𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕼𝖚𝖊𝖊𝖓'𝖘 𝕷𝖎𝖔𝖓: 𝕮𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖙

Let The Games Begin

The weeks leading up to the Fourth of June offered no breaks or lulls for the two nobles who had managed to entangle themselves in the affairs of the Sapphire Owl House's Cricket team. They had been expecting more work, but they were still taken aback when their schedule was cramped with practices and meetings from the moment they woke up to the second their heads hit their pillows to go to bed. To make matters even more exhausting, their Cricket meets weren't just to practice their actual plays, but to scheme and plot them as well. It was just as much of a mental workout as it was a physical one and it left Y/N feeling burned out and brain dead when they were finally over for the day. And to add on to the grueling practices and meetings, there were also entrance rehearsals.

Before they were even to step out onto the field on June Fourth, the teams had to appear at a ball thrown on the night of the Third. Each House team was supposed to make a grand entrance, dressed in costumes which were based on the themes of the House mascots and values. They were gorgeous, of course, and it was clear that every expense possible had been paid, but they were going to be a royal pain to actually wear. Y/N didn't mind standing out with a unique outfit, but she wasn't exactly thrilled that her outfit would be based on owls and scholarship. But any complaining would be for naught. Their costumes had long been dictated and designed by tradition, and Y/N could recognize an argument she would instantly lose.

So instead of complaining about her ridiculously busy schedule, the strange costumes, and the way her brain and body ached from every kind of exhaustion, Y/N bit her tongue and stayed on her best behavior. After all, just as important as tradition was at Weston, so was your reputation, even if they didn't want to admit it. And the school's reputation itself would be on the line beginning on the night of the Third of June the second the first guest stepped foot on campus.

Just as the P4 and their Fags promised, the ban on women was lifted as students' mothers, sisters, cousins, friends and fiancées flooded the school grounds in their gowns in order to support their boys. Y/N had half a mind to pretend to be deathly sick and to sneak out amongst the crowd of women, throwing away her disguise as 'James' and supporting Ciel and his efforts through the crowd. But once again, Y/N's idea would be for naught. McMillan or another classmate would likely grow worried about their poor friend James and demand that he be kept under close watch. And while Y/N knew she was crafty, she also knew the boys of Weston weren't completely incompetent. A bunch of balled up blankets or pillows shoved under the covers and a ball with a wig and smiling face drawn on would do very little to trick anyone in her dorm.

So without a better plan to ditch the party last minute without anyone noticing, Y/N got dressed. She pulled on layer after layer of the costume, each one heavier and hotter than the other. She felt silly when she looked into a mirror to see what she had become. If everyone else on the Sapphire Owl House team wasn't dressed almost exactly the same, Y/N would've ditched the entire thing. Next she began to work on her hair/locks/braids/hijab. Blue House was painfully bookish, so she had to make sure that not a single thing was out of place on both her outfit and on her head. The final touch to her costume was the scholar's cap that everyone had been given. It took some proper arranging, but eventually she got it to fit and not look completely stupid.

"Honestly," Y/N hissed as she glanced over herself one last time in the mirror, "out of all the Houses, I get stuck in the one with the worst fashion sense." She really wasn't all that bothered by it if she was being honest with herself, but lately she hadn't been feeling quite right. She felt like an imposter when she walked throughout the halls of Weston, answering to the name of 'James Brewer'. So now she was just trying to act more like her old carefree self, and the old Y/N would've internally bitched about how she looked like a bookworm. A cute bookworm, but a bookworm nonetheless.