chapter 5

The next morning was chaotic. It was the first morning for ticket sales. Fern and George were in charge. They were in a photography club together. The teacher running it was in charge of prom. So they were to sell tickets. They had a table near the front office. A line formed. Tickets were pushed out. Cash flowed, checks built up.

Before first bell they stopped. They took the cash box and remaining tickets to the teacher's room. Then they settled into their seats. They had photography and journalism first period. Fern and George chatted about homework. They'd written mock stories. Simple stuff, very mundane.

Then the teacher interupted, "Hey, sorry to bother you. I forgot about these. I set aside tickets for you two. I want you to cover the event. Don't worry, you can have fun too. I'm a chaperone so I'll have plenty of time for pictures. You can just write a story after."

Fern and George exchanged glances. The teacher got back to work. She had to take the cash box to another teacher. That left them alone. It was still before first bell.

"I wasn't thinking of going to prom," Fern admitted. George nodded, "Same here. I mean, I've heard it's fun, but I didn't want to go alone." Fern agreed, "No one is going to ask us. They might want to when they find out we're writing the article for prom."

George scoffed, "Nope, not even then. They have social media now. The school paper means nothing to them." Fern had to admit it. George was right. She nodded, "It's true. What do we do then?"

"Let's just go together. We get burgers at the Sugar Bowl or whatever, then we stay together all night. We can team up for the article. I didn't really want to write it anyway," George offered. Fern nodded, "You can take the pictures. I'll write the article. We'll use more of her pictures to supplement."

Their plan was made. They'd just go together. Why not?

The first bell rang. The class wandered in. They chatted about the homework. There wasn't a word about prom. Fern doubted they'd know of the arrangement. They were mostly seniors or freshmen anyway. Seniors were on their way out. Freshmen were still trying to work their way in.

It was better this way. Fern didn't like the decision though. Her mom would push her. Her mom would want this to be a real date, a real prom experience. That was the last thing Fern wanted. She knew she'd give in. Her mom was too much for her to fight.

But what would George do? Would he care? Fern didn't know. She didn't want to think about it. She wanted to think about something else.

a/n: just throwing these out there. more details on project: started last summer. i only got about halfway through. i outlined it out to 50 chapters. i'm writing from that outline now. i'll probably update in bursts like this. it's easier on me. means i can take all the time i need to finish it.

i'm also posting it to my dA account, megandarkhorse. come follow me if you haven't already.