The Cat That Went to Homecoming (18 page)

“I’m positive,” I said throwing a piece of
popcorn at his face. “I told you, Cindy didn’t even want to be
nominated because she thinks the same way I do. It’s an achievement
only the shallow-minded would be proud of.”

“That’s why you’re my girl,” he said as he
snuggled closer to me on the couch.

It was Saturday, the day of the big dance.
Cindy insisted that I get my nails done with her. I was perfectly
content just painting my own nails, but Cindy would not allow
it.

“If I have to wear a stupid crown, then you
can certainly deal with a perfectly manicured set of nails!” she
said.

“It’s not my fault you’re a princess,” I
joked back at her.

“You can’t lie to me, Ellen; I know you voted
for me,” she said, and she was right, “so you are partly to blame
for this. Now you have to pay the consequences of your actions, and
get your nails done with me. Princess Cindy insists.”

“Oh, great, this whole princess thing is
giving you a big head. What’s next? Are you going to demand that I
get my hair done at a salon, too?” I did an exaggerated eye roll.
We did, in fact, have an appointment to get our hair styled!

The nail salon Cindy took me to was
interesting, to say the least. All the manicurists were pretty,
petite Asian women. The entire time we were there being worked on,
they were conversing amongst themselves in their language. At
first, I was paranoid that they were talking about Cindy and me.
After a while, I didn’t care anymore what they were talking about.
Hell, I was going to my first dance tonight and no one was going to
ruin my good mood. I figured I’d let my tip reflect how rude I
thought they were.

The next stop was the hair salon Cindy
frequented. The stylists were all busy hustling and bustling around
the heads of teenage girls, all getting ready for the dance that
night. It was packed in there! Most of the girls were getting fancy
‘up-do’ hairstyles. I was a bit disappointed because I thought my
idea of an up-do was original, but it seemed to be the most popular
look for the night. I wanted my hair like Disney’s Belle with the
bun and long ponytail. Even though half the girls there were
getting the same basic look, I went through with it and loved the
result.

Princess Cindy went with an ultra-curly look,
her hair up around the face so her crown could sit in a nest of
curls. We looked damned good!

Cindy’s mom dropped me off at home after our
afternoon of pampering. Cindy and John were meeting Brandon and me
at the seafood restaurant my dad had taken me to, but I had three
hours to kill until then. I was worried that I’d mess up my hair,
so I was very careful. I checked my emails. Pet Partners sent out
monthly newsletters and I enjoyed reading the stories from other
animal handlers around the country.

Then I decided to create a Facebook account.
I had mentally debated on this for several weeks. Brandon and Cindy
kept trying to get me on Facebook, but I was leery of the idea of
putting myself out there so publicly. I was no longer being teased
at school. I actually had made a few friends, but I still had the
victim mentality. The only reason I decided to go through with it
was because Brandon had told me I could block certain people from
seeing me anywhere on Facebook. If that were true, then I would
feel much safer.

I followed all the instructions and finally
had an account, but no picture to put on my page. No biggie, I’d
work on that later. The most rewarding part was my relationship
status, in a relationship with Brandon Bolt.

I found Paws that Heal’s page and added them
to my likes, along with Pet Partners. I joined several animal
enthusiast groups. I looked up Darcel and figured out how to block
her from my page. Then I looked up certain people and requested
them to be friends; Brandon of course, Cindy, Margaret, Sarah, and
even Roy Wilson. Immediately Roy accepted my request and I had my
first Facebook friend!

A chat box popped out at me and I didn’t know
what was going on. It was Roy. He greeted me and asked me if I was
going to the dance. When I finally figured out how to respond, we
had a half-hour long conversation. In the end, I asked him to save
a dance for me. He agreed, saying “as long as your boyfriend is
okay with that.”

I looked at the time on my computer and
realized I had wasted over two hours! Facebook could really suck
you in.

I shut my computer off and headed to my room
to get ready. I pulled my dress out of the closet and took it out
of the plastic bag it was stored in. My dad had given me the money
for the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. It was a yellow
strapless sweetheart dress and the hemline reached just above my
knees. It was a daring dress to say the least, but I had decided to
throw caution to the wind and go with it. I wanted to shower and
shave my legs but was worried I’d get my hair wet. I figured the
best way to do this was to put a shower cap on.

I draped the yellow Belle-like dress across
my bed and headed for the bathroom.

I came back into my room wearing only my
underwear and a bathrobe, singing to myself. Hershey was laying on
my dress, but it didn’t register at that moment.

“Hi, Hersh,” I greeted him, “I’m going to my
first dance tonight! What do you think about that?” He watched me
sit at my vanity to apply makeup, and then leapt from the bed to
the vanity table, trying to get my attention.

“Come on, Hershey, I’m busy right now,” I
said in mild annoyance as I pushed him off the table. He rubbed
against my legs, his tail wrapping around an ankle, and then lay
across my feet. I reached down to give his chin a scratch and went
back to my eye makeup.

I surveyed my face in the mirror. The
abrasion was no longer visible and I was thankful it didn’t leave a
scar. I was pleased with the subtle smoky-eyed makeup I applied. I
was getting better and better at this whole makeup thing!

Then I stood to get the dress, stopped at the
foot of my bed and stared in shock. Black Hershey hairs covered the
entire front of my dress.

“Hershey!” I sternly scolded him. “What did
you do?” He jumped back onto my bed and rolled around on my dress,
right there in front of me. “Hershey, stop it!” I had to pick him
up and toss him on the floor.

I looked down at the dress. At first I was a
little upset, but then it hit me: Hershey wanted to go to the
dance. If it weren’t for him, I doubted I’d even be in the position
I was in. It was Hershey and our work together that had given me
self-esteem. He was my best friend in the entire world and he would
always love me no matter what I did.

With a big smile on my face, I pulled the
hairy yellow dress over my head and zipped up the back. Hershey
would go to Homecoming with me one way or another!

Brandon picked me up and had a wrist corsage
for me. My mom tried to get me to use the lint roller to get all
the hairs off my dress, but I refused.

“It looks terrible Ellen! A couple of swipes
with the roller and you’ll look fabulous,” she said.

“No Mom, this way Hershey is coming with me,”
I said. I doubted she understood. I didn’t care. My reasons were my
own.

“I think she looks beautiful,” Brandon said
with pride in his eyes.

“Thank you, Brandon,” I said, and then kissed
him in front of my mom. I saw a flash of light, so I knew she
caught that kiss on camera!

“Okay, fine. Let’s get some pictures of you
two,” she said, and had us pose.

“WAIT!” I said and ran off to my room. I
carried Hershey back with me and took my place back next to
Brandon.

“Okay,” I said as Brandon wrapped an arm
around my waist, “We’re ready.”

Chapter Twenty
Two

Dinner was awesome. The guys ate steak and
lobster while Cindy and I went for the shrimp. Brandon and John
were getting along very well during our meal. I was thankful for
that because Brandon needed to know that my lifelong crush on John
was over.

We arrived at the school and walked in a
happy foursome. I was on the arm of a very handsome Brandon who was
wearing black slacks, a black suit coat, white shirt, and a bright
yellow tie. He was also wearing his gym shoes. I was proud to be
seen with my gym-shoe-wearing boyfriend! If he could deal with my
hairy dress, I could deal with the shoes.

Cindy and John, being royalty and all, did
not show off their individuality in their clothes; John was wearing
an expensive looking pair of dress shoes with his suit while Cindy
had on a long aqua, Grecian-styled gown. We were an odd foursome at
best.

We entered the spectacularly decorated
gymnasium and were immediately led to where the photographer was
set up. We had a picture of the four of us taken together, and
individual couple photos.

“Honey, do you know your dress is covered in
animal hair?” the photographer whispered to me, and the look on her
face was priceless when she found out it was intentional.

We found a table for the four of us and Cindy
and I waited together at the table while the guys went to get us
sodas.

“I think it’s great how John and Brandon are
getting along,” Cindy said, “that means we can double-date more
often.”

“I’m happy, too. I was worried about it for a
while because Brandon knows about the crush I had on John,” I
said.

“Isn’t it strange how things turn out in
life?” Cindy said, “I mean, look at how John changed from a jerk to
a prince.”

“He’s literally a prince!” I added.

“And look at you and Brandon. I thought
Brandon wouldn’t date until college because he let Jason’s bullying
take over his life. You did the same thing. Then the two of you
found each other, all because of little ol’ ME. How romantic is
that?” she said, fluttering her eyes.

“I’m curious, Cindy. Why didn’t you ever go
out with Brandon?” I asked.

“I’ve known Brandon since preschool. We went
through Sunday school together, catechism classes, and
confirmation. Brandon is like a brother to me and a relationship
like ours would only be ruined if we became romantically involved,”
she replied. “I’m also curious, Ellen; when John asked you to meet
and he apologized to you, why didn’t you consider dating him? I
know that was his intention. He told me so.”

“To be perfectly honest with you, I realized
that he wasn’t really all that attractive to me. I mean, he eats
with all the social graces of an ape!” Cindy laughed until she had
to hold her ribs.

“I know what you mean, gross, hey?” And she
laughed some more.

“What’s going on here?” John asked as he
handed Cindy her soda. She looked up at him and tried
unsuccessfully to stifle her laugh.

“We’re just talking about old times,” she
lied.

Brandon handed me a soda and sat next to me,
putting an arm around my shoulders. John did the same to Cindy and
the conversation shifted to the game we lost the night before. It
was a sore spot for John, being our quarterback. Brandon liked
rubbing it in, for some reason. The two of them kept the bantering
light and it never escalated to fists.

The cloying scent of heavy perfume suddenly
surrounded us, to the point that Cindy started coughing.

“Well, well, looks like the Prince and
Princess found Beauty and the Beast,” Darcel said. Then she pulled
a chair over from the table next to us made herself at home at our
table. “I hope you guys don’t mind, but I’m just waiting for my
date. He went outside to have a cigarette.”

“Go find another table to haunt,” Brandon
said to Darcel.

“
No, Brandon, this table is perfect. I
think you and my date will get along great,” she said
sarcastically. I was hit with the sudden realization that her
silence over the past few weeks wasn’t because she was avoiding me.
She was plotting something, and tonight her plot would
unfold.

“Ellen, this is the first dance you’ve ever
gone to, isn’t it? You are going to have a great time. In fact, I’m
so happy I could be here to see it,” Darcel said as she stood from
her chair. “And as your reigning queen, please let me know if
there’s anything I can do to help make your night more enjoyable.
Toodles.” She waved good-bye and walked off, leaving me trembling
in her wake. What fresh hell did she have planned for me?

“Brandon, I think we should leave.” I
whispered to him.

“I don’t. I think you need to stop giving her
power over you. There is nothing she can do to you tonight that
won’t get her expelled from school. Even worse for her, she could
lose her crown.” he said.

“He’s right, you know,” John chimed in, “and
you have the three of us here to stand with you.”

Whether my decision was to stay or to leave
didn’t matter because it was too late. I saw Darcel approaching the
table again with her date on her arm, and I froze.

“Hi, guys, I’m back. This is my date, Jason,”
she announced, and I saw the look on Brandon’s face. His face
turned stark white, but he kept his composure.

“S’up?” Jason greeted us like a
Neanderthal.

“What’s up is the fact that we’d like you and
your lady friend here to find another table to sit at,” John stood
and faced Jason from across the table, “and I use the term
lady
loosely.”

“I’m actually here with the Homecoming Queen,
dude, and you’re here with who? Oh right, the Princess. If I’m not
mistaken, the Queen and the Princess should probably sit together
and the peasants here should find another table.” Then Jason looked
at me and smiled a dirty grin, “Although I sure would like the
chance to get to know you.”

Brandon held his hands under the table and I
just knew he was hiding clenched fists. Jason was just trying to
push Brandon’s buttons.

“Darcel, you’re sad and pathetic,” I said as
I stood to face her. “Our student body voted for you to be their
Homecoming Queen, which should be a great honor to you, but instead
you degrade that honor by bringing this thug as your date.”