Via Highschool

Chapter 10 : Priorities

It's homecoming week, and I'm sort of stressing. It was exciting to know that I was on the court, but now I had to find a dress to wear. I figured my best choice was to wear my prom dress from last year. After all, I wore it once and it was perfectly fine. It was $200, and I wasn't about to let that go to waste. Part of me was concerned with what others had to say, but they didn't know my story at home and they surely weren't going to help me pay for it. Besides it was just going to be a good two hours of spotlight. I decided to tweak it and add things to it and call it a day.

Throughout the week, people came to me with all types of questions and comments about who would be the actual queen. I don't think a lot of people accepted the fact that I was not really concerned with winning the crown. I felt like I had already done my part by being on court since I represented those few students who are considered "too smart" to also be well known. I just wanted to let people know that it wasn't all about that. After all, my opponents both represented a different aspect of what a queen was, so I had no reason to be disappointed if I was not given a title.

My next task was the homecoming cheer dance, homecoming court practice, and my senior class president duties. As captain, I didn't feel like I should just let go of my responsibilities even though I wouldn't get to perform with them. I went to practice everyday and helped with what I could help with. I even learned the dance in excitement for them. Shoot, this was my LAST homecoming at this school. Before practice I would attend homecoming court practice. That practice lasted like an hour, but it would have been shorter if our band was ever on time for anything. It was just simply walking up and down but we had to move with the music. Next, since I was recently elected as the class president, I felt the need to do something different for the homecoming pep rally. In the past, senior shirts were always made, but they were not generated like an actual print. It was just fabric paint or iron on letters. Since my close friend was a graphic designer and a current business person, I had all the right resources to have actual shirts made. However, the idea was more brilliant than the whole process.

It turned out that the original business that was suppose to create the shirt didn't have the material we needed to make our print so it ended up being an in house operation. I thought it was going to be a breeze but everything shifted when technology failed on us. Who would have thought technology would actually be a failure in today's world? During that week I completely stressed trying to get crowns painted and shirts made. It seemed as if nothing was going right but I knew I was obligated well I felt obligated to do what I had to do to make things happen.

On the day before the pep rally, Reese and I stayed after school to finish the shirts. We had to hand make them by ourselves and the machine completely shut down on us. I had to take a praise break and ask The Lord to help us because it became so annoying that tears formed. The janitors leave the school at 6 every day and we were even at a point that we almost got locked in the school and all. We had to drop everything and run like the wind before the alarm went off. All I remember the janitors saying is, "YALL GOT 5 MINUTES AND WE ARE SHUTTING IT DOWN. LIGHTS AND ALL! WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YALL WERE DOWN THERE!" Of course, 5 minutes turned into 1 as it seemed and the lights went slam out. We were so shocked and hurt at the same time. I was determined to get those 150 shirts done by the end of the night because I did not want to deal with that the next day, but as you can see that did not get done.

I woke up the next day with a big weight on my shoulder. I was so drained and tired. It just seemed like so much to do with so little time. The only thing that gave me a little hope was when I got dressed. The skirt I wore complimented my wanna-be curves so well. It was a vertically stripped black and white skirt. I guess vertical stripes are my thing honey because my booty was looking too good to be true. Then, the shirt I wore was sheer with a shirt underneath and slits in the shoulder area. I topped it all off with my black crisscross wedges and a pinch of red and gold. When I got to school,  I felt like all eyes were on the kid and we were given tiaras and sashes. It was undeniable that I felt like a queen regardless of the end results at the night. 

However, all that took a turn when I had my senior classmates barking at me about the shirts. I guess they thought that I had forgot about the shirts or just wanted their money. I mean, who would be that crazy to steal money from people that you have to see every day? But, anyway I forced a smile on my face and rushed to the graphic design room to finish my job with Reese. Thankfully, she had already started the shirt process again, so we only had about 20 shirts left to do. I had to skip my first 2 classes for this process, and I didn't mind at all. My name was on the line and I feel like your name is all you have. I refused to be remembered as the president who didn't do what she said she was going to do. Once they were done, we made an announcement for the students to pick up their shirts, and they came running with excitement and some with disgust for unknown reasons. I just remember thinking: IF ONLY THEY KNEW WHAT THIS WHOLE PROCESS REALLY TOOK! I knew no one would be willing to go to this extreme like we had done, but like I've always told myself: YOU CAN'T STRESS YOURSELF IF YOU KNOW YOU'VE DONE YOUR PART.