Althea held the grey-colored top which was bought for her group. Her top is a cropped hoodie sweatshirt with long sleeves. The team decided to pair it with a black high waisted pleated skirt which length reached a few centimeters above her knees.
Their school's uniform for girls are mostly made with short sleeve and a skirt reaching to their knees, but since it's for performance, the school let them choose freely as long as it's not excessive.
The dance taught in her school is mostly divided into two: traditional dances and modern dances. Each batch of student will take a turn on what dance will they do. Last year, it was a traditional dance so this year they got the modern theme.
Althea couldn't be more grateful. After all, traditional dance have so many rules to follow. They are mostly made from folktales of each part of her country so there is a certain meaning behind every movement which can't be modified. Moreover, the dress is so restricted, it'll have to follow each original place's costume.
"So, what do you think?" Karin asked as she sat on top of a desk, sticking the new cloths on her body.
"It looks great." Althea gave a thumbs up to her friend's sense of fashion and Karin giggled.
"Where are the others?" Althea asked as she looked around and only spotted some girls grouping on their own.
"They're changing to the new costume. After all, the performance is tomorrow." Karin hopped off the table, excited about their performance.
"True. That's why we need to practice seriously today." Althea leaned on the sidewall of the classroom. The desks which usually filled half of the class were now pushed to the front, giving them more space to practice.
It's not like their school doesn't have a determined place to practice dancing. They do, and that's what they always use to practice during dance class. But it was prepared for tomorrow so they have to make do with creating space in their class.
"Are you not going to change into it?" Karin asked as she saw their group's members have come back.
"Well, we should." Althea nodded, telling her group members of what to be prepared before practice then followed Karin to the changing room.
"Aww you look cute." Karin exclaimed as soon as Althea went back to the class with her new costume.
Althea's pitch-black hair was being tied to a high ponytail, her slender neck was accentuated by the unused hoodie cap. Her brown eyes didn't look clashing against the grey color and the high waist skirt emphasized her slim waist, the only redeeming feature Althea thought she had.
Althea almost never wears casual clothes, and such a trendy yet cute one at that, so the others start to exclaim how good it looks on her.
"Really? It's not strange?" Althea looked down at her clothes. She indeed only wear plain clothes at home. Moreover, she wore loose and long dresses due to Ray's insistence for the last few weeks.
"Whoever says that it's bullshit." Karin pursed her lips, followed by her team members who nodded their heads in agreement.
"Hihi, thanks. You all look great too." Althea giggled.
"Right, since we all just changed, why not take a picture?" Kirana, one of Althea's group member proposed.
"That sounds great!" Karin's eyes sparkled at the idea and they took turns to have a group picture.
"Okay. Now on to practice!" Satisfied with the pictures, Karin sent it to each member and clapped her hand to start the practice.
Among others in the group, Karin can dance the best even though she's not good at coordinating the group. So Karin took the role of their dance coach, while Althea managed all the coordination, budget, preparation, etc.
Together the team progressed smoothly throughout the process.
They repeated the dance for a whole song 3-4 times before they stopped and get together to evaluate what was lacking from each person.
Practicing is good and all, but no one wanted a sore muscle or unwanted injury when they need to perform tomorrow.
"Okay, I guess that's all." Karin concluded. The members started to disperse after bidding farewell to each other.
"Althea, are you planning to go home now?" Karin asked after they changed back to their school uniform.
"I guess I'll stay a little bit more. Since I finally have a chance to spend time longer at school." Althea was putting her costume in her bag and took her phone in exchange.
"I see. Mind if I go home first? I need to prepare the makeup tools we will need tomorrow." Karin zipped her bag and tossed it on her bag.
"Sure, you can go first. Thank you for doing so many things for our team." Althea said as Karin walked out of the classroom with a wave of hand and a cheerful, "My pleasure!"
Althea watched the other groups in her class was still resting and chatting. She then swiped open her phone to find the pictures Karin sent to her group.
"Hmm I guess I kind of does look cute." Althea was deciding whether to trust her friends on that opinion or not.
Deciding it was a yes, she sent the picture to Ray, wishing the same compliments.
And of course Ray wouldn't disappoint, in a lot of ways.
"That looks good on you." Ray commented.
"Thanks. I'll wear it for dance performance tomorrow."
"Dance performance?"
Althea rolled her eyes, "Yes. I've told you about it last week that we'll have a dance performance as the art subject's exam this semester."
"You will wear that for a school performance?"
"Yeah, doesn't it look good?" Althea raised her eyebrows.
'What's it now?'
"It's too short for a school performance, dear." Ray's answer gave her a bad taste in her mouth.
"It's just slightly above the knees, dear." Althea defended.
"Still too short. Moreover, you will dance around in that. And it shows the curve of your lower half." Ray pointed.
"And so what? it's still allowed and it's a dance after all." Althea looked at her picture again. It was taken from the front so she could see her slim waist and the curve of her hips, but that was all.
"So you should wear something more proper if you can."
Now Althea felt annoyed.
"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to wear loose and long clothes when my whole group is wearing this costume."
"That's why I said if you can. But it's up to you." Ray stated.
Althea wondered if this man knows that such sentences would make her feel bad. Like she's doing something wrong but wouldn't listen to the right one so they gave up on telling her.
Just like her mother made her feel.
"What is it? Can't you just sincerely compliment and support me?"
"I do, dear. I did say you look good on it." Ray replied, "It's just that you can't expect me to support the things I don't like. So it's up to you."
Althea held back the argument she planned on saying. If Ray had said that far, then there's nothing she could do, is there?
"Okay, dear." was all she said.