𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐓 / / 𝐉𝐉 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊

CHAPTER 18

In a crowd full of roses, she was the thorn.

At least that's what it felt like as Stella slowly entered behind Kiara and her parents. Everyone here seemed to be dressed in light pastel colours, clearly sticking with the summer theme, but Stella being who she was simply had to make a grand entrance. She stuck out against the mob in an short, tight emerald green velvet dress and dark makeup, and she was pretty certain everyone in the entire building knew that despite being a guest here she certainly was not from Figure 8. She saw them whisper, heard them say, 'there's Denny Swayer's daughter', and oh boy, did she revel in it.

"You really couldn't of worn anything lighter? Like, I don't know, maybe pink?" Kiara suggested next to her as she searched for drinks.

"The deal was I come to Midsummers with you, not come to Midsummers with you and dress appropriately." Stella pointed out. "You should really be more accurate when making bets."

"Whatever, at least your here and we can get drunk." She swiped two champagne flutes from the waiter and handed one to the blonde with a smirk. "Just try not to get into any fights."

"You say that like it's a habit of mine." The blonde grinned cattily, downing the contents of her glass before placing it on the nearest surface.

"Are you proposing it's not?"

"Oh, look there's Pope." She changed the conversation topic tactfully, waving towards their friend. "Come on, let's go say hi."

As they approached the Heywards, Stella felt various eyes upon her, two pairs belonging to Kiara's parents. Now, Mike Carrera didn't like Stella for her heritage, nor from the stories he had heard about her from various folk. Then there was Barry and his reputation to add to the whole situation, that certainly didn't help. Mr Carrera hated the fact that his only child was best friends with a bunch of no-gooders from the Cut, petrified that they would have a bad influence on his daughter. He didnt like Pope, he really really didn't like John B and JJ was out of the question too. As for Stella? Every time the girl walked through his door, or into the Wreck, with a smirk on her face and a flirtatious wave, he couldn't help but feel sick. Even as a teenager, she was a master manipulator, she knew her actions made him feel uncomfortable and she revelled in such. So, Stella couldn't blame the man for not liking her. Mrs Carrera though, she absolutely adored Stella for some bizarre reason that not even she nor Kie could understand. Perhaps she had been good friends with her parents when they where younger, who knows? But Anna always welcomed the blonde with open arms, and she wasn't going to complain about that.

Mike turned to say something to his wife, who only shook her head in disagreement. Stella decided to take no further notice then as Kiara greeted Pope. "Excuse me Sir, do we have to shuck these ourselves? Cause it might make a mess of my costume."

Stella snorted at her friends poor excuse of a fake accent, even more so when Pope turned around with a sneer until he realised it was the girls. "Well, we wouldn't want that now would we." He chuckled. "That accent was bad."

"Bad? It was fucking terrible." Stel added. "Never take up acting, girl."

"It was, I was gonna let it go." Kie said as the three of them looked at the scene in front of them. "You ever seen this many Kook's in one place?"

"Yeah." Pope answered. "Last year."

Kiara grimaced. "We're in the Lion's Den."

"And when lion's are hungry, they eat." Stella sounded. "But at least wolves don't perform in a circus."

"I think that's the most poetic you've ever sounded apart from your ability to rap the entirety of Rap God." Pope snickered.

"Thanks, I stole part of it from Matthew McConaughey."