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“No, it’s the opposite.” Brianna grinned, the width of her smile highlighting her pale face and the multiple piercings in her ear. “We’re done. We’re finally done.”
She led me to the back of the parking lot and the flatbed truck that had been the center of so much activity for the first part of the summer. Since showing it to Anya, I’d stayed away, content to let the process play out and let the teens I’d hired complete their vision. And now, I was rewarded for my patience.
The float was stunning—an artistic homage to the theme and to literature in general. From the centerpiece, a replica of the Statue of Liberty wrapped in pages of great books written by women, to the smaller representations of famous characters created by female authors, to the fairy lights strung around the bracing of the trailer, there was no detail left to chance, no thought left out of the final product. In short, it took my breath away, and not in the cliched sense of the phrase.
“This is... this is more than I expected,” I told the group once I was able to form a coherent sentence. Brianna and the other students stood in a row next to the trailer hitch, all of them staring at me with expectant expressions as if they were worried that I might reject what they’d worked so hard on for the last several weeks.
“It’s a little different from what we initially planned,” Tyler said. He was a skinny sixteen-year-old with shaggy brown hair who told me once that he hoped to go to the College-Conservatory of Music to study media production. “But we got really into the theme and just sort of went with it.”
“I’m glad you did.”
“You are?” Brianna sounded like a weight had lifted off her shoulders.
“Yeah.” I turned back to the float, which I circled once, and gave the design a close and careful inspection. This was a feat—Instagrammable, memorable, and best of all...
“It’s going to win first place,” I said.
“You really think so?” Brianna whispered.
“I don’t see how anything beats this one,” I said when I arrived at the corner of the trailer. “It’s too good.”
“That would be awesome,” Tyler said.
“I’ll let you all split the prize money if it wins,” I replied, and the students exchanged a few glances and furtive smiles. “It’s the least I can do, given how hard you worked.”
“You did pay us,” Brianna said.
I shrugged. “Not enough. You guys are way too talented for the rate I gave you.”
“Winning would be huge,” Steven said, and I heard anticipation and hopefulness in his words. “Imagine being able to put that on our college applications.”
I crossed to him and clapped him on the shoulder. “Either way, I’ll write a recommendation for you.” I waved a hand at the rest of the group. “For everyone. You guys deserve it.”
The group broke into collective, relieved, grateful grins, and I began to clap. Hiring them was a great decision. The parade was a few days away, and I was more confident than ever.
Here we come, and more than that, we’re going to win.
