Secret Blossom Ball Event Finished

-Interacting with @Aaron Jones -
-Mentioning @Rafael D'Spacito and @Willow Anderson-

"So.. what happened?"

Well, that was an interesting question, and Lydia had no idea where to start from. Should she tell Aaron about Rafael's weird behaviour, or should she start with how sweet he had been with the rose bouquet, or maybe should she just start with the whole conversation she had with Aurelia?

The Hufflepuff girl took a deep breath, her eyes looking up at her best friend's ones, before she started talking. "When I was in the changing room earlier, I was talking with Aurelia. She's a third year Gryffindor, and well, when I told her who my date was she..." Lydia paused for a second to take a breath, "She said that Anastasia and Raf are, well, together. As in, a couple, cause she said she had seen them in the common room," as she said that, the red headed girl averted her eyes, looking around to instinctively search for the Gryffindor boy, only to see that he wasn't where she had left him.

She had left him.

The sudden realisation of that sent a wave of panic through the girl's body; she had been so focused on feeling upset and hurt, that she didn't even think about the fact that by leaving like that, she would have hurt Rafael's feelings as well.

"I-I'm sorry, I got lost for a second," she said as she looked again at her best friend. "So, after that conversation with Aurelia I had planned on asking Rafael about this, because I thought he, well... that he liked me? Then, as we were going towards Wren, he looked completely distracted and like, as if I wasn't even there; and once we got to Wren he simply left,"

"Next thing I know, he is holding hands with Willow and he is giving a massive vase of beautiful roses to Anastasia. And then he came back to where he left me, handed me a drink and focused on everybody else that was there, but me," Lydia finished explaining, and she thought that she must have sounded incredibly self-absorbed and she started thinking that maybe she had exaggerated behaving that way. She looked again towards the couples that were dancing around them, and she couldn't help the frown on her face. She had royally screwed up, hadn't she?

"I probably shouldn't have left like that, without an explanation. I was just, so angry an-" Lydia abruptly stopped talking, as her eyes locked on Rafael and Willow dancing, the boy whispering in her ear as they moved to the rhythm of the music. It felt as if all the air had been knocked out of her, as if someone had punched her right in her stomach; it shouldn't have been Willow the one dancing like that with Rafael, but her.

Then, the jealousy crushed on her and mixed with her sadness and anger as she glared at the couple dancing. How could he do that to her? Or to Ana, his supposed freaking girlfriend? Or even to Willow? Now, Lydia had never been the kind of person that got properly angry that often, but whenever she did, almost everyone pointed out that her whole facial expression kind of reminded them of a bird, even if briefly.

The Hufflepuff girl clenched her jaw tight as she looked away from them. "Well, I guess I was wrong. I can't believe I felt bad for leaving him like that. And Willow! Why is she even dancing with him!" Lydia said, her voice slightly higher than usual, as her eyes kept being teary, but without properly crying.

Why did everything have to go so bad that night, why couldn't she just have a good thing, for once, without any drama?

She had the feeling that the surprises were not yet over for her that night.

Interacting with @Rafael D'Spacito
Mentioning @Lydia Cooper @Anastasia Beckett
Closed to Interaction

Willow was just along for the ride with Rafael, and boy what a ride it was. She knew people on an individual basis, but not their relationships to each other. Who had even come to the ball with who? Which begged the question of who Rafael had come with, something she hadn't thought of before. It might've been Ana, the girl he just handed off a whole rose bush to and told to protect, or there was a new option... one that hurt more. Lydia. Her and her fellow housemate weren't incredibly close, but Willow did consider her a dear friend. One that she would never wish harm on. She was an amazing and sweet girl, but her face only held pain. Rafael called out for her but she seemed to go to Aaron without looking back. Willow looked up at the Quidditch captain with a new curiosity. Why had she gone along with this when she barely knew him or his intentions? A mistake might've been made and the sinking realization started to settle in her stomach.

She didn't really have the time or option to back out now, as Rafael talked about Willow asking him for a dance. A slow nod happened as she remembered that she had a part to play, and tried to tuck away the confusion for now. If he was going to ask Lydia then obviously she was his date. Maybe there was something else going on where she was having a bad night separate from Rafael. She couldn't make the judgment call and it frustrated her. The charming Gryffindor turned towards her finally to take her off for a dance, she gave the group she really hadn't spoken a word to a small wave before willingly being dragged away by Rafael once again. A small smile stayed plastered on her face, fake smiles were a skill of hers luckily.

This wasn't the best time to tell Rafael she had never done ballroom dancing before, but better late than never. "I've never actually danced like this, so you'll have to be patient with me." It was only made worse by the fact that she couldn't really reach his shoulders because she was so small, so her free hand rested on his upper arm as he began to lead her. His eyes were scanning the dance floor already, but her eyes stayed fixed on him. Trying to figure out what was going on. As he leaned forward to whisper into her ear a small blush formed just because of the proximity. She wasn't a hard person to make blush. It didn't take more than a second before Willow started moving in the direction he needed her to go. How had she let herself become a puppet?

There were admittedly a couple missteps on her part, had she mentioned that she had never done this before? Every time she did a quick "Sorry" was uttered, nothing enough to interrupt Rafael as he dumped everything that was going on to her. Finally, some context. Willow kept a smile something a love struck girl might have, dancing with the boy she had been waiting for the whole night. She had to keep up the act well, throwing in a small giggle after he finished talking to make it seem as if he had told her a joke, or maybe complimented her and she couldn't deal with it. Her eyes couldn't help but widen when Rafael revealed his genius plan, in a hushed voice of her own she responded, despite him already leaning back away from her. "You're just going to tackle him? Rafael you're asking a lot of me." A deep sigh emerged from her. "You owe me one after this."

At least the dance was nice. He was a decently good dance, better than her any way. Finally, a real smile replaced the fake one as he complimented her. She did look lovely, at least some boy at this dance appreciated the effort, even if it wasn't her date. But an eyeroll quickly followed, "He didn't let me wander off, he left me first. Obviously, I'm not a good enough date for him. I'm sure he's having a much better time with Flash." In their dance she caught a glimpse of them still talking and dancing the night away, it enraged her. Flash was in for it later, they needed to have a serious talk. Her gaze returned back up to him as he inquired about Flash's date, but she honestly didn't know. She saw him enter with Evelynn, Rafael's co-captain, but surely he would know who his own co-captain was attending with so it couldn't have been her. She merely shrugged before Rafael was already off looking at something else.

Was it really so hard to keep any boy's attention? This was a ridiculous game that she seemed to keep losing at. Not that she particularly wanted Rafael's undivided attention, they were on a mission. But he didn't really care about her night. He was just making small talk to make everything seem natural, so they weren't suspicious. It was another moment of wanting to get to know someone but the interest not being reciprocated. When would she learn to stop?

Her back was to the chaos as Rafael's grip tightened, he growled even. She was starting to become scared of the tall boy. "Rafael, are you okay? What's going on?" Apparently Ana did something, and it was driving her crazy that she couldn't see. There wasn't much time to question him more before Rafael decided it was time to initiate their plan. She merely nodded. Who knows what Rafael would do to her if she didn't follow through at this point.

She had let herself get pulled in by someone asking for help, her primary weakness. Let's just hope she wouldn't regret it terribly later.

Mentions: @Arlo Reynolds, @Marion Davenport, @Victor Moore, @Vladimir Athanatos, @Willow Anderson, @Lydia Cooper, @Rafael D'Spacito, @Santario Martin

Interacting With: @Thomas Lestrange

Mentioning @Alan Noble & @Aaron Jones
Gris's ball dress is hidden in the dark robe (picture still WIP)

It seemed that the lioness had a habit of being "fashionably late", while on her way to the destination of the Secret Ball. She did see a few students sneaking their way there, luckily, she didn't need to be sneaky and that was another advantage for being a Prefect. They wouldn't be questioned why they were outside from their common rooms and their excuse could be just doing their normal patrol duties.

She remembered that it was Aaron who told her in person at the courtyard that day about the Secret Ball and after promising him that she would spread the words in the Gryffindor common room, she also told her Ravenclaw close friend, Alan about it. At first, she was a bit worried if Alan would say no due to the disaster that happened last year at the Masquerade ball but to her surprise, he only smiled and was looking forward to going with her to the Secret Ball. Perhaps a lot of students were still hopeful that they could risk enjoying one ball, she didn't blame them and somehow she was slightly relieved that at least most people were still optimistic. Griseldis wasn't sure if Alan was already at the ball or not but they did plan to meet up at the Quidditch Pitch, she just hurried to wear on her new dress for the Secret Ball then wore a black robe to cover her whole body to hide what she was wearing so there wouldn't be that awkward feeling of being exposed. Although she had no doubt that the Martial Artists Club members must be at the Secret Ball at this point and doing their duty as a "security guard" there and hopefully, the first thing she saw at the Secret Ball wouldn't be another fight. She really wanted the cycle of stopping a fight to end.

Once Griseldis arrived at the Quidditch Pitch without any unexpected incidents happened on the way, she saw there was a light source inside the entrance. But before following the light sources, she looked around to make sure if a certain familiar face would appear to greet her.

Interactions: None
Mentions: @Annie Morgan

When Annie first asked Saskia to a dance, she was ecstatic. Her heart practically leaped out of joy, and if she could, she could have hugged her right then and there out of sheer giddiness. Of course she wanted to dance with her. It was one of the things she was looking forward to when she realized that she was, in fact, going with her to the Ball.

Unfortunately for her, she must have been so excited that she forgot to speak altogether. Or could it have been nerves too? It might have been. The thing was, she didn't know the first thing about dancing. Ballroom dancing was one of those things that fancy people did. Probably something those rich pureblood families made their children do all the time. She was obviously not a pureblood child, and while she was grateful to be in a good family that didn't hold such tight regulations in that typical pureblood household, she knew that this was going to bite her in the back.

Saskia might have been relatively decent at running, or even flying, but dancing was another issue altogether. She wasn't even wearing proper shoes, for Merlin's sake. What if she accidentally stepped on Annie's toes? Best case scenario, she could have just stepped on her dress instead since it was long, and maybe she might have tripped. But the idea of stepping on her feet with her boots was cringeworthy.

She realized she was taking pretty long to respond to a simple question she should have had an immediate answer to. She nodded tentatively at Annie, the butterflies rushing back in as she smiled. She was probably looking like an idiot just nodding at her without saying anything, but she didn't want to ruin the moment. Besides, if she did open her mouth, she felt that she would have fumbled on even giving her a verbal agreement. Thankfully, Annie understood and soon enough, the two were at the dance floor.

Annie had asked Saskia to lead the dance, which made sense since Saskia was an inch taller than her. Saskia smiled again, but again, nothing came from her mouth. It was odd how the girl in front of her could silence her. Or was she just overthinking things? There was some pressure to not mess up, and she knew that, and now that she was to take the lead of the dance, she really had to make sure she didn't screw up.

That was why she had to force herself to act. Why should she worry? Worrying would have made her uneasy, and that uneasiness might have made things worse. Awkward, even. She couldn't let Annie see that she was nervous. That was how it went when she was Quidditch Captain. She couldn't let her teammates see if she was nervous for an upcoming game. All she had to do was smile, work hard, and hope for the best. Maybe this wouldn't be so different. Maybe in the heat of the moment, she wouldn't have to worry about stepping on toes. It was just her and Annie now.

Despite her inexperience in dancing, she did see other people dance. In fact, there were some people in the ball already dancing who she watched for a bit before Annie came over. It didn't seem too difficult. Hopefully it would be as easy as it seemed. She just had to start with something simple, like knowing where her hands should be. She reached out to hold Annie's right hand while letting her other hand rest below her shoulder blade. She wasn't sure how close they should have been, and while she tried to keep a respectable distance between them, there was a part of her that wanted to be closer.

As for the actual steps, she wasn't sure on what exactly to do. She knew there were different kinds of dances, but there was no way she would have been able to differentiate between them all. If she was being honest, she probably didn't know what the actual dances entailed. She really did hope Annie wasn't too disappointed that she was probably going to be going off from the traditional methods.

She started off with some small steps. She made a step forward, then to the side, then eventually backwards, making sure she was nowhere close to stepping on her feet. It was easier to know if she was because she was wearing a short dress and she could actually see her feet through her peripheral vision. Luckily, it seemed that Annie knew what she was trying to do, and she was quick to follow along. That was good. They were actually getting somewhere with this.

Sooner or later, she lost herself in the dance. It was just her and Annie now, and she was getting the hang of the steps by now. Her steps became faster, and more in tune with Annie's, and she could feel herself much closer to her than how they initially started. She hadn't even noticed that her hand had dipped towards her waist. All she wanted to do was stare at her and stay like this for a little longer.

But all good things eventually came to an end. Annie tore herself apart from her, clearly not happy. Was she nervous? Did she just not like the dance? No, she apologized for not being a good dance partner, and that she should have found someone else. Before Saskia could say anything, Annie ran off, making her way through the crowds of people that blocked her path. Saskia took a step forward, intending on running after her, but the crowd reassembled itself back as if to fill in the space that was there a few moments ago. The dance floor was even more compact than ever, and she didn't know if she would have been able to find her by now.

Now that she was all alone, the girl didn't know what to do. She didn't even know whether Annie would have came back for her. Judging from what she had said, she probably wasn't planning to. She would have assumed that she did find someone better. As much as Saskia wanted to reel her back in and tell her that she was perfect the way she was, she couldn't. That moment had passed, and she let her get away.

She wasn't sure where they had gone wrong. Did she really think she was that unworthy of her? She said she wasn't a good dance partner, but she followed through the steps. Saskia was concerned about stepping on her feet, but she wasn't sure if the same would have applied with Annie. The consequences would have been less severe, considering how her feet were protected by her boots, but she didn't even have to worry about that because it never happened.

Was there something had Saskia done that would make her feel bad then? Was it the times she stood there in silence, giving her wordless signs of encouragement without actually expressing how much she wanted this moment with her? Did she think she wasn't interested enough that she thought she could have done better with another person? Or as she said it, a guy? If she was being honest, Saskia couldn't have cared less whether she was dancing with a guy or a girl. That wasn't anything close to being a problem with her at all. She wanted to dance with Annie. There might have been some guys who were available for dancing, but she wanted Annie and only her.

She wished she could just go over to wherever she was and tell her everything. That she was worthy to dance with her. That she was a wonderful partner and a wonderful date. That she had nothing to worry, and that she cared about her and that she didn't want her to be sad. But no matter how hard she tried to wish for it, it would have never came true.

As far as she was concerned, her business on the dance floor was done. She didn't feel like dancing with anyone else, not after the disaster that happened with Annie. Maybe she could have had a nice chat with someone at the Quidditch Stands instead. She wasn't sure where her friends were on the actual Pitch, but there were just too many people to look for. Maybe she could have had a decent conversation with someone without feeling like so squished and boxed in.

It was decided. It would have been a good plan for now.

Saskia continues to the Quidditch Stands

Outfit: Dress | Shoes | Bracelet

She held onto Yoohoo bottle wondering why did it have such a... interesting taste, to put it kindly. She turned over the bottle looking at the ingredients, High Fructose Corn Syrup... Water... Dry Milk. "Aha!" she said mentally, she smiled almost proud of herself for figuring out the puzzle. The milk and the water was most likely the reason for the strange taste of the drink, it was when the thought of; they should have named the drink, "Boo-Hoo" instead of Yoohoo struck her mind- it would have been a more accurate name if they did.

Satisfied with herself, she placed the drink down and looked around the pitch. It was safe to say that the ball was definitely in full swing by now, many sat like her chatting away under the stars while the more brave souls danced away with their dates or friends. Unknown to the series of events happening nearby with a few of her classmates, she looked at the main dance floor she saw no longer Breana standing alone, however, dancing with someone she didn't know, perhaps the unknown white-haired boy was the person she was making cupcakes for a while ago? "Oh, Really? You prefer summer more? Scotland definitely has some crazy weather sometimes" She shivered remembering how extreme the weather gets at times, sometimes she swears that the weather was often decided by spinning a wheel with "very hot" or "very cold" on each side and no one would ever know which one would get picked. "Are you finding it hard to adapt to the cold weather Scotland has? Or rather more, If you don't mind me asking- where are you from?"

She began shoveling fries into her mouth as she watched many of her classmates dance, almost wishful if she could be there- well she could have been if her date hadn't poofed on her, with the thought of dates and people on her mind she looked at Crystal, "Say... what brought you here... I mean to the ball and stuff?" She questioned.

Open to interactions!
Interacting with:@Crystal Jagger
Mentioning:

Outfit:

Reducio

Interacting with: @Ruka Tân
Mentioning:

Reducio

@Opeila Seilun @Willow Anderson @Rafael D'Spacito @Vladimir Athanatos

Previous posts: Pre-ball, Entrance, Recon, Asked to dance, Spots Vlad on dance floor, Dancing with Ruka, Talking with Ruka

Temporarily Open to Interaction