by Sandy Hall
“There,” she said. “Now it matches your look.”
“What’s our next step?” he asked.
“Now we wait,” she said, looking at her phone.
Cameron shook his head. “I can’t wait. I’m going to try to get in. Maybe no one is watching the door.”
Cameron jogged across the parking lot with Jacinta trailing behind him.
When they got to the front door, Mr. Muehler, the shop teacher, was standing there.
“You kids are late,” he said.
“But we got held up,” Cameron said.
“Unless you were literally held up, at gunpoint or something, and have a police report, I can’t let you in. Ms. Huang’s orders.”
Cameron shook his head, wishing he could somehow persuade this man to let him in. Maybe if he explained it was for true love.
Not that he was in love with Laptop Girl.
And not that Mr. Muehler seemed like the kind of guy that would get all gooey about teenagers in love.
“But he has to get in there to meet someone. Maybe you could go get her for us at least?” Jacinta asked, making her voice as sweet as possible.
“I can’t leave my post. You two will sneak in then for sure.”
“Please?”
“Doesn’t matter because if she leaves the prom she won’t be able to get back in and neither will you.”
Jacinta looked at Cameron.
“I don’t want to ruin her night,” he said.
“You two need to move along. No loitering out here.”
Before Cameron could argue that Mr. Muehler was technically loitering, Jacinta grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away.
“Come on,” Jacinta said. “We have other options.”
Cameron huffed out a breath and followed her back to the car.
Chapter 28
Henry
“Why are we still here?” Henry asked Paisley as they swayed on the floor to the slow song currently blasting from the speakers.
“Because we have to stay until the coronation.”
“I think we could dance this one dance and leave.”
“That doesn’t sound like a fun prom.”
“I would say all my goals would have been met. One dance. Avoiding Amelia. No public humiliation.”
Paisley rolled her eyes. “We’re staying.”
As far as terrible things go, prom night was not quite as terrible as Henry had assumed it would be.
But in his mind, they had done what they’d set out to do. Upon arriving at the prom, they got their picture taken, and they danced to a slow song. It felt like the night could only go downhill from here.
It wasn’t his idea of a great time, but the food was okay and Paisley seemed happy. They danced to every slow song, but Henry drew the line at dancing to fast songs. He didn’t know what to do with his hands when he was sitting, and he certainly didn’t know what to do with his hands when he was dancing.
There were just some things he wasn’t prepared to do.
“Is it time to go yet?” Henry asked.
“I repeat, we have to stay until the coronation,” Paisley said, pulling back and twirling under Henry’s arm and then forcing him to do the same.
“I’m not much of a twirler,” he muttered, glancing around the floor.
“Who are you looking for?” Paisley asked.
“Uh, no one,” Henry said.
Paisley stared at him until he felt like she could read his mind.
“Fine, I was looking for Cameron. He said he was coming.”
“It’s so weird that you guys are talking again.”
“I guess.”
Paisley let the subject drop as the music changed.
“You’re going to have to learn to dance someday,” she said as she took his arms and tried to move him to the upbeat music.
“I don’t think I do.”
“What are you going to do in college?”
“Is there a lot of dancing in college? Here I thought I was supposed to be getting an education and preparing for my career.”
“There’s a lot of partying in college.”
“So?”
“You’re never gonna go to a party? You’re never going to want to dance with someone at a party?”
“I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m an eighty-year-old man in an eighteen-year-old’s body, so it seems unlikely to me that I’m going to suddenly catch the dancing bug because I’m at a frat party.”
Paisley shook her head and let him go back to the table to sit out the fast song while she danced with Lizzie and Madison. He sat at the table and watched her shake and shimmy on the dance floor. And then he watched other people.
No one seemed concerned with how they looked, but they all seemed to be having a lot more fun than he was.
He would never be cool. He needed to stop trying to be cool.
And with that thought, he joined Paisley on the dance floor. He still didn’t know what to do with his hands, so he shoved them in his pockets and tried to swing his hips to the beat.
Paisley helped a little, getting him moving, and the next thing he knew his hands were out of his pockets and he was just dancing. It was probably not the greatest thing to watch, and he would never want to see it on video, and he would definitely never be a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
But he was dancing, at least until Ms. Huang stood up to make an announcement.
The announcement.
“It’s that time that everyone has been waiting for. The announcement of the class court and our prom king and queen. I have just a few words to say first.”
Henry had a terrible feeling in his stomach. He started to back away from the dance floor, from the lights, from Paisley. If he moved slowly enough maybe no one would even notice he was leaving.
“I am so proud of this class for taking it upon themselves to shake the usual tradition and add a court to this year’s festivities,” Ms. Huang was saying.
There were mild cheers and applause from around the dance floor.
Henry inched closer to the door.
“Ladies first!” Ms. Huang said into the microphone. She looked at her card. “This year’s prom queen is Amelia Vaughn!”
The cheers and applause were loud as Amelia made her way up to the DJ booth. There wasn’t a proper stage, but there was a small rise in that part of the room.
Ms. Huang placed a tiara on Amelia’s head and gave her a red rose.
“And your prom king is…” Ms. Huang searched the room with a grin. “Henry Lai!” The room erupted into much louder cheers this time. He was apparently the king of the people.
Bile rose in Henry’s throat, and he slipped out the back door.
“Where is Henry?” Ms. Huang asked, her voice muffled in the hallway but still clear enough to motivate Henry to move faster.
He headed for a nice, private bathroom stall, figuring that was the one place that Paisley wouldn’t be able to follow him.
He just needed a few minutes to himself.
And maybe to throw up a little bit.
Paisley
Paisley walked into the men’s bathroom like she owned the place, prepared to tell all the guys who were in there to get the hell out.
As it turned out, perhaps men didn’t linger in the bathroom the way women lingered in bathrooms, because it was deserted. Maybe because this bathroom was totally bare bones compared to the ladies’ lounge on the other end of the corridor.
For her first men’s room experience, Paisley was not particularly impressed.
She walked along the line of stalls, peeking under each one. It was hard to admit, even to herself, but she was actually having a good time at the prom. The decorations were cheesy, and there was a vague wet-basement smell wafting from somewhere, but it was strangely perfect.
She peered under the last stall and saw Henry’s sneakers.
Shaking her head, she said, “Henry, I know you’re in there. You’re the only person at this prom wearing a pair of ele
ctric-blue Converse.”
There was no answer.
“Please, Henry, at least talk to me.”
“Henry’s not here. This is the ghost of Henry.”
“Oh, come on, Henry, don’t make me crawl under this door. You know I’ll do it. I have no shame.”
“You have no shame because I have all the shame in the whole world. I’m some kind of shame sponge. Why do I feel like garbage for winning something like prom king? Why would this make me want to hide in the bathroom?”
“I don’t have answers to those questions,” Paisley said, leaning against the white subway tiles across from the stall Henry was in. At least the bathroom was clean. But she really wanted to get back to the prom. She didn’t understand the person she’d become over the past hour.
Henry sighed, the sound echoing in the mostly empty room.
“Why don’t you come out here and talk to me?” Paisley asked.
“No thanks. That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
“Why?” She kept her voice even. The last thing she wanted was for her impatience to get the better of her. He needed a friend and would do the same for her in a heartbeat. Or maybe not exactly the same. She had trouble imagining Henry in a women’s bathroom. He would write a supportive and kindly worded note and have someone else bring it to her.
“I can just live in here forever. Someone can bring me food. It’ll be great,” he insisted.
“Sounds sort of terrible to me. You just have to go out there and dance one dance,” Paisley said.
“You say that like it’s easy. I can’t dance with Amelia. She hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you.”
“If someone did to me what I did to Amelia, I would hate them.”
“Aw, come on, dude. You were in self-preservation mode.”
“If anyone else had been crowned queen, I could handle it. But all that attention on top of what I did to her is just way too much. I am not prepared to cope with this. Everyone at school has been talking about it. It’s too much scrutiny.”
“Who’s been talking about you? I’ll punch them,” Paisley said. “But seriously, you must have realized there was a pretty good chance that she’d be queen.”
“I was in denial, Paisley.”
Paisley rolled her eyes. “Fine, I know for a fact she doesn’t hate you.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
Paisley had to think fast. She hadn’t mentioned her conversation with Amelia to Henry for several reasons. It wasn’t only because of Amelia’s threats and her insistence that Paisley follow the girl code. For the record, Paisley didn’t even believe in the girl code. But she did believe in karma.
“Um,” Paisley said, trying to come up with something logical.
“You have nothing!” Henry yelled.
“Henry, she was obviously interested in you, so she obviously doesn’t hate you.”
Henry scoffed dramatically.
“She was nice to you, she sent you texts, and she went to your baseball games. She wanted to go to the prom with you, for goodness’ sake! And she told people she asked you. All of that adds up to someone who at least sort of likes you. None of that happens on a whim.”
“But then I rejected her. So she hates me.”
“You rejecting her one time doesn’t negate all the nice things she did for you. Maybe you’ll be surprised by her niceness.”
“You think?”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Henry said.
“One thing at a time. You just have to come out of the bathroom stall.”
The door swung open. “Okay. I can do that.”
“Now, I don’t want to overwhelm you, but there are only three more steps. Walk back into the ballroom, get your crown, and dance with Amelia. Then we can go home. Exactly like you wanted to all night!” Paisley lifted her hands in a semi-sarcastic cheer. It was hard to be totally un-sarcastic.
Henry banged his forehead against the edge of the bathroom stall.
“Bro, you’re gonna hurt yourself, don’t do that.”
He looked back at Paisley. There was a pink line running down below his hairline. Paisley rubbed at it.
“I’m not good at this stuff, Paisley,” he said, walking to the sinks to wash his hands and face.
“You don’t have to be good at it; you just have to do it.”
“I’m not good at doing this stuff,” he amended pointedly.
“Look, I don’t know what else you need to hear in this moment, but don’t you think it’s way embarrassing for Amelia to be out there waiting for you in front of everyone? Ms. Huang started announcing the class court, but that’s not going to take all that long. And every minute that ticks by it looks like you ditched Amelia alone.”
“Ugh,” was all Henry said.
“And you know I hate making her look like a victim in all this, but it could potentially mess up her night if you don’t go dance with her. This one little dance.”
Henry stared at Paisley for a second and then shook his head.
“One dance,” Paisley said, holding up her finger for emphasis. “Then home.”
“One dance, then home,” Henry repeated as they walked out of the bathroom and back to the ballroom.
“You got this, big boy!” Paisley called after him as he walked toward the front of the room.
“Stop calling me big boy!” he shouted over his shoulder before the crowd swept him up and everyone started to clap for their newly elected prom king.
Chapter 29
Jacinta
While Cameron considered various ways to sneak into the prom venue, Jacinta tried to come up with a different plan.
She knew how excited Lizzie was about meeting Mystery Boy. She’d been there the whole year, watching Lizzie smile dreamily at her laptop screen. Jacinta needed to make this right for her friend. There had to be something she could do. They had tried reasoning with Mr. Muehler to no avail, and then tried to sneak in through the front doors of the hotel, but the front desk clerk told them they couldn’t get to the prom through the lobby and they had to see the teacher at the side entrance.
At the moment, she and Cameron were standing outside one of the fire exits around the back of the building. He seemed to be considering scaling the wall around the outdoor pool.
“Once you’re finished lurking,” Jacinta said, “meet me back by my car.”
She had a plan formulating, but she needed to get away from Cameron’s anxious energy for a few minutes to really think it through. Her mom was always asking if Jacinta wanted to have people over. She had even offered to have a post-prom pool party at their house. Jacinta always said no, believing that her friends had better things to do.
While that might be true sometimes, it wasn’t true tonight.
Tonight she could be the Boss Level Prom Savior just by putting in a call to her mom. She couldn’t save her own prom night, but she could damn well save Lizzie and Cameron’s night.
Jacinta took a deep breath and called home.
“Jacinta!” her mom said, answering the phone. “I didn’t know you still knew how to talk on the phone.”
“Very funny, Mom,” Jacinta said.
“What can I do for you?”
“Well, remember how you offered to have people over after the prom?”
“Yes, but I thought you were going to the city with Kelsey and your friends.”
“I was, but now I don’t want to anymore. So there are a few people I might invite over. If that’s okay. I know it’s last minute.”
“Of course it’s okay,” her mom said. “I’ll just go change out of my pajamas.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have asked. I don’t mean to put you out.”
“Jacinta! I said yes. Now, what time will your friends be over?”
“Well we’re, um, still at the prom,” Jacinta said. It wasn’t a lie. They were at the prom. It was just that she had never actually gone inside the prom. “So at
least a half hour. Probably closer to an hour once we wrap everything up here.”
“Oh, that’s plenty of time. Don’t you worry about a thing. Are you inviting Henry Lai? How many people are you inviting?”
Jacinta took a quick count in her head. Cameron and Lizzie, maybe Madison since she seemed to be wherever Lizzie was. Maybe Jacinta should invite Cora, or maybe not. She probably had something awesome planned after the prom.
“Not too many. Four or five. I don’t think I’ll be inviting Henry.”
“Oh, too bad,” her mom said. “Okay, well, see you when you get here.”
Jacinta hung up with her mom just as Cameron returned to the car.
He leaned back against the headrest and looked thoroughly dejected. “This sucks.”
“It’s okay,” Jacinta said. “We’re going to find you-know-who, and then you guys can come back and hang out at my house. I have a pool.”
Cameron looked over at her. “Seriously? Why are you being so nice?”
“’Cause I know how excited…” Jacinta had to stop herself before saying Lizzie’s name. “You-know-who was to meet you, and I want to make something good happen on prom night.”
“That’s awesome,” Cameron said. “Thanks, Jacinta.”
Jacinta checked her phone again.
“Anything?” he asked.
“Nothing yet, but have faith,” Jacinta said, cursing herself internally for not having the number of any of Lizzie’s friends. She had texted Kelsey to see if she could help find Lizzie, but hadn’t heard anything back. But Jacinta didn’t have time now to worry about Kelsey being mad at her for ditching the prom.
She had other things to focus on. She would make this meet up happen for Cameron and Lizzie. No matter what.
Henry
Henry had the worst best luck of anyone on earth. If there was something other people wanted, but he didn’t want, it seemed likely that he would get it. Just take for example, becoming starting pitcher of the baseball team, Amelia asking him to the prom, and winning prom king. And these examples had all occurred over the course of the past few months.
Someday he was going to win the lottery and get a Nobel Prize when he least wanted it.
When he got up to the front of the room, he looked at Amelia and she smiled at him.
