ANNIE

18 ☼ New Deal for Christmas

A N N E T T E

By Friday morning, I was an absolute ball of nerves. I had the masquerade that evening and I was sure that while mom would probably be fine with me not having to attend, Dimi would surely be disappointed. So, I tried my hardest to focus on literally anything else. Thankfully the girls and I had a lot to talk about.

That morning while we were on the phone, I explained in great detail about the previous years' event and why I was not looking forward to it. Of course, the girls thought I was crazy.

"Oh Annie, it can't be as bad as you think," said Nina.

"Yeah! It sounds awesome!" Laken butted in before Kacie took over the phone. "Suck it up, kid."

"Kacie!" Marlinda scolded her as she spoke next. "You're going to look just like Cinderella when she goes to the ball."

"Cinderelly, Cinderelly," the twins and Nora's chroused in song.

"Oh my God!" Henna groaned. "Now you've done it, Mar!"

"Girls!" I fussed, finally gaining their full attention. "This is serious."

After a long and stressful conversation with my friends, I was mostly distracted by class. I kept my head in the lectures and tried to focus completely on the papers set before me. Though it wasn't long before my mind would drift back to the upcoming event.

Lunch was normally a distraction but unfortunately today, of all days, people decided to take notice of me. It wasn't like it was a secret that I was Aquela Kenslee's kid. Though, today several students had approached me to ask if I would be going to the Masquerade with my mom. The Kenslee' Charity Christmas Masquerade Ball was a huge thing around the city. It made the news and being invited to attend was practically a status symbol. So basically, I was pretty tired of the ooh's and ah's by the end of the lunch period. I was actually pretty close to having Mr. Bradley come get me and take me home for the day, but I didn't. I sucked it up and went to my next class.

By the time I was approaching the car that afternoon, I was already exhausted. The event didn't even start until eight so I was careful of how long I would actually have to stay. When I opened the back door to get in, Mr. Bradley quickly invited me to sit up front. That was something that happened a lot often.

"Hey, Bradley," I sighed out once I was all the way seated.

"You sound beat, kid. Everything okay?" he asked with mild concern.

I gave a half-laugh at Mr. Bradley's tone. "I'm fine. It's been a really long day and I'm tired. ...and I'm nervous about tonight. I don't think I slept great last night."

"That makes sense," he said with a smile. "Unfortunately we aren't going back to the house, so no napping in the car."

"Where are we going?" I asked in confusion. We'd turned the wrong way to go to my mom's office.

"Dimi's apartment," he replied easily. Then when he noticed the nearly frozen look on my face, he laughed. "Don't worry. Your mom's already there. It made more sense to take you to his apartment because it's already three. By the time I got you home, it would be time to leave again in less than an hour."

"I'm not worried about that," I mumbled slightly. "I was looking forward to sleeping on the way home, though," I admitted quietly. Maybe my mom and Dimi would let me doze on the couch some. Then again, I probably wouldn't be able to sleep anyway.