It was an overcast June 17th. Joe watched out the window as he waited for Gina, Lizzie, and Marlowe to finish getting Katrina ready for her Grade 8 formal; baby prom, he and Von Kaiser called it. He wished the weather could have been nicer. After all, formal is a big deal to girls her age.

He snapped back into reality when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. There was Katrina, in her flowing pink prom dress with silver sparkles along the skirt, with white sandals, her hair curled into ringlets, and pink eyelids, cheeks, and lips. Joe and Von Kaiser fawned over their little princess. "No touching," said Lizzie. "The princess must remain in mint condition until we get to the community centre."

Indeed, every Grade 8 kid in town was preparing for the formal. Mrs. Carmichael was putting sparkle gel in Annie's hair, while Gram-Gram Nancy put her makeup on. Jackson was fluffing out the corsage he bought for Janet (with his own money!). And Harry was shining his nice shoes so they would have that nice sheen when he arrived.


Down at the community centre, everyone and their families were arriving to chat and take pictures before the formal began. Tatie Gina brought Katrina over to the big willow tree to get her picture. Once she got all the solo pictures, she herded Dad and Vati in for family pictures. "Allez, Viktor, sourire pour moi." (Come on, Viktor, smile for me.)

Von Kaiser felt rather awkward. He wasn't exactly the cheesing type. Nevertheless, he relaxed his shoulders and put on a small smile. For his stepdaughter.

At exactly six o'clock, the kids were corralled into the community centre, and the parents (minus a few chaperones) were shooed away until pickup. Inside, the walls and ceiling were adored with white, lavender, and blue streamers and balloons. A few tables were along with walls covered with white tablecloths and little bottles with wild violets inside.

When the music started up, a few kids started dancing, but most preferred to gossip or take pictures. Katrina met up with Annie, Kevin, and Missy, and they danced to their song like crazy.

When the song ended, they got some snacks and sat down. "So what are you guys gonna do this summer?" Kevin asked while nibbling on some corn chips.

"Aunt Maxine is coming up from Burbank to come to Sienna's wedding," said Missy through a mouthful of brownie bites. "She wouldn't miss it for the world."

"We're gonna spend a week at Gram-Gram's," said Annie while sipping on some fruit punch. "My cousin Jackie is gonna be there too."


Late into the evening, a slow song came on. The kids paired up to dance together. Katrina simply sat by herself; there probably wasn't a girl in the school who would want to dance with her.

At least, until she saw another girl, sitting alone. There was a pin on her black jacket. Katrina took a closer look; yup, the lesbian flag. So she got up to go talk to her. "Do you wanna dance?"

The girl looked surprised. "Sure." They took each other's hands and entered the dance floor.

"So which homeroom did you have?"

"Mrs. Bowen. You?"

"I had Mr. Tate."

"It's hot in here."

"Your hands are cold."

"Sorry, I can't control that."

"You literally just said it was hot in here."

"Clearly my hands did not get the message."

"Are you that girl whose dad's a boxer?"

"Yeah."

"I watched his match last week."

"The one against Bear Hugger?"

"Yeah. And he lost."

"Yeah, that's normal."

"Is it true that he's only ever won once?"

"Yeah."

"That's honestly kind of impressive."

By then, the song had ended, and the girl disappeared into the crowd to find her friends. Katrina thought for a moment that she may have hallucinated the whole thing.


At eight o'clock, the formal was over. Some kids went outside to their parents, while the kids who were still waiting helped clean up. Katrina checked her phone, and found a message from Dad saying that he was there to pick her up. She went outside, and through the darkness only broken by streetlights, she could see her father's figure. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Claire getting picked up by her mom. She knew they were staring daggers at her and Dad, but she didn't care. "Viens, Katie," said Dad. "Viktor a cuisiné des biscuits au chocolat." (Come on, Katie. Viktor made chocolate cookies.)

Katrina followed Dad to the car, and when they got home, Vati had indeed made chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. "Wie war dein Baby-Abschlussball?" (How was your baby prom?)

"Good," said Katrina. "We had a lot of fun."

"As-tu dansé beaucoup?" Dad asked. (Did you dance a lot?)

"Yeah," said Katrina, pulling off her shoes.

"Du wirst nächste Woche mit der Mittelschule fertig sein," said Vati. (You'll be finishing middle school next week.) Katrina saw Dad tense up a bit when he said that.

Once they each had a cookie, Katrina went upstairs to get out of her dress. She put on her s'more pyjama pants and the dark grey shirt with a no-smoking symbol on it; a symbol of Dad's adolescence. She went back downstairs and sat on her couch to look at her phone. Annie had posted the group picture online and tagged her, Kevin, and Missy in it.

sunshine123 posted: Grade 8 formal!

missd49 commented: i look so good in this picture omg

She jumped a bit when she felt movement on the couch. Dad had sat down next to her.

"Katrina, je…" Joe pursed his lips. He didn't exactly know what to say. He knew that his little girl was going to grow up eventually, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. But then again, thirteen years was a long time. He simply had too many feelings to articulate into words. So he simply put an arm around his daughter and kissed her forehead. "Je t'adore. Est-ce que…est-ce que c'est correct si je regarde le film de princesse?" (I love you. Is…is it okay if I put on the princess movie?)

"Sure," said Katrina, a bit tired. Joe put the DVD on, and leaned back. Watching this movie always put him in his happy place. Even if Katrina was growing up fast, he at least had the mementos of the little sweetheart she had once been.