God Save the Prom Queen

A Minor Setback

"So, where's our first stop?" David asked.

David, Hannah, and I were sitting in the car, about to begin our prom shopping adventure. Somehow, I'd managed to make it through my whole time at school without doing something embarrassing, so I already felt successful. Maybe the whole Prom Queen thing wouldn't turn out as terribly as I'd thought it would.

"Well, let's start at someplace with men's and women's formalwear," Hannah suggested. "Then, if we can't find anything there, we'll focus on one dress or suit at a time."

David looked to me in the passenger seat. "Does that sound good to you?"

I nodded. "Sure."

Once we were on the road, Hannah began doing her makeup in the back seat. The two of us had probably stayed up too late the night before, but I find that when you're having good conversation with someone, being tired the next morning is worth it.

I turned to David and said, "So, I imagine Jake is probably in more trouble than you are?"

"Yeah," he replied. "At least, he got in more trouble than I did at school. But my parents think I'm just as much to blame as he is, because I was supposed to be setting an 'example'."

"He's sixteen. How much of an influence does he still need?"

"That's what I was thinking."

"Either way, I really appreciate your trying to help me," I told him.

David offered a reassuring smile. "As long as you're having a good time with all of this, it's totally worth it."

I caught Hannah's eyes in the rearview mirror, and she smirked mid-lipstick swipe.

We arrived at the mall's only multi-gender formal store, The Emporium. Half a dozen prom and wedding dresses occupied the display windows, along with the occasional black suit. Sometimes I felt bad for guys—they didn't have many options for dressing up.

We went inside the store and agreed to separate—me with Hannah and David by himself— for forty-five minutes. Hannah immediately pushed me toward the large section of prom dresses.

"So, as much as I think you should wear something pink, I feel like a dark color would work better with your hair and your skin," Hannah explained to me. "How about green?"

I wrinkled my nose. "With red hair?"

"Okay, scratch the green. Maybe blue."

"How about I look through the dark colors while you go look through the light colors?" I suggested. "I'll meet you at the fitting rooms in fifteen minutes."

"Sounds good. But just know that I'll expect you to have at least three dresses you want to try on."

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Okay, Mom."

So, while Hannah walked down an aisle of bright colors, I proceeded to stroll down one lined with various blues and purples. I wasn't sure whether to narrow down my choices by modesty or price. It seemed like most of the dresses were very low in the back, which I wasn't a fan of. I had never been insecure about my body, but I preferred to keep some parts of my figure a mystery, especially in a gym filled with teenage guys.