Prom: Doreen & Johnny

[x-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Johnny and Doreen arrive at the dance, and eventually get to the dancing.

Doreen thought she looked cute tonight. Some nights it was hit and miss, but she always believed that if you put a good face forward that people would follow. That aside, Miss Monet had done an amazing job. Doreen’s claws were buffed and polished and she had make up on and her hair was done up and her tail fit perfectly through the dress.

She felt a little glamorous, even if she wasn’t going to this dance tonight to be romantic or anything. She was still nervous. Doreen hadn’t ever, in her high school career, been to a dance. She looked around for Johnny, they had agreed to meet there. After all, they were going as friends and they both lived in the same house so picking eachother up was sort of silly.

Johnny had no aim of feeling 'glamorous' or even comfortable in the confines of his formal garments, but as long as they were not so distracting that they would interfere with the evening, he wasn't going to complain. It was just the nature of the beast. Not that he hadn't made an effort to look his best for Doreen, but there were only so many tolerable things to do with his hair and only so much style allowed to exist within an individual tuxedo, and the one he'd acquired was nothing if not standard.

The boy was already there when she arrived, standing near the vacant end of a refreshment table just beyond the entry and fidgeting silently under the dim lights with a small corsage with blue and white flowers and soft blue ribbon woven into a sweet and simple decoration. He hoped she would like it. They had all looked the same to him, but he had attempted to find one she would like and could only hope the correlation of colors would count for something.

It didn’t take long to find him, she did have her sense of smell to help her out. Monkey Joe had followed her, but Doreen set him firmly on the snack table with orders to stay right there. “Hi Johnny!” she said happily as she trotted over, “You look nice. I mean, not that you don’t look nice normally but this is a formal sort of nice.”

The white-haired teen turned upon the familiar voice, unable to keep back an immediate grin as he spied the squirrel perched on refreshment table near her hip. Her constant companion, even decked out in his own prom duds. He looked back to Doreen, really taking her in for the first time and appearing momentarily surprised despite himself. With her hair tied back, her face painted with careful make-up and her slim frame slipped into a bright dress, she looked almost unlike herself. "Hey, Dori. You too. I mean, you look...really nice."

Johnny's hands continued to toy with the small bundle of ribbon and pedals for a few moments until he remembered what it was. "Oh! Right." He stilled his fingers and slowly offered the gift, looking far more transparently hesitant than he would have preferred, "This is for you. I wasn't sure if you'd...but I remembered you said your dress was blue and...well, I hope you like it."

“Oh!” Doreen took the flowers and blushing slipped them on. She was blushing because the flowers were pretty, she told herself, “And thank you, Miss Monet helped me with my hair and makeup because it’s really hard for me to do it on my own and I love the flowers!”

Johnny seemed relieved and simultaneously sheepish himself, glad that the gift had been accepted at all, let alone with such visible energy. He smiled, bobbing his head and inadvertently coaxing some of his uncooperative hair out of its attempted tameness, "I'm glad." He laughed softly at his own expense, "I'm no good with this kind of stuff. I was afraid I'd botch it."

“It’s okay, I’m not very good at it either. But it’s going great so far! Want to dance?” Doreen asked, brightly, “We should dance. I mean, it is a dance.”

So the lessons from Jean-Paul would pay off after all. Johnny smiled just as brightly, nodding as an unfamiliar but undeniably catchy song came over the speakers in their various corners, "Let's go."

“Yeah! It should be fun,” Doreen said, she was a natural dancer, her tail and her balance made her that way. Any awkwardness was simply from not having done this before. But it was fun.

“By the way, thanks for coming with me.”

This natural coordination was something they shared and it didn't take either of them long to find their rhythm, though his practice in the week prior did give Johnny a small edge on form. But unlike many of their encounters, there was no competition in this; only enjoyment and perhaps a small hope that they wouldn't get caught on the floor during a slow song. He remembered Jean-Paul's (and, worse, Lil's) advice about hand placement and blushed very briefly despite himself. He pushed it out of his head. "Thanks for inviting me."

“I thought it’d be fun, and it is,” Doreen said happily, enjoying the dancing as just motion. And Doreen did love to move.