Facing the Obstacles

"Tom, I'm going to Claire's house to get ready, I'll see you there!" Heidi yelled from downstairs. “You guys are coming at seven, right?”
"Yeah, see you then!" I shouted back. Turning back to my suit that was sitting on my bed, I sighed. Not my favorite event in the world, prom... It was definitely a girl thing, but as long as I had my friends and Clarabelle it wouldn't be too bad. I checked the clock: 5:30.
“Hey Tom, here’s your corsage,” said my mom, walking in the room. “I can’t believe you’re finally a senior! Oh and make sure you take pictures before you leave Claire’s house; I want to see how beautiful you all looked!”
“Okay mom, I will; don’t worry.”
Once she had left the room I put my suit on and sat down at my desk, looking at the pictures that cluttered the surface. There was a picture of Heidi and myself before our very first day of school here in California. Our faces told it all as the two of us glared at the camera. I smiled, thinking back to moving here and getting settled.
When our parents told us we had been furious. Heidi wouldn’t come out of her room and I had refused to talk to them. I didn’t want to leave all of my friends behind and move to the opposite side of the state! Who would?
Upon arriving at the house, I had stayed in the car while my parents worked to bring everything into the house from the moving van. I watched angrily, wondering if they thought this was some kind of awful joke that they were pulling on us. They weren’t the ones that were going to have to go to a completely different school with no one they knew. They had absolutely no idea what it was like, I don’t care how many times they said they ‘knew it was hard’ or ‘we know how you feel,’ they had no idea! But look, it had turned out just fine.
I continued to look at pictures of all of us. Clarabelle and I, giving the thumbs-up as we laid next to each other on beach chairs, Nathan squishing Michael’s cheeks together, as they made goofy faces, Zach pretending to throttle my neck and Cameron posing as a supermodel, with Heidi in the background; hiding her face in embarrassment. There were pictures from four years ago, pictures from a month ago, pictures from every year we had been together. It made me realize how much we’ve grown up. We really are finishing up high school… soon we’ll be in college.
I’ll miss being in grade school. Not because of the work, not because of the stupid people or stupid problems, but because times were just plain simpler. I think that’s why, in a way, everyone wants to stay a kid forever. It’s not necessarily because they like how they were treated or they liked all of the rules better back then, but because you didn’t have to deal with as much stuff. You didn’t have to worry about what your job was going to be or where you were going to live or paying your taxes or any of that… All you really had to worry about was having fun and I think that’s what everyone wishes they could do for the rest of their life. Just worry about how much fun they’re having.
As I continued to reflect on everything, I heard voices and soon Zach, Cameron and Nathan were all in my room with me.
“Time to go,” Zach said. “I hate dressing up,” he added as we walked out to the two cars. “If it was up to me, I’d be wearing skinny jeans and converse.” He spun his car keys around on his finger as he said, “Cam, are you and Nate taking that car?”
“Yeah, we’ll meet you there,” he said. They told us they didn’t want to ask anyone from around here and Nate had said, “It’ll be fine, when the slow dance comes on we’re going to waltz around together.”
We drove a few blocks and stopped in front of Claire’s house. As we got out we saw Claire walking out with a guy.
“They’re coming out,” she said, smiling at us.
We watched them back out of the driveway and wave as they left. As we turned back to the house, Clarabelle walked out. She looked amazing. Her dress was dark gray with red polka dots; a sleek red ribbon came around her waist and tied in the back and it came just above her knees. I looked up at her face, with her blonde hair back in a curly bun and it left me speechless as she walked up to me, not even stumbling once in her black heels.
“Hey,” she said.
“You look stunning, uh, so, will you like put this on?” I questioned lamely, holding out the corsage.
She laughed and kissed me. “I love you. Yes, I will ‘like put this on.’”
The door opened as Heidi came out. I looked past Clarabelle to see what-- oh god.
She walked confidently out the door, black hair half up and a magnificent white dress draped around her torso, but I looked at her feet… She was wearing neon green Chuck Taylors.
“…Why is she wearing those?!” I whispered to Zach, appalled.
He smiled, never breaking her gaze. “I love it,” he said, as she walked up and kissed him. “You look beautiful, Heidi.”
“Thank you handsome, now let’s get to that dance!” she said happily.

When we entered the venue, the bass rocked the room while the music blared. Some people were dancing and others were getting drinks or hanging around talking. We spotted Nathan and Cameron and made our way to where they stood. Heidi pranced over in her sneakers, smiling at their looks.
“Like it?!” she said, tilting her head to the side as she gave them a questioning stare. “I wanted to be sure no one else would look like me.”
Cameron laughed, eyebrows raised. “You honestly thought anyone would look even remotely like you?! God, you’re crazy!” He continued to laugh, as Heidi smacked him with her handbag. She glared at him and finally burst out in laughter.
“I love you Cameron…” she paused. “…But I love Zach more.”
“Of course,” he smiled.
We all sat down to talk. Nathan and Cameron got into an argument over who would win a light saber battle and Heidi and Clarabelle began commenting on all of the other girls’ dresses. I turned to Zach to find him with a pen and napkin, scribbling fiercely. He stopped for a moment, trying to get the pen to work properly and when he looked my way I gave him a questioning stare. He waved his hand in a manner that said, ‘don’t worry about it.’
A slower song began to play. Heidi and Zach walked off to go dance and Clarabelle and I got up to dance as well. We placed our hands in the proper places and slowly revolved around the floor. Clarabelle gazed over at Heidi and Zach and I looked over as well. He was smiling at her, while gazing intently at her face.
“Tom, I hope you realize how much Zach loves your sister,” Clarabelle said, looking back at me. “He would go above and beyond just to see her face.”
I smiled. “I know. When he told me he liked her and they started going out, I never once questioned why. I never once thought, ‘that’s my sister, back off!’ It’s like I knew it was going to happen all along; it’s natural to me. I wouldn’t want any other guy but Zach to be with her.” I paused. “And I hope you know how much I love you.”
“Of course I do.”
The song came to an end and Clarabelle went to go talk to some other girls. I walked over to our seats to converse with Heidi. The others had drifted to various places.
“Hey,” I said, sitting down by my little sister.
“Hey.”
“So… this is our last dance together, does it feel weird that I’m leaving next year?”
“Yeah…” she replied, smiling at me. “I’m used to always having my big brother around to hang out with… But I will definitely still visit you… and we’re talking like at least once a week! Never forget, you can always count on me to be there for you, every step of the way.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I promise. Cross my heart.”
I grinned, hugging her.
“I believe you.”

When I walked into school the following Monday, everyone was grouped around talking. Signs were everywhere, announcing the talent show. We were on a shortened schedule because the last hour and a half would be for the show and everywhere you turned people were talking about it. This was probably more important to our school than any sport, or even prom.
A group standing around a sign turned and saw me.
“Hey, aren’t you performing today with Zach and some other guys?” one of them questioned.
I nodded and made my way to my locker. I was met by Cameron and Nate.
“When’s Michael coming?”
A voice rang through the crowd. “MIKEY’S HERE, YUP!”
“I’m guessing right about now.”
He walked up to us with that huge smile of his. I laughed; he was so out of place here.
Everyone at this school was just so boring and they only hung out with their own little group of friends… Mikey was so outgoing and full of energy and he would talk to anyone as long as they were living and breathing.
“So… who wants me to follow them around all day like a lost puppy?!”

“Guys, I really don’t know if I can do this…” Zach said, peering through the auditorium door at the students in their seats. He closed it and we walked towards backstage. “Remind me why we are?”
“Because we have a passion for music and we’re not letting it go to waste.” Nathan said. “And you my friend have precious golden pipes… It’s like… Oh my god!” he said in that spazzy way of his.
Zach grinned sheepishly. “Tom, do you think I can do this?”
I sighed. “Zach, don’t be an idiot. You’re gonna say one line and you’ll be right back to normal. It’ll just be practice with more people listening in. That’s all it is, that’s all it ever will be. Trust me, you’ll blow them away.”
Cameron beamed at him. “Come on allstar, you got this.”
Mikey cut through, pumping us up. “YUP! ‘We’re allstars’ on three!” he said, as we heard a muffled voice saying our names from onstage. We all put our hands on top of each other’s. “One, two, THREE!”
“WE’RE ALLSTARS!” we yelled, as we all headed to the proper places onstage.
We waited, and in the few seconds we had before the curtain went up, I knew that we were all thinking the same thing. We were meant for this.