Another Saturday. Naomi still hasn't heard back from the mausoleum on her job application.
You would think that they'd respond quickly since no one wants the job. I guess the situation's just not that... grave.
Naomi grimaces. That joke was terrible.
Naomi looks at the door, irrationally wondering if every little rustle is her mother coming home.
Sage is out rehearsing and stressed that she didn't want to be disturbed with any phone calls, but Naomi still worries.
...worries because tonight is prom.
Naomi figured that her mother wouldn't be incredibly keen on her going to a school dance with a bunch of boys. Rather than invoke her wrath, she just...goes on another bike ride.
A long, formal one.
She borrowed this dress from Brianne's mother, who thought that it was just so sad that Naomi didn't want to buy a fancy dress for one occasion.
She looks down at the heavy thing wearily. Great, I look like Cinderella or something. Won't people think I look too... childish for a high school prom?
She fidgets with her hair. Brianne convinced her to undo her pigtails and put it up. With a bow and everything. Sooo much more mature than the braids! But Brianne and Brianne's mother insisted that it went well with the dress...
Calvin, who's waiting for his friends, gazes at Naomi.
"If you dare make fun of her tonight, Calvin-," Brianne hisses.
Calvin shoos her off of him, "Yeah, don't worry. She...she looks cute, actually."
As his cheeks redden, Brianne backs off but her expression no less severe.
"I'm warning you, Bagley."
"It's Broke-Bagley-,"
"Oh whatever. Can't you talk like a normal fucking person!?" Brianne pinches the bridge of her nose, "Anyways, just be nice to her, ok? And not in a creepy way!"
"Thanks for the dress, Brianne!" Naomi obliviously interrupts Calvin and Brianne's confrontation.
"Yeah, no sweat. I have to get changed actually... I put my stuff in my locker."
"A locker...for your dress?" Naomi tilts her head quizically.
"It's a no-frills deal. More my style than most of the dresses my mom wanted me to wear. Thanks, by the way, for taking her old dress. She can at least feel like she has one "normal" daughter to play dress up with."
With a laugh and smile to Naomi (and a last minute glare to Calvin), Brianne waves goodbye and heads inside to change.
"So, are your friends inside?" Naomi asks Calvin.
He turns to her and forces a neutral expression despite his red cheeks, "Yeah."
She hesitates, and then places her hand on his shoulder, "Well, lead the way then!"
A few blocks away, Sage spends her evening in a formal rehearsal for a live music garden show. She's only filling in for the actual pianist who was too sick to come.
"I bet Trigger actually just wanted to take prom photos with his daughter," Jon Lesson theorizes on the sudden absence of said pianist, hours into the mostly wordless rehearsal, "My own daughter was going nuts about it this morning..." But his daughter lives with her mother. Jon managed to see her off at the limo, at least.
"Ah, I see," Sage says absently, only paying attention to her notes. Piano is definitely not her best instrument, so playing these songs that she doesn't know takes up all of her focus.
"Isn't your daughter in high school? She'd be at prom too, right?"
Sage's notes all jumble together before coming to a stop.
"I...wouldn't know," she admits, deeply disturbed.
Did Naomi go out to party!? Prom isn't the formal event it once was. Her daughter could be anywhere...
With anyone.
At 10:30, Naomi is home. She's tired from all the dancing (awkward at first, fun once Calvin took the centre of the dance floor and got everyone moving), photo taking, and socialising with Brianne, Calvin, and both of their friend groups. She wonders why those two can't get along; she spent so much time going back and forth between them! Then she blushes, remembering how Calvin swept her into the middle of the dance floor, how he kissed her right before he went off with his friends to the after party... why would he do something like that?
Well, at least it was fun. But she's definitely ready to wipe off this makeup, put her hair down, and change her clothes. With a tired yawn, she heads off to the shower.
Sage arrives about twenty minutes later, relief coursing through her when she peeks into Naomi's room and sees her sound asleep.
But just because she's here now doesn't mean she wasn't elsewhere before.
The next morning Sage surprises Naomi by being up before 10.
"Oh, mother! I can make another batch of pancakes, if you're hungry..."
"No thanks, Naomi. I just need some coffee."
A few minutes tick by as Naomi anxiously watches over her pancake. Cooking on a stove is a harrowing experience; it's just too easy to burn food. But cereal's not really a proper breakfast... so here she is, agonizing over a puddle of flour, eggs, and milk.
"So how was your evening yesterday?" Sage asks non-chalantly.
Her eyes narrow as Naomi freezes. "Good..."
"What did you do?"
"Homework, mostly. And you?"
Sage stands up. "I suppose the rest of the night you were partying then?" she can't conceal the venom in her tone.
Naomi scrambles to turn the stove off and then whips around to face her furious mother.
"No, mother, I just-,"
"Just what? Didn't tell me you were going to hang out with low lifes from your class? I'm not stupid, Naomi! I know what kids do at prom!"
"No, it wasn't anything like that!" Naomi desperately tries to defend herself, "We just dressed nicely and had some soda and snacks and danced, I swear! There was an after party, but I didn't go!"
"But I didn't even go," Naomi pleads, near tears.
"Even if that's true, the way people perceive you is often how they will treat you. You went to prom, by yourself, socialised with plumbob knows who, by yourself, and then went home all alone? Did you go there with a date? Did he walk you home? Come inside? What will people think of you then?"
"I didn't even have a date! I came home by a taxi!"
Sage sighs now, disappointed, "But how am I supposed to believe you if you lie about it, Naomi?"
Naomi hesitantly meets her mother's eyes.
"I didn't lie."
"You lied by omission, Naomi. It's the same thing. You know what you did was wrong."
They both look at each other in silence. Naomi sweats, not sure what her mother wants.
"...I'm sorry."
"Sorry about what you did, or sorry that you got caught?"
Naomi blinks, "I'm sorry...about lying."
Sage shakes her head, "There's no way for me to believe that, Naomi. Liars always lie."
Sage doesn't say anything else and simply walks back into her bedroom. Naomi is left by herself, anxiety coating every nerve, every cell of her body.
She can't bear to sit still, but leaving the house just simply isn't an option, neither is talking to her rightfully upset mother. She pulls out the only thing she can think of to do; her unfinished homework.
She shouldn't have lied to her mother. She knows that now. It's so clear. How could she have possibly thought it was ok to sneak around and see Calvin? He even kissed her! His friends saw them kiss... and they're not a couple or anything... Is Calvin even single? What if he already had a girlfriend!? What a mess!
She sets down her pencil and begins to nervously bite one of her fingernails. Her only option is to just...pretend the kiss didn't happen. Tell Calvin they can only be friends. Distance herself. He has plenty of friends, she doubts he even thought it was special.
It's her only option.
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AN: This chapter was really hard for me to write since I have little experience with Sage's attitudes personally. No one around me growing up was really as strict as she is, so I have no idea if what I'm writing is realistic or plausible or not.
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