“Umm….” I waved my arms around in my trademark panic move.
Mr. Peterson was staring right at me and I swear I saw his shoulders shaking a bit, silently laughing. Lucy’s mom came running around the corner with a camera in her hand, demanding that we all stand next to each other for pictures. I figured she’d be better to the dress than I would, and handed her the box. My attempt to save myself ended up being pretty embarrassing, though. Even though neither of the girls said anything, Johnny coughed “wuss!” into his hand about six times.
The limo was nice. Six long leather seats stretched through the back. The sunroof was open so we could poke our heads out of it if we wanted. I thought the whole thing was silly but the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves so the money Johnny and I split to make it happen seemed well worth it. I hoped we weren’t the only ones who had gotten a limo; I didn’t want everyone to be staring at us.
I looked over at Lucy, who was animatedly talking with Jennika and I realized that I was absolutely going to be stared at the whole night.
Our limo drove down a long road in the middle of other cars, and I was happy to see other limos as well.
“Dude, look at our girlfriends!” Johnny hissed into my ear, rubbing his hands together like a cartoon villain.
“I know, right? They are really stupid to be with us right now.”
Johnny laughed and looked like he agreed one hundred percent but wasn’t about to let them know what we had figured out.
“We’re going to have to, like, dance with them.” He was still smiling but I could hear the alarm in his voice.
“I’m guessing so.”
For the rest of our time in the limo, he was quiet, staring intently at the floor. It was like watching a hardened soldier going into battle. He was getting mentally prepared.
Our driver parked behind a row of limos and came over to open the door for us. We stepped out and were met with the sight of a big beautiful barn that was completely lit up with Christmas lights. The barn was the size of a very large house, and tall, like there were three stories inside. It was the deep red of a classic barn and had a big star on the top where one of those wind-roosters would normally go.
Lucy grabbed my hand and led me up the walkway lit with paper-bag lanterns. Each one had tiny scrolls and patterns cut out of them, so they threw lighted shapes at our feet.
My girlfriend looked amazing. Her gorgeous head of curls was held up high, and her hand was firm in mine. As I walked next to her, seeing the way people looked at her in accustomed admiration, I noticed that almost all of them were then moving their attention to me. They seemed to look at me with the same kind of admiration, almost like I fit with this insanely beautiful girl. The feeling it gave me was like something inside my chest detonated, like a smile was inside of me rushing to the surface.
I was physically unable to contain it.
The inside of the old barn was even more majestic than the outside. Big white balls hung from every spare inch of the ceiling, all of them at different lengths, glowing with soft light. Every few feet there were a couple of metal star lanterns that dropped lower than the white globes, cut with the same patterns as the mini-paper lanterns outside. The tables were all covered with ivory tablecloths, a centerpiece of wild flowers in the middle, and tons of tiny tea lights sprinkled around them.
There were a ton of people packed into the barn, all dancing and laughing. I rubbed my hand on Lucy’s soft shoulder and kissed it gently.
“That feels so weird without your piercings.” She rubbed the spot I had just kissed. “In a bad way?”
“No, not bad at all, just different. I’m not used to it.”
“Well, don’t get to used to it, they are going right back on when I get home.” I kissed her shoulder again. This time she just put her forehead against mine and breathed an inviting giggle.
A slow song started playing. It was a song I actually knew and was fond of. Lucy grabbed my hand and hauled me out to the dance floor.
“You’re not going to let me warm up to the room or something?” I protested.
“Oh shush, let’s have fun.” Lucy turned her body around and leaned into me. Her arm snaked around my back and we locked together, arms tight against our bodies. We swayed with the music.
Over the top of Lucy’s head I saw Johnny being swept across the floor. He looked terrified. “Swaying” was not Johnny’s strong point; anything musical was out of his realm of comprehension. He stepped his foot up every time they swayed together. A three-year old doing the potty dance had the same kind of movements. Jennika was trying to get him to just move his body back and forth.
I held Lucy tighter against me and breathed in deeply, enjoying having her next to me. We moved well together. Plus, a great song was playing, one I had gotten a lot of slack for when I would turn it up in the car. Even though no one ever changed it.
I bent my lips close to Lucy’s ear and sang the next line. She stopped moving and looked up at me, her eyes big and shocked.
“What?” I asked, not knowing what I had done.
“You can sing?” Her bottom chin stuck out defiantly.
“I don’t know?” I’d just wanted to say that line to her, and it was to music, so I guess I sang it.
“Sing more.” She stuck her body against me again, hoping to go back to swaying and singing before I got too uncomfortable.
This stupid girl just couldn’t enjoy a moment without acting like everything needed a reaction or a show. She shook me a little, trying to get me to start up again. Wanting to avoid shaken-gothboy-syndrome, I complied and sang another line to her, aware of my voice this time. That probably made my voice sound less impressive. The song ended, me humming to her.
As we came to a stop, her eyes locked on mine the way they did when she was intent on something. The song ended and I was allowed to go over to the food table, were Johnny and Jennika were already standing. Jennika was looking like she had given up on trying to make Johnny and dancing work. The food looked good, long rows of different kinds of rolls and fruit, cheeses and crackers. I looked down the table and saw Isaiah standing in front of the punch bowl, smelling it from the ladle. He scrunched up his nose and poured some into a little plastic cup. Behind him, looking nervous was Michelle.
“Hey,” I said, putting my hands up in greeting. Both Isaiah and Michelle looked up and saw us standing a few feet away. They both walked over, not holding hands or anything, but together. Michelle looked so different I hardly recognized her.
“What’s up, pretty people?” Isaiah said. He winked flirtatiously at Lucy. “Lookin’ good, Luce.” She laughed and looked around like she wanted something to throw at him.
“Michelle, you look so pretty!” Johnny’s voice rang with disbelief. He must not have been thinking. Jennika turned her head around slowly to look at him, staring at Michelle, and sneered. After a second, he noticed and had the decency to look ashamed of himself.
“I’m just saying I’m not used to seeing her dressed up.” He shrugged but kept a repentant look on his face.
“Seriously though, Mich, who knew you had boobs?” Isaiah chortled.
Michelle squinted her eyes so furiously at him I was surprised Isaiah’s head didn’t explode.
“You look really nice, Michelle.” I figured I was safe with that. Neither she nor Lucy could have too much of a problem with it.
She did look nice, too. I couldn’t believe it. Her regular black attire was replaced with a deep red dress, tight and long. Normally stringy dark brown hair was smooth and silky and swept off her face. She still wore a lot of makeup, but tonight it was toned down. The soft lights in the barn complimented the subtle makeup colors. Just like with Lucy, I was surprised at just how beautiful Michelle was when she was trying to be.
My attempt was apparently too little too late. Michelle just rolled her eyes at all of us and stormed off to the bathroom. Black army boots, shoelaces untied, appeared from under her dress.
“Ahh, she’s great,�
� Isaiah said, smiling after our friend. Unlike the rest of us, who had put serious effort into our appearances, Isaiah looked no different from the way he always looked. The only real difference was his shirt had a picture of a tuxedo on it. His shorts had once been pants, but he had cut off the bottom ten inches, so his calves peeked out.
A rap song blared to life and everyone but us ran to the dance floor. It was a song I recognized, very popular, and the beat was thick with rhythm.
“So, did you guys know that David could sing?” Lucy asked my friends, accusation in her voice.
“Oh yeah, he’s fruity like that. Wait until you see him dance.” Isaiah waved a “been there done that” hand in Lucy’s direction. I took a bite of the baby carrot I was holding and pretended to stare at all the decorations, the dancers, even the one or two chaperones wandering around the outskirts.
“What?” Lucy sounded amazed. It was beginning to bug me that she was so shocked whenever she found out I was good at something. Did I make that bad of an impression?
“I want to see,” Jennika said, excitedly.
“Yeah man, pop, lock, and drop it!” Isaiah stuffed another cookie in his mouth. I looked at them, they all had expectant gleams in their eyes. I could hear the beat in the song that was playing and waited for the “bap” on the third round.
I popped my shoulders at them.
“Whaaat!” Jennika shouted, running over to my side. “Do this, do this.” She put her hand above her chest and bumped her chest, like there was a string on her hand she was jerking it forward with the beat. I copied her and the girls screamed again.
“Ok, do this one.” She stomped down with her right foot and brought her left hand down with it, in a fist. She bounced back up and did the same on the other side. I tried it once, but I lost the beat; she showed me again and I got it.
“Dang, boy. You got some moves. Where did you learn to dance?”
“I guess I just feel it, I don’t know." I winked at Lucy, whose mouth was gaping wide.
“Who is this?” I heard the fakest voice on earth behind me. I jumped back and almost toppled over the refreshment table when I saw that it was Rachel and Evelyn. They both wore their own looks of shock when they saw me.
“What happened to you?” Evelyn sneered at me.
“Extensive plastic surgery.” I answered. Isaiah snickered and then looked down when Rachel look over at him and glowered.
“Well, you almost got him where you want him, Lucy.” Rachel winked at me and walked off with her friend.
I was starting to suspect that the prettier those two got, the nastier they acted.
“What is wrong with those two? Do they even go to this school? I never saw them before I went to your church.” I put emphasis on the word “your,” feeling frustrated by what Rachel had said about Lucy almost having me changed. I felt like a sell-out.
“No, they are homeschooled. They come to all the games and dances and things.” Lucy looked embarrassed.
“Oh, well, that’s why I never noticed them. I mean, they are hard to miss.” I was allowing myself to feel a little mean for a moment. Lucy grabbed my hand and hauled me out to the dance floor again for another slow song. She put her arm around me but didn’t get as close as last time.
“I know you just said that because of what Rachel said. You know that’s complete nonsense, right?” She spoke bluntly, which always made me feel stupid because she was always right when she did that.
“Yeah.” I spoke unconvincingly, holding her tighter and kissing her forehead. She melted into me again, careful not to put her face on my suit and not mess her makeup. I was suddenly glad she wasn’t one of those girls where I had to worry about messing all her makeup up. I took a deep breath and said the words I should have said a while ago.
“I love you.” I spoke softly in her ear.
Instead of a response from Lucy I heard a loud crack and a blood-curdling scream from one of the front corners of the barn. On the right side of the room a wooden beam fell from the roof. It demolished a giant speaker before it exploded onto the floor.
18. STOP, DROP, AND ROLL
My first reaction was to put Lucy behind my back. I wanted to wait and see what the heck was going on, and not have her get hit by any splinters or anything in the meantime.
Like a flock of birds changing directions, everyone on the dance floor skittered away from the front exit where the beam had fallen. It wasn’t a giant chunk of wood, but very long and slender. There were about thirty of them spanning the length of the barn’s roof. The place where the beam had fallen from was marked by a black chunk of ceiling, a stark contrast from the white globes that blanketed the rest.
“Is that what you had in mind when you thought of Prom? I think my idea was better.” I winked, poking Lucy in her ribs.
“Actually, it was almost perfect.” She stuck her tongue at me because she knew what I was talking about. A group of teachers came over to the side of the barn where everyone at the dance, all three hundred and something of us, were standing. They held up their hands for silence.
“We are going to get you all out of here safely. We are going to take you out in small groups.” I looked around and saw that some kids were starting to panic. I guess lack of an incredibly easy exit freaks some people out.
I inspected the little corner where we stood and then started looking for the other exit. There were always two exits, right?
When I finally saw it, I groaned. Some genius had blocked the second one with decorations - big wooden boxes and huge bales of hay. Perfect. It was going to take forever for us to get out of here. I considered sitting down on the floor, but respected the zoot suit too much for that. Then I thought it might be good to try dancing again, but shot that down as I imagined everyone freaking out at me. “How can you joke around at a time like this?!”
I leaned against a table, folded my arms, and watched the show. Teachers would get a group of ten people from our crowd, then walk them slowly across the barn, under the empty space the fallen beam had created, to the exit it had tried to destroy. It seemed like one group a minute was getting through.
I gazed around to see were Johnny and Jennika were but I couldn’t find them, which worried me. They were probably just behind someone, I thought. There were a lot of people. I saw Isaiah in the back of the group, looking around like he was trying to find us as well, his face uncharacteristically concerned. The teachers came back for more people every few minutes, and each group behaved the same way, cowering in fear when they walked under the gap in the ceiling, through the barn’s wide open doors.
After twenty minutes, a quarter of the group was out of the barn. The initial excitement of the fall had worn off and now everyone was just antsy to get out. We spent a bit complaining about the small groups they were taking through the door. It had been almost a half hour – obviously nothing else was going to happen. With the dance done, we were all just bored, waiting to go. No one was dancing; most guys were sitting on the floor now, with their dates leaning on the wall or perched on the boys’ legs. No falling beams were going to ruin prom dresses.
Yet another group was walking through the doors when a groaning noise cut the air. It sounded dull at first, then got louder. Those of us still waiting stopped talking, waiting to hear more. The group near the door rushed out, a few high-pitched shrieks from panicky females.
There was another loud crack that broke through the still air. From the gaping hole in the ceiling, we spotted a row of lanterns separating from the blanket of lights that carpeted the ceiling. The beam next to the one that had already fallen peeked past the lanterns, rested for a moment, then plummeted toward the ground in a rush of air we could feel across the room.
It hit the ground with an even louder crash than the first one. Maybe it was just because we were all paying attention, but this one seemed to make the ground shake. It fell onto the speakers on the DJ platform. The high pitched screech of protest from the exploding equipment on stage made us cover o
ur ears and cringe.
Hardly any time that passed from the second beam falling until the third one fell. It crushed the food tables to pieces, throwing punch up into the air. That would have been funny if we weren’t at the other end of the domino reaction that was inevitably heading towards us. We all crowded the far side of the barn, where the beams were still up. Teachers came hustling over to us, not bothering to look calm for our benefit. Another beam fell and we realized that that whole side of the barn was going to start caving in.
I grabbed Lucy’s hand and tried to drag her to the exit but there was a sudden mad dash of people climbing over others trying to get to the doors before the next beam came down. Just as quickly as people started climbing over one another to get out, they were climbing back over us to come back. I looked up and saw that a small fire had started where the wood had hit the DJ equipment.
Orange flames licked up the side of the dry wooden beams that had already fallen with threatening speed. The pieces of beam that were hanging from the ceiling caught the flames, as did the remains of the beams that had already fallen on the floor. For the fourth time, another beam came crashing down.
It wasn’t going to be long before the falling beams reached where we were standing. That and the fire.
“David, what are we going to do?” Lucy whispered to me. We were both hunched on the ground. People around us kept trying to crawl along the most stable wall toward the door, trying to escape. They were all running into each other. Hadn’t these people heard of a fire drill were you walk out in a single file line? I know I had done practice drills with over half of these people in elementary school, and every year since. Their stupidity and panicking was making it impossible to move. If we tried to force an exit like they were, we were just going to get even more hurt.
I got a flashback from the lake. Dummies were going to get someone killed.
My Stupid Girl Page 24