Free Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom by Brendan Halpin & Emily Franklin

your friend’s house.
    I sigh, realizing I’ve still got on my dorky maroon Giant Brooks apron, and take it off and sling it over the back of the computer chair. If Lucas were here I could hug him and tell him I get it, the lying part. And he could hug me back. I sit down in the computer chair and debate going for a run by myself when I get a text.
    JosieRosie: R U OK?
    I hesitate writing back, knowing she must be on the clock and not supposed to be online except for Giant Brooks-related issues, cake orders and the like, but I type quickly, glad at least to have someone checking on me.
    TessaM_13: Ya. Thnx. Missed school for much-needed “personal day”—hah! I’ll B back for 2morrow’s shift. No bigE.
    JosieRosie: U R really brave.
    TessaM_13: ?
    Then I wonder if she means saying no to Lucas so I add.
    TessaM_13: Can you imagine me in a gown? :)
    JosieRosie: Um, ya...;). But really, u r weathering the storm.
    TessaM_13: Storm?
    I untie my shoes, feeling too tired to go for a run, while I wait for Josie’s response.
    JosieRosie: Not so much storm, hurricane. I’m here if U need.

    I’m somewhat baffled by her weather-related references. Sure, it’s a pain, that my personal business is making its way around the Brookfield-Mason gossiping gabs, but storm? Hurricane? Did I miss something during myshort absence? I shrug and cross my legs, first ignoring a framed photo of me and Lucas that catches my eye even though it has been here forever, and then letting myself stare at it. It’s from the same era as the pictures he put on our senior pages—me with giant teeth, him with the front two still out. He lost his teeth late and used to ask me to knock them out so the tooth fairy would bring him a new baseball glove. How do you get from such simple times, when all you worry about is your teeth, to now? Maybe I’m not the answer to all of Lucas’s romantic quests, but I could still show him a little kindness. I search online for the book he’s been wanting about Ted Williams, some big coffee table book, a heavy and expensive one with years’ worth of photographs.
    But while I’m doing the online wander, I find two things that change my plans.
    The first is that the book Lucas has been pining for is out of print.
    The second is a link that leads me right into what Josie must have been referring to when she mentioned a hurricane. Only it’s a Category 5, gale-force winds, and a volcano all at once.
    Will One Girl’s Choice of Date Cancel Senior Prom? Brookfield Prom: Possible Cancellation Due to Lesbian Date Indiana Teen’s Infatuation Leads to Dashed Dreams
    I click on all of them, each with explosive language, all with mixed messages that leave me slack-jawed. CancelingProm? They didn’t even call me. Not that they have to, but still. According to to the
Indiana Banner
, “Parents are outraged,” and are quoted as saying, “Tessa Masterson is making a mockery of a sacred tradition.” Clearly they didn’t quote
my
parents. Not that I know how they’ll respond.
    Of course, I want to retort with, “The ‘sacred tradition’ of stealing booze and barfing onto the Embassy Suites bathtubs and having sex loud enough for anyone in the halls to hear? Is that the sacred tradition you mean?” But I don’t. I can’t. Because just when I think I have my anger to hang on to, to cling to like it’s a piece of debris from a shipwreck, I find another link.
    The
Brookfield-Mason Regional Bee
!
BREAKING NEWS!
    Brookfield, IN. Our small Midwestern community was rocked by the news this week that the entire future of this year’s Senior Prom is being questioned due to one student’s demand to attend the Prom with her lesbian date, both of them in suits traditionally worn by males.
    The Brookfield-Mason school district has the right to cancel or alter school functions as necessary for the safety and well-being of the students and staff, and, according to Principal Hartford, “School policy requires that Prom dates be of