Professor Cassandra

The night had finally arrived, and excitement was thick in the air as we approached the entrance to the Borders bookstore. It was only 9:30, and already the place was crowded.

“Smile!” said my mom, holding up her camera.

We all lined up, too cheerful to be embarrassed, as she took our picture together; it was me, my friends Lori and Salem, my cousin Rae, and Salem’s mom. Lori and I already had our own cameras at the ready.

The bookstore was humongous. We were all itching to have a look around, but first we had to wait in line; they were handing out colored tickets for the DVDs, as they were in limited stock. Employees came by us handing out candy; we were going to need the sugar tonight.

“He was checking me out,” joked my mom when one man offered us chocolates.

We all burst out laughing. “Woah,” chuckled Lori, “you’ve already got Sirius Black and George Clooney—isn’t that enough?”

“You don’t know my mom,” I said, and we all laughed again.

Soon a lady came by handing out sheets of paper; one Twilight movie awards ballot and one scavenger hunt list for everyone. We had already printed out our own ballots, so we just took the lists and read them over. Apparently we had to find certain books relating to Twilight in some way or another, and write down the title and the author. We could already fill in quite a few of the blanks without even looking, such as “Go to the DVD section and find a movie that one of the Twilight cast members was in.” Duh, Goblet of Fire!

I was scribbling on my sheet when someone spoke over the loudspeaker, “Robert Pattinson to the front desk!” Everyone laughed, because he was obviously joking. Like Rob Pattinson would really show his face in Nowheresville. Upon confirming that it was indeed a joke, the announcer informed us that the tickets would soon be handed out, and it wasn’t long before the line was moving.

Of our group, only Salem’s mom and I ended up getting tickets, as everyone else had decided to buy different versions of the DVD. Lori and Salem then went off looking for manga while Rae and I got started on the scavenger hunt. Half the fun was in exploring and learning our way around the huge store. Books as far as the eye could see…needless to say we were in heaven.

We had filled out about half the blanks on our sheet of paper when there came an announcement that they were starting the trivia competition, and that anyone wanting to participate should come to the café area. The announcer also said that a stunt double from the movie was there, although I didn’t catch whose double it was; with all the noise it was near impossible even to hear the announcements at all. Only Rae and I played; Lori and Salem were both content with their manga. Party poopers….

We arrived at the café to find a huge crowd already there. A DJ from a local radio station was there, standing in front of a table lined with free beaded necklaces and compact mirrors with the name of his station on them. Sitting behind the table was a young guy who had to be the stunt double; he had a kind of haughty look about him and he seemed somewhat bored. On the right side of the table was a box for the ballots. Rae and I put ours in and took our place again in the crowd.

The DJ got up on a chair and told everyone in the café to split into two groups: Team Edward and Team Jacob. Rae and I went to the right, both being Edward fans. We started with movie vs. book trivia—if what he read out happened in the movie, you had to yell “Movie!” as quickly as possible; same for the book. We did movie trivia and a cite-the-quote game afterward. Then he announced the winners of the movie awards and began to draw ballots out of the box—ten lucky people were to win a movie still if their names were drawn. He drew many more than ten names, though; I doubt everyone in the store could hear the announcements, and when they didn’t come for their prize he had to draw again. My cell phone was at the ready in case one of our friends won, but none of our company did.

We all dispersed after that, but Rae and I barely had time to complete the scavenger hunt before we were called back to the café for a costume contest. Only I went to this one, though. I stood by the Twilight merchandise, feeling completely awkward with no one to talk to; but they were to start the contest any moment now, and I wanted to film it, so I couldn’t leave. People were laughing and talking all around me as I scanned the crowd, trying to figure out who was entering.

I glanced toward the table; Stunt Double Guy was looking right at me.

Woah…what?! No…why would he? Did he think I was weird or something? I quickly glanced down at the merchandise, pretending to be interested in an overpriced t-shirt I had already looked at thirty minutes ago. After a few moments I glanced up again, curious. He was still looking. I met his gaze for a second then looked down again. My face had to be completely red; I wasn’t really aware that I existed outside my close-knit group of friends—much like Bella, I’m unbearably shy. (Seriously, you outgoing types don’t know how well you have it!) I looked up a third time, and he was still trying to meet my gaze. Then, feeling like a complete idiot, I turned away to look at another shelf of merchandise. So why didn’t I talk to him, or even look at him, again? Oh, right. Because I suck.

But then it was time for the costume contest. Putting all social awkwardness temporarily out of my mind, I whipped out my camera and began to film. Very few contestants were actually in costume; most just happened to look somewhat like certain characters. Only two groups, I thought, really had a shot at winning—three little girls dressed in vampire baseball uniforms, and a group of teens dressed as Victoria, Bella, and the Cullens at the prom. The latter deserved the most to win; they had obviously put a lot of effort into their costumes (Bella even had a cast on her leg!), and almost everyone in the crowd seemed to agree. Surprisingly, though, the judges chose the baseball girls, who won a Twilight soundtrack and Catherine Hardwick’s Director’s Notebook.

The activities were over now, and the announcement came that the café was about to close, so I hurried over and got in line for a cappuccino. I got there just in time; I was the last customer they were going to serve before closing. Rae had already gotten a cup.

“We did it!” cheered the girls behind the counter as they finished up; they had obviously been working hard all night. I joined them in a group hug and headed for the front of the store.

Now people were beginning to line up for the release. I pulled my ticket out of my purse; it was yellow, indicating that I was in the third group to receive their DVDs. It wasn’t time for me to get in line yet, so I searched out my friends. Lori and Salem had found the books they were looking for. We all stood around the table where we got our tickets, waiting for the announcement that it was the yellows’ turn. My mom came up and took my ticket, offering to wait in line for me so we could all look around the store again.

But Salem was a bit preoccupied at the moment.

“Come on,” said Lori, dragging me away. “We can’t interfere with this.”

I looked back; Salem had found some girls to talk to! Go Salem!

Lori and I walked away, so happy for our best guy friend that we were giggling like crazy. The last few minutes of the party were fun; we shopped around for books, we chatted excitedly about the night’s events, and I got to chase right-wing Lori around the store while reading aloud from a global warming book (We like to poke fun at each other because we’re total opposites politically). My mom was at the front of the line when I met up with her.

“Are you gonna stay up and watch your movie when you get home?” asked the cashier.

“Depends on how well this coffee works,” I replied. It was after midnight by now.

We met up with Salem’s mom at the front of the store. She had given her ticket to someone else, deciding not to buy a movie after all. Rae was there, too, but Lori and Salem were not.

I knew exactly where they were; Salem was still where I left him, talking to the same girls while Lori was waiting for him a few feet away, keeping silent so as not to interfere. I wasn’t about to bother him, either, but he saw me there, and he didn’t seem to mind at all.

“…And this is Cassandra!” he said. They had already met Lori, apparently.

“Hi!” I said, smiling. They were really nice girls, and I ended up taking a picture of them and Salem together with one of their cameras. We were all pretty much beaming at this point. And as we made our way to the exit, he told us they were going to friend each other on Facebook!

The teens dressed up as Victoria, Bella, and the Cullens were leaving at the same time that we were, and we got our picture taken with them before we left. They were super nice about it, too. We talked to them for a minute, and then we left the store.

On the way home I began to reflect on everything that had happened at the party, and I thought of the stunt double. I must have seemed horribly rude, and I wished I had at least said hello…but for the moment it was impossible to dwell on that; Salem was ecstatic about his new friends, and we were all just as thrilled for him. I think we were all glad we came; it was an exciting night, and very, very fun.

The chatter in the car died down after a while as everyone grew sleepy. As for me, the coffee had worked well, and I was wide awake. As I stared out the window, I made a silent oath to myself: that when the Half-Blood Prince release party comes around, I would abandon all shyness and enjoy it to the fullest.