was that?” Julian asked.
“The costume guy.” Tristan was struggling as they manoeuvred the trunk down the stairs. “His name is Cromwell Gilly. He used to go to McKinley. He’s training to be a designer now, and he likes to practice sewing and stuff at the academy.” They heaved the trunk down onto the costume-room floor with relief. “Whew! Let’s leave the rest for Leon and Jonathon, okay?”
“Sounds good to me,” Julian said, and they trudged up the stairs.
Cromwell Gilly was even more eccentric close up. He was very small and had long, thin blond hair, and he was in constant motion. He wore extremely tight, black skinny pants, pointed leather shoes, a white poet’s shirt open to show a great deal of his chest, a belt with a huge silver buckle on it, three rings, and a leather and silver necklace. As he darted around measuring people, he’d tell them to put their arms up and down, then shout out their measurements to Michael’s mother, and generally promoting noise and confusion. The students were sprawled all over the hall, talking loudly to be heard over the commotion.
“By the way, he likes to be called by his full name,” Tristan whispered to Julian.
“He’s even more interesting with sound,” Julian whispered to Tristan as soon as they were close enough to hear him. They both sat down on the floor next to Alexandra, snickering.
“Oh. My. God.” Cromwell Gilly said as he measured Aiko’s ankle.
“What?” she asked, sounding worried.
“Oh nothing, nothing,” he said, frowning. He called out the number to Michael’s mother, his eyebrows raised. She gave him a weird look, but wrote down the number.
“What? What?” Aiko asked, starting to freak out.
“Oh, nothing,” Michael’s mother said.
“Done!” Cromwell Gilly sang out, smiling at Aiko. She walked off frowning, clenching and unclenching her hands. “Lexi, baby, how are you, love?” he asked Alexandra, gesturing her forward. Without letting her answer, he continued. “I can’t believe I was called in this late. What were they thinking?” Cromwell Gilly didn’t like the Demidovskis. Every year he would design new costumes for them, and every year they would nod politely and continue using the twenty- or thirty-year-old costumes instead. Any time something on the building was fixed, he took it as evidence that they had money they could give him to make the costumes but preferred to waste it on stupid things like fixing the roof.
“Did you know that they got a new car?” he asked ALexandra in a stage whisper as he measured her hips. She shook her head. “Done!” he said, spinning her around by the shoulder and pushing her away.
“Next!” Angela stepped forward, and Cromwell Gilly frowned. “What are you in?” he asked, scanning his list. “Oh, ‘Trepak,’” he answered himself in relief. “Thank god it’s not a tutu! Those ‘Trepak’ dresses are easy to let out.” Behind her Alexandra and Tristan giggled. Angela’s face turned completely red. Cromwell Gilly gestured her away, saying “We’ll just do you later, shall we? Next!” Delilah giggled as she stepped forward.
“Del, darling, how are you! What are we going to do about your boobage m’dear?” he said, frowning as he measured them. Delilah blushed. “We’ll just take some of the material from the waist and add it to the chest, shall we?” She rolled her eyes and he called for the next dancer.
Tristan shoved Julian forward. But, much to Julian’s relief, Cromwell Gilly didn’t have anything embarrassing to say about him, merely remarking that he had “a very nice body for dance, don’t you think, Tristan?”
In the big room where the stacks of costumes were, the girls were rummaging through the tutus, each trying to find one in their size. Taylor was trying to do up Kaitlyn’s Clara costume, but it wasn’t working. Kaitlyn looked like she was about to cry, as Taylor gave up happily and said, loudly, “It’s just not going to do up, Kaitlyn. It’s all right, though. They always have to adjust the costumes for me, too, because I’m so small. Like, in width.”
Keiko found a tutu that fit. But she scowled when she looked at the tag, and went off to find another one.
“Are some of them taken already?” Julian asked Tristan.
“No, it’s just that these tutus are so old, they kind of have history, you know? Everyone wants to get one that a good dancer, or one with a good body type used to wear, just to see if it fits. It’s kind of cool that they used to wear it. So you always look inside the costume to see who wore it before you.”
“Yeah,” Kageki said enthusiastically. “I got to wear a costume that Mr. Yu wore once. It was so cool.…”
“It fit you?” Julian asked.
Tristan laughed. “No, duh! They took it up like 50 percent.”
“But I still wore it,” Kageki said defensively.
Suddenly, they heard Taylor say, “But I got it first!” She sounded close to tears.
Jessica was trying to pry her tutu away from her, saying “I need to wear that one! I’m taller than you. Go find one that a shorter person wore.”
Keiko came up to Taylor holding a tutu. “Taylor, try this one. It’s small, and Leonie wore it!”
“Leonie Camden?” Taylor excitedly shoved the other tutu into Jessica’s arms. She tried it on and Keiko did her up.
“It’ll need to be taken in,” Keiko said.
“No, it’s fine,” Taylor said. She shot Jessica a worried glance to make sure she wasn’t trying to steal this tutu also. “This is so cool! Can you believe that Leonie did this dance once? I mean seriously,” she shook her head. “Thank you so much, Keiko!” She hugged her.
“Can we go, yet, do you think?” Julian asked. He was getting bored and ripping apart tape that held the floor pieces together.
“Yes,” Kageki said.
“Don’t we have a speech thingy from the Demidovskis today?” Tristan asked, turning to Kageki.
“No. The Demidovskis decided that they didn’t want to come today.”
“Figures,” said Tristan. “Come on, let’s get out of here fast, before anyone decides they need us.” He ushered Kageki and Julian down the hall as fast as he could.
“Where are you guys going?” Alexandra asked as Michael’s mother hooked her into a tutu.
“Outta here, loser!” Tristan said, laughing.
“Loser yourself!” Alexandra stuck out her tongue at him.
As they got changed, Julian asked Tristan and Kageki if they wanted to hang out.
“I want to,” Tristan said, “but I have so much physics homework and an in-class English essay tomorrow.”
“Okay, I will,” Kageki said, shrugging.
Julian felt a bit awkward as he and Kageki walked out together. They didn’t normally hang out without Tristan. “So, where do you want to go?”
“I
