Just Ema: Coming Soon! (Maybe... maybe not)

The gates were closed, which was surprising. There were people coming in and out every few minutes, weren't there? It would have made more sense just to leave them open. Maybe it was a security thing. I gave up the thought and started looking for something that would open the gates. Finally I found a black box, which I hesitantly spoke into.

"I'm here for the ball," I said. They were my first words in a few hours. I wasn't a fan of talking to strangers, which meant that my voice had gone unused for most of the night.

The box crackled into commission. "The ball?" The person on the other end of the line chuckled and the gates stayed shut. "The ball started about twelve hours ago and ended eight or nine hours after that. Everyone already left." The sound turned back into a fuzzy static.

"A few hours ago? What?"

***

I wasn't even supposed to be at the ball to begin with. It should have been Char. But Lanelle Taylor had forbidden her to attend, and Char had insisted that I go in her place.

And now I was late to the ball- twelve hours late- and had broken Mom's necklace. And probably my ankle. And Char's dress. Was it even possible to break a dress?

If it was, I had definitely done it.

So far the night was going wonderfully.