Iris: The American Dream Series Book One

You Don't Always Get To Vote

Abby twisted a long piece of red hair around her finger while we waited for the dance committee meeting to start after school the next day. She erased a heart that someone had drawn on her desk in pencil. "My parents thought your family was super nice," she said, blowing eraser dust off of her desk. "They want to invite you guys over for dinner sometime. I think Zach wants you to come." She nudged me with her elbow.

I blushed.

"Ladies, let's call this meeting to order," Mrs. Dana said, quieting the chatter in the room. "Piper, since you're head of the committee, is there a topic you'd like to start with?"

Piper stood up. She wore a sparkly headband and black and yellow striped knee-high socks under her jean skirt. She looked like a bumblebee. At the front of the room, she stood behind the table, holding her notecards like she was about to give a big acceptance speech. "Thank you, Mrs. Dana. I think the first and most important thing we need to do is focus on a theme. Without that, we're just spinning our wheels. Once we have an idea for our theme, we can think about decorations, music, etcetera."

We all nodded in agreement.

"Since Abby and Iris are our theme people, I think they should give us a few of their ideas now." Piper turned to us and waited. All of the other girls in the room shifted in their chairs, heads turning in our direction. They were clearly hoping for the results of some great brainstorming session that had never happened. Since this was my first time being on a committee, I kind of thought we'd just show up and cut out some paper hearts for decorations, or talk about what flavor of punch to mix up for the dance.

Abby kicked me under the table. I kicked her back.

"Sooooo," Abby drawled, sitting up straighter. "We were thinking of a few ideas that we hoped you all might like."

"Such as...?" Piper prompted her.

Abby wiggled in her seat, warming up to the idea of designing a theme. "Such as 'Under the Sea'—"

"BOOOO-RING," Kayla piped up. "That's the theme of, like, every dance in every teen movie ever made. We need something original, something twenty-first century, something that screams NOW."

"I think we should have a selfie booth," Olivia said, nodding at each girl around the table as she waited for approval.

"Um, Olivia? You don't really need a booth for that, you just hold out your phone and take a picture of yourself," Kayla said.

"Well, maybe an ussie booth?" Olivia asked hopefully. "So people can do group selfies?"

Kayla thought about it for a minute. "That could work," she agreed.

"Okay," Abby said, taking control of the room again. "So we're thinking an ussie booth might be fun, but as for theme, how about 'Hollywood'?"

"Ooooh, the boys can wear tuxedos!" Kayla said, clapping her hands.

"Or maybe a carnival theme," Abby offered.

"Clowns are scary," Piper said. "How about Disney themed?"

"I have an idea," I said. Everyone turned to look at me. "How about Frozen?" The girls nodded, and a couple rolled their eyes. "How about if we do a winter theme, because it's a winter dance, and we do some of the decorations from Frozen?"

It was silent for a moment as everyone thought about it.

"I like it." Mrs. Dana nodded, arms folded. It was the first thing she'd said since we started.

"Me too," Olivia said, looking in my direction as if she'd never noticed me before.

For the first time since I'd arrived at this school, I felt like I was a part of something. A warm happy feeling spread through my body like a fever.