Edited 2019
AN: This chapter was fun to write it brought back a lot of memories for me, I hope you like it. Let me know how you feel about the story moving forward in the way that it has. I always love to hear from my wonderful readers.
Disclaimer: No infringement intended just a good laugh.
Chapter 29
You know that saying, time flies when you are having fun? Well, I think whoever came up with that saying forgot to mention it flies even faster when you're busy. Since going dress shopping with everyone, I haven't seemed to have enough time to accomplished everything that needed to be done before Homecoming. Between practicing the music for the rally, classes, our first dance practice, homework and trying to find time to sleep, the managed to week disappear.
The Saturday after dress shopping, Gran had me invite Amelia along to find accessories and shoes at the mall. We spent more time in the shoe department that day then I had ever in my entire life. I mean really! How long does it take to find a pair of shoes? Within the first twenty minutes, I found a nice pair of low heels in muted silver. I had been planning on taking a pair of silver flats I already had as well. Naturally, I can walk in heels like any self-respecting southern girl, but that doesn't mean I have to. Heels were only for the photos anyways, no girl actually wore heels throughout a dance if they knew what was good for them. From all of those pageants I had done while I was younger, I knew too well the suffering of wearing a new pair of heels for extended periods of time. I wanted to enjoy the dance, not sit through it because my feet hurt.
Though I had decided on my shoes, Gran and I were stuck in the shoe department for an additional hour since Amelia still had not decided on which dress she would wear. Therefore she had to have three pairs of shoes. By the time Amelia had tried on her twentieth pair, Gran had begun to mess with my hair. She was regretting inviting Amelia. Only Jason and I knew this little quirk of Gram's, it only appeared when she was impatient but not wanting to be rude. While sitting for the past hour, I had come to the conclusion that I would use one of my old little clutch purses instead of getting a new one. Unfortunately, Amelia didn't feel the same way so after the marathon of shoes it took Amelia another hour to find a bag. I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed after that shopping trip ended. And a good southern girl wasn't brought up to tell a lie. Our trip home from the mall proved to be more relaxing though, the trip finally over. Naturally, our conversation turned to the topic of the upcoming week.
"I can't wait to see what you are going to wear for pajamas on Monday. Do you have an idea yet? I had daddy order me some special made red white and black ones with little eagles on them. They are so cute! I had managed to convince him to find me a stuffed toy eagle to carry around." Amelia squealed with excitement. Somehow after that shopping trip, her energy level still hadn't faltered. I only shook my head as I stared out the window, putting together a list of items I still had to do before the big game and the dance.
"I haven't figured it out yet." I turned to look over at Amelia who was frowning at me. Most likely due to my lack of planning.
"You better get on it cause Tara told me that they will only let you win once during the week to give everyone a chance," Amelia said, scolding me. "I just think that they are afraid to let the same person win. I mean all of my stuff is going to rock." Rolling my eyes, I smiled at her. Fashion always got Amelia on a roll. "I got Daddy to have his tailor take one of his jackets and turn it into a backward dress for Tuesday. I think it would be a shame not to win for all of the work I am putting in." Nodding my head, I agreed with her, knowing it's what she was expecting. "Oh, and Crystal told me she was going to dress as Wonder Woman on Wednesday which superheroes sucks. I mean how many of us can dress like that! There are only so many good female superheroes." I shook my head at Amelia.
"There are plenty of good female superheroes, I was thinking of dressing as Rogue from the X-man. You could go as Supergirl, Batgirl, Jean Grey, Storm, Black Widow, or Elektra." I told her pointedly. Gran laughed before piping in.
"What about that one heroine that Jason liked so much?" I thought for a minute.
"Mystique?" Gran just laughed and nodded. Amelia was giving the two of us a blank stare. "Jason went through a comic book phase a few years ago," I explained to Amelia. She sat for a moment longer before realizing she had more to say.
"I heard that the triplets are going to be the three little pigs and that they have Claudine's boyfriend dressing like the big bad wolf. And Tray is letting me wear one of his jerseys for Friday."
"John is helping me with my fairytale costume. I am going to be Little Red Riding Hood and he is going to be the hunter. We are trying to talk Alcide into being the wolf, but he does not want to wear a nightgown." Amelia laughed at that and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gran chuckling as well. "Jason also told me that several of the boys were going to dress like cheerleaders on Friday for the powder puff game." We shot each other a look and busted out with laughter so hard we ended up in tears. Finally, Gran pulled up outside of the giant Carmichael residents, a mansion that rivaled anything I had seen on TV from the Beverley Hills. "I will see you on Monday," I called out to Amelia as she climbed out of the back seat, waving to me and Gran as she told us thanks before running inside her house. Gran and I let out a simultaneous sigh. Amelia Broadway could just do that to people. Thank goodness I loved her so much.
Homecoming week itself went by almost as quickly. Not surprisingly, all the guys were nominated for homecoming court. Instead of the simple (and boring) posters John and Jason made to campaign for homecoming king had mysteriously become giant blown-up photos of some of their more embarrassing moments. In fact, there was a poster for all of the guys including Eric. Though, admittedly his was not quite as bad as the others. Aside from the homecoming dance and everyone talking about what they were wearing to the dance, each day was like a day out of a strange but funny film. Everyone took to dressing up for homecoming week. Getting to see Mr. Brigant in matching plaid nightshirt and pants, robe, and slippers was almost as good as Mr. Merlotte dressing up as the Hulk. He went as far as to paint himself instead of using a mask, as so many students did. However, I think the best was when Mrs. Fant came to school as a siren from Greek mythology. I realized Greek myths aren't exactly fairytales, but it worked.
Every day at lunch it was like Project Runway, with the top prize being an amazing night before the first big dance of the year. A sophomore that I did not know won on Monday, had constructed a miniature bed and worn it along with his pajamas. It actually looked like he could leap out of bed any moment. Thankfully Amelia did win for her backward day outfit. I can only imagine what would have happened if she hadn't won. I'm sure she would have talked my ear off about it. Originally, there was only supposed to be one winner a day, but Wednesday there was trouble deciding who won due to the great number of fantastic group costumes. A group of juniors had dressed up like the Avengers had won, which displeased Eric, it was the first day he had dressed up and had gone all out as Thor. He had a hammer and everything, looking completely convincing with his long blonde hair and Viking good looks. I heard Eric complain about how he would have won if he had people joining him as the additional characters. The homecoming committee had to change the rules so all the winner/ winners could receive the prize. With changes, it was decided that the winners could bring their date for the ride to the dance. This change happened after one of the Avengers had complained that he did not want to ride in the limo without his date. The senior girls put together a last-minute fundraiser to pay for all the extra winners. The girls sold cupcakes for a dollar each, and surprisingly, they raised the funds in time.
Wednesday night, John and I managed to convince Alcide to dress as the wolf in Gran's clothing. He did such a great job with his wolf mask and hands that the three of us won. The triples were miffed that they go second as the three little pigs. Another freshman won Friday, having painted his entire body in the team colors which he thankfully wore a toga over it because of the dress code.
About an hour before the rally that Friday, Mrs. Fortenberry had the entire orchestra excused from class to go over the pieces until they were flawless. You would be surprised at how different we sounded with just two weeks. The rally was held in the gym, with the entire school in attendance along with several of the parents and alumni. Everyone had come out to show their support, and we were given a huge round of applause after we played our pieces beautifully.
Pre-game to the homecoming game was the powder puff games, which was a riot with the girls in football gear and the boys in cheerleading skirts. I was surprised to see just how good some of the boys looked in drag. The games were juniors vs. seniors first to score would win. Girls from each of the team sports had formed the junior and senior teams. After several intense scrimmages, it came down to senior soccer girls vs. senior cheer girls. Getting to see some of the cheer girls get sacked by the soccer girls was priceless. I will forever remember Arlene being pummeled into the mud by Lauren Johnson, center for the varsity soccer team, for the rest of my life. And the substitute cheerleaders had come up with a number for halftime. The entire school was in stitches, watching the guys prance around with pompoms, trying to kick their legs high into the air. A fantastic shot of Eric trying to balance on top of John and Alcide in a pyramid had made the next day's papers.
At the game, everyone was amped. We had narrowly won the previous game and were on a winning streak. That is if you can call two games a streak. The homecoming game came down to one field goal. The whole town had come to the game and was sitting in the stands or leaning on the rails on the sides of the field, cheering the team on. Everyone in the crowd held their breath, watching the ball sail through the air. I thought for sure that my eardrums would explode when the referee called it good. The roar from our supporters was deafening. We won by one point.
Everyone was on a high from the win and excited about the dance. I was too until I found out who Eric was taking. And he wasn't even the one to tell me, I had to hear it from Arlene and Debbie. I mean out of all the girls in the entire school he asked her. I don't know if he asked her because she was his only choice left or if he did it to hurt me. I mean, he knew how terrible it made me feel when I saw him kissing Daphne, and now I come to find out he is taking her to the dance. I know that I had no right to be jealous but I was and I was hurt. I kept reminding myself that he would not be in the limo with us and that I would only have to see him with her at the dance. Or so I thought. After the game, the usual guys had come to our house to celebrate and there John and Alcide had the great idea of having us claim the others as our dates so we could have more of our friends with us. Alcide, who was going stag anyway, thought it was a great idea. He got to be Holly's pretend date, who was going stag as well. John would be escorting Daphne, which left me to pretend that I wasn't mad at Eric so he could be my date. I admired Amelia, who had refused to play along because she didn't want to go with anyone other than Tray. I wish I could have put my foot down like her and said that I did not want to have to see Eric and his cheer hoe. But like many things in life, wishes won't come true without some form of action.