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.Sure.” From Sean’s reaction, I wasn’t sure if he knew what “confiscate” meant.“Okay, now I really must go.” I tried to give him a kiss on the cheek, but he turned away to talk to some pals just as I was leaning toward him, and I ended up kissing the air instead.I walked as inconspicuously as I could away from the stage area, making sure I didn’t take any long strides that might make my costume ride up—again.Conor was waiting off to the side with my jacket, which he must have carried down from the top.“Thanks,” I said.“Hold on.” Then he thought better of it, and took off his jacket to give me, because it was longer and would cover more of me.“Thanks, but I’ll just go change,” I said.“I’m ready to turn into a different fairy-tale character.”“Yeah, me too,” Conor agreed as we started to walk up toward the lodge.Suddenly a couple of guys stepped in front of us—they looked like they were about twenty.“Hey, Snow White! Can I be your prince?” one of them asked.I would have killed for my over-protective dad to show up right about then.Fortunately, this was something I could deal with on my own.“I don’t think so,” I said firmly.“Come on,” the other guy said.“Aren’t we supposed to kiss you to wake you up?”“Yeah.In your dreams,” I said.I started to walk past them, and one of them reached out to put his arm around me.I jammed him in the ribs with my elbow, dodged out of the way, and said, “Leave me alone, or I’ll have the seven hockey players find you.They carry hockey sticks, okay?”I heaved a sigh of relief once I was back into my own clothes—jeans and a sweater.My furry boots looked much better with jeans than they did with a mini.I hung up the Snow White costume and put it back into the garment bag, then draped it over my arm and walked back to the lodge lounge.Conor was waiting outside the entrance.“You’re funny.You know that?”“What?”“You nearly knocked that guy out!” He laughed.“So, you going to go with the tiara for the rest of the day?”I’d put it back on after I changed clothes, because I didn’t have a good place to set it.Then I’d forgotten all about it.“Oh.Oops.” I reached up and started to take off the tiara, but then I thought better of it.Maybe everyone would treat me like a princess if I acted like one.“Actually, yes.”“Okay…” he said slowly.“I think I’m going outside to watch,” I announced.“You don’t have to.” Conor pointed to the video screens around the lounge.Tons of other people were hanging inside and watching by camera.“I mean, if you don’t want to put your hat on over your tiara.”“That could be lumpy.I don’t know.I should go find Sean, though,” I said.“Found him.” Conor pointed to a large video screen on the wall.Sean was cruising down the mountain on a mattress decorated to look like an MTV Spring Break party, complete with girls in bikinis and guys in shorts, dancing in his jeans and T-shirt.“Oh.Well, that looks like fun.Sort of.” As long as I didn’t look at the bikini-clad girls getting really close to Sean.Conor shook his head.“He’ll do anything for attention.”I turned to him.“Okay.I have a question.Do you guys really not get along, or is it all an act? I mean, I don’t get it, Conor.”“It’s kind of a long story.I’ll buy you a coffee,” he offered.We settled onto a couple of stools at the bar, and I ordered a mocha while Conor got a plain black coffee.“Okay.” Conor sighed.“It’s stupid.”“So tell me how stupid,” I insisted as I checked out the big-screen TV on the wall.Fortunately Sean wasn’t on screen anymore.“I quit the hockey team last year and he’s still mad at me about it, because they lost in the tournament.”“You quit?” I asked.“I thought you didn’t make the team.”“No, that’s true, too.I didn’t make it this year—this fall,” Conor said.“I wanted to get back on the team, but the coach didn’t want me back.I guess I can’t really blame him.He didn’t trust me.”“Why not? When did you quit?” I took a sip of the café mocha.“Just before the tournament.”“No.Why would you do that?”“Yeah, I know, believe me, I’ve had tons of time to think about what a dumb move that was.It was impulsive.It was awful of me to do that to those guys.But I couldn’t stand them anymore.They’re egomaniacs.”“Come on.We have star hockey players at our school, too.They’re nice, mostly.”“I know, I know.It’s not like the norm—I’m not saying that.It’s just, at our school, Sean and his buds are the jocks you have to follow around and bow down to and it’s just—you know, it’s crap.”I laughed.“Crap?”“Yes.The things they do when they’re off the ice, I don’t know, I guess it’s all part of high school.And I basically hate high school right now.”“Why?”“Because.It’s so fake.It’s so competitive.I hate cliques,” Conor said.“Oh.Is that all?” I asked.Conor frowned.“You don’t know what it’s like to be compared to Sean all the time.”“No, I don’t.I mean, that would be weird, right?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.“For one thing, he’s taller.For another, he’s a guy.”He didn’t smile.“Maybe it sucks to have a star for a brother.But you’re just as talented as he is, right? You’re a great goalie.Even Sean said that.”“He did?” Conor seemed surprised, as if he didn’t expect Sean to be able to say one nice thing about him.Even if that were true, in reverse.“Yeah.Well, goalies don’t have the same star power,” he said.“We have great speed, great reactions, great hand-eye coordination.But no groupies.”I smiled, thinking of how when I’d asked Sean about that brown-haired girl being a groupie, he hadn’t seemed to know what that meant.“You know what? I tried hockey once,” I said.“Yeah?”“Yeah.Field hockey.In PE class.Hated it,” I said.“Broke my best friend’s finger, too.”“How’d you manage that?”“I hit her with the ball,” I said.“I was, I don’t know, taking a slap shot I guess.And the ball hit her stick and instead of stopping it, she somehow let it run up the stick and jam her finger dead-on.”“That’s hilarious,” Conor said.“You flattened her finger enough to break it?”“She was cursing so loudly that we both got detention for a week.But that’s Jones.You know, Jones.The girl,” I said.His face turned slightly pink.“So, what position did you play in field hockey?”“I don’t remember exactly.Fullback, maybe? I was supposed to stop people from getting to the goal.Yeah, that was it.Fullback.”He was just looking at me
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