♥ THE 2026 JUNIOR-SENIOR PROM ♥

It all began around a week before the prom. Melody, Penny and Dixie were all going to find some prom dresses to wear from the donation area (which I didn’t know was even a thing, but that’s besides the point), and I was brought along. They asked me—possibly jokingly at first, I’m not sure—if I was going to get one, to which I decided that I would.

We looked through them a bit before they pulled out this pretty gold-pink dress and told me that I should get it, and, after a bit of hesitation, I did get it and ended up trying it on later that day when I was supposed to be in my sixth period class. It fit perfectly. The only problem was that the straps were literally stapled on, so they came off instantly when I put it on.

The next few days, I was extremely excited and planning what to do to get to the event in a dress so that my parents wouldn’t know. I asked Karli if I could get ready at her house with her and Dixie and she agreed. That was around the time that we all got invited to Halle’s murder mystery pre-prom dinner party.

In the days leading up to the prom, I’d excitedly ask everyone I knew if they were coming to which a lot of them told me that I couldn’t go since it was the junior-senior prom and I’m a freshman. Of course, they’d done literally no research on this since freshmen and sophomores are allowed to go if invited by a junior or senior. They were all subsequently shocked when I was able to go.

The day of prom, I had my grandmother drive me to Karli’s house, while I carried a bag with me that I claimed contained the suit I’d wear to prom, which of course actually contained the dress. She drove right past Karli’s house at first and had to turn around.

While at Karli’s, the both of them helped me with my makeup (since obviously I’m not super experienced, as much as I wish I were) and Karli lent me a bra that actually fit me.

While we were there, we recorded some pretty entertaining videos with Dixie in a treehouse in Karli’s yard.

Once we finished getting ready, we headed over to Halle’s house at six for dinner and photos. Collin was late because he thought he was supposed to be there at six thirty, but thankfully, we did still end up getting a couple pictures with him in them.

The murder mystery was pretty fun. Unfortunately, the character I got sucked. I played Daff O’Dil who was a florist that was very theatrical and fashionable. That was a fun idea, but unfortunately, it was paired with this as her secret trait: she’s an army veteran and still acts like she’s serving. That literally does not work with her base traits at all.

Despite the pretty meh character stuff I got, it was very fun. Me and Collin sang the national anthem together cartoonishly loudly, and Miles ended up being the killer in the end. Except, he didn’t know he was the killer because that’s how the game is for some reason. I guess it’s so that the killer doesn’t act nervous or weird as a tell, but it’s still a bit odd in my opinion.

Just before we left to the prom, Collin and I bumped into each other and I ended up getting my dress wet because I tripped into the dog bowl, but thankfully, it dried in the car and wasn’t noticeable at all in the lighting of the prom anyway.

Before we left, I was going to ride with Collin, as was tradition recently, but Karli, Halle, and Dixie convinced me to ride with them instead. So instead of leaving with three people in each car, we left with one car being only guys and the other being only girls. So that was kinda funny.

By the time we’d gotten to the prom, my nerves were insane. I was irrationally worried that my mom would show up to the prom to take photos of me in my suit since I pretended not to see her text reminding me to take pictures. I mean, obviously she can’t see pictures of it cause they’ll feature me in a dress, but whatever, you get it. Anyway, I guess I was just sort of expecting that something had to go wrong, that there was actually no way I’d be able to go out with my friends presenting as female and not get caught. And yet, nothing came of it.

The prom itself was probably the least interesting part of the night. The six of us went into the school, some of us danced, some of us didn’t, and that was about it. The music was all early 2000s pop and dance music, nothing I really liked all too much. The only song I sang along to was “Shut Up And Dance With Me”, because who could resist singing along to that. And the only song I really danced to was “The Cha Cha Slide”, because obviously. There was really only one slow song and by that point, I was too tired out to find someone to slow-dance with.

My favorite part of prom was probably when Collin and I submitted “Tip Toe Through The Tulips” by Tiny Tim and they actually played it. As soon as Tiny Tim’s voice came through the speakers I heard everyone gasp. It was hilarious. Then the song actually started playing properly and the DJ said “by special request!” The whole thing was really funny.

But after around three hours, we all ended up leaving. I went back to Karli’s house to change and wash my makeup off, and then she drove me back to my place where I went up to my room and hoped my mom didn’t notice the vague remnants of eye liner still on my eyelids.

I felt pretty bad telling her I ‘forgot to take pictures’ because she seemed really upset about it. I could guess that she thought it was a pretty big day—the day one of her kids goes to prom for the first time. And yet, she didn’t get to see anything from the actual event. Though, I’m sure that seeing photos wouldn’t make her feel better considering my attire in them.