Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom by Emily Franklin; Brendan Halpin; Emily Franklin; Brendan Halpin

Author:Emily Franklin; Brendan Halpin; Emily Franklin; Brendan Halpin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Published: 2012-03-31T05:00:00+00:00

I have never had much trouble sleeping, except when Mom wakes me up blasting Miss Kaboom. No matter what kind of big game I’ve had, or big test, or big paper due, or anything, I’ve always been able to pretty much lie down, roll over, and fall asleep. But tonight, after sixteen rolls in various directions, I’m still awake. I turn onto my back and stare into the darkness—well, the pale yellowness, really, from the streetlights along Main Street that light up the street where hardly anybody drives anymore and the sidewalk where no one ever walks. I’m nervous about the meeting. What if I get up there and can’t say the right thing? What if I do say the right thing and I’ve still lost Tessa’s friendship? Would I forgive her if she’d done something like this to me? And what happens to me and Mom once I plant my flag in the sand and announce once and for all what side I’m on?

Well, no booty call from Jenny Himmelrath, that’s for sure. It’s not like I care about that, though. I mean, yeah, I am a guy, but the idea of kissing one of the people who thinks Tessa’s evil actually makes me kind of sick.

I guess my problem is that I just can’t imagine what comes next. This isn’t a feeling I’m used to, or one that I’ve really ever had before. I mean, you live in a town like this, you pretty much know what’s happening next. It’s not like you ever start a new school where you don’t know anybody. You can always imagine what the next day, the next week, and the next month will be like, because they’re going to be pretty close to what the last day, the last week, and the last month were like. But not now. Now Tessa’s in completely unmapped territory, and if I’m going to be able to look at myself without completely hating myself, I’ve gotta go stand there with her.

It’s scary.

So I don’t sleep.

At around four, I get up, go to the kitchen table, flip open a notebook, and start writing out what I’m going to say to the school board. At four thirty, Mom staggers toward the coffeemaker. “Hey,” I say.

“Yaaah!” Mom yells. “You scared the crap out of me! Well. I’m awake now. The question is, why are you?”

“Writing my statement for the school board.”

“Lemme see.”

Mom grabs the notebook and reads it while she busies herself with the coffeemaker, and when it starts to gurgle, she turns back to me. “Coming off the bench, huh? Getting in the game at last?”

“I guess so. You think it’s okay?”

Mom walks over and puts a hand on my shoulder. “I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s the single best thing you’ve ever done. And it makes me so proud of you I could just explode right here.”

“Don’t do that. The cleanup would be a bitch.”

Mom laughs as she pours coffee into a twenty-ounce travel mug. She takes a big gulp of coffee and says, “All right.

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