Valentine's Day Dance Entrance

[Sidra Cotton]

It didn’t take long for the goth to notice when Eli entered. With someone else. A very pregnant someone else. The speed at which Sidra’s eyes snapped into glare mode might have been considered supernatural if it were not her standard expression. Going still, Si studied the two as they moved around the auditorium. The way the woman waddled. The way the Librarian kept close.

His?

Probably.

If it wouldn’t have damaged the fangs, the goth would have likely ground her teeth, instead she bared them in a dangerous grin, fingers curling inward to create a clenched fist, only to uncurl again into claws. The floofiness of her skirt kept the motion from being overtly obvious, thankfully. But there was Doc N. The telepathic snoop. Every security person Hammel had on staff was at the dance too. Of course they were. A school full of metas who were hormonal and going through puberty?

Raising her head to the apex of her neck and shifting it to the left and then right, cracking the bones beneath, Sidra silently vowed not to let this outwardly affect her. She was above them. All of them. They were sheep, following the orders given to them, scrambling and scraping to get attention from one teacher or another meta. Practically begging for approval. They didn’t know how to simply be. How to follow their own desires, instead of dancing court to someone else.

Sniffing derisively, the goth-in-white swept herself to the DJ and made some very clipped, not-quite-requests-more-actual-demands for songs. All German techno. None of them at all pregnant woman dancing friendly.

He had scorned her. Perhaps not wittingly, but he had scorned her. Though perhaps, and this was charitable of Sidra to even consider, he was too intimidated by her to have asked. It wasn’t as though she had asked him either. It stood to reason he would attend the dance with someone who was easy, a sure thing. That made sense. And certainly explained everything to her liking.

Maybe there was hope for the dance after all.

[Alexander McKenzie]

Alex had seen from experience in his training classes that mental abilities seemed the roughest on students. His was a bit of both, physical and mental, and he could sometimes get some killer headaches the longer he kept his shields up. He was better now, but the first few months of training had been difficult. Now he was just fine tuning his power. His hopes were that he could graduate this year, and go on to university. It wasn’t like his power would interfere with going to school. It wasn’t really physically evident, unless he used it. And hopefully, the students would be more mature there. He wouldn’t have to use it.

He wasn’t touching for the sake of being obnoxious. He wasn’t about to go home and brag because he touched the pretty empathy. It was a nice sensation, yes, but he was respecting her boundaries. It was harder than it seemed, considering he actually liked contact. If it wasn’t playful wrestling with the Manne brothers, it was snuggling with his friends. Maybe someday he could hope to touch Ann like that (the snuggling, not the wrestling), but for now he was content with what they had. “I’m glad you like it,” he admitted. He’d felt like a dork when he’d gone to get it, but now that feeling was gone. He was just happy. Once they’d gotten to the table, he snagged a few of the unhealthier items, like cookies, and then they found a table together.

“Really?” He blushed a little and toyed with a cookie, watching the obnoxiously bright pink sprinkles fall off. “I’m glad you came with me too. I can’t think of anyone else I’d have wanted to go with.” If anything, he’d have gone alone, or else he’d have been back home with Connie. Probably watching movies. Somehow, this was more appealing. “You really do look beautiful tonight,” he complimented. “And I like your shoes.” He grinned, mostly because his were no better. Hey, it was amazing what you could get away with. His sneakers were black. Close enough to dressy for his tastes.

[Avery Sainsbury]

Avery hung her head low as she looked at her phone. She had been waiting awhile and it seemed like she would be going alone. Reluctantly Avery got up. She was going to hate going into a happy place when she was sad. Looking at all the people that where already there when she walked in was a little scary. Avery was thinking about just going back to the dorm, but even she couldn't let her brand new outfit go to waste. She was going to go and stay at the dance whether she wanted to or not. Slowly she moped her way in and found a table near the punch. Avery crossed her legs as she looked out into the crowd. Some people were dancing, some talking, others making lovey dovey faces at each other.

Avery felt it was unfair. Tears started to appear down her cheeks. She didn't even realize she was crying until she felt a cold stream run down her face. It was a silent cry but still. Soon she remembered she was wearing make-up. Avery tried to wipe the tears away but another soon took its place. She didn't even think of wearing waterproof mascara, she did wear water proof eyeliner though.

[Karashi Usaki]

Karashi was excited for this dance. Sure, she didn’t have anyone to go with, but she wasn’t going to let it get her down. At the Japanese institute, she hadn’t gone to dances because she had felt lonely, and most of the girls had dates. This time she had decided to go. She was a bit surprised at herself that she was going to do this, but also proud that she had got up the courage to go. She usually was shy and wouldn’t go to things like this, but she was determined to change that. It was a new school, so she felt that she needed to make a new her.

After she had gotten a shower, dried her hair, and then curled it herself, as she always did, she put on her dress. It was red, with a gray belt going around her middle. It came down right to her knees, and she had black shoes to match it. She loved the dress, but wasn’t crazy about the color. She loved the dress, just not the color. She wanted it to be blue, and then it would be perfect, but since it was the Valentine’s Day dance, then only pink and red was allowed. At least, that was what she thought. She shrugged. She looked good anyway, so she was ok with it.

She made sure that she was ready, and after putting her shawl on that she would wear to the dance, she grabbed her clutch purse and made her way out of the dorm and towards the Auditorium. She was getting even more excited as she got closer to the place where the dance was. She could hear the music coming from inside, and she smiled, starting to even dance a little bit. She was about to enter the dance when she saw a girl crying outside, looking at her phone. She frowned and walked over to her, touching her arm. “Hey, are you alright?” Her heavy Japanese accent flowed out of her mouth as she spoke.

Words: 341
Muse: Great!

[Eli Morrison]

"You look nice too. Like a movie star." With a grin, Eli took his best friend's hand and pulled her out onto the dance floor. He had noticed earlier that he shoes made her taller, but even with them, and even eight months pregnant, Mii seemed so tiny to him. Even when they'd both been at Hammel as kids--this was post-high school graduation for him, even though she was older than he--he'd only been smaller than her for a short time. Then his growth spurt had hit, and honestly, he had only felt like it had stopped within the past year or so. Once she'd returned. (It was almost romantic, how he could easily parcel the stages of his life based on where Midori was.)

Carefully, he put one hand on her side and started moving, not quite to the beat of the music. (Just knowing how to dance didn't mean he actually could.) "I do have an escape plan, but I'm not sure if you can handle it. It involves crawling through the air vents. Or we can stick him in a closet. We'll just tell him I'll join him in a minute, then lock him in there."

He did not notice Sidra at all.

[Midori Hawkins]

“Stop lying,” Mii countered, blushing. “But thank you.” She certainly didn’t feel like a movie star, unless her role was Juno, or somebody along those lines. But it was still nice to hear. “If I’m a movie star, what does that make you?” She paused for a moment before scowling playfully up at him. “Say escort and you’re in trouble.” She followed him to the dance floor, feeling all too like everyone was looking at her. No matter what was going through Eli’s mind, she didn’t feel tiny. She felt... well, pregnant, and it was hard to feel tiny, or pretty, for that matter. But Eli had a way of making her feel secure, even here. He really was like her brother away from home.

She smiled up at him as his hand found her side, and though she wasn’t usually one to complain, she had to giggle a little. Before Hammel, she’d taken dance classes, and had been on the dance team after she’d been recruited. She knew he was off beat, but it really didn’t matter. She was happy, and she wound her hand up to rest on his shoulder. His escape plans were ridiculous, but that didn’t matter either. “I think the closet would work. He’ll just be waiting a long time for those seven minutes of heaven.”

This wasn’t actually turning out to be such a bad idea.

[Avery Sainsbury]

Avery wiped her eyes one more time as she looked up at the girl. "I was suppose to have a date. and now I am alone." Avery was a big girlie girl most of the time. Her favorite color was pink, she loved to look her best and she tried her best at everything unless it included bugs or slimmy things. Sometimes though she would try some different things. She wondered how awe fully girlie the girl in front of her thought she was. Avery sighed as she looked back down at the table. She didn't even really feel like doing anything or saying anything. Instead she just settled on looking down.

[Tamar Harris]

Tamar watched the girl curiously as she began putting food in a napkin, maybe she was planning to take it to a table? But then the girl folded it up and placed it back down, what was she going to do with it? The girl's behavior reminded Tamar of a boy who'd been in the same foster home with her for a few months. He'd been homeless for awhile before being picked up by social services and even though he'd been being fed everyday he still seemed to compulsively hoard food. Perhaps this girl had been in a similar situation. Tamar decided to just shrug it off, it wasn't as if she was going to ask the girl why, she seemed skittish enough.

Tamar immediately noticed Tamsin's strange accent, one that she was totally unable to place. Where would people paint their faces for tradition? South America? India? Tamar was not at all culturally sensitive enough to know the answer. Tamar took the offered hand, barely noticing Tamsin's odd greeting, much more preoccupied with wondering where she was from. “I'm Tamar and I'm twelve.” She said, matching the information given.

“Ashley Shaw?” Tamar repeated, to make sure she got the name right. She thought about it for a moment. “Not a clue.” Tamar wasn't the most social person on the planet and she hadn't been at the school for very long, so the likelihood of her being able to put a face to a name was very slim. Ashley Shaw didn't sound at all familiar. She wondered why Tamsin was asking about her if she didn't know who Ashley was but then spotted the piece of paper and remembered that dating thing that had been up. “Is that the person you were paired with or something?” She asked, peering at the piece of paper. Frankly she'd thought the whole thing was rather stupid, being paired up with someone you didn't know just so you didn't have to show up by yourself. She managed to have enough self control not to voice this thought.

She took a cookie of one of the platters and stuffed it in her mouth. As she chewed she asked, “Where're you from, anyway? You've got an accent.” She added, as if Tamsin wasn't already aware of this fact. She wasn't trying to be rude or mean, Tamar was simply a blunt person and liked to get straight to the point of things.

[Luke Pyrrhos]

Arriving fashionably late? Perhaps. But it was all in good time, as Luke had been previously preoccupied with trying to look good. He wasn't that vain, you could say..but no, yes he was, and it was a joke to try to prove otherwise. Luke had ordered a remarkable suit from the Black Label Ralph Lauren Collection, and was just getting it tailored before he had made his way over to the ball. In addition, he needed to coif his hair and and just a bit of Armani cologne. Rich and savvy, just the way he liked himself to be. He knew that he looked good, and knew that the females in the room would second guess their date options when they saw him stroll in. Some might call him overdressed for the occasion, but this was a dance. Dances were when people attempted to assert their personality and riches in clothing that would scream 'me'. Wasn't that what he was doing as well? He had taste, and that's what he was showing off.

Luke remembered that he was going to the dance sans a partner, but had already been encouraged to visit many of his friends and close female comrades, which he had all intentions of doing so. He walked down the long hallway towards the noise that was resounding through the marble floor tiles and through the wooden walls. He wasn't one to go to many raging parties, but he did like the occasional get together, as long as there were tons of beautiful women. For the most part, Hammel's female statistics were pretty up there, but there were a few people that he was looking forward to see more than others. Fore example, the lovely Sawyer, his main objective of the evening. He could see it in her eyes that there had to be something there, but getting ahold of her and taking her to paradise had been a bit more complicated than he'd imagined. She was a girl with attitude and spunk, something he was absolutely in love with, but that was true for any girl with those characteristics, evidently. Still, there was something about her that made him stick around and keep trying. Now if only he could find her...

If I were Sawyer, where would I be? First he checked the dining area, as many girls liked to congregate around punch bowls, but she didn't seem to be there. Well good for her, at least she wasn't waddling around waiting for someone like himself to swoop her off her feet. That would be easy for him, granted, but maybe too easy. Sometimes he liked a challenge. Tonight was one of those nights.

He moved slowly through the room, searching over heads for the familiar head of bright blonde hair. He found one head, though, that he wasn't expecting to spot out, but still, for some reason, it stuck. Mr. LaRousse's head stuck out like a sore thumb, perhaps because of how flamboyant the boy usually dresses. Luke rolled his eyes at the though of Zac period, and tried to block him from his mind. They certainly had an odd sort of relationship. Not to say they had much of any commonalities at all, but Luke had gone from a state of hating the guy's guts to being able to stand him, and he wasn't exactly sure why or how this had happened, but he did know that it was new and alien to his body, and Luke still hadn't been able to get used to it yet. A sparkle of shivers flew down his spine, and Luke shook it off, along with all thoughts of the complexity to the aquaintanceship with Zac. He had a mission to complete, after all, didn't he? Still with now Sawyer to be found, Luke waded through people in search of his lovely entertainment of the night. If only she was just around the corner.

[Sawyer Carson]

And suddenly the man who had all the answers and all the unsolicited advice you could possibly imagine, was unresponsive. Perhaps his book was just that good. "funny, You're a much chattier gentleman online." Standing Sawyer and all her little imagination leaks moved away from Dr. Neville. It wasn't worth her time really to sit around and listen to him go on and on about how she should just love how she looked and not let the judgments of others cloud her reality. Because lord knew it was fairly clouded already. Between her ability and her substance usage, it was a wonder that Sawyer even got up in the morning and figured out what she had to do for the day.

Deciding that pondering the ever elusive answers of the question "why do girls do anything?" was going to be a rubbish way to spend her time at the dance, Sawyer made her way through the crowd that was now forming on the dance floor. The vibrations from the music fucked with her high. Making her feel all loopy and silly. But dancing was fun! And the bodies, oh how she loved being crammed in tightly in the center of a dance crowd. Fuck men. She didn't need to have anyone around to make her feel good. Closing her eyes she slowly faded a few extra dancing people into reality. It made it feel more populated. Got more people off their feet.

Normally, once she was this far gone, she didn't notice many people and if she did she ignored them. But, there was a boy in particular that she thought she could have a great deal of fun with. And lucky for her, she was having a good deal of luck throwing him off her trail. Sawyer knew Luke had been trying to figure her out. At least to get her to bend to him. And she also knew he very much enjoyed going after her. Like he could help it if he wanted to. And there he was. Looking ever so handsome. With out noticing it the imaginary people she'd created faded away and the white noise staticy imagination leaks returned to what they were doing. She had no control over these.

"Looking for another pretty girl to wine and dine?" She'd come up behind him and put a slender ice cold hand on his shoulder. Walking around him she smiled. "Don't you look handsome." Her eyes smoldered as she stared up at him. He was thrilling to her. Finally someone who wanted excitement just as much as she did. And didn't mind getting it with her.

[Ann Hudgins]

Ann would probably argue the point that her power had to be one of the suckiest out there simply because of all the drawbacks it had. No one had emotional privacy around her, she was always second guessing herself, and for the longest time she had problems eating and her body pretty much was just always in pain. Now, it was a bit different, her side effects weren't so murderous, but she wasn't close to embracing her power. Not at all.

Generally, Ann shrunk away from touching, she broke out into a sweat just by thinking about it, she punched people for touching her (reflexively), she was still crazy afraid of it, but she trusted Alex. As crazy as that was, she was aware of his gentile attitude towards her and she knew that he knew she didn't like being touched and he didn't doubt it or try to test it either. She was more relaxed around him than anyone, even Dr. Neville (OK that was a very close race), so because of that trust, she could watch him put on the corsage without freaking out. Ann was just weird like that.

Ann couldn't think of anyone she'd rather be at the dance with than him, but he'd already said that so she didn't repeat him or give a meek 'me too,' she did smile and blush a little, however. It was a nice change to feel wanted. A really nice change. When he mentioned her shoes she looked down at them and shrugged her shoulders a little. “I'm sticking my neck out with this halter, and I'm not going to risk breaking an ankle from them torture devices.” Ann would rather die than conform to the 'girls wear skirts and heels' mentality. She could put aside her dislike for all things dresses and skirts for the dance, because she didn't want to draw attention (if she only knew...). She smiled up at him anyway and nibbled on a cookie for a moment, her head kinda nodded to the music, though she had no idea who the performer was. She was so behind on pop-culture it was insane.

[Stella Pinyin]

Stella had been almost out when a shoulder and a sharp elbow attached drove into her solar plexus and drove the air out of her in a big woosh. The albino girl doubled over; already quite slight it did not take a lot to send her stumbling. The light around Stella seemed to draw inward, darkening the immediate area as shock sent her power into autodrive. Her arms hugged herself, and she started at the hand on her shoulder, looking around and only seeing a tan blur.

"Ah, yes, no it was my fault," she offered quickly, her voice a little breathless as she started re inflating her lungs. "I can't see, ah I can't see very well."

What a night; first Zac, then L.C, then that short girm, and now this. She wanted very much to go back to her dorm and make herself a thermos of tea and go to bed, or visit Dimitri. He liked tea, and slept less then she did. It had been a mistake to go, it had been a mistake to buy the dress and it had been a mistake to leave her cane behind out of some sort of blind vanity.

"Are we near a wall, or a table?" Stella asked after a moment, her breath back. "I can follow a wall out, maybe. And not hit into people that way."

[L.C. Milliner]

At the almost slip up of her name, L.C. turned, shooting him a look that meant business. Correcting himself got him bonus points, but he wasn’t out of the doghouse, not by a long shot. “Zac, I’ve seen you try. It’s half-assed at best and it isn’t even worth that amount of effort.” The girl rolled her eyes at his comment, not even bothering to dispute it further. Zac could never pretend he was actually interested in her. That was going too far, even for him. She knew why he was here, and so did he: she was the trophy on his arm. He could wave her around and brag to anyone that could listen about his feat. ‘Hey, look here! I have L.C. dressed up all fancy! Who else can accomplish that? A show of hands, please? No one? That’s what I thought...’ She saw people looking at her- there were a meager handful of guys looking her way that she overlooked a bit purposefully in order to affirm her statement that no one was looking at her.

She wanted to ignore Zac for the most part and concentrate on not falling over, but when he leaned closer to her, her blush came back full force. “It is not my weakness.” She declared, trying to square her shoulders and dance better. All in all, she danced about the same as she was before, except now her head was up. “I just haven’t danced in a very long time. You never forget. You just get... rusty.” She paused as she remembered the carnival. Now that was dancing up in a silver hoop, twirling on air. Not many girls could say they had danced on air in their lives, even once, but L.C. had done it loads of times, once a week ever since she was old enough to learn. But every dancer had their falls, and twelve feet was a long way to drop...

L.C. found herself staring into space until Zac said something else, and she snapped out of it, her face forming back into her sarcastic, icy mask. For a moment it had fallen and the sadness she felt had come out, but now she was back to her old self again. “Psh, trying to make me look sexy is like trying to make a tiger look harmless. It only works on idiots and mental patients. Stop screwing around.” L.C. rolled her eyes at the very thought of her looking ‘sexy’. No, she did terrifying and maybe ‘pretty’ every now and again. ‘Sexy’ was not in her repertoire. She had tried it before and it got her nowhere, so why bother now? Who would care, anyway? It was high school, not real life. He had to be teasing her, because there was no way he could make her appealing. Heck, he didn’t even find her good to look at.

Zac’s turn of attention was both a blessing and curse. It meant he was done messing with her head, but it also proved her aforementioned point; he wasn’t finding her good enough to look at. She shouldn’t care about it so much, but she did, and she found herself looking back down to her feet as they turned. She let him ramble about Alex, injecting a couple of agreeing sounds here and there. “Mmhmm. Yeah. Of course.” She spaced them out after each sentence. Her mind seemed to be somewhere else, but even she didn’t know where it was. She wasn’t sure why she was so up and down about this- she knew when she agreed to go that Zac would be paying more attention to Ann than her. She was expecting it, and she agreed to the idea anyway.

Wait. Zac was talking again.

“What.” (Yes TVtropers, That was a rare example of a gracelessly executed ‘flat what’ right there.) “No.” Zac’s statement had brought her back to Earth before her time off was done, and her head was spinning from the fall. She wrinkled her nose. “He’s... No. He’s not my type.” Not that she’d know what her type was anyway. Plus, she had never even met the guy. She only knew his name because Zac did and he had been pointed out to her. She hadn’t even seen him up close. “No, I don’t.. No.” The idea itself was so ludicrous she couldn’t even wrap her head around it. She shook her head and sighed at Zac’s idiocy and chalked his question up to his being paranoid.

L.C. carefully moved her arms up and draped her hands around Zac’s neck, trying to act nonchalant about it when in reality she was praying it wasn’t a stupid move. “You need to relax.” The irony of that statement was not lost on her, but she was going to overlook it for the greater good. “Take your mind off them for a bit. Smell the roses.” She shrugged. “It’s a party, Zac. Enjoy it.” He should feel honored- she rarely called him by his first name any more. On the outside, she seemed calm, but the inside was a different story...

‘AT LEAST LOOK AT ME, YOU STUCK UP BASTARD.’ The thought crossed her head, frenzied and vicious, before she could even squash it. It was loud enough that it was practically broadcast to any telepath in the room, which in itself was a feat considering she only did that around Sean. She prayed that he hadn’t heard it, or worse, another student who would trace it back to her. She smoothed out her inner turmoil as best as she could, but it was hard, considering that she didn’t know why she was so annoyed, upset, or whatever she was. She looked back to Zac and smiled, but it wavered just before she found herself dropping her face downward again to avoid his gaze.

‘At least pretend you see me.’

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny placed a hand on her hip, giving Jonah what was meant to be a Very Stern Look. Dancing was what one did at dances; he couldn't have honestly expected to get out of that just because Mia wanted to dig up people's secrets. There wasn't any reason in the world that they couldn't be nosy and dance! But before she could properly formulate an argument her phone buzzed, announcing the arrival of a text.

looking for you She typed as quickly as she could with the tiny phone keypad, true to her word scanning the auditorium for signs of her friend. And spotted her just in time to see the tiny hacker smack Reeve into Zac. Her smug smirk was quickly replaced by furrowed brow, however, when she noticed just who was with the brat. She had no problems with making a fool out of Zac, but L.C. was her friend, and if this turned into an altercation she did not want to take sides -- or be seen as having taken a side just because she was at the dance with Mia and her friend. Her friend who was kind of cute; Ginny could see why the technopath was so fond of him.

But instead she signed, "Mia can take care of herself. She isn't stupid." She spared another glance at the spectacle and added, "And neither is L.C."

Fortunately the two girls proved her correct, and Mia and Reeve made their way over before a fight broke out. "Hey, Reeve, nice to meet you." She looked him over approvingly. He was definitely eye candy, although Mia could keep the physical aspects of their relationship. Whatever that was.

And then her friend was proclaiming that she had an idea, a brilliant idea, with enthusiasm that spoke only of pranks. That wasn't a difficult guess, of course; Mia was, in some ways, quite reliable. That penchant for pranks was one of the reasons Ginny liked her.

"Oh?" She grinned, quirking an eyebrow, "Best idea ever, huh? Let's here it."

[Jonah King]

Jonah had not yet figured out exactly why Mia wanted to place a bugging device on Zach LaRousse’s person (if Jonah could hear, the last thing he would ever want to hear would be the minute details of Zach’s life. He didn’t even want to think about what Mia was probably going to be listening into), but, realistically, he knew she didn’t need a reason other than ‘I don’t like him.’ It was funny, really, how often that reason was cited when Mia was determined to get one up on someone. Sometimes she didn’t even seem to have a reason for disliking the person in question – at least this time, everyone could feasibly admit that she had due cause to dislike Zach. Half the school seemed to feel the same way.

When Mia turned to wave at him, Jonah gave her an amused smile, one eyebrow raising as if to ask: ‘will I do?’. But then the smile fell from Mia’s expression, and she turned back to Reeve – leaving Jonah to stare at her for a moment, confusion writ large on his face. What had he done? That hadn’t been aimed at Ginny – it had definitely been Jonah that Mia was looking at when her face fell, and Jonah looked down at himself for a moment, suddenly feeling awkward and out of place in his suit.

The urge to run – an urge he had been very used to feeling when he was younger – came over him, but no: he was determined to stay. Whatever problem Mia had with him, he could deal with. And if she did have a problem, she wouldn’t be able to resist confronting him about it as soon as she could. He would know soon enough what she was thinking.

He nodded to Reeve when Mia performed her cursory introductions, and his hands remained in his pockets – he was getting better at the whole telepathy thing, but handshakes were still beyond his realm of expertise. Now he was confused, though, because Mia seemed perfectly at ease with him again, and seemed to be her usual self.

The last ‘Best Idea Ever’ Mia had acted on had turned out to be an unmitigated disaster, and Jonah had been about to open his mouth to protest when she sent him one of her looks to silence him. But even this didn’t make him feel any better. Briefly, Jonah considered the idea that she hadn’t been looking at him at all – but she definitely had been. Jonah knew what he had seen. His eyes never failed him. But he pulled himself together, and gave Mia a grin. ‘As if you’d share your booze,’ he replied to her comment about the punch, his smile faintly teasing. Mia shared with nobody.