A Prom to Remember(2)

“Okay,” Luke said. “This is why the idea of a court is so much better. A queen and a king are totally unnecessary in the scheme of things. Like Otis and I should be able to participate in this stuff as a couple.”

“And I get that,” Amelia said. “But, ugh. You guys are going to make me say it out loud.” Amelia’s use of the dramatic pause was off the charts that morning. “I want to be prom queen! Is that such a bad thing?”

Cora caught Teagan’s eye. They were definitely both internally cringing. This was such an Amelia thing, but before Cora could say a word, Luke continued.

“I mean, I’m sorry if it ruins your chances of living out your dream of prom queen, but it’s so heteronormative,” Luke said.

Amelia opened her mouth, but before she could argue, Teagan stood up and said, “I agree with Luke, and I think it’s time to move on to something less traditional and keeping more in the spirit of our changing world.”

Luke, who had remained standing the whole time, high-fived Teagan. “Down with heteronormative bullshit!” Luke cried.

“Hey, hey,” Ms. Huang said, finally interjecting. “I understand that this is something we’re all passionate about, but let’s watch the language.”

Luke grinned and cast his eyes down sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I get swear-y when I’m passionate.”

“Makes sense to me,” Ms. Huang said, looking at the clock. “How about we table this decision for now and get back to it next week?”

Everyone nodded.

“In the meantime,” Cora said. “Prom tickets go on sale today.”

“It’s about time,” Amelia said.

“This is perfectly on schedule. You know prom tickets never go on sale until after April vacation. Once the whole promposal trend caught on, the school wanted a way to keep those disruptions to a minimum.”

Amelia huffed out a breath. “And what are we supposed to say when people ask us about prom king and queen nominations?”

“Just tell them the truth. We’re still figuring it out.”

Amelia flounced out of the room flanked by her two lackeys.

Cora collected her things and waved as Teagan and her other best friend, Josie, left the room.

“Do you have a second to discuss prom court?” Ms. Huang asked Cora.

Cora glanced at the clock, calculating how long she had.

“I know, you’re a busy girl,” Ms. Huang said. “But maybe you could come to class a minute early today and we could talk quickly?”

“Yeah, sure,” Cora said over her shoulder as she trailed her friends out of the room. “I would stay now, but I just have to go make copies of the agenda for the student council meeting.”

“A million things to do, huh? Just another day in the life of Cora Wilson,” Ms. Huang said with a knowing smile.

Cora made it out into the hallway where Jamie was waiting for her.

“Hey, babe,” Jamie said, threading his arm around her waist.

“Please don’t call me babe,” she said offhandedly. Sometimes she felt more like an exasperated sibling than his girlfriend.

“Where are you off to?” he asked. “You gonna walk me to homeroom today? Carry my books?”

She grinned. She couldn’t help herself. He was adorable in his own Jamie way. “Sadly I cannot. I need to make some photocopies.”

“I’ll walk with you, then, and hold your books.”

“Fine, but we have to keep moving,” she said as the warning bell rang, tugging on his hand as he walked past a couple of baseball dudes and high-fived or fist-bumped each of them. “Or you could just go hang out with your friends.”

“I think I’m just gonna hang out with them, babe,” he said, kissing the side of her head and spinning backward toward his friends.

Cora kept on moving down the hallway without further comment. She had bigger things to deal with.

Paisley

Paisley Turner followed Cora Wilson down the hall like a jungle cat stalking her prey.

She didn’t want to interrupt whatever conversational foreplay Cora and her boyfriend were engaged in, but didn’t they realize that Paisley had to get Henry’s name off that prom king list? She had only put his name out there hypothetically. Panic set in when she saw Cora jot it down. The conversation had taken off after that, and Paisley couldn’t get a word in edgewise, so it seemed like a better idea to wait until after the meeting. But Cora was basically ignoring her. Or maybe she didn’t even realize Paisley was there.

The fact of the matter was that Henry was Paisley’s best friend. She was way too aware of his neuroses, and he would disown her if he got nominated for prom king. It was the opposite of anything he wanted in this world. And she knew that. She could already imagine the face he would make, staring at her with his dark-brown-eye death glare. Angry Henry was a rarity, and Paisley was not prepared to deal with him. She shouldn’t have opened her mouth.

However, there was little that annoyed Paisley quite so much as the sanctimony of Amelia Vaughn. And in the face of sanctimony, Paisley had put her best friend in a situation he would hate. But Amelia needed a talking-to, and while in her head Paisley was always giving Amelia talking-tos, she didn’t quite have the balls to do it in person. Quite frankly, Amelia scared her.

However, she was happy to passive-aggressively nominate her best friend for prom king if it meant shutting Amelia up.