Random one-shots

Herissa one-shot: It's now, or never (Part 3)

A/N: This chapter is the third part of this one-shot... and nope, this is still not the end. *smirks* I'm evil. There should be part four, and hopefully it's the end. I had a lot of fun during writing this one-shot. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Hugh Cantrell arrived prom at 6:55. He was almost late, he knew, but he didn't care. He turned on his phone and sent a message to his 'partner', Merissa Nickleson.

Arrived---- Hugh Cantrell

He was still wondering why did she accept his request to prom. It was just... weird. They were literally the blonde hair guy (was he Draco? He's really not a fan of Harry Potter) and Harry Potter. Can you ever imagine them, if one of them is a girl, going to the ball together? No, right? If you ever imagine, it would be weird. They'll just be arguing when they dance.

Luckily, this prom is a masque, meaning that they can actually hide their faces and identity.

Therefore, if he was really unfortunate enough to dance with Nickleson, he most likely would not know the girl dancing with him was her.

*

The Waltz music began and most people went in the pool, dancing with their partner. She saw Averie, who wore a 'quarter mask' ----this meant only a quarter of her face was covered with a red mask she wore. She was laughing with Nick, apparently not dancing to the beat.

For Merissa, she wore a purple dress that showed her shoulders. It covered her ankle and she practised a few times at home so she won't trip over her dress. Her mask was a matching dark purple mask with gold and silver lines on it. It covered her whole face, hiding her identity.

A boy sat beside her. "Where's your partner?"

She paused and thought for a while. She decided to lie. "I don't have a partner."

Well, they are not 'partners' after all. A prom partner should be a person she likes, not her rival.

It's hard to tell his facial expression under the mask he wore, but Merissa had a feeling he smiled.

"Well, may I ask you for a dance?" He reached out his hand.

"Sure." She pretended to bow like a proper lady. He laughed went in the dance pool with her.

They started to dance a weird Waltz. Neither of them, apparently, practised Waltz that the teacher taught them. They were dancing all the wrong patterns, stepping on each other's legs, spinning at the wrong timing.

"You didn't practise!"

"Neither did you, ai?"

She laughed. She was amazed at how a stranger could make her laugh so easily.

"What did you feel about the end of High School?" He asked.

"Don't you have a better start for a conversation?"

"I'm bad at starting conversations. Or should I say, 'do you have a boyfriend, radiant lady?'"

"Well," She said as she stepped on his foot again, "I had mix feelings about the end of high school. Happy to leave this hell that abused me for seven years using tests and assessments, but also sad to leave this place with so many memories. Remember that place?" She pointed at the tree outside, "that's the place where Nancy Johnson screamed at her boyfriend when the principal was talking."

"I have similar feelings to you," He spun her, finally once at the same time as everyone else, "I'm really happy to leave all these tests, teachers and stuff, but there's one thing I will always miss----"

"Friends." They said at the same time.

"We're going to leave our friends and go to different colleges. We may be best friends, but became strangers a few years later. It's really scary." She stopped. "Sorry, I'm a bit over worried. I'm a bit whiny, right?"

"I'm terrified at how similar we are," He said, "What we think is very much the same. I'm scared to lose my friends, to be honest, but I know if I said that thought to any of my friends, they'll laugh at it and say it's not cool at all."

"If they are really your friends, they won't leave you because you're not 'cool'." She empathised at the word 'cool'.

"Being cool is my image," He tried to shrug while dancing, "Being cool is good. It keeps you out of bullying and stuff. However, people expected you to be badass all the time. They ignored that even a cool person can be soft at times."

"That's why the teachers always told us that we should be the person we truly are," She tried to look through the mask, or get a glimpse of his face. "But it's hard. You have so many people around you, and you need to try to impress them."

"I disagree the last part. Wait, why are we even talking about this stuff? Normal 'badass', 'cool', 'reckless' people don't talk about this stuff right?"

"It's because this ball is a masque. We don't know each other. We don't need to care in reality, who we are. It's just two strangers talking."

"You sounded like a philosopher."

"This is----" She lowered her voice, "the inner side of me."

"I've talked to this lady (he empathised at the word 'lady' and made a British accent) for five minutes, and I still don't know her name."

She thought for a while. "This ball is a masque. A masque means we should not know who the other person is. I'm quite scared if we know who each other is, everything will change. Maybe... maybe we can call each other 'sir' and 'lady'."

"Okay, lady, can we left the pool?"

His phone lighted up. He read the message and groaned. "My friends need me to bring my partner to their table."

"Then why you're groaning?"

He sighed, and she could feel his eyes rolling under his mask. "Long things short. My friends dared me to ask my rival to go to prom with me, and she said yes. Therefore she became my partner."

Her mind swirled. This case is too rare to be coincident. Is this boy Hugh Cantrell? She shocked this thought out of her mind. This boy is funny and thinks almost the same thing as her. Hugh Cantrell is the complete opposite. He's an arrogant jerk that never understands what others think.

"I'd better sent a message to my partner."

Her phone lighted up.

They called us, where r u---- Hugh Cantrell

She quickly looked around.

The opposite side of food area---- Merissa Nickleson

I'm at the same place---- Hugh Cantrell

Send me a pic of u----Merissa Nickleson

He did what she said.

She widened her eyes.

Her 'crazy' thought was correct.

"It's you."

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