something I’ve never really needed to consider before.
Oh, my God. I have to tell someone. I call Jared.
“You won’t believe it.”
“Are you okay? You sound like you forgot to breathe.”
“You won’t believe who I just got an email from!”
“I have no clue. Don’t make me guess.”
“Seventeen magazine. They’re doing a story on teen entrepreneurs and they want to feature the Oracle of Dating.”
“That’s great, Kayla! How’d they find out about you?”
“I don’t know. But she mentioned the controversy on the site, so maybe she found out about it because of that.”
“So all of that stuff you went through really did pay off.”
“Apparently.” I still can’t wrap my mind around this. “But there’s a catch. If they’re going to profile me, she wants to use my real name and picture. She says anonymity won’t appeal to the readership.”
“Makes sense. Do you have a problem with that?”
“I haven’t had a chance to think about it. Being anonymous is so…”
“Safe?”
“I was going to say easy. But yeah, it’s safe. I can say what I want without feeling people will judge me personally.”
“Isn’t that what you said about that teenmoi girl—that she didn’t have to be held accountable for what she writes?”
“That’s a good point. It’s just…this is scary. It’s a risk, isn’t it?”
“Everything is a risk. Getting up in the morning is a risk. You can slip and bang your head in the shower. But you’re not afraid of risks, are you?”
“No. I mean, maybe. It’ll just be so strange for everyone to know I’m the Oracle. Especially everyone at school. I’m used to flying under the radar, and I like it that way.”
“Well, you’re going to have to get used to a little attention. I know you can handle it. Think of it this way—putting your identity behind your words will give what you say more power.”
“You’re right but…”
“You always say ‘but.’ This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Go for it, Oracle. Now, I’m off work at nine. Can I stop in and see you after?”
“Sure.”
We hang up, and I lie back on my bed, thinking.
Jared’s right. Anonymity is a luxury I can’t afford if I want to get somewhere with my business. My whole purpose is to help as many people as I can, and this article could bring me lots of new clients. I’d be a fool to let this opportunity pass me by.
I go over to the computer and press reply.
Dear Ms. Cossell,
I’m honored to have been chosen for your list of young entrepreneurs. Yes, I’m a teen—I’m sixteen actually. I will happily accept your offer to be featured in Seventeen magazine. Please let me know what I should do next.
Thanks so much!
Michaela Cruickshank
Over the next few days, I try to put the Seventeen thing out of my mind and focus on exam prep. I’m missing Jared, though. We’ve only hung out a couple of times since we got back together and it’s driving us crazy. But it’s probably a good thing that we’re making a slow start. We don’t want our relationship to totally consume us this time around. I’ve worked too hard on the Oracle of Dating—and myself—to go back to my BF-centered ways.
When Jared gets word that he’s gotten a scholarship for full tuition to the Manhattan School of Art, we’re both over the moon. Then he shocks me by suggesting we celebrate on a double date. He used to be anti double dates, saying that he didn’t want to share my company with another couple. This one he’s set up himself, and he won’t tell me who the other couple is.
We arrive at the restaurant just after seven, met by the scent of paprika and garlic. Felena’s is a well-known Spanish place in Brooklyn Heights, but I’ve never been inside before. The ceilings are low, the lighting from wall sconces is dim, and the walls are covered in mosaics. We bypass the hostess and look around for familiar faces. Jared told me that I know the couple we’re meeting, but that’s all he let me in on. If it was one of my friends or his bandmates, there’d be no reason to keep it a secret, so my guess is Evgeney and Naomi. Jared knows that I consider Evgeney my star pupil. Tonight I’ll get to see him in action—if I’m right.
Jared isn’t usually into surprises, but judging from the smile at the edge of his mouth, he’s enjoying this. We don’t spot the mystery couple in the front section of the restaurant, so we go up some steps into the raised section at the back.
“Maybe they aren’t here yet,” I say. And then, through a cloud of paella smoke, I spot them. Tracey and Rodrigo are next to each other in a booth, heads bent in conversation.
“You set them up!” I throw my arms around him. “That’s so sweet of you!”
He hugs me back, then grabs my waist and pulls me to the side as a waiter comes through with a huge tray. As we get closer, I see Tracey nuzzle Rodrigo’s neck. He brushes a lock of hair off her forehead and kisses her there tenderly.
Then it clicks. I mean, really clicks. Tracey and Rodrigo haven’t just been set up tonight. He’s the guy she’s been dating; the one she wasn’t ready to tell me about. The one she thought was too good to be true.
They look up at us, beaming. I’m speechless.
“Sit down, sis,” Tracey says. “We’ll tell you everything.”
Rodrigo gives me a warm smile. “Nice to see you again, Kayla. I feel like I know you already, what with Jared and Tracey talking about you so much.”
“Thanks.” I sit down, reeling, but happy. Ridiculously happy. I turn to Jared. “How did you…?”
“Um, well, I set them up—the rest is all them.”
“When?”
“About a month ago.”
“Five weeks tomorrow,” Tracey says with a giggle. “Not that we’re keeping track.”
“I most certainly am.” Rodrigo squeezes her to his side. “Jared told me that women like to have an excuse to celebrate, so it’s a good idea to have frequent anniversaries in the first year.”
Tracey nudges him. “And I thought celebrating our anniversary last week was your idea!”
“Maybe it wasn’t my idea, but I’m smart enough to know how to follow good advice. I take my cues from Jared, who’s learned the rules from the guru herself. I told him to give me any tip possible to hang on to you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask Jared.
“I didn’t want you to know until you’d made your decision about me. I wasn’t sure if it would work out anyway. It could’ve totally backfired.”
“It almost did.” Rodrigo slants a glance at Tracey. “She stood me up on the first date.”
Tracey tosses her hair. “So I confused the Black Tomato and the Green Tomato. It was an honest mistake.”
And from there the night’s all chatter and laughter. I don’t need to drag Tracey to the bathroom to quiz her on Rodrigo because all I need to know is right in front of me. He’s crazy about her, and not in the flighty, temporary way of so many guys she’s met. I can tell that something deep and wonderful is happening here—on both sides of the table.
When I wake up the next morning, I feel a flutter of nervousness. Tonight’s the night I’m going to tell my friends that I’m the Oracle, and I have no clue how they’re going to react. Telling them that Jared and I got back together was one thing—it turned out they’d anticipated that—but this?
To prepare them for the news, I send a text: I have something to tell you guys tonight. See you then.
I spend the day studying, which involves reading through my notes and making little cheat sheets. I don’t take the cheat sheets into the exam, of course, but writing the material really small and in the fewest words possible helps me remember it.
The plan is to meet up at Load It Up, a so-called gourmet burger place, where no burger topping is too unusual.
Part of the fun is outdoing each other with our choice of toppings. Ryan usually wins. Last time his burger was a triple threat, with peanut butter, bacon and a fried egg.
I’m the last one to arrive. They fall silent as I walk up. “Hey, guys.”
“Hey,” they all say, looking at me with sympathy.
“You said you had something to tell us.” Sharese gives my shoulder a squeeze when I slide into the booth next to her.
“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” Viv says. “Most of the time when people get back together, it doesn’t work out. At least you gave it a shot.”
I stare at them. “You think this is about Jared?”
“So, if it isn’t, what is it?” Ryan asks.
Amy claps her hands together. “I knew it—she’s pregnant! Ryan, you owe me ten bucks.”
“I am so not pregnant,” I say. “I’m not even doing anything that could get me pregnant—sorry to disappoint you. My news is nothing like that. Um…you know that website, the Oracle of Dating?”
My friends nod around the table.
“I’ve got to confess something. I’m the Oracle.”
I look around at my friends, whose expressions register varying degrees of shock.
“You’re kidding,” Sharese says.
Ryan doesn’t believe it either. “Yeah, right. You? A fountain of wisdom?”
I clear my throat. “Yes, me. I’m really sorry to keep it from you guys, but when I started the website, I was so afraid it would fail that I didn’t want anyone to know. And after that, I was embarrassed, I guess. I’d heard you guys making fun of it.”
Sharese turns to Viv. “You knew, didn’t you? That’s why you started that Facebook group to bring back the Oracle when she went offline last fall.”
Viv nods guiltily. “Kayla felt she had to tell me. It was the Oracle who gave me the advice to date Max secretly. When Kayla realized that her advice got me grounded, she confessed that she was the Oracle.”
Ryan narrows his eyes. “I bet Jared knows, too.”
“Yeah, but he guessed. I’d written a blog after our first date and he figured it out.”
“So are you making lots of money?” Sharese asks.
I wish. “No. Just enough to keep going. Hopefully that’ll change sometime.”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea for you,” Amy says. “You should let people put up profiles and find dates through it.”
“I wouldn’t dare. A site like that could get out of control. Adults could be posing as teens.”
“Does this mean we’re going to get free advice?” Sharese asks. “Not that I need it, but still.”
“You get free advice already. I just didn’t say it was coming from the Oracle.”
“I don’t get why you didn’t tell us before.” Ryan’s obviously not sure if he should be mad at me or excited by the news. “I know we made fun of the website, but we wouldn’t have if we’d known it was you.” He pauses. “Okay, so maybe we would have, but we would’ve supported you.”
“I know. I was too sensitive. But I’m not as sensitive anymore. My website’s taken a lot of flack lately, and in the end, it’s toughened me up. I’m not afraid to let people know what I do anymore.” I realize that it’s true; I really am ready for my identity to be exposed. “I’m proud of my advice, and I’m standing behind it.”
It’s a bright blue-skied day, and I’m having lunch on the school lawn with my friends. The sun feels good on my skin. I tilt my head back and let it reflect off my sunglasses. Jared is beside me, his hand entwined with mine.
My friends are chatting it up as usual. Evgeney is with us, too, having rolled up his sleeves to tan his pale, freckled arms.
As for Amy, she’s getting less emo every day. She’s no longer glancing over her shoulder constantly for a Chad sighting and breaking down when she spots him.
“Thank God we’ll be seniors next year,” Sharese says between bites of salad. “The junior thing is old.”
“Soon we’ll be off to college, maybe going our separate ways,” Viv says.
“That’s not for another year,” Ryan points out, “and, hello, we’ll be texting and emailing each other so much that we won’t get any work done.”
“Good point,” Viv says. “I’ll have to block you so I can study.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I might have to.” Viv laughs.
I glance at my watch. “It’s almost time, guys.” I stuff the remains of my lunch into the paper bag.
“Time for what?” They all want to know.
“I’m not telling.”
“She obviously arranged for someone from the yearbook club to take a picture of us,” Ryan says. “Why else would she have told us to look good?”
“Don’t we always look good?” Amy asks. “What’s special about today?”
“You’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I have an extra brush and mirror if anyone wants to put on the finishing touches.”
Making a joke of it, my friends scramble to pretty themselves up, mockingly grabbing the mirror from each other. Evgeney, serious as ever, takes out a little mirror and runs a comb through his hair. Jared doesn’t spare his appearance a second glance, but I insist on patting his hair down a little. The wind isn’t helping.
Soon a black hatchback pulls up in front of the lawn. A guy with a camera gets out and looks around.
I run over to him. “Hi, I’m Kayla. You’re Paolo?”
“Yep. Great day, isn’t it? We can shoot you and your friends right here on the lawn. I assume that’s the group over there?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice spot with the trees behind you. Let me get set up. It won’t take long.”
I hurry back to my friends. “The photographer is here. He’s from Seventeen magazine.”
My friends gawk at me.
I grin. “It turns out Seventeen is doing an article on young entrepreneurs, and they’d like to do a profile on the Oracle of Dating. I told them my friends inspired me and asked if she could use a picture of the group of us.”
Amy starts to hyperventilate, but Sharese talks her through it, assuring her she wore the perfect outfit. Ryan and Viv battle over the brush, but Evgeney intervenes by handing Ryan his comb.
Paolo watches us with amusement as he’s setting up his equipment. He places me in the center of the group and says he wants us to lounge on the grass like we’re chilling.
“How are we supposed to chill when we’re going to be in a national magazine?” Amy demands.
After taking a couple of practice shots, Paolo adjusts the camera and looks through the lens. “Perfect! You guys look fantastic. I want to see huge smiles, people! Say world famous!”
“World famous!” we say together.
Snap, snap, snap. Paolo keeps shouting encouragement, occasionally telling us to shift position. It’s not hard for me to keep my smile in place, because at this moment I’m really, truly happy. I’ve got great friends around me and a boyfriend I love.
I’m tempted to call it a fairy-tale ending, but the Oracle knows there’s always more to the story. And senior year promises to be full of surprises…
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7451-2
THE ORACLE REBOUNDS
Copyright © 2010 by Allison van Diepen
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Allison van Diepen, The Oracle Rebounds
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