Especially getting ready for the biggest date of your life.
Mom made me take a shower four hours before Brody was supposed to pick me up. She said Marge and her would need that much time to get me ready. You have to understand. In my big fat Italian family, this date is not just my personal affair. The whole family gets involved. Even Dad stayed home to help out as Mom needed.
As soon as I was out of the shower, Mom wrapped me in a robe and pushed me down on a stool in her bathroom. Marge started putting hair creams and mousses in my red, tangled mess. Aunt Roma crowded into the bathroom carrying rollers.
"Hey, why aren"t you at the restaurant?" I asked her.
"Didn"t you know? Your dad closed it early. It"s not every day his little princess goes to the prom."
I tried to sit still as they dried my hair, then brushed it till my scalp ached. Finally, Mom and Marge put large hot rollers in it. I felt a headache coming on. Mom yelled out for ibuprofen. It wasn"t long before Uncle Ernie popped his head around the door with a bottle of it. Yes, even Uncle Ernie got in on this ordeal.
They let me take a break to stand and stretch before forcing me back onto the stool for makeup. I kept telling them to keep it toned down. I mean, Marge puts bright blue eyeshadow on her lids and wears the deepest red lipstick she can find. And no way was I going to wear the gargantuous false eyelashes she wore.
They powdered and applied and pulled and smoothed my skin until finally, they were finished. Mom had turned me around on the stool so I couldn"t see myself in the mirror. I worried that the makeup looked too heavy. I couldn"t see the colors they had used, but Marge had led their makeover and that worried me.
I checked the time. Two hours before Brody was to pick me up. Aunt Roma gently took the rollers out of my hair and placed a kiss on top of my head. I loved Aunt Roma. She was always gentle with me.
After they finger combed my hair and teased it here and there and spritzed hair spray and teased it some more, the three of them stood back to look at me. Mom nodded her approval. She yelled for the dress. Dean brought it into the bathroom. Yep. My brother was involved, too. He grinned when he saw me.
"Is that a ha ha smile?" I asked. He didn"t answer, which concerned me even more. Mom pushed him back out of the room.
Marge handed me a black garment. I held it up with a frown and just looked at her. "What am I supposed to do with this?" I asked.
"It"s a girdle," she replied.
"What"s a girdle?"
"Oh, honey," she gushed, "I am introducing you to one of the most important contributions to female garments. The girdle has been around for years."
"I think they call them body shapers now," Aunt Roma piped in.
"This little item will suck and tuck and lift your b.u.t.t," Marge crooned. "Try it on."
They all watched while I tried to slide the tight piece of spandex over my thighs. I looked helplessly at them. "It doesn"t fit."
"Oh, it fits all right," Marge a.s.sured me. "Trust me, I wear these all the time."
Marge and Mom got on either side of me and tugged and pulled the body shaper up over my hips. I tried to object, but they wouldn"t even let me talk. Aunt Roma helped me slide the dress over my head. Voila! I was done.
Mom"s eyes filled with tears as she looked at me. Aunt Roma held her hand over her heart and stared. Marge nodded her head and smiled great big. They finally turned me around. I couldn"t believe that was me staring back out of the mirror. The body shaper had definitely taken my hips down some to make the dress fall softly to the floor. My makeup looked surprisingly natural after all the stuff they had applied to it. And my hair. I had never seen it look so silky and gorgeous, even at the salon.
"Beautiful," Dad said from the doorway.
"I feel like a princess," I said softly.
"Let"s take pictures," Mom yelled. "Ernie, grab the camera."
No wonder she wanted me to get ready so early. I had to pose for pictures for almost an hour. And then Brody came an hour early. There was a reason for that. He wanted to take me back to his house so his parents could take pictures.
Brody literally gasped when he saw me walk out to meet him. He couldn"t take his eyes off me. Of course, my parents had to snap more pictures with the two of us. Then we were settled into the limousine Brody had rented for the evening. I had never been in a limousine before. There had never been any occasion to ride in one before now.
I held Brody"s hand and we stared into each other"s eyes the whole way to his house. He kept whispering sweet things to me about how beautiful I looked.
If you want to know the truth, I would have preferred not to stop at Brody"s house. His mom didn"t like me and I didn"t want her to spoil my evening. When the limo pulled up, his parents came out to greet us.
His dad grinned when Brody helped me out of the limo. His mom literally stopped in her tracks and just stared at me. Brody gave me a small wink and I smiled up at him. He looked so handsome in his black tuxedo.
"Let"s get some pictures of you two," Jim said cheerfully.
Brody"s mom didn"t say much, but I could tell she thought I looked pretty. She kept throwing glances at me when she thought I wouldn"t notice. I suffered through another twenty minutes of pictures before Brody insisted we leave for the prom.
We were going to be late. I hated being late for anything, so I had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm down. Thankfully, Brody understood. He just grinned and stroked my arm softly as the limo pulled up to the event center.
The limo driver came around and opened the door. Brody stepped out and held his hand to help me. It was crazy. A lot of couples were arriving late. Probably wanting to make a grand entrance.
When Brody and I walked in, I knew it was going to be a special night. The lights were low and stars and streamers were everywhere. A long table was set up with food and drinks on the other side of the large room. That"s where the teachers were hanging out. Music filled the air and couples were already dancing. We skipped the photographer set up at the entrance because our parents had already worn us out with pictures.
I received so many compliments, even from Brody"s friends who kept coming up to give him high fives. I wanted to find Johanna. We hadn"t seen each other"s dresses yet. It was several minutes before I saw her with Steven at the other end of the room. She turned and saw me at almost the same moment and we both squealed. She was wearing the lavender dress she hadn"t had a chance to wear at Winter Formal. We dragged our dates to meet each other half way.
"You look--wow!" Johanna said when we hugged.
"You look gorgeous," I said.
We stood talking for a few minutes. Then Johanna frowned and looked over my shoulder. "Isn"t that your debate partner?" she whispered.
I turned around to see Jared making a bee line straight for me. He had his date by the hand and was dragging her behind him as he walked as fast as he could. Right behind them were her parents. Her father wore jeans and boots and her mother wore a long sequined gown.
"Help," Jared mouthed when he got close.
What could I do? I knew I had to help him somehow. I smiled at Shay"s parents and introduced myself. "All the parents need to stand by the food and drink table," I told them.
"Oh, we"re fine," Shay"s mother said quickly.
"But it"s the rules," I responded.
They looked at each other and nodded. Jared"s face brightened as they made their way to the teachers. They both stood at the edge of the group with their arms crossed to keep a watchful eye on their daughter.
"Let"s dance," Brody whispered in my ear when a slow song started.
I moved with him to the center of the room where the couples were dancing. I didn"t want the song to end as I rested my head on his shoulder and relished his arms around me, holding me close as we slowly moved to the music.
Of course, the fairy tale had to be popped by an evil, sinister plot. Just when things were going great, a girl tapped me on the arm and motioned for me to follow her. Curious, I moved with her to a corner of the room as Brody talked with some friends.
"Look, you don"t know me, but I"m on the prom committee with Lanie," she said, her eyes darting around the room to make sure no one had seen us together. "Lanie has convinced everyone to vote for you for prom queen."
"But I told her I didn"t want to be nominated."
"It doesn"t matter. She had them write your name on the ballot."
"Why?" I asked. "I don"t care to be prom queen."
"She doesn"t like you for some reason. She had us alter the crown that will be placed on your head. There"s red and purple dye inside the combs that will run onto your hair and get on your skin."
"I don"t get it. Why would she do that? And why would everyone agree to that?"
"Everyone does whatever Lanie says to do. Most everyone thought it would be funny. But when I saw you and you look so pretty--I just wouldn"t want that to happen to me and ruin my prom," she said quietly.
"Thanks for telling me," I said.
"Don"t let anyone know I did," she begged. "Lanie would never forgive me."
I a.s.sured her I wouldn"t tell anyone. But now I had a big dilemma. How was I going to get out of putting the crown on my head? The crown was a big deal for prom queen so I knew they wouldn"t allow me to break the tradition. I could convince Brody to leave early so I could avoid that ceremony, but I didn"t want Lanie to ruin my special night.
I looked around to find Lanie. I hadn"t even thought about her the whole evening. She was wearing a white glittering gown and was laughing with two other girls. Of course, she looked beautiful as usual. Her date was one of the football players at school.
I started feeling stressed out as the minutes ticked by. Brody sensed it and kept asking me what was wrong. I couldn"t tell him. I didn"t want to ruin his night, too. Then I had an idea. A really good idea that would turn the tables on Lanie.
I walked up to the stage where the DJ was seated. I told him I needed to make an important announcement so he handed me the microphone. I took a deep breath and imagined that I was at a debate tournament so I would have the courage to talk in front of all the beautiful people.
"Excuse me," I said. A few people turned to me. "Excuse me," I said louder. The DJ turned off the music so everyone would listen.
"A little bird told me that I was going to win prom queen," I said into the microphone. "The truth is, I don"t deserve that honor. There are girls that would represent the school as prom queen so much better than I would. As a matter of fact, the one truly deserving of the honor is none other than the head of the prom committee--Lanie."
Everyone started cheering and looking around for Lanie. She had a shocked look on her face and her eyes were darting around nervously, trying to smile.
"I would like to take this opportunity to crown Lanie prom queen," I said loudly, kind of to emphasize the importance of it. "Would you do us the honor of coming to receive your crown, Lanie?"
She was protesting, but her date was grinning ear to ear. He was leading her to the stage as she tried to pull back. They made it to the stage, and if looks could kill--let"s just say she had become an unwilling partic.i.p.ant in her own evil scheme.
The prom queen crown materialized from somewhere. A girl placed it in my hands. The crown was always meticulously crafted by the prom committee. This one was ornate with rhinestones and jewels covering the entire outside. I glanced at the inside. Sure enough, there were little vials of dye glued to the combs. They had glued some of the vials in the front of the crown, as well.
I took the crown and crossed to Lanie, smiling innocently. Lanie shook her head at me, looking at the crown nervously.
"I don"t deserve to be prom queen," she said to the crowd.
I still held the microphone. Somehow, that seemed to give me power. "Of course you deserve it. Doesn"t she look beautiful?" I asked the crowd and applause broke out. "Announcing our new prom queen!"
I handed the DJ the microphone and held the crown with both hands to cram onto her head. She backed away from me.
"Stop!" she shouted. "Don"t you dare put that thing on my head."
The other kids were surprised at her reaction because they were unaware of the dye in the crown. I held the crown out away from me and let it drop to the floor. A big part of me relished the loud gasps from the kids as the crown seemed to fall to the floor in slow motion. When it made contact, red and purple dye flew out of the crow and splattered onto the floor and hitting the bottom of Lanie"s white dress. A few specks even landed on my shoes, but I didn"t care.
There was utter silence as everyone looked at the dye. Whispers erupted in the room as everyone tried to figure out what was happening. Slowly, they got it. Accusing eyes looked at Lanie and someone started chanting "Boo!" It was Brody. Everyone else did the same. Horrified at being booed, Lanie rushed off the stage crying.
The DJ quickly started some music as a distraction. Some of the teachers came onstage with paper towels to clean up the dye.
"Are you all right, Beatrice?" It was Mrs. Tole from my detention cla.s.s.
"I"m great," I said softly and left the stage to meet Brody.
"Why didn"t you tell me?" he asked, pulling me into a hug.
"I didn"t want to ruin your evening. Besides, Lanie deserved to be exposed."
The incident was quickly forgotten as the kids resumed dancing. I danced and laughed the rest of the evening. I even shared a dance with Jared, who bobbled around me, bringing tears of laughter to my eyes. Shay"s parents had dutifully stayed by the food and drink table to give breathing room to Jared and his date.
All in all, I would say it was a very successful date. I had memories to last me a lifetime. Of course, senior year continued as usual. The state debate tournament yielded a first place trophy to Jared and me. By then, it wasn"t as important as it had been at the beginning of the year. I had already turned my attention to college and what the future held for me.
And Brody? Well, let"s just say my big fat mouth didn"t keep him away. He actually enjoyed it. Remember, he likes all thing Italian.
THE END.