Make My Way

Chapter Fifty

Aria's POV

When Stella told me what happened, I freaked out. She had kissed a total of three guys before that and within forty-eight hours, that number had jumped to five. The week after all that excitement, she got a promposal too. A week after Valentine's Day, Adrian had gone up to Stella in choir and simply asked her if she'd go to prom with him. Then, in front of the entire choir, she had shut him down because it wasn't romantic enough.

Aurora beat him by a mile. We had convinced her to ask Blake, not Xavier or Caden. She baked a pumpkin pie (because it was Blake's favorite) and cut out the letters P-R-O-M in the top layer of crust. Of course he said yes, it was food.

Within the next couple of weeks, promposal season was in full swing. Caden and Cora were going together and Nora was going with the guy she had had a crush on since first grade. It was adorable. Of course Vivian and Merrick were going together, that one was given. Easton had asked Everly and she said yes. Laine was going with her boyfriend and Lila was going with Dillan.

Not only was promposal season in full swing, so was band, choir and speech. We placed as the top band in the region at the regional festival and then came regional choir. It was in a smaller town about a half an hour away. We rode the bus there and brought all of our stuff into the cafeteria. We had a few small groups and solos and stuff to do before the full choir at one, but until then, we had nothing to do but sit and wait.

Stella, Aurora, Willow, and I were sitting at a table with Easton and Adrian. We were just talking when a guy from another school came over and sat down next to Willow. "Hey!" Adrian greeted him. "Everyone, this is Alonzo." Alonzo had darkly tanned skin and nearly black hair that was long in the top and short on the sides. He had the longer part braided in one French braid and it was pretty clear he was Mexican.

We all waved or said hi and introduced ourselves except for Willow. Adrian noticed and said loudly, "Hey Willow, what about you? Can you not even talk to him just because he's Mexican? How racist is that?!" Everyone laughed, including Alonzo.

Willow denied it immediately, "No! I promise, I'm not! I'm just kinda shy sometimes I guess."

"Denial!" Easton shouted.

Alonzo pointed a finger at her. "Racist!" Willow hid her face in her hands. I could tell this was going to last all day.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

We were all done with all of our songs and things and we're ready to go home when one of the people running the festival asked us to help clean up. I saw Alonzo teasing Willow and calling her racist for every little thing she did and I laughed.

When we got on the bus, I claimed a seat to myself, but still across form Easton so I had someone to talk to. Willow was behind me and Aurora was across from her. Behind Willow was Stella and Adrian sitting together. That was a new one, but I wasn't going to say anything about it. We started talking and I noticed Adrian had stolen Stella's phone while she had it unlocked and was snapchating people. I turned around to Willow. "So, Alonzo, huh?"

"Ew, no. Shut up." Oh she had definitely enjoyed flirting with him, and now, denial?

"Oh it's happening. He gave you his snap, right?" I asked. Reluctantly she held out her hand and we saw his username written on the palm. I squealed. "It's so happening. Make me a promise, right now. If you don't have a date to prom by March 15th, you'll go with him."

She thought about it for a while. "Fine."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

We got back to the school and I had to go home and change for dance. After dance, I had to go to speech practice. Stripped off my leotard and tights at the studio and threw on black leggings and an old t-shirt. Then Aurora and I carpooled from the studio to the school since we had decided to make that a tradition every Wednesday.

When we got there, our coach started up a conversation with me in the hallway. "So I know you took second to Xavier at the last three meets in Storytelling so I'm taking him out of it this time." Thank God. "Also, I want the two of you to do a humorous duo together." She handed me a few packets of paper. "Find him and pick one of these."

I went back downstairs looking for Xavier and I finally found him in the computer lab. I told him what our coach had said and we started reading through the speeches she had given me.

The first one was a really weird about a detective and a murder. We decided against that one right away. The second one was about a couple getting married and the husband dropping his wife on the threshold. It was funny but it required a lot of physical contact like him holding me, me slapping him, and us kissing. Since one of the rules was we couldn't touch, we figured that one would be hard. The third one was our winner. It was about a couple that had been married for six years and was at a marriage counselor. They were fighting the whole time and it was hilarious. At one point it talked about prostitutes and phone sex but we had to cut that out, as funny as it was. By the end of the night, we were ready for the meet.

I went back upstairs to find Aurora because she was supposed to give me a ride but I found out that she had left without me, even though practice ended at nine and it was 8:55. I ran back downstairs and tried to catch Xavier on his way out. "Hey stop! Xavier, can you give me a ride, Aurora ditched me." He nodded and we went out to his little white car. I climbed in and sat in the passenger seat. His maroon lanyard matched the maroon interior of his car.

I turned to him when he started the car and asked. "Has Stella told you about her new love interest?" I asked casually. I didn't think he would approve, but I had to ask.

"Yes. And I think it's stupid," he told me firmly.

"Yeah, I think that it really depends."

He sat for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. "He flirts with girls all the time. He'll flirt with any girl he can get to flirt back. If he can change his attitude and be the actual good guy that he is every once in a while, then it could work. But people have tried to change him before, and it didn't work. I guess we'll just see what happens."

I nodded. We were at my house. "Well, thanks for the ride," I said.

"Anytime."