Faith & Empire: Book One of The Holy Terran Empire

14. The Prom

My cousin offered up her hand and Lawrence kissed it.

"I'm Betsy Kalganova and this is my cousin, Zephyrinus Zapatas."

"Yes, I recognize him," Lawrence said and offered me his hand in turn. "Saint Mary's Maulers, out of Downtown Georgetown. You are one of their defensive linemen if I remember correctly."

I shook his hand and nodded. "That's right, and you're a Saint Michael's Sharks running back. Their best. The Sharks wouldn't have gotten to the Union Bowl without you."

"Now... now, we don't know that's true; but it's awful good of you to say," Lawrence said before gesturing to Jacinta. "This is my date..."

"Jacinta Placidio," I said, extending her my palm. After what might have been an imagined hesitation, Jacinta placed her hand in mine and I kissed it. "Yes, we know each other. How are you Jacci?"

Jacinta gave me a wide smile which struck me as a little forced. "I'm good Zeph. And you?"

"The same," I said.

We stared at each other with the same dumb smiles plastered on our faces.

Betsy broke the uncomfortable silence with a soft clearing of her throat and the question, "Is everyone having fun?"

"Not as much fun as we're going to have when that there punch bowl is refilled," Aloysius predicted with a nod toward the nearest table.

"Oh?" I said, glad for the excuse to shift my attention elsewhere.

Aloysius gave a deep, conspiratorial nod of his blond and shaggy head and said, "Le Trinite՛ Terrible have arranged for the second round of punch to come forth from yonder galley properly spiked. Should be any minute now."

Le Trinite՛ Terrible (pronounced with the cheesiest Cajun accent one could muster) or the Trudeau triplets, as they were more commonly known, hailed from Saint Leo the Great Parish. The threesome had a diocese-wide reputation for truancy and all around trouble-making. I didn't believe them to be bad kids, not at heart anyway. Individually, they might not have acquired the reputation they enjoyed collectively, but their triplet bond acted as a force multiplier for much of their mischief.

"I hope they limit their pranks to the spiking of punch bowls," I said. "I would hate to see the night ruined by the burning down of the civic hall or some such."

I was pleased to see that Jacinta joined in the laughter that my small effort at levity produced.

Betsy asked, hooking a thumb over her shoulder. "How are they going to manage it when they're all on the dance floor?"

"They got to have plausible deniability," Aloysius said.

"And an inside man," Lawrence added. "Benjamin Butters."

Betsy went "Aha."

I chuckled in appreciation of the Trudeau boys' choice of accomplice.

"The sisters will never suspect li'l 'Saint' Benny," Miriam said.

"Not likely," I said. "But you have to wonder how the triplets roped him into it."

Aloysius shrugged and said, "Butters volunteered from what I heard."

Betsy was incredulous. "He did?"

Aloysius nodded sagely.

Miriam added, "Butters said there was a time for everything under the sun, and the senior prom was the time to cut loose."

"They don't call it the Book of Wisdom for nothing," Aloysius said.

Miriam punched her date playfully in the shoulder. "It's from Ecclesiastes, you dummy."