...
The competition between Audrey Bidwell and Lizzie Scott for prom queen was heating up, and Lizzie herself doesn't even understand why.
Personally she doesn't care whether she wins or not, but with Audrey as one of her opponents, she knows now that she has no choice but to go through with the campaign.
And lately it seems that Samar has jumped ship and is now on Lizzie's side (of course, there were two other prom queen candidates and four prom king candidates, including Don, but nobody seemed to care about them). Turns out that Audrey seemed to have gotten on her last nerve with putting too much into the campaign, so Samar wants Lizzie to win and beat Audrey once and for all.
In Lizzie's opinion, winning prom queen really wasn't all that important to her, but somehow Aram and Samar had each gotten other groups of people to help and join her side; Samar had recruited several of her basketball teammates while Aram had gotten just about every other extra-curricular club there was (besides AV club) to help pitch in.
The week following the announcements for prom court nominees seemed to be like full-out battle between Audrey and Lizzie.
Posters of either Audrey or Lizzie are hung up on every single empty spot there was on the walls, and Audrey and her cheerleader lackeys, dressed in their uniforms, would enter the school with pens and flyers and even free drinks and hand them out to everyone who was within arms' reach.
As for Don, he was pretty happy about how things were going with Lizzie (and even the bet!). They hang around with each other at lunch every day, alone most of the time (Lizzie was now accepted by the popular crowd after becoming decently popular herself, minus Audrey and her group, but she still chose to lay low and sit in her usual spot with Aram, and usually Don), and Don has a feeling that she honestly, actually likes him back.
Don also knows for sure that he's going to win that bet, and when he brought it up with Pete, he would just shrug and say, "I won't be surprised."
Soon enough there was only a week and a half left before the prom, and Audrey, taking it ever so seriously, seems to be in full-out panic mode after learning about an online poll for the prom court candidates that had Lizzie Scott eleven points above her.
In fact, when Lizzie walks into school Monday morning, Audrey and her posse arrive at the same time and she strides up to face Lizzie, her eyes blazing with fury.
Lizzie closes her eyes and waits for Audrey to begin bombarding her with whatever insults she has up her sleeve, but to Lizzie's complete surprise, she doesn't.
Instead, she puts her arm around her and says in a sickly sweet voice, "Honey, this is just some friendly competition, try not to get too caught up, okay?"
The school photographer snaps a picture, blinding Lizzie with the flash, and after Audrey roughly shoves her off and continues striding on, her group trailing closely behind her.
Lizzie gapes after her, not given a chance to say anything, much less open her mouth, and Samar walks up next to her.
"Don't worry, Lizzie." she says confidently, patting her shoulder. "Her attitude loses effect on you quite soon, and then it's just all rage towards her. And have you seen Aram today? I've been looking for him everywhere."
"Um, yeah, he's coming now from an AV club meeting. Why?"
"I don't know, I like him. He's a sweet guy. He's continuously offered to walk me to class, I figure now's a good time."
Lizzie looks up at her in surprise, but Samar continues to look into the distance with a slight smile
The bell rings, and her group disperses. Samar waits a few minutes but no sign of Aram she heads to class alone.
Lizzie goes in the opposite direction and finds Aram beginning to get cornered by three football players, as Aram timidly backs into the lockers, clutching his books.
Before she even has the chance to intervene, Don walks up to them out of nowhere and shoves them away forcefully, glaring at them.
"If you do anything to my friend Aram here," Don says sternly, stepping in front of Aram, who nods proudly. "I will personally see to getting you three kicked off the team. You hear me?"
"Yeah." Aram echoes proudly, putting on a somewhat tough face. "You hear him?"
The three football players look at each other with uncertainty and disgust, then walk away along with the rest of the crowd.
Don takes a quick glance at Lizzie and gives her a brief smile, then grins at Aram, who returns it with pride, seeming to have finally accepted Don as someone trustworthy.
Don gives Aram a high-five, taking one last quick glance at Lizzie then walking off to his next class.
Aram catches up to her smiling, clearly knowing something that she apparently doesn't.
"You okay?" she asks, and Aram nods quickly, brushing it off. "That was, bold of Don. But I was going to help you-"
"Those guys would've beat me to a pulp if we weren't in a school hallway, there was nothing you could have done. Don-"
"-helped you."
"Yeah, he did, but he was also helping you. Helping me is basically proving a point to show that he's all for you. And now that I'm a friend of Don Ressler, nobody is going to dare do anything to me." Aram says proudly, standing up straight with a newfound confidence.
"Good." Lizzie beams. "I'm proud of you."
They continue to walk down the crowded hallway to grim class, but Aram is wearing a knowing slight grin on his face, and Lizzie wonders why.
"What is it?" she asks him, raising an eyebrow.
Aram shrugs, although he's grinning a bit. "I hear someone's waiting to ask you out to prom."
"Who, Don?" Lizzie scoffs. "I doubt that. Don't tell me he said that to you." She doesn't completely mean what she says, because to be honest, Don Ressler was growing on her.
Far more than she expected.
But then again, he could just be using her for her popularity or something, because his interest in her seems too good to be true.
Aram raises his eyebrows playfully. "He didn't, but it's super obvious, how he looks at you. Everyone knows about how he feels towards you, it's going to happen, Lizzie, don't deny it."
"How about you?" Lizzie says to change the subject, even though she was pretty glad about how people perceived her relationship with Don. "You got a prom date yet?"
Aram diverts his eyes away from hers. "I'm going to ask Samar. I just don't know when. She's always hanging around those football guys, I'm worried they're going to ask her out first or stuff me into a locker if I ask her, like they used to."
"It'll be fine, Aram." Lizzie comforts before she joins the class in the gym. "In fact, she'll probably prefer it if you were to ask her out somewhere private."
Aram's eyes widen, and Lizzie just laughs. "Don't worry. I have a feeling she likes you a little bit. She told me herself. She even told me you were a sweet guy."
Lizzie laughs good-naturedly and walks into the gym, leaving a dumbfounded Aram standing in the middle of the hallway.
...
Don decides that afternoon to see Lizzie after her academic decathlon meeting in Mr. Reddington's classroom, since football practice happens to end at the same time Lizzie's thing does.
He offers a curt greeting to Mr. Reddington, who just finished packing up along with everyone else.
Mr. Reddington observes carefully as Don approaches Lizzie at her desk with a genuine smile, before walking away with a reminiscent smile on his face, leaving Don and Lizzie alone in the classroom.
"How was educational decathlon?" Don asks with a dopey grin, not noticing his mistake.
Lizzie blushes. "It was, um, it was good. And it's actually academic decathlon, not educational, but good try, Don."
"Oh. Sorry."
Don notices that Lizzie quickly stuffs a picture into her binder after forgetting that she had left it out, and grabs it before she can take it back from her.
The photo is of a young Lizzie, maybe four or five years old, sitting outside at a park with someone else, supposedly her mother.
Lizzie gently pulls it back and stuffs it back into her bag.
"Lizzie." Don says slowly. "I wasn't going to do anything-"
"I know." she crosses her arms over her torso. "I miss her sometimes, you know. Like I wish that she could be here with me. That's why I keep it with me, every single day."
She pauses, noticing Don's gentle but curious gaze, then says, "She died of cancer. Thyroid cancer. They tried everything they could, they did. . ."
Lizzie trails off, and Don, noticing a few tears welling up in her eyes, sits in the desk in front of her and holds her hand.
"It's okay, she would have definitely been proud." he comforts. "I mean, look at you, didn't you just tell me the other day that like three colleges accepted your letter? You've got your life set up for you, you're amazing, Lizzie."
Lizzie smiles a bit through her tears and nods as they both get up.
"Don't let what people think or do to you make you forget that."
This is a good time to make a move. . . Don thinks.
But even before his instincts kick in, he slowly leans in and is about to kiss her. . .
Until she puts her hands on his chest and gently pushes him away.
"Don," Lizzie says slowly and softly. "You're not just here to get my vote for prom queen, are you?"
Don backs away slowly. Is she catching on to this?
"Listen, Lizzie, this whole prom thing. . . I got to run, I'm sorry." he scrambles to gather his things and walks towards the door.
"Wait, Don, I wanted to talk to you about that." Lizzie says quickly before he leaves.
"Um, maybe another time, our cousins are coming over and I need to clean the house. . . we'll talk tomorrow, okay?" Don replies in a jumble, almost tripping over the garbage can on his way out.
"Uh, sure." Lizzie answers skeptically, but he's already gone.
What is it with him today? Lizzie thinks as she packs up all her stuff.
Maybe she was right all along.
Maybe Don Ressler does have an angle after all.
…
Lizzie was becoming more skeptical of Don by each passing day, especially since he hasn't talked about prom like he said he would. They still hung out at break, but it was becoming awkward and both of them knew it.
Lizzie was starting to become skeptical of herself, going as far as asking Aram if she was 'kissable' (he had pointedly avoided the question, saying that he's 'known her since sixth grade' and it would be 'weird' if he were to give her an answer).
And Tom Keen, one of Don's teammates that he seems to hate, isn't planning on simplifying things either, because he shows up at Wing Yee's Thursday afternoon where Lizzie is working for the whole night.
"Hey, Lizzie," he begins, shoving his hands into the pockets of his letterman jacket, the kind that Don always wears. "I was, um, I was wondering if you'd want to go out. Like out, out."
What is this guy's angle? He's already tried to make a move on her before and Lizzie thought she was clear that she shot him down.
Apparently Tom doesn't get the point.
Lizzie goes out of her way to push past him and continue to wipe up the table at which a family with rowdy triplets had sat a few minutes ago. "Sorry. Not interested."
She honestly isn't, because dealing with one guy she can't read
"What I mean by saying this," Tom continues, following her around. "is that I'd like you to go to prom with me."
Lizzie turns around, unmoved. "No way."
Tom blinks. Clearly this guy has never heard of the word 'no' before. "Uh, no?"
"Yeah, it's a no. A definite no." Lizzie sighs, continuing to clean the tables.
"Why, is this about Ressler?" his tone of voice is sharp, and she whirls around. "Has he asked you out yet?"
She doesn't answer, not because she doesn't want to, but because Don hasn't.
"Well, apparently he's still in love with Audrey, I doubt he cares about you that way." Tom's words are like a stab in the heart to Lizzie, and she leans against the wall a bit. "But if you were to go with me, I'm sure we'll have a good time."
Lizzie bites her lip. Is Tom lying? Is any of this true?
"Just, keep it in mind, alright?" Tom grins a bit, before turning around and heading out. "See you around, Lizzie."
Lizzie fixes the tie on her outfit and exhales deeply.
She has no idea what to do now
She isn't sure what is going on anymore.
…
Don passes by the main atrium Friday afternoon, where some of the seniors are taking out a few prom decorations and debating where to place them.
The prom is next week. Shoot.
Don isn't sure if he's going to win this thing anymore, and to be honest, it doesn't matter to him anymore.
Pete can have those hundred dollars for all he cares now.
Don wants to ask Lizzie to go with him, not for the bet anymore, but but because he wants to.
But maybe she's going to find out about the bet, and everything will come crashing down.
Then he's got to make a move. Now.
"Hey, Donnie." a familiar voice calls out from behind him, and he turns around.
It's Audrey, wearing that stupid cheerleading uniform and a fair amount of lip gloss.
"So, are we still on?" she says putting her hands on his shoulders, but he backs away, pushing her off.
"On for what?" he has absolutely no idea what she's talking about.
"On for the prom, silly." Audrey rolls her eyes, as if Don had just missed out on a super obvious detail. "Remember? Our deal? You and I become prom queen and king again?"
Don scoffs. "What happened to Michael?"
"Ugh, don't even." Audrey puts up a hand in his face. "Like, didn't you hear we broke up?"
He shrugs. He did hear about it, but never really cared.
"So, answer my question. We're going together, correct?" Audrey repeats slowly, as if Don didn't understand the first time.
Don shakes his head. No way.
"Sorry, Audrey. I've got someone else in mind that I'm planning to go with."
Audrey's eyes widen mockingly. "Who? Lizzie Scott? Because if I were you, I would have asked her out sooner. Looks like she's already taken."
She tilts her head to look behind Don, smirking.
Don turns around, and he spots Lizzie walking in, holding an armful of cords of lights.
With Tom Keen.
"Tom!" he calls out furiously, stalking away from Audrey to face Tom as they put down the lights. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Both Lizzie and Tom turn around, and Tom just smiles. "Oh hey, Don. I'm doing what it looks like; helping Lizzie with the decorations."
"He asked you to prom, didn't he?" Don hisses, glaring at Tom.
"Yes, I did." Tom answers for her, stepping in front of Lizzie.
"Lizzie," Don says quietly. "I thought we were going together."
Lizzie looks down at the ground ashamedly, avoiding his gaze.
"Stop it, man. Enough is enough." Tom says suddenly. "Just accept that you were too late, because I like Lizzie for who she is. And just stop this whole bet thing, alright?"
Lizzie looks straight up at them, her eyes wide and alert.
"Bet?" she repeats, and now Don knows there's no turning back now. "What bet?"
"You wouldn't believe it, Lizzie, how stupid Don was." Tom says, his piercing cold eyes fixed on Don. "He set this whole bet thing up with Pete Maguire, to prove that he was over Audrey by choosing any random girl and turn her into his prom queen. He just wants his popularity back by winning, and also the hundred dollars he bet on you."
Lizzie's eyes well up with tears, her expression turning from hurt to anger.
"You know she has feelings too, Don." Tom adds, clearly trying to make things worse.
Audrey walks over and leans against Don, smiling slyly. "You didn't think this was all for real, did you?"
Lizzie doesn't respond, she just continues to stare at Don.
"Is it true?" she says softly, turning to Don. "I want to hear it from you."
He doesn't respond.
"Am I a bet?" Lizzie repeats loudly, her gaze changing from sadness to anger. "Is that what this was all about, am I just your goddamn bet?"
The whole atrium turns quiet, all heads turned to the commotion in the middle of the room.
There's no way out of it now.
"Yes." Don says quietly.
Lizzie takes one last look of hurt and anguish at Don, one that he knows he will never forget, then turns on her heel and walks away.
Tom smirks at Don one last time as he follows Lizzie out, but Don just doesn't have the heart to react.
"Pick me up at six o'clock next Thursday. Love you." Audrey says all too sweetly, before blowing him a kiss and striding away confidently.
Don just stays there in the same spot as everyone else turns away, talking quietly.
Everything has come crashing down.
...
A/N: Don't worry, things will look up for Donnie and Lizzie! I certainly don't plan on not giving them a happy ending. Sorry for not updating as fast I normally do; I've been really busy! Btw if you haven't seen the movie "She's All That" (what I based this fanfic on), you should definitely watch it sometime soon! It's a really good movie! :) Until the next update!