Liars and Losers Like Us(32)
THIRTEEN
Prom In Paradise
An Evening With The Stars
Twilight Memories
Jungle Boogie Nights
It’s Tuesday after school and everyone on Prom Court is sitting at one of the cafeteria tables.
Brian’s texting on his phone, Chris and Laura are on opposite ends of the table, which means they’re broken up again, and the rest of us are passing around poster boards and the list of Prom theme ideas.
“Are they kidding me?” Molly says. “This is awful.” She shoves a neon green poster board back to the middle of the table. “Jungle Boogie Nights? What the heck? How does the committee come up with this crap? So lame.”
“Easy,” says Sean. “They know what they want and present it in such a way that you have to pick, hmmmm … pick …” He sets the boards up side by side. “None. They all suck.”
“Twilight Memories?” Laura asks. “Someone is going too far celebrating their cultish book love.”
“They can’t be for real,” I say. “We can’t pick a theme that includes cutouts of vampires and werewolves, can we?”
Clearly, Twilight Memories is what the Prom Committee wanted us to like. The presentation board is pretty professional. Beautiful calligraphy, crisp gothic magazine cutouts and detailed illustrations of fancy punches, satin streamers in blood red, smoky gray, and jet black. Not going to lie, it’s sharp. But they lose me at the werewolf and vampire cutouts. The other themes are totally thrown together like afterthoughts. A few magazine and Google images glued onto tag board. A generic beach scene with a sunset, a map of constellations with the promise of star confetti, and a monkey in a tuxedo hanging from a jungle vine.
Jane straightens her gold headband and frowns. “I’m not trying to be mean, but should anything Breanne says count? I mean, you guys, she’s not originally on court.”
“Really Jane?” snaps Kallie. “I’m pretty sure Bree is on court. I’m also sure Bree was voted in fair and square and not as a joke like Maisey was, which was probably your * idea. Furthermore, she’s going to feel the same way as the rest of us. Right, Bree?”
“Um, yeah,” I say. The same knots that were in my stomach at the party tie themselves tighter.
“Ladies, ladies,” says Todd. “How ’bout we just figure this out. It’s not that serious. Everyone, just be cool.”
“I’m always cool,” Kallie says and kisses Todd on the mouth.
Jane twists and pulls the gold bangles on her wrist, her mouth twitching.
“He’s right,” says Justin. “I, for one, have always wanted to have my Prom pic taken with a monkey in a tux.”
“It might not be the end of the world to have the werewolves and vampires at Prom because everything else they have is worse,” says Laura.
Justin’s eyes widen and he slaps the table. “Hey, maybe once we get to Prom, we can steal the cutouts or something. We could decapitate them or hide ’em in Shandy’s locker.”
“Good idea, Conner,” says Brian, standing up and shoving his phone into his pocket. “As much fun as this is, I have things to do. Twilight Memories is fine. Dress the cutouts in boxer briefs for all I care. Everyone agreed?” He looks to Molly who is cross-armed and crinkly faced.
“Well, the color scheme is pretty complimentary so … fine. I guess,” she says.
Jane’s hand comes up. “Hang on. I don’t think we should just give up like this.”
“I’m in,” says Sean.
The rest of us nod.
Except Jane who glares at Kallie. “Obviously I don’t matter all of a sudden. So f*ck it, do whatever you want.”
“Agreed,” says Brian. “It’s all set. Twilight Memories. I’m off to meet my boyfriend who’s home from college tonight. No more time for high school shit.”
“Call me tonight, Moll, or anyone else who cares about anything,” Jane slaps the table in front of Molly and sashays out of the room.
“Sure, I’ll call you.” Kallie laughs.
Molly stands, “She’s in a crap mood lately so we should go easy on her.”
“Thanks for the tip, Molly. I’ll see what I can do,” Kallie turns to Todd. “I told Bree I’d ride with her today, okay?”
I shrug. “Yep, let’s go.”
Sean squeezes my shoulder sending a warm flutter up my neck as we all part ways.
“Getting hot in here,” whispers Kallie as we walk to our locker. “Thanks for covering. I’m just tired and not in the mood for hanging out with anyone today.”
“So, I don’t count?” I smile. “Good to know.”
“You know what I mean. Ugh. Speaking of someone who doesn’t count. What the hell is she doing? She was such a bitch today. I’m going to say something.”
Jane’s down the hall by the library doors, hovering over someone, and talking all over the place with her hands.
Kallie flips her hair behind her shoulder and moves ahead of me.
“What are you gonna say?” I take long strides to keep up.
“I’m asking what her problem is with you and why she was being such a bitch in there.”
We get closer and Jane’s so engrossed in her bitching that she doesn’t see us to the left of the giant column near the library entrance.