Chapter 15
Tickets for the homecoming dance went on sale the next day. I helped Clara and Grace set up the ticket buying table before school. As we set up, we got talking about the dance.
“I heard that Jonny asked Caitlin over Christmas break,” Grace said
“Well I heard that Jonny asked Sabine at her New Year’s party,” Clara said.
“Well whoever Jonny asked, there’s going to be some trouble there,” Grace said, “Are you going to ask anyone Clara?”
“No. I’m going to wait for Scott to ask. But if he hasn’t asked by Friday I’ll ask,”
“I’m sure he’ll ask if he knows what’s good for him,”
“Is there anyone you hope will ask you?” Clara asked.
“Brad in my accounting class. I mean it’s a long shot since I don’t even know if he likes me,”
“A girl’s allowed to have hopes,” Clara then turned to me, “What about you Abigail?” Caught unaware, I looked up from where I was cellotaping ribbon around the table, shocked.
“What about me?”
“Are you going to go with anyone to the dance?” Grace asked.
“Uh… I haven’t actually thought about it,” I admitted.
“You’re not sure? Homecoming is in less than two months Abigail,” Clara said
“I know. I’ve just had other things on my mind,”
“You should really make your mind. We can’t have the chair person of the committee undecided,”
“I’m not chair though. No one is,”
“Well you’re the closest thing we have to one,” Grace pointed out, “You organised everything,”
“If you say so Grace,” I said, “I’ll probably go alone. Too much to handle on the night without a date,”
“Did you hear?” Harriet asked as I walked out of my homeroom, “Caitlin bitchslapped Sabine outside the front of the school. They started to fight, and the principal had to pull Caitlin off Sabine,”
“Let me guess, it was over Jonny,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“How did you know?”
“This is the first time in about two years I’ve been really early to school,”
“Oh, right you were helping Grace and Clara of course you heard,”
“Yep,”
“It’s ridiculous how early some people to the dance. Like who knows what could change in three months,”
“I agree with you there,”
“So I was thinking that I set you up with a date for the dance,”
“Wait what?”
“I am going to set you up with a date,”
“No,”
“Yes,”
“No,”
“Come on Abs,” Harriet pleaded, “You should really go with a date,”
“I don’t want to go with anyone but you guys Harriet,”
“It’s because you’re still not over Sebastian isn’t it?”
“Harriet…”
“That stupid boy didn’t even say goodbye or break up with you. You know I never really liked him,”
“Harriet.”
“Sebastian was never good for you,”
“Harriet!”
“What?”
“This isn’t about Seb,” I said, “Did you ever think that I just don’t want a date and that I’ll probably end up getting extremely busy at the dance because things can and will go wrong,” Harriet sighed.
“I suppose. I won’t look for a date for you unless you tell me you want me to,”
“Thanks Harriet. Have fun in Social Studies,”
“Have fun in World History Abs,” Harriet smiled as she turned into her Social Studies class.
It was lunch time and I was waiting for all my friends to arrive at our spot when I saw an underclassman being followed by some of marching band. The marchers were playing a song that I recognised as Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran. Silently judging the boy for his choice of song, I watched as he walked over to a girl who was eating something while sitting on one of the benches. The boy stopped walking and got on one knee. From my position, I couldn’t see what was going on exactly, but I knew it was a promosal. I rolled my eyes as the girl excitedly got up and pulled the boy up into a hug.
“You know it was about this time last year that you hoped that you would be the girl,” Lara said, sitting next to me. Freya chose to sit on my left while Stassia sat on Lara’s right. Harriet sat next to Freya. Each had different lunches.
“Abs was getting excited about homecoming? I don’t believe it,” Stassia said, “She looks over it completely. Although that’s probably because she’s organising the organising,”
“Well you better believe it,” Freya said, “All she could talk about was how she hoped her boyfriend would ask her out when he wasn’t around,”
“Guys, can we please not bring up my ex?” I asked, “I rather not talk about Seb,”
“See,” Harriet turned to Lara, “She still uses her nickname for him,”
“Guys, Abigail has asked us not to talk about that idiot. We are going to respect her wishes,”
“Oh, come on Freya – out of all us you liked Sebastian the least. And that’s saying something,” Harriet said.
“But I still liked him,” Freya pointed out, “Any way, Abs how was English and your study?”
“English was alright. I wish they’d hurry up and make a decision whether or not our teacher has left or not. It’s getting extremely annoying that we have a new teacher almost every week and we have finals in a little under three weeks and there’s the SATs after that so that’s slightly stressing me out. I just went over Spanish in study,” I said, thankful for the change in subjects.
“Gosh that whole teacher debacle is crazy,” Stassia said, “I don’t know how they expect us to pass anything when we can’t get a straight forward teaching style. They filled that Chemistry teacher position almost instantly. And all the other teachers have left this year seem to have replacements up their sleeves,”
“Yeah. I find that quite weird. Midtown may have a few teachers leave every year abruptdly but they always have a replacement the next week. Maybe something dark and sinister is going on,” Lara said.
“Well whatever is the problem, I’m sure they’ll sort it out soon,” Freya said, “Now who hasn’t heard about Sabine, Caitlin and Jonny?”
“What’s going on?” Clint asked, taking a look at my fourth bad round of target practice that afternoon. We had gone to the archery range to do some basic training. I must have not realised how badly I had been affected by everything that had happened in the last few weeks. I also must have not realised how much it was on my mind. Usually I could hold a conversation with someone while noticing and then firing whatever weapon I had in my hand and the projectile would still make its target perfectly 98% of the time. Today was the exact opposite. Even with my conscious concentration on making my target, about 70% of my shots had missed and out of rough 30% I had hit the target with, most weren’t even close to the bullseye.
“Just some stuff going on at school,” I said, putting down my bow, “Maybe the stress is getting to me. Do you know how hard it is to organise 50 odd teenagers and not get caught up in some drama you rather not get caught up in? Cause it’s not easy,”
“Abigail,” Clint said, looking me dead in the eye, “Even I know its not stress that’s making you miss. Because I’ve seen you handle stress and it’s never affected your accuracy before,”
“Well maybe it’s not the organising of the dance that’s making me miss but rather the dance itself,”
“It’s the homecoming dance, right? Or is it prom?”
“Have you been listening to me rant about the problems over dinner or not Clint?”
“Not,” I rolled my eyes.
“It’s the homecoming dance. Probably Midtown’s biggest social event outside of the academic prizegiving night,”
“Right. I knew that. And you know what happened last year before the dance?”
“You don’t need to remind me. I’ve had about two people remind already today. I’m sure someone will be bringing it up tomorrow as well. And the next day,”
“Relationships are a tricky thing Abigail. Believe me. I’ve had my few shares of heart brakes,”
“But he just disappeared out of the blue and ghosted Clint. I tried finding him for months and its almost as if he didn’t exist. You’re telling me you’ve experienced that?”
“Maybe I haven’t shared that exact experience, but I know what it’s like to have someone break your heart in that way. Have I ever told you about Nat and me?”
“Wait you and Nat were a thing?”
“For a while we were,”
“Damn. I thought I had the sob story of relationships,” Clint chuckled a little.
“I think we can both claim that title Abs,” I smiled a little, “Now let’s see if our little heart to heart worked. We have another quiver to work through,”
“Most bullseyes buys pizza?”
“How about least bullseyes?”
“Fine,”
I decided to call Laura Barton that evening. Sitting in my room, I brought out my laptop and used Skype to call her. I had messaged Laura on the way back from the archery range to ask if we could talk later. She instantly replied and gave me a time which suited her. Plugging in my headphones, I called Laura. Not long after I pressed call, Laura answered. She was sitting in her dining room area with her back to a wall of family pictures.
“Hey Abigail, how are you?”
“Hey Laura. I’m good thanks. How are you?”
“You know how it is. A little bit of farm work mixed with uncooperative kids,” Laura replied.
“Lila still doesn’t want to go to school?”
“No, she’s actually loving it at the moment. It’s Cooper,” Laura said, “Now what did you want to talk about?”
“I need some advice. The homecoming dance is coming up and there’s a lot of pressure on me. My friends signed me up for the organising committee and somehow, I’ve had about three people tell me that I’m the closest thing we have to a chairperson. But everyone thinks I should have a date to the ball when all I want to go with friends because I’ll probably end up trying to make sure nothing goes wrong,”
“And your last relationship ended right before last year’s homecoming dance. Completely understandable,” Laura said, “There’s not much you’re going to be able to do about everyone nagging you about a date. There’s also not much advice I can give you other than just ignore everyone. You know your limits and if people don’t get that then it’s their fault and not yours,” In the left-hand corner of Laura’s screen I see the youngest Barton child come into view.
“Mummy!” Laura turned and picked up Nathaniel.
“Hey buddy,” I said. Nathaniel’s already wide smile got larger.
“Abby! Abby! Abby!” He cried.
“How are you Nate?” I asked.
“Good,” He replied, “I made cake today!”
“That sounds good. What type of cake?”
“Chocolate!”
“That’s the best type of cake,”
“Maybe we could send you some?”
“Not this time. Sorry buddy. Maybe your Dad and I could stop in during the weekend and you could bake us a cake then?”
“Okay,” Nathaniel smiled.
“Hey Bud, I think it’s your bed time,” Laura told Nathaniel, “Do you want to head upstairs and grab your pjs?” Nathaniel nodded. Laura lifted him off her lap and put him onto the floor. I watched as Nathaniel ran off towards the stairs.
“Do you want chocolate or vanilla?” Laura asked.
“I think Nate got me sold on chocolate cake,”
“Okay. I’ll make sure there’s some for you and Clint when you visit on Sunday,”
“Okay. Thanks Laura,”
“No problem Abigail,” She said, “Pass my love onto Clint, will you?”
“I will,” Laura disconnected the skype call from her end. I shut down my laptop and decided that I would have an early night. Putting my laptop on my desk, I got up and went to find Clint. Walking down the hallway, my implant vibrated. Knowing I was safe, I pressed it and my glasses appeared. It was a text message from Gecko. The homecoming dance date coincided with the night of the mayoral election.
“Well that’s just great,” I muttered to myself.
“What’s great?” Clint asked
“The homecoming dance is the same night as the election,”
“Oh,”
“Yeah,”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“I really don’t know. I’ll get to it before the weekend though. Right now I’m going to sleep,”
“Sleep sounds good,”
“Oh, by the way, Nathaniel wants to make us a chocolate cake when we go visit them on Sunday and Laura gives you her love,”
“Okay. I guess we’ll stay at the base Saturday night,”
“Sounds good,”
“Night Abs,”
“Night Clint,”