Memories Monday: Kieran Scott

Okay, you guys are in for a total treat today. Author Kieran Scott has stopped by the share a story about her junior prom and it is AWESOME. Take a walk down memory lane with her. You’ll thank me for suggesting you do so.



Why My Junior Prom Would Have Been More Fun if I Wasn’t Such a Doofus



So the thing you need to know about me is that in high school, I was freakishly tall. Back then 5’ 9” was like giant. There were maybe three guys in my class taller than me when I was a junior and I was all self-conscious about it. I used to curl my shoulders and stoop, not even consciously, just to make myself shorter. Which is why, I’m told, my posture sucks so badly even now. Every year it’s my new year’s resolution to stand up straight, but it never takes. Just now, as I’m typing this, I’m hunched over my computer like some kind of twisted troll.



Sigh.



Anyway, the reason you need to know about my freakish height is because it sort of, kind of explains the awful thing I did around junior prom. What happened in my high school was this: the junior prom was scheduled for a Friday night in early May, and the second the calendar flipped over from December to January, people started asking each other to go. I’m not even kidding. It was, like, January 3, we were back from break, and people at lunch were all, “Did you hear Melanie’s going to the prom with Jay?” I mean, what the? I still had Christmas cookie hangover and now suddenly I needed a date for a spring dance? That one hook-up sparked a frenzy of panic amongst my peers. Suddenly everyone was pairing up, grabbing the good dates before they were gone. And I, of course, was one of the unlucky girls who was not immediately asked to go.



Weeks started to go by. Then months. I took comfort in the fact that some of my girlfriends remained dateless as well. Slowly our guy friends started to come around to the fact that they weren’t going to be getting up the guts to ask the girls they really wanted to go with and they started asking us to go “as friends” instead. Meanwhile, I was holding out hope that my ex, who I was still in love with, would ask me, as he was reputedly dateless, too.



And then, it happened. One night I got a phone call from this guy Devon. Devon was sort of an acquaintance. We were in the musical together, but other than that, I didn’t know him much. Devon was fairly hilarious, self-deprecating and, unfortunately, short. I’m not talking regular short. I’m talking teeny tiny short. When I think of him now, I immediate think of Rico from Hannah Montana. Actually, imagine Rico at sixteen and you’ll get a pretty accurate picture of Devon over all. Anyway, when I picked up the phone and it was Devon, I immediately knew he was going to ask me to the prom because why else would this guy I hardly knew be suddenly calling me out of the blue? And I immediately started to panic. Because I was seeing our prom pictures. I was seeing us slow dancing in the middle of the dance floor. I was seeing everyone I knew whispering and laughing at us. This could not be! This was not the sort of date I wanted for my first prom! It would be like the beanpole dating the bean.



As all of this was going through my head, he popped the question. I closed my eyes, swallowed hard, and stammered out some kind of no. I think I actually told him the truth. That I was hoping someone else would ask me. Thank you so much, but I really had to say no.



Ugh. Looking back now, I just want to smack myself. Seriously. Because A) how shallow is that? And B) That poor guy must have been nervous to call me, just like any of us are in that situation, and I shot him down. And C) I would have had so much more fun at the prom if I’d gone with him. Because you know what? He was funny. And he could dance. And I know he was a good guy, so I’m pretty sure he would have been a gentleman too.



Instead, I ended up being dateless until like a week before the prom. My ex asked some girl from another school and I finally asked this sophomore guy whom I knew vaguely through choir. He was, of course, hot, because, you know, I was shallow. It also turned out that we had nothing in common. The whole night was awkward and he still tried to stick his tongue down my throat at the end. Like we’d connected on any level that would make me want to smooch him. (Just a note, in case said boy is reading this—as if that’s possible—I got to know him better after the prom and I ended up really liking him. Shocking how it didn’t occur to me to try to get to know my date before the prom.)



And just because I know you’re dying to know, Devon ended up going with a cute sophomore girl who spent the whole night laughing and looking very happy to be on her awesome date’s arm. And you know what? She was taller than him. And they didn’t look weird together at all.



Aww, Devon. lol. I really was wondering what was going on with him. Thanks for sharing, Kieran! For those of you who want to know more about her books and Kieran herself, you can check them out at her website here. Her next book ‘She’s so Dead to Us’ will be released on May 25th, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for next week!