around the table to where he sat, taking his warm, familiar hands in hers to pull him to his feet. He rose reluctantly, shooting her a pained expression that made her giggle. Without her heels he towered over her, and for a moment she was surprised at how normal it felt to be like this with Will.
She released his hands quickly and forced a smile to cover up her sudden uneasiness. “Come on,” she insisted. “Think of how happy your mom will be.”
She stood next to Ebony as Will and Trevor stood shoulder-to-shoulder, not quite touching each other. Trevor smiled broadly in a practiced picture smile, but Will glared at Ebony behind the camera.
“Smile, Will!” Ebony called out to him.
“No.”
“Smile!”
“If you’ve got to do this, take the picture already.”
“Not until you smile. Until then, you and your brother can just hang out together all night.”
“Oooh, good one,” Annabelle told her, turning to her.
“Thank you,” Ebony returned pleasantly.
Will stared at the two of them, and suddenly his eyes fell closed and he smiled slightly, shaking his head. Then he opened his eyes and smiled.
Ebony was quick with her trigger finger. She managed to get two pictures before Will’s smile died and he dropped back into his chair.
“Here, lemme take some,” Annabelle requested, reaching for the camera in Ebony’s hand. Ebony hurried to Will’s side, leaning behind him and smiling prettily while Will just gave her a look that said, “Please kill me.” Annabelle laughed and took the picture, staring at the back of the digital screen as it refreshed for the next shot. When the image came back in, she felt her smile die. Ebony’s lips were pressed against Will’s cheek, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Will was rolling his eyes, looking exasperated. Annabelle forced herself to smile and took the shot. “Cute!” she declared, then turned the camera on the rest of the table.
She laughed at what hams they were—almost as much as her friends. She had taken almost twenty pictures before Ebony took the camera back and pulled Will to his feet.
“C’mon,” Ebony pleaded, when Will started to protest. “So I can hang it in my locker and say to myself, ‘Here’s my fantastic new friend, and the guy who is the reason we met!’” She deliberately turned to Trevor, who was frowning slightly. “You don’t mind, do you?”
Trevor shook his head, looking lost and out of place. “No… Of course not.”
Ebony smiled pleasantly and faced Annabelle and Will. “Good. Now come on, put your arms around each other and smile.”
Annabelle had never been as uncomfortable as she was in that moment. Her right arm just seemed to know where to fit around Will’s waist, and his left arm fell naturally around her shoulders as they smiled for Ebony’s camera. Anyone watching them should have thought it was peculiar how comfortable they were with one another, including Annabelle’s boyfriend—Will’s older brother—who sat to Annabelle’s left, a witness to the whole thing.
“Attention everyone!” came an announcement through the speakers. “We’re about to announce your Homecoming court, as voted on by the students!”
Cheers went up through the crowd. A mixture of relief and disappointment went through Annabelle as she and Will released each other. She reached out to take her shoes off of the table and slid them back on, catching sight of Ebony and her friends making mock throw-up faces. She knew she should be insulted, but somehow it only made her laugh. She squeezed Ebony’s hand in goodbye, then followed Trevor to the middle of the dance floor, where their friends had clustered together. She almost laughed at the sight. There was probably going to be a rather large gap in the middle of the floor in just a few minutes.
Annabelle was right. As the grade’s chosen royalty was announced, the space in the middle of the floor continued to grow larger. She stepped back as they started to announce junior royalty, to allow Claire to pass through, when the voice that came through the speakers said, “Junior Homecoming Princess… Annabelle Priestly!”
She stood rooted to the ground, even as cheers went up around her. Her smile felt frozen on her face as she slowly turned to face Claire, confused. She could see the vehemence in her friend’s eyes, but Claire, ever the showman, squealed and threw her arms around her in a hug.
She stumbled up to the stage, still confused, and couldn’t even bring herself to smile as she looked out into the blinding stage lights and