Emily The Dunking Booth Mermaid
A “How I Spent My Summer Vacation: I became a Girl!” Gaiden
by
Rebecca Anna Coleman
Book One of Emily's Prom Story Arc

-1-
Prom Committee

I took a deep breath as I leered at the faces that surrounded me. I was starting to regret volunteering to sit on the prom committee. I had volunteered to help staff it on a whim. I mean the only reason I'd volunteered was because all committee members would be “Paid” by being given two free tickets. Which meant I could score a free ticket for me and my boyfriend. It also meant I was saving forty dollars, which meant I could put that forty dollars to buying a fancy prom dress.

Also for some reason my name had been written on the ballet. I was now in the running to  be crowned 'Prom Princess' since I was well a Sophomore. You see, St. Claries, the private Roman Catholic Academy I’m enrolled in, has a tradition that anybody who can afford the price of a ticket can attend prom. I know in most American High Schools only the Seniors and Juniors can attend. Freshman and Sophomores can attend only if they're invited by an upperclassman.

At St. Claire's things were different, I guess because the whole Senior Class could be squeezed into one classroom. Anyway, like I said, anybody who was a student at St. Claries, who could afford the price of a ticket and were either a Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior could attend. Though the privilege of being elected either 'Prom King' or 'Prom Queen' was saved for Seniors. While Juniors and Sophomores could be elected to 'Prom Prince' or 'Prom Princess'. There were no elected offices open to Freshman.

Anyway for some reason I'd gained enough popularity points with my peers to put on the ballad box for 'Prom Princess' which kind of forced me to volunteer to help staff the committee. My boyfriend as a kind of joke had also been put on the ballad box to be elected 'Prom Prince'.

“So.” A girl with straight blonde hair and an oval shape called out. Her voice seemed to echo in the chamber. “We agreed that the theme for our prom will be 'Under the Sea' and that all decorations will reflect that theme. And the colors of our prom will be aquamarine and coral pink. Now the question we need to address is how are we going to pay for all of it?”

“According to my research.” Another girl with curly black hair said. “The total cost of all the decorations will run around twelve hundred dollars. That does not include the cost of renting out the country club for the night.” The girl paused and took a deep breath. “Or the cost of the catering service.” She then reached down. A moment later she was shuffling some papers together.

“The catering service will run us around four hundred dollars for food. And the cost of renting out the country club for one night will be another four hundred dollars. So add eight hundred dollars to twelve hundred dollars and we're looking at around two thousand dollars.”

“And how much have we raised?” The blonde haired girl with straight hair said. I guess she was addressing the room.

“Donations from private businesses in town will cover around six hundred or so dollars. Sales of tickets will cover four hundred dollars. The school has agreed to chip in three hundred dollars. Donations from the student body will cover another two hundred dollars.” A boy with short, jet back hair that had been mowed into a crewcut said.

“Fund raising by the various school clubs will cover about a hundred dollars. And St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church has agreed to donate around a hundred dollars.” Another boy chipped in.

“So that leaves us with a short fall of around four hundred dollars.” The straight blonde haired girl said as she started to sink into our seats.

“How about a fund-raiser?” Another girl chimed in, she spoke with a thick Irish accent. Which I think was fake because well, let's be real the school was a mixing pot. “We our folks to pitch in. We can sell chips, hotdogs, soda, sausage dogs.”

“And we can have a dunking booth!” Another girl chimed in. “Get the teachers to volunteer to sit in it, make sure the water is really cold too! Charge them five dollars for three balls. We'll have a line from here to the bloody bridge over the Manchester River!” Cried out the girl in the fake Irish accent.

“No.” The girl with straight blonde hair said. “None of the teachers will dare volunteer. But one of us might.. but who..” The girl with straight blonde hair said as she started to stroke her chin, in a manner that reminded very much of a villain in an anime featured film.

“Oh! You know the drama club has a mermaid costume! Perfect for this type of stunt! It's cute too! Since we're going for an underwater theme, it suits. Plus the added bonus of eye-candy will have the boys lined up for miles.” Chimed in the girl with a fake Irish accent.

“Oh goodness yes! We can do it next Saturday! It will give us a week to print out posters and stuff! But who will our mermaid be.” A girl with black, curly hair said.

“Oh that simple.”The girl with straight blonde hair said squited her eyes and zoomed in on me. “I know the perfect person.”

It was then I noticed that all attention had shifted toward me.

“What?” I said looking around the chamber.

“Ms. Emily Hannah Anderson.” The blonde haired girl said.

“What about me?” I said starting to wiggle around in my seat.

“Aye she'll be perfect.” The girl with the fake Irish accent said. “After all, she volunteered to play 'Dotty' last year and staffed the dunking booth at the summer carnival. She'll be perfect. Plus, everybody in town knows her. Also she is in the running to crown 'Prom Princess' so it makes perfect sense that she volunteers.”

At this the blonde haired girl snapped her fingers and smiled.

“Oh we could get the 'Photography Club' to do a photo shoot with her dressed in the mermaid costume! And then we can get the 'Newspaper Club' to front line edition with her dressed in the mermaid costume! Heck might even get them to do a little interview with her, so people can get to know the person behind the costume. That idea is pure gold!”

I blinked and looked around the room.

“Don't I get a say in this?!” I said blushing.

“Of course you do.” Another girl said as she chimed into the conversation. “I mean if you don't want to do it, then I'm sure we could find somebody else who would love to volunteer. It's just that if you did volunteer, and you did agree to the interview, and the photo shoot. You'll gain a ton of kudos in school.”

“Aye!” Said the girl with the fake irish accent. “Plus that club you belong to 'Anime and Manga' club will get a good bit of spotlight. Might even gain a few new members. And plus with your name on the ballet for 'Prom Princess' each ball thrown your way would count as a vote on your behalf. Beside.” The girl leaned in and whispered to me.

“Between you and me, that club you belong to has something of a bad name around school. Two years before you came here, when I was a dumb Freshman. Some fellows from that club got in trouble with the headmaster and almost got it shut down. See them, fellows were using the school computers to download Hentia.” The girl with the fake Irish accent whispered darkly.

“Oh I remember that!” Another girl chimed in, “They were printing off like these weird Japanese porn cartoon pictures and downloading weird Japanese porn using the school computer. They were selling it too! I know a bunch of guys got busted!”

I blinked that all this was new to me.

“Oh! Emily, you missed it girl! It was big news, the priest, people were up in arms. Like the main three guys who were the brains behind the whole operation got expelled from school, and all those who brought this stuff were either canned, or paddled, or both!” Another girl chimed in.

“The 'Anime and Manga' club almost got shut down too. But it lost a lot of members, and students were banned from using the school's internet for the rest of the year.” Another girl added.

“So let me get this straight.” I said, taking a deep breath. “By agreeing to cosplay as a mermaid, staff the dunking booth, getting dunked over and over again in freezing cold water, I'll somehow raise enough money to cover our prom.. Remove the tarish from the 'Anime and Manga' club and somehow get enough votes to elect 'Prom Princess'.”

“Not really, we can't guarantee that doing all that would do all that. But it would win you some major kudo points with the staff and the students, and could, maybe tip the scale in your favor. But what we can guarantee is..” Another gir added before she paused in mid sentence.

“But what we can guarantee is two extra photos of you in the year book. And a better shot at being crowned 'Prom Princess' which would make it three extra photos of you in the year book.” The girl added once she had collected her wits about her.
“Yep!Your already going to get an extra photo for volunteering to help us. And if you volunteer, you'll get another extra photo of you posing in the costume. Plus another extra photo of you sitting in the dunking booth. Plus considering we'll be hanging posters of you posing in the costume around school, that kind of gives you a razor thin edge for when it comes time to count the votes. Which means you also get a crown, a title and another photo out of it.”

“...” I took a deep breath and looked toward the sky. Somehow at that moment I felt my mom looking down on me, smiling in amusement as I weighed the pro's and con's. I missed her, but times like this, I missed her even more.

“I'll do it!” I said, taking a deep breath. “I'll volunteer!”

To Be Continued