"So, are you ready for the dance?" questioned Kasey as she stuffed her beat-up history textbook in her locker. Her friend Jackie turned to her and gave her a sarcastic look.
"No, I am not excited for one of the biggest dances of my ninth grade year." Then she burst out into bubbly giggles. "Of course I'm excited! I can't wait to see what dress you pick-" She paused. "That is, if you can pick one."
Kasey turned back to her own locker to close it. "I know but I can't decide whether if I want to wear the navy blue one with the ruffles, or the aquamarine one with the sequins," she sighed, clutching her denim purse, then her eyes traced back to Jackie. "Besides, your godmother's bound to make you a sweet dress-"
"Um, she hasn't made it yet," Jackie giggled nervously.
Kasey shrugged. "She makes them in 30 minutes- she'll probably have it done by the time you get home."
"True," nodded Jackie. "Instead of keeping the family business going, she should've opened up a fashion store." She slammed her locker and the two walked off across the school for dismissal.
Behind them, Jessica Rogers was pushing her way through the sixth graders that were filing out of the gym. The high school that the district was going to build next door didn't have enough money, so they built on the middle school, so they shared things such as the cafeteria, library, gym, auditorium, and even some bathrooms.
"Excuse me, excuse me. Excuse- HEY!" she yelled. Jackie turned to find Jess scolding a sixth grader who most likely didn't hear her. "That's Coach you ass! So I suggest you don't step on my toes!" She huffed and stormed to Jackie's right side.
"Sixth graders," Jessica growled. "What will you do with them?"
Jackie rolled her eyes. "You know Jess, you were a sixth grader at one point-"
"I don't even remember being as idiotic as they are now! Geez Louise... I actually don't even want to remember what I was like as a sixth grader."
"Probably in your fourth year of pro competitive shopping," snickered Kasey. Jess shot her a look.
"Can it, Brown." she sniffed, flipping her gold and brown hair off her shoulder. "Dont tell me you're wearing that frock to the dance." Jessica pointed at Kasey's football jersey.
Kasey and Jessica were very good friends, it was just sometimes they didn't get along.
Jackie held her hands up. "Okay! Dr. Lee is interfering!" she said. "Good God, you two fight like sisters! It's worse than Jessica fighting Cecelia!" Cecelia Rogers was Jessica's seven year-old little sister.
"Ugh, don't even talk about The Seal," she smirked. Then she nudged Jackie. "Speaking of sisters, here come the Jacob twins."
"Tori, Mack! Over here," called Kasey, waving her hand in the air. Tori had caught sight of the three and she walked with Mackenzie over to their friends.
Tori and Mackenzie Jacobs didn't look like twins at all, but they were definitely sisters, and they always had each others backs.
"What's up?" Mackenzie smiled softly, tucking a perfect blonde curl behind her ear.
"Not much. Just discussing rude sixth graders, annoying little siblings, and the dance," explained Jackie. "You guys?"
"Well, she wants to go to the dance, I highly doubt I should go," Tori said.
Everyone except Mackenzie gasped. "Tori, you've gotta go!" whined Jackie. "You already bought your ticket. Besides, you don't want to miss out on your very first homecoming dance!"
Mackenzie and Jessica nodded in unison. They were the best of friends out of that small circle of friends they had. Mackenzie showed up at all of Jessica's ice skating competitions and rooted her on the whole time. Sometimes, Jessica was allowed to bring Mackenzie with her to the locker rooms so Mackenzie could help her with her skates, dress, and hair.
Jackie, Jessica, Mackenzie, and Kasey started saying, "Tori please!" or "Come on, please?" until there was an exasperated groan from her saying, "Alright already! Just give it a rest." The rest of the group smiled and cheered.
Jackie and Kasey waved good-bye to their friends as they ran to the bus ramp, and Mackenzie and Tori had raced to the carline. Their mom was usually out front. So that left Jessica to casually walk to the bike racks, where her green bike was waiting for her.
Michael O'Neil laughed as he watched the new girl try and find her purple bike in the tangled-up mess he created.
"Really?" she snarled, sweeping her bangs out of her eyes. "Is this all really necessary?" She saw her seat way over to the left and her handlebars over to the right stuck in-between the spokes of her wheels.
"Don't mind him," said a girl behind her. The new girl turned around to find a thin and tall Italian-looking girl with waist-length waved brown hair and dark, brown eyes smiling at her. "This is probably how he relieves his stress so he doesn't get more zits than he already has." Michael growled and stormed off to find the rest off his gang.
"Need a hand?" she spoke again. "I'm Elizabeth. Elizabeth Berkley. But you can call me Lizzy." Her eyes traced over the pile of mixed-up, re-arranged bikes. "I see you've met Michael and his business- Michael's Bicycle Re-Arranging."
The new girl nodded and rolled her eyes. "What a putz." Then she stuck out her hand and beamed. "I'm Tatiana Williams, but you can call me Tati. I just moved up here." She shivered. "I guess I'll have to get used to this weather from now on!"
Elizabeth nodded. "Where are you from?" she asked.
"Orlando, Florida."
"Sweet!" exclaimed Lizzy. "So you go to the beaches and stuff right? And are you gonna go back down there for college?"
Tati smiled, "Probably, but it all depends on if I like it up north. If I could go back down to Florida, I'd never go to UF." She made a face. "Ugh, the Gators are so overrated."
Lizzy giggled. "Then you might want to watch out for Kasey and Jackie. Their parents went there, so they're all about Tebow."
"You mean Little Timmy Tearbow?" laughed Tatiana. "Okay, I guess I better watch it."
The corners of Elizabeth's mouth lifted into a smile. She seems... alright.
They were into a deep conversation that they didn't notice a pale dark golden-haired girl walk up to the bike mess and groan loudly. Lizzy turned.
"Oh hey Jess!" she smiled.
"Michael was here, wasn't he?" spat Jessica. Then she looked up at Tati.
"Say, you're that new girl here, aren't you?" Tatiana nodded.
"Started three days ago," she said shyly, looking at her feet. "Moved from Orlando."
"Wow, cool- Aw, crap. Where are my manners?" said Jess. "I'm Jessica Rogers. You?"
"Tatiana Williams." said Tati, looking up. Jessica smiled as she shook her hand.
"Its okay if I call you, Tati, right?" asked Jess. Tatiana nodded.
"Well Lizzy, it looks like you're not the only newbie around here!" Jessica patted her on the back. "Lizzy moved here barely two months ago and-" Her watch beeped.
"Ah, shit." Jess muttered. "Pardon my French, but I gotta get out. Homecoming is tonight! Maybe I'll see you both there?" She mounted on her bike.
Lizzy nodded and Jess waved as she rode out of the school complex.
"Dance?" asked Tati. "What dance?" She fixed the handlebars on her bike and turned the seat. "There."
"Homecoming," Lizzy explained, pulling her tangerine-colored bike out from the bottom of the wreck. "It's tonight. Unfortunately, if you wanted your ticket, sales went on in the cafeteria for twenty bucks a ticket. I think you'd have to pay twenty-five up front."
They rode their bikes down the street and passed by a Starbucks, an old warehouse, and a SunDog.
"So what am I supposed to wear? Is there a theme?" Lizzy shook her head as she turned the corner with Tati.
"Something nice, I guess. I mean, it's homecoming!" she breathed. "Hey, this is my neighborhood up here, so see you later?"
"Definitely," grinned Tati as they parted ways.
"Ugh, nothing fits right! I look like a fricking weed!" cried Tati. Her mother, Valerie Williams, ran to the room to find Tatiana in a black and white sundress.
"Sweetheart, you look fine."
All of Tatiana's clothes were scattered around her room. Dresses were turned right-side in, or inside-out. "Mom, this is horrible. I left on homecoming day back home so I have no experience! What am I supposed to do?" She sniffled and crumpled up on the bed. Her eyes filled with tears as her mother sat beside her, rubbing her back.
"Honey, it's okay." Valerie said sympathetically. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."
At the sound of her mother's words, Tati shot up immediately. "But I made new friends that are going!"
Valerie's ears perked up when her daughter said "I made new friends." Her daughter was against making new friends at first when they first moved to Chicago.
"Mom, just please help me, okay?"
Valerie Williams sighed in defeat and gave in to her daughter as she dove into a mound of clutter, searching for a dress to make the day of her only daughter.
Back at the Lee household, Jackie was talking away to Kasey over the phone discussing the dance.
"I don't know Kase, I think she's almost done." Jackie stuck her head out of her bedroom door. "GAMA!" she called "GAMAAA!". 'Gama' was what she called her godmother.
"Coming, dear!" Downstairs, a very busy old woman was busily working away, fabricating the perfect oriental homecoming dress for her goddaguhter, Jackie.
It was a silky lavender dress with transparent waved sleeves and a large white sash was wrapped around the waist. She just needed more of the silken thread. So Jackie's Gama waddled upstairs and tried to ask Jackie for more thread.
"Kasey, you need to pick one dress," she told her friend over the phone. "Not fifty million."
"Well sorry, but I'm trying to find something that'll impress Brent, just not so much to Max, which is kind of hard!" Kasey said. "It hurts when you have two male admirers that simply can't resist you."
"Earth to Ego, Earth to Ego!" snorted Jackie. "Hello? Um, one- Brent is a sophomore and you just met him last month. Two- Max has the most ginormous crush on you and no matter what you wear, he's still gonna love you!"
Kasey moaned. "Thanks for reminding me. Sometimes I wish he'd disappear, ya know? But oh well. So, what does your dress look like?"
Jackie didn't notice that her godmother was just outside of her shut door, and she was listening to Kasey on speakerphone and Jackie talking to her.
"I don't know," grinned Jackie. "But it'll probably be something great. Something magical."
Jackie's Gama cleared her throat and knocked on her door. "And it's almost done, child," she beamed as her goddaughter opened the door. "Any extra silk thread?" Jackie tossed her the spool and turned before she saw her godmother catch it.
What she didn't see was her Gama did not catch the spool of thread.
Instead, Jackie's Gama's palm stuck out and the spool was slowly spinning.
In the air.
At Jessica's home, things became strange as well.
"So many dresses, so little time," she puffed, checking her clock.
She sat down at her desk and stroked the petals of one of the daisies that the little girl she was teaching how to ice skate gave her, holding her head in her other hand.
She was so nice, thought Jess. If only she could tell me what to wear.
And just like that, the tall daisy bowed over slowly. Jessica's hand shot straight back.
"Oh my gosh! Did I just do that?" she gasped. The flower shook, and Jessica picked up the flowerpot and tried turning it.
The head of the daisy kept pointing in the same direction and didn't move with the pot.
It pointed straight at her closet.
What the-
Jessica set the flower pot down with caution, walked over to the closet, and then pulled out a flowing gold and orange dress. It didn't budge.
Then she fished a pink mini with rhinestones at the top. The flower didn't move, but pointed straight at the back of her giant closet.
This is fricking crazy... I'm relying on a flower to pick my homecoming dress? I literally must be dreaming...
The plant kept pointing at her closet. Jess kept rummaging through it. "What the hell am I doing?" she muttered to herself as she kept pushing hangers and dresses aside. But at the back of her walk-in closet, she found an elegant snowflake white dress with jades at the waist and there was emerald embroidering at the top. Jessica reached for the dress with trembling hands and slowly plucked the dress from the white clothes hanger.
She turned back to the bent daisy, and it seemed as if it was nodding and shuddering back to its original stance. Jessica's grey eyes widened.
This doesn't belong to me, she thought. This looks like it belongs to the fricking Queen!
Jess turned to her clock. 6 pm. The dance was at 7. She hadn't even showered yet.
"It'll have to do."