the FYA prom mega spectacular, vol. 2

welcome back, ya-men and ya-ladies, to the second and final installment of our 2010 BLOWOUT PROM ISSUE. just like with the first volume, you can expect deliciously awkward (and therefore entertaining, obvs) stories from our v. own bloggers and readers about the most fancy pants night of their YA lives.

today’s volume introduces some charmingly masochistic traditions, such as the senior walk and the prom board, as well as incredible fashion tips (goth dresses! capes!) paired with the ultimate soundtrack (celine dion! lady in red!). so, slap on those corsages, spray the shizz out of yr hair with some white rain, and LET’S GO TO PROM!

From Sarah/Posh D:

i KNOW. i know. my bangs are amazing. oh wait, you were looking at my dress. DON’T LOOK AT THE DRESS. focus on the bangs. THE AWESOME BANGS.

1) Prom Date:

jeff had been my youth group crush for about two years, and i finally worked up the nerve to ask him to prom (we went to different schools) while we were cleaning out the youth group house (tres romantique!). i don’t think he *like* liked me at the time, but he said yes and was a super fun date– a little awkward, esp. since he didn’t know anyone else, but mostly charming and nice. we ended up briefly dating a year later HOLLA!

2) Favorite Song:

well, i was DYING for the DJ to play “lady in red,” which i considered the most swoonworthy music of all time (and, um, i still kinda do). when it finally came on, i forced jeff to slow dance with me, and as we awkwardly circled the dance floor, i kept waiting for that perfect moment feeling, the one i’d always seen in films and read about it books. and… it never happened. it sounds silly, but that was a huge moment for me– the realization that my life was not, in fact, a movie (although 13 years later, i’m still pretending it is).

3) Most YA-tastic Moment:

hmm, i could go with my complete ignorance of the fact that my dress was actually designed for goth girls (CRINGEWORTHY EVEN TODAY! although it did come in handy when i went to that vampire prom last year), but i think i’ll settle for the moment when i walked by my HS crush, who saw me and my date and said, “hey, sarah, you look fantastic!” those may seem like empty words to you but HE SAID I LOOKED FANTASTIC YOU GUYS. in front of my youth group crush!!! HIGHLIGHT OF MY YA LIFE!

From Megan (no h):

One of my favorite things about prom at my high school THE PROM BOARD (which we shall call TPB here on out). Each spring our popular upperclassmen teacher reserved an entire wall/white board for the sole purpose of listing every single established couple for our prom. The teacher wouldn’t maintain it, but requested that his students add people’s name every time they learned of a (confirmed) prom couple.

Now TPB was some serious shit. It was closely monitored and constantly updated.  Plus, it was completely color coded. Someone’s name would be listed next to their date and one color marker used if you were a senior, another color for juniors, a third for underclassmen and a fourth for people from other schools. The list would start out easy – known couples, people who knew their dates a long time coming, etc. It was a GREAT way to find out if someone you liked or wanted to ask already had a date. It was a huge public school (3000 people) too, so TPB got to be pretty damn epic. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of names. It added an intense sense of urgency to the whole (already painful) process of nailing down a date.

Like all things epic TPB could be good or evil. When I decided to go to prom with a good guy friend, turns out I caused trouble when they added us because I was already listed on TPB with another date (a guy I had kinda sorta dated for a few weeks but hadn’t talked to in a month). Whoops. The direct result was me dumping that guy I wasn’t even really dating anymore because too many people (including a few TPB monitors) thought that was still on. Awkward.

From Porcelinajune:

1) My date was my friend, Mike.  I had been so proud of of him as he pulled his act and money together to be an awesome date to prom.  Everything was fun and cool and awesome until we actually got to prom.  He ended up sitting in a corner most of the night whining and moaning to anyone who would listen about his girlfriend (she went to another school and him and I had prom plans for months before he met her) was dumping him.  I ended up awkwardly standing around all night as my friends were busy being all lovey dovey with their partners.

2) The only song I remember dancing to at my prom was “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion as we all know how that song was EVERYWHERE in 1998.  My high school crush had promised me a dance and it just so happened to be this song.  He said all those things that crushes say that stab you right in the heart as you know they will never leave their girlfriend for you.  (HA but now he is all trying to be up in my kool-aid).

3)I have two very YAtastic moments.  At my school, each year the seniors would do a “senior walk” where they call out the senior’s name and their date while they walk down a red carpet.  I had been dreaming of this moment since 9th grade.  It was suppose to be my moment where everyone would realize how glamorous and amazing and beautiful and too cool for them I was. However, when it came time for my red carpet moment, disaster of Lindsay Lohan proportions struck. First some background, if you recall in your musical repertoire, Hanson was wildly popular around the time.  My prom date was tall, thin, and had long blonde hair which earned him the nickname Mmmbop.  So as we made our way onto the red carpet and our names were called, someone in the audience yelled “HEY MMMBOP” and the whole audience started laughing.  In my mind, people were rolling on the ground, peeing themselves with laughter. In retrospect, I realize it really wasn’t that big of deal.  What the hell am I saying?  I am still deeply scarred my moment was stolen from me!

The second moment came after prom when I got into a screaming, falling down on the ground in dramatic fits with a former friend in a parking lot at the beach.  The gist of the fight was she was suppose to come to prom with me and our friends.  However, she chose to go to prom with another group of former friends, one of which she had claimed earlier in the year had tried to take advantage of her sexually while she was unconscious. The whole thing was a big hot mess.

From Capillya (@shabbygeek):

Me & Prom Date (now Hubs), circa 2001. It was my first (senior) prom.

1) Prom Date:

A boy I first laid eyes on as we were taking the ACTs who came bounding in to class (I mean srsly who is that excited about ACTs at 6:30AM) that I crushed on and finally he asked me out and I said yes because he won me over with his total nerdiness and big toothy grin. I mean really. LOOK AT ALL THE TEETH. Oh, and he was really funny and nice and smart, too.

2) Favorite Song:

Cha Cha Slide. What can I say? I like looking like part of a gigantic choreographed group. I like to think of it as Boy Banding.

3) Most YA-tastic Moment:

The hair was not right. The woman who was assigned to attack my mane didn’t realize it’d take 2.5 hours just to get her THAT far, and therefore she did a half-up-half-down thing and sprinkled some pearly bits on the top like I was some sort of cupcake. The eyebrows were not right (Um, do you SEE any on my face?!). Prom Date and I were actually working on a yearbook documentary the actual day OF prom and I missed my pedicure appointment. And Dad was late picking me up to take my to get my hair did. Oh, and did I mention Prom Date and I didn’t even get to dance to the Romantic-Dance-That-Everyone-Dances-To because he had a videocam glued to his eyeballs the entire song (for aforementioned yearbook doc). Yeah, I know. Take your pic of the lame moments!

From Erin:

1) Prom Date:

I’ve actually been to three proms, with three different dates.  Prom #1(jr year), my prom date was my friend and eventual college roommate, Brandy.  She wore a cape!  We went with our friends Kim and Corey, who were each other’s date, respectively.  Prom #2 (sr year), my prom date was the aforementioned Corey, who by that time was my boyfriend.  (yeah, that’s how I roll.)  Corey and I went to different schools, and our proms happened to be on the same night.  Instead of splitting the difference, or each of us just going to our own prom and meeting up afterwards, his mom basically forced us to go to his prom.  Which BLEW.  Prom #3 (my first senior year in college ), my prom date was my then-boyfriend Matt, plus several of our friends.  Long story short: our friend Fritz’s mother was a HS principal, and the dj cancelled on her last minute, so she asked Fritz if he could come down and DJ, and told him he could bring some friends.  Which is how six grown people managed to descend onto a small-town prom.

2) Favorite Song:

I don’t remember any of the songs that they played at my real proms, except for “The End of the Road” by BoysIIMen, which is obvs a classic unparalleled in these modern times.  Also I believe that the Cotton-Eyed Joe may have made an appearance; I can neither confirm nor deny.  However, at Best Prom Ever, (aka the one we crashed in college) Fritz played a variety of thumpin’ tunes, such as: the Hot Popcorn song, Tiny Tim, Dean Martin and Jay-Z.  Also, there was the following line uttered by Fritz to a crestfallen high school senior: “No, I’m not going to play Big N Rich or Ludicrus.  Shut up, sit down; you’re getting Elton John.”

3) Most YA-tastic Moment:

It’s a toss-up!  My senior year prom involved trips to BOTH Macaroni Grill (the Olive Garden for the suburb set) *and* ihop.  It also included something I was not witness to, which I mourn to this day.  Over at my actual prom – you know, the one that my boyfriend’s mother through a fit about us attending, so we didn’t go – my friend, the school valedictorian, was crowned prom queen.  It was kind of AWESOME, because while well-liked, she was also, you know.  A nerd.  And her name was Andrea, so it’s basically JUST LIKE Andrea Zuckermann on Bev Niners!

The second YA-tastic moment was at The Best Prom Ever, because we totally snuck in flasks, spiked all our drinks, got really drunk, gossiped loudly about s-e-x in the bathrooms and tore up the dance floor with our slick dancing moves.  It was everything I’d ever wanted in a high school prom but was way too much of a good girl – or maybe just not enough of a jerk – to do.

Related posts:

1. the FYA prom mega spectacular, vol. 1
2. call for submissions: the most magical night of your YA life!

Tagged as: prom