Prom Ever After

by Dona Sarkar, Caridad Ferrer, Deidre Berry

  My parents weren’t happy with me, and neither was Chad.

  “Not only did you humiliate Deanna and Judy, but you just totally ruined two other people’s lives,” Chad said to me the next day, as if he were a father disciplining a child. “Coach Kelly is being put on administrative leave as we speak, and Tiffany’s parents have pulled her out of school, so she won’t be back at all this year.”

  “Well, is she gonna be allowed at prom?”

  “Are you serious?” Chad asked me with a mild trace of disgust in his voice. “Look, I don’t know if Tiffany will be allowed at prom or not, but she’s no longer in the running for prom queen, which is all you really care about, anyway!”

  I said, “That’s not true...” but I didn’t sound convincing, not even to myself. Chad knows me better than anyone else, so he saw right through me.

  “Yes, it is!” he said. “That’s what the video was all about, right? Why Aubrey Garrett deserves to win prom queen, and why those other girls don’t?”

  “Well, at least you were paying attention,” I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

  But Chad didn’t laugh. Instead, he stood there looking at me as though he was seeing me for the first time and didn’t really like what he saw.

  “You know, you haven’t been the same since your parents got divorced,” he told me.

  “Don’t you even dare go there...” I warned him.

  Throughout my parents’ separation and eventual divorce, I was extra grumpy and just generally not a nice person to be around. I did not play well with others, and I wasn’t the best girlfriend to Chad back then, with all the almost constant snapping and complaining I was always doing.

  Throughout it all, I thought that Chad understood what I was going through, but obviously he still hadn’t totally forgiven me.

  “No, seriously, Aubrey,” Chad said huffily. “You’ve turned into such a mean girl it’s like I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

  “I’m the same girl you’ve known almost all your life. I haven’t changed.”

  “That’s not true and you know it. If you’re not gonna keep it real with me, at least keep it real with yourself. If you think it’s okay to ruin people’s lives, careers, their futures and reputations just to become prom queen, then you’re not the person I fell in love with, and definitely not someone I want to continue to be in a relationship with.”

  “Okay, so I made a mistake with the video, but I really don’t like the way you’re talking to me right now,” I told him. “So you really need to check yourself!”

  “I’ll do you one better than that, and check out of this relationship. How about that?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, folding my arms.

  “You’re not a complete idiot, Aubrey, I’m sure you can figure it out.”

  “No, I need you to spell it out!”

  “Okay, I will.... We’re finished, Aubrey, it’s a wrap,” he sneered. “You and I are over for good this time...O-V-E-R!”

  Six

  DEANNA PARKER

  Aubrey’s blind ambition to become prom queen had blown up in her face like the science project that accidentally caught my hair on fire.

  Coach Kelly was more than likely going to lose his job, and Tiffany mysteriously vanished from school. It was unfortunate, but prom was quickly approaching, and as they say, the show had to go on.

  Aubrey still had plenty of supporters, but she was no longer considered the front-runner. The race was now neck and neck thanks to #TeamDeanna, who showed up in full support and produced three times as many posters as #TeamAubrey.

  Made by some very creative and artistic people, my promotional posters were flashy and eye-catching. A couple of days after the prom-court rally, Kristen and I organized a crew and early one Saturday morning, we decorated the school with fliers and posters that had catchy sayings like: VOTE FOR DEANNA: QUEEN OF OUR HEARTS and DEANNA FOR PROM QUEEN! No surface was safe. We covered every locker, hallway, and bulletin board, as well as the same places that Aubrey had put hers. Only ours were bigger, better and much more interesting.

  It took us about four hours to get it all done. “Thanks team, job well done!” I said, giving a high five to each and every one of them. We left Brookfield and all headed over to Shakey’s Pizza for lunch, which was my treat for all the hard work everybody had put in on my behalf.

  The whole time we were eating, all everybody talked about was prom. What their plans were, what they were wearing and stuff like that.

  “What are you wearing?” Trish asked me, and all I could do was shrug.

  It was ironic that I was actively campaigning for prom queen, but I hadn’t given any thought to what I would actually wear on prom night. I had to get on that ASAP but in the meantime, something Michael Turner said caught my attention. “Hey everybody, why don’t we all pitch in and rent one of those party buses and go to prom together?” he suggested.

  “You know, I never would have thought of that, but it’s actually the best idea ever!” I said.

  And we unanimously agreed. We were all in this together anyway, so we might as well take it all the way to prom night. Together. That was the theme, and we were sticking to it.

  * * *

  Later that Saturday afternoon, my sister and I were sitting at the kitchen table leafing through a dress catalog that was filled with one hideous monstrosity after another. “Oh, no, look at this one!” Erica pointed out a flowery pink-and-white dress that looked as if it came from another era.

  Like, before the Civil War.

  “I mean...really, dude? Seriously?” I closed the catalog in disgust. “There’s no way I’m going dressed as Little Bo Creep who lost her sheep on the way to prom.”

  “Well, if push comes to shove, you’re more than welcome to wear my dress,” Erica said. My sister’s old prom dress was a dark blue chiffon number with a short skirt, and white sequins weaved across the entire top half of the dress. She’d looked liked a Barbie doll in it, but seeing the dress on me just might send my father into cardiac arrest.

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” I told Erica. “There’s so much bad luck associated with that dress, I’m surprised Daddy hasn’t burned it by now.”

  “I know, right?” Erica laughed, but her laughter had a bittersweet undertone to it.

  My sister had been through a lot in the last three years. She’d had a kid, and ended up losing the full-ride college scholarship she had worked so hard for. Thankfully, she was back on the right track. She now had her own apartment and a full-time job, and was set to graduate from community college with an associate’s degree in journalism in a few months. Things were looking up for Erica, but I could clearly see where she could be much further in life if she had just protected herself from getting pregnant, or better yet, kept her legs closed altogether. Some of these reality shows make being a teen mom look more glamorous and less complicated than it really is. First off, babies are so expensive. I love my niece, but I’m not about that life. Not until I’m at least thirty-five.

  Since the catalog had been a colossal fail, there was no choice but to hit the mall and see what we could find. My Dad wasn’t home to object, and fortunately, he hadn’t said a word about prom since the night I broke the news. He may not have been 100 percent on board, but at least he wasn’t dead-set against it.

  My mother rode with us to the Galleria, and couldn’t resist taking a walk down memory lane. “You know, Grandma Ann was a seamstress, and she spent weeks sewing my prom dress for me,” Mom said wistfully. “I sure wish I could find that dress, but we’ve moved around so much over the years that it got lost somewhere along the way. It’s too bad though, because your grandma put her heart and soul into that dress. It was so beautiful.”

  I’d seen the pictures numerous times. My parents were high school sweetheart
s and went to prom together in 1988. In their official prom picture, my mother looked pretty in pink, in a strapless satin dress covered with white lace. She had on these sheer white stockings, pink-satin heels and white lace gloves with the fingers cut off, which I’m sure was inspired by Madonna when she first hit the scene way back then. Mom’s pink eye shadow matched her dress perfectly, and her hair was feathered and teased high to the heavens. Dad stood next to Mom looking stiff and uncomfortable. He was decked out in a canary-yellow tuxedo with a white ruffled shirt. His hair was a Jheri-curl mullet that was an eye-catching creation I hoped would never come back in style. The prom theme engraved at the bottom of the picture read “A Night to Remember...”

  Hmm...I’ll bet!

  Anyway, shopping with my mother was something close to torture. We searched high and low in every dress store in the mall, but we just couldn’t seem to see eye to eye on anything. She hated every dress I picked out, and vice versa. Our running dialogue of the day went like this:

  Mom: “No, that dress is too risqué for someone your age. Plus, it’s so tight I can see your heartbeat!”

  Me: “Well, what about this one?”

  Mom: “That’s cute, but the fabric is a little too flimsy— what do you think about this one?”

  Me: “Too cheesy...”

  Mom: “This one?”

  Me: “Too old lady...”

  Mom: “Okay, well how about this?”

  Me: “Cheesy old lady!”

  Mom held up a pink dress that closely resembled the one she’d worn to her prom. “I think we may have a winner!” she said, smiling from ear to ear. And she was dead serious.

  “No, Mom,” I sighed for the hundredth time that day. “Please put that thing back on the rack...”

  We were five hours in and I had tried on dozens of dresses, but none of them were right. Finding the perfect prom dress was starting to look hopeless, and I was on the verge of giving up all hope when Erica screamed, “Deanna, come quick!”

  My mother and I raced to the back of the store and found Erica holding the pinnacle of prom dresses. It was a pale peach silk charmeuse gown with crystals covering the front and back of the halter-style bodice. The bottom was pleated and flowed like running water whenever the fabric moved.

  I gasped when I saw it, because it was chic, sophisticated, fun and flirty; everything that I wanted in a dress. It was also so timeless that I probably wouldn’t cringe in the years to come when I looked back at my prom pictures and saw what I wore that day.

  Mom, Erica and I were all ecstatic until we checked the price tag. Talk about sticker shock! Fifteen hundred dollars to wear one dress, one time, was a bit much.

  “It’s way too expensive,” I said, highly disappointed.

  “Says who?” Mom asked with a bit of an attitude. “If that’s the dress you want, then that’s the dress you’re going to get—now go try it on.”

  I gave Mom a big hug and then dashed into the dressing room. The dress was made just for me. It fit like a glove, and didn’t need any alterations at all. I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t even all done up with hair and makeup, but I felt like a queen already.

  Seven

  AUBREY GARRETT

  I really hate fighting with Chad. Especially about random, petty stuff that has nothing to do with us as a couple. I mean, I could understand that Tiffany was his friend, but I was his girlfriend, and that should trump everything—even friendships.

  People make mistakes. You forgive them and move on, not shout “It’s over!” for everyone within listening distance to hear. How embarrassing.

  It was pretty ironic that Chad brought up my father during the argument, because he sure reminded me of him, now that I thought about it. They both had the bad habit of making promises and then not making good on those promises. Promises like, “Nothing will ever come between us,” “Don’t worry, things will be fine” and “I’ll love you forever.” Lies, lies and more lies!

  Chad’s breaking up with me out of the blue sent me spiraling into such an emotional tailspin that I went straight home and cried on my mother’s shoulder. My mom is my best friend. We’re so close, I can tell her anything, and she never judges me.

  Mom consoled me while I cried, and then called things as she saw them. “Honey, this is just my opinion, but you and Chad have been close since you were little kids, but now that you’re older and on the brink of adulthood, it’s easy to see that you two are outgrowing each other.”

  My mouth fell open. I was shocked that she had come to such a terrible conclusion about my relationship. “We had an argument, Mom. It shouldn’t be the end of the world.”

  “The fact that you two are even arguing at all is the problem. I’ve noticed the way that you and Chad have been snapping back and forth at each other lately, and I’ve also noticed that you’re not as patient with each other as you used to be.”

  “Well, no relationship is perfect,” I said in our defense. “Chad and I have our bad days just like any other couple.”

  “And what about the cheating—have you forgotten about that?”

  Okay, so Chad wasn’t exactly a saint. As I’ve said before, the hardest thing about being with a popular guy is that plenty of other girls are waiting in the wings trying to get his attention.

  The last time Chad cheated on me, which was two months ago, I caught him red-handed sending flirty text messages to another girl. The things they were saying back and forth to each other were very intimate, so I didn’t buy that “She’s just a friend” crap that he wanted me to believe.

  I broke up with Chad, but Mom was going through her own issues with Dad, so she wasn’t all that sympathetic toward my plight. “Teenage boys are fickle,” she said. “They run hot one minute and cold the next minute. One day they profess their undying love to you, and five minutes later they’re texting other girls. That’s just how they are.”

  “But Mommy, he promised to be faithful to me. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

  “If some married men can’t manage to be faithful to their wives, you really can’t expect much more from a teenage boy,” Mom replied, wiping my tears. “And I don’t care what he says, or how sincerely he says it. It’s just not going to happen.”

  That time, it took about two weeks for Chad and me to eventually get back together, but now we were on the outs again, all because of that stupid video.

  “So what should I do?” I asked Mom. “Just let the relationship go?”

  “If it’s really over as far as he’s concerned, you have to have enough dignity and self-respect to let it go. You’re young, so heartbreak is inevitable. But the good thing is, you have your whole life ahead of you, and believe it or not, Chad is just a tiny blip on the radar screen of your entire life.”

  It wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to hear, but my mother has way more life experience than I do, so perhaps she was right. Maybe young love doesn’t always conquer all.

  I didn’t know how things would work out with Chad, but Grandma Garrett’s favorite line came to mind, which was, “When one guy walks away, sometimes the best thing to do is open the door for another one.”

  * * *

  After talking to my mother, I invited my friends over to discuss the latest development with Chad. It was a typical muggy day in Dallas, so Jessica, Mia, Kimberly and I were all outside eating frozen yogurt and dangling our feet in the swimming pool.

  “You and Chad will patch things up and get back together soon, just like you always do,” Mia assured me.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I replied. “I’ve seen Chad mad, but never like that. Plus, I’ve been calling and texting him like crazy, but he just keeps blowing me off.”

  “So are you two still going to prom together?” Kimberly asked me.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t eve
n had the chance to talk to him about it,” I said. “But one monkey doesn’t stop a show, so I’m going to prom with or without Chad.”

  “Do you have anybody else in mind?” Mia asked.

  “Not really,” I said. “I’m gonna try to work things out with Chad, or at least convince him that prom is too close to back out now, so we should just go ahead and still go together as planned.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not going to be any fun for the rest of us if you two end up bickering and arguing all night,” Jessica said.

  “I agree,” Kimberly said. “I think the best thing to do at this point is find an alternate date.”

  I palmed my face and sighed. This was not supposed to be happening right now. I’d been planning my senior prom night for months, almost as if it were my wedding, and now that the day had almost arrived, it looked as though I might have to switch “grooms” at the last minute.

  For a split second, I thought about calling the whole thing off. Chances were very high that prom was going to suck without Chad by my side. The two of us had been to tons of dances together, and we always ended up having a blast, even if the event itself was super boring.

  For example, Chad escorted me to my debutante ball last December where fourteen other girls and I were introduced to society. I won “Miss Deb” that night, along with $5,000 toward college, but the most fun I had that evening was dancing with Chad for the debutante-escort waltz.

  The event was held in the ballroom of the Four Seasons hotel. All of us debutantes were dressed exactly alike, in the same white ball gowns with white arm-length gloves, satin silver shoes and rhinestone accessories. All of the fathers and escorts were also dressed identically in black tuxedos with tails, white shirts and bow ties and white gloves. It was all very grand and extremely formal, but Chad kept me laughing the entire time, cracking inside jokes, and talking very proper like a high-society aristocrat.