The Dead Cat Bounce

Prom preparations, date-seeking, and anything else which concerns prom and takes place within a few days before the event goes here.
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Ruggahissy
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The Dead Cat Bounce

#1

Post by Ruggahissy »

Lori walked forward while looking at her phone. She had it on good authority what Alton's last class was and she was making a bee-line right to it. She was going to ask him to prom. The common wisdom that girls didn't ask boys out was overly restrictive and reflective of outdated gender norms anyway. She looked particularly nice for the occasion, wearing a a white tank top, an oversized pink cardigan and black yoga pants with Ugg boots finishing the outfit.

Alton was one of the cutest boys in class and he was well-liked so of course she'd go ask. She saw him starting to walk away from the room and shoved the phone into her pants pocket, upping her pace.

"Hey! Alton!" she called out, bounding forward with surprising speed.
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MurderWeasel
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#2

Post by MurderWeasel »

For once, Alton exited the math classroom in the middle of the pack, rather than as a straggler.

Dr. Terrance was fascinating to Alton in his own way. The man obviously had no passion for instructing high-schoolers, and was over-educated for his position, but where similar teachers like that had in Alton's experience often opened up and shown real investment when approached outside of class for more advanced discussions on their subjects of specialization, Terrance's apathy held firm, giving way occasionally to something like irritation. So Alton took advantage of the man's inattention, did what he felt like during class, aced his tests and assignments, and got his mathematical stimulation from the like-minded souls of the math club. His lingering to observe Terrance was purely personal interest, and today he just wasn't feeling it.

Alton had slipped out of the room with an unacknowledged nod to the man, then slung his backpack over only his non-dominant right shoulder and proceeded into the hall, taking in the milling students and the flow of traffic and thinking that he might not want to head straight home today but at a loss as to what to do. It was a sort of unfulfilling malaise that gripped him; he wanted to do something but not any of the things he typically felt like doing, or anything that crossed his mind.

He was pondering this when the voice from behind grabbed his attention, and he smiled as he turned, naturally, glad for the distraction and the potential and unknown it represented. His smile held unchanged even as he quickly identified the source of the call.

"Hey hey, Lori," he said, offering her a nod. She was closing the distance at a good clip, and Alton wondered whether there was cause for nervousness. He was pretty sure he wasn't actively feuding with anybody on the cheer squad at the moment, but Lori could be mercurial, to say nothing of Ivy. Lori didn't sound mad, but her demeanor told him she was on a mission and he couldn't begin to guess what it was. That, at least, was interesting.

"How's it going?"
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Ruggahissy
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#3

Post by Ruggahissy »

Lori caught up to Alton and slowed to a stop in front of him. She pushed a stray hair behind her ear and smoothed down her ponytail of any flyaways.

"Hi!" she returned. "It's going ok. You know, waiting to hear back from some colleges still. I have a really good feeling about Cornell" she beamed, though it was just something she said. Lori didn't really know what her chances were.

She gestured forward with a flourish of her arm, indicating that she would walk with him.

"What about you? How are you?"

Small talk first, get comfortable in the situation and don't appear too tense.
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MurderWeasel
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#4

Post by MurderWeasel »

"Good luck," Alton said, quirking up the left side of his smile just that little bit more. "I hope you make it."

Cornell was Ivy League, Alton knew, a good start for a career that involved networking and the typical paths to socially-respected success. It was about five hours from where he'd grown up, but felt like it existed in a different country, maybe even a different world. Could Lori make it there? He wasn't sure. He really wasn't sure what sort of person went to Cornell, and he didn't know Lori well enough to see how she compared. Smart people, which fit Lori's profile; cheer teams in general had a reputation for being air-headed, but Alton knew most of George Hunter's collection were actually reasonably intelligent, at least when it came to school.

"And I'm well," he said. He fell into an easy stride, keeping his pace casual so he wouldn't force Lori to hustle. "Riding out the end of the year, you know."

She was beating around the bush, which had him on alert. They weren't the sort of friends to fall naturally into this sort of conversation, so there was something here he wasn't seeing. There was a decent chance it was nothing important, but it paid to listen to instinct. Word got around, especially when you had your ear to the ground like Alton did, and he'd heard a thing or two about one of the cheerleaders taking inexplicable offense and calling in the goon squad. Alton wasn't afraid, of course—this sort of thing was nothing to the environment he was raised in, just spoiled rich brats pretending they were hard—but preparedness was a virtue and he knew he could ruffle feathers from time to time. He wasn't looking to get into or escalate a feud this close to none of it mattering.

He kept an eye on the hall around them, students rifling through their lockers or forming knots of conversation or pushing through those knots to try to get to freedom first. Nothing untoward caught his attention, but he made himself stay aware, waiting for a movement against the flow or a mass turning of heads in his peripheral vision.
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Ruggahissy
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#5

Post by Ruggahissy »

"Mmhmm," Lori responded earnestly, nodding her head hard. "I get that, mmhmm, I think everyone's just waiting for this garbage to be over so we can move on with our lives" she said cheerfully.

She took a few strides forward ahead of Alton and then turned on him in order to force him to come to a sudden halt from their walk. Fortune favored the bold after all and she felt that a guy like him would probably appreciate her getting to the point sooner than later now that the ice breaking was done.

"Do you want to go with me to prom?" she blurted out with her hands clasped in front of her.
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MurderWeasel
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#6

Post by MurderWeasel »

Alton pulled up short, but pretty smoothly, he thought. Lori had to put on some speed to get in front of him, and whatever concerns he had, he didn't really see her as a direct threat; she was projecting nervousness crossed with a possibly-forced good nature, but not in a way that made him think she'd wind back and smack him in the face. A physical smack might've been less unexpected than what he got, though, not that the invitation was an attack or was even unpleasant, just not something Alton had been prepared for. He didn't know the girl. She wasn't really on his radar except by reputation and proximity, and he'd assumed he was the same to her.

He was flattered, really. Lori was on the cheer squad, which carried a certain measure of desirability and prestige in the school social hierarchy. She wasn't one of the captains and, okay, wasn't actually one of the cheerleaders Alton would've picked had he felt like picking a cheerleader, but that was why she was doing the asking. It reaffirmed what he already knew: he was a pretty good potential prom date.

Unfortunately for Lori, that meant he had options, and while there was nothing wrong with Lori per se, Alton wasn't too familiar with her and what he did know suggested to him that her idea of a good evening and his wouldn't be in sync. She was cute enough, he guessed, but in the ways girls were categorically cute unless they weren't rather than by anything that actually stood positively out about her; he appreciated her fitness but liked girls a bit less stocky, a bit more leggy. And there was still plenty of time left to find someone else, for him and presumably also for her.

These mental calculations were quick, formed not precisely in words in the moments after Lori asked. He was glad she hadn't made a whole spectacle of it like some did. That would've made this more difficult to extricate himself from. A couple freshman boys were glancing their way, attention likely drawn when Lori darted in front of him, but that didn't matter. He kept his smile and his even tone.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Lori," Alton said. Best to lead with something that wouldn't give her false hope. "I actually promised to take a friend's sister. Girl's a sophomore, has these crazy dreams about prom, nobody else'll get her in and I owe a favor."

There. A nice and easy letdown, Alton thought. He made it something other than Lori that was at fault, made it sound like he'd have accepted the offer were his hands not tied, but at the same time gave a firm reason for his refusal that would dissuade all but the most persistent. And finding a cute sophomore girl who'd be starstruck by the opportunity to get into prom was one of the options on the table for Alton anyways, which made this kissing cousins with the truth, and if he ended up getting an actual date in his own grade he'd just say the mysterious sister fell ill. And if he changed his mind and Lori hadn't found anyone else, he had the perfect opportunity to reverse course, so he was keeping his options open.

Vaguely, he wondered why she'd picked him. Too bad there wasn't a clean way to work that into the conversation at this point.
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Ruggahissy
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#7

Post by Ruggahissy »

She waited for the response, anxiously squeezing her hands together. Her smile melted into concern when she head the first few words out of Alton.

"Oh.... that sucks," she said, tugging on the bottom of her pony tail. He had a good reason for saying no. She thought about pushing it, but it sounded like he was in a bit of a bind regarding the promise to someone else to take the younger girl.

"Mmm, well. Ok. Sorry for holding you up," she said, with a transparent candy shell of cheer thinly covering disappointment.

Lori reached up and gave him a quick hug, then started jogging back the way she came. She stopped and turned after she was a few paces away and waved bye.

Lori smiled. She would definitely followup on with some questions around school to make sure he wasn't lying. He probably wasn't, but she wanted to be sure. Liars didn't get a pass. Which she was sure he wasn't. But, just in case.

"Have a good afternoon!"

She trotted off, pulling out her phone and deleting the first name off the list.

((Lori Martin continued in Who Wears Short-Sell Shorts?))
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MurderWeasel
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#8

Post by MurderWeasel »

Alton gave Lori a smile and a nod and loosely returning her hug. She was clearly not happy, which was a shame. Alton made a little mental note to make sure he had a friend's sister lined up for real, just in case. Lori could be unpredictable; this whole encounter was evidence of that. She might not have brought the cheerleader trouble he'd expected, but the year wasn't over yet.

She waved, and wished him a good day, and he waved back.

"You too," he said. "Sorry again. I'm sure you'll find someone great."

Then she was gone.

Alton took a deep breath and chuckled to himself. Well, that was flattering, and a whole lot less cause for concern than he'd expected. He hoped, loosely, that Lori did find someone. She probably could, he thought, as long as her standards weren't too high. If she was asking him, she clearly wasn't looking for a specific person, just a quality date, unless he'd somehow missed some major signs or failed to catch wind of a hidden crush. Lori wasn't very subtle, so he thought she'd've told someone, and then it probably would've made its way to him.

In any event, it was time to start thinking more about Prom, he supposed, as he set out down the halls. He tried to remember which sophomores were the cutest, especially those with siblings among the upperclassmen. The idea actually was starting to sound somewhat appealing.

((Alton Gerow continued elsewhere))
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