You punched the punching bag, over and over again. What can you say? You needed something to take your anger out on. You had seen Wally talking to Samantha － who was flirting with him － in the hallways at school today. Yes, after forever you have finally acknowledged your feelings about Wally. You had a crush on him. And the thoughts of Wally and Samantha just talking infuriated you. Samantha was your public enemy, and not to mention, your own personal bully. Well, she wasn't really much of a "bully" but she did love to humiliate you in front of everyone...
Punch.
If only this punching bag were her face.
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"So, Wally."
"Hm?" he replied, munching on a potato chip.
"Are you and Samantha, like, a couple now?" Saying the words "Samantha" and "couple" in the same sentence was painful. But you endured. You had to.
Wally sighed, "Sadly, no."
"But you do have a crush on her...?"
Wally blushed harder and started to get fidgety. That was all you needed to see to confirm your suspicions. "Nope."
You forced a smile. "Oh, pity... Thought you guys'd look cute together." Bile rose up your throat and it took everything to keep them in. "Well, uh, gotta go finish my homework, so, uh, yeah," you awkwardly stated as you tripped over a cushion.
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You dumped your books into your locker, grabbed your History books and slammed the door shut, earning looks from students lingering around during their free period. You shot them an apologetic smile before taking off and dashing towards your classroom. You were not going to be late for the third time in a row. All of this － Samantha's fault. She just had to pick on you. You gripped the door handle and opened it hastily. Thankfully, your teacher wasn't there yet. You sighed in relief, taking a seat at your desk at the back of the class. Panting, you took a sip of water － and then your teacher strolled in. History began, and you just zoned out.
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"For the first time ever, we're going to have a Winter masquerade ball!"
The school cheered and you groaned. Honestly, you never did like balls. There wasn't anything special about them. It's not like you were going to lose a magical slipper or get pricked by a splinter. And besides, why go if no one was going to ask you? It was pretty obvious who your crush is going to ask.
You stood up and walked out of the auditorium, not wanting to listen to the rest of the speech. You rubbed your arms slightly as you stepped out of the school. Maybe having left a sweater in your locker wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all? You sat on the bench and just stared into space, you hyperactive mind working non-stop.
"Why're you here?"
"Could ask you the same question," you retorted.
"Hey, don't go all nasty on me," Wally pouted as he sat beside you on the bench.
You shoved him off. "This is my bench."
He glared at you but nonetheless continued sitting on the floor. "So...you heard about the ball, eh? You going? I heard plenty of girls love to dress themselves up－"
"I'm not plenty of girls, Wally," you sighed. "Anyway I don't think I'm going. What about you? You should go, I want to dress you up in a ball gown and apply sparkly mascara and eyeshadow and－"
"Woah, woah, there. Nope. Not happening."
"You mean the ball thing? That's cool, 'cause it means I can still apply make-up to ya." You poked him.
He squirmed under the poke. "No, no to the make-up thing."
"Aw, I was looking forward to that." You pouted.
✱ ✱ ✱ ✱ ✱
You couldn't believe what you were doing right now.
Okay, so maybe you had lied to everyone － and yourself － that you hated balls and was never going to attend one. But then, here you are, standing in front of a mirror in a ball gown for God's sake. The ball gown was [choice of colour and design] － what can you say, you loved this style. It was a [choice of type of dress]. Your heels were simple [choice of colour and design] and your mask － gosh, you loved your mask. It was [choice of colour and design], and hid your identity perfectly. No one would ever know you were...her.
✱ ✱ ✱ ✱ ✱
You hesitated slightly before entering the auditorium. It was decorated so exquisitely that you almost didn't recognise it. Gone were the shabbily painted walls and broken lights hanging from the ceiling. Instead, they were replaced with completely painted-over walls and brand new lights － heck, a chandelier was hung up! You stared around in awe. The school really went all out on this one. Music was playing from speakers, the refreshments table was at a side and small round tables were scattered around the perimeter of the room. You walked to the refreshments table, hearing a few "look at her"s and "she's beautiful, who is she?"s. You smiled a little, and got a drink from the table. They might be spiked, but oh well. You took a sip － fruit punch. Fruit punch was your favourite drink, and you didn't know if it was coincidence that they had it here. You threw the cup away after you finished and looked around.
Well, you didn't see Samantha or Wally. They were (kind of) the main reason you were here － to keep Wally away from Samantha by dancing with him. You were completely aware of how juvenile you sounded but, it was you first (and probably last) ball ever and you wanted to make it count. You looked around and － bingo. You have spotted Wally. But, what? He was walking towards you. Definitely to get a drink. You smiled as he stopped walking in front of you.
"Hey there, what's your name?" he asked.
"Raven," you lied. You had learnt over the two weeks how to make your voice a little huskier, and unrecognisable.
"Well, Raven, would you like to dance?"
Your heart skipped a beat. He was asking you to dance! Well, technically, he's asking "Raven", not you, but yeah, still.
"Of course." You placed your hand lightly onto his and he swept you both towards the dance floor. How cliché, you thought as a slow song started. You wanted to scoff. He placed a hand on your waist and you, his shoulder. You stared into his green eyes, while his bore into your black-coloured contacts-covered ones. You both swayed in sync to the music and honestly, this was the best night ever. You were finally dancing with your crush!
He closed the gap between you two － you were now chest-to-chest. You shivered as his hot breath blew onto your sensitive skin.
"You're really beautiful," he whispered huskily into your ear.
You blushed. You melted inside, wanting so bad to take off your mask and reveal that you were [Y/N] but you just couldn't. That would ruin everything. "Thank you."
He leaned in and whispered again, "How come I've never seen you before?"
"You did, trust me."
Wally spun you around a couple times and pulled you back in, holding you by the waist.
"Well, I certainly don't remember."
He lifted you up effortlessly then placed you back down lightly.
"So I'm going to make sure that after tonight I'll always remember."
Before you could respond, he had already captured your lips with his. You were shocked － so shocked. But you didn't protest and kissed back.
Too bad this will never happen ever again, you thought bittersweetly as a lone tear fell down your cheek.
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Thoughts on this? Honestly I'm not happy at all with how this came out － so tell me your opinions please!
