21 Proms Read Free Page A

of it. Terrified, in fact. The idea of everyone watching … thinking I look like an idiot. I couldn’t bear the thought of prom if I had to get in front of that band and … do something . I thought you’d be safe. That you wouldn’t want to dance.”
    He closes his eyes and inhales deeply, as if he’s savoring the moment. “Finally.”
    â€œAnd it’s not just that,” I go on, the words rushing out now. “I’m scared of everything. Where to sit at lunch. What to say in class. People.” I take a breath. “I hate being scared.”
    â€œThen stop.” Adam walks out of the light and into the dark, closer to me. “I’ll help you.”
    â€œYou can’t.”
    â€œI can.”
    I shake my head. It can’t be that easy. Except he has such kind eyes that I want to believe him. I want to live. “How?”
    â€œTake my hands,” he says softly. “You are a prom queen. Dance, dance, dance.”
    I hold my breath. Every cell in my body is screaming to run. But his eyes, those kind eyes, hold me in place. Inside, the band has transitioned into something that sounds like zydeco music. I picture Emilie, ecstatic, grinning at Trevor.
    â€œThere’s no one to see us,” Adam continues. “I’ll even close my eyes.”
    I know that if I do not do this, I will regret it forever. I reach out, and Adam clasps my hands. His skin is smooth and dry and reassuring. I exhale. I can do this. We can do this.
    Adam and I start to sway. I move my hips, and then my feet. I shut my eyes, and I think he shuts his. I listen to the band, and I imagine that we’re on Bourbon Street in the middle of Mardi Gras. There are thousands of people, and some of them are looking at us. But, for once, I’m not scared.
    As the song ends and another begins, I keep a tight hold on Adam’s hands. I’m free, and I don’t want it to end. This is my prom night. I love my dress. I love my shoes. I love my size 32D underwire Chantelle bra.
    And someday, just maybe, I will love to dance, dance, dance.

All She Wants
    by Cecily von Ziegesar
    1. Winter break junior year Mum and Dad and Alex leave Brooke behind with chicken pox while they set off to Kauai for three weeks. Happy Holidays! Brooke becomes obsessed with Netflix and even more obsessed with Molly Ringwald because they look alike — except Brooke’s eyes are blue and bigger, her hair is straight and blond, and she is probably shorter, although just as gawky as Molly. Maybe they don’t look alike at all, but she is still obsessed and watches Sixteen Candles , Pretty in Pink , and The Breakfast Club in constant rotation. Just like Molly in those movies, Brooke’s never had a real boyfriend. She doesn’t go to a big suburban public high school with school buses and lockers and a cafeteria the way Molly does, though. She lives in Manhattan and has to wear a kilt to school. Her school lunchroom looks li ke a r estaurant in an Austrian ski chalet, with padded wooden armchairs, cloth napkins, baguettes, and brie. In Pretty in Pink , Andie sits at a table with her friend Duckie in the gigantic, crowded school cafeteria, drinking diet soda out of a straw and moping about the prom. Brooke’s school is called St. Agnes, named after the patron saint of young virgins, and doesn’t have soda or a prom.
    2. It’s not like she doesn’t have friends, but they are all away, snowboarding in Zermatt or flambéing themselves in St. Bart’s. Her best friend, Katherine, is in Namibia of all places, looking at animals through binoculars and flirting with her safari guide, whom she has bragged all about in e-mails. Apparently he is “hung like a zebra,” which leads Brooke to wonder how Katherine would know, since Katherine is even more of a virgin than she is. Plus, she looked it up in the National Geographic Encyclopedia in her dad’s library and zebras’