Just Rose

Chapter Ten

Everyone was very good about letting my little bike incident off the hook- except for Sarah. She wouldn't let it go until it was nearly Halloween, a week and a half later. We were at the third thrift store of the day looking for dresses that we could wear for the school dance when we finally made it through an entire conversation without her bringing it up.

I pretended I knew what Sarah and Kiana were talking about as they discussed who homecoming king and queen should be. Apparently the school voted on the people they wanted most to be the "homecoming court" and at the dance the results were revealed on who the "king" and "queen" were. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked but it sounded like Sarah hated the concept.

"Every year it's just another popularity contest," she stated. "Isabelle Covas won freshman, sophomore, and junior years. She's probably just going to win again, with whoever her date is."

"But don't you like the idea a little bit?" Kiana asked, moving her way down another row of dresses and picking a few more to put over her arm. "I mean, anyone can be royalty for the night. I think it's cute," she said, sighing dreamily.

"But don't you need to have a date to win?" I asked. "That means half the school doesn't even have a chance, since a lot of people just go with friends."

"In Florida you could win without a date," Kiana said. "I remember when Daniela was a freshman she came in second, even though she didn't go to the dance with a boy. She was really sad when we moved here and she found out about the whole date thing."

"Yeah, well lucky her," Sarah said, rolling her eyes. "I think the idea is stupid."

"Is not," Kiana said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Who's Daniela?" I asked.

"Kiana's sister."

"I've never met her, I don't think. Was she at your house when we made the cookies for Yvonne and Alonzo?"

"She moved back down to Florida to go to college," Kiana said. "She's in her second year there."

"Kiana, I think you could win," Sarah said suddenly, giving up on her search to find even one dress to try on.

"What?" Kiana asked, continuing to skim through the dresses on the rack in an attempt to hide her excitement.

"Yeah. I mean, you're pretty, nice, do lots of activity sorts of things. You could do it," Sarah said with a shrug.

"I agree," I said.

"That's never going to happen, but thanks anyways," Kiana said, a quiet smile on her face. "Should we go try these on?" she asked, gesturing to the heap of dresses on her arm. "I already have a lot."

"Sure," I agreed. I'd found at least five to try.

"Um..." Sarah held up her empty hands and suddenly grabbed the dress nearest to her off the rack. "Yeah, let's go."

"Did you even look at that dress?" Kiana asked her as we made our way over to the changing rooms.

"Of course."

As it turned out, the dress that Sarah randomly grabbed looked fantastic on her. It was a pink sort of color, which she didn't like, but had pockets, which she did and which made it easier to convince her to buy it. Kiana tried on all eight of her dresses before deciding on a yellow one and I found a simple blue dress that I liked.

***

"You know how we were talking about dates back there?" Sarah asked as she drove me home from the thrift store, dresses in tow.  Kiana was driving herself to Food to cover one of the other waitresses shifts.