The Breakfast Club - Monday Morning

Chapter 20

"Attention everyone!" Kathy chirped into a microphone from the small, step-up stage at the edge of the room. Claire and John stopped talking and grimaced at each other.

"Attention" Kathy sing-songed again when the room didn't immediately come to a stand-still. Voices quieted and chairs groaned as people turned towards the stage. Kathy grinned and struck a pose. "Welcome home, Shermer High School Class of 1984!" The room broke out into raucous applause, a few whoops and cat-calls thrown in as Kathy waved as though the applause were for her.

Claire rolled her eyes and stopped listening after four more Popular Girls crammed onto the tiny stage. She really wasn't interested in anything they had to say, especially when John was conveniently positioned between her and the stage, making it oh-so-easy to watch him while pretending she was paying attention. Even if it was a little pathetic and creepy. The memory came of doing the same thing at detention, pretending she didn't notice him while he pretended he didn't notice her noticing him. She wondered if he could feel her staring now.

But then prom pictures began to flit by. Girls dressed in formal gowns, boys in black tuxedos, the school gymnasium decorated with balloon arches and glittering ribbons. Claire froze and gave the slide show her full attention. Not prom. Please don't make her relive prom with John sitting right next to her. How stupid of her to not see this coming.

"Mike and Claire, our Prom King and Queen are both here!" Laurel crowed in the mic, shading her eyes and looking over the crowd as though spotlights were shining on her. "There you are!" she pointed in the opposite corner of the room. "Come up here, Mike!"

Oh God, no. John was smiling at her now, noticing her panicked face. "It'll be alright," he promised. "They don't know it was a bad memory for you, they just want you to go up there and wave." She shook her head at him. How could she possibly?

"And Claire! Come up here, Prom Queen!"

She deflated and kept staring at John. He pressed his lips together with a sympathetic look and leaned closer. "No worries. You've got this, Princess."

She didn't feel reassured, but she didn't feel she had much of a choice, either. As though she were marching toward a firing squad, she got up and weaved through the tables to get to the stage. Mike stood separated from the others, so when he offered a hand to help her onto the stage, she took it and opted to stand with him rather than the Popular Girls. Like John, he never spoke to her again after prom, so why she saw him as the lesser of two evils was beyond her. Probably because the screen was just over his head, allowing her to firmly and thankfully turn away from the video screen full of prom pictures. She cemented the smallest smile she thought she could politely get away with and half-listened to the commentary about the prom's theme and song. Footloose. Claire at least remembered that much. She still hated the song.

"How long were you stuck talking with them?" Mike whispered.

Claire frowned, half turning to look at him. Was he seriously giving her a hard time about who she hung out with? Even the Popular Girls hadn't questioned why she was talking with a former Burnout Criminal and a Brain. They were adults. This was a reunion. "I wasn't stuck. I wanted to talk with them."

He snorted. "Are you sure? I saw them corner you at the bar. You looked absolutely murderous at one point."

Wait. "Who are we talking about?"

His chin jutted slightly towards the gaggle of Popular Girls, all cheering and waving their arms as they sang the refrain to Footloose into the mic. "Them, of course. They haven't changed a bit, have they?"

She didn't know what to say. Wasn't he still friends with them? "They're alright," she finally muttered, resorting to vague niceties.

He gave her a sidelong glance. "They remind me of bobble heads."