"Order, order! I will have order " My father's mayoral wooden gavel clambered against the hard surface of the podium. He raised his opposite hand in the air to calm the boisterous and agitated town hall gathering. "What we need to do is come together and welcome with open arms our neighbors in need."
My father was referring to the town merger of course. He was one of the rare four year term mayors, a favorite of the town and a staple of prestige and even with all this status, the town was still not reacting well to his decision.
One of the neighboring towns, Ambitie, recently experienced an economic depression that lead them to take out various loans from our town. When they began to default on their payments, my father suggested that our town absorbed Ambitie and to take on their debts to keep them afloat.
Ambitie had a nasty reputation for being filled with crime—nothing but trouble; so it was understandable why there might be reservations about conjoining the two towns. Putting the two towns together had a lot of small implications to worry about for instance, our school systems would now be combined.
I went to a very posh school, "Only the best of the best for our little girl", my parents would always say. It was the typical high school you'd see on a television show, there were exclusive cliques and an insane adoration for the football team. Just a standard everyday school.
I grew up hearing rumors about how Ambitie's school was for juvenile delinquents after they were released from prison. Everyone talked about how there was no learning at their school, just drugs and fighting. Basically the polar opposite of our school.
So while everyone was concerned about the merger and especially us students, just for one night, all of those worries seemed to disappear because tonight was the Forest Bash.
Not for me of course but every other student at our school seemed to be able to drop all worries for this one party.
Every year the football team would host the annual Forest Bash, anybody who was anybody vied for an invitation as the Bash was considered the party of the year. People looked forward to it all year and this time it was particularly special because the football team just won the state championships which meant this party would be even more raucous than ever before.
The meeting adjourned because it was getting dark outside and my father was always adamantly against being out while it was dark. But even he was dropping all concern for the beloved Forest Bash tonight.
Normally, I would never get an invitation to this sort of thing. I was the quiet, shy girl at school, my main goal was to go through every day being as invisible as humanly possible.
That all changed when Henry Banks came into my life. He was the most popular guy in school, all the girls wanted him and all the boys wanted to be him.
We first met freshman year when Henry and his squad stereotypical popular jocks and cheerleaders made me their primary target. Henry was apart of the group and before he and I got together, he was just as awful to me as the rest of the lot.
There were too many incidents to count where I would be slammed up against a locker or received a particularly rough shoulder check or had my books knocked from my hands. He of course said that he didn't remember ever doing that to me but that was beside the point. That vindictive little crew were hell bent on making sure everyone who wasn't cool by their standards, spent every moment at school regretting attending.
Something changed this year though. One day I got out of my last class for the day and walked to my locker to find him leaning casually against it. I remembered preparing for the worst but instead, Henry charmed me with his good looks and sudden change in demeanor. The least popular girl being desired by the most popular boy, all logic was thrown out the window and I was entirely swept off my feet.The memory of him tucking my hair behind my ear and caressing my face as he asked me to be his girlfriend on the spot haunted me constantly.
