The Prom Reposted.

[tdscott8]

The Prom Story, a story Luke and I co wrote a while ago. Thought I'd post it here, not with 100% less Meg!

It all started with the prom.

It was Ratta’s senior year at Salad High, he’d always despised proms. Not because he didn’t like dances, or that he couldn’t get a date, it was in fact quite the opposite. He’d have so many girls liking him at the same time he’d never know who to pick. He had always been a ladies man, not by choice though, he was just born that way.

All the ladies had a thing for him, although, who could blame them? He was a tall, muscular man, standing at 6’4, with short, messy, black hair, and the darkest brown eyes. He was irresistible to the ladies.

It wasn’t just his looks though, his whole personality was attractive to them. He was a very sweet man, he actually cared for the women, and their opinions, whereas most others boys at Salad High either didn’t care about dating, or treated the women poorly.

Now came that dreadful time of the year, the time of the year Ratt despised. The time when he had to choose a girl to go to prom with.

In his freshman year, he was stormed with girls either being obviously flirty or just straight out asking him. It was a huge surprise to him at the time, he just went with the first girl who asked him, he regretted this decision as he wound up not having very much fun, as she just didn’t seem like his kind of girl.

In his sophomore year, he tried to devise a plan, he had written out every characteristic he wanted his girl to have. However, this turned out to be an issue as no one girl perfectly fit it. He had put off choosing a girl to the last second and ended up picking one the night of the prom, right in front of two other girls who liked him. He felt awful about hurting their feelings, and it ruined the whole experience for him.

In his junior year, he made it easy for himself to choose. He didn’t. That night, he went out and ate with his family, avoiding all the stress of having to choose a girl.

Ratta would have liked nothing more than to do the same this year, however his mother didn’t feel the same way.

“It’s your senior prom Ratta! Don’t you wanna go to it?” said Ratta’s mother, who was very sentimental and wanted her son to be involved in as many activities as possible. Ratta had never been able to say no to his mom, which lead him to having to choose now.

“Okay, mother. I’ll go, if it means that much to you.” Replied Ratta grumpily. He still couldn’t say no.

He had only two days left to decide who he wanted to go with it, he had everything else needed for a perfect senior prom, a suit, a limo, heck he had even made reservations at a fancy restaurant for dinner afterwards. The only thing he was missing was someone to go with, which was always the hard part.

He had managed to shorten his list of possible girls quite a bit. He had now only three girls to choose from, Hayley, Alice, and Freeze. He did like Freeze, but the constant teasing he got from his friends about him and her wasn’t helping the situation. Ratta had decided against asking Freeze.

Hayley was two years below him, so he wasn’t sure about that. He’d probably get more teasing from picking her than Freeze.

That left Alice, The only thing that stopped him from asking her was the fact that they’d been great friends all year, and she was one of the few girls who didn’t show interest in him. Despite him really liking her, he thought if he asked and she denied him his friendship would be ruined. Ratt wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk that.

Ratta had finally made up his mind, he was going to choose Alice. Even if she did say no, he could play it off as some kind of dare or something, although it would kill him on the inside to say that.

There she was, sitting at the lunch table with all of their friends. There was Goose, Clash, Luke, and even Scott, who didn’t usually hang out with them. Scott and Clash seemed to be leaving to do something, and Goose and Luke were engulfed in a conversation, Now was his chance.

“Hey Allie, I’ve got a question for you.”

“Okay, spit it out.”

“I was wondering-” Halfway through his thought he was interrupted by a girl jumping on his back. “Ah! What the?”

“Hey Ratta! Do you have someone to go to prom with you? Take me!” It was Hayley.

“Um, wha-” Ratt was so surprised by the new person on his back, that he lost all the fake confidence he mustered up when talking to Alice.

“Ratt, please go with me! Please, please, please, please!” said Hayley, her puppy dog face in obvious use.

“Sigh, sure! Hayley, I’ll go to prom with you!” Ratt obviously wasn’t very enthusiastic, but Hayley didn’t seem to notice. She jumped off his back and ran away the second she heard a yes.

“Uh.. Alice? You want to go grab a coffee later?” Ratta asked, covering up the fact that he was about to ask Alice what Hayley had just asked him.

“How about tea instead? Tea is better than your American stuff.” Alice replied, a thick british accent obvious in her voice.

“Haha, sure I guess! Tomorrow good?” asked Ratta.

“Fine with me, see you there!” the bell rang and Alice walked off, departing from Ratta with a wave of the hand.

The next day, the last day before the prom, Ratta and Alice sat down outside at their local café, and got some tea. They sat and talked, just like they usually did. Chats about everything, from crazy classmates, to crazy parents. Eventually, even the prom, which Ratta had hoped to avoid.

“So, taking a girl two years younger than yourself? Bold, amigo.” She said to him.

“It wasn’t planned that way. I was going to ask someone else… but, was interrupted. So, in an attempt to not be Mr. Heartbreaker, I decided to take Hayley.” He told her, kind of hinting that he was about to ask her. She didn’t notice.

“Well, I’m going with Luke” She said, smiling slightly. She seemed uneasy.

“Something wrong?” Ratta asked her, noticing her unease.

“Nothing.. It’s just, Luke  and I aren’t working out, ya know? Sure he’s a great guy but.. I don’t think I have the feelings I had for him before. But I don’t want to hurt him.”

“Hey, just break up with him. It would hurt him more to find out you didn’t feel the same way about him as he did you, than it would if you broke up with him.”

“But… I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to hurt him at all! And.. We’ve been dating so long! What if he gets all… Clingy and stuff?”

“I’ll take care of it. That’s what.”

“Wha.. what?!” She asked, flabbergasted. Luke was one of Ratt’s best friends, and she knew what he meant when he said,’I’ll take care of it’.

“You heard me.” Just as he finished the sentence, a very jumpy girl walked in, easily identified as Hayley.

“Well, I’d better go. See ya Ratt.” Alice said, getting up and walking away.

“Hey Ratta! It’s almost seven! Prom starts at eight! Hurry!” She hurried him.

‘How demanding!’ He thought to himself. “Alright, I’m coming!” he got up from his seat and escorted Hayley to the nearby Limo.

Once they got to the prom Ratta looked around to see how his friends were doing. He saw Freeze was dancing with a guy Ratta had never met before on the dance floor, she seemed to be having a good time. He saw Salad High’s local soul mates, Shawn and Cooki dancing. When Ratta looked over at the punch table he saw AJ, Horus, Scott, and Sollux, Scott appeared to have pissed AJ and Sollux off, resulting in him getting punched, so nothing out of the ordinary there.

The only people Ratta didn’t see where Alice and Luke. ‘Where could they be?’ thought Ratta ‘They should be here by now’. Ratt reached for his phone, which he kept in his back pocket, but when he checked the pocket, there was nothing there.

He sighed to himself. This would be the third phone he’s lost this year, and there was little hope finding it here, someones probably stolen it by this point, but he figured he might as well check.

He began walking around, trying to retrace his steps and asking people if they saw it. He spent almost an hour looking for his phone, and there was no sight of it, or for that matter Hayley. But honestly Ratta was kinda glad about that, as much as he thought he liked Hayley, he found out quickly he really didn’t.

When he was about to give up on looking for his phone he heard a voice. It was Alice’s, it appeared to be coming from behind the door he was next to. Ratta decided to listen in on the conversation by putting his ear up against the door.

“Whatever, just give Ratta his phone back” said the voice of Alice, sounding rather irritated with the person she was talking too.

“Why? It’s so funny looking through it! I mean, listen to this! ‘Hey Alliecat, you looked cute today, not in a lovey dovey way though, haha’. Ratta’s such an oblivious moron at times!” this voice was a familiar one, Hayley? Hayley!

Ratta was suddenly filled with hate and embarrassment at the same time. He wanted to kick down that door and scream at Hayley, but he knew he was too nice of a person to do that. He would have to get back at Hayley a different way. But this surprisingly wasn’t his main concern, it was the fact she was right about how big of a moron he was. ‘Seriously Ratta? You looked cute today, not in a lovey dovey way though? Ugh!’ Ratta knew that text was an obvious give away to his feelings to Alice, and he knew Alice probably figured it out too. The fact Alice didn’t respond to the text just made him think she didn’t feel the same way.

Ratta heard footsteps walking to the door, he quickly backed away and tried to act natural, by leaning on the table. However when he leaned against it the whole thing broke from underneath him. Alice and Hayley walked out just to see him on the ground, and so did every other person in the school. A chorus of laughter broke out, obviously towards him.

“Oh my goodness, Ratta, you’re such an idiot!” said Hayley while laughing with the others. Ratta felt extremely embarrassed, almost everyone was laughing at him, although one of the few people that wasn’t was Alice. He couldn’t tell if it was because Alice was a true friend, or if she just felt pity for him.

Ratta got up, and tried to just zone out the laughter around him. Eventually it died down and everyone went back to their own activities.

“Hey Ratta, dance with me!” said Hayley in a rather demanding way, but he voice seemed to always maintain a peachy attitude, probably why Ratta considered taking her in the first place.

“Uh, yeah, fine” responded Ratta, trying to hide his anger from the fact she stole his phone.

They began dancing to a rather upbeat song, but then the celebrity DJ, BdoubleO, turned down the music and spoke into the mic.

“Hey there ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to slow this thing down”

‘Great, just great! And to think this night couldn’t get any worse, I’m having to dance with this girl, wait! That gives me an idea!’ thought Ratta, getting an out of character, devious idea.

He took Hayley’s hand and pulled her into a twist, it surprised her, but she didn’t argue. They danced for a bit, and after a few more twists Ratta dipped her, and then quickly pulled her up. Their eyes met, Ratta moved in, their lips were less than an inch from one anothers when Ratta stopped.

“Sorry, phone thieves aren’t my type” Ratta then just left the dance floor, leaving Hayley completely dumbfounded by the actions that just occurred.

Ratta saw Alice, at a table in the back. She was sitting alone, and sipping on- Was that coffee? Ratta knew she only drank coffee when she was unhappy, or there was a shortage of tea.

“Something the matter Allie?” Ratta asked, sitting next to her.

“I broke up with Luke.” Was her short reply.

“What? No!” Ratta was trying to act sad, but on the inside there has this happiness. He knew it was wrong to think badly of his best friend, but he couldn’t help it.

“Yeah, I did. Like I told you before, we just weren’t working out.” She said. At the end of her sentence, she broke into tears.

“Hey now, Don’t be sad. You’ll find someone new, I promise.” Ratta replied, placing a hand on her shoulders.

“What about Luke though? Who’s he going to find? He keeps to himself so much. You and a few of the other guys are his only friends!” said Alice, even though she broke up with him, it was still obvious to Ratta that she cared for him, but more like a friend then someone she would date.

“Luke’ll find somebody, it’ll all work out, It always does Alice.” said Ratta, half lying to help Alice’s feelings, half hoping it himself.

“Just… I need a bit.” Alice said, walking off. It was obvious that she was shaken up over this whole ideal. He decided to give her some space, and went over to talk to Clash.

“Hey Ratta! What’s up?” The man with the phoenix hoodie said.

“Erm, nothing, other than wondering why you are wearing a hoodie to prom.”

“I’m informal, man, Informal.” Clash replied. “And I know you’re not alright, it probably has something to do with you liking Alice” he said, rather blunt.

“What? How did you know that? Er, I mean, I don’t like her!” asked Ratta, rather confused, and kinda scared.

“Dude, you’re more transparent than Scott when he’s trying to lie, dude.” Replied Clash. “You should just go tell her how you feel, it’s not like she doesn’t already know.”

Ratta exhaled deeply. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Gosh, I never thought I’d be taking love advice from you Clash.” said Ratta, not in an insulting way, but more of a joke. With a wave of the hand, Ratta walked out to find Alice, a new determination in him.

He walked around for a while, looking for Alice. He couldn’t find her. He saw Hayley, even Luke, whom he thought would be sulking privately. He was sulking, but out in the open. He walked around, for at least a half hour, looking for that girl. Finally, he saw her, sitting at a corner table.

“Alice!” He declared before taking a victorious step towards her, a new confidence in his step. He’s never, ever, felt this confident before! He was ready to do this!

Alice looked up at Ratta, tears in her eyes. “Ratta?” All of sudden all that confidence Ratta had immediately deteriorated, his knees felt weak, his palms were sweaty, and throat was dry. Why was it so hard to talk to her? This was his best friend since the sixth grade, when she moved to America. Why was he having such trouble?

“A-Alice.” He stuttered. Confidence levels hitting empty.

“Yeah?” She said, obviously wanting to be left alone.

“Alice. I-I realized something a few minutes ago.”

“And that is? C’mon mate.”

“I know why I demanded to be on the ambulance when you fell out of that tree in seventh. I know why I beat up every boy who ever did you wrong. Alice, I love you. I have since the day we met.”

Alice sat there, speechless. She didn’t know what to say. So, instead of saying anything, she stood up, and ran to Ratt, embracing him. She burst into tears.

“Ratta, you know just what to say to make someone happy, you friggen ladies man!” She said with a laugh afterwards.

“Uh, so, you wanna dance?” asked Ratta, feeling a lot less nervous now.

“Of course!” said Alice with a smile on her face.

They went out and started dancing to a relatively fast song, but the celebrity DJ, BdoubleO, must of noticed the connection between them, as he cut the song half way and changed to a slow one.

They danced slowly, never breaking gaze with one anothers eyes, Ratta had never been so happy at a prom. At the end of the song, he made a brave move. He pulled Alice into a kiss, and after it broke, he simply said. “I love you Alice Greene”

“And I love you Ratta Collins” said Alice.

-Ten years later-

Ratta was thinking about this, sitting in his comfy chair in his office. He was thinking about his senior prom and how it affected his life. He decided he’d better get back to work, which is what he had been doing before he had begun reminiscing. Just as he got to the desk, a little girl burst into the room.

“Daddy!” The girl yelled.

“Kayla!” Ratta yelled, in response, lifting her into the air.

“Sorry sweetheart. Told her you were working, but…” Alice said from the doorway. She was obviously pregnant with their second child.

“She’s two.” Ratta said in response. “And nothing makes me happier than seeing you and hers beautiful faces”

“Always the ladies man” said Alice in response.

“You know it!” Ratta said, hugging his little girl.

“Anyway, its time for little Kayla to go to bed.” Alice said, earning a cry of sadness from the girl. Alice walked across the room to get their child.

“Actually, Alice, I think we can both put her to bed tonight.” Ratta said, earning a huge smile from his wife and daughter.

Maybe proms weren’t so bad after all.