"Good morning, class. Good to see everyone could make it today." Mr. Edevane seemed to look at the attendance before glancing around the classroom at all the students.
"As you all know, the biggest school event of the year is coming up, and no, I don't mean graduation, although that is a close second as far as big events. What I am speaking of is the school dance, known as prom. Yes, indeed prom. The one thing that gets you to take your examinations seriously for the term. Now this year there will be a few changes as decided by the school board and to make things easier for the EEA, we will combine our school dance with the Bartley Montessori Private Academy."
Murmurs and a few outbursts from his classmates made it clear that this was not a popular idea. Erik had already seen that this school seemed to hate Lia's school, but he didn't really understand why school rivalry was such a big deal. Then again, he hadn't stuck around at any one school long enough to gain school loyalty.
"Why should we have to share our prom with those Lion ba-" A classmate burst out but was quickly silenced with a look from Mr. Edevane. It was clear what they were going to say, which was probably why the teacher made it obvious that it wouldn't be wise to finish that statement.
"As for why we are combining the dances of both schools, besides making things easier for the EEA and our schools, is to better maintain control over a mass of students that think that they don't need to pay attention to their health and well-being in order to attend the dance. Now in the past we have had incidents where students have presented at the most inopportune time, or have gone into their heat or rut, because they neglected their suppressants. In some rare, but tragic turn of events, there has been foul play by students that have decided that it was funny to drug another student or even a chaperone with illegal inducement medication." Mr. Edevane looked around the class once more, seeming to judge their reaction to this news.
Erik was shocked to hear that things like this happened at a school ordained event that was supposed to be crawling with chaperones.
"Because if these happenings in the past, it has fallen on us health teachers to make all our students aware of their own cycles and to give warning that those not in peak condition will be denied entry to the dance either before the event or at the doors if found to have neglected their health in favor of putting others in danger. As for the use of illegal substances, all students will be checked by the EEA at the doors before being allowed entry. If found to have anything harmful on them, they will be immediately expelled and face criminal charges. This will, of course, exclude you seniors from graduation and walking with your peers."
Most of the students around Erik seemed shocked that someone would do that. Erik, too, was shocked that people would willfully endanger someone else just to go to a silly dance.
The rest of the class period was spent on a refresher lecture for the alpha and omega students on how to calculate and track their cycles, while the beta students studied up on how to recognize and help their peers if such a situation should occur.
After school, Erik headed to work with a lot on his mind. He hadn't thought about tracking his schedule, or Lia's, for that matter. Mr. Edevane had made it clear that young fated couples could inadvertently send their partner into an early cycle and thus should take extra precautions ahead of time. Supposedly, the cozy and lovely environment created by an intimate dance was all it took to make those with secondary genders instinctually affect their dance partner.
Now Erik needed to calculate suppressants into the cost of finding appropriate clothing to wear on top of the cost of admission to the dance. He hadn't bought tickets yet, since he hadn't asked Lia to go with him to his prom, but now that their school's prom would be held together, it sort of made it easier and harder for him at the same time. The cost of prom was now higher than he had expected, which meant that his whole scrimping and saving was going to be a lot tighter for a while longer.
Sighing as he started his shift, Erik got work manning the grill and fryers. He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear his name being called.
"Yo, earth to space cadet Erik!" He startled for a moment, before turning around to see that Georgie had been calling his name.
"Oh, what's up, Georgie?" Erik turned slightly, while still keeping an eye on the timers for the fryer.
"Your girl is here. She wanted to know if you had a moment to spare to see her."
Erik looked at the fryers and at the burgers that were just about ready to flip. He couldn't step away at the moment, even though he really wanted to see Liona.
"Can you ask her to wait until my break?"
"She says that it's important and that she's in a rush. Let me take over and if you can make it quick, I'll take over for a couple of minutes." Georgie gestured out to the dining area, showing that Liona was waiting.
"Yeah, I guess. I'll be right back. Thanks, Georgie!" Erik hurried out to the dining area to see that Lia was pacing back and forth with her friends gathered at a table behind her.
"Lia? What's wrong?" Erik was immediately worried.
"Oh, Erik!" Lia rushed up to him and pulled him into a hug. He didn't know what brought this level of affection on, but he didn't hate it. However, he nervously looked around the restaurant to see that the only customers in the dining area were an elderly couple and Lia and her friends.
"I failed my last two math assignments and now my teacher is threatening to not let me go to the dance!" Lia practically wailed as he was hugged tighter.
"You want to go to the dance?" He was pretty sure she would definitely want to go, but he wanted to be sure.
"Yes! But now if I don't pass this make-up assignment, I won't be able to take you!" Lia buried her head in his shoulder and inhaled deeply. This action pleased him, but he couldn't really tell why.
"Sorry, Erik, we have tried our best to tutor Liona in math, but she still failed her last two assignments. One of them was worth quite a bit of her grade in that class, so the teacher made it clear that those who failed any assignments in the week leading up to prom could not be allowed to go," Liona's friend Allison explained.
"Could you please help Liona in math? She always seems to do so much better on her homework when you help her study." Chloe asked him.
Automatically, Erik found himself agreeing. "Sure, I can help."
What Erik didn't quite think through was how he was going to find the time with all the extra hours he had been putting in at his jobs. He was already getting less than four hours of sleep at night in favor of working an extra hour at the grocery store and he had been pushing his coffee shop hours by covering for one of his coworkers, who was out on a heat leave of absence. Although he was working the same hours at the shop, he was effectively doing the duties and job of two people, but he was getting bonus pay for this. All this extra money was vital to his plan to take Lia to the dance.
Wrapping his arms around Lia for a brief moment felt like heaven. He always enjoyed the feeling of his mate in his arms, but now was not the time to indulge himself. He carefully extracted himself from Liona's grasp and gave her a quick peck on her saddened face.
"Lia, I'll help you with your studies, but it will have to wait until my daily break here. Otherwise I won't have time."
"Okay. I guess that's to be expected. You are always so busy, though! I barely get to see you these days!"
"It's not that I don't want to see you, but I won't accept your charity anymore, Lia. I promised I would help to pay for some of our dates, so in order to do that, I have to work very hard. The school dance is one of the things I insist on paying for. I will ask you properly soon, but in the meantime, I have to get back to work." He turned when he heard Will call out an order for a meal that one of the elderly customers went up and took.
"Alright…"
Erik tried hard to not let the hurt he saw in Liona's eyes make him cave. If he did, then everything he had been working hard for would have been pointless.