Lamia's Dream

Chapter 36

I didn’t want to go to school on Monday.  I didn’t want to hear about prom, I didn’t want to have to listen to Charlie Briggs, and I didn’t want to deal with the absence of Valerie at lunch.  For our last argument, I was completely in the wrong and felt bad about Valerie being mad at me.  This time, it was 70-30 at best, in my favor. 

I thought back to our conversation at the party the night the Hunter first showed up. 

“We’re kind of in that weird phase when you’re still together, but you’re so mad at each other that maybe you’re not.  You know what I mean?” 

Yes, Valerie.  Now I know exactly what you mean. 

Almost every one of my classes was full of chatter about prom.  Who had the best dress, who had the worst.  A pair of seniors attempted to win some scholarship by going in garments made of duct tape.  Apparently, Melissa Hart wore a stunning silver gown.  She and her friends all went single and some guys from the baseball team crowded them the entire night.  A few of the extremely shy girls in the National Honors’ Society threw an after-prom party that would be the talk of the decade.  In other words, a bunch of madness I didn’t care about.

The only interesting tidbit I came across was that Tyler’s date ended up leaving with some other guy.  Seems the jerk couldn’t keep a girl.

Charlie was oblivious to most of this, as he didn’t attend prom either.  He conversed with me briefly about other things.  Or rather, he chattered on and on and I pretended to listen.

Rick, who ended up driving me from Spencer Mountain, caught Jack up on Saturday’s events.  The name Valerie wasn’t mentioned at our lunch table that day.

It was Samantha who filled me in, against my will, about what happened with our group.

"Chad and Alexandra had a nice time.  He’s a surprisingly good dancer, although I still can’t figure out what she sees in him.  Tatiana and I danced with almost everyone from the LGBT club of either sex.  And, as expected, Malik and Lynn won the write-in for Cutest Couple.”

“Ugh.  You’re kidding me.”

Math class today was almost like a free period.  There was some busy work assignment to do before moving on to the next chapter.  This was to give the students who did bad poorly on the last test a chance to correct their mistakes for half-credit. 

“If only.  It’s East Gaston tradition that only seniors can make the prom court, despite the basketball team’s sincere attempts to break that.  So, instead, Malik and Lynn won the Cutest Couple by a land-slide."

“I figured you and Tatiana had them beat.”

“Tell me about it.  Sadly, half of being the cutest couple is being the most popular.”

Of course.  Lynn and Malik were the power couple every popular kid strived to be. 

I wondered if Valerie and I even stood a chance.  As Malik had said, competition wasn’t the word he would use. 

"And they didn’t stick around to the end.  Which was extra annoying as Lynn is a part of SADD.  They were required to stay after.” 

Lynn was a member of Students Against Drunk Driving? 

Oh, the irony.

“We think they made out in the limousine.  Tatiana and I came out for a bit and it was gone.  Later, the driver said he took them around the block a couple of times.”

“I bet that was annoying.”

“Only because we were going to do the same,” Samantha said with a grin.