Prom Ever After: Haute Date / Save the Last Dance / Prom and Circumstance

Ash picked up the dress with two tentative fingers. It was much sturdier than she thought—like a little plastic toy. She was amazed by the printer gizmo.

“This is gorgeous!” She immediately threw her arms around Sebastian. “Did I mention I love you the most? How can I thank you for this? Let me take over your garage cleanup at least?”

When she didn’t remove her arms from around his neck, he hesitantly put his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly in return.

“You can mention how awesome I am again.” He was smiling as he pulled away. “That’s all the thanks I need.”

* * *

Though it was only two in the afternoon on a weekday, the line at Molly Moon’s was around the corner, the for-sure sign that spring had arrived in Seattle. Ash insisted on buying cones for both of them, salted caramel and Earl Grey tea double scoops for her and balsamic strawberry for Sebastian. They had gotten the exact same order for so many years, Ash didn’t even need to ask Sebastian if he wanted a drizzle of homemade caramel on his cone.

They wrapped napkins around their cones and walked across the street to wait for a unique Capitol Hill tradition: bicycle polo. Groups of eight people rode around on bicycles and tried to score goals on each other with polo sticks. The game was due to start any minute.

“I can’t believe that 3-D printer thingie.” Ash reached her head over and took a lick of Sebastian’s cone without asking permission.

“It’s cool, huh? I love technology.” Sebastian held his cone out so Ash could have another bite without a struggle.

“I’m starting to love technology. I always thought it was just a bunch of nerdy guys making stuff no one understands...”

“But it’s actually cool stuff that makes everyone’s life easier.” Sebastian finished her thought.

They’d always been that way. Ash would sometimes think of something to ask Sebastian and he would bring up the topic before she could. Laila had a scientific explanation for it, something along the lines of them being in sync because they had grown up together surrounded by the same environmental influences.

“What do you want to do?” Sebastian asked vaguely.

Ash took a few licks of her cone. “Figure out how to get that dress sewn to look like the figurine.”

Sebastian smiled as Ash helped herself to more of his cone. She was liking going among the three flavor choices. “I mean more in the scope of life. What do you want to do?”

Ash considered this. “Be a lawyer like my mom?”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lot of research.”

“Oh.” Ash noticed a few polo-ists starting to arrive at the little basketball court they had the game in. At this point, even they had their lives figured out more than she did.

“So, you don’t know,” Seb said.

Ash shook her head. “I’ll figure it out at U-Dub.” She had gotten into the University of Washington along with half the senior class.

“I wish you were going to Michigan,” Sebastian said, not in a nonchalant, casual kind of way

Ash was silent for a second as she took a few more bites of her ice cream and pretended to be watching the polo warm-up. Where was this coming from?

“It’s going to be the first time in our lives we won’t just be able to see each other whenever we want,” Sebastian reminded her. “We won’t be skipping last period to have ice cream and watch this spectacle.” Sebastian gestured toward where an obviously beginner polo player rode his bike into the fence.

Ash swallowed. For some reason, she had not digested that information. Starting in about six months, she was going to be without Sebastian for the first time in her life.

“I promise to visit you,” she said at last, after noticing Sebastian was waiting for an answer. “A lot. I hear Ann Arbor is gorgeous.”

Sebastian shook his head sadly. “You’ll be busy with school. I think we’ll only see each other over vacations once or twice a year.”

Once or twice a year?

They saw each other once or twice an hour right now.

This was not something she wanted to ponder. Having a teary meltdown while the polo players watched was not going to be how she was going to end this wonderful day.

* * *

“Wow. What on earth is that?” Laila Montague pointed at the 3D dress creation that was sitting on the counter. She was home early that evening as Sebastian and Ash sat in their usual places in the kitchen.

Ash was on her Surface, trying to make their school sketch look more school-like. Mr. Watkins hadn’t been impressed by their work so far—he said it was too “literal” and needed to jibe with the rest of the students’ work for their final project. Ash had promised to take over the project. Sebastian had done enough. She welcomed the distraction after their serious talk at Molly Moon’s. She didn’t want to even think of a time when she wouldn’t see Sebastian every day.

Sebastian was searching sewing websites for ideas on how to make their dress sculpture a reality, with minimal sewing to the lehenga since neither of them knew how.

Sebastian glanced over at where Laila was pointing. “Oh, that’s for my doll collection.”

“Sebastian, really.” Even stoic Laila looked amused.

Seb was grinning. He was one of the few people who could make Laila loosen up after her long workdays. “Actually, Ash said she would love to wear your lehenga to the prom.”

Laila’s smile was contagious. Ash suddenly realized how beautiful her mother was when her whole face opened up and relaxed. Those were the moments when she hoped everyone was right when they said she was a copy of Laila when her mother was her age.

“Really? I knew she’d change her mind.”

“Again. People. I’m right here.” Ash looked up from her work. “Talk at me, please.”

“I knew you’d change your mind,” Laila said smugly.

Ash did an eye roll. “I didn’t. Seb came up with the idea of modifying the lehenga into something less...Mogul-esque, and that is what we, well he, came up with.”

Laila picked up the tiny dress sculpture. “It’s lovely.”

“I love it,” Ash said. “We just need to find instructions for how to modify the real one. It can’t be that hard.”

“What?” Laila almost dropped the sculpture. “You want to modify my dress? Into this?”

“Mom!” Ash could tell by the tone of her voice that she was about to quash their great idea. “Can you not be negative for once?”

“Ashmita Montague, do not ‘Mom’ me!”

“Seb, talk to her!”

“Here we go again...” Sebastian nearly flipped his chair over as he leaned back. He shook his head at the ceiling in despair. “The women in my life are going to drive me crazy.”

* * *

“What’s going on?” Josh Montague came in from the garage, where he’d just finished up with the band.

“Ash is eavesdropping,” Sonali said helpfully, looking up from her chalk sketch of a lifelike tiger.

“Shh!” Ash shushed her father, who was talking loudly by the loud refrigerator. She was standing at the edge of the kitchen, trying to listen in on the hushed conversation in the living room.

He poured himself an iced tea. “What are we eavesdropping on?”

“Shh!”

“It’s like I need a Twitter feed to keep up with what goes on in this house.”

“Dad. Please. Let’s play the quiet game.” Ash strained to hear what her mother and Seb were saying. Of course, her mother chose this moment to speak quietly.

“Wow. I just got treated like a six-year-old by my kid. They say it happens to everyone.”

“She told me the same thing,” Sonali reassured him.

“Shh!”

“Shh!” Josh mimicked Ash with an exaggerated finger to his lips.

Ash waited for a break in conversation.

“Seb’s talking to Mom,” she explained. “We want to make this—” she pointed at the tiny dress sculpture “—out of that.” She pointed at the real lehenga, which was still hanging in the kitchen.

“How’re you going to do that?”

“They don’t know,” Sonali filled in. “It’s a harebrained scheme with no execution plan.”

“Have you been reading your mother’s law journals again?” Josh laughed. “God, I love being at home with you guys.”

“Have some faith. We’ll figure it out.” Ash waved her hand. “But first, Seb has to convince Mom.”

“Is she really going to let a bunch of teenagers who know nothing about sewing hack apart one of her favorite dresses?”

“No,” Sonali said.

“Does no one have faith in the system?” Ash gave them both a look.

“What system?” Josh asked.

“My system!” Ash whispered back loudly. They’d started talking again in the other room.

“Then, no.”

Ash did an eye roll. “I know Mom doesn’t. That’s why Seb has to convince her.”

And he was doing a fine job.

“Mrs. M, remember when you were, say, apprehensive about letting me build that computer for Ash? You were convinced it would overheat and burn the house down.” Sebastian’s voice wafted in from the living room. “She sulked for weeks and finally you gave in? Think of this project as that computer but not as useful.”

Ash almost wanted to object, but knew better than to interrupt or let on that she was eavesdropping.

“And now look, that computer—” Ash could practically see him gesturing toward the den where the Franken-computer existed “—still stands. Safe and sound. Six years of abuse by that destructive daughter of yours and it hasn’t exploded. You, yourself, have admitted you have used it for research for your cases on weekends.”

Laila was quiet. The defense lawyer had no defense.

“...and I’m hardly an engineer, Mrs. M. But I was able to do the right research to build that computer. I would never let anything bad happen to something that belonged to you. Not your daughter. Not your dress.”

Ash started to feel her hope returning.

“He’s good,” Ash’s dad whispered. “He should be a lawyer. Taking down your mother is...”

“One condition, and I mean it, Sebastian.”

Ash’s fists squeezed together in excitement.

“Anything.”

Ash could practically see Sebastian opening his hands in that way he did that got anyone to completely trust him. He just had a way of doing that.

“You find a professional to do the work. For the set budget of one hundred dollars. You do not try any stunts of your own. And I want to speak to whoever you find on the phone first to understand their credentials. And you stay in the budget.”

“Mrs. M., I promise you that you will love the lehenga so much you’ll steal it right back from your daughter and wear it to every holiday party this year.”

“Sebastian?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Don’t sell past the close.”

“No, ma’am.”

Both Ash and Josh Montague expelled sighs of relief.

“The defense rests,” Josh murmured, hugging Ash close.

Sonali continued to not look convinced as she sketched in the tiger’s whiskers.

Seven

“Are you sure it’s around here?” Sebastian glanced at the GPS on his phone and the surrounding buildings. “I don’t see anything that looks big enough to be it.”

Ash ignored him as she surveyed the line of eccentric windowed storefronts dotting Pike Street off Broadway.

“There! I’ve passed by it a hundred times.” Ash gestured toward a familiar-looking window. “Park! Park!”

“Yes, ma’am.” Sebastian expertly parallel parked his Mazda in front of the colorful doorway with a Some Like It Haute sign over it.

Ash had decided to act before her mother changed her mind. She remembered passing the cute little Capitol Hill storefront that boasted “Designer fabrics for those who can... Couture dressmaking for those who can’t!” on the front window many times on her little scooter. She was sure that with the promises of couture dressmaking the storefront made, a little alteration to the lehenga would be easy-breezy.

Gathering up Sebastian’s sketches, the tiny dress figurine and the garment bag containing the lehenga, Ash practically bounced out of the car, feeling very positive. Everything was going to work out fine. They’d come so far, it had to work out.

Ash giggled at the blush on Sebastian’s cheeks as he noticed what was right next to Some Like It Haute: Babeland, a bright pink-and-white storefront boasting “women-friendly pleasure goods!”

Cap Hill was the artsy, eclectic and fun neighbor to First Hill, Ash’s more subdued ’hood, and Some Like It Haute was no exception. It was practically bursting with bolts of beautiful embroidered fabric, ribbons, skeins of yarn and walls of sewing supplies, like a tiny, brightly colored dollhouse.

“Hello!” A familiar-looking girl about their age looked up as the entry bell dinged Ash and Sebastian’s arrival. “Oh, my God, I love that dress. What a cool print!”

Ash smiled her thanks. The pale yellow dress with the pink skulls-and-roses was her latest vintage store find and was totally unique. She had bought it for the Day of the Dead celebration Sebastian’s family had every year—where they honored those who had passed on.

“I want to steal this! God, look at this construction. Where was this made?” The girl leaned across the counter to get a closer look. “Not to be weird, but can I touch it?”

“Uh, sure.”

The girl wasted no time reaching behind Ash and grabbing the tag from the back of the dress. “It’s vintage! I knew it. No one makes good stuff anymore. We’re going to get along so well!”

“Uh, thanks.” Ash disentangled herself from the girl. Wow, she was enthusiastic. “I have a weird question,” she said as she dropped her pile of stuff on the counter.

The girl picked up the tiny dress figurine. “This is so cute. Did you make this? I’m Lyra Matthew, by the way. This is my shop. Well, it’s my mom’s shop, but I work here more, so I guess it’s more mine than hers.”

Lyra Matthew. The name was so familiar... Ash suddenly remembered where she knew Lyra from. “I know you! You were in Les Misérables last year. With Armstrong Jones?”

Lyra flashed a brilliant smile. She was very pretty. And wearing an amazing pale rose drop-waist dress with a feather fringe at the hem. Her eyes were done up all dark and smoky. She looked like a ’20s movie star. “Yup, I’d just moved up from L.A. and was really surprised the part of Eponine was still open. Armstrong’s cute, but kind of skinny, don’t you think?”

Ash remembered how beautifully Lyra sang. When she finished “A Little Fall of Rain” with a whisper as Eponine had “died” in the middle of the final act, thunderous applause had rung through the school auditorium.

“I’m Ash and this is Sebastian Diaz.” Ash gestured toward Seb, who looked uncomfortable.

Ash noticed Lyra flash her dazzling smile in his direction a second longer than normal, her giant dark eyes lighting up with recognition. Of course she knew Sebastian. Everyone did.

“We need some help.” Ash opened the garment bag and pulled out the lehenga. “This is my mother’s. We want to make modifications to this dress to make it look like this figurine.”

Lyra’s eyes widened. “That’s some beadwork. Where was it made?”

“India somewhere, I’m not sure. It’s my mom’s.”

“It’s gorgeous. Why do you want to change it?”

“Because it’s weird right now. Trust me.” Ash pushed the sketch and the figurine toward her, ignoring Lyra’s doubtful look. “I want to transform it and wear it to the prom.”

“Wow. That’s a great sketch!” A few moments of silence passed as the enthusiastic girl touched the fabric in various places, examining seams and sleeves and who knew what else. She glanced at the sketches and the figurine.

“This is complicated. Like, really complicated.” She tossed her waist-length curly black hair to one side and frowned. She turned the lehenga inside out and lay it flat. “Yes, this is very complex beadwork. See how each bead is hand-sewn to the fabric? If I cut into it, all the beads will scatter everywhere.”

Ash and Sebastian glanced at each other. This was not a good sign. Ash had been hoping she’d look at it once and say, “Oh, that’s straightforward. No problem. It’ll be done in an hour.”

“I think my mom and I can do it. She’s a costume designer for stage plays and things so she does beadwork a lot. I can do the bodice part. When do you need it by?”

“Two weeks.”

Lyra hesitated. Again, not a good sign.

“My mom’s really busy, but I can make her do it. It’s a good thing you came in today, though. We’re about to go into bridal season and there is no way we could have done it if you’d come in any later.”

Serendipity. It really was true.

Ash practically cried with relief. “Seriously, you have saved my life.” She turned back to grin at Sebastian, who didn’t look half as excited. She wondered why, but before she could ask, he stepped up to the counter.

“So...Lyra, how much is this going to cost? Because we do have a budget,” Sebastian spoke up.

Lyra searched his face, as if gauging how he was going to react.

“Usually we would charge around two hundred dollars for this kind of work—total transformation...”

That wasn’t bad! Ash thought. Surely she could talk Laila into two hundred dollars. That was just a little over the budget.

“...but because the beading is so complex and the fabric so complex, it’s going to be at least five hundred.” Lyra dished out the crushing blow.

Eight

I need to talk to you.

Ash hit Send on the text to Armstrong during English class. There was no point of dragging this on. He would be super-pissed at her if she canceled on him at the last second. Instead, she was going to tell him she got invited on a really great trip to Paris the weekend of the prom and just had to go. It was the only way to save face. There was no way she was going to show up to the prom with the coolest guy she’d ever known in some clearance-rack leftover.

What’s up? Armstrong texted back immediately. Rare for him.

It’s about the prom, Ash texted back after waiting a minute.

It’s going to be great. My buddy is DJing. Which means the music will NOT suck. He’s playing stuff no one’s ever heard of, but wish they had.

Ash practically burst into tears. She was never, ever going to forgive her mother for doing this to her. Laila had tried to console her the previous night by telling her they could go bargain-basement dress-hunting that weekend. Ash had asked to leave the dinner table and go to bed early. She was done fighting for something that was not going to happen.

Her phone buzzed again and she quickly covered it with her hand, glancing up to see if the teacher had noticed. They were supposed to be writing an essay. The teacher, however, was sending a text message of her own. The formerly sporty Ms. Winter had recently gotten one of those Nordstrom makeovers and was sporting cherry-red lipstick and platform heels every day and had been texting nonstop, even during class. Ash was pretty sure she was actively doing the online dating thing. She’d caught Ms. Winter browsing Chemistry.com when she had claimed she was grading mid-terms.

Ash glanced down to see what other fun things Armstrong was planning for the prom where she would not be his date. Instead, a new text had arrived from Sebastian.

Awesome news. You’re getting your dress. Meet me right after school at my car.

Ash almost dropped her phone. What was Sebastian talking about now? He never, ever gave up, but even he had to be aware that there was no way in hell they were going to come up with five hundred dollars overnight.

* * *

“Where are we going?” Ash was being dragged down the hall by Sebastian the second she exited her last class of the day.

“We’re about to make this happen.” Sebastian tucked her hand firmly under his arm while he searched for his car keys in his messenger bag.

“Seb, tell me.” Ash attempted to drag her feet so he would stop.

“Stop doing that or I’ll fireman-carry you to the car.”

Ash smiled. She had no doubt he would do exactly that. “Just tell me and I’ll cooperate.”

“You’ll see. Trust me.”

“I do, but...”

Seb stopped next to his car and opened the passenger-side door for her. “In.”

“I need to tell Armstrong I can’t go with him.”

“You’re going.”

“But we don’t have—” Ash reluctantly got in and pulled her feet to safety before Sebastian slammed the door shut on them “—five hundred dollars.”

“Please fasten your seat belt before you fly out of the car and no longer need a prom dress for anything.”

Sebastian was skidding out of the parking lot before Ash could say anything more. They took the familiar route to Capitol Hill again and parked right in front of Some Like It Haute.

“What are we doing? Negotiating isn’t going to work. Lyra already told us how complicated the whole thing is.”

“I got this.” Sebastian grabbed all the stuff they needed for the dress project and was in the shop before Ash could protest further.

“Hi! Hey, Lyra, us again,” Sebastian was saying by the time Ash made it in the door behind him. “I was thinking...”

“This is cute.” Lyra was watching Sebastian with amusement. He did look cute trying to juggle a miniature toy dress and the giant garment bag at the same time. Ash felt a twinge of annoyance anyway. It was becoming quite clear that Lyra liked Sebastian.

“I was noticing you guys didn’t have a website. I went to it last night to see if there were any other seamstress-type people who we could hire and you don’t have anything resembling an online presence!” Sebastian neatly laid out all the stuff in front of Lyra.

Ash wondered what he was doing. Pointing out the little shop’s shortcomings was not going to work, no matter how much the owner’s daughter liked Sebastian!

Lyra sighed. “We have one, but it’s not a very good site. My dad made it and well, he’s a doctor, not a computer person. We just don’t have the money to hire a professional web designer right now. It costs over...”

“A thousand dollars. Or more,” Sebastian finished. “I know.”

“That’s right.” Lyra started to look suspicious.

Ash was, too. What was Sebastian up to? What did this have to do with anything at all?

“What if,” Sebastian said, taking the lehenga out of the garment bag and laying it across the table again, “we cut a deal?”

“What kind of deal?” Lyra didn’t look any less suspicious.

“The kind where you do this lovely girl’s alterations and I build your website for you. For free. You save over five hundred dollars. At least.”

Was he serious? Ash’s eyes widened. Did he know how to build something as complex as a professional site for a store?

“You know how to build websites? Not just webpages, but with databases and things I don’t totally understand?” Lyra echoed Ash’s sentiments. “It has to be able to take customers’ orders and list all the stock we have and stuff automatically. I need to be able to load info myself. My parents are going to make me be the main website administrator since they can barely figure out email.”

Sebastian didn’t look concerned.

“My credentials are here.” Here Sebastian pulled up his phone and started showing her some pinned sites on his browser. “I made the school’s website. I’m making my parents’ church’s website. I made my uncle’s business’s website. All have a database back end. All have search functionality as well as upload and download functionality. And I’m on-call tech support for all of them.”

“Wow,” Lyra and Ash said at once.

Ash was shocked at how lovely the sites were as she peeked over his shoulder. She’d known Sebastian had made the school’s website, but she hadn’t understood how complicated it must have been.

“I can make one for your store as my AP Computer Science class project. I’m in that class right now so I can start immediately.”

Something was nagging at Ash’s brain. She felt as though he already had a plan for that class and it did not involve making a website for Some Like It Haute. She made a note to ask him about it later. Right now, Lyra was looking very interested in the idea.