A Tale of Two Proms (Bard Academy) Read Free Page B

seriously overrated.
    “Well, I’m sure Heathcliff plans to ask you to prom soon, don’t worry,” Hana said, likely chalking up my odd reaction to nerves.
    “Yeah,” I nodded. I felt a pang of guilt as I met Hana’s eyes. I wanted to tell her about Heathcliff’s proposal, but I already knew what she’d say. She would tell me I would be crazy to pick Heathcliff over college. Hana had been planning the interior of her dorm room at Princeton ever since she got her acceptance letter a few weeks back. She was firmly in the “go to college” camp, and until I was ready to agree with her, I honestly didn’t want to argue.
    “Is Lindsay going to prom? Do you know?” she asked me.
    Lindsay was my little sister. She came to Bard more than a year ago. We used to hate each other, but in the last year we mended our relationship. All it took to come together was a band of pirates trying to kill us. Funny how that works.
     “I don’t know. She hasn’t said and I haven’t pressed. It’s kind of a touchy subject since…”
    “She’s crushing on your ex Ryan and he doesn’t know she exists?”
    “Pretty much,” I said and nodded. Ryan was the best looking boy in school, a star basketball player and sweet to boot. I’d dated him very briefly sophomore year. We weren’t dating anymore but we were friends. Technically, Ryan had dumped me, but he’d only done it because it was pretty obvious I was obsessed with Heathcliff so it’s not like I held it against him. I also was almost a hundred percent sure he was completely over me now. He wasn’t even supposed to be here at Bard this year. He was, technically, a fifth-year senior. The rumor was he was hanging around another year so that he could have more basketball practice and have a better chance for a basketball scholarship. The official reason, however, was that five of his high school credits didn’t transfer to Bard. The amazing part was that Ryan didn’t seem all that upset about having to spend an extra year of his life in high school.
    “So Lindsay and I—we don’t talk about prom much.”
     “Prom? God, don’t get me started.” This was my former roommate, Blade, who dumped her tray with a loud clatter on the table next to me. Samir, her boyfriend for the past year, trailed behind her. “I want to rip down every poster I see,” she added, referring to the bright red and yellow flyers that announced the coming of what no one thought possible – the school’s first-ever prom. Somehow, the biggest dance of high school just didn’t seem a good fit for Bard, which happened to be one of strictest reform boarding schools in America. Even now, the Guardians, the thug-like guards of the campus, lined the walls of the cafeteria just to make sure nobody decided to start a fight. The Guardians were like mall security guards, if mall security guards knew a dozen ways to subdue a person—all of them painful. Guardians reminded everyone that there was a steep price if you stepped out of line.
    “Why are you in such a mood?” Hana asked Blade, her tone slightly annoyed as she flicked her shiny straight, jet-black hair off her shoulder. Hana’s eyes held just the hint of an almond shape and her skin was smooth and blemish-free, a legacy of her part-Asian heritage. Blade—fair skinned with hair that changed color with every new bottle of dye she bought—scowled. She and Blade didn’t exactly get along, but they were trying—for Samir’s sake. Blade and Samir had a kind of on-again, off-again thing going. And, at the moment, they were on-again.
    Hana had been Samir’s best friend but she didn’t exactly approve of his relationship with Blade. I suspected Hana had a crush on Samir she wasn’t talking about, but she always insisted she was fine seeing him date. In theory.
    It didn’t help that Blade lived at the intersection of Goth and punk. There was no hair color too wild; no piercing too extreme; no T-shirt too offensive. Hana was nerdy prep girl in