When Audrey Met Alice by Rebecca Behrens

obvious reasons, couldn’t go.
    “Oh. You’re probably right.” We walked up the steps to Friendship Hall, which used to be a colonial church but now serves as the school’s main auditorium. The first floor is filled with refurbished pews and up some stairs is a balcony that stretches along three sides of the large, one-room building. The back walls of the balcony level are broken up by the original stained-glass church windows, and on sunny days the seats up there are treated to a dazzling colored-light show. Quint and I hurried up the steps two at a time, seeing that the hall was already pretty full.
    Seeing me plus Hendrix heading toward a front-row balcony pew, the kids already sitting in it scooted their butts away, repelled like a drop of oil hitting water. Even though a lot of kids are still super fake-nice around me, not a lot of people want to sit next to a Secret Service agent at a boring assembly. It makes goofing off hard. Quint didn’t seem to care, though. We settled into our pew, Hendrix taking a chair against the back wall behind us. A few minutes later the headmaster, Dr. Holmes, walked out to the pulpit-made-lectern. The crowd hushed.
    “Good afternoon, students and Friends.” He never resists that pun, and I could barely stifle a groan. Next to me, Quint rolled his eyes and pretended to gag. The way he was sitting, with his left leg crossed and resting on top of his right knee, I could see that he’d used a Sharpie to write “Here comes Treble” on the edge of his shoe. I found that unbearably adorkable.
    “I’m very pleased to announce that the faculty council has decided on the destination for this year’s class trip.” I wished that I had the certainty of attending that everyone else had. Maybe, if it’s on the East Coast, I can go. The room hushed as everyone waited for Dr. Holmes to announce the destination.
    “This year’s Friends Academy class trip will be to…” Dr. Holmes paused. For once he had the attention of every student during an assembly, and he milked it for all it was worth. “New York City!” The audience went crazy, cheers erupting and kids jumping up and down in the pews. “Careful, careful.” Some of the teachers frantically ran around reminding people that they were in a historic place and needed to be mindful of that . Quint danced around in his seat, and I also found that adorkable.
    His happiness was contagious, and I started to dance too. Sure, I’d been to New York a handful of times and seen the ballet and Broadway shows before. But I’d never been to 62nd and Madison and seen Bye’s house. I wanted to see everyplace Alice had lived. I felt myself getting wrapped up in the excitement about the trip—until I remembered that I had roughly a snowball’s chance in Hades of going. Last year, they decided it was too much of a security risk for me to travel with a school group. I didn’t know how it would be any different this year, and New York is a big place. I slunk back down into my pew.
    Quint turned to me, brown eyes shining. “Audrey, isn’t that awesome? Maybe we’ll get to see a performance of the Blue Man Group!” He started drumming on the seat of our pew with one hand and tapping the balcony ledge with the other.
    I smiled halfheartedly. “Why haven’t you seen it before? You go to New York with your parents a lot, right?” His dad is always at the UN, and his mom goes to all sorts of conferences and guest lectures.
    “They’re usually too busy for stuff like that. And if we go to a concert or a show, they only like serious stuff.”
    “I can relate—” I was interrupted by Dr. Holmes speaking again.
    “I’m glad to see such enthusiasm for our selection. The itinerary is still being finalized, but we do intend to offer chances to see live theater, tour the museums, and perhaps even pay a visit to Lady Liberty.” He explained that we’d all receive an informational packet at home to share with our parents. A limited number of