The Town That Went In Flames

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Maddie stood in the mirror with hair in a bun. She glared at the dress and absolutely despised what Jessie wanted her to wear tonight. It was a long poofy pink dress with layers of just poof. It looked like it belonged to a fairy godmother, not to a short blonde girl in Cotillion. It even came with bright pink gloves. Maddie was already not in the mood for tonight, and the dress even made it worse. Maddie had another dress in mind that was more her style, but Jessie made her by the dress that practically swallowed her when she put it on. It was embarrassing. Maddie did not want to walk out in that dress. She did not want to leave the room at all.

Maddie tried to explain to her dad to let her have another escort, or walk by herself down the stairs, but he insisted on Ryan. The thought of his name made her want to pull her hair out and punch herself to death. The worst part was that she couldn't tell anyone what had happened because no one would believe her. The Hunter's Council always brushed issues like that aside. Now she had to enjoy the night with a man she felt unsafe with.

She couldn't even talk to Alex because he wasn't even looking at her. He couldn't even be in the same room as her, and it was all because of Helena ruining the show. It wasn't Maddie's fault that Helena ruined it; Maddie was just doing her part of the mission, but the mission ended up failing anyway. Alex never understood the whole personal feelings with a mission because he wasn't a hunter. Maddie was doing her job, and that was something he had to understand. She didn't have a high ranking in The Council for just following her heart.

Shit, Nick. Maddie had forgotten his ultimatum he gave her last night about Ben. On top of her mission to win the crown, she also had to tell Ben how she felt. How could she do that to Ben? Yeah, she told him to go out with Faith, but she did that because she wanted them to be happy. Her whole love life was messed up, and it didn't help that she was in love with two guys at the same time. Focus on tonight, then worry about Ben after, she told herself.

Maddie heard the door open and saw Hope walk in with her hair and make-up done, holding her dress in her hand. Hope had a smile of eagerness on her face as she set it on the mirror and examined her face.

"I'm so excited!" Hope squealed. "Our parents did it at seventeen and now look at us!"

"Exciting stuff." Maddie continued to stare at her horrible dress. "Jonathon here?"

"He's getting ready," said Hope. "You ready?"

"Look at our competition, Hope," Maddie pointed out. "I know my mission and it's to win."

The competition was fairly easy game. There were seven girls, and six of them came from founding families. There was Maddie for her Mason name. Hope was running for the Lancaster family name, but Maddie didn't consider her competition based off credentials and ranking. Carly Thornbush was for her family, and she was this perky Asian girl who got shy in public; There was a good chance she would run off the stage. Olive Wildberry—nobody liked her, so she wasn't competition. Nancy Royale was not competition because her family was recently in the tabloids for a scandal with her father and a teenage girl. Vanessa Bridget was not competition because she was in the tabloids for a scandal involving Nancy Royale's father. Lastly, Faith DeLawrence was sort of her competition. She wasn't a founding family kid, but was only included for diversity reasons. The Council included Faith for that reason also because they needed a seventh girl. Maddie and Faith were competitors with each other for a lot of things, and Faith mostly won all of them.

Hope bit her lip and gave Maddie a look. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" Maddie asked her.