Prom Queen

Ahhhhh.... Springtime!  Springtime means prom time.  I was just reading an article in WSJ about today's proms and how insanely expensive they've become and I realized how simple prom was years ago.  Of course, everything was simple years ago.  Well, retrospectively speaking.  Once upon a time, long, long ago I found myself in the middle of one of my lies.   Shocked, aren't you.  Remember I told you my sister and I are professional liars to our mother?  This story began with a lie to my mother, then turned into a lie to my friends.  Somehow, someway that I now cannot remember, a whopper of a lie came out of my mouth that I was the only 10th grade girl invited to the prom.  Usually, 10th grade girls at my school were not invited because.... well, let's just say they weren't quite good enough to be seen with the 11th and 12th grade guys.  I reckon it would have sort of been saying, "I couldn't get a date with a girl in my grade."  It just wasn't done.  That apparently didn't stop me from shooting off my mouth and declaring I was going.  My mother asked me just who was taking me. (She was all over insisting knowing everyone who visited our house and their entire pedigree.)  I remember stumbling, fumbling around about the lucky guy.  Crap, I was such a liar I probably made up a name but it wasn't long after that she was taking me to look at prom dresses and shoes.  And I went right along with it!  By this time, I was so caught up in the lie that I was actually believing it and I began telling my friends I was going to the prom, but I kept them guessing about the oh so lucky boy.  The dress and shoes were purchased, the time passed and the day before prom night arrived and I was beginning to shake in my shoes.  YIKES!  How was I going to get out of this?  I was sweating bullets, trying to figure out what kind of lie was going to get me out of this insane situation.  And then the heavens opened.  Really, really opened.  A 12th grade guy called the house, apologized for the last minute invitation, and asked me to the prom.  Whoaaaa.... Did I ever escape public humiliation AND the wrath of my mother!!!  I could NOT believe my luck.  I attended the prom, and went to a very nice after prom party, but I did not have a good time because everyone there was an upperclassman and I didn't know them very well.  The hosts parents must have felt sorry for me because as the partygoers were having fun with each other, I was sitting on the steps with the host's mom, talking.   I think about this crazy situation every now and then.  I think about all the lessons to be learned.  Here's the biggest lesson - lie to mom, not the friends.  And always have a fancy dress handy, because you never know when you're going to be asked to go somewhere special.