“Hey!” Tatum said excitedly “The baby just kicked!”

“Really?” Abby asked.

“Oh, wait, no.” Tatum replied “The elastic on my underwear just broke.”

Andie laughed “So, what are you going to wear to the prom?”

“What makes you think I’m even going to the prom?” Tatum asked.

“Well, it’s customary for the sophomore prom queen to actually attend the prom.” Andie told her.

Tatum rolled her eyes “Ok, what makes you think I’m going to be the prom queen?”

“Tate, come on!” Abby said “You’re the head cheerleader, you’re dating the quarterback, you get straight A’s, you’re pretty, you’re beyond popular, hell, if you weren’t my best friend I’d have to hate you.”

“They’re not going to give the crown to a pregnant girl.” Tatum sighed “I don’t care how popular she is.”

“I think they’d rather give the crown to a pregnant girl than to Bobbi Sheridan.” Abby told her.

“I don’t think so.”

“We’ll see.” Andie said.

“So how’s it going suing your relatives?” Jen asked.

“I still haven’t decided if I will.” Tatum replied.

“Tatum, I’m on my lunch break!” Ms. Finizio called “I’ll be back in an hour, don’t goof off! And if your friends want to hang out here, put them to work!”

“Yes, m’am.” Tatum said. As soon as Ms. Finizio was gone, she stuck out her tounge “Slave driver.” she reached under the counter and pulled out a key.

“C’mon, I’ve got the key to the break room. Let’s go photocopy our butts.”

“Wait a minute.” Andie said “Your boss said-"

“I heard her, thank you.” Tatum interrupted “But we’re just photocopying our butts, not goofing off.”

“Hm, never thought of it that way.” Andie said.

“Man, you know what?” Abby said “The rod up your boss’s ass must have a rod up its ass.”

* * * *

“Where have you girls been?” Dawson asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Tatum said “We’re late for movie night. Dreadful sorry. We got held up, we were really busy at the bookstore.”

“Busy?” Andie giggled “We were photocopying our asses.”

Tatum gave her a look “And I was so hoping you would just announce that to everyone!”

“What movies did we get?” Jen asked.

Dawson held up some videos “‘Carrie’ ‘Prom Night’ ‘Prom Night II’ ‘Prom Night III’....well, you get the idea.”

“There isn’t a pattern there or anything, is there?” Pacey said.

“Couldn’t you rent some nicer prom-themed movies?” Andie asked.

“Someone beat us to it.” Joey explained sarcastically “They didn’t have any copies of ‘Pretty in Pink’ or ‘She’s All That.’”

“Hello to the sarcasm.” Tatum muttered.

“Speaking of the prom,” Jen said “we’re all renting a limo and going as a group, right?”

“Probably.” Dawson said “But it’s going to be pretty small group. Unless.....”

“Ok!” Pacey moaned “We’ll go!”

“If you shut up!” Tatum added.

* * * *

“I think it is so cool that we’re all going to the prom as one big group.” Andie said the next day at the mall.

“Me too.” Jen agreed “Especially since I don’t have a date.” she turned to Abby and Andie “Well, at least we can all hang out together. I think we must be the only girls without dates.”

Andie and Abby looked uncomfortable “Well, uh, actually, not any more.....” Andie began.

“Don’t tell me....” Jen moaned.

“Kevin asked me the other day at cheerleading practice.” Andie explained.

“And Mike White asked me this morning.” Abby added.

Jen looked disappointed “Excuse me while I pray for the earth to swallow me up.”

“And you know what the weird part is?” Abby asked “I could’ve sworn he liked you.”

“Oh, great, just twist the knife a little more.” Jen snapped.

“Hey,” Tatum said as she came out of the dressing room “what do you guys think of this one?”

“Oh fuck your damn dress.” Jen muttered as she stormed off.

“Well that seemed uncalled for.” Tatum said “What’s with her?”

“Never mind.” Andie sighed.

“Ok. Ugh, this dress makes me look too fat.” Tatum said to herself “I’m gonna change out of this one.”

* * * *

“Jen?” Tatum called, knocking on the door “Can I come in?”

“The door’s open.” Jen replied.

“Hi.” Tatum said as she opened the door “What happened today at the mall?”

“You know how Andie and Abby and I were planning on hanging out together at the prom because none of us had dates?” Jen asked.

Tatum nodded.

“Well, now they have dates, and I’m still a dateless wonder.” Jen sighed “I mean, why’d they have to say yes to those guys, anyway? They should have thought of *me*.”

“Talk about selfish.” Tatum said, giving her a look.

“My point exactly!” Jen told her, unaware of what Tatum really meant.

* * * *

“So Jen’s pissed at you two for having dates?” Pacey asked.

Andie nodded “She’s acting like we’re being selfish because we want to have fun at the prom.”

“She’ll get over it.” Tatum said “Eventually. Meantime, I’m really regretting my choice of dress.”

“Are you kidding?” Abby asked.

“Abby’s right.” Pacey agreed “You look divine.”

“No I don’t.” Tatum insisted “I look *like* Divine! Look how much I’m showing!”

“You’re hardly showing at all!” Andie told her. She looked out the window, “Where is that damn limo?”

“It should be here by now.” Joey said.

“Of course, Jen should be here by now, too.” Tatum added. The doorbell rang.

“That’s probably her now.” she went to answer the door “Hi, come on in, you look great.”

“Yeah, thanks, you too.” Jen said “Are Andie and Abby here?”

“In the living room.” Tatum replied.

“Great.” she followed Tatum into the other room “Hey, guys, listen. I wanted to apologize for how I was acting. I guess I just freaked out because I didn’t have a date, you know?”

“It’s ok, really.” Abby said.

“Absolutly.” Andie agreed “Hell, I’d probably freak out, too.”

“Freak out isn’t the word, actually.” Jen said “Today in school, I had the weirdest dream. There were all these newspapers with my picture on the front page and headlines like ‘Girl, 16, not asked to prom: ‘Jen who?’ says one boy’ and things like that.”

“Jen,” Tatum sighed “You really need to stop nodding off in journalism class.”

* * * *

“They’re going to announce the prom queen soon.” Joey said.

“Oh would you people step off it already?” Tatum moaned “I am not going to be prom queen, ok?”

Just then, the crowd began screaming and laughing as Mike White came running through the gym. Naked.

“Oh yes they call him ‘The Streak!’” Tatum sang in a goofy voice. She turned to Abby “Well, well, well. Looks like your date just bought himself about a decade’s worth of detention!”

“Not if I kill him first.” Abby muttered.

Standing at the refreshments table, Jen tried not to laugh too hard at Abby’s public humiliation. “Hey, I love this song.” she said to herself as a new song started.

“So do I.” someone said. Jen turned around and saw an extremely cute boy standing next to her.

“Hi.” he said “I’m Tyler Madison. I’m new here.”

Jen smiled “Jen Lindley. I’m a dateless wonder.”

“I find that pretty hard to believe.” Tyler said.

“Well, where’s your date?” Jen asked.

“Don’t have one.” Tyler admitted “Seems none of the girls in this school are brave enough to cut a rug with the new kid. Hey, I hope I’m not being too forward, but would you like to-”

“Dance?” Jen interrupted “Sure.”

Tyler smiled “Great.”

* * * *

“Ok, folks.” Principle Markey said “It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, time to announce this year’s sophomore Prom King and Prom Queen.”

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Andie said to Tatum.

“Yeah. For Bobbi Sheridan.” Tatum muttered.

“Enough!” Joey whispered “Pay attention.”

“And the 1999 sophomore Prom King and Queen,” Principle Markey was saying “Are Pacey Witter and Tatum Potter!”

Tatum’s jaw dropped. She turned to her friends “Ok, who’d you bribe?”

“Tatum...” Joey sighed.

“No, I mean it, did you guys stuff the ballot box or what?”

“That’s funny.” Joey said “Really funny, now get up there!”

* * * *

“I’ll call you tomorrow, Pacey!” Tatum yelled out the limousine window.

“Ok, admit it.” Jen said “You had a great time, and you kicked bootie. Say it. Say ‘I kicked bootie.’”

Tatum laughed “I kicked bootie.” she admitted “And what about you? You seemed to be having a pretty good time, too.”

“Yeah. Yeah I had fun.” Jen said “Tyler is really nice. We’re going to the moves tomorrow night.”

“See?” Joey said “Everyone had a great time. Well, except maybe Abby.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me.” Abby insisted “While Mike was hiding from the streak patrol I danced with David Baker. So I had a pretty cool time.”

* * * *

“Shh, careful!” Tatum whispered as Joey unlocked the front door “Don’t wake up-”

“Freeze!” a voice interrupted. Someone turned on the light “Well, home a little late, aren’t we, prom girls?” Bessie asked.

Tatum rolled her eyes “Bess, I’m gonna count to zero...”

“Yeah, we’re late.” Joey said “I know, and we’re really sorry, but we just couldn’t pull ourselves away. We were having a great time.”

“I can see that.” Bessie said “So, Tatum. Looks like your friends were right.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Tatum laughed “All hail the Prom Queen.”

“I really hate to say I told you so.” Joey said “But...well, hey, I guess I don’t hate it at all.”

“That’s funny.” Tatum muttered “I don’t know about you, but all I want right now is to get to bed and stay there for about a week.”

“What about Vanessa and Valerie’s party tomorrow night?” Joey asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t stay in bed the whole time.” Tatum replied.

“You said that’s what you wanted.” Joey pointed out.

“Nag.” Tatum giggled.

“Twit.” Joey shot back.

“Bad seed.” Tatum said.

“Tramp.” Joey giggled.

“Prude.” Tatum replied.

“Wench.”

“Go to bed, Joey.”

* * * *

Part 23 coming soon!

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