When I entered the student council room I saw that the meeting was already underway. I quietly sat down in the back. Susan, the student council president, was hanging up the list of prom theme ideas. She turned around to face the room. “Now, I know we said we weren’t adding any new ideas to the list, but Jonah had a great idea that I think we should consider.”
We all looked at Jonah, who was leaning back in his seat, grinning his usual big, flashy grin that some girls (like Susan) might find charming, but that smart girls (like me), knew meant he was a big pompous jerk. He was also wearing a green button-down shirt like all big, pompous jerks do. He had a yellow backpack just like Marcus’s, but the backpack made Marcus look more sensitive while it made Jonah look like more of a jerk. A pompous jerk.
“Yeah, these prom themes are okay I guess, but maybe we should do something more normal like ‘a night in Paris’ or something. I mean, going as your first crush,” He looked at me and raised his eyebrows significantly. “That’s pretty weird. And how would we even decorate?”
I was fuming. I knew what he was doing. Going as your first crush was my idea. It was totally romantic and sweet, and he was trying to ruin it with his boring “night in Paris” idea. I mean, how do you even decorate for that? Lights? Eiffel Tower backdrop? Fake bridge where you could lock a fake love lock? Gross.
“Decorating will be easy,” I snapped. “We’ll do big hearts and old TV sets because a lot of people probably had their first crush on someone on TV. And dressing up won’t be hard for you because you can just go as yourself.” I looked around the room for a laugh, but I only saw a couple of thin-lipped smiles. They were probably all scared that Jonah was going to make fun of them next.
Jonah smirked. “But if we did night in Paris, Hadley could come as a mime and then we wouldn’t have to hear her talk.” That got a couple of people laughing. Stupid Jonah.
Susan wrote ‘night in Paris’ on the list. “Okay, so that leaves shoe swap, night in Paris, and my first crush.” she said. “Everyone grab a piece of paper from the pile in the middle and write your vote. I’ll collect them in this hat.”
Everyone grabbed a piece of paper. I thought it was smart of Susan to do this as a blind vote; that way Jonah couldn’t pompously intimidate anyone into voting for his dumb Paris idea. I glanced around the room. A couple of people were looking at me and quickly hid their papers with their hands. Good, they were being cautious. I wrote “First crush” on my paper and carefully folded it in half. After waiting a little longer, Susan passed around the hat and everyone put their votes in. Susan looked through the votes, making a tally on a sheet. Then she said, “looks like night in Paris” won by two votes!” She smiled at Jonah, who pumped his fist in the air.
This was ridiculous. I raised my hand. “Yes, Hadley?” said Susan.
I stood up and crossed my arms. “Susan, are you sure you counted those right? I just can’t believe that so many people would choose a night in Paris when we haven’t even talked about it.”
Susan sighed, then scooped the votes back into the hat and passed it to me. “Feel free to recount if you want, Hadley. All right, we’ll discuss prom assignments at the next meeting. The next item on our agenda today is what we should do with the school improvement funds. I’m thinking student council retreat. Any other ideas?”
I tuned out their conversation to look through the votes. Student council always used the funds for a student council spa day, anyway. I counted the number of votes first, to make sure Jonah hadn’t added more in, but the number of votes matched the number of people. Then I carefully counted how many votes each category had to make sure Susan hadn’t “misscounted” so Jonah’s would win. It was so obvious that she’d been blown away by his pompous charm. But no, she was right. Night in Paris had won by two votes. Clearly, Jonah had gotten to the other council members before the meeting. I shoved the votes into the hat, glowering at him. I would have to get to the bottom of this.
I was so focused on preparing myself to confront Jonah that I didn’t really pay attention to the rest of the meeting. When it was time to go home, I snatched up my bag and left quickly so I could catch him in the hallway. When he came out, I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to the side. “Could I talk to you for a second?”
He shrugged and followed me down the hall. After we were out of earshot, I stopped and turned to face him. I could feel that my face was flushed. “What was all that back there?”
“All what?” He asked, looking at me innocently. The faker.
I gesticulated wildly. “All that. THAT. Did you like, bribe them to vote for you or something?”
He grabbed my hand. “Calm down, you’re going to pull a muscle or something. No, I didn’t have to bribe anybody. My idea was just better than yours.”
I stared at our connected hands for a moment. Why did I suddenly feel more flushed? Was he transmitting some kind of fast-acting communicable disease? I quickly pulled my hand away. I’d have to rub it with some essential oils when I got home, just in case.
He pulled his hand back, too. “Look, I just don’t want a dance where I have to get all dressed up. My first crush was my kindergarten teacher, and she always wore a fancy lime green pantsuit when she taught. But if we have night in Paris, I’ll have a lot more options. I could dress as a drunk college student or a scruffy movie critic or something.”
I tried not to imagine how sexy he would look in a lime green pantsuit. This is my enemy, I told myself firmly. I can’t think about how hot he is right now. “It’s prom,” I spat. “The whole point is to dress up.”
“Well, my idea won so you’ll just have to get used to it. Anyway, I’ve got to go, see you at the next meeting.” As he turned to leave, he threw one last pompous smirk over his shoulder. “By the way, you’re cute when you’re angry.”
I gasped. “I’m not cute when I’m angry!” I yelled at his retreating back. “I look like a swollen baboon when I’m angry!” It was true, everyone said so.
He didn’t react, he just kept walking. I turned on my heel and stomped away in the other direction. As I climbed in my car, I thought that maybe my mom could make an essential oil mix to repel pompous jerks. She probably could; she said that oils could do almost anything we can imagine. I’d have to ask her when I got home.
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