Full Bloom

The Recount

It's not fair. It's not fair. It's just not fair.

I kept repeating that to myself, over and over again throughout the day. It was the one single thing my pregnancy brain could actually focus on. Even as my little girl rolled around and kicked me right in the ribs, I was still focused on being a brooding teenager. My life felt like it was ending.

"Attention all Valley Hill juniors!"

Mr. Katz stopped writing on the overhead projector, smudging the bottom line of an equation with his finger. We never heard Mr. Jaxson, the principal, over the intercom. It woke up everyone who was dozing off in the back row, including me. It was hard not to fall asleep during a not only boring algebra class, but also while we had the lights off to use the projector.

"It's come to my attention that there's been some upset about the choices for Prom King and Queen," said Mr. Jaxson. Mr. Katz walked over and turned on the lights. We all turned our heads towards the speaker on the wall, as if looking would help us see the words he was saying. "We've recounted the votes. The results for King are the same."

I let out a big sigh of relief. Ollie was safe. He deserved it so much. The poor guy never won anything in his life.

"The results for Queen were...inconclusive," Mr. Jaxson said. My heart began to sink. "Many of the voting slips were written in, instead of having check marks next to the appropriate names."

I swallowed the big lump in my throat. I was ready to jump out of my seat and crawl under a rock. Everyone was looking at me. I wished I had my hoodie on so I could hide in it, but it was just too hot today, and this place had no AC.

I remembered back to prom night. There were a lot of people writing in "the pregnant girl" because they didn't know what my actual name was. The kind people who were counting the votes knew it was me and put those slips towards my name. That had to be why he was counting it as inconclusive. That and the pressure from the other parents.

What a load of garbage. This isn't fair!

"The revote for Prom Queen will take place this Friday. Slips will be handed out to everyone in your homerooms. If you miss homeroom, you won't get to vote. If you write anything on your slip instead of checking off someone's name, it won't count. It's that simple. Have a great day, Vipers."

Thoughts were swirling around in my head. I felt dizzy. I didn't even realize that Mr. Katz was right in front of me, or that he turned the lights off. He was handing me the bright blue protractor which was attached to a lanyard. It was his bathroom pass.

"Go ahead," he said. He quickly walked back over to the projector. "Let's get back to some equations now, shall we? To find X..."

I went behind the last row of desks and snuck out of the room. I found my way to the nearest bathroom, threw the protractor down on the sink, and just let everything out. My tears were completely ruining my mascara. It was actually almost funny. I never really cried much before I was pregnant, and now I felt like I was a mess all the time.

"I feel like I've been shit on my whole life, and now this!" I said to myself.

"Ah-ha!" I jumped. Karen came through the doorway. "I knew I'd find you here!"

"Karen! Don't you have woodshop all the way on the other side of the building right now?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I said I had to go to the bathroom. I never told him which bathroom."

"You're the best," I said, putting my arms around her.

"You deserved that win, girlfriend," she said, pulling away from me. "Now hold your head up high, go back to class, and even if you lose the recount, you still won originally. You're a winner to all of us."

"Thanks," I said, nodding. "Maybe we can make a poster or something, so that everyone knows what my actual name is. Hopefully the joke will still stick and they'll vote for me anyway."

"I hope so, too. My mom has a ton of crafty stuff in her basement."

"I have to watch Annie. I'm sure she won't mind if you come over."

"Okay. Sounds good to me."

I got myself cleaned up and walked back to class. The bell rang a few minutes later, and it was the end of the day. I got on the bus, went home, got a snack, and then went next door to get Annie off the bus.

Karen came over a few minutes later. She logged herself into the living room computer and into the secret school chatroom to stay up on any gossip while we worked. I quickly helped Annie with her homework and then moved on to helping Karen with the posters. Annie had a lot of construction paper and glitter.

We made a lot of signs that said "The Pregnant Girl" on top with a big X over it and my actual name below. And with Annie's help, a lot of glitter. The computer was dinging a lot in the background, all with notifications from the chat room. Karen would go back every once in a while to respond.

"Now remember," I whispered to Annie in a stern voice. Her dark eyes looked up at me through the lenses of her glasses. "Just because Karen is pretending to be someone online, doesn't make it okay, understand?" She nodded. "Good. Stay on your own computer games and out of chatrooms."

"Well, duh. I'm too busy with Neopets to go talking to random strangers," she said, very nonchalantly.

"Neopets? What the heck is Neopets?" I asked.

"A website. My mom says she thinks I'm addicted to it."

I chuckled. "Annie, I don't think you understand the meaning of an addiction."

"Okay, incoming!" Karen said, running into the room. We stopped working on our posters and looked up at her. "Dance battle!"

"What?" I asked.

"Dance battle! In the courtyard! Friday morning before homeroom!" Karen said. "You have to go!"

"What? I'm seven months pregnant! And they're probably just joking, Karen. Dance battles are just something that happens in movies, not real life."

"No no no, it's official. Everyone is calling each other out. All the girls are getting a posse together!"

"That's dumb. I'm not doing some stupid dance battle in the courtyard. And I don't even have a posse."

"You've got me and Ollie! And Nassi can cheer in the background or something! If you don't at least show up then no one is gonna vote for you!"

"You have to go, Jen! You're a really good dancer! When we went on a tour of the studio, the trophy with your name on it is still there! And you love to dance!" Annie said.

"Not pregnant," I said. I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. I really, really wanted to win again. "Okay. I'll make a fool of myself, but I'll do it."

"Yes! We've got a lot of work to do!" Karen said.

I rolled my eyes. "After I cook dinner. Then we can practice."

Ten years of hip hop dancing better not fail me now.