Full Bloom

Pregnant at Prom

I stood in my bedroom and looked at myself in my full-length mirror. I felt like I belonged at SeaWorld in my black-and-white prom dress. Even with my hair done at the salon and my makeup looking great, I still felt like a fat, ugly whale.

"That's the wrong face to wear for prom," Grandpa said as he buttoned up my dress. "You need to turn that frown upside-down."

"It's not that easy, Grandpa," I said. "I'm gonna get bullied so hard. Everyone just thinks I'm a joke."

"Maybe you'll win."

"Win? Are you serious? Ollie and I literally got nominated for prom king and queen as a tease. We're a laughing stock."

"Think of it this way. There's a lot of other young guys and gals who wanted to be nominated that weren't."

"I didn't want to be nominated."

I suddenly heard a honking outside. I rushed over to the window. There was Karen waving to me, Ollie in the passenger's seat. I saw a big bouquet of roses on his lap. He was such a sweetheart.

"Well, I think it's time to go," Grandpa said, his eyes starting to grow red. I'd never seen him cry before. "My little Jenny, all grown up."

"Okay Grandpa, I get it," I said, being a typical bratty teen.

I ran downstairs and slipped on my tennis shoes, which would be safely hidden under the long skirt of my dress. I hopped in the bus, we picked up Nassi, and then we were headed downtown. Our prom was being held at the Diamond Platinum hotel: the fanciest place in all of Oak Falls.

Karen parked the bus towards the back of the parking lot. When we got towards the hotel's main entrance, there were some of the rich kids from our school getting out of a limo. I really envied them.

Oh, to be a normal, not-pregnant teen with money and good looks.

When we got inside the hotel, it was chaotic. No matter what time of year it was, the Diamond Platinum was always buzzing with events on Saturday nights. Only...we didn't know that there was a wedding in the ballroom on the lower level, around the corner from where prom was being held.

When we walked past the ballroom where the wedding was, my stomach growled. We already knew there would only be snacks at prom, not a full-on meal. But this wedding...they had a buffet.

"I have to get to that buffet!" I said from the hallway, Oliver holding me back.

"Hey, calm down you crazy pregnant girl! You can't just crash someone's wedding! That's so rude," Nassi said.

"I mean, it's not crashing if we're just going to the buffet. We wouldn't be bothering anybody," Karen said. We both grinned at each other. Nassi was always the angel on my shoulder. Karen was the devil. "Let's do it."

"I like you guys, but I'm not crashing a wedding," Oliver said. "You're setting a bad example for our baby."

"Bad example? She's a baby! And she's not even born. She has no clue what's going on!" I said. "Let's go steal some food, Karen."

"Game on," she said.

We made sure the coast was clear, counted backwards from three, and ran into that room. It probably didn't help to make us look less noticeable, but we were shoving food onto our plates like madmen. I soon realized that this was an Italian wedding. My plate was filling up with lasagne, eggplant parm, and meatballs. Oh, so many meatballs.

"Hey, you two!" someone yelled out in the ballroom.

Karen and I instantly took that as our moment to bail. We ran as fast as we could out of the room and to the lounge around the corner, where some of our fellow prom goers were dry-humping and making out like no one was watching. We found a nice bartender who got us some plastic forks, and we were in business.

"Well, how does it feel?" Oliver asked me.

"Amazing! Best prom ever!" I said, my mouth full of food. "I hope you understand that I'm not sharing any of this."

"Ditto," Karen said, putting an entire meatball into her mouth.

Some of the other kids were asking us where we got the food and attempted to get some themselves, but the window of opportunity was completely closed. Someone from the wedding was standing outside the ballroom doors to make sure no more pesky highschoolers got in. Our classmates were stuck with nothing but cookies and punch.

When we finished, we abandoned our plates. I went to the bathroom because my little one was kicking my bladder, and then we went into the actual ballroom. I got my usual laughs and pointing but I tried to ignore it. It was pretty dark in the ballroom and in my mostly black dress, it seemed like it was helping people to not notice me.

I, of course, did stop over by the snack table, which was right next to the table where we could vote for prom king and queen. A group of kids were snickering as they wrote their ballots, saying they were all voting for "the pregnant girl." I rolled my eyes. It was how I got here in the first place.

"Alright all you Valley Hill Vipers! Are you all having fun tonight?" the DJ asked. Everyone shouted and screamed. "It's time to announce the prom king and queen for the night! Please turn your attention towards the stage in the front of the room and welcome your student council!"

"Hey hey Vipers!" said Marie, the student council president. I'd never even spoken to her but I saw her all the time and I just kind of was always seething with hate for her. "Can we please have our five nominees for prom queen take the stage first? Alexa Taylor, Chantelle Myers, Megan Sweet, Ashley Waters, and Jennifer Miller!"

I hugged Ollie and went onstage to a chorus of "boos." One of the kids from the yearbook club started taking our pictures. I tried to smile. It was only going to look worse if I had my hands in front of my face.

As the guys walked on stage, I looked at the girls next to me. Tall, hot, popular. Alexa was the VP of student council. Chantelle was the head of our dance troupe. Ashley just finished playing the lead role in the school play...again.

And Megan...Megan was the one who was for sure going to be the winner. She was a cheerleader and modeled on the weekends. Her family members owned a pet shop and she always brought in literal puppies for everyone to play with during school picnics. How could I compete with puppies?

I looked across the stage at Oliver, who gave me a smile and a thumbs up. How was he so put together at a time like this.

"Okay, now our top two candidates for queen...Megan and Jennifer, please step forward," Marie said.

Megan and I looked at each other, perplexed. I knew about Megan being in the top but...me? What was going on here?

"Hey, good luck, Jen," Megan said, taking my sweaty palm in hers.

That was another thing about her. Even with all her popularity and her family's money, she was still so nice. She really, really deserved to win.

"You too, Megan," I said.

As I was talking to her, I didn't realize that Oliver was called to step forward. He was next to Megan's very cute twin brother, Stephen. It would only make sense for that power-duo to win. He was the quarterback of the football team.

"And the winners are...uh...wow..." Marie said, looking at the envelope and clearing her throat. "By a landslide...Jennifer and Oliver!"

I let go of Megan's hand because my whole body went numb. Even the baby stopped kicking for a moment. Ollie and I looked at each other as they placed the sashes around our bodies and the crowns on our head, lost and dumbfounded.

I looked out at the crowd, who were frozen in place. No one was really even clapping. So many people voted for us as a joke that we won prom king and queen. What a time to be alive. I couldn't even imagine having a better prom than that night.