Secrets of a Schuyler Sister {Angelica Schuyler}

15

The slow song stopped abruptly, without warning, and a funky song blasted onto the speakers without a second passing. The crowd screamed with delight at the shocking blast of sound, prying away from their partners to shield their ears.

A second later, people were laughing. Couples divided into groups of friends, as people started getting back into the jumping dance.

Thomas grinned, releasing Angelica so that he only held her hand as they got into the beat.

"That escalated quickly!" Angelica shouted to him over the music as they danced, eyes smiling.

They jumped around with everybody, feeling silly and stupid, but content at the same time. Angelica didn't search for anyone, not Peggy, or John, or Alexander. She just danced, closing her eyes and moving her limbs.

Five minutes into the dancing, Angelica's eyes were whipped open by the action of Thomas grabbing her into a kiss.

She stared at him, surprised.

"What was that?" She asked, smiling but it was puzzled.

"A present!" He shouted back to her.

And then he grabbed her again, but this time held her against him for a kiss way too Long in the midst of the crazy jumping crowd.

"Can you handle this, princess?" He whispered into her ear, when he finally allowed her to pull away. Her heart started throbbing like a drumbeat at his words, afraid.

She barely had time to react, before his mouth had moved its way from her ear to her jawline, and then the length of her neck —

And then Alexander was there, suddenly, out of nowhere, and pulling the two of them apart so fast Angelica's heart jolted.

Without a second passing Alexander's fist drew back and pounded into Thomas's face.

There was a sickening crunch.

A couple of girls screamed at the sound, eyes wide and gasping as Thomas's figure doubled over in pain. Angelica found that her voice harmonised with theirs.

"ALEX!" She exclaimed, her expression overflowing with horror.

"You stay away from her," Alexander's voice was trembling with rage. He didn't seem to hear Angelica, eyes trained on Thomas's crouched over figure. "You keep your hands off her, you hear me?"

Half the people in the room had noticed, including Mr. English, although he didn't seem intent on doing anything besides looking on with everybody else: most of the dancing had stopped. People walked through the crowd to get a better view of Alexander and Thomas, who was still bent over, hands against his face.

Whispers and cries of shock rippled fast across the crowd.

It took Thomas a moment to respond.

"Wow," he said finally, after a solid two minutes of silence. He straightened up and looked directly at Alexander. "That was a cheap shot."

And then he had lunged forward with his own fist swinging, aiming for the side of Alexander's head. Alexander tired to dodge it, but the blow took him by surprise and he came thwacking to the floor with a horrible crunch-sound, as horrible as Thomas's.

Angelica's eyes widened, "THOMAS, STOP IT!"

Alexander was back on his feet faster than lightning. He slammed into Thomas with the full-force of his body, ploughing them back across the dance floor to the snacks table. People screamed and dove out of the way as Thomas's back smashed into the punch bowl, soaking his clothes.