Guess who's back, back again? Maranda's back, tell a friend. On to the story...

"I think this is the one."

I stood in a dressing room in front of a mirror with a ceiling of bright lights above me. I had spent all day trying on dresses that I would be wearing to the most important night of every high school seniors life. The night that everyone looked forward to so they could dress up and put loads of makeup on and advance five years in their appearance. The night that I never really had much interest in for the simple fact that I never pictured my high school life without any kind of romance at all. Especially not the kind that I had gotten myself into.

But I did. And I was going to be headed to prom so I had to go through the tortuous amounts of work to right the exact dress that I wanted. The walls were covered in tons of reject dresses that didn't fit my vision. Too long, too short, too big, too small, not the right color, not the right shade, or didn't fit right. But the one I was staring at myself in was not under any of those categories. The one I had on was perfect.

It was long, black, strapless and flowing with a sweetheart neckline. From the top of the dress to the gold band on the waist, it was covered in intricate gold lace that still allowed the black fabric to show through. The back was open with only the band from the front continuing around the back. It was simple but still had some kind of spark.

"Finally?" Cam's voice dragged. His annoyed voice came from outside the door of the room where he was sitting or had been sitting for about three hours at about six different stores in the mall.

"Finally." I said, with a bright smile, as I opened the door, "What do you think?"

His eyes went from the bored and unimpressed look that I had seen with every other dress I tried on to a very impressed and almost lit up look. He stood up, spun me around, looking up and down at the dress then stepped back.

"I think that's the one." He said, "And no, I'm not just saying that because I'm tired of being at every store in the mall that sells prom dresses, which I am, I totally am but that dress really looks great."

"Thanks Cam," I said, as I went back into the dressing room. I pulled the dress carefully over my head and started to put back on my actual clothes, "You know, I've never had the perfect shopping buddy but I think I've found him."

"Oh no," I could practically hear his head shaking frantically, "I am never doing this again."

I pulled my shirt over my head and grabbed the dress as I opened the door again, "Don't worry, the only thing that's left to shop for is graduation." As we walked out of the fitting rooms, I said, "You know you should be sad, this is the second to last time I'll be forcing you to go shopping with me for a while."

"That's something I should be happy about." He said, as he followed me to the register to pay for the dress.

"Did you find everything okay?" She asked, as every register worker at every store in the mall asked even though they didn't bother to help you 'find everything okay' when you legitimately needed their help.

Instead of saying all that though I just responded with a, "Yes, thank you."

After I had paid for the dress, with my dad's card of course. He had the job. And she gave me the bag and it was finally mine, I walked out of the store with Cam, both of us relieved that I had found my dress. Cam was relieved that he didn't have to go into another store filled with stuff he didn't want and things he didn't want to see. And me, I was just relieved that I had waited until the last minute for something and it finally worked out in my favor. Waiting until the last minute was finally worth it.

We went to the food court as I had promised to buy Cam food. It was the only way I could get him to go prom dress shopping with me without him groaning the entire time and being as pleasant as he was.

"So are you excited for prom?" He asked.

"Honestly, no not really at all. I don't even want to go, I'm only going so that I'll look back on my life and say 'at least you tried'."

He spun his French fry around in the small cup of ketchup as he said, "Well, you never know, prom could be the best night of your life."

I rolled my eyes at that awful stereotype that I tried to believe since I saw Troy and Gabriella at the ski lodge. I went through my life thinking that high school would be the best four years of my life but the first three were me being ignored by people I thought would be the friends I'd have for the rest of my life. Friends that I made in third grade who somehow still couldn't manage to just call and ask how my life here was, who probably were talking about me at that moment. And the last year of high school was me having an emotional rollercoaster with stops of bad decisions and sexual harassment. And now I was supposed to get excited about prom, I was supposed to think that this night of everyone dressing up and putting excessive amounts of makeup on my face and excessive amounts of heat in my hair would suddenly make everything better.

"No, the best day of my life will be graduation, when I can put all of this year behind me. Minus you, Cam. You were one of the only things I don't regret from this year, probably the only thing I don't regret."

"As much as I like the sound of not being a regret, you shouldn't look down on this whole year. I understand the whole ready to leave high school thing, I really understand it but I feel like high school is a learning experience. In life, you'll make mistakes and have regrets but those things are all a part of life and all a part of growing as a person. I can guarantee you like yourself now so much more and you've grown so much more than your freshman year."

"I forgot that I opened up an encouragement book." I joked but I supposed Cam was right.

I had grown as a person. I became more used to people leaving whenever they wanted to because they wanted to. And I was more comfortable with being by myself just in case I did end up alone. Even though being alone still scared me to death, I was able to deal with the thought. Senior year did tear me apart and then attempt to put me back together with parties and bad decisions which in turn, ripped me apart more. But now, as I looked at the shreds that was my high school senior life, I did see truth in Cam's words. And I did see the pieces coming together piece by piece with strong welding glue and I supposed that glue was my own strength.

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