Prologue
WHO THE HELLinvented Prom Queen? Because I know for a fact that it wasn’t Princess Diana. Maybe it was that bitch, Queen Elizabeth.Yeah, that’s definitely something she’d do. Not to speak ill of the dead, butcome on, she had to know more about Princess Diana’s death than what she actually admitted to. Royals are always up to some shady shit. They never even believed Diana was worthy of the crown.Pfft…those stuck-up asshats.
Ahem,anyway. May they both rest in peace…unless one of them invented Prom Queen.
Because, seriously, who invented this fucked up tradition? I mean, come on, forcing every 12thgrade student to fight against each other tooth and nail just to get a plastic crown that brands them as better than the rest of the high school population? It’s so archaic.
Yet, here I am falling for the same stupidity.
I’ll tell you one thing: whoever came up with the idea knewexactlywhat they were doing. To turn us back into the animals we once were during the Paleolithic era? To make us become savages again? To allow us to learn about the cruelty of social hierarchy while still at such a young age? It’s fucked up but poetic, in the same way, that the presidential election is basically a popularity contest. Maybe fighting is all we really know how to do. Maybe it’s not possible for humans to coexist peacefully. After all, people are the main cause of chaos in the world. Humans are no better than any other primitive wild animal, tearing each other apart just to be crowned leader of the pack. That’s just natural selection, baby. Survival of the fittest, right?
Oh!Maybe Charles Darwin invented Prom Queen!
“Okay, that’s it,” I muttered while whipping out my phone. The harsh light from the screen nearly blinded me as I squinted my eyes, adjusting to the brightness that had overtaken the darkness in my pitch-black bedroom. “I’m googling this.”
Who invented Prom Queen?
Who was the first-ever Prom Queen?
Who started the Prom King and Queen tradition?
Each one of my searches yielded no conclusive answer.
What I did find out, however, is that Prom—short for promenade—originated in Ancient Greece back in the 18thor 19thcentury. Apparently, it was a popular high society tradition,so…rich white people. Prom became even more popular whenPretty in Pink,Sixteen Candles,andThe Breakfast Clubwere released. Oh, and get this—the White House held a Prom in 1975.
Even after finding out all of this useless information, no matter how far into the rabbit hole I dug, I still couldn’t find out who invented Prom Queen. Maybe if I go to sleep, I’ll dream about the inventor of Prom Queen, then thank them by making them step on a Lego. Until then, I’m blaming Queen Elizabeth.
I sighed and shoved my phone back under my pillow.I bet Jessie would know. I just wish I could just ask her. I bit my cheek, holding back tears that were on the verge of spilling.
Why is this the shit I think about at 1:12 a.m. on a school night?Just go to bed, Clarke.
I blinked away the tears and closed my eyes, trying to wait for sleep to come.Guess what?It didn’t.
Thirty minutes of restless tossing and turning later, I reached inside the upper drawer of my bedside table and pulled out a pink journal with a single heart engraved in the center. I flicked the lamp on with my thumb and pressed pen to paper, scribbling down a compilation of what I had learned while researching information about Prom.
When it all came together, I had created the perfect plan.
Senior year is going to bring me face to face with the biggest popularity contest I’d have to face in my whole, entire life(because there’s no way in hell I’d ever run for president).
I want to be Prom Queen.
No, scratch that—Ineedto be Prom Queen, and nothing is going to stand in my way; but if it did, I’d knock that shit right down.
And maybe hit it with a baseball bat for safe measure.
Like I said before, Prom Queen is a really fucked up tradition, but that plastic silver crown with fake diamonds will bemine.
One
“This is worse than that one time Jamie O’Connell tried to cut bangs for herself!”
I huffed out a sigh. “Come on, don’t be so dramatic, Meredith.”
“Dude, we have literally no classes together. Like nada. Zero. Nothing. Zilch.”
“Wow, I’m impressed,” I said, my lips curling upward.
“Impressed that we won’t see each other?”
