Free The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian Page A

roll. And I’d been a solid member of the Mock Congress team, at least before the whole thing with Levi Hamrick.
    I unzipped my wet parka with the thought of laying it on a radiator to dry, but then I changed my mind and dropped it on the floor with a slap. “You,” I announced, pointing down at it, “are officially retired as of this moment. Viva la Spring Formal!”
    Elise turned toward me and her face fell.
    â€œKeeley, come here and I’ll dry . . .” Morgan bit her lip as she pushed in. She’d already peeled off her outer layers, taken the rubber bands out of her skirt, and changed into her silver sandals. She wasn’t nearly as soaked as I was. Barely damp. “Oh, shoot, Kee.”
    Even though there was a mirror a few feet away mounted on the bathroom door, I didn’t turn to look. I didn’t need to. I could already tell by how wet I still felt that my dress was in bad shape. My hair was one thing. Everyone’s hair was likely a little messed up. But my dress . . . ?
    â€œCome on,” I said, rushing for the bathroom door. “I don’t want to miss another song.” I just wanted out of there. Back to the gym, back to Jesse.
    Morgan eased me to a stop. “At least sit under the dryer for a few minutes. You can’t go out there soaking wet.”
    I didn’t want to, but I knew I probably should, if only to not look completely ridiculous. “Then you two go dance! I’ll be there in a sec.” Morgan and Elise looked so terribly sad for me, it was hard to stay smiling.
    â€œWell, maybe I’ll get us a table,” Elise said. I nudged Morgan to go with her, but she ignored me and pressed the silver button on the hand dryer.
    I held my dress taut like a sail in the lukewarm wind.
    Trying to stay positive, I said, “That was the most romantic thing that’s ever happened to me. Probably that will ever happen to me.”
    Morgan nodded. She raked her fingers through my hair and it clung to her in clumps. “I should do a quick French braid. It’s not going to dry good with all the product in there.”
    â€œOkay. Thanks.”
    When the dryer stopped, Morgan hit the button again, and I turned to dry a new part of my dress. I felt my hair pulled in ropes. Even though I was trying not to look, my eyes caught my reflection in that big silver button. The silk shell was beginning to ripple, and parts of it had turned a different shade of tan than the rest. It didn’t sit underneath the lace the way it should. And the lace wasn’t creamy white anymore. It was drying a weird, tea-stained color. Jesse hadn’t even seen me in it yet.
    â€œDon’t worry,” Morgan said. “We’ll find a dry cleaner who can fix it. Even if we have to go all the way into Waterford City.”
    I bit my lip and nodded. The upset feelings crept up and squeezed me, but I shook myself out like a rag doll.
    I knew that the only way to salvage the dress, the money my mom had spent, was to have the time of my life. So that was what I was going to do. For me, it’s always been as simple as that.
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    I hadn’t noticed when I first came in, but walking back, the gym looked pretty amazing. I mean, it still looked like a gym, obviously, but the Dance Committee had done a great job and I knew they didn’t have much of a budget. I made a mental note to compliment Elise.
    White crepe paper twists were taped everywhere, wrapped around the railings of the bleachers, twirling in long strips inside a door frame to mask the ugly school hallway. The overhead cage lights were turned down, and strings of tiny globe lights were threaded around the basketball hoops and fanned out to the opposite wall. They had lots of food on the food table, two huge submarine sandwiches, chips, bowls of Hershey’s Kisses, and plenty of sodas, too. Off-brand sodas, but no one cared, especially not