Chapter Six

Sunday, March 14

Claire sighed at Sandra. She was rambling on and on about the prom and it was still over a month away. 47 days to be exact, according to Sandra.

The previous weekend's prom meeting had been cancelled after the happening at the party. Luckily, Claire didn't have to make up any excuses, Sandra had done it all for her, claiming that Claire had a concussion and didn't know better. Sandra couldn't risk the popularity downfall of being associated with Claire if Claire would have actually volunteered to leave the party with Bender.

She hadn't even seen him around school for the past week.

"So, we got Kel to run for prom queen!" Sandra said smiling. She clapped a little and Brenda followed. Tonya sat on Claire's bed looking up at the ceiling with no sort of emotion. "Now we just need to start planning the campaign"

Claire gave a sarcastic smile. "Oh goody!" She said, sinking further into her chair.

Brenda and Sandra sat on the floor, with mounds of colored poster board, glue, photos and markers. They didn't seem to notice Claire's sarcasm as they began grabbing at the paper.

"I'm going to go get some drinks," Claire said quickly. She stood up and went for the door.

"I'll help you!" Tonya jumped from the bed and followed Claire downstairs. When they reached the kitchen Claire didn't go for the fridge, she simply sat down at the table and rubbed her head.

"I needed to get out of there too," Tonya said, sliding into the seat. Claire nodded, wishing the younger girl to shut up. "This is all becoming very superficial"

Claire looked at the girl in surprise. Was Claire that see-through that Tonya could tell she was fed up with it too?

"I saw you leave with Bender at the party last week," Tonya said. "He's an ass, but I never saw a guy look at a girl like that."

"You are the last person that should be judging people," Claire said harshly, ignoring her latter comment. "You would never be popular if it weren't for your sister and yet you stand there and constantly bring other people down who have the same faults as you"

Tonya laughed a little. "And you are better than me of course. How kind of you to bring out my faults, Claire."

"No I'm not. I'm worse, because I see it's wrong and I still do it." Claire stood up and went for the fridge, pulling out a pitcher of lemonade. "Like John. He's really not that bad of a guy. I couldn't push myself to show him the time of day though."

"You're defending him," Tonya noted, her view swung to follow Claire. "Why"

Claire shrugged as she pulled four glasses from the cabinet. "I'm just sick of this all. I want to be done with the high school drama. I want to hang out with people who like me for me and not just for my money or my looks"

"You like him Claire…" Tonya said each word slowly as if giving it time to sink in.

Ignoring Tonya Claire poured the drinks, grabbed two of the cups and started back for the stairs. "Grab those would you? We'd better get back to my room before they get pissy"

Tonya laughed again. "You do like him. I can't believe it," She grabbed the cups and followed Claire.

Claire didn't deny it because it would have been a lie. She did like John. She liked him a lot. He was nothing like Billy Lally from last summer at the beach. He'd been an ass hole like Bender, but he'd also tried to take advantage of her. He didn't talk to Claire about anything, just started groping her breasts. It'd been a one week relationship. John was also nothing like Mike Stahlberg who she'd dated earlier in the school year. She'd been with him for a month because, although he was a great guy, he was annoying and more boring than anyone else she knew.

As the two of them entered the room, Claire pushed thoughts of her love life out of her head. "So what are we doing?" She asked, flashing her fake million-dollar smile.

It was late and Allison was still wide awake. She pulled out a school book and looked at it. Language Arts. She groaned as she opened it. No way in hell did she want to be studying this crap, but she had nothing else to do. Her new record was broken, her parents were arguing, the cable was disconnected.

She set her book to the side and flipped off her lamp light. Studying would only make her think about her situation more, she thought. She turned her focus to the window where the stars were still twinkling, the moon still shining. The world wasn't over. It was still going on. So why did it feel like it was over her?

Monday, March 15

Andy sat down with Penny, a girl from school. Like most of his waking moments, he had been thinking of Allison when he ran into Penny. She was a beautiful, leggy girl. Sometimes she over did the clothes and makeup but she was still the type of girl you wanted to look at all day.

"How's the prom predicament going for you?" She asked.

"I don't think I'm going,"

"That's bullshit! Why not?"

Andy frowned. He hated prom now. "The girl I was going to invite... well, I don't think she wants to go. Especially not with me."

"No kidding," Penny giggled a little. "Well, Andy. You should have just said you wanted to go with me. I'm free and capable of going."

Andy looked up at her. That wasn't what he meant, but she seemed to be taking it that he was nervous about asking her. "I-"

"I was hoping you'd ask me," She smiled and slid her foot over his. Her bare foot traveled up his leg, to his knee cap and then back down. "So...?"

Andy shrugged. "So what?"

"Are you taking me to prom or not, Andy?" Her tone was almost demanding.

He didn't know what to say. He sat there looking at her for a few moments before smiling and saying, "I'd love to take you to the prom."

Brian sat at the table behind Andy with Larry. He shook his head as they listened in on the conversation. Allison didn't show emotion like other people did, but Brian knew she liked Andy a lot and he knew Andy liked her. This was going to hurt Allison.

"That guys a real jerk," Larry said. "I personally can't see what she sees in him"

Brian shrugged. "I don't want to be the one who has to tell her about this."

"What the hell is your problem, Claire?" Claire looked up to see Sandra standing behind her, hands on her hips with Brenda tucked close behind her.

Claire sat in the library, books and magazines strewn across the table, looking up at Sandra. She was completely dumbfounded.

"What do you mean?"

"This is what I mean!" She shoved a piece of paper in Claire's face which Claire took angrily.

"Vote Claire for Prom Queen?" Claire spoke, looking at the paper. She was shocked. "Is this some sort of joke?" She slammed the paper on the table to her side and stood up. "I had nothing to do with this Sandra"

Brenda scoffed behind Sandra, as if she'd taken a blow to the back of her head.

"Well Claire... if you didn't do it, then who did?" Sandra paused and pointed to the paper.

"That is so very low! We were all pushing Kel to win! It's her last year here, you still have next year to win prom queen! A junior running for prom queen is ridiculous! It's unheard of! Who are you to go against tradition?"

Claire stood there, staring straight forward, mouth open. She had no clue what to say. She hadn't planned on running for prom queen, especially not this year. Turning back to her books, Claire took her seat again and rested her head on the table. She still felt horrible, even if this wasn't her fault. Who would have put her up on the block to become prom queen though? The only way she could have been put up as a candidate as a junior would only have been if at least twenty seniors voted her in.

"Fine! If you have nothing to say about this, I'll just go find Kel and comfort her. I'm sure she's broken up about this!" Claire didn't look up; she just listened to the stomping of Sandra's feet as she headed off towards the library exit.

Allison wasn't shocked to see Penny's arms wrapped around Andy at lunch that day. She wasn't shocked, but she wasn't exactly happy about it either. Brian kept looking back and forth between her and Andy the whole lunch period.

"Hey, Al," Larry spoke. "Ignore him. He's probably just doing it to get at you"

Allison said nothing. She looked at her bag of cheerios. It was the only thing she could find in the house that morning besides a few cans of tomato and chicken noodle soup. She really didn't need anyone's pity at this point. This was probably why she spent the past 3 years of high school ignoring everyone and making no friends.

"Remember guys! Prom's in 30 days! Get your partner, get your clothes and get your tickets! Twenty dollars outside of the cafeteria!" Came a booming noise from over the loud speaker.

Rolling her eyes, Allison looked back at Andy. She really didn't want to go to prom anyway. Especially not with such a lowly pig like him. Prom wasn't her thing. People weren't her thing. She was better off just being by herself. It at least made her somewhat happy seeing as how being with people only caused her pain.

Tonya looked from Claire to Sandra. "What happened?" She asked.

Claire looked up from her cola and gave a weak smile. "I am apparently running for prom queen"

"Against what we already decided!" Sandra barked across the table.

"I didn't ask for this Sandra! I don't want to be prom queen"

"Kelly will be here any moment now. I hope you have something better to tell her"

"I'm not running anyway. I'm asking to have my name withdrawn"

Tonya shook her head. "I think you should go for it. If twenty seniors actually nominated you, then you might actually win"

"How'd you get twenty seniors to nominate you anyway?" Brenda asked, sandwich wrap in one hand and gesturing with the other. "Especially against Kel"

Claire's fists connected with the table. "I didn't! I don't know how it happened"

Kelly was approaching the table. Everyone went silent as she slide into the seat next to Claire. She sat there smiling as she pulled a lunch bag from her back pack. "How is everyone today? Anything new and exciting"

The senior girl looked straight at Claire, still smiling. The smile seemed genuine, yet Claire couldn't help but think maybe she was being sarcastic about it in some way. Did she know about Claire being nominated? Claire looked at Sandra who motioned towards Kelly. When Claire didn't say anything right away, Sandra started talking.

"Didn't you see the flyers everywhere? Claire," She pointed harshly. "is trying to run against you for prom queen!"

"I-" Kelly started, her eyes widened little, but she was cut off by Sandra.

"It's going completely against tradition and her friends. I am so appalled"

Kelly looked at Claire.

"I swear Kelly! I didn't know until today. I didn't even have the foggiest idea that anyone would nominate me to be prom queen"

"Yeah right! It doesn't just happen," Brenda piped in.

Claire's eyes shot to Sandra, "Well it did! If you value friendship so much you'd trust me! I am your friend and-"

This time it was Kelly who cut her off. "You guys! I nominated Claire. I got the art club to back me up. It was hard to convince them, but since I'm secretary of it and I decided I wasn't running, they decided to go with who I chose. So calm down, all of you"

Claire looked from Sandra's open mouthed face to Kelly's warm one. "I'm sponsoring you! I withdrew myself Friday before school let out. I can't be president on my senior class, help run the art club, maintain my grades and run for prom queen. There is too much to it"

"I thought you wanted this Kel," Sandra said. She had a very concerned look on her face, as if someone had just died. She looked completely crushed.

Kelly laughed a little as she started to pull her lunch from the bag. "I never really wanted to run. I tried to tell you before you went ahead and started volunteering me, but you guys seemed so siked for me, that I just went for it"

Shaking her head, Sandra's face turned even more grave, "But why Claire? I mean, Brenda and I are totally more pretty and popular." She shot a quick insincere look at Claire, "No offense. You know I love you"

"That's kind of harsh, Sandra," Kelly said. Her face went hard almost instantly. "You may think you are prettier, but Claire also isn't completely overloaded with make-up every single day. She doesn't put on a pound of make up to go for a jog. Besides, she's got brains. She's a lot more mature than you two"

Claire was shocked to hear this coming from Kelly. She was always very laid back and polite, even to people who made rude comments to her. Sandra and Brenda looked horrified though. Sandra stood up and looked at Brenda and Tonya. "Come on you two! Let's go sit with someone else"

Brenda got up immediately, but Tonya sat still. "Now I'm worthy of you? I think I'll just stay here. Bye-bye Sandra. See you at home"

Sandra and Brenda stalked off to somewhere while Claire sat at the table with Kelly and Tonya, feeling good about her friends for once in a very long time.

Bender sat at his lunch table, chuckling as he looked down at a piece of paper. 'Vote Claire for Prom Queen'

Asking her to prom just became a little harder. He glanced over at her and saw her in a deep discussion. She looked extremely pleased though. And for that, he was surprisingly happy.