Costume Damage

As suggested to me by the random word generator.

Back in the days of prom, sorry to all the children that lost theirs to the pandemic, my mom forced me to go to mine. I'm grateful to her for that, because I had a great time, and, by observing others, I will not be eternally bitter over losing the opportunity. Just imagine evil laughter here.

My school did all the voting prematurely. In the first few days of senior year, we did all the yearbook voting: most likely to succeed, nicest smile, and whatnot. We also voted for Prom King and Prom Queen a month or two before prom. So, no one there was vying for Prom Queen. Except for me.

My classmates wore dashing tuxes and gorgeous, flowing dresses fir for a wedding. Not me. I turned the sparkles up to 150% and brought the hem up to my thighs. I did all the dancing. First on the floor. First in the congo line. Slow dancing-well, that's a different story. I danced with all the singles, boy, girl, every one. Stag party? That's ten dances right there. But none of that could unofficially crown me the real queen of the prom.

No, no. What made me MVP was what I prepared before prom. I did all of my research, and short of the dastardly, the most common horror stories featured girls with ripped dresses. Standing on the hem, and all that. So, I stuffed my handbag with a dozen and two colorful spools of thread and plenty of needles.

The first ten minutes of the party, a friend ripped her dress just by sitting down wrong. I opened that bag, and it never shut again. Black stitching on yellow for her. Black on red for the next girl. Blue on blue. Some green. Honestly, the black was really popular. These girls came out of the woodwork every time I turned around. So many small tears and holes were fixed before a major wardrobe malfunction occurred. People were seeking me out by name. Even the guys joined in when their suits ripped. At one point, the dance floor was empty, over half the party surrounding our table, having a sewing party, the rest at the buffet table.

Now, no one said "hero", but we all know it was implied. And if you want to be a hero, too, prepare yourself for your next big party.