"You know what, Michaela Prescott, you look phenomenal," my mom told me when I came out of the bedroom.
My face turned red as she made me spin around. I had to admit, I loved my dress. Navy blue and figure hugging, it flared out at the very bottom, giving me an elegant and classy look. Gold earrings and a long gold necklace matched my heels, and with a classic makeup look and French manicured nails, I didn't think I'd ever looked so good before in my life.
I stole another glance at myself in the mirror.
Yup, I was hot. Definitely.
This was totally a new thing for me. I mean, it's not like I went to school in sweats and a t-shirt. Well, Wildwood Academy had a uniform, but even on weekends when I went out with my friends I was the sort of girl who dressed like all her clothes came from The Gap.
"Daring" wasn't part of my vocabulary. My makeup bag was filled with natural shades. My hair was almost never seen in anything other than a ponytail.
But now, with the updo, the gorgeous dress and my professional nails and makeup, it turned out I did actually dress up nice.
Before I was able to get any more vain about my appearance though, the doorbell rang.
"Oh, that'll be Pat, let me go answer it!" my mom squealed with glee, almost dropping her phone, which she'd used to take at least a half dozen pictures of me with.
"Hi Pat, please, come in. Michaela's just on her way down now."
I took a deep breath and left my room and made my way down the hall to where Pat was waiting. I saw his sharp intake of breath when he saw me walk in, and I couldn't help but let a smile float on my lips.
Yup, I looked hot. It was awesome.
"Hey Mikki. You look... great," he stammered, awkwardly slipping a carnation on my wrist.
"Thanks," I replied shyly. I could feel the colour in my cheeks rising. I wasn't used to guys noticing my appearance. "You too," I said, thinking it'd be rude not to return the compliment. Should I have said that? Who knew. Whatever. I was used to making things awkward.
Unfortunately, my mom was even better at it.
"Ok kids, now come in close, I want to get a picture with the two of you."
Pat wrapped his arm around my waist. I smiled as my mom's phone flash went off a couple times. Pat's suit was really nice. He went with the dark-on-light theme, with a suit that matched my dress over a white shirt. Classy and elegant, and we did look pretty awesome together, I had to admit.
"K mom, we're going. Seriously," I told her, and she quickly took me into her arms.
"Oh sweetie. My little Mikki is growing up so fast," she cried as she gave me a hug. Pat and I left her in the entrance to our apartment, with her fighting back tears and me trying to navigate these heels that I really wasn't used to. Maybe I should have practiced a bit more.
"Sorry about that," I said to Pat as he held the door to the building open for me and we made our way outside. "My mom's a bit crazy."
"That's ok, mine's the same. She actually tried to convince me that I should bring you back to our place so she could do the same thing after I picked you up. Luckily, I said no."
I laughed. "Thanks. Tell her I'll get my mom to send your mom the photos."
"Will do. Here's the car I rented," Pat told me, and I laughed. Right in front of us was a bright red Lamborghini. Pat pressed a button and the doors opened automatically.
"Did you seriously rent a supercar for prom?" I asked.
"I did. My mom wouldn't let me do it for my birthday, but when I told her I wanted to impress everyone for prom she gave in."
He grinned.
"This is the same model Christian Bale drove in The Dark Knight."
"You're such a nerd," I told him as I got into the bucket seat. The car was so low to the ground it felt like I was actually sitting below road level. "But I do like the car, I'm not gonna lie."
"Good, because I figured we'd take the long way to get to the school from here."
He pressed another button and the car roared to life.
"You're insane, Pat!" I shouted over the deafening sound of the revving engine as he drove towards the highway. As we overtook car after car, doing well over the speed limit, I had to hand it to Pat - he could drive. This was actually really fun, if not a bit terrifying.
We showed up at the school at ten past four. All the younger kids had long since gone home by then, and now it was limo after limo lined up through the gates of the academy, dropping off couples of my rich, young classmates, all of us dressed up like crazy.
And I had to hand it to Pat - at least his idea of a Lamborghini was original - basically everyone else was in either a standard limo, or for the crassiest people, the ones who wished they were Kim Kardashian or Kid Rock, Hummer limos.
The car purred as we pulled up to the front of the line, and I noticed more than one group of people watching us get out of the car. Pat tossed his keys to a friend's dad and asked him to park the car for him, which he did, with an amused look on his face.
"Check it out, Mikki. People are actually paying attention to us for once," he whispered into my ear, and I laughed. It was true. Pat and I weren't the type to garner attention, most of the time. Well, unless that attention was from teachers. We were the shy kids at the front of the class who did well on tests and never made any trouble or ruffled any feathers. We had our small groups of friends, and that was it.
And yet, I could see Marilyn Saunders, the most popular girl in school, whispering to her friends as they looked at us, their eyes wide with jealousy. Her boyfriend, Keith, the quarterback on the football team, was scowling at Pat as he exchanged looks with a few of his buddies, including Jen's date Kyle.
Then Jaret came over.
"Patrick," he boomed, a grin on his face. "Congratulations," Jaret told him, shaking his hand. "You absolutely fucking won the prize for making all the other dudes here look bad."
Pat looked like he'd just won a Nobel prize.
"You... know my name?" he finally answered, obviously surprised that Jaret had ever even realized he existed.
"Of course I know your name. Your date is the most beautiful girl in school, I need to know who my competition is," he continued, winking at me as he said that last part.
Inwardly, I blushed.
Outwardly, I rolled my eyes.
"Go away Jaret. You know damn well you don't have a chance with me. Don't you have some girl to make happy for tonight and then never talk to her again? I'd ask you her name, but then I'd be surprised if you know it."
Jaret laughed, a twinkle in his eyes.
"You know what I like about you Mikki? You've got spunk. You might think you're better than me, but don't worry, I'll figure you out eventually."
With a thump on the back of the shoulder for Pat, the way guys do, Jaret walked back to Sarah Burns, his date, the abosolutely gorgeous daughter of one of the biggest Hollywood movie stars, who had already been the star of one Oscar-nominated film.
That was one of the reasons I always had my guard up with Jaret. I mean sure, I believed him when he said he wanted to have sex with me. After all, notches on the bedpost and all that. But that's also how I knew that was all there was.
Sarah was supermodel gorgeous. Like, seriously. If there was one person on campus prettier than Lea, it was her.
I wasn't even close to that same level. Sure, I wasn't bad looking, but I was an average looking girl whose mom worked two jobs to be able to pay my tuition. Sarah was one of the most famous teenagers on the planet. Every guy in school wanted to date her.
The closest I came to a date for prom was going as friends with Pat.
Noticing his group of friends, he told me he'd be back in a sec and went over to find them. I saw my group of four standing over to the side a little bit, in the shade of a tree. I waved and made my way over there.
Jen was hanging off Kyle's arm, who looked like he wanted to go find his football buddies. Carrie had sent Steve off to get her something, the two of them had been dating on and off since eighth grade, and everyone figured they'd probably get married eventually. Then divorced. Lea's date Dylan was over with his friends, and Jackie's long time boyfriend Justin was trying to make small talk with Kyle.
"Oh Emm Gee!" Carrie exclaimed when she saw me. "The pumpkin turned into a carriage!"
"Wow, Carrie, I'm not sure you could have possibly come up with a more insulting metaphor," I retorted, laughing at her choice of words.
"Whatever. You know what I mean. You look fucking HOT girl," she told me, motioning for me to spin around, which I did.
"You too. All of you," I told my friends, and it was true. They all looked amazing. We all looked amazing.
"Yeah. I think I'm going to wear this dress every day for the rest of my life," Jen replied.
"Agreed. If only it didn't take six hours to look like this," Lea added.
"I guess that's the downside. If only we didn't have things to do, and a limited haircut budget," I added, and my friends laughed.
"Ok, time for photos!" Jackie exclaimed, and we took out our phones.
I went and found Pat, and for the next hour or so we went around taking photos: us with friends, with teachers, with random people from our class we spoke to once or twice... but you know, it's prom. You want memories with everyone.
It was a warm day, but not too hot. Perfect weather, though. A good seventy degrees out, with the sun shining in the sky.
Still, after about an hour, I was starting to feel it.
"I can't wait until we get to go in the air conditioned bus to the golf course," I muttered to Pat at one point.
"You're telling me? At least your arms are bare," he replied. Luckily, a few minutes later we got our wish. Three huge charter buses pulled up to the front of the school and we all piled in.
I made sure Jackie, Jen, Lea, Carrie and I were all on the same bus, and Pat made sure his friends and their dates were with us too.
With spots for about fifty people on each bus, we had a whole group of us going.
The golf course wasn't far, it was only about a twenty minute drive, but this was one of the biggest nights of our lives. I didn't want to spend any of it away from my friends.
We gossiped and talked about how awesome our lives were, and before we knew it, we pulled up to the most amazing club house I'd ever seen.
Yes, this night was going to be amazing. Little did I know just how much.