“Maybe this weekend we could all do something together,” I suggested, trying to appease her. “Actually, not this weekend because I have to study, but maybe the one after that?”
“The weekend after that? Um, Drew? Have you completely forgotten about Prom?”
Prom. In just two weeks. The answer to her question was, in a word, yes.
“Drew,” she said. She made us both come to a halt, and she placed both of her hands on my shoulders. “You’re going to Prom.”
“I think I will.”
“It wasn’t a question. We’re both going together, remember? You didn’t forget about our rule, too, did you?”
“Yes, okay,” I said. “It’s all coming back to me. We’ll go to Prom together as friends, unless someone asks one of us to go as their date.”
“And no hard feelings if that happens.”
“Right. No hard feelings.”
She resumed walking, which meant so did I.
“Forget about studying next weekend, dude. We need to get you a dress,” Riley said.
“You already have one?”
“Yep. I got it over the weekend after I went thrifting. Which you would’ve known if you’d hung out with me. But not to fear, I’ll help you out on Saturday, okay?”
“All right.” In reality, I didn’t like the thought of taking time out of my weekend to go dress shopping. I really didn’t even like the thought of taking the time to go to the prom. But I’d learned a long time ago that it was just easier to go along with whatever Riley said.
“Sooo. Drew. Who would you want to ask you to Prom? Like, whose date would you want to be?”
At that moment, River walked by in the opposite direction. He was with his group of track friends, and he smiled at us as they passed. Everyone was nice to River—too nice, he told me—and he had more friends than I could count. One of those friends was Aaron Ingram, a track member who happened to be walking alongside him right then.
Aaron Ingram was tall and dark-haired. His eyes were green, like the color of pine trees and Christmas and garlands. He usually had a look on his face like he was daydreaming, like he was in his own world. In this moment, as River’s group continued past us, I thought I saw Aaron grinning in our direction. Just that possibility made me forget about the Anatomy exam I was minutes away from taking.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Riley noted. “Ingram.”
Although I’d had a crush on Aaron Ingram for basically all of high school, the idea of going to Prom with him seemed strange. Maybe it was because I wasn’t really sold on the idea of going to Prom in the first place. Maybe it was just because the prospect of Aaron asking me was so unlikely. I wasn’t sure which of those explanations was closer to the truth, if either.
“Yeah, right.” I tried to brush off the idea quickly and get my mind back into Anatomy & Physiology mode. “You’re my dream date, Riley Banks.”
She gave me a big smile. “And you mine, Drew Caldwell.”
◈ ◈ ◈
Relief. Satisfaction.
Those were the sensations I always experienced after taking an exam and knowing I had nailed it. Now, I had made it to lunchtime, and I was letting that relief and satisfaction elevate me into an above average mood as I sat at an outdoor table and began eating my sandwich and carrot sticks. It turned out I had excessively prepared for the Anatomy & Physiology exam, but that was the way I liked it. A few minutes later, River found me in the courtyard and sat down with his own lunch.
“How was your test?” he asked.
“I feel good about it,” I responded in between bites of sandwich. “I think I got every question right, plus a couple of bonus questions.”
“I knew you’d do well. You always do.” He began eating his own sandwich. The two of us sitting there at school, each eating a sandwich from home, reminded me of when we were little kids. River and I had both been making and bringing sandwiches for school lunches for the last nine years.
“So, Prom’s coming up.” He stated it a little abruptly, peering up at me as he ate.
“Yes, so Riley has informed me. Or, reminded me, I should say.”
“You don’t sound all that excited about it.”
I considered his observation for a moment. “I guess I’m not. Prom seems kind of silly, don’t you think? It’s a night full of . . . socializing and . . . not doing anything productive.”
“How would you know what it’s like? I seem to recall that you have never been to a prom.” River had finished his sandwich already but hadn’t yet moved on to his chips.
“That’s true.”
I hadn’t gone to my Junior Prom the previous year. My family had been planning a trip to Yakima that weekend to visit family. Even though my parents told me I could stay home and go to the dance, I had lied to Riley and said they were forcing me to join them. I had told River the truth, though: I just didn’t want to go to the prom.
“Well, this is our Senior Prom now.” River still hadn’t started on his chips but was looking at me. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be your last chance to experience a high school dance.”
“Meh.” I took a swig from my water bottle. “I know Riley would throw a fit if I don’t go. But I wonder if I could get out of it somehow. Maybe I’ll work on some scheme.”
“So you’re really not into it. Going to Prom?”
“No, not really,” I said. I looked over at River, but he was no longer focused on me. He finally opened his bag of chips and nodded his head slowly as he crunched on some of them. After swallowing, he paused and then said, “I gotta go.”
He stood up and was gone before I could say anything else.
Next thing I knew, Riley was sitting there next to me, making dress shopping plans for the upcoming weekend. Meanwhile, I was mentally trying to form a plan to get out of it.
◈ ◈ ◈
The day was finally done—we were free to leave the campus, at least until tomorrow morning, when another school day would start up again. Those seven-hour days spent in high school always felt more like twenty to me. The unfortunate reality was, not much productivity was going on in my classes. And so, the hours dragged on and on, and by the time a day was finished, I felt practically braindead.
I tried to challenge myself by taking some Advanced Placement classes. And, of course, I signed up for science classes that would help prepare me for college. But the truth remained that most of my classes were largely wastes of time. There were countless days I found myself doodling during class or writing short poems. Sometimes I would even bring a paperback book along with me to have something to do. It was not so surprising my brain felt like mush after doing this for nearly four years straight.
I stopped by my locker to stuff books and folders into my bag, and then I was out the doors and walking across the parking lot to my car.
May in Rockwood was one of my favorite months. The winters usually brought with them inches of snow, but when Spring finally began, you could see little patches of the ground pop up around you. By May, the snow would completely disappear, and your feet could actually touch the ground again. The grass, the start of small flowers, even the dirt looked beautiful to me in May. The air was still sharp, but it was tolerable, and it felt new.