lenny stuffed the last of his books that needed for the night's homework into his backpack and closed his locker, rather quietly amidst the general din of the end of the school day. usually, he would be somewhere in the mass of students moving quickly for the exits to head to the dorms or home or baseball practice or wherever they were headed- anywhere, it seemed, but the classrooms where they'd just given up eight hours of their day. but today, he hung back a ways from the crowd, on a mission to try to pick out a particular face from the swarm of people around him.
apparently it was public knowledge that max had asked diana to prom before he'd managed to pluck up the courage to do it himself- and he was still kicking himself for it. as far as he knew, the two of them were just friends and if only he'd asked even a couple days earlier… but then, according to the canterbury tales' latest spiel, he was apparently pretty out of the loop when it came to the lives of just about everybody. still, lenny realized that his failure to just grow a pair and ask diana not only left him feeling rejected and disappointed but also dateless. and while he would have been perfectly content to go to prom without a date, since he had plenty of friends and he was sure that there would be plenty of people for him to socialize with at the dance even without a date (though maybe he could still sneak in rhett for a laugh), he figured that he might as well just ask somebody else. after all, he'd already dealt with what was undoubtedly going to be his biggest rejection- did it really matter if somebody else said no?
that was why he was currently weaving his way through the mob of ellison students toward the blonde girl digging through her own locker. lenny was friends with kelly, she was in his year and, most importantly, he didn't think that she had a date yet. even if kelly was far more high-strung than lenny thought himself to be, they always managed to find something to talk about that they had in common. he liked her well enough, even if she wasn't diana, so maybe she'd go with him? it was worth a shot, anyways.
hiking his backpack a little further up on his shoulders, lenny paused on the other side of kelly's locker door so that once she opened it, he would be clearly and unavoidably in her view. he rolled the flower he was holding, a simple calla lily because the store had been out of roses, between his fingers with mild apprehension- though, as he reminded himself, it didn't really matter. as kelly shut her locker, he put on an unfortunately goofy smile and held up the flower, saying with much less nerves than he felt, "hey kelly! so, first off, congrats on the prom princess nomination. and second, would you be not just a princess but a true hero and be my date to prom?"
meet me in the morning and i'll be happy as a clown, you'll just be getting up and i'll still be getting down. the band is getting tired but they don't give a damn. so blow the girls a kiss and give the boys a hand. you can take the sunshine, i can take the moonshine. you can take the high road and i can take the low. but later evening, the one thing i believe in, we're on the road to ruin and it's the only way to go
TAG: saga/kelly!
WORDS: 522
NOTES: roses are old school ya heard?
Today had been a very productive day for Kelly. She'd gotten back three different papers she'd done, all straight A's. She'd had a meeting with the cheer squad during lunch, which had gone extremely well. She'd had a talk with her english teacher about the lousy sub-teacher they'd had the last few weeks, telling their teacher everything the sub had done wrong. So far, she was pretty happy with herself for everything she'd accomplished today. The only thing she hadn't accomplished, was who she'd go to prom with. Being Kelly Cross meant a lot of options for prom escorts. Guys in all different ages, different types of personality. But it also meant being extremely picky. Kelly didn't want to end up going to prom with someone she'd have a lousy time with, or someone people would think wasn't the best choice for her. She was nominated for prom princess after all. Sure it wasn't prom queen, the only nomination that really mattered, but so far people had been coming up to her telling her they'd voted for her and hoped she'd win. It was weird how many people that pretended like they actually liked Kelly, when most people hated her. She knew all of this though, but just didn't let it touch her.
Both of Kelly's bestfriends had already gotten dates, Diana was going with Max Hamlin, another senior, and Olivia was going with Beau Stratus. As much as Kelly disapproved of Olivia's choice of prom date - he was the guy who'd beaten up Robbie, Kelly was still sulking about the fact that they both had gotten dates before her. But it wasn't like she hadn't been asked.. she just couldn't make up her mind. She didn't know who she wanted to go with. Maybe she'd even go by herself, why not? A lot of girls did.. but no, it wasn't an option. She was Kelly Cross, one small step out of place, she'd be kicked off her high piedestal people had put her on. She couldn't have that.
Walking to her locker as class had finally ended, she sighed to herself, not making eye contact with anyone or waving at people, like she usually did. For once, Kelly didn't care about putting the usual smile on her face and taking every oppurtunity to talk to people about important things. She just wanted to be alone. Shutting her locker again, she jumped a little as she saw Lenny standing there next to her, holding a flower in his hand. Her mouth fell open from the shock. Was he really asking her to prom? Sure it wasn't one of those crazy romantic moments, like Max Hamlin had asked Diana, but he was asking. Lenny, the one guy who hadn't tried to win her over since their first year at Ellison. She finally regained control of her reaction, and flashed a smile at him. "A true hero? Hm. Sure, why not. It's not like anyone else had asked anyway." She smirked at him, taking the flower and looking at it. She couldn't help but feel.. joy, inside as she looked at the flower. Maybe she'd actually have fun at prom for once, and not worry about the way people looked at her. Maybe.
"the only kind of hero that's worth being." "sure, why not?" it wasn't exactly the most enthusiastic response that he could have imagined but then again, it was a lot better than the flat-out "no" that he had been half-expecting. his grin became a little wider and a little bit more genial and real. so even if diana didn't want him as his date, at least somebody would take him. that in and of itself was enough to make his mood, which had been pretty much perpetually downcast since being turned down by diana, slightly more buoyant. with the knowledge that- hey, he actually had a date for prom!- came a release of a rush of air from a breath that he hadn't realized that he had been holding. as she examined the flower, he added as an afterthought, "oh, that's for you. i thought you might like it."
"really?" he hoped that his response didn't sound as desperate as it sounded in his head. he was absolutely terrible with this sort of thing- the only girls that he felt comfortable around and never second-guessed what he said were his sister and teagan. and he hadn't just asked either of them to prom. lenny leaned against the row of lockers lightly, tucking his hands in his pockets now that they were relieved of anything to hold so that he could avoid the head scratching nervous tic that would undoubtedly follow if he didn't do something else with them. "i mean, that's great! not that nobody else asked, obviously." he raised his eyebrows in slight surprise as he said that out loud, not really having processed it on first hearing. nobody else had asked kelly? that was shocking because she was, as far as he was aware, pretty popular (then again, he was judging from her friendship circle and the fact that she had made prom court nominations but seeing as he had as well, maybe that wasn't so much of a feat). but it was what it was and it worked out better for him in the end anyways. "yeah, not that you were dateless before, but that you'll come with me."
lenny didn't really know what to do next. this wasn't his scene. he was a really outgoing, energetic guy but that was because his specialty was being friends with people. he could be friends with anybody- guys, girls, freshmen, seniors, literally, anybody who talked to him, lenny would befriend- but as soon as he even toed the line between friendship and… not, he was out of his comfort zone. not that he was asking kelly to go to prom as anything other than friends- he really, genuinely liked her but not as anything more than friends or so he thought- but this was still not something that he spent his time doing. he was one of the guys who thought of ways to get girls to play video games with him or something like that, not go to dances with him. and he didn't consider himself above admitting it either, especially since you tended to wind up looking like even more of an idiot when you tried to act as though you were something you weren't. lenny laughed a little bit as he admitted, "so, not going to lie, you're going to have to take the reins on planning whatever you want to do before the dance. don't take this the wrong way, but your friends seem to be a little bit more into that sort of things than mine."
meet me in the morning and i'll be happy as a clown, you'll just be getting up and i'll still be getting down. the band is getting tired but they don't give a damn. so blow the girls a kiss and give the boys a hand. you can take the sunshine, i can take the moonshine. you can take the high road and i can take the low. but later evening, the one thing i believe in, we're on the road to ruin and it's the only way to go
