The Locker Wars

Adele wasn’t nearly as dressed up as her friends were. Her hair was plainly curled, her dress was a mauve one that she wore to a dinner party last year and hadn’t seen the like of since, and her shoes were slightly uncomfortable. Still, it was the best that they could do in half an hour (they needed the extra ten minutes to coax Adele into actually leaving her house).

It wasn’t anything too fancy. Riley drove Kirsten and Adele in her car. All the way there, Adele kept wondering what her friends had planned. Clearly, there was something beyond prom in this.

“What else is going on?” Adele questioned. “This was obviously all part of your plan. I totally trained you well for this.”

“Well...” Kirsten looked at Riley, who shook her head. “We’re keeping it a surprise ‘til we get there. Seriously. And don’t even nag us, ‘cause it ain’t gonna work.”

“Fine,” Adele sighed, and stared out the window.

A few minutes later, Riley, Kirsten and Adele pulled up in the school parking lot. When their dates arrived (Riley and Kirsten; Adele was left kind-of hanging), they all went and stood at the front of the school, seemingly waiting for something.

“What is it?” Adele asked. After a small moment or two she started tapping her foot, and then realized what was happening. “Oh no. Oh no, I know what you planned. You set me up on a date, didn’t you? I don’t want to go on a date. Not tonight! Not after what happened with Skyler. I don’t want to date for a while!”

She went running inside to the washrooms, feeling hot in the head. Going on a date was the last thing she wanted.

Of course, there were about 50 girls in the washroom, all touching up their makeup, fixing their hair, checking their dresses and shoes. When Adele burst in she felt oddly out of place. She only rubbed her forehead and checked herself in the mirror for a split second. Then she went to find someplace else to hide.

* * *

“Seriously, guys, what’s up?” William was walking alongside Jason and Mike, who were being awfully secretive about prom.

“Do you think they’ll be mad that he’s only in jeans and a fancy buttoned shirt?” Mike asked, totally ignoring William.

“Nah,” Jason replied, ignoring William’s persistent arm-waving behind him, “I mean, we’re getting him there, aren’t we? Isn’t that enough? Especially ‘cause he’s being a bitch.”

“I’m right here!” William exclaimed. “I’m right here and I demand to know what I’m going to do at prom. I don’t want to dance with anybody. I just want to go home.”

“And miss this big-ass surprise that we’ve been planning for a few weeks now? Yeah right,” Jason told him, rolling his eyes. “You’re dying to see what we’ve planned for you now.”

William groaned. “Seriously! I don’t want to dance at prom. I don’t want you to set me up on some lame date there; I don’t want to dance with that lame date and I don’t want to kiss that lame date.”

“Then you’re totally lucky that your date’s not lame,” Mike snickered.

They soon approached the school and found Kirsten and Riley waiting in the front with their dates. Before any of the guys could say anything, though, Riley cut in.

“Okay, so maybe it’s not going exactly according to plan,” she shrugged. “But still, she’s here. She kind of ran off after she figured out what was going on. We don’t really know where she is. She’s probably inside by now.”

“Crap,” Jason muttered under his breath. “Well. I don’t know what you want to do. We got him here, is all I’m saying. I held up my end of the deal.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” William asked. “Who’s... I knew it. You guys, I don’t really want to go to prom right now. I mean, I appreciate your efforts, but I’m not into it...”

“You’re going.” Jason glowered at his friend. “I swear, we are going to tie you up and shove you in there. You are going to have fun tonight, and work things out.”

“Work things...?” William started to ask, but then was at a loss for words. “You... you brought me here on a date with Adele? So we could... ‘work things out’? Wow. Thanks a lot.”

He shoved his way past his friends and into the school, huffing and puffing. Secretly, though, he was thankful. He just didn’t want to show it.

* * *

Adele found herself wandering around on the dance floor. She danced a few times with some people she knew, trying to have fun, but it was just awkward. She suddenly wished that she hadn’t left her friends at the front, especially with all that they’d gone through to get her to prom anyways.

She managed to escape to the back of the gym, where some of the people gathered, and found Michael with Butcher. She went to turn away, thinking that they’d insult her or something, but suddenly felt Michael’s hand on her shoulder.

“G’day, Adele,” he smiled. “You know who’s looking for you? Jason’s looking for you. Said something about finding Riley and Kirsten but no Adele. Apparently there’s something up—?”

Adele tore herself away, suddenly wanting to look for Jason. He would know where Kirsten and Riley were, and she just wanted to apologize and leave before the night got worse.

She groaned, turning her head in every direction, searching for her friends. She couldn’t see them, so she went back to where Michael and Butcher were standing.

“Um,” she cleared her throat. “Have you... seen Riley or Kirsten? I can’t find them.”

“There.” Butcher pointed a long way over the crowd of people to almost the other side of the gym, but she could see her friends, and some of William Beckett’s other friends with them.

“Fuck,” she muttered. She turned back to Michael and Butcher. “Uh, thanks.” She then trekked around the crowd of dancing teenagers, all the way to where her friends were.

“I’m sorry,” Adele yelled over the noise of music and yelling people, “I, uh, I just want to go home now. But, um, thanks for taking me to prom anyways and I’ll totally pay you guys back for the ticket—”

But before she could say anything else, Jason grabbed her by the shoulders, gave her a look that said, “You should stay here, and I dare you to defy me right now,” and then walked off. He appeared to be looking over the crowd for something.

And then she saw him. She saw Jason pull the tall, skinny boy with messed brown hair and a forced smile towards her. And at first she didn’t get it. But then she bit her lip and realized. This was her date.

“Um, I should...” Adele looked down. This was too embarrassing. Honestly, didn’t Riley and Kirsten know how she felt about him? If he was forced to go on this date, well, that was horrible. “I should...”

“Dance,” Riley suggested, in a voice that sounded exactly like Jason’s look. “Go over there, and dance.”

Adele nodded feebly and shuffled off a few feet away, as her date followed her awkwardly. She never imagined having to do this.

“I don’t really feel like dancing,” Adele confessed.

“That’s okay,” William replied. He tapped his foot a little. “So, um, how about that weather...”

Adele bit her lip and groaned inwardly. The weather. That was always a bad sign. “Um, it’s kind of going into summer now. I’m glad. Kind of. I mean, it’s warm.”

“Right.” William looked terribly uncomfortable. “Uhh. Isn’t your birthday in the summer?”

“August.”

“Right.” William nodded. “Uh, mine was in February.”

“Yeah,” Adele agreed. She rubbed her hands together nervously.

“Um, yeah.” William agreed, “Um. Well I kind of wanted to talk to you. But not in this environment. Too loud, you know?”

This was proved right, as William’s quiet voice was drowned out by the background sounds of prom. He raised his eyebrows in sort of a weird look, but shrugged. He bit his lip.

“Um, okay, maybe we should tell them?” Adele suggested, gesturing to her friends and his friends behind them.

“No.” William shook his head. “Let’s just go.”

He put his hand on the small of her back, and then led her outside.