It was the deer that got me. "Is that thing alive?" I said, squinting at the fluffy, brown shape with sharp-looking hooves and antlers.

"No, it's plush," Sam told me.

"It's moving," I pointed out as I watched the plush deer appear to be flying across the room.

"It's suspended from the ceiling and controlled by one of the members of the prom committee," Sam replied.

I stared at her. "How do you know this?"

"I'm a Valkyrie, Magnus," she said. "We know everything."

"Enough talk about the plush deer!" Halfborn said. "I want to get on the longboat ride."

There was a ride set up in the cafeteria similar to the pirate rides I'd seen at carnivals, but the body was fashioned in the style of a Viking longship. Fifty students could be seated in it at a time and each ride lasted five minutes. "Let's get in line," Alex suggested.

     Halfborn was whooping before we even got our seatbelts buckled. Thought and Memory were operating the ride and if I thought having our vice principals watch us would make us show decorum, I was very wrong. Halfborn and Mallory were the loudest, but everyone was screaming in excitement as the ride started. I was seated next to Alex and he wrapped his fingers around my hand as we swung back and forth; I wasn't sure if my stomach was flipping because of the ride or because of him.

     When the ride was over, we unbuckled our seatbelts and went to the dance floor. Jack and Riptide, matching with her rose-gold dress and his tie, swept to the middle of the dance floor and started busting moves none of us could hope to compete with. Sam and Amir danced without touching whatsoever, so they looked like prim aristocrats from Edwardian England.

Halfborn and Mallory were dancing so wildly that a circle of open floor space formed around them. At one point, Halfborn threw Mallory into the air before catching her. Hearthstone and Blitzen were near the punch table, having a conversation in ASL and I decided to join them while Alex was going to speak to the DJ about changing their music. Hearthstone made jazz hands when I came over. "Brother," he signed, "you look dapper."

Despite the pounding music and bright lights, I felt a lump grow in my throat. Hearthstone considered me to be his brother. After all he'd been through, that was beyond heartwarming. "You enjoying the night?" I signed back.

"He hasn't danced yet at all!" Blitzen signed, his face cross with annoyance.

Hearthstone poked his side. "I already let you choose my outfit," he replied.

Blitzen poked him back. "Only because you have no appreciation for fashion."

Hearthstone rolled his eyes and I smiled. Sometimes they reminded me of an old, married couple. Blitzen had dressed up tonight in a perfectly tailored midnight blue suit and matching dress pants. He wore a starry tie and his hat sat jauntily at an angle. Hearthstone was wearing an all-white suit, so he looked like a boy at a wedding and his usual candy-cane striped scarf was replaced by a bowtie bearing the same pattern.

    As my friends continued poking one another, I looked at the punch table and gasped. Hearthstone couldn't hear me and Blitzen couldn't either over the noise of the music (I was pretty sure Alex had not yet been able to convince the DJ to play whatever he was hoping to hear), so I signed. "Is that mead?"

     It certainly looked like mead and it was labeled mead. I wasn't sure if it tasted like mead because I'd never tried mead before and I was not keen on trying it now. The only thing I was sure of was that this couldn't be legal. Hearthstone pointed to the sign and as I squinted, I made out smaller words: non-alcoholic.

    Aside from mead, there were lingonberries pastries, skyr, and an array of sugar cookies shaped like everything from Odin's ravens to Thor's hammer. I grabbed two sugar cookies and found Alex watching Mallory and Halfborn dance, a smirk gracing his fine features. TJ was standing beside Alex and I handed him the sword-shaped cookie, while I gave my boyfriend the Jörmungandr one. "Delicious," Alex said, biting off the snake head.

    "This is really good," TJ agreed. "I wonder who baked them."

     "I wonder who planned this whole night," I said. "It's amazing. Are Viking longship rides normal at proms?"

   TJ laughed. "Only here at Valhalla High."

    Alex had a bit of icing near his lip. "Mind if I get it?" I asked nervously.

     I dabbed at it with a napkin and squealed as Alex licked me. "Alex!" I said jumping back.

    TJ and Alex were roaring with laughter. At that moment, "We Are Family" started playing. Alex grabbed my hand and we began spinning. I was very nervous about stepping on my boyfriend's toes, but it was fun. I felt like it was more than just my body spinning and I felt a giddy rush of excitement.

The next song has a slower tempo. Then another played and another. We danced and whenever we needed a break we went to the punch table to chat with Hearthstone and Blitzen or hopped on the Viking longship ride for another go.

    It was a perfect night. There was no one making fun of me and I was dancing the night away with my boyfriend. So what if I tripped up a couple times and fell on my backside once? I wasn't hurt and the only person teasing me was Alex and I liked it. With one hand around Alex's waist and another on his shoulder, I felt like the luckiest person in the Nine Worlds.

      It was in the midst of such thoughts that the music stopped. "Put it back on!" someone — I was pretty sure it was Magni — shouted.

      "Silence!" Gunilla said into a microphone.

     She was standing beside the DJ. It was then that I realized even the Viking longship ride wasn't operating. "It is time for the crowning of the prom king and queen."