“Oh, don’t mind her,” Mia said. “She’s just mad because you’re gone-with-the-wind fabulous, and she’s just plain ole gone with the wind.”
“Or could it be that prom isn’t even here yet, and she’s already lost?” Aubrey asked innocently.
“Boo-hoo!” Jessica rubbed her eyes like she was crying. “Too bad, so sad!”
“Well, you don’t necessarily have to be a beauty queen to win prom queen, so maybe she does have a shot,” Kimberly chimed in. “Wait...did I just say that out loud? Oops!”
Because my father taught me never to take crap from anyone, for any reason, I have never been one to let people walk all over me. And I wasn’t about to start then. When I started marching over to Aubrey and her goon squad, I noticed that Judy Reeves had disappeared like a thief in the night. It was okay though, because I didn’t need Judy or anyone else to help me fight my battles.
“I see you’re all wearing your mean-girl panties today,” I said to Team Aubrey. “But I can promise you, I’m not an easy target.”
“Ooooh!” They all shivered like they were cold, and laughed.
“It seems like you’re the one with your panties in a knot,” Mia said with a smirk.
“They tend to get that way when people talk trash, and don’t know the first thing about me,” I said.
“Calm down, girl. It’s really not that serious,” Aubrey said to me. “As a matter of fact I was just about to come congratulate you on the nomination and wish you the best of luck.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “But I’m not accepting the nomination.”
“Well it’s probably for the best,” Kimberly said, flipping her long black hair. “Since you really don’t have much of a chance of winning, anyway.”
“And what makes you think I don’t have a chance of winning?” I asked.
“Come on, Deanna, you know you’re not that girl...” Aubrey said with pity. “You’re a smart cookie, so I’m sure you know the odds of you actually winning are stacked higher than Mount Everest.”
“Excuse me? Oh, I’m sorry...I didn’t realize you all were experts on my life and how I should live it,” I said, folding my arms. “Please continue while I take notes.”
“Actually, I think she should accept the nomination and campaign,” Mia said to Aubrey, as if I weren’t standing there. “I mean, thirty years from now, it’s probably going to be the highlight of her life.”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” I corrected her. “The highlight of my life will be practicing law and making a positive difference in this world. You see, running for prom queen doesn’t matter one bit to me because I have lots of other things going for me. Unlike some people...”
Aubrey’s crew all gasped in unison, as if I had just committed a mortal sin. It was common knowledge that Aubrey wasn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and she hated for anyone to dare point out that particular flaw of hers.
“I mean really, Aubrey,” I continued. “You shine socially, but I excel scholastically. And in the long run, which one is more important?”
“Oooh...no she didn’t!” Mia said under her breath.
I knew I’d gotten to Aubrey, because her almond-colored complexion turned a funny shade of red. Ha! As much as she dishes it, you would think that she’d be able to take it. Then again, Aubrey is one of those girls who is not used to being challenged. This was new, uncharted territory for her, and I was thrilled to be the one to introduce her to it.
“Yeah, you’re about that geek life,” Aubrey said when she finally recovered. “But nobody is impressed by that...at least not anybody that I know.”
Aubrey spit out the word geek as if it were the dirtiest of all four-letter words. She was trying her best to get under my skin, but I wasn’t fazed. Not one bit.
Initially, I had no intentions of entertaining the shenanigans that come along with running for prom queen, but at that very moment I decided to enter the race and really give Aubrey a run for her money. If she came out victorious over me, then so be it. But at least she’ll have actually earned something for once in her life.
“You know what?” I said. “I’ve changed my mind,”
“Oh, so you’re running for prom queen, after all?” Aubrey asked.
“That’s right, I’m entering the race, and I don’t plan to lose,” I told them.
“Wow, it looks like somebody just grew a pair,” Jessica said. “And right before our very eyes!”
“Yeah, how about that?” Kimberly added with fake amazement.
“Okay, turn it up, then!” Aubrey said, sharing another laugh with her friends at my expense.
“Oh, I plan to turn it all the way up,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“Well best of luck, and may the best woman win...” Aubrey offered a handshake, but I left her hanging. She was talking a good game, but I could tell by her body language that she wasn’t too pleased by this new turn of events.
The warning bell sounded, signaling that we only had five minutes left to get to class.
“Ladies, I enjoyed this little talk,” I said, not even close to being sincere. “Let’s do it again sometime, shall we?” I gave the goon squad a wink before turning and walking away.
I had no idea what it took to run for prom queen, or even where to start. All I knew at that point was that Aubrey Garrett should have looked both ways before she crossed me.
Three
AUBREY GARRETT
Ding-ding!
The battle for prom queen just got real. If it was a fight Deanna wanted, then it was a fight that she was going to get.
Not only was she in over her head, but that girl obviously had no clue what she was up against.
Deanna might have the nerd vote locked down, but unfortunately for her, the nerd vote doesn’t carry much weight at Brookfield High. Everybody knows it’s the popular vote that truly counts, and that was my world and realm of expertise.
Frankly speaking, though, Deanna Parker was a nonfactor in the grand scheme of things.
A more pressing situation had been brewing for way too long, and I needed to get it straightened out once and for all.
The deal was that while Chad may have had some of our prom arrangements handled on his end, there was still one major loose end that I needed to tie up before the big night.
Besides the fact that my dress wasn’t finished yet, the party planner responsible for putting together my all-night after-prom party was demanding $2,500 dollars within the next few days, or we would lose our $500 deposit and there would be no party. The problem was that my father, who had agreed to bankroll the party, was suddenly missing in action.
I’d called and texted my dad so many times without reaching him that I could no longer deny the fact that he was purposely avoiding my phone calls. So after school that day, I drove downtown to Dad’s engineering firm, Garrett & Associates, hoping to finally catch him face-to-face. My father’s company was in the Comerica Bank Tower, one of the tallest skyscrapers in Dallas. When I got off the elevator on the fifty-first floor, Carol the receptionist was busy handling a bunch of calls, so I acknowledged her with a nod, then walked directly to the huge corner office that said “Steven Garrett, President and CEO.”
Dad was seated in his executive swivel chair, behind a massive mahogany wood desk. He was working on the computer when I walked in, so he didn’t notice me right away.
“Hey there, remember me?” I said, to get his attention.
Dad looked up and smiled, and said, “Of course I remember you,” but I didn’t get the feeling that he was overjoyed to see me.
Things had been strained between us for months, because for some reason he assumed that I’d taken my mother’s side after they separated. And maybe I had, without even realizing it. Admittedly, I was still a little pissed about the
way he broke the news to me that he was leaving Mom. Dad had taken me to the Bahamas last July for my seventeenth birthday. I should have known something was brewing because he always lets me take at least one friend with us whenever we travel, but for that trip Dad said he preferred that it just be the two of us.
“But what about Mom?” I asked, thinking that it wouldn’t be a true birthday celebration unless all of us were there.
“Jeannette won’t be coming along with us. We already talked it over and mutually agreed that you and I are long overdue for some father-daughter time.”
It was just the four of us: Mom, Dad, Angela and me. We were a small family, but we were tightly knit, and our bond was unbreakable. Or so I had thought. On the third evening of that Bahamas trip, Dad and I were out on the beach enjoying a sunset dinner of fruit salad, conch fritters and lobster caught fresh from the ocean just hours before, when he suddenly launched into a “people are in your life for a season, a reason or a lifetime...” monologue. I was confused at first, but when it finally sank in that he and Mom were getting divorced, I got so nauseous that the entire contents of my stomach ended up right there in the sand. My father tried to calm me down as best as he could by hugging me, wiping my tears and shushing me while I cried.
“Don’t worry, my sweetheart, it’s not the end of the world,” he whispered in a comforting voice. “It’s going to hurt at first, but eventually you’ll be fine...”
As far as I know, that is the first lie my father ever told me. We weren’t going to be a family anymore, so it was the end of the world, as I knew it. And things haven’t really been “fine” ever since.
Mom puts on a brave face and acts like she’s “fine,” but I know her better than she thinks I do. The divorce was finalized nine months ago, but she still wears her wedding ring more often than not, and I’ve noticed the sadness in her eyes and around the corners of her mouth that wasn’t there before. She also didn’t laugh as easily as she used to, which was a clue that Jeannette Laverne Gilbert-Garrett was more devastated by the divorce than she let on. She missed my dad like crazy. I knew, because sometimes I’d hear her crying in the middle of the night. On those occasions, I’d go into her bedroom and lie in the spot where my father should have been, and stay there for the rest of the night. Sometimes my mom would immediately stop crying when I came into her room, and then there were times when she just let the tears flow until she was all cried out.
Sitting there in my father’s office, I was prepared to make awkward small talk about school and stuff like that, but Dad cut right to the chase by asking, “How much money do you need now, Aubrey?”
“Whoa, wait a minute,” I said. “The way you just said that was like all I see you as is a walking ATM, and that’s it.”
“Well, you have definitely inherited your mother’s taste for the finer things in life, and when you call me, nine times out of ten it involves money, so let’s ‘keep it real,’ as you kids like to say.”
I didn’t like where this conversation was going. It felt as if I was on trial for something I didn’t do, and my father was the coldhearted judge who was about to throw the book at me.
“Well, keeping it real, I actually came by to see how you are, and to talk to you about the rest of the money I need for prom...”
“See, there you go! Just like your mother!”
I couldn’t help but take offense. During the year leading up to the divorce, my parents were constantly fighting about money. He thought she spent too freely, and she thought he was a “tight-ass” who needed to learn how to loosen up the purse strings and live a little.
And there I was, caught in the middle.
“She’ll probably never admit this to you,” Dad told me. “But Jeannette almost spent us into the poor house while we were married, and I’m still trying to recover from all the money she wasted trying to keep up appearances.”
“But what does that have to do with me, Dad?”
“You are your mother’s daughter, and apparently the two of you think money grows on trees.”
“All I’m asking for is what you promised me for prom—nothing more,” I said.
“And certainly nothing less! You’ve been pampered your entire life, but what you need to understand, Aubrey, is that we’re in a recession now and times are tough. The firm hasn’t been doing as well as it has been in the past and things are a little tight for me financially, because in addition to a mountain of debt, I’m also paying for Angela’s college tuition and monthly living expenses.”
I blinked and frowned. Tight was a word that I’d never heard my father use in reference to his finances. And then it occurred to me that he’d had to make a choice between my prom and Angela’s education, and Angela’s education had won. I may have been the baby girl, but my sister was clearly my father’s favorite. It was Angela who was following in Dad’s footsteps. She was the one with the beautiful mind who was away at MIT studying engineering, and I thought it was pretty ironic that money never seemed to be an issue when it came to whatever Angela needed for school, and otherwise.
I loved my sister and certainly didn’t resent her in any way, but it was kind of hard not to resent the way that my father kept glaring at me as if I were a stranger. That’s what hurt me the most.
“You divorced Mom,” I said tearfully. “But why is it that I’m starting to feel like you divorced me, too?”
My father softened up when he saw my tears. He came from around his desk to give me a hug and kiss me on the top of my head the way he used to do when I was little. “Sweetheart, I’ll never divorce you. It’s just time for some tough love.”
Dad went on to lay out my options for me, which were to scale back my prom plans or get the money that I needed from my mother. “Sorry, baby girl,” he said somberly. “But I’m all tapped out.”
I ran out of the offices of Garrett & Associates in tears. I wasn’t crying because my father suddenly couldn’t afford to give me money toward prom; I was upset because our relationship had disintegrated to the point where he no longer saw me as Aubrey, his daughter. Instead, he viewed me as an extension of my mother, and he really hadn’t been feeling her too tough lately.
He had divorced me whether he wanted to admit it or not. My hero had abandoned me when he’d promised me he wouldn’t, and at a time when I needed him the most.
* * *
Mom went into a blind rage after I told her what happened with Dad. She picked up the phone and thoroughly cursed him out without letting him get a word in edgewise. The conversation wasn’t on speakerphone, but I got the gist of it just by what I overheard Mom say:
“You should have manned up and told her weeks ago, instead of making her track you down like a damn fugitive!”
“And what’s that supposed to mean? You knew that senior year was going to be expensive, and more than that, you’ve promised since she was a little girl that she could have whatever she needed and wanted to make her prom night special....”
My mother has the heart of a lioness. She will go to war for me in a heartbeat, and often put me and my feelings before her own. My prom plans were in shambles, and that was all she cared about in that moment.
Not the fact that she was arguing with a man she was still in love with. After twenty years of marriage, Daddy had moved out and moved on with his life. He was now living in a new town house, driving a shiny new convertible and dating Heather, a woman much younger than my mother, and who looked as though she had just gotten off the pole down at the local strip club.
“I’m aware that money doesn’t grow on trees!” Mom yelled at Dad over the phone. “But prom comes around only once in a girl’s life and Aubrey shouldn’t have to suffer because you’re crying broke...”
I’d heard enough. I went into my bedroom, flopped down on the bed and sent out a mass text message informing everyone I’d invited that the after-prom
party at my house was canceled. Afterward, I put my headphones on and zoned out to some new tunes on my iPod.
The music soothed my mind and body to the point where I was able to think clearly for the first time since I’d left my father’s office. I realized that despite everything that was going on, the prom court assembly was scheduled for the next day and I had to get ready for it.
I opened a new document on my computer and the words just started flowing.
I’ve heard that you should never do anything in the heat of anger, but since I couldn’t take what I felt out on my Dad, I put all those emotions into my campaign speech.
When I finished writing, I realized that adding a video to my presentation would really capture the audience and help make the big splash that I was hoping for.
Ethan Cohen, the school videographer, was the only man for the job, because he had unlimited access to the kind of footage I needed. He was also a genius when it came to looping, editing and all that other technical stuff. So much so that an hour after inviting me over to his house, Ethan and I had our finished product.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this?” he asked with both eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” I replied, but I honestly hadn’t thought through the consequences of what I was doing, or how other people would feel about it.
I didn’t know how the video would come across, but one thing would be for sure after tomorrow. Everyone at Brookfield would know that I was in it to win it, and that I wasn’t taking any prisoners.
Four
DEANNA PARKER
The run-in I’d had with Aubrey brought out my competitive nature, and I was ready to win at all costs. But before I could officially start my campaign, I had to break the news to my parents that I’d even been nominated for prom queen in the first place.
Two days had passed since Principal Ellerbee announced the candidates for prom royalty. It took me that long to work up the nerve, because prom had been a touchy subject in our household since my sister got pregnant on prom night three years ago. We were living in San Diego then, and Erica was a senior at Washington High, a school that made an even bigger deal about prom than Brookfield. The prom tradition at Washington High was the more extravagant, the better. You had to go big or stay your butt at home, so it wasn’t unheard of for kids to arrive to prom in helicopters, vintage Rolls-Royces and even horse-drawn carriages.
Prom Ever After Page 18