A Prom to Remember(59)



“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.

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