Little White Riding Hood

Chapter Sixteen - Lamb and Comet

   Arabella went home that morning, enough for her brother to not notice she even left the base, she was a master at deceitful things such as lying, but she felt quite bad for her brother. As the sun rose to the texture of her skin, she just opened her eyes, the rays coloring her skin gold.

"Ah, finally. The morning sun." She whispers.

   Arabella sat straight on her bed and stared at the vase on her bedside table, the ever-blooming star flowers closing their petals, returning to their star-like shape. It was a light shade of hibiscus and peach, like the summer, and it reminded her of herself so much.

  Closing up during the day, pretending to be that playful nice girl, and showing off her true personality at night, shedding the glamour.

  It was a Friday, an annoyingly bright Friday. She looks at her calendar, a red circle marking the date.

June 12, Ballroom Night.

   "Ah, it's tonight." She mumbled, her gaze drifting to her cream-colored hands interlacing. "I haven't even found a gown or dress or whatever."

   She lets out a sigh, finally standing up from her bed, and walking out of her room. She reaches the sink and grabs a glass, filling it with water. Then she comes back, pouring the water in the vase.

"There you go, don't die of thirst." She softly chuckled as she watered the flowers.

   Arabella sits on her bed, as she arranges the flowers in a more... organized and appealing way. She got ready after that much procrastination and then went out of her house to walk herself to school.

  The school wasn't that far from her home so she'd walk there every morning, just to avoid the students. While she was on her way, she felt a tap on her shoulder, only to see the gorgeous boy she'd ever only known.

"Good morning, Seo." She smiled, looking at him with her ruby eyes.

"Good morning," He says in reply, returning the greeting.

  "You do know we don't have classes today right?" He says, stopping in his place, meanwhile, she looks at him with a perplexed expression.

"What do you mean?" Arabella asks. "Is it because of the ballroom night later?"

"Well, you catch on quick." Seo remarked

   "The principal said that we are going to do our preparation for that night, unless you are already prepared that is." Seo says, pointing to her bag.

  "Oh," She says, glancing for a quick moment at her bag. "Uh, I don't have anything but school stuff there,"

"Don't worry, it's just an expression."

  Later on, the duo takes themselves to their school since Arabella refuses to go back home only to return her things, so she just leaves them at her locker. Then, they walked around while going through different decorations of the outside appearance of the campus, all blue and shiny, as if the campus itself was coming to the Nines.

  Soon enough, Arabella noticed that Seo kept glancing at her secretly as if he was curious whatsoever, but it made her have a weird turn on her stomach so she spoke up when they sat on a bench, taking a break.

"You've been staring at me for a while." She says, looking at him with a raised brow.

Seo's face turns bright red as he looks away, the ice cream in his hand melting.

"Come on spill it out." She says with a stern tone.

"Chill! Chill!" Seo yells, crossing both of his arms in an X in front of his face as she threatens him with a punch jokingly.

"I was gonna ask you to come with me for.... Uhm."

"Huh?"

"...if you want to come with me to... uh."

Gods, this guy...

"Just say it please..." Arabella looks at him with a grimace, a frustrated sigh slipping off her lips.

  "Lavender Boutique. If you want to, that is." He says, turning his head as he points to a vintage-looking store across the street. "I'm gonna look for what I want to wear there for tonight."

"Hm," Arabella ponders, her fingers to her chin.

   "Sure, I'm searching for a dress for tonight too anyway."

A surprised face was imprinted on Seo's expression.

Damn, she really agreed to it so fast. What is she, a fashion fan perhaps?

"Okay..."