Prom Queens

"As with the Prom Queen position, the votes for prom king were counted based on every male student in school, with no nomination process. I warned our Prom Committee that this might cause confusion...nonetheless, the rules are the rules," Mrs. Rat explained. Something about the way that Mrs. Rat said the word "confusion" made my stomach drop down to my knees, and my blood ran cold. I didn't know what it was going to be, I guess I just had a sort of unconscious understanding of what was about to happen.

"As a result, the male student who received the most votes for prom king received only 11 votes," Mrs. Rat looked out over the crowd. Once again she was smiling. But this time there was no good-natured attempt to look pleased. Her smile was icy and rictus. I wasn't breathing. "Let me be the first to congratulate our Prom King, Mr. Cam Hood," Mrs. Rat said.

For a moment, there was absolute silence. Almost as if there had been a spotlight shone from the ceiling, every person in the gym turned and looked at Cam. She was standing almost in the very center of the gym, at half court. Far from the stage, far from the exits. People, almost instinctively, took a step back away from her, leaving her totally isolated. Even from a great distance, I could see Cam frozen. Her eyes were wide, she seemed to be shaking.

There was a laugh. I couldn't tell where it was from. A loud, boys' laugh. A few more titters followed it. Beyond that, the noise in the room rose again. No one spoke above a whisper, but it created a hum in the room, just below the level of the scattered laughter. I turned and looked over my shoulder and saw Mrs. Rat, looking at Cam, that same horrible smile on her face. She raised her eyebrows at Cam and then laughed as well.

I turned quickly back towards the crowd. I saw that Cam had come unfrozen from her spot in the middle of the floor. She was starting to push her way through the crowd, working her way back out towards the exit. Her shoulders were hunched over, her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and her head was down. Even from the distance I could see that she was shaking.

"Mr. Hood, come this way for your Prom King Crown!" Mrs. Rat said behind me. The hum of the room grew louder and there was a few more laughs. Cam walked faster. Once again, I turned back to look at Mrs. Rat. She winked at me.

I would like to say that in that second, I consciously thought about what the right thing to do would be. It would be nice to say that I recognized that Mrs. Rat was being just the absolute worst kind of bully and that I decided that I would stand up to her. But that wouldn't be the truth. I didn't think anything at all. The most I can say for myself is that I guess I have half-decent instincts.

With no time to spare, I moved quickly back towards Mrs. Rat, dropping my roses on the stage as I moved. She wasn't looking at me, she was savoring Cam's humiliation. I reached forward quickly, and grabbed the microphone out of her hand. Once again, the room was filled with a terrible feedback and that made everyone grow silent. Only the sound of Cam high heels clacking on the hardwood was still audible. I cleared my throat into the microphone.

And froze. I didn't have a plan. What I really wanted to do was yell out to Cam. To say that this wasn't something I had planned. That I was sorry and it wasn't my fault. A lot of fucking good that would have done her. Even the thought of it made me laugh at myself. I realized I was laughing aloud. God, Cam was going to think I was laughing at her. Yeah, Alicia, She was going to believe that this was all just a big misunderstanding and if you aren't to blame, that's all that matters.

But that thought was like a lightbulb that went off in my mind. I laughed again, louder and more cheerfully this time, "Oh my goodness Mrs. Rat," I said, forgetting to call her by her actual name, "What a silly mistake you made. I explained the rules to you over and over and over again, but you just don't seem to get it," I said, looking back over my shoulder and her and seeing her icy glare. I turned back to the crowd, Cam was just a dozen steps from the door, "Cam! Wait a second, come on up to the stage," I said, and that was enough to get her to freeze.

"Alicia..." Mrs. Rat said quietly behind me, but I ignored her,

"Like I tried to explain to Mrs. Rat," I said, "Not only did we not have nominations this year, we decided to elect the prom court regardless of gender. The top two vote getters would be the prom court. I received the most vote, and so I am prom queen. But Cam, you've received the second most overall votes. And so you are ALSO the prom queen. Come on up to the stage!" I said, smiling a big, fake smile. Thank goodness I was a politician, right?

For a moment, the gym was quiet again. All eyes were now on me, instead of Cam. So I guessed that was good, at least. The laughter had stopped. It seemed that everyone was just confused. I thanked God that our prom court ballots had just been pieces of paper with two blank lines that were labeled simple "1 and 2." It added plausibility to my lie and gave this a chance.

"Yeah! Alright Queen Cam!" I heard a voice from the back call and then loud clapping. I looked back and saw the Vice President, Keith, using his massive voice above the crowd. The other members of the prom committee, and my other friends (some of them Cam's friends too, I remembered), they sensed what was going on. They started clapping as well. Loudly, demonstratively. They clapped and whooped and chanted, "Queen Cam!"

The rest of the crowd seemed to hesitate for a moment. But a smattering of applause began. It started to build. Soon, it was the same sorts of cheers that the class had been offering to me a few minutes before. No laughter, no little whispers. Cam was looking up at me now, her head tilted slightly to the side. Someone patted her arm and she jumped slightly. But it was clear that it was an encouraging pat. I sort of leaned forward towards her, and gestured quickly for her to come forward. We had a chance to take control of the situation, she just had to do it.

A sort of bewildered smile spread across Cam's face and she laughed. The tears in her eyes now made them twinkle, she looked more beautiful than ever. She turned away from the door. She started walking up towards the stage. The knot loosened in my stomach, but I didn't dare look over my shoulder.

This time, the crowd parted around Cam, giving her space to walk up. She crossed the distance quickly, and climbed up onto the stage. She didn't even glance at Mrs. Rat as she walked up next to me. I turned around and saw the other crown, the homecoming King's crown, on the table. Luckily, it didn't say "King" or anything like that. I grabbed it and placed it on top of Cam's head. She smiled at me and then she reached down and lifted up my roses and handed them to me. I slipped one of them out of the bundle, and handed it to her.

"Ladies and Gentleman, your prom Court, Queen Cam Hood!" I yelled into the microphone, Cam leaned in towards me, her perfume filling my nose.

"And Queen Alicia Parker!" Cam said and the crowd clapped again. As the noise of their applause filled the room, I could sense Mrs. Rat approaching me from behind. Part of me sort of expected her to slip a knife between my ribs. Cam sort of backed away from her, but Mrs. Rat didn't seem to care about Cam anymore. She was staring at me, I could feel her eyes boring into me.

"Alicia," Mrs. Rat hissed into my ear, "It occurs to me that I have over committed to tutoring for the rest of the semester. Please do not bother to stay after class on Monday. Or any day thereafter. Good luck on your report card." And then she backed away. Cam moved closer to me again.

"What the hell was that about?" Cam asked. I shrugged and shook my head.

"Don't worry about it," I said, and then lifted the microphone back to my lips, "Can we get the band back out here, please? We need to have our prom court dance!" I said. A few moments later, the band was back on the stage and Cam and I made our way down onto the basketball court. We handed off our roses to someone, it was sort of a blur. The crowd gave us space as the band started to play "I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams.

Once we were alone on the dance floor, I placed my hands on Cam's hips, feeling her dense flesh through the sheer fabric of her dress. Cam draped her arms over my shoulders with a sigh and I could feel her fingers entwining on the back of my neck. We started to sway a little bit, side-to-side. The crowd leaned in around us, watching. I suddenly felt extremely awkward, the whole situation was sort of surreal. And it certainly didn't make it any less weird that Cam's soft body felt nice against mine.

"I am not much of a dancer," I admitted, giving Cam an awkward sort of smile. She smiled back.

"Thanks, Alicia," she whispered into my ear.

"For being a bad dancer?" I asked, "No need to thank me, I don't even have to try." I laughed a little bit and Cam laughed as well.

"No, you know what I mean," she said, swaying better than I did. I felt her fingers playing softly with my hair that went down the back of my neck, "Mrs. Ratkovicz had that all planned out. It was quick thinking on your part. So thank you." I shrugged a little.

"I was trying to do the decent thing. Especially after the last time. I feel like I owed you at least," I said, unable to meet her eyes.

"True," she said, a bit philosophically, "I doubt you can ever really make it up to me."

"Oh...I..." I said and Cam laughed.

"I was just teasing! You never owed me anything. You owed it to yourself. If you did a good thing it is because you're a decent person and I appreciate it. Never a wrong time to start standing up to people like Mrs. Ratkovicz," Cam said, and she hugged me a little around the shoulders, her body pressing against mine. I felt a strange sensation, from her hug. A little jolt of electricity ran through my body, a shiver or something. It was familiar, but felt different for some reason. It added to the sort of dazed, puzzled sensation I had.

"Jesus, am I wrong or is this an extremely long song?" I asked, looking around and seeing the crowd watching us dance. I felt my cheeks burning hot and turned back to Cam. If I looked at her face, I didn't have to think about the fact that the whole school was watching me dance poorly.

"This is, embarrassingly, like my mom's favorite song," she told me, "Its almost over and then you can go run back to your boyfriend, I promise!"

"I came alone, actually," I said.

"Really? You?" she asked, and then made a sort of surprised case, "What are you doing after prom?"

"I was going to go to After Prom with some people, I guess," I said, referring to a drunk-driving prevention program that the school held at a local mini-golf course. Cam made a face.

"I was going to go there too. It just feels sort of lame, doesn't it," she asked. In fact it did.

"It's the only place you can go after prom if you don't have a date though. For me it is that or home," I explained. Cam nodded, and we kept swaying to the music. She put her head against my shoulder and I breathed in the scent of her hair.

"So really, what did Mrs. Ratkovicz say to you up there? Before we started dancing?," Cam asked.

"Oh, uh..." I didn't have time to make something up.

"Come on, I am sure it was shitty," Cam said and I laughed.

"Well," I said and then I explained to her everything about my grade in chemistry, the college course, the after-school tutoring sessions, and Mrs. Rat's threat. "But seriously, it isn't a big deal," I reassured her once I laid the big deal out. Cam shook her head.

"I am really sorry, Alicia..."

"Why would you apologize? Seriously, it didn't have anything to do with you, not really," I said, and I meant it. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't stood up to Mrs. Rat. But like Cam had said, I'd owed it to myself, not to Cam. Cam nodded and pursed her lips.

"Hey," she said suddenly, her voice bright, "I just had an idea! Something we can do instead of going to...after prom," she said the last two words like it was a contagious disease.

"I..." I started.

"Don't decide right now. But at 11, when they kick everyone out, if you want to have some fun, then meet me over by the girls' locker room. If you decide you want to go to after prom for some bizarre, insane reason instead, "she said with a cute smile, "no hard feelings."

"Yeah...uh, okay," I said. And the song, finally, ended. The other student clapped respectfully, and then the normal dance was back on.

* * * * *

An hour later, prom was over and the chaperones were pushing people out the door. I had never seriously considered going to the after prom. Playing mini golf until the sun came up paled in comparison to...literally any idea that Cam had. Besides, I was extremely curious about what she had in mind. And, if I was being honest, I was a little curious about Cam too. She had looked so beautiful...and it felt so nice when her soft body was pressed against mine.

"Hey, let's move quick before Mrs. Ratkovicz or someone sees us," A hurried voice said over my shoulder. Before I had a chance to respond, Cam was taking my hand and dragging me across the gym floor. I almost asked where we were going, but Cam looked back and put her finger to her lip. There were still a handful of students and chaperones, moving towards the door. We moved into the opposite direction, heading towards the back of the gym. We slipped into the auxiliary gym, a smaller practice gym that the volleyball team used when basketball was practicing.

Cam didn't stop, she kept moving to the back of the auxiliary gym and then into a small hallway that ran behind it. We moved quickly through the darkened hallway. When we reached the end of the hallway, we came to a metal, sliding door. Sort of similar to the kind they use outside of stores in the city. The school locked these at night, so people couldn't move through the school after hours.

"What are..."

"Be quiet, I don't know if security is nearby," Cam said, but she smiled excitedly. She walked over to the lock on the door, and produced a key from purse. She quickly unlocked it, quietly sliding it opened. My eyes went wide.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked. Cam grabbed my hand again and soon we were walking through the main hallways of the school.

"When I came into the prom, I saw that Mrs. Ratkovicz bag and her keys were sitting by the front door. She is the faculty advisor, so she has the keys to get around the school. I walked back over there after our dance, and her bag was still there. I knew what the keys looked like, they are smaller than house or car keys. She only had one like that, so I lifted it," she said, and then laughed. I laughed as well, squeezing Cam's hand.

We rushed into the science wing, where all of the labs were located. I knew where we were going and started laughing louder. Cam threw open the door to Mrs. Rat's room and pulled me in. She closed the door behind us. She turned on the overhead lights.

I was breathing heavily, Cam was as well. Her eyes sparkled with excitement and she was biting her lip. I felt a strange sensation in the pit of my stomach. I told myself that it was because it felt so strange to be in the Chemistry Lab this late at night, the school almost entirely empty.

"So what do we do?" Cam asked.

"What do you mean, this was your idea!" I said, taking a seat at my normal lab table, looking down into the little sink.

"My plan was to come here and get some sort of revenge! I can't think of everything!" She said, flopping down into Mrs. Rat's chair.

"I've never actually gotten revenge on anyone for anything. Were you thinking of blowing up the lab?" I asked, looking over at the locked cabinet full of chemicals. Cam's giggled.

"Maybe we take it back a level or two. Nothing that counts as terrorism," Cam joked. I saw her move the mouse on Mrs. Rat's computer, saw her face glow a bit in blue and knew she was on the sign in page.

"Oh shit, I got it!" I said excitedly. I jumped up off of my seat, and flew around Mrs. Rat's desk. I bumped Cam aside and she let out a surprised 'oof.' "Sorry, but genius can't wait!" I said. I clicked on the screen. The username was "RRat61" so we had that already. All we needed was the password. I took a shot in the dark. 'Password.' It bounced back.

"You need numbers for our system, remember?" Cam said and I nodded. I put in 'Password123!' and we were in.

"She is such a dumbass," Cam laughed.

"Turn on the screen over there. Click over the input," I said, pointing to the interactive television screen that hung in the corner, next to the whiteboard. Cam walked across the room and clicked it on. At the same time, I reached over to a light switch near the desk and clicked it on as well. A lamp in the corner turned on. A moment later, the computer's home screen was visible on that screen as well.

"Mrs. Rat always complains that that screen is hooked up to switch she uses to turn on her reading light," I said, pointing to a lamp in the corner, "So if we put something on the screen now, when she turns on the light, it will pop up on that screen!" I walked over and flicked off the switch. It grew dark and the screen went off. I clicked the light back on and the screen fired up with it.

"Oh my God!" Cam said, "But won't it be a screen saver? And won't she see it on her monitor, on her computer?"

"She is ancient, she never uses her computer unless she has to. I will turn the time off the screensaver, it will stay on the whole time. I will shut off her monitor here, she won't see anything. But up on the screen it will still show. When the kids come in and then she turns on the light to read her notes. Boom. So what do we want to put up here? Like...I don't know, just write 'Mrs. Rat is a Bitch!' or something?"

"So the genius kind of comes and goes, huh?" Cam said flatly. Now it was her turn to push me out of the way. She typed in a few things and I looked up at the television screen in the corner. I gasped.

"Oh my god, we can't do this, can we?" I asked. Up on the screen was a gif, running on a loop. But it was about the last thing that I expected. It was a five second clip of a young guy, probably 18 absolutely ramming an old woman, she looked like she was Mrs. Rat's age. He was moving SO fast and the fact that it was on a loop made it look horrific and manic.

"We have to do it!" Cam said, "First of all, it is super gross. Second of all, it is like the worst possible legal thing to see on her screen: an old lady high school teacher who, evidently, likes to watch high school aged dudes fuck old ladies. It is so perfect! And you can't even pretend like she doesn't deserve this." I thought back briefly to the prom and it was hard to argue the point. And weren't seniors supposed to do immature pranks?

"Alright, let's do it," I said. And I quickly turned off the timer on the screensaver, returned to the website with the obscene gif, and then clicked off the lamp/screen. The overhead lights still blazed on. A time bomb had been set. Cam and I looked at each other and then giggled again.

"This was so much better than after prom," Cam said and I nodded.

"I guess we should go," I said. We stood awkwardly for a moment. Cam sort of shrugged and looked at me out of the corner of her eye. For some reason, I couldn't say why, I laughed a little again. The air in the room suddenly felt thick, strange.

"Oh, wait," Cam said, her eyes widening, "I have one more idea!" she said. Cam ran back around behind Mrs. Rat's desk. She hoisted herself up onto the desk, sitting with her back to me. She pulled her dress up slightly. She sort of wiggled slightly and I furrowed my eyebrows, confused. A moment later, she hopped back down, straightening her dress. She turned around, a pair of black panties on her fingers.