A Forgotten Mess: A Hawdence Story

The Preparation of the Ball

Finally, it was Saturday! The young members of Unit 919 had been anticipating this day only for the whole week... but it had felt like forever. With the party set to commence at 6, the 5 female scholars of Unit 919 began the (long?) process of getting ready.

Thaddea, Lam, Anah and Cadence had all shown up to the Hotel Deucalion at similar times and decided to enter together, through the service door on Caddisfly Alley as instructed by Frank - he was setting up the Lobby and didn't want people to see it yet. The four girls went up to Morrigan's room and the five then went to the Music Salon where Dame Chanda and Martha had invited them to join them in getting ready.

The girls all began the process of hair and makeup, doing it for each other - Dame Chanda was obsessing over Anah's lovely curls and Thaddea's frizzy all-over-the-place hair, pondering what to do with them, Martha was matching up lipsticks, accessories and nail polish to the dresses while the other three girls started doing each other's hair.

During this time, the girls started chatting about the latest trends, gossip, the previous week, love lives and plans for tonight. Mostly plans for tonight and their love lives. Martha was straightening Lam's hair when an all too familiar topic approached her - Charlie.

"There's nothing going on between us!"

"Suuuure."

"Did he ask you to the ball, Martha dear?"

"Well, y-yes, I-I m-mean, u-uh, n-no?"

The girls of Unit 919 and Dame Chanda smirked in victory - their Martha had gotten a date!

"W-well, enough about me! What about Morrigan and Jack or Cadence and Hawthorne? How are our two favourite ships going?"

Morrigan and Cadence both jumped, equally startled by the sudden turn of conversation.

"U-uh, I-I, w-well," Morrigan stuttered, turning pink, "H-hey Cadence, you can share first, yeah?"

Cadence coughed, "U-uh, I-I, o-okay?"

The girls turned expectantly to her, eager looks on their faces.

"We've sorta bumped into each other around town a bit?"

Morrigan couldn't help but smirk at this - she knew that Cadence and Hawthorne didn't live anywhere near each other.

"And last time we saw each other, he taught me how to dance, in preparation for tonight and then we watched the sunset.." Cadence mentally slapped herself - why did she mention the sunset?!

"Awww!"

"That's so sweet!"

"Romantic!"

"Wait, Hawthorne Swift, can dance?"

Cadence laughed at Thaddea's shocked comment, "Yes, he can dance. I was surprised too! He's not actually that bad at it either."

Cadence could still feel her face burning, so, turning to Morrigan, she decided to get her revenge. Man, she was going to enjoy this.

"So Mog, how's Jack?"

"U-uh, I-I-"

She glared at Cadence as everyone giggled at the two. Martha was fixing up Morrigan's hair, so the glare was short-lived.

"Well...?"

"Well, what?"

"You know what."

Morrigan huffed, "Fine, but you're gonna have to do me a favour in return."

Cadence didn't like the semi triumphant smirk on Morrigan's face, it gave her a bad feeling.

"What's the favour?"

"You have to stay with Hawthorne for the whole night."

"What?!"

"You have to stick around him, no just leaving him there. And no, this is not just because the two of you are in love, it's also because we all know he'll get lost, eat all the food and do something crazy."

The girls all laughed, knowing it was true.

"Are you sure this isn't so you can have tonight to be with a certain Witness?" Cadence teased, trying to get back to the topic - she still wanted her revenge.

"Hmm, maybe?" Morrigan played along, wincing as Martha put a pin in her hair, but she still had a sly smile on her face.

"Ooh~!"

And once again, they were all giggling.

"Well at - ouch - least I'm doing something about my - ow - love situation."

Martha apologised, putting the final pin in Morrigan's hair - "Ow! That one hurt more than the others!" - and ushered the teenaged girls into the changing rooms. They all changed, all struggling to some extent, except Lam, who had had years of practice and decided to exit the change rooms at the same time.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, come on out! I want to see you all!"

Five doors opened and five young women exited, all looking stunning.

"Oh my goodness! You all look so.. so... gorgeous!" Martha squealed whilst Chanda gaped in the background.

"Wait till your boyfriends see you!"

"Chanda!"

Martha and Chanda changed too. Martha was wearing a silky, red sleeveless dress with glittering red high heels while Chanda was wearing a dress similar to the one she wore for the Morningtide party but this one was a soft apple green and white heels.

"Well come on girls, we don't want to be late!"

They began walking down to the Lobby where they'd meet the boys.

Cadence turned to Morrigan, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Umm, hey, do I look alright?"

"Alright? No. You look absloutely stunning! Just wait till Hawthorne sees you. I bet he'll give you a compliment."

"He gives everyone compliments."

"He looks at you differently when he gives them to you though."

"W-wait, r-really?"

Morrigan laughed, "Yeah, really," she said, nudging Cadence with her elbow. 

They walked in silence for another minute before Cadence remembered something.

"You know Morrigan, you didn't exactly answer our questions about a certain someone." 

"Oh shush."

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I was debating on skipping this chapter and heading straight into the next one, it wouldn't've changed much but I (again) got carried away. The next chapter will be out in a week or more due to it (hopefully) being longer and school assignment are sneaking up on me. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!