Who made me Penelope Judith?

13. Dance

At first I had had a silent and very discreet internal panic since Claude wasn't in my sight and the dance was already starting. Everybody was joining up with their respective partners, blushing, giggling, joking, smiling whatever. Everyone moved a little bit away from the space reserved to dancing in the ballroom. They put themselves closer to the long food tables. The most elderly were siting on the nearby couches, even the emperor had no say in that, but all were entitled to watch the first dance at least. After that, they could go back to chattering, eating and drinking, discussing business or playing games amongst themselves but the dancing would still continue.

Anastacius has apparently chosen a very pretty young woman to dance with. She was probably older than him but she seemed dignified and stuff. She seemed seriously euphoric to be his dance partner. Anastomoses however didn't look so excited. He just looked plain normal. The girl however, as expected, seemed to be expecting a further relationship than just one simple dance.

As the music started, the emperor and the empress moved towards the center of the ballroom and started their dancing while the nobles went "Ouh Ah".

Anastacius however looked absolutely repulsed by this. I could read his face. He was in a very disgusted state of 'Yuck mother and father are dancing. Grossssss'.

I always hated this stupid rule that stated when the emperor and empress open the ball, you gotta glue your eyes on them and stay completely silent.

Some of the youngest children simply squirmed uncomfortably, knowing they'll be forced to watch this for the next 4 minutes. I, like most other children my age (9), was fine. Some of the same annoying boys however were elbowing each other and pulling out their tongues. Their parents shot them dagger eyes from the other end of the room. If they didn't notice, we other guests sure did.

"Penelope." I heard a voice in my ear and calmly turned back.

"Claude." I huffed "There you are. What took you so long?"

"I used to follow the stench of obnoxiousness to find you, but now it's too faint to find." He explained.

"Pfft." I shook my head "You're not funny. Let me be the sarcastic one between us."

He scoffed and looked down. His right hand was twitching on the blue bracelet beneath his long sleeve. Jesus Christ does he bathe with it or what?

"Are you ready?" I asked.

He shrugged. He had no answer to provide for me. He's not ready but he knew there wasn't a choice.

"At least we practiced in town yesterday." I nudged him encouragingly.

"That was different."

Lilian also said the same thing to me. Dancing amongst commoners was more enjoyment than dancing amongst fellow nobles. Speaking of Lily, she was standing with Felix-Well not with Felix, but behind Felix. I had no idea if Felix knew she was there or not, he seemed focused on the royals. There was a boy near them who kept eyeing them. Undoubtedly, he was coveting a dance with my friend. Once every while he'd turn his attention from the emperor's dance to look at her. Lily knew he was there. Each time he looked she simply took a little step closer to Felix.

"Ah it's almost time." I said to Claude as the music started going faster. "First comes his highness Anastacius -"

"You're making me anxious." Claude sneered at me as Anastacius led his very enthusiastic partner onto the dance floor.