Laura Goes To the Dance
By: Ariebelle
Author's Note: Another mediocre story, unfortunately. The romance goes way too fast in here and I know it. But it's cute, I guess. I've been saying I'd rewrite it for a while but so far I haven't. I hope you like it.
It was a warm day for December, nearly 45 degrees. Laura Kirrel trudged down the sidewalk to school, hugging her coat to her and thinking. Her purple messenger bag hung loosely on her left shoulder and she carried a tattered blue folder under her right arm. Her brown hair was in a messy ponytail and her glasses were askew on her nose.
"Laura! Over here, Laura!" Hannah Perkins, Laura's best friend, stood on the corner, blonde curls framing her face in a very pretty way.
"Hey Hannah," mumbled Laura.
"'Hey Hannah'? That's all you can say? 'Hey Hannah'? What's the matter with you?"
"I'm just nervous about exams," lied Laura.
" Why should you be worried about final exams? You know the stuff upside- down and inside out! There's no reason for you to be worried about that! So what's really bothering you?"
Laura sighed. " If you really want to know it's about the Christmas dance next week. I want to go so bad but I just know Dad won't let me!"
Laura's father was very protective of his daughter. His wife had died three years ago in a car crash and while he tried to raise his daughter as best he could he had become terrified that he would lose her too.
"So go to the ball, Cinderella! Ask your dad and go! Nothing's stopping you but you," said Hannah.
Laura laughed dryly. " Why? So I can meet Prince Charming? Yeah right, Han. Guys like that don't exist."
" What about Austin?" asked Hannah.
Laura blushed but was saved from further embarrassment because they had reached the school. The two girls headed for their lockers, prepared for another day of high school, the last day before the semester exams. Laura's first class was study hall. She didn't really need a study hall, of course. She was in her room so often that she always finished her homework but she used this time for two purposes. One was to write poetry, which she kept in her folder. The other was to stare at Austin Green, a very good- looking boy who every girl in the school, including Laura, admired. Today was no different. She worked on a poem entitled Wishes and then stared at Austin. Eventually she grew bored and began another poem.
Glass Slippers
To the ball, to the ball.
Glass slippers on my feet.
I'm the belle of the ball
And I'm scared stiff.
Nearly frozen on the stairs
Glass slippers on my feet
As the prince asks me,"
May I have this dance?"
The night whirls,
The time flies.
Glass slippers aren't so nice now
Even as I fall in love.
Midnight rings and breaks the spell
I run away from love.
One slipper drops
And the prince picks it up.
After that life is dull, I clean and I cook.
Then comes a knock at the door.
"Will all the ladies of the house
Please try on this shoe?"
My sisters' feet won't fit the shoe
I know this for a fact.
The shoe fits only me
Because it was made for my foot.
"Please Highness, may I try it on?"
The shoe fits, of course
And my prince and I embrace
Perhaps I'll live happily ever after, after all.
"I didn't know you wrote poetry."
Laura jumped. Austin was standing behind her. Her heart leapt into her throat.
"I... well, you see..." she stammered. "No, it's good," said Austin. "If you like fairy tales."
"I love fairy tales," whispered Laura.
Austin pulled out the chair next to hers and sat down. "Really? What grade are you in, ninth? And you still like fairy tales?"
"Yes," said Laura. "Is there a problem with that?" She was amazed at how easy it was to talk to him, even when her heart was stuck in her esophagus.
"No, no. It's just that everyone else I know stopped believing in that stuff a long time ago," said Austin.
"'Every time a child says,' I don't believe in fairies' there's a fairy somewhere that falls down dead'," said Laura defiantly, quoting from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.
"You're really different, you know that?" He sounded as if he were insulting her but his eyes shone with a light that said he was teasing. She blushed again.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Laura Kirrel," she whispered, becoming shy again.
"Glad to meet you, Laura," said Austin. He shook her hand just as the bell rang, signifying the end of class. She gathered up her things and left the room, tingling with excitement.
The only class Laura had with Hannah was Algebra. During class she slipped her a note describing the whole conversation in detail. Hannah sent back a note that read:
Laura: That's great. Maybe you can ask him to go to the dance with you. If you have a date your dad might let you go. --H.
Laura snorted. There was no way she would ask Austin to the dance and even if she did manage to her father still wouldn't let her go. She wrote back:
Hannah: Yeah right! Dad won't let me date until I'm sixteen! And besides, he probably already has a date! Why would he want to go with me when there are plenty of other girls in the school? Let's get real here! --L.
Hannah's next note read:
So tell your dad you're coming over to my house for a sleepover. We'll go to the dance and then go back to my house for the rest of the night. It wouldn't be a lie!
Laura wrote back:
It would so be telling a lie! Face it, Cinderella isn't going to the ball! Fairy tales don't come true!
But deep down inside she wasn't so sure. Before Hannah could hand over another note the bell rang.
"And remember class, clear the fraction in standard form. If you can do that you'll all do fine on the exam," called the teacher.
The two friends, who hadn't paid any attention to the lesson, looked at each other and burst into giggles.
"Gosh, old Stoneface can laugh! What an improvement!" Kendall Breuman, Laura's archrival, stood before them.
"Buzz off Kendall," said Hannah. " We don't need you bothering us. Besides, don't you have to get to class?"
"Class can wait," said Kendall airily. "I have to tell Laura Loser here something."
"Fine. Spill and go away," snapped Laura.
"Austin Green already has a date for the dance and you're such a geek he won't even look twice at you, bookworm!"
Kendall's baby blue eyes were burning with hatred but so were Laura's. "I don't care, Kendall," she said. "I can't go anyways. My dad won't let me. So just leave me alone, okay? You can have Austin for all I care!"
With that she ran for the French room, where she let herself become engrossed in making flashcards with the thirty verbs she would need for the final as a way to stop the tears that threatened to spill over her face.
At the end of the day Laura walked home alone. (Hannah had stayed for a Spanish club meeting.) She let herself into the house.
"Dad, I'm back!" she called.
Rick Kirrel came down the stairs, wiping his hands on an old shirt to get the paint off. (Laura's father was an artist.)
"Hello, Princess. How was school?"
"Okay. I met a nice boy today."
Mr. Kirrel stared at her.
"A boy?" he asked. " What kind of boy?"
" I told you, a nice one!" said Laura. "His name is Austin Green and he came over to talk to me during study hall. Oh and Dad, there's a dance on Saturday. I was wondering if I could go."
"You know the rules, Laura. No dating until you are at least sixteen. Get it?"
"But Dad! I wouldn't be going with a boy! Just with Hannah! Please?"
"NO! YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER AND YOU WILL OBEY MY RULES. IS THAT CLEAR?"
Laura felt tears coming on again. "Yes sir," she whispered. Then she ran to her room. There, on her bed, she let it all loose. Tears of anger at her father and at Kendall, of sadness about the dance and about how she would never get to dance with Austin and find out if fairy tales did come true flowed onto the pillows, soaking them.
The next days found Laura walking around like a zombie. Hannah tried talking to her but she couldn't get a straight answer out of her. In study hall Austin tried to talk to her too but she ignored him. On Thursday Hannah worked up the courage to talk to him about Laura.
"Austin, can I talk to you?" It was during lunch. Laura was too busy reading to notice when Hannah slipped off to Austin's table.
"It's Hannah, right?" he asked. " Yeah sure, we can talk. What's the matter?"
"I'm worried about Laura," said Hannah bluntly.
The smile faded off Austin's face. "I am too," he said. "I mean, I just met her on Monday but I really like her. Like really, really like her. Now she won't talk to me. Do I smell or something?"
"No," said Hannah flatly. "Laura likes you too, Austin. She wants to go to the dance on Saturday just so she can see you and maybe dance with you. But her dad won't let her go. See, her mom died a couple years ago and now her dad is really overprotective."
"I didn't know," said Austin. "Maybe that's why she likes fairy tales so much. They all have happy endings."
"Look, all I know is we gotta help her," said Hannah.
"How?" asked Austin. Hannah already had a plan.
"Look, you just get to that dance without a partner, okay? You don't already have one do you?" Austin shook his head and Hannah continued.
"I'll invite Laura over to my house for a sleepover. When my mom takes me to the dance I'll bring her with me. And we'll have to hope the rest of it works out."
Austin's smile came back for just a second. "We can try, Hannah," he said. "We might not succeed but we can try."
That afternoon Mr. Kirrel received a call from Hannah's mother. "Hannah can't go to the dance tomorrow," she said, "But she was wondering if Laura could sleep over. It's fine with me if it's fine with you."
"Hold on, I'll ask Laura," said Mr. Kirrel. "LAURA! Do you want to sleep over at Hannah's tomorrow night?"
Laura came down the stairs. "No, she said quietly. "I want to go to the dance."
"Well you can't," snapped her father. "I will speak to you in a minute."
He told Mrs. Perkins that Laura didn't want to go and then took his daughter aside to talk to her.
"I only want you to be safe and happy, Laura," he said." I want you to grow up and fall in love. But I don't think a dance is a place where you'll be safe."
Laura looked at her father pleadingly. "Dad," she said, "You said you wanted me to be happy too. Well I can't be very happy when all my other friends are at the dance. And Dad, I like a boy who will be there. I want to let him know how I feel! I promise won't say I'll go out with him but I have to let him know that I love him. Please Dad?"
Her father's face softened as he looked at his little girl. She wasn't so little anymore, really. She was, in fact, quite grown up. Perhaps it was time to let her be herself.
"All right," he said. "But I will pick you up and drop you off. You will not become this boy's girlfriend and you will carry a cell phone in your purse so you can contact me if you need to. Also, you cannot stay after midnight. Is that clear?"
Laura threw herself at her father. "Yes! Oh thank you, Daddy, thank you!" She kissed him on the cheek and went up to her room to get ready for bed.
If Mr. Kirrel had been worried that by letting Laura go to the dance he would lose his little girl then the word, "Daddy," made him forget the idea. She would always be a little girl. She would always be his little girl.
The next day could not have passed more quickly than it did for Laura. At seven she went up to her room to get ready. At eight she came down the stairs and her father hardly recognized her. She wore a long blue dress that had been her mother's along with matching shoes. Her hair was twisted up on top of her head and held with an elegant clip. She wore lipstick and a touch of blush. On her neck was a silver locket, opened to show a picture of her parents on their wedding day. She was beautiful.
"You look just like your mother," whispered Mr. Kirrel.
"I love you, Daddy," she whispered back.
"And I love you. Now come along, you'll be late." They slipped on their coats and climbed in the car.
Meanwhile, at the dance, Hannah and Austin were getting worried. The plan was not working out.
"She won't be here, " sighed Austin. "It's no use hoping she'll suddenly walk...in the door?"
For just at that moment Laura appeared in the doorway to the gym. Austin rushed at her, grinning.
"Laura!" he cried, "You made it!"
"Austin, I want to tell you something," began Laura.
"Not now," he said. "Just now I only want to dance with you!"
He pulled her out onto the dance floor and began spinning her around. Hannah watched from the sidelines, beaming with pleasure. It might not have worked out exactly as she'd planned but Laura and Austin were together and having fun. Maybe, if they were lucky, nothing would go...
"KENDALL BREUMAN! How dare you?" Kendall had broken Laura and Austin apart. Heads turned at Laura's yell. Laura and Kendall were facing each other. Austin stood behind Laura. Both girls were red with anger.
"So, Bookworm, you made it!" sneered Kendall. "How'd you do it? Did you get your mother can convince dear old Dad to bring you? Ooops! I forgot. You don't have a mother, do you Stoneface? She's dead!"
Kendall cackled like a hen. There was a loud smack as Laura's hand made contact with Kendall's face.
"In case you didn't notice, Kendall, I don't think that's very funny!" said Laura.
Kendall, though shocked by the slap, slapped right back. "Well I didn't expect you to, Stoneface!" she said.
"Don't ever insult my mother again." Laura's voice was as cold as her eyes. Kendall took a step back, looking scared. "I...I..." stammered Kendall. "Did you hear what I said?" asked Laura.
"Y...yes," whispered Kendall.
"Good. Now leave me alone. I was having a good time with Austin before you butted in."
As Laura turned away the whole room broke into applause. Laura grabbed Austin's hand and led him through the throng, out of the gym, and into the hallway.
"Austin," she said, " I like you. I like you more than you'll ever know."
Austin beamed. "I like you too, Laura," he said. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
"I can't this year," she said, blushing. "Dad won't let me. But we can be friends, right?"
Austin's face fell. "Yeah, sure," he said.
"I'll be allowed to date in two years," said Laura, noticing his long face.
"I can wait," said Austin. "Just as long as you promise you won't go all depressed on me again."
Laura answered him with a kiss on the cheek. Before he could return the kiss, though preferably on the lips, Hannah came out.
"GROUP HUG!" she cried. "Because Laura stood up to her dad and to Kendall and I saw you kiss him Laura!"
And so there were hugs all round. Laura never got a kiss on the lips that night but she looked forward to her first one in two years' time. And Austin looked forward to having a gorgeous girlfriend then and a great girl friend now.
