To Ricky it seemed like an ordinary day as he headed outside to the courtyard to find Amy. He spotted her at a table in the shade chatting with Madison and Lauren. Jesse and Justin were seated as well and chatting to each other. Ricky took the open spot across from Amy and opened his lunch bag, nodding a greeting to the other people at the table.
"Oh come on!" Madison whined. "Ricky!" Ricky looked up with surprise at Madison's tone, his sandwich halfway to his mouth.
"Huh?" he asked with confusion.
"Tell Amy you'll take her to the homecoming dance," she instructed him. Ricky turned confused eyes to Amy and she rolled her eyes.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," she assured him. Madison's gaze was fixed on Ricky.
"Ignore her. Amy needs to go. And if Amy needed something you'd help her out right?" Madison asked sweetly. Ricky turned to the two guys to his left.
"Someone wanna fill me in here?" Jesse came to his rescue.
"It seems Madison feels that because the three of them have boyfriends at the same time that they need to go to homecoming this year." Madison narrowed her eyes at Jesse.
"There's more to it that that!" she said in an attempt to defend herself.
"Oh?" Ricky said. Madison gave him an annoyed expression while Lauren and Amy shook their heads but remained silent. Glancing at her two best friends and realizing they weren't going to help her, Madison explained.
"When a girl goes to homecoming or prom alone she looks like a loser so Lauren and I didn't go the last two years."
"Hey!" Lauren said, slightly offended that Madison had called her a loser, out loud. Madison waved off her protest.
"Amy didn't wanna go our freshman year because she was pregnant at the time and she didn't go last year because she didn't have a boyfriend at the time. But this year we all have boyfriends and it's normal to go to homecoming. We're working on keeping our lives as drama free as possible and what better way to do that than to do something that's perfectly normal like getting all dolled up and going to the homecoming dance? We've never been to an official couples type school dance." Jesse's brows furrowed in curiosity.
"What about the Halloween dance?" Madison shook her head.
"You're not expected to come with a date to a Halloween dance," Madison explained. Ricky suddenly felt bad for Amy. She hadn't been able to start high school like every other normal teenager because she'd been pregnant and because of him she'd never been able to attend a regular dance, the mother-daughter dance aside. He knew they'd put the past behind them officially but that didn't stop it from occasionally coming back to bite him.
"Amy?" Ricky said, causing her to look at him. "Will you go to the homecoming dance with me?" She smiled and nodded.
"I'd love to." The other guys followed suit.
"Lauren?" Jesse asked. Lauren smiled.
"Yes?"
"Will you go to the homecoming dance with me?"
"Yes."
"Madison?" Justin asked.
"Yes?" she said expectantly. He got a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" Madison scoffed and crossed her arms with a pout. Everyone tried not to laugh as Justin went around the table and gave Madison a kiss. "And will you go to the homecoming dance with me?" he asked her with a smile. Madison sighed and smiled.
"Yes."
Across the courtyard Grace was telling Adrian and Alice about the homecoming dress she had picked out, Grant having asked her to go with him weeks ago.
"It's a pale light blue with a fitted waist that flares out as it goes down," she said excitedly. "You've gotta come over and see it, Adrian!" Adrian pouted, deflating Grace's bubble somewhat. "What's wrong?"
"I'd rather not talk about homecoming since I can't go," Adrian said grumpily, moving her pasta salad around but not eating any of it.
"Why not? There's still time to tailor a dress if you can't find one that fits just right," Grace offered helpfully. Adrian glared at her.
"They don't really make flattering homecoming dresses for pregnant teenagers, Grace. Besides, being on my feet for too long makes them swell up and sitting in a hard plastic chair for too long will make me uncomfortable." Alice, Henry, Ben and Grant all suddenly became very interested in their lunches and remained quiet, not wanting to say anything to further annoy Adrian. In another part of the courtyard Griffin was talking animatedly about the tux he'd picked out.
"So it's powder blue with a black cummerbund and I found this quirky silver tie in my dad's closet he said I could borrow. I'm gonna look rather fetching if I do say so myself." Ashley snorted into her can of soda.
"Who on earth says 'fetching'?"
"I do," he answered matter-of-factly as he took a bite of his pizza. "So have you picked out a dress yet?" he asked, speaking around the food in his mouth.
"Not yet. Nothing seems to jump out at me as the right kinda dress."
"The theme is a moonlit wonderland. You could pick out all kinds of dresses that either match it or make fun of it."
"Make fun of it?" she asked curiously, causing Griffin to smile.
"Wonderland. As in Alice and Wonderland. You could go extremely quirky for the heck of it or pick a dress that goes along with moonlight and nighttime: white, silver, midnight blue, black. You've only got another week to find the right dress so I say we go shopping this weekend. What do you say?" he asked, taking another bite of pizza. Ashley rolled her head from side to side as she thought about it.
"Oh alright." As Ashley and Griffin continued their lunches, Ricky, Jesse and Justin headed to the homecoming ticket booth to buy tickets for the dance.
"So do we wanna carpool or anything?" Justin asked as they got in line. "I can borrow my mom's van if we wanna save on gas," he offered.
"Do you think the girls will wanna go out to dinner before the dance?" Jesse asked, as the line slowly inched forward.
"Don't know," Ricky replied. "We should check with them first and go from there." Jesse and Justin nodded and then they waited patiently to reach the front of the line. Back at the table the girls were chatting.
"So there's this awesome sorta mega thrift store complex I found downtown and the dresses are sooo cute!" Madison informed her best friends. "And most of 'em are under forty bucks!" Lauren's brows lifted in surprise.
"That's a good deal for a homecoming dress." Madison and Amy nodded in agreement.
"So are we gonna get ready together or what?" Madison asked before she took a bite of her chicken sandwich.
"We can. We just gotta tell the guys whose house to come to to pick us up," Amy replied, taking a bite of her pizza.
"Let's do it at my house since it's closer to the school," Madison offered.
"Okay. What about dinner?" Lauren asked.
"We were just about to ask you ladies about that," Jesse said from behind Lauren and Amy before the guys all took their seats again.
"Did you girls wanna go out to dinner?" Justin asked looking around the table. The girls each looked at their boyfriends.
"I don't mind," Ricky told Amy. "We just need to know so we can make reservations. Do you want to?" Amy bit her lip nervously and Ricky chuckled. "That's a yes." He turned to the others at the table. "Ladies?" Lauren and Madison nodded.
"Any preferences?" Jesse asked, pulling out his smart phone to make the reservation.
"I think the closest restaurant to the school is an Olive Garden," Madison said. "Or maybe it's an Applebee's." Jesse quickly pulled up the school on a map and looked at nearby restaurants.
"It's the Olive Garden," he informed the table before looking up. "What time should we make the reservation for?"
"Since the dance is at 8:00 I say make the reservation for like 6:00?" Justin offered. "That way we know we won't have to rush to finish eating." Everyone nodded their agreement and Jesse made a reservation for their little group online. When the bell rang the little group followed the wave of students heading back inside for their afternoon classes. Ben and Henry joined a throng of students heading towards the second floor.
"So are you gonna go stag since Adrian's not going?" Henry asked Ben. Ben shook his head and Henry gawked at him.
"Come on, Ben! It's our junior year! We're one year closer to the finish line and it's okay to have a little fun every now and then. Besides, I'm sure Alice would dance with you for a bit if you asked so you wouldn't be a stag for the whole dance," Henry said, trying to persuade his best friend to go. Ben shook his head.
"I would feel weird, and guilty, going to a dance and having a good time knowing Adrian's stuck at home not having a good time."
"You heard Grace. Adrian could go if she wanted to."
"I'm sitting this one out, Henry," Ben said with a sigh. "I'd feel too guilty." While Ben and Henry walked into their classroom, Ricky and Adrian were settling down in their seats for their English class. Adrian's desk was right next to the door and Ricky's was halfway down the row next to her. He looked at her as he pulled out his notebook and turned his textbook to the right chapter they were currently reading and his thoughts drifted back to Amy's pregnancy. She missed out on so much because of me. I've never really been into dances all that much since I'm not the best dancer but Amy didn't even really have the option of going the last two years because of me. He vowed then and there to make sure it was a night to remember. In a good way.
The school day ended, Ricky's workday ended and he dashed upstairs to shower and change so he could head over to his parents' house. Margaret looked up in surprise when Ricky came in through the back door but smiled when she saw him.
"Hi, sweetheart. What a nice surprise," she said as she gave him a tight hug, which he returned.
"Hey, mom. I needed to ask to you about something."
"Is something wrong?" she asked with concern as they took a seat at the kitchen table. Ricky took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I asked Amy to the homecoming dance."
"Okay..."
"She's never been to one because, well, you know." Margaret nodded in understanding. "And I wanna make it a special night for her but I went stag the last two times and I didn't go at all last year." Margaret chuckled, sensing where this conversation as headed.
"Ricky, you and Amy have been dating for what, two and a half months now?" Ricky nodded. "You already know how to have an enjoyable date with her so what's the real issue here, sweetheart?"
"I may not get it but I know that homecoming and prom are big deals to a girl. Is there anything special I need to know to do this right?" Margaret smiled at him. He really has grown up so much.
"Okay. First you'll need to know what color her dress is and then buy her a corsage to match," she informed him.
"She hasn't bought it yet and what's a corsage?"
"It's a small decorative flower arrangement she'll wear on her wrist. You put it on her when you pick her up to take her to the dance," Margaret explained.
"Should I put it on her before or after we eat dinner?"
"Before."
"Okay. Is that it?" Margaret nodded with a small smile.
"Basically, yes. You pick her up, give her a corsage, let her mom take a ton of pictures of you two, take her to dinner, take her to the dance, take a picture with her, dance with her, enjoy yourselves, then bring her back home."
"Wait, I thought you said her mom was gonna take pictures before the dance."
"She is. But there's usually a photographer at the dance that will take pictures of couples too and most girls like to get one taken. But Amy might not." Ricky quickly processed everything his mother had just told him.
"Okay, Thanks mom," he rose from his chair and kissed her cheek.
"Anytime, sweetheart. That's what mothers are for." Her words made Ricky cringe internally as he was suddenly reminded that he still had yet to patch things up with his birth mother. He sat back down with a sigh. "What is it, Ricky."
"I know you know so I'm just gonna ask: do you know how Nora's been doing?" Margaret nodded.
"She's taking life one day at a time."
"So she's still clean and sober?" Margaret nodded but gave him a quizzical expression.
"Yes. You see her at work, Ricky, so you already know that." He sighed.
"We're only coworkers right now. We haven't really sat down and talked things out."
"Do you plan to?" she gently pressed.
"At some point," he admitted. Margaret reached over and squeezed his hand comfortingly.
"One day at a time," she reminded him with a smile.
Several days later found Amy, Lauren, Madison, Ashley and Griffin dress shopping together. Madison buzzed around like an excited little bee quickly browsing through racks and plucking dresses to try on. She headed towards a dressing room with her arms filled with dresses. The other girls looked through the racks more slowly. Griffin saw a dress he thought matched Ashley perfectly and brought it over to her. Once she'd taken the dress from him he spun her around and pushed her towards a dressing room while she laughed.
"Alright, alright. I'm going." She shut the small door and began to change. Meanwhile two dressing rooms down from her there was a constant ruffle of material.
"You okay in there, Madison?" Amy called out worriedly.
"Uh huh," came her reply. Amy browsed for another ten minutes and came across two dresses she thought she might look good in. "Found it!" Madison called out, emerging dramatically from her dressing room wearing a pale rose colored dress. It had spaghetti straps and a fitted waist that came with a small jacket that stopped just above her waistline. The skirt was ruffled and went down to just past her knees. Madison twirled around and Griffin clapped. She did a little bow to show her appreciation and Lauren and Amy giggled.
"It's great, Madison," Lauren told her honestly, three dresses draped over her arm that she wanted to try on. Griffin turned his head towards Ashley's dressing room and called out.
"Ok, Ash. Your turn." Ashley came out with a sheepish smile on her face and Griffin clapped once again while Amy smiled at her. The dress was perfect. It was dark red with short sleeves and the skirt swished just enough to create a little poof when Ashley spun around to give everyone the 360 degree view. The dress also had a silver swirl design embroidered into it that ran from the bust line down the right side of the dress to the hem of the skirt.
"You look great, Ash," Amy told with a smile.
"I feel so girly in it though." Griffin laughed.
"That's not such a bad thing you know," he told her as he slung an arm over her shoulder. "You look great. Toby'll have no choice but to officially ask you to be his girlfriend once he sees you in this." Ashley poked his side. As Amy and Madison giggled at the two friends' interaction, Lauren emerged wearing a dark green, slightly shimmery dress. Amy and Madison gasped and smiled at her.
"It's perfect, Lauren!" Amy beamed. The dress also had spaghetti straps and the material of the skirt was bunched in such a way that it looked like it was rippling from the waist of the dress like waves, stopping mid-calf. Lauren did a little twirl and everyone saw that the straps crisscrossed in the back. Madison eagerly turned to Amy. "Your turn," she said in a singsong voice. Amy chuckled and headed to the dressing room while the girls did likewise to change back into their clothes. Amy tried on the first one and turned in front of the mirror, liking the way the dress fit her but not really in love with it so she took it off. However, once she put on the second dress and looked at her reflection in the mirror, she knew this was the one and smiled.
"Ok, Amy. We're waiting," Griffin called out. Amy emerged and Madison squealed with delight.
"We're gonna be the best dressed girls at the dance," she declared, high fiving Lauren. Amy did a little twirl so her friends could check out the dress. It was a sleeveless, navy-blue dress that hugged her torso like a second skin. It had silver swirls embroidered into the sides much like Ashley's with the top of the swirls beginning just above her breasts and coming down around them at an angle, almost forming a heart shape before flaring back out towards her hips and continuing down to the hem of the skirt, which stopped just above her knees. The zipper stopped just above the middle of her back and the material flared up in a v shape to the top of the dress.
"Ricky won't be able to keep his hands off you," Lauren told her with a smile and a wink.
"Lauren!" Amy exclaimed, blushing slightly.
"Ok, get changed, then it's off to shoes!" Madison declared. As the shopping trip continued, Ricky was at his apartment with John when his phone rang. He saw that it was Jesse and put it on speaker so he could keep playing with John.
"What's up, Jesse?"
"You heard from the girls yet?"
"No. About what?"
"If they got their dresses or not. I was hoping to get Lauren's corsage today but I can't seem to reach her. Her phone keeps ringing then going to voicemail so I guess it's on silent or something."
"No, I haven't heard yet. I can try and call Amy though."
"Thanks, Ricky. Can you try and find out what color Lauren's dress is if you can?"
"Sure."
"Thanks. Bye." Jesse ended the call and Ricky speed dialed Amy.
"Let's see what mommy's up to," he said to John as he waited for Amy to pick up.
"Hey, you," she said when she answered. Ricky smiled at the sound of her voice.
"Hey. So I got a question for you."
"Yeah?"
"What color is your dress for the dance?"
"Navy-blue," she replied.
"Do you know what color Lauren's is?"
"Dark green. Why?"
"Can you keep a secret?" Amy chuckled.
"Yes."
"Justin wanted to buy her corsage today but he couldn't get ahold of her to ask her what color her dress is."
"Hang on." Ricky heard her tell Lauren Jesse had been trying to call her so she should check her phone. "Was that it?" Ricky heard Madison tell Amy to talk to lover boy later because they were supposed to be in shop mode. Amy laughed and Ricky laughed with her. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. "I'll let you get back to your girls' day out. Wanna say hi to John real quick?"
"Sure." Ricky held the phone to John's ear.
"Say hi to mommy, John."
"Hi mommy!" Amy smiled at the sound of his voice.
"Hi, sweetie. I love you."
"I wuv you mommy." John went back to playing with his toys so Ricky moved the phone away from his ear.
"I love you too," he said to her.
"And I love you. Bye."
"Bye." They ended the call and continued their afternoon activities.
When Amy and Ashley arrived back home they found their mom in the living room folding laundry while Robbie played on the floor nearby.
"Hey girls." She noticed their bags and smiled. She placed the towel she'd just finished folding in the laundry basket next to her and then turned towards the girls. "So. Go put 'em on and let me see," she said excitedly. Amy and Ashley exchanged smiles and then headed to their rooms to change. Anne continued folding laundry while she waited for the girls to reemerge. Ashley came back into the living room first and Anne gasped, tearing up slightly. "Oh, Ashley, you look beautiful," Anne told her. Ashley spun around so her mom could see the back. "Doesn't Ashley look pretty, Robbie?" Anne asked. Robbie looked up at Ashley and parroted his mother.
"Pity," he said with a smile. Amy came in several moments later and Anne had the same reaction. She then looked back and forth between them.
"Oh look at my beautiful girls. Your dates will be speechless," she assured them with a smile. They grinned back at her and each swished around in their dress for a moment. They heard the front door unlock and George walked in. He didn't notice the girls right away since he was hanging his coat up on the coat rack but as soon as the living room and his daughters came into view he stopped and just stared at them while they smiled at him.
"So what do you think, dad?" Amy asked, doing a little twirl to show him the back of her dress and then Ashley did likewise.
"You both look beautiful." There was a split second of silence. "And I don't want either of you leaving the house in those things." The girls' mouths fell open and Anne scoffed at him.
"What!?" the girls said in unison.
"George," Anne scolded.
"Pity!" Robbie chimed in, walking over his father and tugging on his pant leg. George looked down and Robbie pointed behind him at his sisters. "Pity daddy." George picked him up.
"I know they look pretty, Robbie." He looked back at his confused and irritated daughters. "In fact they look too grown up in those dresses to ever wear them in public," he informed the room.
"Dad, you knew we weren't gonna stay little girls forever," Ashley said as she rolled her eyes.
"And what's wrong with looking grown up every once in a while?" Amy asked. Anne looked at her daughters.
"Girls, go get changed while I speak to your father." The girls headed to their respective rooms and Anne took Robbie from George's arms and placed him in his playpen with several toys. She then turned back to face her ex-husband.
"What?" he said with annoyance. "You saw them. Boys will be all over them at that dance!" Anne smirked. "This is no laughing matter, Anne." He headed to the couch and plopped down. Anne joined him but lowered herself much more gracefully, moving the laundry basket to the coffee table.
"George, you're forgetting that the girls have actual dates so there'd only be one guy all over each of them," she said with a small smile, causing George to glare at her out of frustration. "Plus, you've known Ricky for almost two years now and we've met Toby, who Griffin volunteered to vouch for by the way." George leaned his head back against the couch and nodded. "We knew they wouldn't stay little girls forever. After all, our seventeen year old has a toddler and both girls are currently on the pill. Not things little girls do." George suddenly became alarmed and Anne placed a reassuring hand on his arm. "They're responsible, George. They're not gonna get themselves knocked up, or knocked up again, just because they're going to a school dance."
"But, Anne," he said woefully, his voice thick with unshed tears. "It's like I left this morning and said goodbye to my little girls and when I came home tonight they were all grown up. Where'd the time go!?" Anne leaned over and kissed his cheek.
"They may always be our little girls but they won't always look like it. We've gotta let them grow up sometime, George, and they've been doing just that for the past fifteen and seventeen years. They'll be fine. And if they aren't, we'll be here to help them pick up the pieces or straighten them out." George turned sad eyes towards her. "Don't give 'em a hard time about this. We were teenagers too once. Let them enjoy their homecoming dance." George sighed defeated and Anne went back to folding the rest of the laundry. Amy and Ashley were sitting on the steps shamelessly eavesdropping and shared a smile. Man their dad could be such a sap sometimes but it was nice to know he was still protective of them.