by Tucker, RH
When I get to class Monday morning, our teacher goes over the ballot slips just before we start the morning announcements. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes, hoping the girls changed their minds, but no such luck. In the middle of the list sits Izzy’s name and I bite my tongue, cringing.
In years past, the joke vote could get out of hand. People would rag on the person who made it on prom court, stuff stupid things in their lockers, or toilet paper their car if they had one. Juvenile stuff fully intended to belittle the other person.
In the past few years though, the faculty at Woodbridge had taken steps to put a halt to the joke votes. That’s why the students made sure it came across as legit. And no outward hazing was done to either guy or girl on the court, but that didn’t matter. The person who made the court stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the court.
Take the guys on the ballot this year for example. I was this year’s homecoming king, senior class president, and lettered in football for the past three years. Franco Avila lettered in Basketball, Football, and Lacrosse and already signed his letter of intent to go to USC. Other guys had the GPA, good looks, and nice cars. We’re the popular guys. That’s not having an ego; it just is what it is.
Now compare our resume to Sam Patterson. He’s super-smart, but he comes off as a dork. Super thick glasses, he started wearing braces junior year, and he always walks around with not only a loaded backpack but carrying at least three other books. And he’s captain of the chess club and debate team. I hate to judge a book by its cover, but one of these things is not like the others. I’m still not convinced the faculty hasn’t just been turning a blind eye the last couple years, figuring that kids will be kids, because it’s so obvious the guy and girl elected to prom court are there deliberately. And I do feel bad about it, but it’s not like I can change a tradition that’s been going on for twenty years.
“And finally, prom is right around the corner!” Yvette lights up like the fourth of July, a huge grin across her face. “By the end of first period, you’ll all be given your ballots. Remember, out of the ten names for the guys and ten names for the girls, only five from each will be elected. You have all week to vote, so any of you that’d really like to can get out there and campaign. I know there’s one boy I’ll be voting for this year. A president should always wear a crown.”
My mouth drops as she gives me a knowing wink and then looks at the camera, repeating the gesture.
“What the?” I look over at her then at our teacher.
“Yvette?” Mr. Garrison calls out a warning.
“Okay.” She smiles as if it’s all part of the announcements. “That’s it for the morning announcements. Remember, ballots must be turned in by end of the day, Thursday. And don’t forget this Friday’s pep rally, for our reveal of who made this year’s prom court!”
Her frozen smile stays on the camera, until Kip calls out, “All right, we’re clear.”
“What the hell was that?” I say, my voice a little louder than I intend.
“Language, Mr. Hillard,” Mr. Garrison says, still sitting at his desk.
Yvette gets up from the announcements desk and walks over to her own, which is next to mine. “Oh, Matt, calm down. We all know you’re gonna make court. And I know I’ll be prom queen. I’m campaigning hard for that this year.”
“Yeah, and?”
“And, I know who I want as my king.”
“Yvette, I was already homecoming king. I’m not even campaigning to make court, let alone try and be nominated prom king.”
“Good.” Oscar laughs. “Because I’m gunning for that one, dude.” He tosses a glance towards our teacher, who’s still sitting behind his desk going over papers before we finish with the rest of class. Leaning closer to me from the row over, he quirks an eyebrow. “Imagine the hook-up power I’d have if I was prom king. Yeahya!”
“You can try if you want,” Yvette retorts, sounding a little annoyed. “I’m campaigning for Matt myself, though. So, don’t feel too bad when he adds another crown to his trophy case.”
“Seriously.” I look back at Yvette. “Don’t campaign for me. I don’t care about prom court. I’ve already got enough to do. We’ve already got enough to do with setting up the dance and prom court week stuff.”
“Oh, don’t be silly.” She waves me off before grabbing my hand. “Matt, we’re gonna rule prom. I just need to make sure I have the right date.”
The look in her eyes is anything but questioning. She gives me her best shy but sly smile, the kind I know she can dole out to any guy, making him give her whatever she wants. She wants me to ask her to prom. She hinted so hard at it last week that I honestly expected her to just flat out ask me herself. But Yvette doesn’t play that way. She wants what she wants, and how she wants it. If she wants a guy to ask her out, she makes damn sure he knows it. And she doesn’t stop until she gets it. It’s a power thing for her. I’ve seen her do it throughout high school.
I just give a frustrated smile. As annoying as she can be sometimes, that doesn’t mean I want to hurt her feelings. But I don’t want to go to prom with her either. Thankfully, Mr. Garrison finally gets up from his desk and calls everyone to attention for the remainder of class.
Chapter 19
Izzy
I feel a little better on Monday. Of course, it helped that both Cindy and Veronica watched my video and knew I looked upset, so they both came over Friday night and then we hung out over the weekend. I really don’t know what I’d do without those girls.
As I walk on to campus, I feel an abnormal number of stares locked on me. I’ve been recording on my channel for a couple years, so most of the looks about that have come and gone. These looks are something else. And they’re attached to whispers. About half-way through first period, I find out what all the looks and whispers are about.
Veronica turns around in here chair, as the prom court ballots are being dispensed out by student assistants. “You’re on the ballot. This is amazeballs!”
“What?” I nearly rip the paper in half, grabbing it out of her hand so fast. “Oh, my God. I’m on the ballot. Why am I on the ballot?”
“What are you talking about?” Veronica takes the paper back as I grab my own. “Izzy, you’re amazing. You totally deserve to be on the ballot.”
I try to ignore the whispers spreading in the class, keeping my eyes locked on the piece of paper.
“Seriously, V?” I scan the list of names. “Yvette Morales? Sarah Donovan? Bridgett Talbot? These girls practically run the school.”
“What about Jennifer Harris? I don’t know who that is?”
“Yes, you do,” I counter. “She sits with Emma and Carter Dixon. She’s just as pretty as any of these other girls. And she’s starred in the last three plays the drama department put on.”
“Izzy, you’re pretty.”
“Yes, but I’m not model-wannabe like these girls. Plus, Jen’s popular without trying to be popular. It makes sense she’d be on the list.” A knot of indignation forms in my stomach. “V, I’m on here for one reason and one reason only.”
“No. Don’t you even say it.” She’s still facing me, now pointing a finger in my face. “You’re not the joke vote.”
“Then what do you call this?” I wave the paper in her face.
She scans her sheet again. “Maybe they didn’t do joke votes this year.”
I guess anything is possible. I look over the list again and don’t see any obvious choices for the girls’ joke vote. Then I look over to the guys’ list. Matt’s name is there. And there’s Franco and Oscar. Jeremy McCormick’s name is on the list, who always gave me the creeps, but he is one of the most popular guys in school. Then, right between Matt’s name and the captain of our wrestling team, sits a name I recognize. Sam Patterson.
I joined the debate team last year, at the request of one of my teachers who thought I was an excellent speaker after she found out about my channel. It was fun enough but wasn’t really my thing, so
I didn’t do it again this year. But Sam is captain of the debate team.
He’s really sweet, and he was so embarrassed last year when he had to get braces. But that didn’t deter him from doing what he wanted to do. He kept leading debate and even though the chess club had only a handful of people in it, he’s stuck with it all four years of school. He wears these incredibly thick glasses too, which only contributed to what everyone called a dorky look. To me, he just looked like an average high school student. Okay, maybe above average because he was always lugging around at least five books at a time, but still, he’s nice.
I asked him last year if he ever thought about getting contact lenses, but he said they bothered his eyes. So he was relegated to, as he put it, his ‘coke bottle glasses’.
“No, they still did them,” I tell Veronica.
“How do you know?”
“Look who’s on the guys’ side.”
“Mm-hmm.” She nods. “I see them, including Hottie McFanboy.” She starts giggling.
“Yeah, well look right under his name.”
“Sam Patterson. Who’s that?”
“That, my dear V, is the guys’ joke vote. He’s into chess and debate. I got to know him a bit last year.”
“Oh, you mean …” She makes circles out of her fingers and puts them to her eyes.
“V, that’s mean,” I say, but still have to chuckle a little. “But, yes, him.”
“Well, I don’t care.” She folds her arms. “Joke vote or not, you deserve to be on prom court. You’re awesome. So, if you are the joke vote, I say own it.”
The anger inside is still there, but as she says those words, something else starts to form. Ownership. Maybe she’s right? Maybe I can just own the joke vote and put all these stupid girls in their place. Maybe, instead of shying away from the vote, I should embrace it.
“Yeah,” I agree with her.
“Who cares if these stupid chicks think you’re a joke. I know you’re not. You’re ahmayzing.” She singsongs the last word, making my giggle.
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“Of course not. I thought of it.” She smiles.
The teacher finally brings us back to attention after the commotion of the prom court ballots being handed out, but I’m not paying attention anymore. I’m thinking of how I can fully own my prom court role and prove to everyone that, joke vote or not, this isn’t going to define me.
For the next few classes, I doodle in my notebook different ideas on what I can wear at the pep rally. Plus, I’m still working on the designs for my prom dress, which I still fully intend on mixing a cosplay costume with a dress.
On my way to sociology, I’ve gotten more than enough call-outs between classes. Some of them are the snickering kind, but I’m surprised by the number of people telling me they are going to vote for me.
A couple doors down from class, Jeremy McCormick taps me on the shoulder. As stupid and chauvinistic as Oscar can be, Jeremy has him beat, so it catches me off guard when I turn around and see him.
“You’re her, right?” he asks, a cocky grin on his face.
“I don’t know.” I raise an eyebrow. “Depends who you’re talking about?”
“The nerd chick. You’re Isabel, right?”
I scowl at him. “It’s So Cal Nerd Girl.”
“What’s the difference?”
I take in a deep breath, and I’m about to just turn around and ignore him when a voice pops up from behind me.
“The difference is she’s got over thirty thousand subscribers.”
Before he even stops next to me, I smile at the sound of Matt’s voice.
“Subscribers? To what?” Jeremy looks confused.
“YouTube,” I answer. “It’s my channel.”
“Oh.” It looks as if he’s just realizing why people called me the Nerd Girl. Actually, he probably is. “Whatever. So, if I vote for you, do I get any perks?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” He grins, eyeing my up and down. “I could come up with an idea or two.”
“Dude.” Matt throws him a disapproving look, which just makes me smile more.
“Oh, my bad, Hillard. You guys hooking up?”
My jaw drops. He’s asking Matt if I’m hooking up with him, right in front of me, as if I’m not anything more than an object. I guess to him I’m probably not.
I clear my throat. “No, we are not hooking up.” I shove a finger in his chest. “And you could come up with a thousand ideas, and I’d still turn each one down.”
“Screw you.” Jeremy’s smile disappears.
“Not even if you were the last guy on earth.”
“Bitch,” he grumbles, before turning and walking away.
Matt takes a step to him, letting out a huff, but I put a hand on his chest. “Don’t. He’s an idiot.”
“Well, that goes without saying.” I smile as Matt uses my words from last week.
Both of our eyes find my hand still on his chest, and I can feel my face getting hot. Pulling my hand away, I look at the ground, and I turn around to keep heading to class. “Thanks.”
“No need to thank me. You had that ass perfectly under control.” He pulls at my arm, making me stop. “But I wanted to apologize.”
“For what?”
Matt looks around nervously, before looking at me. “I was at the meeting for the nominations last week when your name came up.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” His eyes stay on me. “I was hoping they were going with their first choice. Then your name got thrown out, and I wanted to try and change their minds, but I already kind of fought to get a friend of a friend off the list for the guys. Then I thought …” He looks down at his feet. “Well, I had an idea, but you made it pretty clear you’re not interested in me, so I didn’t want to say it and end up in a bigger mess with you.”
“Matt.” I reach over, touching his arm. I was hoping after this weekend, being close to him wouldn’t make a hundred steamy thoughts run through my mind, but no such luck. As soon as my hand touches his arm his eyes meet mine again. “It’s not that I’m not interes—” Whoa, Izzy. Why don’t you just declare your undying love for the guy? “I mean, you’re not in a mess with me.”
“No?”
“No. If anything, you’re just in a mess with yourself.” I let out a soft laugh.
“Thanks.” He chuckles.
“What was the idea you were going to use?”
“Oh, well.” He hesitantly bites his lip. I wait patiently, secretly adoring how cute he looks as he gets nervous. Finally, he speaks up. “I thought about maybe saying we were going out.”
“Oh.” I don’t know why, but that catches me completely by surprise. And I can’t keep my lips from grinning at the thought of being a relationship with him.
“Yeah.” He scratches the back of his head. “But I didn’t. And I was hoping they would just revert back to their initial nomination, but they didn’t. So, sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I turn and start walking again. “My friend gave me an idea this morning. Someone else in this position, it’d be just like any other year. But I’m going to own it.”
“Own it?”
“Yeah. The girls wanted to nominate someone and basically make fun of them for being who they are. But I’m fine with who I am. And I’m going to prove it. Plus, my prom dress is going to kick ass. It’s about time someone put the student council a-holes in their place.” I freeze, slapping my hands to my mouth, looking at him with an apologetic look. “Sorry. I know you’re the president and everything.”
He runs his tongue over his teeth, a smile on his face. He leans in closer to my ear, and I’m frozen for an entirely different reason.
“Don’t be sorry. I love your honesty.” He leans even closer, and I feel his lips lightly brush my ear. Goosebumps climb over my arms. “And just so you know, you’ve got my vote.”
Chapter 20
Matt
I’m not surprised with how we
ll Izzy reacted to the nomination ballot. I still feel bad that she’s considered the joke vote, but she’s taking it all in stride. She isn’t embarrassed because of it, and it makes me wish I had as much courage to be myself as she has.
Even though I want to talk to her more, to try and keep some form of communication open between us, I keep my distance after class ends. As I watch her walk away, I’m pleasantly surprised to see more people coming up to her, congratulating her on the prom court ballot. I have a feeling the joke is going to be on Sarah and Yvette this year.
As I walk over to my table during lunch, I look across the way. I see Izzy standing by her table, looking over at me before taking her seat. I exhale sharply, growing more annoyed with our tug-of-war over my secret fanboy life. I wouldn’t be so hung up on this if I didn’t like her. And the things she’s said, how she’s reacted when I’m close to her, I know she likes me. I have to figure out how to get around this secret nerd thing.
Like clockwork, as soon as I sit down at the table, Micah gives me his usual nod and leaves.
“Yeah, you’re welcome by the way!” I blurt out, scowling at him.
“Excuse me?” he snaps back.
Damn it. I grit my teeth because I don’t really want to explain everything that went down at the nominations meeting last week. If he’s uncomfortable around me now, how much more will he be if and when he finds out people think he was dumped because his ex-girlfriend is telling people he’s gay.
Everyone’s eyes lock on me. “Forget it.”
Micah lets out an annoyed grunt before walking away.
“Matt, he’s trying here.” Emma gives me a disappointed look.
I know she’s been friends with him throughout high school, and I remember the reason she told me he’s uncomfortable around me. I still don’t get why he’s okay hanging around Carter more than me.
“Dude?” Carter looks at me confused.