Young Writers Society

Olette

I took a deep breath in, then out as I stood in front of the mirror. My hair was pulled up into a ponytail and curled. I put a light red blush on and a bit of mascara and eye liner. I was ready to go, but really nervous. I smoothed out my blue dress, making sure it wasn't wrinkled or faded (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... 80&bih=778). I didn't even think Alan liked me! Besides, I had to focus on piano. I thought about not going, but figured it was too late. I was already ready and had a "date".

My shoes were a little uncomfortable, but, as my mother used to say, "beauty hurts." I never doubted that. Since I was the only girl in my family, my mother would always dress my up in the fanciest, prettiest, most gorgeous and frilly clothes ever. It was a bit annoying, but I never protested. Shoes were another thing. I longed to wear just plain tennis-shoes, but she insisted on heals or flats or, it seemed, anything that would make my feet hurt. I got used to it eventually, though, and so for the dance I picked out a pear of black heals (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... 80&bih=778). They weren't too bad. I made sure the straps were tied tight.

After making sure everything looked okay, I walked out of my room. I was meeting Alan outside. I nervously walked out the front door to find him waiting with a rose in his hand. I smiled when I saw him. He looked astonishingly good.

"You look...amazing." he said to me, handing me the rose. I smiled.

"Thanks. You too." I said a little awkwardly. He really did look nice. I hoped this would be a good night.

>Eek! I missed so much!<

Tess

I still couldn't believe I had said yes. It was very... un-Tess of me. I was rather ecstatic about it, actually. I just hoped Danny wouldn't murder me. The no-friends thing had brought me down a little- Rhia had said she was bringing in my squad. Oh, right, haven't told you about that yet. My squad- varsity cheer. I thrived in it. Competitive, athletic, fun, energetic- it was absolutely my style. I loved my squad to death, and was near tears when Rhia had called me to say, and I quote, "The squad's coming. And guess what? They all got light brown streaks in their hair in your honor."

So yeah. Pretty psyched.

Being in varsity meant, besides having another twenty sisters and feeling on top of the world, that I could tolerate dresses and skirts. Skirts more. I was loath to force myself into formal wear, but it was a special occasion, and I would do as I deemed necessary, however much I hated those ballet flats.

After painstakingly climbing into a flowy yellow dress and a pair of gold flats, I glanced into the mirror. It wasn't as hideous as I thought, actually. The dress was spaghetti strapped and had a wide satin sash across it that tied in a bow in back. The center stripe was a gauzy pale yellow, the sides a more cheerful, vibrant shade. Reaching a little past my shin, I didn't feel as exposed as I would in some of the dresses I had seen the more... exuberant girls on the squad wear. The shoes? Not much to say. Metallic gold, small, thin bow on the toe. Seeing as there wasn't a lot of options with my hair, I pulled it into a short ponytail that rather complemented the look, I thought.

Of course, my carpet burns were still bluntly visible, along with the half dozen or so bruises I had gathered through my fall out of the NHS. A carpet burn on each knee, a short one on my left elbow, one faded red one trailing down my jaw, another down the side of my right calf. A pale yellow bruise on the top of my shoulder, a nastier looking blue and purply one slapped on the inside of my right calf, an icky black and yellow one smudged on my forehead, another darker smudge on my cheekbone, and yet another splotch of purple on my upper arm. Thankfully, the worst were hidden under the dress, and those visible were faded enough to look less... yuck.

And with a final glance over and a biting of the lip, I started off on slightly shaking legs to my first party away from Manhattan.

Lorelai:

Arms linked, Bridgette and I walked out into the parking lot. "Can we take my car? Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with cherries ontop, unless you don't like cherries and then I can put chocolate ontop!" She looked a little wary "You have a car?" I nodded quickly and "Yes! Don't worry, I'm allowed to drive. I have a license, the DVLA approved, I can see perfectly fine with my left eye, and I've never had an accident."

She said nothing and I sighed "I promise not to kill you." With that I skipped to my car and quickly got in. When Bridgette got in I started the car and said "Don't worry, I drive all the time."

We drove quietly, if you count quiet as me saying random things, to the dance. "See!?" I asked excitidly "We got here in one piece." We linked arms again and I began skipping, making Bridgette have to skip too.

Ricky

I knocked on Tess' door, "You ready yet?" I smiled.

"Almost," her voice came from inside. I remembered Danny's comment about how I looked. Like a pig in a tux, she had told me. She really could be sweet sometimes....not. I just hoped Tess had a different opinion. Otherwise, I was doomed.

By recommendation from Sean, I had brought her a rose. Sean was the man of the band. He was the one who got all the girls, and he had a date tonight. No surprise there. Well, he had been nice enough to let me use his car, while he got a limo. He had a nice Mustang. It wasn't the best of all the cars, but the engine was great, and....

Tess stepped out of the room, and broke my train of thought. Broke any thought, actually.

"You look really hot," I said. It was the first thing that came to mind. Nice, Ricky. I handed her the rose. "Here, uh, I got this for you." She let out a little laugh. I loved that smile.

"Come, the car awaits," I said with a fake proper edge in my voice. I held out my elbow, and she linked hers with mine. I grinned, this was going better than I thought.

Tess

I looked really hot?

First time anyone'd said it to me.

Yeah, the squad constantly crooned that I was gorgeous, and Rhia would spend hours assuring me I was absolutely beautiful after a bad day, but hot? That was new. Felt weird, but... good? I hadn't decided. But the rose more than made up for it. Thornless and everything. And yellow. That made me smile all the more- yellow roses were my favorites. Beaming, I twirled it around in my free hand.

Thankfully, not a word had been said about bruise nor carpet burn. My smile lifted a little higher and I attempted not to squirm. Succeeding gloriously (my breathing even sounded regular!), I ducked into the car Ricky had unlocked, a frown flashing across my face as my skin had to part from the softness of his sleeve. Darn, it felt nice. And there was no way I was admitting that when the girls interrogated me, as I knew they would. Not the brightest stars in the sky, but their intuition was dead on. No way I could hide this from them.

Wait... did that just contradict itself? Never mind those last two sentences above, I'm adrenaline- possible/probable/definite crush- first date type thingy... loopy.

And that yellow rose and casual smile of his wasn't helping things.

Ricky

I looked down at her hand, resting casually on the space between the drivers seat and the passenger seat, before I reached towards it. I brushed along the top, and she opened her hand. Her hand fit perfectly in mine, and it felt good.

"This your first time in Vegas?" I asked her after a minute.

"Yeah," she smiled. I turned on the radio, and of all irony, the end of 'Waking up in Vegas' by Katy Perry came on.

"That's ironic," we both said at the same time, and then burst out laughing. This was going to be great. I couldn't have picked a better date if I had searched the whole world. To make the situation even more ironic, 'Nothin' on you' came on. I shook my head and laughed, making sure to keep the hand that wasn't steering holding hers.

I started singing it halfway through, not able to resist the temptation. A lot of people had told me I had a good singing voice, but you would never know with the songs we picked. Either rap, or only Danny sang. Maybe I'd do karaoke tonight, and show her who's on top here.

"Nice," Tess complimented me when I was done.

"Well, I..." I couldn't really think of anything to say back.

Tess

I tried not to gulp. Fall For You, the Secondhand Serenade song, had just started, and I was going to pass out with the realization that despite how true the song was, at the moment, I had no idea what I was doing. Nor did he, I hoped, but then again... god, I needed Erica.

"Who's Erica?" Ricky asked.

"What?"

Ricky's face tinged with color, and I almost giggled from his cuteness. (God, Tess, the guy's not a puppy.) "You said, 'god, I need Erica.' "

"Oh... that was out loud?"

Ricky laughed, and I wanted to keep talking forever, so I could hear it again. It wasn't like how they describe in novels, musical or rumbling or whatever. Just... healthy, and full, and natural. "Yeah, Tess. You did."

"Oh. Um, Erica's one of my friends from varsity. Super intuitive."

"Varsity?"

"Varsity cheer."

"You do cheer?"

"As much as you ask questions." At this, he laughed again, and I could've died. We pulled smoothly into the parking lot, and with his hand still loosely around mine, we went into the party.

I really hoped Danny wouldn't kill me.

((Murgh... I think I'm gonna have to drop this, guys... :\ I'm just feeling kinda left out, and I have no idea what's going on half the time. Just assume that Lisa had to drop out or something, or someone else can take her over.))

Alan

We arrived at Club Rio, and I helped Ollette out of the car. There was Valle parking, which made my life easier. I wrapped one of my arms around her and we walked into the club.

I noticed there were camera all over the place. So this was being filmed then? Oh, well, I deserved the spotlight. Suddenly, a good song came on. I pulled Ollette onto the dance floor. The song was Dynamite by Taio Cruz. She looked a little uncomfortable.

"You okay?" I mouthed, as it was impossible to be heard over the music. She nodded, and I raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. I figured she just didn't like dancing.

We went over to the room where there were several tables set up, and a door kept the music to a minimum. Neon lights made all the tables appear to be different colors, and the whole room looked amazing.

"A drink for milady," I said to the waiter. He nodded, and came back with two glasses of coke.

"If you want to leave, I can drive you. I'm sorry if I ruined this for you."

Ricky

As we walked in, a fast son ended, and a guy with a megaphone came out.

"Owl city, preforming live, here they are!" A bunch of people cheered. The band came on, and a slow song started. I recognized it as The Christmas Song. It was sort of ironic, because it was the beginning of summer, but I still liked the song.

I looked at Tess, "Do you want to dance?" She nodded, and I pulled her towards the dance floor. Okay, so I could do a back-flip in time to music, but when it came to slow songs, I was doomed. Oh, well. I had watched loads of ballroom dancing shows. How hard could it be?

I took her hand, and we spun in gentle circles. It was very flowing, and not my usual style, but I liked it. I didn't try anything big, because I knew I would miserably fail, but once or twice, I did take her hand as she did a gentle spin under my arm. About halfway through the song, I pulled her up against me and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Having fun?" I whispered.

Olette

I tried to ignore all the cameras as we walked into the club, but Alan seemed to be enjoying them. He pulled me onto the dance floor when a good song came on. I had never heard it before, but he liked it. This wasn't too bad, I just wasn't good at dancing. I mean, I was good at ballet, but I was only 13. I didn't know how to waltz or any of that. I'd like to learn though.

"If you want to leave, I can drive you. I'm sorry if I ruined this for you." I shook my head.

"You didn't ruin this! I'm having fun." I hoped he heard me over the music. I took a sip of the coke in my hand. I wasn't a big fan of pop (or as some people call it, soda), but it was actually good. I was surprised to find myself having fun. Maybe coming here was going to be a good thing after all.

I watched as Alan danced, and couldn't help but laugh. I was sort of just standing there and watching, but it was fun. Alan was good at dancing. Me, not so much. The music started to fade and the DJ said into the microphone, "Okay, now it's time to slow it down a little. Owl city, preforming live, here they are!" People cheered and wooed.

Alan held his hand out, and I took it. He pulled me into a slow dance, and I didn't mess up too badly. I seemed to keep stepping on his feet though. I watched my feet to make sure it didn't happen again, counting in my head.

One, two, three. One, two, three. I finally got the hang of it. I looked up and smiled, then rested my head on his shoulder. This was nice.

Tess

"More than you'll ever know," I whispered back. My blood was roaring in my ears, and I could feel my hands trembling behind Ricky's neck, but I hoped he chalked that up to how chilly the room was, not me being so adrenaline-y. I didn't expect this to be so... easy.

I could tell Ricky was trying his hardest not to step on my toes or anything, and I was trying equally as much not to trip over my own feet. My skin felt warm where Ricky had kissed it, and the thought made my lips twitch into a smile. Tomorrow, he'd belong to Danny again, and I'd be trapped by Emiliana Torrini, but for now, we were just dancing to an ill-timed song (Christmas in June?), in a dim room, in a yellow dress and a blue suit.

"This is wonderful," I whispered to him, looking to the fancy lights and glass and white flowers everywhere.

"Really is," he mumbled back, his chin now resting on the top of my head.

He started murmuring the lyrics, and I closed my eyes, smiling. I leaned my head against his shoulder, listening to his low voice, feeling his heartbeat.

Eh... guess I didn't need Erica after all.

Lorelai:

When they announced Owl City I couldn't help but frown. I'm not exactly a big fan of them. All of their songs basically have the same music with different words. You don't even need words for it. You can sing la la la the whole time and it would be perfectly fine. When they stated playing I wrinkled up my nose and said "Meh."

I never usually danced anyway. Mostly watched. I used to dance, but I would always either run into something or people would run into me. It just got so annoying I stopped dancing. Unless I'm in open space I hardly ever dance, unless I'm craving attention.

I walked into a different area and asked for a drink. When the waiter provided me with one I quickly finished it and went back out. The caffiene in the coke would kick in soon, then I'd be out dancing and having fun.

Bridgette

I could tell Lorelai didn't like Owl City, and neither did I. All of their lyrics are so trippy and don't make any sense, and the music videos never helped clear it up. She walked out of the room and went to get a drink and I sat down a little ways away. I casually swung one leg over the other and bounced my foot to the beat. I saw a couple groups of single guys standing around and wondered why they hadn't asked anyone. Though, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they had asked girls and they just said no.

As the first song came to an end, Lorelai came back in and sat by me.

"Never did like this band," she said to me.

"I couldn't agree more," I replied. Then I smiled and looked at her, and a couple of blonde curls swung around with my head. "Just wait until they start karaoke," I said. "Then we can wow the crowd with real music."

Lorelai smiled and eventually laughed. "I can't wait to hear what you sound like," she said, turning toward me.

I smiled. "Likewise."

Danny

Finally, that stupid band got off, and karaoke was announced. "Finally!" I half-yelled-half-sighed. I ran up on stage. "Long Shot, by Kelly Clarkson!" I yelled to the DJ. The music started a minute later, and I began to sing. This song got hard in the middle, and I had to show my crew I could do more than rap. I started to dance along with the song, nothing major, but it still was dancing.

When I was done, the crowd was screaming. I put my hand holding a mic in the air, and took a bow.

"Who's next?" I yelled out.

"Me," Ricky said. I narrowed my eyes. He was a better singer than me, and he was about to try and prove it.

Ricky

I turned and winked at Tess, "Save The Last Dance For Me, by Michel Buble." A few cheers went up at my choice of song.

Oh I know that the music's fine
Like sparklin' wine,go and have your fun
Laugh and sing,but while we're apart
Don't give your heart to anyone
But don't forget who's takin' you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin' save the last dance for me

When I was done the crowd went absolutely wild. I saw Sean give me the thumbs up from where he was sitting with close to ten other women. I took a bow, and handed the mic to the next person.

"That was really good," Tess complimented.

"Your turn," I said, teasingly nudging her towards the stage.