The Heart Does Go On

Seto was right about my friend’s reactions to not going to the dance. Tea and Kathryn IMMEDIATELY freaked out after I told them, and kept bugging me about my decision and trying to force me to go. Even the boys freaked out about it! Joey would sometimes join Kathryn and Tea bugging me, and Duke made a few sliding comments.

“Ella, you can’t come cruisin’ around in our fully sick limo!” Kathryn whined to me at lunch.

Joey, Duke, Kathryn and I were sitting under a tree. Joey had decided to join us as the gang recruited him to try and get me to go to the dance.

“Kathryn, I ride in a limo nearly everyday. I’d rather get driven to the dance by my father. It would be different.” I said, poking my tongue out to her.

“What if we organized a stretch hummer?” Duke asked.

“Hummers are DISGUSTING! Hell no! It’s not just the transport. I don’t want to go,” I sighed, laying down in a huff and closing my eyes.

I heard Joey and Kathryn mumble to themselves for a few minutes, and then they went silent.

“What did you two come up with?” I asked, popping one eye open.

“Hey Ella, you said you don’t want to go to the dance because you don’t like the effort involved in getting ready, right?” Kathryn smirked.

“Right…” I replied, not knowing where this was going.

“What do you think would take more effort? Us bugging you all day everyday for 2 weeks until the dance, or putting in one night of effort for the dance?” Joey asked, wearing the same smirk as Kathryn.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I shut it. He had a point. They weren’t going to stop bugging me, and it probably would take less effort to get dressed up for one night.

“Let me talk to Seto about this. I’m NOT going alone to this.” I growled, getting up.

“We could always organize a date for you if Kaiba says no! Joey, would you take Ella?” Kathryn asked turning to Joey, who had a massive blush on his face.

I walked off quickly before Joey could stutter an answer. There was no way I was going back down that road again.

It didn’t take long to find Seto, who was reading a book in an empty classroom. Feeling my presence, he put the book down to greet me.

“Hey.” I said, making my way over to him and greeting him with a kiss.

“Hey.” He said back, giving me a peck on the cheek.

“What are you reading?” I asked him.

“Apparently next semester we have to read this book and analyse it critically. I want to get ahead, to get the best marks I can.” He said, passing me the book.

“Nerd.” I joked.

“So what’s up? I’ve been seeing that dog Wheeler and that Kathryn girl follow you around demanding you go to the dance.” Seto chuckled.

“Yeah, about that…” I trailed off.

“Don’t tell me you caved in.” Seto said, giving me a slight glare.

“No.” I squeaked.

If I told him the truth, he’d chew me out for ‘being weak’ by giving into them. I’d have to lie to him. While it was stupid that I’d have to lie to my own boyfriend because he would be an arsehole to me about the decisions I make in life, I’d rather just breeze through the drama and take things one step at a time. I’d stop walking on eggshells after the dance, I guess.

“Then what made you change your mind?” Seto asked, cocking up an eyebrow.

“Last year in LA there was a school formal, but I didn’t go for the same reasons, couldn’t be bothered. Since I didn’t go last year and this is my last year, I decided I should go, considering it’s the last time and all. Besides, I don’t want to have any regrets later for someone to exploit.” I said, praying he would fall for it.

“Alright. We’ll go the dance then. I’ve never been to one of these events, I guess I should go to see how lame they are.” Seto smirked.

“Alright. Well uh, I’ll leave you to it.” I said backing off, once I got the answer I wanted.

“Okay. Well I’ll meet you at the front gate after school so I can take you to work. We’ll discuss all the details for the dance on the way to Kaiba Corp.” Seto explained, quickly pecking me on the cheek.

“Kay, bye!” I called out to him, to go find the gang.

Tea would be so god damned happy I caved in.

***

About a week before the dance, Tea had suggested that both Kathryn and I go dress shopping together, as well as buy everything else we’d need for the dress (shoes, accessories etc)

“Alright. We should all tell each other what our budget is, so we can all help each other in the best way possible.” Tea suggested, once we got off the bus and into the mall.

“Mine is $300, I’m expecting to buy a dress for $200 at the most, and then around $50 on shoes and $50 on accessories.” Kathryn said.

“I have about $500, but I’m no way expecting to spend that much. I’ll see how things goes, I guess.” Tea shrugged and they both turned to me.

“I uh, have as much money as I want…” I trailed off.

“Kaiba?” They asked in unison.

“Yeah…he gave me a debit card he loaded to take from a separate bank account of us. He gave it to me for today only to buy for the dance.” I replied.

I could see the girls both became jealous, in a sort of in jest playful way. They didn’t say anything to admit it though.

We walked into the dress store, and we immediately split up to pick out all the dresses we liked. I racked the store and found 3. One was a long purple gown, flowing nicely to the floor. The second one was a pale yellow, which held spring pastel coloured flowers with a big bow around the waist. The third one was a black strapless dress that flowed from the waist down with a small white bow that tied around the waist.

I waited at the change rooms for Tea and Kathryn to pick out what dresses they liked. They finally arrived, and we decided we would go in turns so that we could all witness what dress we tried on and say which one looked better.

It was decided that Tea would go first, as she only had 2 dresses, then I would go second as I had 3, and Kathryn would go last as she had 5.

Tea came out with a short pink dress, which went above her knee.

“That’s so gorgeous!” Kathryn gasped.

“Yeah, I love it! That’s probably the one” I agreed.

“Do you think so? Yeah I like it too.” Tea said, admiring herself in the mirror.

“Try the other one on, just in case. But this will probably be the one.” I said, and so she did.

After trying on the second dress, she agreed that she should buy the first dress.

After my turn was complete, we all established that I would be buying the black dress with the white bow. It was a lovely dress, and it cost $300! Hehe. Not my problem.

Kathryn was the one we had the real troubles with. After trying on the 5 dresses, she claimed she didn’t like any, even though one was really pretty on her. We got the sales assistant to help, and after trying on even more dresses, she decided to go with a sexy red looking one – the first she tried on. Grr!

“Everything is closed now, we’ll have to get our shoes and accessories another time.” Tea said, sounding disappointed.

“Cheer up, it just gives us an excuse to have another girlie shopping day after school!” Kathryn stated, and we all cheered.