Survival Of The Fittest

Prom had crept up on Penny kind of like her mother when she was checking her Facebook. Before she had time to even blink, nearly all of her friends, all of the cheer squad, and most of her gaming buddies even had dates to prom while she was left in the dust. She was left with the leftovers.

Which is how she ended up with Ilya. She asked him, he said yes, and bingo presto Penny was now going out with a wrestler.

Of course, her mother did not approve (like she ever did approve of anything Penny did), which she made perfectly clear while she was helping her get ready for the night.

"<Are you sure you couldn't have asked the Tahm's boy? He's such a nice kid.>"

"<He also goes to school in Rainer, mother, and I haven't spoken to him in seven years.>"

"<Well I'm sorry, I would know this kind of thing if you actually told me about school once in a while!>"

"<Are we really going to be having this argument on what should be one of the best nights of my life? Please, mother, just...behave.>"

"<Did my daughter just tell me to behave myself?>"

"<Yes she did, which means 'Don't treat my date like he's a Japanese in Seoul'.>"

"<...fine.>"

"<Thank you mother.>"

So the subject of her daughter's date fell to the wayside as Jin Huang helped her daughter become beautiful, if only for one night.

Dresses for rent were fixed up and beautified, hair was straightened, nails were painted, flowers were pinned, makeup was applied, matching shoes were found, and glasses were replaced by contact lenses, which for once in her eighteen years on earth, didn't itch like hell when she initially put them in. Of course the night wasn't even born, but she could hope, right?

Once her mother had taken enough solo photos to plaster the room of a serial killer, Penny could relax. Ilya was showing up any minute, but for once she wasn't concerned with anything but the night ahead of her. She sat down in the living room, chugged an entire bottle of water (making sure not to even touch her lipstick), and got her nerves ready for the dance to come.

It wasn't often that Ilya Volkov got embarrassed at his own behavior. Normally he felt that he was in control of his life, managing every part of his schedule down to the hour so that he never had a chance to regret much of anything in life. Now that he thought about it, the last time he felt truly embarrassed about himself was when he last saw his attempts at making wrestling promos. His acting in those videos was so wooden that he felt the urge to check himself for splinters when the videos ended. But since he tossed professional wrestling and moved to focus on MMA, he hadn't made any more embarrassing mistakes... until the night of prom.

Prom wasn't something the thought about often. The concept wouldn't have stuck in his mind for long were it not for the majority of the student body constantly discussing which student was going out with which other student. Though Ilya would never make derisive comments about high school gossip out loud, he never bothered listening and simply tuned it out. So it was a surprise when Penny Huang suddenly decided to ask him out. She was a nice girl and he had no real reason to say no to her, so he didn't.

Fast forward to the night of prom, and Ilya found himself driving faster and more recklessly than he had since he first got this license. Thanks to a scheduling snafu and, he had to admit, a general lack of enthusiasm, he very nearly forgot which day prom was supposed to be, and thus had to rush out, rent a tuxedo, and buy a bouquet and corsage with barely enough time to make it to Penny's house. Even then, he was still sure he would arrive late, late enough to annoy her and potentially ruin her special night.

Ilya parked into her driveway, taking a moment to catch his breath and calm down. It took him another minute to wipe his brow and straighten out his collar, before getting the bouquet and walking to the door. His face looked as apologetic as he could as he waited for Penny to answer.