Prom Date (7 page)

“And for that reason you can all thank me.” Jason made a mock bow. “Seriously, who has time for this? Has anyone considered how many hours it takes to make the preparations for prom? Have you thought about the expense? What it costs the school too? Couldn't that money be put to better use? Has anyone taken a good look at some of the sports uniforms lately? But that's not all, what about what it costs us guys to take a chick to prom? I don't know about you guys, but I can think of better ways to spend my money. For the cost of prom, I could probably buy a—”

“Speaking of money,” Bryn cut him off, “I want to share with everyone how I think prom could change.” She reached for Emma's poster, holding it up. “This little girl is the sister of one of our students. Her name is Sofia and she's just eight years old. Sofia was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Her family took her for the best treatment at the best pediatric cancer center in the area, but they soon found out their insurance won't cover it.” She paused for dramatic reasons, holding the poster high so everyone could see this sweet little girl's big brown eyes. “The quality of Sofia's treatment could be the difference between life and death for this little girl. Think about it. About eight years from now, where will Sofia be? Will she be right here, enthusiastically helping to plan her own prom . . . or will she be gone?”

Bryn looked imploringly at the faces around the room. “We have the power to turn our prom into a fund-raiser. A fund-raiser that could help save this sweet little girl's life by getting her the kind of medical treatment she needs. We have the power to help save a life.” She turned to Jason. “If that's
a bad way to spend your money—well, then you're just not the guy I thought you were.”

Jason looked totally off guard, just staring at the poster.

“Look, I understand why you guys are so anti-prom,” Bryn continued gently. “It
is
expensive. But think about it—what if the proceeds from your tickets all went toward Sofia's treatment expenses? Would that change your thinking at all?”

No one said anything, but some of the guys looked slightly less smug. And when Mrs. Dorman suggested they put the chair position to a vote, Bryn won easily. Not only did all the girls vote for her, but a couple of the guys did as well. However, the disagreement did not appear to be over as Jason and several of his buddies quietly exited the conference room and the real planning meeting began. Bryn suspected by Jason's expression that he wasn't ready to give up yet. But for the moment, she was pleased.

B
y the time the prom meeting was over, Cassidy was glad she'd agreed to help out. And she felt genuinely proud of Bryn. It was amazing to think that Bryn had gotten the Hartfords to offer matching funds for whatever was raised at prom. If they could just get prom attendance up, it could end up being a significant chunk of change for the Ruez family. Cassidy had actually played with the numbers a bit, and even if it wasn't enough by itself to keep Sofia in the best pediatric cancer center, it would make a difference. And if Bryn hadn't made such a great argument today, prom could've easily gone down without a fight.

“Once again, I have to admit I was wrong,” Cassidy told Emma as she drove them home from school.

“Wrong about what?”

“Bryn. I misjudged her again. When she started putting together that plan to turn prom into a fund-raiser, I was worried it was just her way to get herself into the limelight so
that she could run for prom queen. But it seems like she really invested herself today . . . like she really cares about Sofia.”

“Yeah, I think she does.” Emma poked Cassidy in the arm. “And you were pretty great today too, Cass.”

“Huh?”

“Your idea to text our friends and get them into the meeting like that. Those extra votes made a difference.”

“Yeah, and it was nice that Mrs. Dorman didn't dismiss them for not being student council representatives.”

“I think Mrs. Dorman secretly wanted to make sure prom happened,” Emma said.

“Well, like Bryn pointed out, everyone is a member of the student body. Everyone should have a vote and a say about it. Besides, we could've appointed them to the prom committee if we'd wanted to. If they want to help.”

“Bryn's going to need lots of help,” Emma said as Cassidy pulled into her driveway. “I mean, if she really thinks she can get kids to dole out that much money to go to prom. I know that it would stop me from going if I had to pay my own way.”

“Yeah, but what about Bryn's idea that prom tickets include dinner? That saves some money,” Cassidy reminded her. “If you think about it, that makes it kind of a bargain.”

“That's assuming people were going out to dinner.” Emma grabbed her stuff. “Some people just do their own meals at home. You know, like we've done for other dances.”

“That's true.” Cassidy frowned. “But that's a lot of work too. It might be kind of fun to have dinner catered by someone else.”

Emma gave Cass a sly look. “Meaning you're already planning on going?”

Cassidy shrugged. “Hey, if I got asked . . . I might want to go . . . if it was the right guy anyway.”

“You mean like Lane?” Emma teased.

Cass frowned. “Except didn't you notice that Lane was in Jason's anti-prom group? And he didn't even stick around for the meeting after Bryn won the vote.”

“Neither did Isaac.” Emma sighed as she opened the car door. “And I honestly thought that, of all the guys, Isaac might be the first one to break the guy code and ask me to prom.”

“Well, if things work out how Bryn hopes, maybe he will.”

Emma climbed out and waved. “See ya.”

As Cassidy drove away, she wondered why she suddenly cared about going to prom anyway. Really, did it matter? Oh, sure, it would be fun if Lane asked her. But she had no intention of asking him. And she didn't want anyone in the DG to try to set her up either. Hadn't they all agreed that this time—it was up to the boys to do the asking? Well, she didn't know about the rest of the DG, but Cassidy was determined to stick to her guns. If Lane didn't invite her, she was content to stay home.

When she got home, Cassidy went online to see if her article had been uploaded onto the school's website yet. Not only was it posted, but there were a number of comments as well. Most of them were positive and supportive, but there were a few from some of the disgruntled guys. Including, she was surprised to see, one from Lane.

It's nice to see the prom committee cares about helping others and I have to agree that Sofia Ruez's leukemia treatments are a worthwhile cause. But I want to challenge the prom committee. What if you just held a plain old fund-raiser—something we could all get behind? Why do you have to attach the fund-raising to an
event that most of the student body doesn't even want to attend? What if you created a more inclusive event that invited everyone to participate? Wouldn't you raise more money to help Sofia? Just saying.

My Two Cents,
Lane Granger

Cassidy read Lane's post a couple of times and, despite herself, she thought it made real sense. In fact, she totally agreed with him. At the same time, she realized that she was on the prom committee. She was supposed to be supportive of prom. And if she told Bryn her concerns, she might be considered the enemy.

Cassidy wrestled with this for a bit and finally decided she didn't care if she offended Bryn. The truth was the truth and what was right was right. In this case, even if it meant sacrificing prom, she felt that Lane really was right. So she shot off a comment to the school's blog, admitting that she agreed with Lane. Then, to avoid feeling two-faced, she sent Bryn a quick text, suggesting she check out the prom comments on the school's website. Okay, she felt a little guilty when she hit Send. But, hey, she was just being honest . . . and true to herself. And the sooner Bryn knew it, the better it would be for everyone.

Cassidy felt a sense of relief as she helped her mom to get dinner ready. She'd never been that enthused about being on prom committee in the first place. But she was glad to help with a fund-raiser for Sofia.

“Is that your phone?” Mom asked as Cassidy was chopping a tomato.

Cass paused to hear her phone beeping, and a quick check revealed that the text was from Bryn. She did not sound happy.

What do u mean? Answer phone. Now
.

Suddenly Cass's phone was jingling. Of course, it was Bryn. “Hey, Bryn.” Cassidy made an apologetic smile to her mom, stepping into the laundry room. “What's up?” she asked innocently.

“That's what I want to know. I feel like I just got stabbed in the back. By a friend too.”

“Sorry, but when I read Lane's—”

“You're on
prom committee
,” Bryn said sharply. “We're supposed to be on the same team. I was counting on you, Cass. What about Sofia?”

“I'm still on board for a fund-raiser, but—”

“You betrayed us when you wrote that comment on the school's blog, Cass. Everything we worked for today—you just blew it all off. And you were there, you saw how hard we worked to gain what little ground we got. I can't believe you're undermining prom like this.”

“Am I not allowed to have my own opinion?” Cassidy demanded.

“Of course. As long as you agree with me.”

Cass laughed. “Yeah . . . right.”

“So you don't want to help Sofia?”

“You know I do. But I think Lane is right. I think we can help her more if we hold an event that everyone in the school can come to—something they'll all want to attend.”

“That's your opinion, Cass. That doesn't mean it will happen.”

“Why not? We've had successful fund-raisers before. Why not with this? We could come up with something to sell tickets for. Maybe a concert or—”

“Even if you came up with another idea, do you honestly
believe you could charge as much as we could do with prom tickets? Everyone
expects
prom to be expensive. That's the guys' biggest gripe. Remember?”

“Yeah, and their gripe is getting more legit, Bryn. We just voted to raise the price of tickets. Remember?”

“Yeah, but we're offering them dinner too. Remember? And I already found some possible sponsors to donate food items too.”

Cassidy frowned at the washing machine. How did she get involved in this in the first place? Arguing over a prom she really didn't care if she attended?
Really?

“I was so proud of you today, Cass. The way you texted the other girls—that was so brilliant. Getting everyone into the meeting to hold off Jason. I felt like I could really count on you.”

“You
can
count on me. But not to be your puppet. I do have my own opinions, Bryn. And the whole idea of prom has always felt kind of exclusive to me. Remember when we were freshmen and sophomores—didn't you feel a little left out when you overheard everyone talking about prom like they were going off to some secret society? You see all the posters and stuff, but you know you're not allowed to go. I mean, really, that was one reason we agreed to start the DG last fall. To ensure we didn't miss out on stuff like this.”

“Exactly. Isn't that what we're doing?”

“But I feel bad for other people. What if they still feel like we did? Left out, sitting on the sidelines.”

“They just have to wait until they're older. And besides, sometimes the younger girls get asked. Remember when Ashley Marsh—”

“Hey, I've got an idea,” Cass said suddenly. “Something that might make everyone happy.”

“What?” Bryn's voice sounded flat.

“We said we wanted prom to be different this year, right?”

“Yeah. And a fund-raiser is different.”

“But what if we opened prom up to everyone?”

“Everyone?”

“Yeah. All the classes would be welcome.”

“Oh . . . I don't know . . .”

“We want to make lots of money for Sofia, don't we?” Cassidy remembered the numbers she'd been playing with this afternoon. “If it was open to everyone, we'd probably make a lot more money. Besides that, it might be good for school spirit. Everyone behind the same thing. And it would give the guys—especially guys like Lane—one less thing to argue about.”

“Hmm . . . maybe.”

“So think about it, okay?” Cass went back to the kitchen. “I gotta go help my mom with dinner, but just think about it, Bryn. It could be pretty cool. An all-inclusive prom.”

Bryn agreed to consider this suggestion and, feeling a bit more hopeful, Cassidy hung up. Really, what did they have to lose by opening up the prom to everyone?

A
lthough Devon chose not to be on the prom committee, she was still strongly in support of having prom. And whenever she heard classmates arguing over it, which was happening more and more, she freely stepped in. Devon had no problem expressing her rather loud opinions.

“Prom is a time-honored tradition,” she hotly told a couple of guys in her fitness training class. “If you get rid of prom, what's next on your hit list? Graduation ceremonies? And what about sports? Want to get rid of football games and lacrosse matches? And what about band concerts and school plays? You want to nix those too? Maybe you should just strip everything extra out of school. Just like in the good old days,” she was quoting Grandma Betty now. “Stick to reading, writing, and arithmetic.” She rolled her eyes as she got onto the stair stepper.

Fortunately this shut the guys up. At least temporarily, anyway. But as she did her workout, she was irked at the
males in this school. It was like they'd been brainwashed. First by Mr. Worthington with his “boys must be gentlemen” speech at the beginning of the school year and more recently by that silly youth pastor. She'd never seen such thickheaded and stubborn guys. Very childish.

“Something's got to be done,” she told her DG friends as they gathered at Costello's for an “emergency” protect-the-prom meeting on Saturday morning. “The guys in this school are not backing down from their I-hate-prom campaign.”

“If anything, they've gotten stronger,” Emma told them. “Some of the girls have even gotten on their bandwagon.”

“I really thought that when we opened prom up to all the classes, it would help,” Cassidy said.

“I think it has helped,” Bryn told her. “Without the freshman and sophomore girls' support, we'd be sunk by now. Unfortunately, it might not be enough.”

“Maybe it's just the end of an era,” Abby said gently. “Time for prom to just lie down and quietly die.”

“
No!
” Bryn and Devon both exclaimed.

“And what about the fund-raiser part?” Emma asked. “By the way, Felicia said to tell you guys hi. She went with her dad to the treatment center to visit her sister. She couldn't wait to tell Sofia the good news about prom being a fund-raiser for her.”

“How can we take that away now?” Bryn demanded.

“So does that mean Sofia's still at the same treatment center?” Cassidy asked Emma.

“She is for now. Since they'd already started her on chemo before the insurance pulled the plug, they've worked it out for her to stay up there awhile.”

“Back to my point,” Bryn said. “How can we take that
away from Sofia? We have to fight to keep prom and to keep it a fund-raiser.”

“But the guys are ready to put it to a student-body vote next week,” Cassidy reminded them. “It might be out of our hands.”

“Then it's time to bring out the big guns,” Bryn declared.

“Ooh, I like that,” Devon teased. “Bryn's getting feisty.”

“She's just been watching action movies with her dad again,” Abby told them. “That always gets her fired up.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Bryn placed her palms on the table with a steely gleam in her blue eyes. “But I happen to have a plan. A plan that I think will work.”

“Cool.” Devon leaned forward with interest.

“Remember I told you guys about promposals?” Bryn began.

“Yeah.” Devon nodded eagerly. “I remember.”

“Huh?” Emma looked confused.

“You were probably down in LA,” Cassidy told her. “Living the big life on the red carpet.”

Bryn pointed at Cassidy's iPad. “Go to YouTube and do a search on promposals, okay?”

Cassidy went into search mode.

“A promposal is kind of like a wedding proposal,” Bryn told Emma. “And a lot of guys are planning these really fun, extravagant ways to ask girls to proms.”

“I found one.” Cassidy set her iPad in the center of the table and soon they were all watching as a bunch of kids did what seemed like a spontaneous flash dance, but ended with the dancers holding up cards that said S
HELBY
,
WILL
YOU
GO
TO
PROM
WITH
ME
?

“Oh, that's sweet,” Emma said. “Look, Shelby is actually crying.”

They looked at a few more, commenting and critiquing on which ones they liked or didn't like.

“Those are hilarious,” Abby said, “but how does it solve anything?”

“Yeah,” Emma agreed. “I mean, if the guys want to cancel prom altogether, how are we supposed to get a wacky promposal out of them?”

Bryn slowly closed Cassidy's iPad. “Because I want to make promposals part of the fund-raiser.”

“Huh?” Cassidy frowned.

“Yeah, I'm kinda lost too,” Emma confessed.

“That's because you're forgetting something,” Bryn said in a challenging tone. “Remember the Christmas ball?”

“Of course. But what does that have to do with this?” Abby demanded.

“How did we get the guys on board?”

“Oh, I get it.” Devon nodded eagerly. “I know where you're going with that, Bryn. You want to turn promposals into some kind of a contest, don't you?”

“And why not?” Bryn made a sly smile. “We come up with a prize that's big enough to entice a guy to step out of his comfort zone, and voila! He's planning out a fabulous promposal.”

“Brilliant!” Devon said.

“And that means he's going to prom,” Abby concluded.

“Exactly.” Bryn nodded eagerly. “The big question is, what kind of prize will it take to get our guys to make fools of themselves?”

“Do they really have to make fools of themselves?” Cassidy asked.

“Well, you gotta admit that it would feel risky to put yourself out there like that.” Devon tapped Cass's iPad. “I mean,
doing something that crazy and extreme in the hopes that the girl will accept your invitation. That takes guts.”

“And a really big prize,” Abby said glumly. “Which takes money . . . and we're trying to raise money. This is starting to feel impossible to me.”

“We'll get someone to donate a prize,” Bryn told them.

“What kind of prize?” Devon asked with interest.

“Something big.” Bryn frowned. “I'm not really sure yet.”

“Yeah, maybe you can get someone to donate a new pickup or SUV,” Cassidy said sarcastically. “I'm sure that shouldn't be too difficult.”

“People donate used cars sometimes,” Abby told Bryn.

“A
used
car?” Bryn shook her head. “That doesn't seem like a very tempting prize.”

“What if it was a hot-looking used car?” Devon suggested.

“That could be thousands of dollars,” Cassidy pointed out. “Money that could be given directly to Sofia's medical treatment. Why give it away in a car?”

“I agree,” Abby told them. “The prize cannot be that huge.”

“Yeah.” Bryn nodded. “You guys are probably right. But there's got to be something that a guy would want to win badly enough to make a promposal.” She pointed at Devon. “And you're going to help me find it.”

“I am?” Devon just shrugged. “Okay, sure. I am.”

Bryn turned to Emma and Cass. “You two are going to start putting together a campaign—we've got to publicize the promposal contest in a big way. There's no time to waste. We need posters and an ad on the school website and announcements on the school's radio station and, well, whatever.”

“What about me?” Abby asked. “Everyone got an assignment but me.”

Bryn's brow creased. “Well, you hang with guys a lot . . . I mean, doing track and stuff. Find out what it is that a guy really wants—”

“I can tell you what a guy really wants.” Devon gave them all a sly look. She knew that she was playing a role here, but it was a role she still liked to play sometimes. Maybe just for the shock value.

“Oh, Devon.” Emma rolled her eyes.

“Yeah.” Bryn gave Devon a warning look. “Tone it down, girlfriend.”

“So back to my assignment?” Abby waited.

“Find out what might get a guy to consider doing a promposal,” Bryn told Abby. “You know, like electronics, or sports tickets, or the hottest new game, or a cool bike, or snowboard . . . you know, guy stuff.”

Abby looked slightly perplexed. “Seriously? I'm supposed to go around asking guys about stuff like that? Really?”

“I don't know
how
you do it.” Bryn sounded slightly irritated. “Just do it, okay?”

After the meeting wound down, Bryn invited Devon to go with her to approach some of the local businesses. “I want to check the climate,” she told Devon as they walked down Main Street. “To see which people might be open to making donations. Not just for the prize, but for prom too.” She pulled a flyer out of her oversized bag and handed it to Devon. “We'll make our appeal and leave these behind.”

As they walked, Devon studied the flyer. With a sweet photo of Sofia and a short description of the Northwood Academy Prom Fund-Raiser, it was fairly compelling. The idea of hitting up businesses for donations wasn't exactly something Devon felt comfortable with. However, she watched Bryn do
it—seeing how Bryn introduced herself, shook the person's hand, just exuded confidence. It was like being in some kind of training camp.

Finally as they were going into the town's biggest sporting goods store, Bryn handed a flyer to Devon. “You do it this time.”

Devon battled her nerves as she asked for the store manager. But when he came out, she imitated Bryn by introducing herself and firmly shaking his hand. Next she handed him the flyer, explaining how young Sofia Ruez was very ill but having a struggle to get the best medical treatment for her particular type of leukemia. “The students at Northwood Academy plan to donate all proceeds from this year's prom to Sofia's medical expenses. But in order to do this we need the help of some local sponsors. We're inviting grocers and restaurants to participate by donating food for the dinner, and the Party Place to donate decorations and, well, things like that.” She paused to catch her breath. “Naturally, any merchandise donations will be tax deductible too.” She smiled brightly at the middle-aged man.

“But this is a sporting goods store.” He creased his brow and rested his hand on the seat of a shiny red mountain bike. “What would we possibly have to donate for your prom?”

Devon looked down at the expensive bike beneath his hand. “Well, the big goal of this fund-raiser is to get as many people as possible to attend prom. Unfortunately, the guys at our school are dragging their feet just as much as they're clinging to their wallets.”

He laughed. “Not surprising.”

“So we've come up with this plan,” Bryn jumped in, explaining to him about the promposal contest and how
they hoped it would motivate the guys to get on board. “Especially if there's a really good prize.” Bryn stroked the handlebar.

“Wow, you girls really are clever,” he told them. “Maybe you should major in marketing after high school.”

Bryn nodded. “That's not a bad idea.”

“So you're thinking I should donate this bike for your ‘promposal' prize?”

“Would you?”
Devon stared at him with wide eyes.

He looked down at the bike then back at the girls. “Tell you what, I'll think about it. And I'll run it by the big boss. Maybe we can work out a deal. Our prize in exchange for some promotion at your school?”

“Absolutely!” Bryn eagerly agreed. “We'd be happy to do that.”

“And it's really important that we know about this as soon as possible,” Devon added. “We want to put pictures of the prize out there for everyone to see. In posters and on the website and, well, just everywhere.”

“Yeah,” Bryn added. “It's such a pretty bike. It'll look cool on posters.”

“I see there are phone numbers here.” He pointed to the flyer. “And you've listed your school advisor too. That's all good.” He grinned at them. “I like you girls. And I like your gumption. Mostly I like that you're putting yourselves out there to help your friend's little sister.” He shook both their hands again. “We'll see what we can do, okay?”

“Okay,” they both said simultaneously.

“I'll try to get an answer to you by early next week.”

Bryn and Devon thanked him, and as they exited the store, Devon felt a strange lightness in her feet.

“That was really fun,” she told Bryn once they were outside. “I was kinda scared at first, but then I just started talking and it was really pretty cool.”

“You were great,” Bryn told her.

“I just tried to imitate you.”

“Yeah, but that was quick thinking to suggest the bike for a prize.”

“He seemed to really like the idea of free advertising.”

“Yeah. I think he might actually give us that bike too.”

“Did you see the price of it?” Devon wouldn't admit this to Bryn, but her mom had paid just a little more than that for a used car last year. Not a very good car, but at least it ran.

“I know!” Bryn nodded. “I actually had no idea a bike could cost that much.”

“Do you think the bike would motivate guys to do promposals?”

“I'm sure it would motivate some of them. The stubborn tightwads.”

“Hey, I have another idea,” Devon said suddenly. “What if part of the promposal prize was to get a pair of free tickets to the prom too? That's one way to keep them from complaining about the cost. We tell them that everyone has a chance to win their tickets for free—if they come up with the best promposal.”

“Excellent!” Bryn reached up to slap palms with Devon. “Now let's just hope we get that bike.”