Skaters 101 (but without the skating)

An Unusual Prom

"You're early." Alex commented as Yulia stepped into the hall.

The hall was still in a bare state. Alex and Maia stood on ladders, tying strings of balloons along the walls. Nathan was setting up a sort of deejay box, where he took charge of selecting a playlist of songs that would play during the prom. Patrick twittered around him, pasting pink heart-shaped post-its on the soundbox and throwing in a song suggestion or two. 

The set up of the hall was simple, besides the numerous amount of confetti. The room was mostly bare other than the fact that there were balloons strung up along the walls, a ring of chairs in the middle of the room and a small deejay box. They had decided to let the lighting do the trick this time, because although this was something Alex knew was to be the grand climax of the video they were making, he could not afford to fall into deeper student debt. That irresponsible Mr Plushenko, who had handed him a few bucks gleefully and said, "well, it should be well within your own budget to set things up, seeing all that went into the heists you've pulled." Then walked away patting himself on the back, as if having done a good deed. What a man.

Alex watched as Yulia kicked some of the confetti that flooded the floor, causing a few hundred or so of the small square plastic pieces to fly into the air and cascade prettily back onto the piles of confetti. Really, Boyang had overdone himself with the confetti. Yulia and Evgenia waded through the sea of confetti, the former sporting a disgusted expression. Yulia crossed her arms and spoke unabashedly to Evgenia in a rather clear, loud voice. "The excessive amounts of confetti is harmful toward the environment, as it is a waste of natural resources."

Yulia's intelligence shone through her casual remark regarding the confetti, and Alex had this feeling that in some other parallel universe, Yulia had been a child prodigy. He also had a feeling that Yulia meant for him to have heard that, a remark made more of malice than of practicality. Just a smidge more.

Evgenia shrugged her shoulders in response, looking all too unhappy to be here. She slouched forward, digging her hands deeper into her jacket pockets and took a seat on one of the chairs that formed an unmistakable ring in the middle of the room. Yulia sat down beside her, and eyeballed the room, taking in every detail with her calculative gaze. "I feel that I have misunderstood what this is." She said to herself after some silence, her voice ringing sharply in the big hall. "Is this not a mandatory meeting to discuss Important Things?" She refused to make eye contact with any of the organisers.

Maia and Alex exchanged looks. That explained the formal two-piece suit Yulia wore, Alex thought to himself as he tightened the knot that held the balloons to the string. He had nothing to say, he was torn between his want for a good YouTube video and the sympathy he felt for Yulia. Besides, they were treading on thin ice with Yulia. A blunder with words meant swift but sure death. Clearing her throat up politely, Maia took it upon herself to explain, "Uh, no. It is mandatory, but whether it is Important is subjective."

Good one, Alex gave her a nod. Sometimes, his sister was able to answer some really impossible questions. He didn't really understand exactly what Maia had meant, but it sounded impressive enough. Impressive enough not to scare Yulia off. Then he turned to see Yulia's reaction.

Yulia merely raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, nodding slowly. "I see." Those cynical yet short words held much hidden displeasure, Alex could tell. Regardless, Maia's clever response had worked some sort of magic. Yulia did not seem to be leaving anytime soon when she produced a Chemistry textbook and began pegging away at it.

~

It was not long before the halls began to fill with more classmates, though all of them had the wrong dress code, Patrick thought as he stared at the ring of people that were starting to form in the middle of the hall, noting that all of them wore slacks and hoodies, casual clothing with the exception of Yulia. He had forgotten to include a mandatory dress code in his announcement text to the class, but at least they were all turning up to the event. He watched as Yuzuru and Shoma, the last students they were waiting on, entered the room.