Part 20 (1/2)

She looked taken aback at my response. ”I think it would be good to have a diverse group of nominees,” she insisted.

Lanie never talked like that. Diverse group of nominees? Did she mean because I'm a bigger girl? She was up to something, I could tell.

”Come on,” Brody said encouragingly. ”You'd make a beautiful prom queen.”

”Nope,” I said decisively. ”However, I would like to nominate Johanna.”

Johanna choked on a piece of salad and looked at me through watery eyes. ”Me?”

”Absolutely,” I said with enthusiasm.

”Well, I don't know,” Lanie hedged, ”I mean, your name came up, Beatrice, but I'm not sure about Johanna.”

”Take my name off your list. I don't want to be prom queen.” I didn't say it mean, but I said it firmly enough that she couldn't push it any more.

”Fine,” she said stiffly and walked away without another word.

”Come on,” Brody said with a smile. ”Why don't you want to be prom queen?”

”I'm definitely not prom queen material,” I said flatly. ”Besides, I don't trust Lanie.”

”Lanie has nothing to do with prom other than being on the committee,” Brody said with a smile. He grabbed my hand and linked fingers with me.

”Let's drop it, okay?” I asked softly.

Johanna cleared her throat to pull our attention away from each other. I loved staring into Brody's eyes. He made me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. I still couldn't believe we were together.

”The bell's about to ring,” Johanna said, rising from the table. ”We'll talk about dress shopping later. Okay?”

I sighed. ”I'll check with Mom if you can come with us.”

”You don't have a dress yet?” Brody asked.

”You don't understand my mom,” I said with a rueful smile. ”She is determined that I will have something beyond amazing.”

”You're already beyond amazing, Bea,” Brody said with a twinkle in his eye. ”How is a dress going to help that?”

I loved how he talked to me. I mean, girls dream of this stuff. I know I had spent my entire high school imagining my first boyfriend. My imaginations certainly never came close to Brody.

I wanted to stay in my dream state, but the reality of debate called my name. I was supposed to have a meeting with Mr. Robarb after school the next day. Our next debate tournament was coming up and I had heard nothing from Jared. Mr. Robarb wanted to strategize with me if Jared was calling it quits.

I made the dreaded walk to the metal building to find Jared during detention period the next day. Mrs. Tole wasn't too happy, but she supported my debate efforts and let me out of my teacher's a.s.sistant duties. If you could call sitting silently through an hour long cla.s.s of whiners and cry babies complaining about why they had been put in detention.

Jared was surprised to see me. He came out of cla.s.s when he saw me peeking through the door.

”What's going on, Beatrice?” he asked in a really loud voice. Then he realized he had ear plugs in from the loud machines and pulled them out.

I wanted to laugh at him yanking his ear lobes, but I needed him to know I was there on serious business. ”Listen, Jared, I really need your help. We've got just two debate tournaments left this year and I need you to be my partner.”

Jared rolled his back, stretching and yawning. ”I can't, Beatrice. Spring is really big for cow shows. I already committed myself to those. Just get someone to read the stuff like I did. They don't really have to understand it. I know it was way over my head.”

”Come on, Jared,” I urged. ”Just two more weekends and one of them is the state debate. State. We have a chance to win this all the way.”

”No, you have a chance to win this all the way,” he said with a sniff. ”I can try to get you another Aggie, if you want.”

”It's too late to try to get someone completely new. There are too many details to try to throw at someone in less than a week.”

Jared crossed his arms and looked at me with narrowed eyes. ”I have an idea,” he said. ”I'll do those debate tournaments if you'll go to prom with me.”

You could have knocked me down with a feather. Jared was actually asking me to prom. I'm sure he had no idea about Brody because we never talked. I had to take this on carefully so I wouldn't insult him and chase him away from being my debate partner.

”I've already got a date for the prom,” I told him, ”but how about if I help you find a date?”

”You already have a date?” he asked incredulously. ”How did that happen?”

I tried not to frown. I wasn't that bad. ”Look, do you want a prom date or not? I mean, you have to be pretty desperate if you wanted to go with me.”

”You don't have to be ugly about it, Beatrice,” Jared drawled. ”I thought you'd be as desperate as me and at least we could go to prom together.”

”What do you say?” I asked. ”Be my partner and I'll help you find a date.”

”I'll agree only if you find me a date first.”

”Let's be real, Jared. The next debate is this weekend. That only gives me a couple of days. How about you debate with me this weekend and I'll find you a date to prom before we debate at state. Look, there's a lot more at stake for state. I'll get you a date before then, believe me.”

Jared knew full well how important debate was to me. I could see the conflict on his face. He was seriously considering my proposal. ”I'll agree on one condition. I need your help with getting a suit.”

”You mean a tuxedo, right? Most guys will wear one of those.”

”Well, I'll look for a tuxedo, but they might not have one,” Jared said. Then I understood what he meant.

”You're not talking about shopping at a thrift store for a tuxedo for prom, are you?”

He nodded enthusiastically and I groaned. ”You'd be amazed at what you can find there, Beatrice. Shoot, you might just find a dress for yourself.”

”I went already, remember? And no, I'm not shopping for a prom dress at a thrift store.”

”Is it a deal, then?” he asked, holding out his hand to shake on it.

I shook it with reservations. I had bought time for the first debate tournament, but I wasn't so confident I'd find him a date for prom in time. Johanna to the rescue. When I told her my problem, she immediately pulled out her handy dandy formula. We input every piece of information we had into that formula. The end result? We needed to find an Aggie girl who was skinny and shy and insecure.

I started looking around school, but was having a hard time identifying any prospects. Johanna joined in the search and started pointing out different girls. Unfortunately, they didn't meet many of the requirements.

At the debate tournament, Jared was relentless in his quest for me to get him a date. I had to rea.s.sure him I would be successful at least fifty times before the debate ended. With us as the victors again. I knew I owed him big time.

Without even having a date yet, Jared dragged me to some thrift stores to help him find a suit. I dreaded going with him because they all smelled old and musty. We had struck out in two stores before we found one larger than the others.

We walked into the thrift store and made our way to the men's section. To my surprise there were two tuxedos. Jared immediately looked at the tags and groaned when he saw a ten dollar price tag.

”Are you kidding?” I asked in a hushed voice. ”Ten dollars for a tuxedo? That's crazy. Go try them on.”