Then the silence hit him. He slowed and looked around at the circle of faces\u2014the principal, the coach, parents, students, Mason standing off to the side looking ashamed.<\/p>\n
And Elsie near the exit, standing straight.<\/p>\n
Darren stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cElsie, honey, I know this is a shock\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t call me that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
He blinked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had someone pretend to like me,\u201d she said, louder now. \u201cAt my prom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would make this easier. I only wanted to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mason stepped forward, his voice trembling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Elsie.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen tell me why. Why did you do it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mason swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he knew someone who could help me get a football scholarship. He said he only wanted to talk to you. I thought it was harmless.\u201d<\/p>\n
His mother covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
His father looked furious.<\/p>\n
Elsie nodded slowly as tears slid down her cheeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t think about how it would make me feel at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mason lowered his eyes. Then Darren stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cElsie, I made mistakes. A lot of them. But I\u2019m here now. I want to make things right.\u201d That was enough.<\/p>\n
She pointed at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t make things right by manipulating me into meeting you. You could have called. You could have knocked on our door. Anything but this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darren\u2019s face fell.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t have listened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The principal stepped forward, calm but firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cSir, you need to leave. Now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darren looked at Elsie one last time.<\/p>\n
Then he walked out with the entire gym watching him go.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the prom night I had wanted for my daughter.<\/p>\n
But when I think back on that evening, I don\u2019t remember the music, the decorations, or Darren\u2019s face when he realized he had lost control.<\/p>\n
I remember Elsie standing in the middle of that gym with tears on her cheeks and her spine straight.<\/p>\n
I remember the moment she stopped being the girl people pitied.<\/p>\n
And became the girl no one would ever underestimate again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At first, he didn\u2019t understand what he had walked into. Then the silence hit him. He slowed and looked around at the circle of faces\u2014the principal, the coach, parents, students, Mason standing off to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n