Whoooo! Guess what's happening tonight! PROM! Hope you enjoy one of the best Tucker/Clara moments in the series! Please read and review! x)P
I'm looking around the museum trying to spot her. I have to admit, the prom committee did a pretty good job with the decorations. But I was too busy looking for her while I danced with one of my dates. I can't even remember who I was dancing with right now. Oh wait, it's Allison Lowell. But I'm not paying attention to Allison or the music or the decorations. Where are you Carrots? You owe me a dance tonight.
She walks in at that moment. She looks amazing in her turquoise dress. The way she fixed her hair and how she stands makes her look heavenly. Like those life-size statues of gods. I look next to her and see something I don't like.
I almost stumble with shock. What the heck is Christian Prescott doing with my girl on prom night?!
Looking at Clara, I see that she's smiling at him with her eyes twinkling in the low lights showing how much she likes him. I'm instantly jealous. I'd have given everything to be with her and for her to smile at me like that. Why does she do it for Prescott and not me. I focus on Christian. He seems distracted and seems like he's looking for someone too. He gives up and takes a picture with my Carrots.
They head to the dance floor and all eyes are focused on them. They don't seem to notice, but the entire school is thinking the same thing: Christian and Clara? or What about Kay?
They look very good together. It looks as if she's having the time of her life, talking and laughing and dancing with him. It ticks me off even more. I want to be the one with Carrots in my arms, dancing with her as if we've done it all our lives. But I'm swaying with Allison right now... Swaying and wishing she was another girl.
I can see Christian looking at Kay. He looks as if he's in pain and I realize then that he loves her. Or loved, can't really tell at the moment. I eye Carrots with protectiveness. He's not going to hurt her. Prescott won't go low enough to use her. He won't. He's not a bad person. I wasn't reassured.
Clara stops and looks up at Christian as if to tell him that she thinks he's a good dancer but she freezes when she locks eyes with him. I see Christian stop dancing too. For a moment, they look at each other with so much intensity that they could light a fire without flint. Everyone stops dancing to stare at them. I start to worry. Then Clara's knees buckle and I let go of Allison. I don't get to move a millimeter before Christian snapped out of his trance and catches her. She looks shocked and confused and a little scared. I want to go and hold her and tell her it will be alright, whatever it is. I see her whisper something to Christian and run out the door. I look out the window and see her silhouette outside leaning against the wall. I start to walk toward the door, but Christian is there in a second. I'm jealous that I'm not the one talking to her out there, that I'm not the one making sure she's alright. I clench my hands into fists.
I feel someone touch my arm and I turn to look at Allison Lowell's brown eyes.
"You alright, Tuck?" she asks. I give her a fake smile.
"Yeah," I lie. I am very far from alright at the moment. "I'm just going to get some punch." I stalk over to the line of refreshments, glancing at the window every few seconds.
I hear the squeal of the microphone and Mr. Erikson's voice calling for our attention.
"We will be announcing the Royalty in 5 minutes," he says as I sip my punch. I see Christian walk in with Brady. Without Carrots. Should I go out there? Should I stay here? Does she want to be alone right now? Is she crying? Is she going home? I can't hear the announces or the claps and cheers. I can't hear anything. I don't care about anything. I care about her.
"And the prom king is..." Mr. Erikson says. Everyone holds their breathe. "... Christian Prescott." Carrots comes back in. She looks tired. It hurts to see her so tired. I wonder if she knows what Christian being prom king means.
"And now the prom queen," Mr. Erikson says. "Kay Patterson." Everyone applauds even more this time. I had my eyes on my Carrots this entire time and at Kay's name, she drops her head. I wanted to go comfort her but I didn't know if I should. I was waiting for her to lift her head back and shake it off as if it were nothing. She doesn't.
"Now, as is customary, the king and queen will share a dance," says Mr. Erikson. I feel as if I should do something about all of this. I don't think I can but I want to. Everyone's whispering excitingly at Kay and Christian dancing. The "it" couple is back together again. I look over at Carrots. Her shoulders are slumped in defeat. It broke my heart. Seeing Carrots hurt like that, it was driving me insane. Nobody messes with my girl's feelings.
That did it, I was going to walk over to her and dance with her. She deserves to have a great time and watching the guy you like dance with someone else isn't really a good definition of "great time".
"Hey Carrots," I say. I see her cringe a little but it doesn't bother me right now. I'm determined to get her to dance with me.
"Not now, Tucker. I can't deal with you right now," she tells me. I beg the differ, Carrots. I think you could stand to deal with me right now.
"Dance with me," I say. Nothing's going to stop me. I said it and I'm determined to make it happen. Say yes say yes say yes!
"No," she says. Well that was a total buzz kill... No, I refuse to make that an option right now.
"C'mon, you look pathetic standing here watching your date dance with someone else," I say to her. I wince. That came out more mean than I expected it to. But I know her. She likes a challenge.
She turns to glower at me. Definitely wasn't the best choice of words. I can tell she's considering my offer now because of the way she starts biting her lip a little.
"Fine," she says. Wait... was that a yes? YES! It was a yes! I thought she would be more challenging than that, but hey, I'm not going to complain.
I hold out my hand and to my surprise she takes it without hesitation. I take a shallow breathe. I am holding her hand! I lead her to the edge of the dance floor where no one will bother us. She puts her arms around my neck and my heart starts to skip. I've been dreaming about this moment since the day I took Wendy to her house. I couldn't stop looking at her. I realize what I said about her looking like a statue of a goddess was wrong, she look even more beautiful than those statues. I felt my knees wobble a little being this close to her. Her scent of sunshine and flowers filled my heart until I thought I would burst. But I don't. I continue to dance with Clara, hoping that this moment would never end. I smile when she starts relaxing.
"Where's your date?" she asks. I inwardly sigh. I knew she would ask that eventually, but did it really have to be while I was having the best moment of my life dancing with her?
"Well, that's a complicated question. Depends on what you mean," I say.
"Who did you come with tonight?" she asks. She probably thinks I don't know where my date is... It was inevitable. I had to tell her.
"Her," I say, gesturing with my head to Allison Lowell over by the punch table.
"And her," I say, looking over where Miranda Weatherson, a senior, was requesting a song.
"And her," I say, pointing at Ava Peters who was dancing with Eric Manners, captain of the ski team.
"You came with three girls?" she asks. I peek at her and see the disbelief in her eyes. I think she's hoping that I'm just playing around with and that I didn't actually bring three dates and came stag like I suggested to her. But the truth is is that I really did bring three dates. I know what it looks like, but I'm not that kind of guy. Nobody asked them and I decided that maybe they should come with me. They're not really dates, more like friends that I drove here. I'm sort of like a butler. I don't like any of them, they're just friends. I really like you and I've been wanting to dance with you all night.
Instead of telling her the jumble my brain is thinking, I say,"They're on the rodeo team. None of them had dates, and I figured I was the only one man enough to handle the three of them." Please please please don't let this ruin our dance.
"You're unbelievable," she says. I look at her again and I see a little smirk on her lips. She thinks this is funny. Well, I guess it is.
"And you came with Christian Prescott," I say. "Your dream come true." I realize that was a mistake because I see her smirk slip away and glance at Christian and Kay over her shoulder. Great job, Tuck, you really nailed that one down.
I look at Kay and Christian to see what Carrots is staring at and see that Kay is crying on Prescott. I guess she loves/loved him too. I see Christian lean close to Kay and whisper something in her ear but it just makes her cry harder. Clara tenses up again. I feel a little bad for Kay too. I've never really talked to her before, but I know she's not a bad person since she and Wendy use to be best friends when we were kids.
"Man, you couldn't pay me to be in his shoes right now," I say, trying to ease the tension. Obviously it didn't work since all I got back was a glare.
"Sorry," I tell her. "I'll shut up."
"You do that," she says. She has her little smirk back and all I can think about right now is kissing it off her. Of course, I don't so we just continue dancing without another word while I try to hide my smile. When the song ends, I almost ask her to dance with me to another because I didn't want to let her go. But I don't think she'd appreciate it.
"Thanks for the dance," I say instead and drop my arms. It feels a little chilly without her close.
"Thanks for asking," she says, but she's not looking at me. She's looking at Christian with longing in her eyes. I turn to see why and find Christian holding Kay like he use to hold her when she was upset. Does Carrots want him to hold her like that? Or does she want someone to lover that way? Christian leads Kay to sit down and goes get her some punch, but she waves it away. She has the same tired and defeated look that Carrots had earlier tonight. I tense up beside Clara as Christian walks toward us, blushing as red as an apple.
"I am so sorry," he says to Clara. "I didn't know this would happen."
"I know," she says so quietly that I had to strain my ears to hear her. "It's all right. Where's Kay's date?" I know her and it really isn't alright. She just watched her date comfort the girl he loves/loved. Carrots isn't stupid, she knows what happened.
"He left," Christian tells us. I'm shocked by this. Why would someone leave Kay? She's pretty (definitely not my type) and smart and a great person so I'm told.
Carrots seems to be surprised too.
"He left," she repeats incredulously.
"So I was thinking," Christian says, blushing again, "that I should take Kay home." I look to see that Carrots is starring at Christian with her eyes wide and mouth slightly open, stunned. I want to punch Prescott. He's hurt Clara enough tonight, and now he's going to leave her here while he goes of with his ex-girlfriend?! I clench my hands into fists again and try to calm down. Then an idea hits me.
"I'll take Clara home," I say. Clara jumps a little. Maybe she just realized that I've been standing here this entire time, but it doesn't bother me to know that she doesn't really pay attention to where I am right now. I'm too mad at Christian to really care about anything else.
"No, it'll only take a minute," Christian protests, standing a little straighter as if I'm challenging him on whether or not he's man enough to do anything. I guess I sort of am, but in this situation, I win.
"The dance will be over in ten minutes," I say to him. "You expect her to wait for you in the parking lot?" I glare at him. Who does he think he is hurting my girl like this?!
Clara's shoulders droop again. Christian looks a little green at how right I am.
"Go ahead and take Kay home," Carrots says. She looks as if she's about to cry but she's holding them in until no one is around. "I'll ride home with Tucker.
"That's all right with you?" Christian asks. OF COURSE IT'S NOT ALL RIGHT WITH HER!
"Sure," she says. "I have to be home by midnight, remember?" She gives a shrug as if this whole thing is no big deal, but the way her shoulders are shaking slightly, this is a really big deal to her. I feel bad. I can't comfort her. A fat lot of use I am.
"I'll make it up to you," he says. I mentally snarl at him. No, I don't think you will. And I'll sure of that. Instead of saying what I want to, I settle on rolling my eyes at him.
"Okay," she says. She looks to me. "Can we go now?" I almost fall to my knees then and there. I look at her gray-blue eyes and saw so much pain and heartbreak from tonight. I feel like such a loser. I can't do anything to help her.
"You bet," I say. I watch as she goes to find Wendy and Angela to say goodnight. Then I got tell Allison, Ava, and Miranda that we're going now and that Clara's going to come along. I run to Bluebell and drive her over to the front of the museum where I see Carrots waiting (and all my other dates). They cram in my truck and we go home. I check in the mirror to see how Carrots is doing. She just looks empty and my heart a littler more every time I see her. This should have been a great night for her, but it turned into a disaster. Rumors are going to fly around everywhere on Monday. After I drop Miranda off, she says, "Bye Fry." After that, it's just Carrots and me in my truck. I start to get nervous. What should I say? Evidently, I don't have to say anything since Clara finally talks.
"So... Fry, huh?" she teases. I smile. Teasing is a good sign, right? "What's that about?"
"Yeah," I say. I shake my head a little. Boy are the people here crazy. "In junior high they called me Friar Tuck. Now it's just Fry. But my good friends call me Tuck."
We pull into her driveway, but she doesn't get out right away. As she opens the door, she stops and looks at me.
"Can you... not mention this whole fiasco to anybody else at school?" she asks. The way she looks, she really doesn't want anyone to know about this embarrassing night. But it's a small town. By morning, half the population will know what happened.
"They already know," I say to her. "One thing about Jackson Hole High, everybody is in everybody's business."
She sighs. That probably wasn't what she was hoping for.
"Don't worry about it," I say. She shouldn't, it'll blow over by the end of the week.
"Yeah, they'll forget by Monday, right?" She gives me a sheepish smile that doesn't reach her eyes.
"Right," I say. And it's probably true. It isn't like she cut down all the trees in town or anything. This won't make the town records.
"Thanks for the ride," shes says. "Fry." Oh, just great.
I groan and then grin. My Carrots will be back by Monday. "My pleasure." I see her look at me funny.
"See you," she says and jumps down from the truck, slam the door shut, and make her way over to her house. But I'm not done yet. I have to ask her something that I've wanted to know for a long time.
"Hey, Carrots," I call suddenly.
She turns around and looks at me again.
"You and I will probably get along better if you stop calling me that," she says. No way, you know you love it.
"You like it," I tell her with a smirk. Not that she could see it or anything.
"I don't," she says with a little life in her voice.
"What do you see in a guy like Christian Prescott?" I ask, serious again. I want to know. No, I need to know. She deserves more. Than me and Christian, but I want to know what she sees in someone like him. He's always going to be Mr. Popular and I'm always going to be Tuck. I want to know what she sees in someone like the king of social status that she can't see in me.
"I don't know," she says tiredly. "Anything else you want?"
I feel my face go slack. That wasn't the answer I was looking for.
"Good night, then," she says and heads back to her house.
"Night," I say, and I drive off.
I dreamed about her being my only date for prom, us two dancing and laughing and having a great time. How we would steal a kiss here and there while Mr. Erikson wasn't looking. There would be no Christian drama to upset her, just us two. I dreamed about how it would feel to be so close to her again and smell her shampoo of sunshine and flowers all night long. I dreamed about how she would finally see that I was there and that I loved her. That I wanted to be with her and make her happy. I love you Clara. I really do.