Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Eight More Weeks

This is my fourth novel! This story is the result of a poll I ran on my Discord server. They voted for a TG version of “She’s All That.” I hope you enjoy it!

She walked on stage, the spotlights blinding her, and the crowd’s cheering drowning out the sound of the principal's directions. She turned to face the crowd. The spotlights and flash photography blinded her view of the audience. She stood there smiling, waiting for what came next. 

The principal came from behind her and placed the tiara on her head. Her emotions were bubbling near the surface. She never thought this moment would happen to her, but here she was.

“Congratulations to the 1999 Prom Queen!” the principal said into the microphone.

The ballroom erupted with cheers as she tried unsuccessfully not to cry.

 

* * *

Six Weeks Earlier…

 

“Lance,” Dad called through the closed door. “Lance, get up. You have school today.”

Lance rolled over in his bed and groaned. He’d been dreading this day. Monday. Not just any Monday. The first day at his new school.

Two months ago, Lance’s dad got news that would rock his family’s world. His job was relocating him across the country. He called a family meeting, and he and Lance’s mom had sat both Lance and his twin sister Simone down to break the news to them. The twins' senior year would be disrupted by the move. Their final two months of high school would be spent on the other side of the country.

Simone was devastated. After all, she had built up a life in the place they were born and had tons of close friends. 

Lance, on the other hand, didn’t care. He was a social pariah and had only a few acquaintances. A new school should’ve brought the promise of starting a new life, but Lance figured nobody was going to be interested in making new friends this late in the game.

Dad quickly went house hunting, and closed on their new house a few weeks ago. It wasn’t his parents' intention to break the family up, but their Dad had to go. Lance and Simone were each given a choice. Naturally, Simone wanted to stay to finish up her senior year with her friends but Lance didn’t care. He was just eager to finally be done with high school all together.

Last week, during spring break, Lance and his Dad packed up all of their things and moved from California to New Jersey.

“Come on Lance, I need to be at work in an hour. It’s my first day at the new office.”

“I’m up, I’m up,” Lance grumbled. His scrawny 5’7” frame stood up out of bed and stretched.

The only thing in his room was a bed and a stack of unopened storage bins. Dad told him last night he should unpack his clothes, but instead he spent the evening playing games on his Gameboy.

Lance quickly started searching the storage bins looking for clothes. The first bin contained his winter clothes. The second bin wasn’t his bin at all, but instead was filled with some of Simone’s clothes. She had seemingly tons of clothing. Their mom had insisted she send as much stuff as possible with her dad and brother to avoid having so much to pack when they finally moved out east. “Maybe I should’ve labeled these when I originally packed up.” he thought a little too late. Finally, he found his spring school clothes.

Being in a different bedroom really threw off Lance’s daily routine, and it doubled the time he normally took to get ready for school.

When Lance finally made his way into the kitchen, he saw his dad standing there nervously drinking a coffee. 

Normally, Mom would be there to greet him and his sister, and have their breakfast ready for them. It’s only been a couple days, but Lance already missed the female half of the family.

“Ready to go?” Dad asked, impatiently.

“Can I call mom first?”

“No. She’s three hours behind us. You’ll wake her. Oh, and remember, I’ll be at school at 2 o’clock to pick you up and bring you back home, but then I have to head back to work. Please don’t be late.”

Lance nodded, grabbed a breakfast bar and a banana, and the two of them left the house.

* * *

As Lance got out of his dad’s car and headed towards the school, he had to stop for a car just pulling into the school driveway. The driver was not paying attention to him as she veered into the parking lot.

Zoey parked in the senior lot, turned off the engine, and took a sip of her iced coffee. “Eight more weeks of this,” she sighed. She sat there for two minutes in silence contemplating her life. “How come I feel so alone when I’m surrounded by so many people?” she pondered.

She was also worried about her boyfriend Tyler. She hadn’t heard from him since they each went on vacation for spring break. She got back last night, and Tyler hadn’t responded to any of her messages. What if something bad happened to him?

When Zoey was ready to start her day, she took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. The moment she got out, she heard students calling her name. 

“Hi, Zoey!”

“Hey!” she said, waving at them. She had no idea of their names, but being Student Body President and a positive role model in school, she had to put on a good show for them.

Just then a girl came by that Zoey only vaguely recognized. “Hi, Zoey, I’m with the school paper. I wanted to catch you before school started.”

“Well you caught me,” Zoey responded with a fake smile.

“May I interview you for an article I’m writing?”

“Sure, I suppose.”

“Let’s start with your background - Where did you grow up?”

“A small town near-” she started to say just as the prom co-chair ran up.

“Zoey”, the co-chair interrupted the interview, “We need the hallway flyers approved. I was hoping to run these by you.”

“Let me see the options.”

The co-chair held up 4 flyers.

“I like one and three.” Zoey said. “Two is too loud, and four has the wrong feel for our theme.”

“What do you do for fun?” The reporter asked.

“Obviously, I’m Student Body President. I’m also in charge of the yearbook and the prom. I volunteer on the weekends-”

“I mean, what do you do for fun?”

“That is fun.” Zoey retorted. She sighed. “Fine, I dunno, hang out with my friends.” Zoey spied her best friends Deanna and Peggy heading her way. “Speaking of which…”

“Hey, girl!” Deanna shouted. “How was spring break?”

“It was nice and quiet,” Zoey replied. “We went to my family’s lake house. Did some tanning, some reading.”

“Sounds kinda lame,” Deanna snarked. She had been Zoey’s best friend since elementary school, but they had a very competitive relationship. They would constantly try to one-up each other with sports, clothing, boyfriends, and vacations. “Cancun was awesome - you should’ve come.”

“Yeah, we missed you.” Peggy said.

“Where is this lake house?” the reporter butted back in.

Zoey had almost forgotten about the student reporter. “Wait, is this on the record?” Without waiting for a reply, she then turned to Deanna, “Dee, Have you seen Tyler?” 

“Umm.. nope.” Deanna said, suddenly looking away.

“Wait, what’s wrong?”

“We shouldn’t be the ones to tell you.” Peggy reluctantly replied, also avoiding eye contact.

“With so many extracurriculars,” the reporter continued. “You’re obviously building an awesome college application. What are your current plans?”

Zoey was trying hard to balance two different conversations. The college question took her by surprise. “Umm, I haven't decided yet - it’ll figure itself out - next question.” she turned back to Peggy. “Tell me what?”

Another girl ran up to the growing crowd around Zoey. “Zoey! Zoey! Can you sign my petition?”

Zoey was growing frustrated. Her friends were trying to tell her something, but kept getting interrupted. “A petition for what?” 

“To bring back prom king and queen.”

“Prom king and queen? You mean that outdated tradition that the school stopped years ago?”

“Yeah - they stopped it when the prom court’s float burst into flames.”

Zoey looked the petition girl up and down. She wasn’t the most attractive or popular girl in the school. “What’s in this for you? Hoping to be prom queen?”

You are reading story The Boy Who Would Be Prom Queen at novel35.com

“Me? Oh, no. I’m the president of the Democratic Leaders of the Future. We just want teens to get in the habit of voting.”

“I see.”

“I heard it was sparklers.” Deanna chimed in.

“What?”

“The parade float. A prom queen years ago put sparklers in her crown. Sparklers and crêpe paper don’t mix.”

Peggy pantomimed a fiery explosion with her hands, complete with explosive sound effects.

Zoey didn’t care about the parade float. “No, I mean, what about Tyler?”

Deanna and Peggy looked at each other and were silent long enough for the reporter to cut back in. 

“What’s your opinion on the school board eliminating the girls’ soccer program after this year?” the reporter asked.

“Girl’s soccer is getting cut?” Zoey asked, surprised. “Damn!” She internally cursed herself for not knowing this. She re-composed herself and gave a political answer. “Umm.. It’s a terrible shame and I’ll work with the school board to bring it back.” Just then Zoey saw her boyfriend Tyler walking by. “There he is,” she exclaimed. “Excuse me,” Zoey said to her crowd and ran over to him.

The crowd naturally followed. “This is gonna be good,” someone was heard saying.

“Ty!” Zoey said, while tugging on his shirt sleeve. “I’ve been calling but you didn't answer. I thought you were getting back yesterday. I was so worried about you.” She pushed herself up to give him a kiss, but he quickly turned away.

Tyler paused and turned back to face Zoey. “Listen Zoey,” Tyler hesitated. “I think we should break up.”

Zoey was stunned. “He wants to break up with me?” she thought. “Break up?” Zoey said, raising her voice. “What happened?”

“Yeah, well, spring break happened.”

“What happened during spring break?”

“I-I shouldn't tell you.”

“Fine,” she said, angrily.

“So my parents dragged me to the country club,” he continued anyway. “And I was bored, so I invited my boys to hang at the beach. And there was this awesome DJ, you know the one from that TV show? And he was playing some boss tunes-”

“Get to the point, Ty!”

Tyler swallowed hard. “I-I met someone.” He said, looking down and shuffling his feet.

“You met… this DJ? A guy?”

His head snapped back up. “No! No, I met a girl. Olivia Jones. She’s crazy about me.”

“Olivia Jones… You mean the head cheerleader?” Zoey was seething now.

“Yeah, um, that Olivia. So here I was minding my own business at the beach, playing soccer with the gang and listening to the DJ mixing sweet tunes and Oliva Jones was swimming way out in the ocean. Then she starts yelling for help. Like she was caught in a rip tide or something.”

“A rip tide?” The skepticism was obvious in her voice.

“Yeah, so I did what anyone would do - I jumped in to save her life.” Tyler said, like he was some kind of Boy Scout.

“Where was the lifeguard?” Zoey was tapping her foot.

“The lifeguard? I don’t know. So, as I was saving her life, the DJ saw us and put on this romantic song, and we both realized me and her were meant to be together. She was eternally grateful, so that evening we strolled down the boardwalk holding hands, and before you know it we were making out on the sand listening to the waves come in.”

“Isn’t that the plot to Grease?” the reporter wedged her question in. “You know - ‘tell me more, tell me more…’”

Zoey just then realized she still had an audience. “WTF, people, this is a private conversation between me and my boyfriend.”

“Ex.” Tyler corrected, now looking Zoey right in the eyes. “Ex-boyfriend.”

“So that’s it?” Zoey fumed, “You’re dumping me for some bimbo cheerleader you met on spring break?”

“I mean - yeah. I’m the varsity quarterback. Me dating the head cheerleader just makes sense.”

“Asshole!” Zoey yelled, stomping away from Tyler.

* * *

Lance entered the school office and went straight to the receptionist. “Hi, um, yeah it’s my first day. My dad enrolled me over the phone.”

“Last name?” the receptionist asked, not even looking up.

“Biggs.”

“Simone or Lance?”

“What? I’m Lance,” he replied quizzically. “But I don’t think my sister will be joining us this year.”

“Your parent or guardian enrolled both of you. So, both of you need to fill these forms out. Once you return them, I will print out your schedules.” She handed him two stapled packets, and the look on her face said she was done with him.

Lance just took the forms and a pen and sat down on a chair near the door. There was no point in arguing.

Just then, two girls walked into the office wearing cheerleader uniforms. The receptionist glanced up at them. So did Lance, averting his eyes just before they caught him staring.

“Please hold one second, ladies,” she said with a warm smile, and a much sweeter voice than she had used on Lance.

The two girls stood there fidgeting with their backpacks and hair, while gossiping about the big social news of the day. 

“So, Olivia, how was your spring break?” the one girl asked the other. “I heard you hooked up with Tyler Valentine.”

“O. M. G!,” Olivia said, making a distressed look. “Where did you hear that?”

“He’s bragging about it to the whole school.”

You could almost hear Olivia’s eyes roll. “I can assure you, Tyler Valentine is exaggerating.” She rebutted, pointing her nose up just a bit.

“So, dish girl, what really happened then?”

“Well, I was with my family at our country club and here comes that egotistic neanderthal running up and down the beach. Asshole kicks sand all over our blanket. And all over me. So, I walk into the ocean to rinse off. As I go further in, a wave knocks me over. It wasn’t a big wave and not that deep. So, I just stood right back up. But Tyler-effing-Valentine wants to look like some big hero. He comes over and drags me out of the water. I’m fine, but he insists I need CPR, ugh. He managed to put his hands on my chest and kiss me before I pushed him away. What a creep.”

“But he is cute. And he’s the starting quarterback.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not my type.”

“Well, what happened next?” Asked Olivia’s friend, exasperated. “There’s more, right?”

“So then he proceeded to stalk me while my parents and I were strolling the boardwalk. I figured I needed to get him to leave me alone; so I agreed to walk with him and let him buy me a lemonade. He kept trying to hold my hand and I just kept swatting his hand away. And that’s it.”

“That’s it?” She asked.

Just then a faculty member dashed into the office. “Help! The cafeteria’s dishwasher is spewing soap suds everywhere!”

The receptionist and everyone else working the office got up and ran out into the hall.

“Sweet, I gotta see this!” Olivia’s friend said as both of them followed the crowd out of the office.

The door closed and Lance sat there in the office alone. He had just finished filling out his enrollment form. 

“Hello?” he said to the empty office. “I’m done. I need my class schedule.” 

He looked around then stepped out of the office as students were running to what Lance assumed was the cafeteria.

“Fuck it.” he said as he walked the opposite way and out the school doors.