"Thank you, Mrs. Williams," I said.
"What was that about?" asked Landry afterwards.
"My dress is too short for the dress code. Mrs. Williams was covering for me," I replied.
We were led to a photographer, who was a stocky no-nonsense middle-aged woman with a man's haircut. Her presentation fairly screamed lesbian. She absolutely gushed over my dress, and repeatedly touched me on the small of my back in quite an unnecessary way. It got to be so bad, that Landry began to grow visibly uncomfortable.
The photographer and her assistant had created an elaborate set with a backdrop that depicted the cobblestone walk along the River Seine at night, with Notre Dame Cathedral in the background. This was perfect for the "Night in Paris" theme. She took pictures of us standing in about twelve different poses while the soft boxes and flashes popped off over and over as she took dozens of exposures.
After we were done, she had a large monitor which was showing a slide show of the pictures most recently taken. Landry and I were stunning as a couple. He was handsome and incredibly debonair in his dinner jacket. I could scarcely recognize myself. I looked like I was in my mid-twenties.
As we walked to the door of the gym, Dexter Monroe, the sophomore who was a star defensive lineman on the football team, greeted Landry. He was six foot four inches, weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, and had a voice deeper than Barry White. He was standing there in the biggest tuxedo I'd ever seen. It was yards of cloth.
Dexter gave my brother a half hug and half handshake. He reached over to shake my hand and instead of shaking, he kissed my knuckles, making a grunting "um, um, um" sound as if the very sight of me was too much for him. "Looking radiant tonight, Miss Aldrich," he said smoothly.
"I'm the majordomo tonight, so how should I announce you?" Dexter asked.
"Please announce us as Eloise Aldrich and her date Landry Aldrich," I replied.
To his credit, Dexter was not phased, "You got it!" he replied. He opened the door for us. "Paris awaits!" he said ushering us inside. "Please stand on the X until I'm finished."
Landry and I walked up to the X on the floor. Already, most of the eyes in the room were drawn to us. The room went silent. On the other side was a gong that had been borrowed from the school orchestra.
Dexter raised the fluffy mallet and hit the gong as hard as he could. We'd been hearing the gong while we were in line, and he had been tapping it. This hit was so loud, it rattled the ceiling of the gym. Everyone in the place was staring at us at this point.
"Allow me to introduce Eloise Aldrich and her date, Landry Aldrich!"
An excited frisson shot through the room. Using Arden's 'own the room' walk, I allowed Landry to escort me to the table.
When we arrived at the table, Landry pulled out my chair and bid me to sit down. As I sat, I realized that I was at a seat with a card in front of it that said, "Landry Aldrich's Guest".
I looked across the round table to see that there were place settings for four couples total. Only one other couple was at the table when we arrived. Directly in front of me was Roberto Garza. He was the catcher on Landry's baseball team and was one of Landry's lifelong best friends. He'd often been over at our house and I got along great with him. He looked really suave in a deep red tuxedo coat with black lapels. The red material had a textured floral print that was roses and thorns. Despite the floral print, the coat was surprisingly masculine and really emphasized his shoulders.
His date was a young Hispanic woman I'd never seen before. She was lovely, but she looked awful young. She wasn't a day over fourteen, if I had to guess. She had small rounded breasts held up by a halter top that exposed lovely shoulders and a lot of her upper back. Her hair was straight and was an amazing glossy black. She'd styled it asymmetrically with half of it falling forward into her décolletage. The other half was draping down her back, exposing a very cute perfect olive-skinned ear. In her hair above her exposed ear, she wore a rose which matched the color of Roberto's jacket perfectly. She was so nervous trying to puzzle out how to introduce herself to Landry and I that she looked like she was going to be sick.
"Roberto, I love your jacket!" I gushed.
"You do?" he asked, both surprised and relieved. "My older brother gave me no end of shit for it."
I looked at his date, trying to draw her into the conversation and ease her nervousness. "I think it looks very handsome and very masculine, don't you?"
She looked delighted that I made this point. "I had to talk him into it!" she confessed. "He's very handsome but he doesn't do himself any favors with his fashion choices."
"He was wise to accept your advice," I replied. "I'm not sure we've met. I'm Eloise Aldrich. I'm Landry's sister."
"Hi, I'm Ximena Garza. Berto is my middle brother," she reported.
I remembered at that point that Roberto had a younger sister that followed him around like the proverbial little lamb. I'd met her several times when we'd gone swimming as a group. That was a few years ago and at the time, she was a tiny thing. She was still petite, but she wasn't a girl any longer.
"Mena?" I asked in surprise. "How embarrassing! You are going as Ximena rather than Mena now?" I asked.
"Yes, exactly!" she replied energetically.
"I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you, Ximena! In fairness, though, you've grown up quite a bit since we last spoke."
Ximena flushed in pleasure when I said this. "You have grown up too, Noise," she answered. "You look like a fashion model now. That dress is the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen! There will be a lot of women eating their hearts out tonight."
"Thank you!" I replied.
Roberto and Landry both stood up and asked us if we wanted punch. Ximena and I both accepted their offer and the men moved off.
***
Shortly after our first exchange, Ximena finally relaxed and began to talk. "I think I owe Landry a debt of gratitude for me being here tonight," Ximena said earnestly. "When Berto asked me to be his Prom date, you could have knocked me over with a feather. He's always been this larger-than-life figure to me and has been everything to me since I could walk. In the last few years, he was scarcely even aware of me. When Berto found out Landry and you were going together, he loved the idea and decided to ask me. I was so overwhelmed, I cried. Berto saw me crying and it made him cry. He is such a softie!
"Berto also had to work on my dad to let me come. My Quinceañera isn't for another month and my father didn't think it was appropriate for me to attend before I was properly 'out' socially. He is so traditional! Mom and Berto eventually won him over, though." If she was about to turn fifteen, that would make her a rising Sophomore. That would explain why I didn't recognize her.
I realized at that moment, that I really liked Ximena. Her energy and enthusiasm were infectious.
"Tell me about that dress!" she suddenly insisted.
I gave her a quick rundown on the style and the materials, but I conspicuously didn't say who it was designed by. I decided after my conversation with Imani that I didn't want to share that information with anyone.
As we were talking. two couples arrived at the table. John and Wendy Smith and Luca and Teresa Romero. It was clear that John Smith's date was Teresa and Luca Romero's date was Wendy. Luca and Teresa had been the children of one of mom's best friends and we'd grown up playing together all the time. We were still very friendly with each other and we frequently liked to reminisce about good times. Both John and Luca were teammates of Landry on both the basketball and baseball teams. Wendy Smith was in most of my honors classes for the last couple of years and was someone I always enjoyed talking to.
It seemed a statistical improbability that this exact group of people-- all of whom I liked and who all kept with the theme of 'sibling dates' was a random occurrence. Landry must have worked for a long time orchestrating this all to happen. I silently marveled at the consideration, brain power, and effort that my brother must of spent making sure I'd have a good time tonight. It made me want to cry.
As we were all greeting each other, Roberto and Landry returned. After all the greetings were concluded, Landry pulled me aside. "You need to come see this, Noise," he said.
He walked me over to the refreshments and desserts table. Behind the desserts table were Dora Valencia and Rochelle Washington. When my mom ran the bakery downtown, they were her lieutenants. That night, they were both wearing the lavender and periwinkle garments that the employees of Lahela's bakery wore. On the table before them was a mountain of my mother's finest French pastries and confectioneries. There was also a sign that said, "Lahela's ice cream" and listed out five of my mom's best flavors. One of her choices was "Eloise's favorite."
