111: The Last Dance

Prom was a logistical nightmare. Carl had done the daring and almost unthinkable and bought three tickets. He made no bones about the fact that he was taking both Brenda and Louise to the prom. It used to be that only male-female couples were allowed to go to the prom. The tickets were for two people. Then a few years ago there was an uproar about allowing people to go stag to the big event. Of course, it was almost all girls who went stag. Why would a guy rent a tux and go to a dance if he didn't have a date?

A couple years ago, a few groups started going together, but they were, again, almost all groups of girls and they bought single tickets. Last year, when I took Whitney and practically married her that night, there were two groups of boys and girls together but none claiming to be another's date. The school administration shrugged and said, 'Why should anyone be excluded from the biggest social event of the year just because he or she isn't part of a couple?' That meant anyone who was a junior or senior. We talked about it at the clan meeting and all agreed that we weren't going to go out of our way to take our sophomore cousins to the prom, though any of them who were dating a junior or senior would be welcome.

When George asked Pam, her parents refused to give her permission. Pam was not yet sixteen and technically she and George were only allowed to go out in a group. I'm pretty sure he approached Theresa and was simply told no. Doreen demurred and said she'd had her prom and was really past that. It was beginning to look like George was going stag until Mary asked him. She made it clear that they weren't dating-dating, but that she'd like to have some hunky arm-candy for her first prom. George had always been Mary's friend-in-need and stepped up like a man.

Jennifer, Courtney, Sora, Donna, and Elaine all passed on repeating their prom experiences, so that left Josh and Cassie together and me with Nicki, Samantha, Whitney, Liz, Rose, and Rhonda. I was told that I was wrong.

I would be Rose's date. It wasn't clear at first if Rhonda would be able to buy a ticket on her own. Technically, she was not an enrolled student since she was being home-schooled. Samantha threw a fit in the principal's office and they permitted her to buy two tickets and take Rhonda to the dance. Nicki, Whitney, and Liz would go stag.

It might seem like it was a non-issue. I met Principal Darnell in the hall as I was headed for IUSB after lunch on Wednesday. He stopped me and started to just chit-chat. We'd had conversations before and he'd obviously been on our side when Cassie and I fomented a student revolt two years ago, but we weren't exactly chit-chat friends. Maybe he did this with all the seniors. Then he got around to the point.

"Your women are going to be the death of me."

"My women, sir?" I asked. What did he think I was?

"One of them resides in your domicile. I make no connection with you other than the fact that you rescued her, fought for her, and brought her to our school. The other young woman is purported to have secretly married you—in the presence of her parents. You may protest your relationship with either young woman, but they will still be my death." He shook his head.

"No one that I'm associated with would wish harm upon you—except perhaps Nicolette, but that's because she wishes harm on just about everyone. It's under control, though. How can I help to extend your lifespan, sir?" He actually chuckled at me.

"I'm sure nothing. I'm only grousing because someone else should have to share this. We've had the so-called 'stag tickets' for a few years now and unquestionably, most of those who used them were women." I noticed that Principal Darnell was always careful to refer to high school girls as women or young women and never as girls. He must have gotten a heavy dose of political correctness after the school board debacle. "This is the first time, however, that a female student has been granted a couples ticket to bring a female date to the prom. That means we have to admit that we have a same-sex couple at the dance. As chauvinistic as it is, people are likely to ignore them as much as possible. But having established the precedent, I foresee that there will be a male couple soon. Maybe not next year, but soon. This isn't San Francisco. There will be an uprising."

"What are you planning to do, Mr. Darnell?" I thought of Geoff and how he was still in the closet and taking Robyn to the prom.

"I'm going to retire and let my successor deal with it. I'm just not equipped to handle another uprising."

"Would it help if we had a male couple this year, sir?" He looked at me with horror stitched all over his face. He wagged a finger at me.

"Don't you dare. Don't you even think about it." He turned and walked away. Shit! Next year there could easily be Monte and Ross with Lexi and Judy dealing with this. I wished there was something I could do, but I wasn't going to be here when the shit hit the fan.

Little did I know.

"Mr. Frost, a moment please." Ms. Hammer stopped me as I was headed out of her class. I only had a minute to spare before I had to be in my AP Calculus class. "This was dropped off for you before class this morning." She handed me a brown envelope. "I would not pass this on if it had not been delivered by the office. Please keep your personal papers personal. How is Miss Gordon doing?" The change of subject was so sudden that I didn't look in the envelope.

"I think she's doing well, Ms. Hammer. Several of us have been tutoring her and I think she's back to where she should be at this level."

"It's too bad she did so poorly at her last school. I've been pleased with the work she has turned in and am hopeful for her when she takes her tests. Please pass my greetings on to her."

"Yes ma'am." I rushed to get to Harshbarger's Calc class.

When I got home for dinner after classes at IUSB, it was just the immediate family. I had to chuckle at what that meant now. Anna had cooked a nice roast with all the trimmings. I gave her a big hug when I came in. She was so sweet and so special to all of us. She really was my other mother. Mom, Dad, Jennifer, Courtney, and Rhonda sat at the dining room table with us as I helped Anna move the roast over to where Dad could carve it. At one time, my immediate family was just Mom, Dad, and Betts. Now Betts was in Seattle with her family and there were seven of us at the table.

Dinner conversation was always lively when it was just us. And sometimes a little risqué. It had been awkward at first when Rhonda came, but she still had a wicked sense of humor coupled with the apparent innocence of a child when she asked a simple question that made everyone burst out laughing.

"Jennifer, did you ever try to pee standing up? It looks so easy."

"You should ask Cassie," Jennifer said. "I understand she took lessons. She said it was, uh... harder than it looked."

"I did it once," Mom said. "I had to change my clothes after. My mother was furious."

"How old were you Nona-Mom?" Rhonda asked.

"Oh, twenty, I think." We all burst out laughing.

"By the way, Rhonda, I saw Ms. Hammer today and she said to say hi to you. She said you were doing really well and she was looking forward to proctoring your tests," I said.

"You just stopped and talked to her? She scares the shi ... bejezus out of me," Rhonda said.

"She stopped me after class. That reminds me. She gave me an envelope and I haven't had a chance to see what was in it yet. Excuse me for a minute, please." I got up and went up to my room to look for the brown envelope in my bag. I brought it back to the table. "She said the office delivered it, so maybe there's information about graduation or something." I opened the clasp and shook out the papers in the envelope.

"What is it, Brian?" Dad asked.

"Um ... it's ... uh ... poetry."

"Do you have a secret admirer?" Courtney giggled. "Love poems?"

"Not exactly. Ms. Streeter told me a few weeks ago that she'd entered me in the State Forensics competition again this year to read poetry. I told her I didn't have any new stuff to read. I think I do now," I said.

"Who is Nat Hart?" Anna asked, looking over my shoulder. "Oh! This is dark. May I read them?"

"If you want to. A couple years ago when I was in Ms. Streeter's speech class, she had me read poetry. I did pretty well. I didn't know what to read and I'd asked around. Then I got some poems in the mail. There was just a note and a photocopy of a published piece. It just said 'Use these if you dare.' I did."

"You would not believe what we went through trying to track down the original work," Jennifer joined in. "The published piece was in a magazine that had ceased publishing ten years ago."

"Up until that time, I thought Nicolette had written them because she had told me I should read her poems and get thrown out of school. And I nearly did. There was an inquisition after I read the pieces."

"Why don't you think they are Nicolette's now?" Mom asked. "This sounds like something she would write."

"I kind of confronted her and she actually had a copy of the magazine that the original poem appeared in. It was, indeed, over ten years old. Then she had me look in the front and the magazine was edited by Ms. Streeter. I found out eventually that Nat Hart was a pen name Ms. Streeter used at the University of Illinois so she could publish her own poems," I said.

"So this dark, bloody, and violent poetry was written by one of your teachers?" Anna asked as she shared the paper with Mom.

"I don't know anymore. I confronted Ms. Streeter and she was real cagey about answering anything. Then she told me she had entered me again this year. I didn't think any more about it because I didn't have any new poetry. Then one day Nicki asked me why I hadn't read any of her poetry this year. I couldn't tell if she was being serious or teasing me. The competition is a month away and all of a sudden I have more poems."

Everyone at the table was absorbed in reading the new batch of poems. There were three and I was looking over Dad's shoulder now as he read one. Mom, Dad, and Anna were all reading together and Rhonda, Jennifer, and Courtney were reading one.

"Oh god! That gives me shivers," Courtney said. "She's going to pay for her dreams with her pain. She lets the dream master pull out her teeth. Oh-oh-oh. I can't read any more." Courtney put her hands over her eyes while Jennifer continued to read.

I was glad when all three girls decided to share my bed that night.

The clan parents did their thing on Saturday before the prom. We had our own fleet of limousines. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but not much of one. We must have made the florist's monthly budget with the number of corsages that were picked up Saturday morning. I was pleased that I remembered exactly what to order for Rose. My first time in that shop, the florist had thought Rose was my date. The corsage was red roses with a spray of baby's breath. I was looking forward to pinning it on her.

We were all at the Studebaker Center for our group dinner and pre-dance. This way, all the younger kids who weren't going to prom got a party, too. All our parents were there and as usual, us guys were standing waiting for our dates to be announced. All the girls would get a grand entrance. All the girls who weren't going to the prom got to be princesses. I was happy that Donna had come home 'just for the night' to be a princess for her sister. The parade was stunning. Well, the girls had coordinated everything, including the guys' tuxes. None of us had cummerbunds with our tuxes. Instead, Josh and I wore our red belts with red bow ties. Carl wore his green belt and a green tie. Doug's was blue. And of course Lionel, being the only one of our group who could have pulled it off, wore yellow. It was cool that Geoff wore his white belt with a white tie. He looked really classy.

Then came the ladies. I don't know how they managed it. Every girl wore her casa's colors. I had to say, Robyn was the one girl in our whole clan who probably deserved to wear the white dress she had on. I knew she and Geoff weren't fooling around and she was the most vocal about staying a virgin. I mean, Cassie and Mary were virgins and Nicki might as well have been, but in our casa, no one was all that 'innocent.' We spent every weekend nude together. Robyn was escorted by Nancy, looking sweet and innocent as her fifteen years indicated she was. Both had their white belts at their waists.

Rachel, escorted by Theresa and Doreen, wore a light blue gown that just set off her looks and her blue belt matched Doug's accessories. Susan presented Sugar to Lionel. Sugar wore a cream dress and her yellow belt. When Susan handed off Sugar, Rich presented his arm to her. He wasn't in a tux, but I noticed he wore his yellow belt.

Brenda and Louise wore matching green dresses and were escorted by Lexi and Judy, each having her green belt cinched around her waist. After Carl pinned flowers on his lovers and escorted them to the dinner table, Monte and Ross stepped up to escort Lexi and Judy.

Our youngest clan member, Pam, escorted Mary to meet George. They were practically a rainbow. George wore his green belt, Mary her red belt, and Pam her white belt. I was thinking if we organized them right we'd have the flag of Italy.

Everyone got a kick out of the fact that Leonard was Cassie's princess. He was pretty geeky, but he dressed up all right. He wore some kind of Nehru jacket with braid down the front and his white belt. Cassie was beautiful in a pink dress that was off one shoulder and her red belt. Josh stepped up and took her hand from Leonard and Leonard went to join Pam and Nancy.

Nicki wore pale yellow, cut so low and wide that her rose tattoo was clearly visible. It was stunning. Whitney, royal blue with a short party skirt. On Whitney, a short skirt is really high off the floor and showed long shapely legs. Liz wore the same emerald green as our novia gis. It was sleeveless but cut from below her armpits up to a high collar exposing a million freckles. Each had her red belt. They were escorted by Jennifer and Courtney.

I held my breath. I knew what came next, but I hadn't seen either girl in her gown. I couldn't believe what I saw. They were not only going to the prom together, they were going to rub it in. Donna approached with Rhonda on her left, dressed in a pale green gown. I was sure it was the same one Donna wore when I took her to the prom. As they entered the room, Samantha approached from behind her and Donna placed the two girls' hands together. Everyone was speechless.

Samantha was wearing a tux. Well, not exactly a tux. In the movie Flashdance, there is a scene where Jennifer Beals wears a tux top out on a date. When the dude's ex-wife shows up, Jennifer takes off the jacket and there is just the bib front of the tux shirt and cuffs. Yeah. That was the kind of tux Samantha wore with a short shiny black skirt and her red belt wrapped around her like a cummerbund. Well, we were going to make a sexy appearance at the prom. That was for sure.

This year, my date was the last to make her appearance. Elaine and Sora had made a special trip up just for dinner and were both headed back south as soon as we left for the prom. Both girls wore soft white short gowns that were off one shoulder like a Greek goddess, but were belted with their red belts. Between them was an absolute vision. There was no question that Rose was my casa's queen. Last year she'd started letting her blonde hair grow out. It wasn't platinum like Brenda's, but soft and golden. It was full and shoulder length with a circlet of flowers woven into it. Between her hair and her dress was an acre of bare, shapely décolletage. Her strapless dress had to have been taped to her nipples. If she had areolae the size of Brenda's, she'd never have been able to wear the dress. It was cinched tight at the waist with her red belt, of course, but below that the white at the waist gave way to a full skirt of red roses. I almost wept, she was so beautiful.

I approached her with the flower and just stared at her bosom. No way.

"If you pin that to my dress, you'll have to keep your hand on my boob all night to keep me from exposing myself. I know I didn't warn you, but we came prepared."