It was a week before homecoming dance and the leaves outside were beautiful shades of red, constantly cascading from the tall forest framing the edges of a high school; a high school that was eagerly preparing for the highly anticipated event that would immerse the lives of all attending. October was in full swing, and for the high-schoolers, this meant the homecoming dance was swiftly impending. Plans were being made, both secret and brazen, concerning everything and anything that was even remotely related to the dance. Everybody was fervently anticipating the dance, asking one another what they were planning to wear, how long they were going to stay, what they thought the mystery theme was, and most crucially: who they were going to go with to the dance. It was hectic and sometimes messy when there were two suitors and one object of attention, ruthless fights breaking out over the unlucky guy or gal, but the one with the biggest problem of this caliber was a senior by the name of Cecil Wright. He wanted to ask out an insanely popular girl by the name of Ellen Prince, a girl that he had known for a good decade, but he was agonizing over being ridiculed for even thinking about attempting to, as well as the amount of competition he was dealing with.
The thing was, Cecil and Ellen had known each other since the second grade, after a very strange occurrence when both had simultaneously suffered bad bouts of excessive nose bleeding and sat across each another in the school clinic, holding ice packs against their noses as they made faces at one another. Ellen and Cecil were close friends, but Cecil still felt unsure of asking her out, and worse, he was worried she might deny him and others would mock him for even thinking she would want to go out with a nerd like him. They hadn't been as close as they had been since elementary, and once the two had entered high school, Ellen became a goddess figure, with everybody in awe of her great personality, grades, and (especially) her looks. Ellen had the most beautiful, luminous green eyes anyone had ever encountered and gorgeous glossy black hair that cascaded down her back in waves: when she laughed, she was something astounding to behold. Cecil wasn't ugly, he knew that, but he wasn't the top candidate as a date to homecoming, as he was stupidly tall and gangly with a shock of brown hair and piercing gray eyes that were grossly amplified by his glasses. He was also known as more of a 'loser' type, what with his constant day to day attire of vests and dress pants and his 5.0 GPA.
There were several factors as to why Cecil wanted to go to the dance with Ellen, including the fact that although normally Cecil wouldn't go to the dance period, but his parents were forcing him to go. Cecil had never attended a dance before and they wanted him to 'have fun' and 'enjoy himself, it was his senior year,' although he was perplexed as to why he couldn't do so in the comfort of his own home. He could have as much, or even, more fun reading or doing something much simpler than having to prepare for a ridiculously overblown dance. However, they were chaperoning, they were insisting he go, and they were hinting heavily that they didn't want him to be alone: oh no, that would've been too easy for Cecil, who would've glued himself to the walls and moved only when the entire event was over. They wanted him to go with a date to the dance, and they were obviously expecting the charming, raven-haired girl with the green eyes to be that date as they often asked things concerning her, such as how she was doing or if she was still volunteering at the rec center. Cecil didn't want to ask Ellen further than simple company to the dance: he had no special feelings for her, nothing remotely resembling romantic interest in her in the span of ten years they had known one another, and he was pretty sure she had none in him. Besides the fact that his parents would love if he arrived at the dance with Ellen, the two had danced together before and Cecil was sure he would have no problem doing it again: ballroom dancing lessons had been part of the physical education's curriculum during their third-grade year, and both had been stunningly marvelous at it. If he were to dance with anybody else, Cecil was sure he would want to crawl under a rock and die. However, he was having a very difficult time finding a way to ask Ellen to go to the dance with him.
"Anthony, I'm going to have an entire meltdown and a half if I get rejected by Ellen, but I can't show up at the dance alone!" Cecil moaned into his pillow the Sunday before the dance. His other close friend, Anthony Sanderson sat on the edge of his bed, scanning one of the dozens of comic books Cecil kept in his room. Anthony was a heavily pierced boy with a pair of innocent calf-like brown eyes, freckles, and long dyed-green hair, always hiding under a dark beanie. What with his very relaxed heavy-lidded, blank-stared appearance, his untidy wardrobe consisting of white shirts that were always stained with something, flannels, beanies, and ripped jeans, he had the air of a 'rebellious bad boy', and was rumored to be a drug addict, though he most definitely wasn't. Anthony excelled in the arts, such as poetry, literature, and theatre, and he had mastered all the string orchestra instruments, as well as the piano and the flute. However, it took Cecil's parents a long time to get past his outlandish looks, especially after he finally got the dragon tattoo on his back that he had been wanting to get. "I only have a week to ask her, and she's never alone, always with some gaggle of girls or the freshmen she tutors! What's worse is that Doug is always around her, and I think he wants to ask her too!"
Anthony wrinkled his freckled nose and groaned in response. "Oh man, not Watterson. He's a complete jerkwad, especially so since the Cornish incident. He'd be pissed if he knew you were trying to compete for Ellen against him."
Doug Watterson was a lacrosse jock (another stereotypical ripped blue-eyed blond with the most unpleasant personality one could imagine), and he hadn't been much of a problem in previous years (he might've tripped Cecil and Anthony once or twice, or purposely knocked them into lockers in the corridors, but they usually just ignored the childish acts), but over the summer, he had experienced a very catastrophic breakup with his middle school sweetheart, Hannah Cornish, when their explosive fight (concerning him getting drunk and sexually harassing a girl at a party) resulted in a very final end to their relationship. That year, Doug had grown from an irritating pest to excessively nasty. The only reason his hazing of the freshman and constant insubordination went ignored by school officials was due to his status as the most valued lacrosse player, as he was meant to take the school to nationals. It was getting out of hand, though, as his bullying towards those of Cecil and Anthony's caliber had increased dramatically, threatening to full-on fights.
"I know! I think he somehow knows that I want to ask Ellen out: he keeps giving me these looks, you know, like when he scrunches up his face and he grits his teeth… he looks like a bulldog like that, you know," Cecil groused, removing his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose as Anthony snorted at his description of Doug.
"You know, why don't you just call her and ask? You wouldn't have to be in front of everybody, and Doug would just have to get a 'oh, I'm sorry I'm going with someone else' from Ellen," Anthony suggested, raising a pierced eyebrow at Cecil as he raised his head from his pillow. "Tried that yet?"
"Yes," Cecil affirmed miserably. "But she gets so many calls and emails and texts, mine got lost in the dozens of notifications her phone has. I don't dare ask her if she got the call, because she's so busy. She's my friend, but I don't want to bother her, you know?"
Anthony's pierced eyebrow was still raised, though this time in a really? manner. "Dude, she's your BFF, you can't seriously be worrying about stuff like that. You said you've danced with her before, right? She should be totes comfortable with going with you to the dance."
"But we haven't been really 'BFF' material since we were in elementary school, Anthony!" Cecil said, slightly exasperated as he sat up and looked at the green-haired boy. "I don't even know if her favorite color is still purple!"
"Dude. Really?" Anthony rolled his eyes, but he was begrudgingly smiling. "Okay, tomorrow, I'm gonna be right behind you when we get to school. I'm either gonna have to tell her myself that you're going to homecoming with her or you could tell her yourself. Either way, you're gonna do it tomorrow."
It didn't happen the next day. Or on Tuesday. Cecil tried on Wednesday during lunch, Anthony very literally steering him to the table she sat at with her friends, but he choked and ended up asking her if her favorite color was still purple, his face turning a delicate shade of red as her friends giggled and nudged one another. (Ellen affirmed the fact with a grin and Cecil thanked her, absconding very quickly afterwards as Anthony came dangerously close to swearing in front of a group of teachers, chasing after him.) Thursday was another very difficult attempt that ended in failure: that morning before homeroom, a bouquet of purple roses was thrusted into Cecil's hands from Anthony's and Cecil was thrust into Ellen's path as she tried to maneuver through the hall. Stammering very heavily as he tried to avoid Ellen's wide-eyed expression, a crowd stopping to create a ring around the two of them, Cecil managed out only two words ("Dance w-with…?") before someone shoved him from behind and the bell for homeroom sounded, forcing everybody to disperse. After homeroom, Cecil was confronted by Doug as he stopped at his locker, devastated as he hid away the bouquet that reminded him of his awful attempt at trying to ask Ellen to the dance.
"What was that shtick you were trying to pull, Wright?" Doug sneered as he snapped Cecil's locker closed, nearly crushing his fingers. Stumbling backwards as Doug used his lacrosse stick to knock his books to the floor, Cecil stared in paralyzed terror as Doug towered above him, blue eyes blazing with raw, uncontrolled fury. "You can't be dumb enough to think that you, out of all people, are going to homecoming with Prince. Can't you tell that I'm going with her? If you even try something like that again, I'll…" Doug's face darkened, and he released a very intimidating growl, snapping his teeth together loudly as Cecil flinched, startled by his dog-like behavior. Doug barked out a final laugh and used his lacrosse stick to knock his glasses off his face before absconding, leaving Cecil with his things scattered all over the floor and underclassmen snickering at him nearby. Cecil wretchedly recounted the confrontation to Anthony after school while Anthony drove, though this wasn't the greatest idea because Anthony very nearly crashed his van when Cecil mentioned that Doug knocked off his glasses for good measure. The green-haired boy had jerked the wheel in his anger, swerving and swearing profusely as his beanie fell over his eyes, and narrowly missed a fire hydrant the second he heard what Doug had done.
After Cecil screamed, grabbed the steering wheel, and yanked it to the left while Anthony hastily readjusted his beanie and reclaimed the wheel, Anthony said in a murderous tone as horns blared from behind him, "You are going to homecoming with Ellen Prince or my middle name isn't Melissa."
The next day was a Friday, the day of the dance, and the school was buzzing with tension for the event, as well as a shocking arrival of a certain senior. Cecil arrived at school wearing very unfamiliar clothes that caught the attention of everybody (as they were astonished to see him in anything other than his pressed vests and slacks): with long-sleeves, jeans, and sneakers, everything on Cecil was purple, even his glasses that had been carefully spray-painted by none other than Anthony. Additionally, he looked like he had taken a shower in glitter, as Anthony had the bright idea of covering Cecil with sequins, so he glittered like an amethyst. Cecil still had the bouquet with him, and he was very nervously craning his head over the crowd of students, searching desperately for one very familiar head of black hair.
Cecil didn't see her that short period before homeroom, however, and he didn't see her at all the rest of the day, even when he asked for a bathroom pass each class and wandered around the halls looking for her. When the school was dismissed at two, Cecil had not seen a hair of Ellen's the entire day, and he had missed his chance to ask her to the dance. Which meant when he got home to where Anthony was already patiently waiting on his porch for news of what had happened, Cecil was freaking out.
"GodAnthonyshewasn'tthereandI'mgonnacryIworethisridiculousoutfitfornothingI'mgonnagoalonetothestupiddanceandit'sgonnabeawfulandmyparentsaregonnabesodisappointedandChristIneverwantedtodoanyofthisanywaysthiswasallsuchabadideaImightaswellmovetoNewZealand!" Cecil wailed as he crumpled onto his porch, hands covering his face.
Anthony didn't answer for a very long time, and when Cecil thought that he had left, removing his hands from his swollen eyes, he found Anthony's face only inches away from his. His brown eyes wider than he had ever seen before, an ecstatic expression alighting his face, Anthony was beaming, his face lit with a feverish light. He cried, throwing his hands up excitedly, "Cancel your flight to New Zealand, dude: I'll be your date!"
The next several hours were very strange and rushed, to the point that after the entire ordeal, Cecil could hardly believe that any of it had actually happened. It was a great shock when Anthony revealed that he 'cosplayed' which he explained was a form of dressing up as characters from medias such as science fiction comics or anime. It was not that much of a surprise to hear this (Cecil had heard of such things before, he didn't read Marvel and DC Comics for nothing what did Anthony take him for), but it was a surprise to hear that Anthony didn't dress as male characters, but as female characters, and that he used his older sisters' dresses and makeup so often that he didn't even think twice about how strange it sounded. Anthony told Cecil all this and was so breathless once he had explained everything, raking his hair back and waving his hands around energetically, that Cecil could barely tell that the boy he was sitting with was actually Anthony Sanderson and not an overexcited senior who looked as if he were about to pass out from excitement. The two had sat on Cecil's porch for an extra five minutes mulling it over when Anthony clapped a hand to his forehead, let out a shout, and was sprinting to his house when he realized he had only four hours to prepare. This shook Cecil and he was left to worry about how long it would take for Anthony to prepare for the dance when he had said "he only had four hours". Did girls even take that long to get ready? Cecil wasn't sure, and he was too busy worrying about himself to think about it for too long.
Cecil only took an hour to get ready (he wore a gray suit that made him look dashing to say the least, and his mother cooed matched his eyes perfectly) and used the remaining two and a half hours to nervously pace around his house and think of every single outcome that could result in his death by crippling embarrassment. He could hardly believe he was going to homecoming for the first time with a drag queen, and that the particular drag queen he was going with was his best friend and rumored drug addict, Anthony Sanderson. If even a slight detail were noticed that his date was a boy, he and Anthony would be labeled as the laughing stocks of the dance, and they would be ridiculed for weeks, something that especially broke Cecil into a panic. He managed to push away his uncertainties as he regulated his breathing, reassuring himself that if Anthony had done it before, he could do it again. He trusted his friend, and he would trust that everything would be fine. When he examined the time and drove to pick Anthony up, arriving at his house at exactly five thirty, since getting to the school took about ten minutes, twenty minutes if there were traffic, Cecil was welcomed into the house by Anthony's stepfather Vincent (whom Anthony said was very 'chill' in comparison to his actual dad, who acted like a, censored quote, 'complete donkey's butt to his sisters and mom') and sat patiently in the waiting room for several minutes, though he periodically checked his wristwatch, unable to control his nerves.
At six thirty, Cecil wrested his manners for not barging around in other people's houses aside and slammed the door to Anthony's room open, shouting that it was six thirty and they were going to miss the entire dance if he continued to be in his room any longer. Cecil found Anthony blinking awake at a classical pink dressing table, dumbfounded at the fact that he had fallen asleep while applying foundation to his face and the fact that he had a classical pink dressing table. Anthony explained that when he got too excited, he passed out as he carefully applied his mascara, Cecil watching uncertainly as an apprehensive feeling bubbled in his stomach. Trying not to concentrate too much on Anthony as he touched up the last parts of his make-up, Cecil looked around the unkempt mess that was Anthony's room. Daintily painted a soft pink color to match with the wardrobe and dressing table, the walls could be barely seen through the numerous papers and posters hung on the walls. Cecil considered the dozens sketches that Anthony had made, the highlighted poems and short stories, the music sheets from previous concerts he had played at, and the number of posters with Pokémon characters and very underdressed anime guys that made Cecil turn a very dark color and pretend he had not seen them brazenly posted to the walls. It took a long time for Cecil to take in all that was Anthony's room, and even longer for Anthony to scream that it was seven and they were an hour late for the dance.
The biggest astonishment was how much of a girl Anthony actually looked like after he finished off the makeup and the two flew down the stairs and into Cecil's car. Cecil could really approve of Anthony's attire once he had parked in the student parking lot and they raced to the school doors. As they stopped in front of the doors to catch their breath, Cecil took in Anthony's getup: dressed in a dazzling display of a light green dress, white stockings with matching light green slippers, and white elbow-length gloves, all of Anthony's piercings had been removed for the night and nobody could even tell that there was supposed to be a dragon tattoo on his back. Additionally with the dress and gloves, he wore a blonde wig that reached to his hips to hide his hair ("they'll know it's me in two seconds flat if they see my trademark dye, dude"), which unnerved Cecil a little. One could not tell at all that Anthony was the one behind the green dress, and when Cecil snatched a glance at him, he had to remind himself that the girl in the green dress was Anthony, the guy that almost killed him the previous day by nearly swerving into a fire hydrant.
"Gloves? How in the actual heck did you manage to get those?" Cecil said with a mix of nonplussed and awed emotion as the two stood outside their school. Anthony took the time to retie Cecil's tie as the two finally took in the fact that wow, they were about to go inside that building as dates. That's not weird at all. "Are those satin?"
"I'd tell you, but you'd have to promise not to tell my mom I ransacked my grandmother's wardrobe after she died," Anthony answered with a familiar heavy lidded, devious half-smile on his face. The exhilaration from before was gone as he had calmed himself down: he was not going to chance another fainting session at the dance. Once Anthony was finished with Cecil's tie, one of the purple roses from the bouquet originally meant for Ellen seemed to materialize in Anthony's hand. He used it to tuck into Cecil's breast pocket as a lapel and wiped imaginary dust off Cecil's front, explaining, "Just like this, I nicked it. Half the stuff in ol' granny's wardrobe was supposed to go to my aunts, but I was not about to let them to get all of the loot. They got her antique collection of glass kittens; they should be thankful."
The two chuckled at this and looked at one another for a second (Cecil couldn't take his eyes off of Anthony's brown irises, he was entranced with how dilated they were) before Anthony removed his hands from Cecil, brandishing a white fan that made Cecil laugh again. Both taking deep breaths, Cecil and Anthony made their way into the building, discovering a brilliant spectacle of space, carefully created by the SCA (which Cecil was the proud president of) and the art club (which Anthony was the proud founder of). Black lighting had been rented and reinstated for that night, and everything white glowed eerily, most prominently, the tables set with white tablecloths. Glow-in-the-dark stars twinkled cheerfully on the walls while a disco ball representing the moon hung by a single thread from the ceiling, causing for specks of light to splash against the darkness. Because they were late, Cecil and Anthony were obviously somewhat of a sight to see, but most overwhelmingly was the effect Anthony's dress and shoes had. Just like the glow-in-the-dark stars, Anthony literally glowed, an effect that caused all the other girls' dresses to dim in comparison. Along with the dress and shoes, the black light caused the white in his gloves and stockings as well as his fan to shine, and he almost looked like a light show as he floated past. The serene, and rather smug, look on his face only Cecil could see behind the fan Anthony brandished conveyed to Cecil that Anthony had known exactly what he was doing in his dress-up decisions, having somehow learned about the secret theme of the homecoming dance before attending. There were no coincidences when it came to Anthony, and Cecil chuckled as the boy in the dress tilted his head charmingly towards the girls, batting his fake eyelashes in their direction as they gaped, slack jawed.
Once everybody got over the disbelief that Cecil Wright was attending a dance (and the fact that he didn't look half bad as to what they always imagined he would look like), they focused on the blonde girl he was with and that was when the dance seemed to truly stop just for the two. Every guy at the dance demanded to know how Cecil got such a pretty gal to go with him to the dance (Anthony snapped at several of them when their disbelief was replaced with disdain and they hinted that the pretty girl in green should've gone with one of them instead) and every girl was green as Anthony's dress, angrily hissing at one another as they glowered at him from across the room. A number of them sulked at the dining tables, glaring and muttering to one another resentfully as their dates continued to interrogate the two. The biggest question that was going around the dance was who Cecil's stunning blonde date was. No one had seen her at the school before, and people were trying to guess her identity while the two took to the dance floor and danced themselves silly for about an hour. After exhausting about a dozen songs and being exhausted themselves, they threw themselves into chairs seated at one of the dining tables and took several seconds to compose themselves. However, almost instantaneously a group of girls emerged from the darkness and insisted to know Anthony's name. Frantic as he realized that neither Anthony or he had thought of an identity to his date, Cecil scrambled to come up with an idea, cursing his inability to lie under pressure and his sudden blankness on a girl's name. However, Anthony interjected as Cecil stuttered on a terrible excuse of a fake name that would blow their cover, simpering in the most feminine voice he had ever heard anyone utter.
"Call me Ant, gals, short for Antoinette, and if you take a single snip of my dress, I'll have Cecil here call all of your parents right this second," The girl closest to Anthony froze and Cecil saw a flash of silver whip away into the folds of her dress. Anthony nodded, eyes in their dreamy half-lidded stare, and he said, "That's right, put the scissors away if you know what's good for you, Danika Reynolds. Thought I didn't see you waving that around earlier like a lunatic, did you? Screaming about how 'that showoff will get what's coming to her?' First of all, I prefer the term exhibitionist, and secondly, any smart cookie can put two and two together to see that you were trying to ruin my dress. Thirdly, I worked hard on this outfit, so you better scurry along and dance with your date. Otherwise, I might start thinking about telling him that you're only going out with him so his sister won't stop tutoring you. In biology no less, how embarrassing! Right, Cecil darling?"
Cecil stammered, "R-Right as rain, Ant honey."
Danika flushed a dark color, easily visible even in the dark, and the group of girls backed off, all obviously mortified that they had been caught. Cecil looked to Anthony with a startled expression that Anthony smiled at. "… How did you… do… know… all of that?"
"Improv, Cecil sweetheart, you have got to think fast on your toes in the spotlight. Gets a little hot, but with confidence you can make an act really believable. The detail about Danika's date too… well I have got to admit, drama club is a great place to hear a lot of drama," Anthony responded with a low laugh as he gestured towards the group of girls that had retreated to a far-away dining table. "Besides, everyone knows Danika is a total h- oh hello, who do we have here!" Anthony's voice nearly cracked as he reverted to his girly tone and Cecil turned to see none other than Hannah Cornish.
Giving Cecil and Anthony the opportunity to take in her appearance, as they had never really seen her around school (she was more of a detail to a story when discussing Doug), the two discovered her to be outrageously pretty: with curly reddish-brown hair fashioned in a 30's flapper hairstyle, Hannah had a pair of amber eyes and was wearing a long, beautiful, nearly translucent Roman toga. She was also adorably small: reaching barely five feet, she could have passed as a freshman, which might have added to how neither had recognized her before. However, what slightly ruined her appearance was her annoyed expression: it was clear that she was upset about something. Her face wrinkled with worry, she said in a voice that sounded as if it had been repeating what she asked a great many times that night: "You haven't happened to have seen Doug Watterson, have you? Or Ellen Prince? I'm looking for both of them and I can't find either of them anywhere."
The two exchanged an uneasy look, responding with shakes of their heads as the small girl let out a defeated sigh and turned to leave when they heard someone shout from the punch table. Everyone in earshot turned their head instinctively towards the noise, staring at the scene, which appeared to be two boys fighting over a cup of punch. However, at closer inspection, Cecil and Anthony rising from their seats, Hannah close behind, they realized that it was Doug and none other than Ellen, fully decked out in a purple suit, a purple polaroid hanging on a string around her neck. No one could tell it was Ellen at first, because not only was she wearing a green suit, but her long, black hair had been chopped off and replaced with a boyish bob. With such a masculine appearance, it was hard to tell that it was her. One could tell who she was, though, by the way that Doug was shouting her name as she tried to get away, and the fact that those luminous green eyes could be no one else's. Doug tightly held onto Ellen by the wrist, clearly upset about the fact that one, she had cut her hair and was looking like a boy at the dance ("why in the world do you look like that?!"), and two, she had not gone to the dance with him. She kept shouting for him to let her go while he kept an iron-like clasp on her, his other hand clenching and unclenching, looking as if he were about to hit her.
"Who are you with! Answer me!" he bellowed, outraged, and she struggled against his grip, looking pleadingly at the watching crowd condensing around the table. The fear in her eyes was unmistakable from the way she jerked this way and that, but it was useless against Doug's strength. Cecil looked from Ellen to who she was looking at, and looked down to see Hannah looking horrified, hands around her mouth as she watched. She looked up at Cecil, and he could see how terrified she was: not of Doug, Cecil realized, but for Ellen. Immediately, Cecil was at aid, striding through the sea of people and placing a hand on Doug's shoulder as he looked up with some fear, thinking the owner of the hand to be a teacher. When he discovered the owner to be none other than Cecil, however, the expression on his face lost its worry and he sneered. "Why, it isn't anyone important! It's just Wright! Go home, Wright, this doesn't concern you! Didn't I tell you what I'd do if you got in my way?"
Doug knocked a heavy hand into Cecil's chest and Cecil was forced a single step back, flinching at the move. Doug barked out a ruthless laugh and Cecil felt the surge of courage he had originally felt quickly wane away. Warily eyeing the crowd condensing around the table, Cecil's eyes caught on a single figure standing out in the crowd, glaring directly at Doug. Anthony, in his eye-catching gown, was clenching the fabric of his dress in front of him, his face drawn in. Cecil could tell that Anthony was having a reaction to what he was seeing, the way Doug was grabbing Ellen, the way Doug was shouting at her. Cecil pieced together the clues just as Anthony's eyes slowly trailed over to stare directly at Cecil, and they nodded at one another ever so subtly. That was when Cecil decided that he had had enough of the harassment Doug had led for three years. He was going to show him not just what he was capable of, but what anyone could be capable of. Cecil was not just Cecil Wright, the stupidly tall nerd who would never fight because that was what naughty boys did. He was Cecil Wright, the boy who was finally going to give the school bully the justice he deserved, and show that others could, too.
"Oh yes it's Wright," Cecil said in a low voice, taking a wide step forward so that his face was only inches away from Doug's. Doug's face contorted with confusion and a bit of fear, as Cecil breathed in a barely audible murmur, "But you're wrong to underestimate me, Watterson." Then, Cecil swung his arm backwards and launched his fist into Doug's face, knocking him to the floor with a powerful punch. The crowd collective gasped, and for several seconds, there was nothing but crippling silence, Cecil thinking ohgodIjustpunchedDougWattersoninthefaceohgod and owwwhydidIdothatowowowmyhand. Then someone let out a long, drawn-out whistle, muttering an impressed expletive.
At this, Doug, with an astounding amount of speed, forced himself up and tackled Cecil around the waist, bringing the two of them crashing unceremoniously to the floor. It took several minutes before the chaperones arrived at the scene to break up the fight, separating the two boys while half the crowd egged them on, and the remaining half cried for them to stop. For another estimate of a half hour, homecoming was paused while the chaperones tried to figure out who to punish and what exactly happened. Cecil was lucky enough to be on the winning side: everybody claimed to have seen Doug throw the first punch, and in the darkness, the surveillance cameras couldn't precisely show them what had happened. One thing was certain that the chaperones knew of: Doug had threatened Cecil, and several people could show on their phones through multiple video recordings that Doug had very obviously said 'didn't I tell you what I'd do if you got in my way?' Though it meant everybody at the dance was a bystander, the chaperones focused on what Doug had did and after he had been escorted out of the building (screaming about how illegal it was for a girl to look how Ellen looked like and what he would do to Cecil on Monday), it was announced that he had been expelled and would not be returning on Monday. As well as the threat he had made in regard to Cecil, it turned out he was in violation of carrying alcohol and attempting to spike the punch, which attributed to his violent state. Cecil's parents had been very distraught when they had discovered their son had been fighting, but they relaxed immediately when they were told he had done so only as 'self-defense' and would not be punished. There was cheering, Cecil was congratulated by many for his ability to give Doug the piece of his mind everybody had wanted to give him, the dance resumed, and the next several hours were blissful for Cecil, Anthony, Ellen, and Hannah. Cecil's parents were delighted to meet "Ant," Cecil's mother giddy that Cecil had such a pretty date and Cecil's father nodding approvingly, noting how complimentary the dress was with the lights. Ellen and Hannah met up with Cecil and Anthony as soon as they could, Ellen greeting Cecil by racing up to him and jumping into his arms with a great embrace, thanking him profusely. The four danced for hours and hours until they had drained themselves to the point that Anthony wasn't the only one about to pass out. They all fell into seats at a single glowing dining table, Cecil fanning Anthony with a paper plate while Ellen and Hannah shared a bag of chips from the refreshment table. Ellen took the time to explain ruefully that she had been excused that day to set up the dance decorations during school (she was part of the homecoming-planning staff and the black lights had been the most difficult to replace with the regular ones) and that she would've gone with Cecil even if he hadn't been able to ask her properly. They were best friends, after all.
"Honestly," she said, beginning to laugh as Cecil examined and cleaned his glasses, thankfully unbroken from the brawl though his cheek was bruised, and his suit was very disheveled, "I was starting to think I would just ask you out! My mistake, though… looks like you didn't really need me at all, did you? You're lucky to have Cecil, Ant." Gesturing to "Ant," she grinned, and Anthony grinned back. Winking at Cecil, he easily pulled off his wig and Ellen's grin vanished, replaced with an o of surprise.
"Nice hair, Prince," he said coolly in response to her look of astonishment, and he turned to Cecil, removing his gloves first and then the pins from his hair, running his fingers through his green hair so it fell back to his shoulders in its regular lanky fashion. In the black light, his hair glowed to match with his dress, an effect even more stunning than before, which Cecil took note of. "Man! I should not have used my grandma's wig! That thing was giving me all kinds of itching, I think it has lice…"
"Ant… honey… Anthony!" Hannah clapped her hands together in realization and Ellen groaned, covering her face.
"That is the worst play on words I've ever heard, Cecil, Christ."
"Truthfully, I didn't even think about that until you said that," Cecil admitted and the four dissolved into laughter. Once the laughter subsided, Anthony wiped his eyes and turned to Ellen, trying to look serious through his running makeup and failing ridiculously.
"Okay, so, wait, Ellen… if you turned down Watterson and Mr. Wright over here didn't ask you out in time… who are you here with? Is there another guy in a dress here somewhere?" Anthony craned his head suspiciously, looking for the perpetrator. "He better take his off right now because I'm gonna be the only good-looking drag queen here."
"No, no, no, definitely not," Ellen snorted, massaging her aching jaw from the stream of laughter. She took Hannah's hand and kissed it as the curly-haired girl blushed deeply, hiding her burning face with her free hand and whispering under her breath ahhh nooo you're embarrassing me, but not complaining further than that. "I came here with this adorable little lady. I didn't think I was gonna ask her for homecoming, I was saving the invitation for prom, but whatever, I couldn't see any problem with doing both."
"Whoa, I did not see that coming," Anthony said, eyes wide while Cecil nodded, completely unperturbed. "Plot twist of the century, my dudes! When did you get the idea to ask her out? Is this your first time out? Do I need to make sure you two won't be bothered? I've got people in drama who will totally kick ass for you – I want all the details."
Ellen rolled her eyes. "Since we started dating, duh, Sanderson. A week after her breakup with Doug, we decided to have a go at it and we love it, just like we love each other."
There was a silence as the two kissed one another and Anthony broke it with a dramatic display that caught many people's attentions as he clutched his chest with one hand, reached towards the ceiling with his other, and howled, "Oh God, they're too cute! Shield your eyes from their adorableness lest you succumb to it like I have!" Grasping at Cecil, Anthony pretended to swoon, "Cecil, I'm not gonna make it! Tell my mother the truth about the gloves! Remember me as the guy who wore a beanie…!"
The group burst into laughter again and the night ended too soon for any of them to enjoy it enough. They piled into Cecil's car (Ellen's parents had driven Ellen and Hannah, but they were completely fine with Cecil driving them home) and decided to take a short detour before returning home. The four stopped at an ice cream parlor, Ellen and Hannah ordering a root beer float to share ("God, isn't it illegal to be this cute?" Anthony demanded to know), Anthony getting rocky road, and Cecil receiving chocolate. As they all finished their orders and were getting ready to leave, Ellen lifted her polaroid up with a big smile.
"Smile!" she said loudly, turning it so she could fit in the picture, and the four beamed at the lens. There was a click and the image whirred out of the camera.
Ellen smacked the product on the middle of the table and the four stared quietly at it for a minute. Then Anthony said, "Ellen, no offense but that is literally the worst polaroid selfie I have ever seen in my life. Take it again."
Ellen rolled her eyes but was still begrudgingly smirking. "Alright, alright, one more go. I think there's only one film left anyways." She lifted the polaroid again and while she was busy making sure the angle was right this time, Anthony turned to Cecil, half-lidded eyes twinkling as a very familiar, very devious, lopsided smirk spread across his face. Cecil's neck felt warm and he faltered as Anthony put a hand on his knee.
"You've got something," Anthony pointed to his lips with his free hand, "right there, my man."
"O-Oh, I must look o-outrageously messy, I'll just w-wipe my face…"
"Nah, dude, I've got it for you, don't worry. Just let me-"
"W-Wait, w-what are you… A-Anthony-"
"One, two, three… smile!" There was a click and the image whirred again. Ellen popped out the picture and the four looked down at it, Ellen gasping while Hannah raised her hands to her mouth, staring wide-eyed at the image before them. This picture was rather good, but what was shocking was that it exhibited two kissing rather intensely, and it definitely wasn't Hannah and her. She looked up and saw not only how there was chocolate on Anthony's lips as he dazedly grinned at the ceiling but how madly Cecil was blushing, the tips of his ears glowing a dark red as he tried to sink into his seat. Nonetheless, the girls could see that the boys were obviously, and ridiculously, happy about the results of the picture. Beaming at her friends, she scolded, "You call us adorable beyond reason and yet you've got chocolate-stained lips! Sanderson, care to explain to me how in the world you can get any cuter than that! Really, get a room you two!"
"Cecil and Anthony sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Hannah giggled as the boys with the chocolate-stained lips looked at one another and grinned. That was the day that Cinderfella and his Sleeping Beauty found one another in the midst of hidden themes, incognito kings and queens, sabotage plans gone wrong, the pursuit of justice, and a purple polaroid.
THE END