“I hate it,” I told Mackenzie as I looked at my reflection in the mirror.
“You look beautiful!” she insisted. The red dress I was wearing went down to my knees. I twirled around, watching it flow up a bit. I didn’t like dresses – I always felt liked I was naked when I wear them.
“I still don’t like it,” I said stubbornly. Mackenzie was wearing a light blue dress with sparkles on it. She looked pretty in it – while I just looked awkward.
“By the way, do you still not have a date?” I asked her, wanting to know if Max had manned up or not.
“Actually, I do,” she smiled at me, “Sit down so I can fix your hair.”
“My hair’s fine,” I shook my head, “Who is it?”
“Sit down and I’ll tell you.”
She was good. I sat down in my desk chair and allowed her to do unknown things to my hair.
“So, who is it?” I pressed for information.
“Max,” she answered and I smiled.
“How did he ask you?”
“Are you always this nosy?” she asked with a smile. She turned the chair around so that I was facing her. Taking a few strands of my hair, she started to braid it.
“So he was the one you had in mind?” I asked, remembering our conversation yesterday.
“Yeah,” she was still smiling as she focused on finishing the last braid.
“I’m happy for you,” I told her.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Mackenzie said, loud enough for them to hear. Caden walked in, wearing a suit. He looked gorgeous, there was no denying it.
“Hey,” he smiled at me, “Sorry I didn’t get you a corsage. You just don’t seem like the type of girl who would want to wear one.”
I grinned at him, “You know me too well. I find corsages really awkward.”
“Hold still,” Mackenzie instructed me, still fixing my hair, “I’m almost done.”
I held as still as possible, still keeping my eyes on Caden. He sat down on my bed and looked at his sister.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going out with Max?”
“Do I have to tell you everything?” Mackenzie smirked at him as she undid my braid.
“What are you doing?” I asked her. What was the point of doing a braid and then undoing it?
“It didn’t look good enough,” she replied to me and studied my hair. She turned me ninety degrees around so that I was facing the wall, my back to her.
“You could have told me,” he insisted and then paused, “Is Mackenzie who you and Max were talking about yesterday?”
“Yup,” I answered.
“Did everyone know about this but me?” Caden asked. Neither Mackenzie or I answered and a few seconds of silence passed. I burst out laughing. I don’t know why, but I always tend to laugh during awkward silences or serious moments.
“Are you done with my hair yet?” I asked Mackenzie. She had tied my hair up into a bun, then switched to a ponytail.
“Hold on, almost done,” she said and took out my ponytail, “done!”
I turned around and stared at her. “So basically, you did nothing to my hair.”
“Well, it turned out it already looked beautiful the way it was,” she gave me an innocent smile. The door suddenly opened and Max walked in, also in a black suit.
“Ever heard of knocking?” I asked him.
“Sorry,” he grinned at me and then saw Caden, “Uh …”
“He knows,” I told Max and went to sit down next to Caden.
“Sorry,” Max told Caden apologetically, “I guess I should have told you.”
Caden shrugged, “Well, it’s not like I can forbid you to go out with her. It’s better that it’s you than some other guy.”
“Isn’t it awkward though?” I asked.
“Not helping,” Mackenzie told me, “Why don’t we just head to the dance?”
“Alright, let’s go,” I said. Caden and I got up and followed Max and Mackenzie out the door. As we made our way to the gym, we ran into Cameron.
“Hey,” he grinned at us. He was wearing a normal t-shirt and jeans.
“Nice outfit,” I commented, raising my eyebrows.
“I convinced Mrs. Moore to let me be the DJ,” he explained, “It would be weird if I wore a suit.”
“You get to be the DJ?” I asked, “So unfair.”
“Come check out the gym,” he said, motioning towards the doors, “I helped decorate.”
We walked in and bright lights shined into our eyes. I squinted my eyes, realizing there was a disco ball, flashing different color of lights every few seconds. The gym was decorated with banners, balloons, streamers and all sorts of colorful things. Way too cheery.
“Let’s go check out the food,” I said, dragging Caden with me.
“Food was the first thing on your mind?” he grinned.
“Duh.”
We walked over to the refreshments’ table. It was like heaven – food and deserts everywhere. I grabbed a plate and quickly took the few snacks I liked. I’ve learned that you should always eat first, before everyone else takes the food and you’ve got nothing left eat.
“Caden,” Mrs. Moore walked towards us, “Could you please help me with something?”
“Alright,” he said then turned to me, “I’ll be right back.”
“And I’ll be waiting,” I told him, grabbing a handful of chips. As I made my way down the two tables full of snacks, a blonde haired girl came up to me.
“Hey,” she gave me a friendly smile, “I’m Georgia. You’re Ariane, am I right? You’re one of the finalists.”
“Yup, that’s me,” I told her.
“Well, I just wanted to say good luck. Want a soda?” she handed me a can of coke.
“Thanks,” I said and took it. I watched her walk away and join a group of friends. Well that was random. I opened the can of soda and was just about to drink it when someone yanked it from my hands.
“Hey!”
Max was holding my soda in his hands.
“What was that for?” I asked him.
“Colored soda,” he explained, “One of the oldest tricks I know. If you drink it, your tongue turns multicolor.”
“So it was a prank?” I knew there was something suspicious about her.
Max nodded and grinned at me, “I’m your hero now. I just saved you from being out of the prank war. You so owe me.”
“Don’t count on it,” I grinned back, “Hey Max, there was something I wanted to uh .. tell you.”
“Yeah?” he asked, taking a cookie from my plate.
“So umm, you know, I kinda .. knew you in fifth grade,” I told him awkwardly.
“I know,” he nodded like it wasn’t news to him.
“You did?” I stared at him.
He shrugged, “Yeah.”
“Well why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded to know.
“I just assumed that you either forgot me, or you didn’t want to bring it up because .. well, you didn’t want to. I didn’t want to make it extremely awkward between us,” he gave me a sheepish smile.
I punched him in the shoulder playfully.
Just then, Mrs. Moore walked onto the small stage that was set up in the gym. She stopped in front of the microphone and tapped it. No sound came out, and she looked towards the side.
“It’s not working,” she said. I realized that Caden was crouched down next to the complicated sound system, probably fixing it for her.
“Try it again,” he called out.
She tapped the microphone again – bad idea. Everyone covered their ears as a loud screech came out of the speakers set out around the gym.
“Sorry about that, students,” Mrs. Moore apologized, “We’ll now announce the finalists for the prank war.”