Whoop dee doo...first of all fellas, I'd like to mention that I've er, changed Homecoming to Prom. Sorry about that glitch.

Here goes!

Why oh why did this always happen? Stomach ache right before entering the examination hall. Great.

I took a few deep breaths with my eyes closed and willed my stomach ache to disappear. It was like an avalanche of rocks pounding in my bowel. I tried a few grounding techniques to calm myself.

Okay...imagine roots growing out from your feet digging deeeeep into the g--

"Are you okay?" his voice broke through my thoughts. My eyes snapped wide open.

"Y-yeah..." I smiled nervously, slightly embarrassed.

"Relax Hana, you're gonna ace this. You know your facts better than I do," Ephram laughed. I smiled not-so-consoledly and tried to shake off the bad vibes.

"No, we're gonna ace this. Right?" I looked him in the eye.

He smiled. "Yeah," he nodded. I felt better already.

The door to the examination hall opened just then and a teacher poked her head out. "Ready or not, you guys can come in now," she said with a smile that told of many other batches before us going through the same thing, with probably the same set of expressions as we did right then. Looking around earlier, those expressions had varied from the intensely worried to the intensely bored. And mine? Mine was probably bordering on the intensely worried end.

All my high hopes were going to be marked by this single chain of events. Sitting for my papers. Oh hell, I knew I probably didn't even deserve to do that well, but old dreams die hard.

Funnily enough though, the thought of leaving Everwood just didn't strike the same chord in me as it used to.

"See you on the other side," Ephram joked as we entered the hall and split up to our own seats.

See you on the other side indeed.

Miraculously, all students survived the holocaust that was the final exams. Many times some had wanted to break down and bash their heads repeatedly against random walls screaming, "Kill me now! Kill me now!" but now, all that was over and peace was once again restored to the high school. Kind of like a quiet countryside after a tornado had finished ripping through it, actually.

What was now uppermost on everyone's mind was Promenade. Finally, an outlet for the stress of the past few weeks, and something that everyone had secretly been planning for for a long time, but didn't want to admit to for fear of losing their cool-factors.

Well. Almost everyone.

"Bumped into Amy earlier today. She asked me if I was going to the Prom," Ephram admitted nonchalantly as we sat at a table outdoors eating ice-cream.

"Ah," I acknowledged interestedly between spoonfuls. "So what did you say?"

He shrugged carelessly. "I said I didn't know. She's going with Colin, of course. Bright's gonna drive all of them in this Winnebago he just rented".

I widened my eyes in realisation. "Ohh...that thing. Yeah, it was kinda hard not to notice when he drove in this morning".

Then he remained silent. I knew there was something simmering at the back of his mind that he wasn't saying.

"What," I prodded knowingly. "I know you're thinking something".

He turned his attention away from the cup of ice-cream in his hands to look at me. "Are you planning on going?" he asked, frowning slightly.

What was this all about? "Well I don't know...should I?"

"Cuz I just was thinking..." he drifted off slightly. "Well...I was thinking maybe we could go. Together. Well just as friends, you know? It would make a nice ending for the year". He looked at me now, hoping I'd caught his meaning.

I laughed, flabbergasted. "But it's this Saturday! What about your suit? Or a dress for me?"

"Well I could just borrow one of my dad's old ones or rent something," he figured out right then. "So how about it? You think you could?"

I slowed down my whirling thoughts for a moment to think through clearly. "I guess so...yeah. I could figure something out".

"So we're going?"

I thought about it for a moment. Oh what the hell. Going to prom with Ephram? What was there to think about? I'd make a fashionable dress out of burlap if I had to.

Well hopefully I didn't.

"Yeah," I nodded, smiling certainly now. "I guess we are".

"Cool," he smiled back, and we continued eating our ice-cream in comfortable silence.

I couldn't believe Delia had called me pretty. I stood in front of the mirror, trying to figure out the exact angle at which I could look even remotely so. I lifted my chin. Nope. Tilted my head to the right. Nope. The left?

"What on earth are you doing Hana?"

I whipped myself around in shock and saw my dad standing at the door. "DAD! Can't you knock?" I exclaimed embarrassedly.

"But the door was open," he simply said. He walked in and sat down at the edge of my bed as I looked at him and simmered with anger. "I just wanted to talk to you". He patted the space on the bed beside him, asking me to sit down. I did so, grudgingly.

He waited a few moments before he spoke. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being away all the time. I know it wasn't completely your fault what you did...with the gang," he began. I just sat down in silence, listening to his words yet not looking at him. "You've been in charge of alot of things at home, and I admit you take on far too much responsibility than you should right now. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry for that". I felt his warm hand on my head. A lump grew in my throat.

"No, don't cry! Don't cry!" I told myself silently.

"I know I've neglected all of you and I want to start making up for it," he continued. "So guess what? I got tickets for us to the carnival this Saturday". I looked up in shock at this, and saw that he was smiling. But it soon faded when he saw my expression.

"But...this Saturday's the prom," I told him slowly and meaningfully. He took this in for a few moments.

"Well that's alright," he decided. "We'll go on Sunday instead. How about that?"

"But what about the tickets?" I asked.

"Bah," he shrugged off with a careless swat of his hand. "I'll just get some more!"

At this, I threw my arms around him in a hug. "Thanks Dad," I said, knowing with certainty that he was really trying his best with all of us.

"Anything else you wanna tell me, squirt?" he laughed. I smiled. It'd been a long time since he'd last called me that.

"No," I pulled away and looked at him. "Just a question. Do you think I could turn pretty for the prom?" I smiled.

Dad guffawed amusedly at this. "No...because you're already pretty, silly". Ah well.