A Step Below Semi-formal (story by Jill prompted by Jennifer's photo)
A Step Below Semi-formal
It started out so innocently. Lacy and I had been walking, and we happened upon some party prep in a community park. “Walk this way, Tam,” Lacy had said, sort of steering my arm in the direction of the large trucks in the parking lot.
“It looks like they’re planning a party or something. I’m not sure we’re supposed to go in there now,” I said. I had always been way more cautious than Lacy—all the way back to my first memories of her in preschool. She would be the one jumping off the top of the monkey bars while I was only a couple of rungs up, watching her have what looked like the time of her four-year-old life.
“Oh! Come on. They can’t keep us out now. It’s a public park!” She grabbed my arm. My resistance had made her even more insistent.
A woman with a clipboard was standing near the back of one of the open trucks. “There should be 10 more tables,” she was saying loudly to someone who must have been inside the truck. “Ten!”
Lacy jogged over to her, and I froze, watching her. Why was I always so scared of, well, pretty much everything?
“Hey, hey!” Lacy said as she got close to the woman, who had shifted her attention from the truck and tables to Lacy.
“Yes? Can I help you?”
“What’s going on? Is the park open?” Lacy said, stopping beside the woman.
“For now. Park closes at five, and then there’s a private party at six.” Giving enough attention to something other than the tables, the woman looked back to her clipboard and started counting.
“Oh, gotcha, gotcha.” Lacy glanced back at me and then back at the lady who was ignoring her, “Okay, thanks!”
“Yeah,” the lady said, not even glancing back up Lacy, and then to whomever was in the back of the truck, “There are definitely tables missing, Luke. Did you find the tables?”
Lacy ran back over to me. “Come on!” She raised her eyebrows and smiled.
I was relieved to know that we were actually allowed at the park and weren’t trespassing. I glanced at my watch. It was 4:15. We had 45 minutes. Lacy could have her fun exploring, and then I would insist that we go.
We got beyond the trucks and entered the back part of the park. There were twinkling lights in the trees, tables with umbrellas, couches, a bar, a stage where a band was warming up … my eyes quickly tried to take it all in. “Oh, my god,” I said under my breath. “This looks amazing.”
“Can you imagine how much money someone is shelling out for this little party,” Lacy said to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me close to her she added, “We’re totally coming to this.”
I looked at her, “What?” I said and shook my head.
“Oh, we’re definitely coming back to this,” she said quietly.
“Lacy, no!” I stopped and faced her. “We can’t. Besides, we don’t know if it’s a wedding, birthday party, corporate event, you know, like, whatever …” But I could see the determination on her face. Oh, shit, I thought. “How would we even dress?” I added, hoping that would be the thing that brought her scheme back to reality.
She looked around for a few seconds and then turned to face me. “I’m going with a step below semi-formal.” She squealed. “Oh, my god! This is going to be so much fun!”
I shook my head. “I’m not doing it! I mean, you can come back and embarrass yourself, but I’m definitely not doing it!”
She grabbed my arm, “Come on!” She started to quickly walk back toward the street. “We need to figure out what we’re wearing,” she added.
“We’re?” I said as I quickly fell into step beside her, and I had a feeling this was either going to be one of the best adventures of my life to date or … Well, I didn’t even want to think of how horribly wrong it could end because I knew if nothing else, Lacy was persuasive. And I was pretty sure that as much as I insisted that I wasn’t going, the two of us would be back later, dressed a step below semi-formal, figuring out how we were going to crash this party.
—Jill Morse (written August 8, 2021)
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