Secrets of Adeline (Book 2)

Chapter 31: Dance

     My alarm sounded, I sat up from the basement floor quickly. Unwrapping myself from my damp towel, I rubbed my eyes. "Agh. Turn it off!" Malory moaned from a nearby corner. "Sorry." I scrambled for my phone, turning off the alarm. "Shoot!" I gasp. "Wake up, guys! Wake up!" I yell tiresomely. "What is it?" Cody moans. "Today is the spring fling dance! We have to get ready!" I run my fingers through my hair, breathing heavily. "Okay. You need to calm down. Just take a chill pill." Paris rolls over, pushing herself to her feet. "I can't. Make sure everyone wakes up, I'm gonna start getting ready." I spin on my heels, sprinting up the basement stairs.

     Gliding into the bathroom, I flick on the light switch. It only took a few minutes to brush my teeth and hair. Sectioning off my hair in clips, I heat up the curling iron. Once it beeps, I begin weaving it through strands of hair quickly. A sudden jolt of pain trickles through my finger. "Ow! Shit!" I drop the curler, glancing at my blistering finger. "Ugh!" I whine, picking it back up. Todd and Jasper tiresomely shuffle into the doorway, grunting every few moments. "We are gonna head out, Cody and Kat, too. We all have to get ready. I'm pretty sure everyone else will be leaving in a few minutes, too. Just letting you know." Todd rubs his head, Jasper nodding. "Okay, sweet." I say, finishing my last curl. "You look great, by the way." Jasper adds on his way out. "Thanks, Jas." I smile gratefully.

     Wrapping the curler up, I shove it back into its drawer. Soon, I ended up in my room. I flicked through hangers of dresses, none of which captured my eye. Between hangers shuffling, the  back door opened or closed every few moments, which I assumed meant that my friends were leaving. Sighing, I consider the benefits and draw backs of each dress. Eventually, I decided on a sleeveless lace black tight fitted dress that came a few inches above my knees. Pairing them with black heels, I fancied myself with some makeup. Looking at myself in the mirror, I felt weird. Off. I wasn't used to seeing myself so dolled up. It was kind of a nice feeling, though.

     Glancing at my phone, I realized that there was two hours left till the event started. Throwing on a short and thin necklace, I painted my nails a glossy black and added a few rings and bracelets. Soon, I only had an hour and a half. My heels clicking beneath my feet, I exited my back door. Eventually, I was turning the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life, humming beneath me. After a few moments, I pulled into Paris and Jessica's driveway. Paris wearing a long elegant peach gown and a curly up do, she looked amazing. I smile, unlocking the doors. Paris slides in passenger. "Hey!" Paris squeals. "Hey! You excited?" I smirk. "More nervous. But extremely excited, too." She bit her lip. "It'll be fine, you got this." I shrug. "You know who's going to be running for king, right?" Paris raises an eyebrow. "No..." I grow curious. "Well before I say it, don't freak out." She raises her other one. "Okay, I won't. I promise." I crinkle my nose. "Jake." Paris blurts. "Oh, that's okay." I laugh, shrugging. My heart skips a beat and soon I was nervous, too.

     Pulling into the school parking lot, we exit my dads jeep. Each of our heels clicking, we radiated confidence as we floated gracefully to the school entrance. "I almost forgot Jessica wasn't running." I distract myself with conversation. "Yeah, I know. She's such a bummer." Paris groans with a laugh. We meet up with Malory, Kat and Maya in the school gym, groups of random girls that went to our school surrounded us. Across the gym stood many guys in tuxes, some including Cody, Jasper and Jake. I groan to myself, rolling my eyes.

One of the principles marches into the center, between girls and guys. "Attention! Attention, children. Today we will learn a dance and each of you will perform with several different partners from the opposite side of the room, obviously. You will each have solo dances in front of the rest of your school and classmates in the auditorium on stage. Any questions?" The principle hums. Chatter breaks out, voices speaking over each other. "Okay, good." She crows. After scribbling things down on several sheets of paper, she dumped them into two buckets. "Now, I will draw a name from the guys section. The person called will come up here and select three papers. Eventually, it will equal out to everyone, girl or guy, dancing three times. Let's begin." She explains. "First one up is... Cody Williams!" She announced. Cody scrambled to the crowd, eventually standing in front of the pink bucket. "Whenever your ready, sir." She nudges him. He sighs, reaching in. Each of us stare in awe as he selects three papers. "Who did you get?" She smiles. "I got... Adeline, Kat and Lisa." He read the names. Kat stumbled back when he said my name. I sighed, lowering my gaze. She already hated me enough. Cody bit his lip with regret. "Sorry." I mouthed to him. He nodded. Kat glanced at me, flashing me an obvious fake smile. I smile back sheepishly. I had no idea who Lisa was but I was sure that by the end of tonight, her and I would be six feet under thanks to Kat.