Gillian stared at the couples dancing to the Il Divo hit Feelings and her whole world shattered.  She had promised herself that she would dress up really hot, buy herself a corsage, and wear make-up. Then the guys at the prom would be sorry that they didn’t ask her to the prom.  She didn’t know what made her think they would even look twice at her if they hadn’t spoken to her the last five years she had been attending school with them in all of the same classes with them.

            She glanced over the crowd below her.  Half the students were making out on the dance floor oblivious to her pain.   Her eyes went over to Greyson Duncan.  He was wrapped in the arms of Lisa Thompson. 

She smiled sadly and allowed herself one last fantasy about him. When that ended, she let her eyes travel to John Stines.  He was wrapped in the arms of the girl that she had heard them call Voodoo. Even the nerd squad had dates.

It was official, she was pathetic.

She swiped a hand across her eyes to catch the tears that toppled down her cheeks.  She wouldn’t let them see her cry. With them ignoring her for her whole life in Ryder Creek wasn’t worth what was left of her dignity.

            At the end of the song, she backed away from the railing, picked up the skirts of her gown and started down the stairs.  She had some packing to do because she would be leaving Ryder Creek to pursue her destiny.  She would become an actress and she would rub all their faces in it. Hollywood was calling her and she would answer if it was the last thing she ever did.

As she walked out the door she heard someone calling her name but she didn’t look back. If she had stopped or even thought of stopping she would break down. Then everyone would see how hurt she was and forever she would be known as the girl who didn’t have a date and cried over it the whole night.

Hurrying down the street, she ripped her heels off and chucked them into the bushes. It didn’t matter to her because she would never wear them again; as a matter of fact, she wouldn’t be wearing anything from that night ever again.  It would be her way of celebrating her freedom from the awkwardness that was high school.

Gillian should probably take a bus to her house but she wasn’t in the mood to explain why she was all dressed up with no shoes or why her mascara was running like Niagara Falls.

            In her room she stuffed clothes into her bag.  Her parents weren’t happy that she was leaving but then again they weren’t her real parents. She could leave and there wasn’t a lot they could do or say about it.  She felt like an eel to be leaving when she was because her foster father was sick and her mother didn’t look so hot either. 

            Sighing she stuffed a picture of them into her bag with the little money she had managed to save over the years.  She walked out her door and stopped at her parent’s room where her mother was hunched over the sleeping form of her husband on the bed.

            “You really are going?” her mother looked up and wanted to know and Gillian lowered her eyes.

            “I can’t stay here, Brenda…” Gillian pleaded. “I have no good memory here. My parents died in an accident, you got burdened with me, I have no friends and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong…I just want something new.”

            “I see,” Brenda nodded. “Did you tell Paul you were leaving?”

“Yes…I said goodbye yesterday,” Gillian sighed.

“Come give me a hug.”

            Gillian walked over to hug her.

“You stay out of trouble and call if you need anything,” she spoke then shoved an envelope into Gillian’s hand. “Here…your father and I were saving this for your university…but…here…”

            Thanking her, Gillian kissed her father on the forehead to say goodbye and was out the door into the darkness for the train station.