My Night of Neon Light

     At my school when we hear the word "dance" a lot of us think that means "dry hump each other to ghetto music". So when I heard we were having a prom, I wasn't exactly thrilled.
     Another thing that really put me down about it was that I wanted to go with a certain guy. About a week before prom I told him that I had a crush on him. His response? "Yeah, and you're a great actress." A GREAT ACTRESS?! That's the best possible complement he could give me? While that did wonders for my confidence level, my best friend was also left heartbroken by a different boy. So we figured we would go to prom with each other. It's not like we were going to get asked anytime soon.
     The day of prom I didn't bother to even go to school. Our final exams were over and we weren't doing much anyway so I thought I would just spend it prepping for prom. I went to go get my hair done and the stylist straightened it. It took an hour and a half to get all of my curls to go flat. I got up thinking that we were done, but she shoved me right back down into the swivel chair. Then she begins to curl my hair. I'm sorry; what?! After another hour of glaring at the stylist through the mirror, I ask "Are we done now?" She laughed. She then commenced the most complicated pattern ever on the back of my head. Finally I had a perfectly messy bun with a red flower in my hair. How it happened, I have no idea. In the end I looked very well...Latin.

     When it came to makeup, I was told "Go find the reddest lipstick you have." so I came back with my favorite stage makeup. I put it on and got a "DAMN THAT'S RED!" I threw on my dress and then was out the door and headed to Kate's house, where I was meeting up with some friends. From Kate's house we went to City Diner and laughed until our stomachs hurt. We figured that the dinner was going to be more fun than the prom itself. Eventually we left for the Ortiz Center where our prom was to be held.
     As we drove up we saw one of my good friends, Quentin. He looked dashing in an all white tux and we called him over to us. The first words out of his mouth made my night, "OMG your dress! You look just like Anita! So West Side Story!!!" Quentin knows just what to say to make me smile. As in one of my previous posts, I have a bit of a fetish for West Side Story and Anita is my dream role. Of course we danced and took plenty of pictures that were very West Side Story-esque. He was my Bernardo for the night.

Frances and Austin

     Every dance I had meant something different to me. I danced with another one of my good friends, Natalya (click here to see a 5 second clip of us dancing) and remembered why we are such great friends. As another one of my friends, Austin, spun me around the dance floor to "Neon Moon" I realized how much I missed having classes with him. With Frances I noticed how grown up and beautiful she was and it hit me that we were all growing up. With Steff a wave of dred hit me like a brick. I didn't want her to go to any high school except mine. I jumped around with Kate and I could barely contain my excitement to do high school theatre with her in the fall.
    Technically Lauren was my date, but she enjoys dancing more than I do so she never left the dance floor. I didn't mind; I walked around and chatted a bit with everyone.
     Our theme was "Night of Neon Light" so there were glow sticks everywhere. It was actually really pretty; so pretty that we were all surprised. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the DJ. He would stop the song so that we were all singing acapella. It wasn't pretty. If we wanted to hear these kids belt out lyrics to songs they barely know, and butcher it, Baker would do more musicals. DJ aside, it was a great night. My date and best friend, Lauren, spent the night at my house and we talked about who we danced with and who we wish we had. It was a great way to end the year and we lit up the night with our high spirits alone.