A Forgotten Mess: A Hawdence Story

The Soon-To-Be Annual Ball Part 1

Martha and Dame Chanda had headed off to help with the final preparation for the evening - Frank always left something till the last minute - leaving the girls to descend the stairs to the lobby to meet the boys, giggling like crazy. Well, most of them - Cadence had gotten more worried about her attire, more so if a certain someone would like it. 

As they reached the landing, they strolled over to the rest of their Unit who were chatting amongst themselves.

"Why hello ladies, looking nice this evening," Mahir grinned waving to the girls to alert his companions of their incomers.

"Hey! You guys excited?"

"You bet!"

"Well then, shall we go?"

"Aw, heck yeah!"

The nine began to ascend the stairs to go back up to the 1st Ballroom, much to the dislike of Anah ("Why didn't we get the boys to meet us up here? Now we have even more stairs to climb!") and the amusement of everyone else.

Morrigan led the group while Cadence and Hawthorne were trailing behind the rest.

"You know, you look beautiful this evening," Hawthorne told Cadence in a hushed voice, hoping the others didn't hear him, not that he really minded if they did or didn't.

Cadence felt her face heat up and knew that there would be a visible blush, "U-um, I-I, th-thanks. Didn't know you could be so formal," she joked, smirking in an attempt to mark up her nervousness.

"And uh.. you too, by the way... handsome..." she sort of stammered in a hushed, not-quite-a-whisper.

Hawthorne smiled, "Thanks, I still hate suits."

Cadence laughed, "I'm just glad you didn't slick your hair back or anything."

Hawthorne made a face like it was a dastardly thing to do, then ran a hand through his mop of curls, "I made an attempt to brush it, isn't the difference that noticeable?"

Cadence laughed, "Slightly."

While the two were laughing, they missed the smirks and knowing looks that their friends were giving to each other... and the money that was handed over by a frowning Francis to an unusually happy Thaddea.

When they reached the ballroom, they descended the final stairs for this evening (much to Anah's relief) and they were slightly surprised to see that there were already quite a few guests around and there was a buffet already set up. The nine teenagers had decided to stick together for the time being, in fear of getting lost among the crowd. Morrigan had suggested that they find Jupiter and Frank to find out the outline of tonight's events.

After two and a half minutes of searching, they finally located their two targets.

"Well hello you nine! I suppose you want to know tonight's outline?" Jupiter asked, winking at Morrigan who rolled her eyes - she would never say Witnesses were annoying - except for maybe the two that she knew, but not for their knack though - but it could get rather... maddening at times.

"Yup, we are."

Frank bounded over, smiling widely, "The food will be up until 8:30, dance floor open till 9, music and dance performances from 9 till 10:30, then the dance floor is still open till 12!"

"Oh, nice."

"Sweet!"

Frank then noticed some famous guest and rushed off to greet them as a tall man with dirty blond hair and deep green eyes wandered towards them, pausing when he saw Jupiter. The man didn't seem over the age of 19.

"C-captain Jupiter North?" He asked, in obvious shock.

"Hello! That would be me," Jupiter chuckled.

"Oh wow.. sorry - you're quite well-known around my part of town... love the hotel by the way, it's so big!"

"Well, thank you! Quite a nice place. Took a while to fix up but I'm proud of how she came up! You should book a room here one time," Jupiter now sounded like he was advertising the Deucalion and Morrigan knew he was.. in a way.

Mahir, Lam, Francis and Thaddea lost interest in the talk about the Hotel rather quickly and walked off to help Charlie with a speaker while Arch and Anah spotted Miss Cheery and went to greet her.

Morrigan, Cadence and Hawthorne stayed around Jupiter and the green-eyed guy, whose name happened to be Tommy, listening and contributing to the conversation.

"Now, uh, if you'll excuse me, I have to find my friend, he's probably terribly worried about - he thought I'd get lost... and well... I did. After just five minutes of being here, new record!" the young man grinned, waving as he walked off.

"He beat my record... I got lost in my seventh minute here," Hawthorne nearly whispered, pretending to be disappointed.

"Hmmm, he still could've done better," said Jupiter, "I got lost in my third minute here."

The group laughed at this - Jupiter would never get lost in his own Hotel nowadays. They began small talk about school but were interrupted by a familiar face.

"Why hello you lot! I don't suppose you might have seen my friend wandering around? He's about my height, sandy blonde hair and green eyes? Talks a lot... gets lost a lot to actually," Jack said, talking more to himself at the end rather than the others.

"Oh! There was a young fellow here just before, named Tommy! Left saying his friend was probably looking before he gets lost again," Jupiter chuckled.

"Yeah and I'm not having much luck," Jack grumbled, "see you later!"

"Okay, tell your friend he's welcome to stay here anytime!"

"Absolutely not! Then I'd get no break from him!"

Jupiter chuckled, "They'll be back soon, I expect."

"I hope so. That guy's funny and seems to get on Jack's nerves - I think he's pretty cool," Hawthorne said, grinning.

Morrigan rolled her eyes, "If he gets on Jack's nerves, I'm honestly surprised he's still alive."

"I'm surprised Hawthorne's still alive, being friends with our Unit, Jack and Fen," Cadence smirked.

"Aww, y'all just love me too much to kill me.... right?"

Cadence grinned, looking over towards Morrigan who grinned back at her, both girls thinking the same thing - tonight was going to be fun!

"Attention! ATTEn-tion!" A microphone was heard screeching in feedback, "Sorry, sorry, is this thing working? Can you hear me?" Frank spoke into the mic, waiting for a response from the audience, "Yes? You can? Oh good! Welcome to The Hotel Deucalion's Annual Ball! Tonight, food will be served until 8:30, the dance floor..." Cadence looked at the clock, zoning out - she hadn't even noticed the time, it was already 7:10. She still couldn't believe that it was finally the big night, "...and most importantly, enjoy your time here!" Cadence joined in the applause, looking over at Hawthorne who was already eyeing off the buffet tables - she swears that boy is always hungry.

About an hour into the ball...

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Here's the much-awaited next chapter! It was getting a bit long and I really wanted to publish but it wasn't complete so I cut off some and left it here! I love thinking about the adventures Jack, Tommy and the rest of their mates get up to - I really want to hear more about them in the later Nevermoor books! I'm going on school camp for three days tomorrow so I won't be around. Chapters will probably come rather quickly after this! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!