Where There's Light | ✔

30. New Rules

Thanksgiving break couldn't come fast enough. It was like every teacher decided to give us extra work to make up for the week we were missing.

The only good thing about the extra assignments was that they served as a distraction from Nolan. It had been days since he confided in me about his mom and things between us still haven't realigned. His walls were back up and I didn't have the energy to try to get through them.

Instead we awkwardly held hands in the halls and pretended to enjoy ourselves at football games. No one noticed the weirdness between us. No one even cared. I started to wonder what the point of all this was?

On the last day before break I was reminded of the endgame. The prize.

The entire student body was buzzing with excitement after the morning announcements. Vice Principal Cho informed us that sign ups for prom court would be open during the lunch periods. This usually didn't start until spring. Apparently they were changing things up this year.

For the first time in almost a week Nolan had a genuine smile on his face. He was in front of my locker, where he waited most days before lunch, practically bouncing on his toes. It was easy to forget the wall between us when he acting like a child in a toy store.

I couldn't stop the smile that popped onto my face as I approached him. "I'm guessing you didn't sleep through the announcements today?"

Before I could process what was happening Nolan's arms were firmly gripped around my thighs and my feet were leaving the ground. "It's happening," he said, oblivious to my shocked and confused state.

I squealed, a nervous giggle bubbling from me. Confused or not, something zapped through me at his sudden mood change. "What's gotten in to you?"

He sat me back down and leaned in close. "I sit next to Gia in Econ."

"And she gave you a gallon of coffee?"

He chuckled. "No. She talked. A lot," he clarified. "She's on the prom committee and she was telling me about all of the new rules for prom court."

"Rules? I thought you made posters and then people voted. Simple."

He shook his head, his face lighting up with insider information. "Not this year. Last year only, like, four couples were running for king and queen. Now it's over twenty." He still wore a smile as if more competition was good news.

"Am I missing something?" I asked. "More couples mean our chances at winning are even lower than before."

"Not with the new rules. There's an application process to weed out the fake couples."

"We are a fake couple," I whisper-shouted.

He grin must've been made out of steel because it didn't waver once. "But we're a fake couple that knows about the quiz."

"Quiz?"

"On each other," he explained. "Gia said they're still working on the questions, but they're supposed to prove the authenticity of the couples."

Everything he said sounded more like an obstacle than an advantage. But that smile, the way his copper eyes sparkled, even in the bad florescent lighting. I could entertain the idea that our plan wasn't going to blow up in our faces just to keep him happy.

"You really think we can pull it off?"

He nodded. "We just need to study."

"Study?"

"Each other," he said. "You know, hang out. Alone. Just us."

Just us. That night if the Halloween party sprang into my head, when he drunkenly muttered those same words. I willed my heart to slow down it's pace, to remember that it was all a part of a plan. Nothing to get worked up about.