Prom venue

From Candypedia
Prom venue
First appearanceLove My Way, page 4
June 27, 2007
Related charactersPaulo, Tess, Rachel, Jessica, Matt, Jordan, Tiff, Madison

Prom venue is the wiki’s name for the hall where Roseville High School’s junior prom is held. The building is never named, and the comic never shows what street it sits on. It turns up at the end of a limousine ride, at night, at two junior proms held a year apart. Whether both proms use the same hall is never established. Paulo is at the center of both nights, each time as a younger boy escorting an older date.

Description

Prom night starts at the curb, where limousines pull up one after another.[1] At the Class of ’08 prom, photographers wait by the entrance, with balloons and confetti drifting around a doorway dressed in “Welcome” signs.[2] Only a low, dark shape is visible behind the students climbing out of the limo,[2] and a large parking lot sits outside.[3]

Inside, the same three zones turn up at both proms: an entrance, a big central dance floor, and refreshments along one side.[2][4] A long cloth-covered punch table stands at the edge of the dance floor at both proms, holding a single bowl and ladle one year and a whole row of bowls the next.[5][4] There is a banquet table Tess calls a “crazy table for fifty”, along with quieter two-person tables with cloths and centerpieces out at the margins.[6] The ’08 prom also has a raised DJ booth by the floor,[2] and the food includes oysters, which Jessica comes to regret.[3]

The decor is different at each prom. The ’08 prom has ceiling swags,[5] and strobing beams play over the slow dance,[7] while the following year’s hall is flooded with overlapping multicolored spotlights.[4] Either way the place is genuinely large, with dozens of silhouetted couples filling the floor.[7][8] Paulo, for one, is impressed. “Man, just look at this place! This is so awesome!!”[5]

History

Paulo escorts Tess through the entrance to the Class of ’08 junior prom.[9]

In Love My Way, freshman Paulo takes junior Tess to the Class of ’08 junior prom. At the door, a sleazy cameraman photographs Tess’s chest and she beats up an entirely legitimate photographer by mistake.[2] Later at the punch table, Paulo overhears students trading rumors about his date, including that Tess has gone and “robbed the cradle.”[5]

At a quiet table away from the floor, Tess turns down Paulo’s confession because of the age gap between them.[10] He pulls her into a slow dance anyway. In the middle of it, she tearfully admits that she has fallen for him too, but she still won’t let him wait for her. “We all change over the years. I don’t want you waiting. And not on someone like me..”[11] They kiss and cling to each other, both in tears.[7]

Tiff’s limo delivers the group to Paulo’s second junior prom, a year later: “We’re here~!”[12]

A year later, in Total Recall, Paulo is back in the same suit with Rachel on his arm.[13] Tiff ditches Jordan the moment their limo reaches the curb, since, as Jessica later puts it, “She just wanted the limo ride, dude.”[1][8] Rachel and Paulo dance together. Paulo still finds time to pull the moping Jordan aside at the punch table, talk him out of his Tiff obsession, and point him toward another girl entirely.[14][15]

Rachel reveals there is no limousine booked for the return trip, and Matt hands Paulo the keys to his car.[16] Out in the parking lot, Jessica falls ill from the prom’s oysters.[3] The drive home ends in a car crash that leaves Paulo in the Hospital.[17]

The prom with Tess comes back once more as a memory. Saying goodbye on her graduation day in Class of 2008, Paulo recalls their slow dance and finally admits she was right about them. “What you said to me at prom.. I hated it. I thought you were wrong. I didn’t want you to go..”[18]

Trivia

  • The ’08 prom is full of PaRappa the Rapper 2 cameos. The DJ above the dance floor is PJ Berri, and other characters from the game are on hand to watch Tess assault the photographer. Veronica’s commentary asks readers to “Please excuse all my Parappa references.”[2]
  • Veronica has pointed out that Paulo attends two junior proms before his own junior prom, which has yet to appear in the comic.[19]
  • The doorway signs at the first prom read “Class of ’08”. Those juniors are the class Tess graduates with in Class of 2008.[2][20]
  • The member-exclusive BCI story Relative Strangers explores an alternate timeline in which Paulo died in the post-prom car crash.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 13
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 4
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 22
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 14
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 5
  6. ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 6
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 10
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 15
  9. ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 4
  10. ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 7
  11. ↑ Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 9
  12. ↑ Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 13
  13. ↑ Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 10
  14. ↑ Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 16
  15. ↑ Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 20
  16. ↑ Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 21
  17. ↑ Chapter 85: Total Recall, page 38
  18. ↑ Chapter 88: Class of 2008, page 7
  19. ↑ Veronica (2026-05-01). “Tumblr ask response”. Bittersweet Candy Bowl on Tumblr.
  20. ↑ Chapter 88: Class of 2008, page 8
  21. ↑ “Bittersweet Candy Bowl newspost”. bittersweetcandybowl.com. 2026-07-25.
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