Jennifer didn’t know if she was more concerned over her hair or her makeup. “Maybe I better…”
“Sit back down,” one sister commanded while the other pushed on Jennifer’s shoulders. “We are not done with you yet.” Then they went back to consulting about what to do as if she wasn’t in the room.
Finally, Charlotte pulled out the curling wand, “Don’t worry. I’m a master at this thanks to all of the time I spend helping people get ready at the theatre.” While the wand heated up she started clipping Jennifer’s hair back in sections.
She tried looking over at what Samantha was digging into, but a tug from Charlotte changed her mind. “Ouch!” she snapped at Delilah’s sister. “What was that for?”
“Stop trying to peek,” Charlotte scolded. “It’s going to be a surprise.”
“I hate surprises. Did Delilah ever tell you about the surprise one of my brother’s gave me?” She glared at the reflection of the Davis sisters in the mirror.
Charlotte didn’t look up from where she was checking the curling wand. “Why would she?”
“Because you know this brother?” Jennifer weakly supplied.
Shrugging her shoulders, Charlotte turned back to her victim, “Probably. I think Samantha dated one of them.” Turning to face her sister, she sweetly asked, “You did date Gage, right?”
“We had one date and I ended up paying for the entire evening,” Samantha growled. “Worst date ever.”
Jennifer laughed, “That sounds like something Gage would do.” Turning back to Charlotte, “But I’m talking about Drew. And the time when he put all of my clothes online, for free, and filled my closet with dresses and skirts from the Goodwill.”
Samantha and Charlotte looked at Jennifer and then back at each other. “Sounds like what we did to Delilah,” one of them whispered.
“We did give Dee her pants back after that first day. And look at what happened because she was forced to wear a skirt that first day. It served its purpose.”
“I don’t think our purpose was for Delilah and David to get together. Our purpose was to help Delilah move on.”
Jennifer started to get a headache from all her ping ponging back and forth between the siblings. She wondered if crossing her eyes, or even just turning her head instead of following the conversation with her eyes, would be less painful. “Thank goodness I don’t have sisters.”
“Well, Drew did pull a girl move by selling all of your clothes,” Charlotte pointed out.
Sighing, “Can we just get this over with?”
Wesley, Garrett Bryant, and Will Cooper all went to collect the limo. They picked up Will’s date first – Tracy Wyatt. Wesley was a little concerned when Tracy slid into the limo next to Garrett first, putting her hand on his thigh to help her move closer to where Will had settled in.
Their next stop was Delilah’s house where David and Kyle would be waiting with the other girls. “Come on inside for pictures,” Wesley suggested to Will and Tracy. “Delilah’s sister Samantha is in town and David told me that she takes amazing photos.”
They all poured out of the limo, Wesley a bit more eagerly than the others, and headed towards the front door. Before anybody could knock or ring the doorbell, the door was pulled open by one of the Davis sisters, he didn’t know which one. The other one shouted upstairs while Kyle and David greeted their friends – including Garrett and Tracy even though they didn’t know the two newcomers very well.
David was the first person to notice movement on the stairs. He started grinning when he saw Delilah descending the stairs in her dress. Kelly wasn’t far behind her, smiling until she noticed that her date wasn’t paying attention. A quick nudge from Wesley alerted Garrett to his date’s appearance.
Grace somehow floated down. Charlotte held her breath until the other girl had both feet on level ground – she was remembering her own fall and broken arm from the year before and hoped they wouldn’t have a repeat. Lifting her hem, Grace revealed her flats to Kyle, who started laughing. “I’m glad to know that.” He kept thinking about how many times over the school year he’d had to catch his not-so-graceful girlfriend.
Jennifer was last and as she descended the staircase, not even looking at Wesley but at her own two feet – also in flats. Delilah and David noticed how Wesley’s jaw had dropped at Jennifer’s simple black dress. Her hair was curled – and coated with a small can of hairspray – and pulled back at her temples by sparkly hair combs. Somebody had found a necklace that flirted with her modestly covered cleavage.
“Well?” she asked, finally looking up. “Will I do?”
“You look stunning.”
Samantha changed her focus – she’d been taking photos of the girls as they came down the stairs – and caught a shot of Wesley looking at Jennifer. Leaning towards her sister, “Are you sure they aren’t together?” she whispered.
“Positive.”
“They should be.”
“Jennifer has a thing about high school relationships.”
David pulled Delilah into his arms, “I’m glad you don’t,” he mumbled, obvious to Samantha’s camera focusing on them.
The venue for the Prom glittered. It seriously looked as if the glitter fairy had thrown up over everything and nobody decided to be the person that had to clean it up. That was the first thing that both Jennifer and Wesley thought as they followed their friends into the room.
On closer inspection, it was more than just glitter that decorated the tables and floor. Shiny confetti had joined the mix. Shimmery things bobbled up and down from fishing line, lights on the inside of them cast soft balls of light around the room. Fairy lights, as Kelly called them, were twined around the lanterns – closer inspection told Jennifer that paper lanterns had been covered in material – and draped around the room.
“Well?” Kelly bounced, “How did we do?”
Suddenly the surplus of glitter made sense. The lights and lanterns reminded David of that awful party the previous year that Aimee had insisted he throw. Kelly too had helped decorate his yard, even though it had meant following Aimee’s commands.
Oblivious to her friends’ lack of response, “One of the other girls insisted on throwing glitter everywhere. Somebody else had suggested confetti that had a shine to it instead, but before anybody could do anything Nicole had tossed the glitter everywhere. We spent hours trying to sweep it up after she left, but…”
“Glitter is difficult to remove,” David finished, remembering the glitter that Aimee had insisted on and how long it took for all of it to wash away. A year later he was still finding it on the patio.
Beaming at David, Kelly bounced again, “Exactly!”
“I love the lanterns,” Jennifer added.
“And the fairy lights,” Grace whispered, still overwhelmed. Within moments she was pulled away by Kyle as he tugged her towards some of his other friends. “Save us a seat!” she called out to Delilah.
Will grabbed Tracy’s hand, “We’ll be over there,” he pointed. “Let us know when you are ready to go.” Kelly and Garrett followed after them.
“It still looks like a fairy has gotten sick in here,” Wesley whispered in Jennifer’s ear.
“Or a unicorn,” she added.
The friends started laughing, uncaring that David and Delilah were looking at them as if they’d gone crazy. They were at Prom. Jennifer was in a dress.
Maybe she had lost her mind. The room was starting to grow on Jennifer. The glitter and larger confetti reflected the light, sending little sparkles around the room. The lights were set to twinkle instead of a solid glow. The lanterns were gently swaying as people touched them, sending even more reflections bouncing around the room. It reminded her, vaguely, of a starry night.
Everything was going according to normal. They danced, they ate the food – the girls carefully in order to protect their dresses from food falling on or in their dresses – and they sat in the chairs chatting as weary feet were rubbed. On occasion, Penny, who had refused the l
imo for herself, would complain about how “trashy” everybody’s dresses were. Nobody was surprised when her date disappeared.
It took a turn when a screech was sounded over the music. Jennifer quickly looked in the direction where the sound came from and saw Aimee grinning from where she watched the scene. That never was a good sign.
“How dare you pour that punch over my head!” Tracy Wyatt screeched - there was no other way to describe her highly pitched tone that sounded like feedback from a dropped microphone – at Kelly.
“Then you shouldn’t have been making out with my date,” Kelly calmly responded. Turning to look at Garrett, “You can have him.” She started to turn around, “But not the limo.”
Grabbing Will’s hand, she tugged him over to where her friends were watching the scene. “I can’t believe they did that!” she was heard exclaiming. Looking up, she saw the smirk on Aimee’s face. “But I do believe Tracy was paid to do it.” Kelly nodded over to where Aimee was watching them.
“Let me…”
“No, Will,” Kelly sighed. “There are a few other things that need addressing before we confront her.”
“Like?”
“Like how she’s treating Hannah.” She sighed, almost wishing that she had stayed at home and visited with her sister-in-law instead of getting dressed up.
Jennifer was the first one to notice that the chaperones were huddled together. Every now and then a head would look around and look for Kelly. She had a feeling about what was about to happen.
Blinking while watching the teachers, “Guys, I think Kelly is about to get kicked out.”
Shaking her head, “It was worth it,” Kelly proclaimed.
Delilah touched the other girl’s shoulder. “We’ll deal with Aimee later.”
Without a word, Kelly waved at the teachers who were still trying to decide what to do about the situation.
They ended up as the only people in prom dresses at the nearest fast food place.
Except for Penny’s missing date.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
It was an intervention that she didn’t see coming. After school Delilah, Kelly, and a few other people were hanging out around Aimee’s car and waiting for her to return. Kelly had heard about the ‘apple juice’ jug and why her sister-in-law needed a 24-hour urine sample and had decided to get Delilah and a few of Hannah’s theatre friends to help.
Nobody had been aware just how much Aimee’s immature antics had been stressing Hannah out, but they all knew that the additional stress was not good for the pregnant teenager.
“Hello, Aimee,” Delilah smiled once the girl started to approach the group. She knew that Aimee had been whispering about Hannah skipping out on Prom and speculating that the girl had gone into labor and couldn’t make it to one of the ‘biggest nights of their lives.’ She’d heard about Aimee announcing her concern that Hannah would go into labor in the middle of lunch and ruin everybody’s meals. “I hear that you haven’t learned anything from last semester.”
“What’s it matter to you?”
“Hannah is a nice person. She doesn’t deserve to be the focus of your frustration.”
The former self-proclaimed Queen Bee sneered. “She shouldn’t be as glorified as she is.”
“Her life isn’t any of your concern!” Kelly interjected. “You can’t keep being mean to people just because nobody likes you. There’s a reason nobody likes you and that’s because you aren’t a very nice person.”
Aimee looked at her former best friend and tried to calculate what words would best make her cry, “I heard about you and Garrett.”
“Nothing happened between us and everybody knows it. Will took Tracy Wyatt to the Prom and Garrett Bryant took me. The problem was with Tracy and Garrett.” Kelly rolled her eyes at Aimee’s attempt to make it seem like it was her fault that Tracy and Garrett had been caught making out with somebody other than their dates. “That’s weak and you know it. I hope you grow up between now and college because they’ll eat you alive with how petty you are.”
One of the theatre girls started to giggle. “You realize that right now we are more popular than you are, right?” She didn’t wait for Aimee to respond before continuing, “We have no problem using your tactics against you, and we,” she circled her finger around at the five girls surrounding the car, “are more than you.”
“I don’t think,” Delilah smiled slyly, “that your boss at the bookstore would appreciate to learn how you have been treating some of his customers when people you don’t like come in. Or how you kept flirting with David after he told you to stop. How your actions have cost Mr. Raty’s customers and sales.”
“I don’t think,” another girl spoke up, “that Mr. Jameson will mind when he finds out how some of the basketball team got a copy of the test that he made everybody retake in February.”
“Or that Mrs. Pruett will fail you if she finds out that you hired a college student to write your research paper.”
With a sinking feeling Aimee realized that she had not gotten away with some of the things she assumed she had gotten away with. That she had been observed closely and that these girls were holding onto the information for when they needed it the most.
“Fine,” she sighed, “you win. I’ll leave Hannah alone.”
Delilah moved forward, “You will leave everybody alone.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Without another word she climbed into her Celica and left the others standing where they were.
Looking at each other, they all nodded their heads. They knew that a few more drama students had carefully watched Aimee ever since Hannah had joined them at their lunch table. They knew that the dirt they held over Aimee’s head was far deeper than the other girl currently suspected.
Chapter Seventy
The first time it happened, Hannah jerked away, saw the clock read three am, and started shaking Brady. It took a moment for him to wake up; he’d only been asleep three hours after coming in from a baseball game.
“It’s too soon!” she nearly sobbed. “We still have a month!”
It wasn’t supposed to be happening like this. She was supposed to graduate high school in two weeks and couldn’t afford to take time off right before finals. She’d have to go to summer school just to complete her senior year and that would throw off their college plans of starting during the second summer term.
Brady was the calm one, reminding her to breathe and that everything would be okay. “The doctor did say that our little peanut could come early.”
“But that’ll mess up all of our plans!” It didn’t matter that none of their plans from the beginning of the school year had actually happened the way that they’d planned.
“That doesn’t matter,” he soothed her, grabbing her bags as he led Hannah to his truck. Turning his phone to speaker phone, he called the doctor first.
The second time Hannah felt Braxton Hicks contractions was in the middle of class. She calmly texted Brady, remembering the doctor’s advice to not leave until the contractions were seven minutes apart, and asked him to come pick her up. She didn’t want to alarm her teacher or classmates, even though one or two of them saw her wince a few times. All Hannah could think of was Aimee taunting her about having her baby in the middle of class.
While she wore a calm façade, as soon as the bell rang dismissing class, she hurriedly waddled out of the room and went to the office. It only took a few minutes to explain why she needed to sign herself out, that Brady was coming to pick her up, and that there wasn’t much reason for them to worry.
They called in the school nurse to check her out, the nurse being a former ER nurse that decided to change her focus.
A few minutes later the ‘contractions’ stopped and Hannah texted Brady to tell him that it was another round of Braxton Hicks. She felt more embarrassed than anything, suspecting that this story was going to go around the school once Aimee heard about it. It didn’t though; Kelly told everybody that Hannah had a doctor’s appointment weekly
now that she was a few weeks away from her due date.
Nobody minded when she signed herself out during her last class, the guidance counselors understanding that their office aide needed to leave, and cried out her embarrassment to her husband.
The third time it happened was in the middle of Bible Study and the other young couples smiled as Brady and Hannah quickly left the room.
“This time it feels different,” Hannah insisted.
It wasn’t.
This time her doctor advised her to not come in until her water broke. “It’s not as if you aren’t close to the hospital.”
“You are tired. Get some sleep while you still can,” she suggested to the young couple as they left the room.
Chapter Seventy-One
It was all downhill from that point. The Seniors were all counting down the days until Graduation. Senioritis was a serious condition that faced all but three of the students. Kyle, Jennifer, and Taylor Rodgers were still battling for the honor of being that year’s valedictorian.
Kyle knew that his chances had dropped once he stopped stressing himself out over his grades and the assignments. A few B’s in his classes might have hurt his chances – he bet Jennifer that it had – of ranking in the top three, but he was okay with that. He definitely wasn’t stressing about it anymore like he had been before his football accident.
Many of the students were placing bets on who was going to get the honor. Wesley had placed his money on Jennifer. “She’s a genius,” he was heard stating. “Have you ever gotten in a debate with her?”
Some people reluctantly placed their bets on Taylor; they knew there was a chance, but he could be obnoxious about the entire thing.
“You’ve got this in the bag,” Wesley whispered to Jennifer one day before finals.
Letting out a laugh before explaining, “I have a photographic memory. It doesn’t take much for me to recall the textbook, my notes, or what the teacher puts on the board. I only struggle in math and science because there isn’t always a clear-cut answer or way to do things.”
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