"Oh my gosh, it's Homecoming day!" Jasmine squealed, clasping her hands together and bouncing up and down in her seat. For as long as he had known her, Mark knew that Jasmine simply adored any chance she got to put herself in a dress and show off. Not because she was Jasmine Ender and she adored attention but because she was Jasmine and she jumped on any chance she got to feel pretty.
"We get it! It's homecoming and you're excited. Now stay still so I can button up the back of your dress, Missy," Mark replied, resting a hand on her shoulder. Jasmine giggled and settled down in her seat again. She'd been like this all day and honestly, he wasn't surprised. She always got hyped up about these things and he knew how hard it was for her to calm down. She did stay still long enough for him to button up the last little bit of her dress and brush her her back over her shoulder. "There you go. Now you can run around all you want." Jasmine giggled.
"Come on. You know you can't say that or I actually will." She smiled at him and pawed at her hair, making sure that it stayed over her shoulder. Mark chuckled and stood up, offering a hand to her. Jasmine took it and he pulled her up. "Okay, but you know how to dance, right? I'm not handing my sister over to some crazed lunatic who can't dance. I mean, come on. You're going to break her toes if you can't dance." Mark laughed.
"I think she'll break my leg if I did that and blame it on self defense, if we're being honest here," He said with a smile. Jasmine giggled again and put one of her arms on his shoulder, taking his other hand in hers and moved closer. He knew what she was doing. It was time for a practice dance before the actual one, just to make sure that he broke no toes. Jasmine was always a protective sister, though not as much as Monet was. He placed his hand on her waist and took her other hand.
"Well, you better prove to me that you can do it," Jasmine said, looking up at him. He was always about two inches taller than her but the heels made them basically the same height, with him only centimeters taller. He chuckled and shook his head, but they started swaying to imaginary music. The noises of everyone else getting ready for the dance faded as the two of them danced to their imaginary music and giggled at the other whenever they did a dramatic dip or spin. This was why Jasmine was his best friend. He wouldn't be able to dance with anyone else like this in the middle of someone's living room with his mother twenty feet away and let her take pictures. These were going to be shown off again when he's much older.
"Okay, no more. I don't want these pictures to get everywhere or heaven forbid everyone thinks I'm cheating on Kyle," Jasmine giggled as he pulled her up from a rather big dip. He chuckled and pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back, laying her head on his shoulder for a second.
"I thought you weren't dating Kyle," Mark replied, raising an eyebrow as they pulled away. Jasmine made a face at him, scrunching up her nose and sticking her tongue out at him. Of course he knew the truth but that didn't mean that he couldn't give her a hard time about her publicity.
"Of course I'm not. He literally lives hundreds of miles from me. You think I have that kind of attention span? No, the media seems to think that I'm dating him no matter what we say so you know," She chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. Then, she put her hands on his shoulders and stared him straight in the eyes. "I'm going to check on Mo and Cleopatra. I'll be back later." Very seriously, she nodded her head before taking off towards Cleopatra's room where Monet and Cleopatra were currently in. Kyra had been in there as well, around the same time that Jasmine had, but they both left around the same time and Kyra had gone to the other room where all the adults and Sebastian were. The two of them were going to homecoming together, though Kyra made it clear that the only reason was because she wasn't allowed to go to homecoming unless she had a date and Sebastian had offered to take her so that she could go. Still, the two of them seemed to get pretty close over the course of the week, probably due to the fact that the two of them had been in the same grade up until a year ago.
Other than them, there weren't many of them with dates. Leo and Sasha were going together as friends, same as Kyra and Sebastian, and they were meeting at Sasha's house with Anthony and Isa. Everyone else had gone to Cleopatra's and the whole club was planning on meeting at the park for pictures before going to the restaurant on Main Street for dinner. And of course, he was going with Monet, though he hadn't seen much of her yet. She seemed to stick close to the others and now he was worried that he'd made her uncomfortable by asking her. When he went to her competition earlier, things were normal. She stuck by him and Jasmine for as long as she could and of course she came home with first place, as her competitions normally went. But when they got to Cleopatra's, she had seemed to put some distance between the two of them.
Then again, they were speaking about Monet. She did a lot of things that he and even Jasmine couldn't explain. Maybe he really shouldn't be all that surprised. Instead, he just went over to the kitchen to join Sebastian and Kyra. After all, they only had a little time left before they'd be leaving and it would only get crazier after that.
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"Here, give me a second," Cleopatra sighed, turning to face Monet and Jasmine. "I'll go get Mary and see if she can fix this. I know she's helped me before with it." She gave them a small smile and started towards the door. "You'll be fine. Give me five seconds." Jasmine nodded her head and gave Monet's hand a small squeeze. Of course, on the day at it actually mattered, Monet's zipper had to get stuck and not only was it bothering the girl, it was starting to make her panic. Normally, Cleopatra would wait it out, give it a few more tries, but Monet really didn't seem to enjoy the fact that she couldn't unzip her dress, even to the point of where Cleopatra was convinced she was going to start hyperventilating, so she decided that it'd just be best to get someone else to help. After all, she had no clue how she was going to handle that.
"Mary?" Cleopatra asked, shutting the door behind her. Her brother's apartment was small enough so the living room and the kitchen were basically in the same room. That meant that she didn't have to go very far. Mary looked over and gave Cleopatra a smile. For as long as she had known Mary, she'd always told Chris that she was her favorite girlfriend that he'd ever had. Of course, she didn't mind telling Mary a lot of things and it was almost as if she had a big sister now. "Monet's dress zipper got stuck and now we can't get it unstuck. She's getting pretty antsy about it. Do you think you can get it undone?"
"Geez, Cleo, you can't seem to go one minute without needing something," Chris said with a sigh, turning away from his conversation with the other adults. She wondered if they asked why she was holding their homecoming meet up here instead of at her house. Oh well. He'd help her out any day. Instead of responding to him, she just crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a small glare.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Mary replied, standing up from her chair and heading over to the bedroom. Cleopatra nodded at her, but now that she had said something, everyone's attention was now on Monet.
"Is she okay?" Melissa asked, concern lacing her voice. As far as she knew, Melissa was the twin's aunt, and since Monet didn't have a mother, Melissa was the second closest thing. Though, she wouldn't have been surprised if it also happened to be Mark's mother, Rebecca, as well based on how close she seemed with his family.
"Yeah, is Monet okay?" Mark asked, turning away from his conversation with Kyra and Sebastian, where Kyra was tying Sebastian's tie properly, probably because he couldn't do it himself. Cleopatra just rolled her eyes slightly and nodded her head.
"Yeah, she's fine. It's just a stuck zipper." Though if Monet's panicking had anything to say about it, the girl was at least claustrophobic. Cleopatra gave them shrugged and turned to go back into the room, though she did hear Melissa say something about just making sure that Monet was okay. Maybe Monet really was claustrophobic. That'd explain what was happening. She opened the door again and sure enough, Monet was a little more stressed than she was before. "Okay, is she okay?" She asked Jasmine. The blonde looked over at her and gave her a tight smile, one that could barely be considered a smile.
"Yeah, she just gets a little panicked when things get too tight on her. Zippers getting stuck... Her sash getting tied too tight... Things like that aren't fun, are they, Mo?" Jasmine looked back over and gave her sister a smile, one that Monet let out a whine too. She squeezed Jasmine's hand tightly and slumped over, laying her head on her shoulder. If it weren't such a ridiculous situation, Monet would have looked really pretty, her choppy hair included. However, she just looked like a mess.
"Oh, okay. I see what's going on..." Melissa said as she entered the room. Mary smiled at her and gestured towards Monet.
"I went to try to unzip it but..." She started to say but Jasmine finished it for her.
"Monet's not cooperating, Aunt M. She won't let anyone touch her at this point." Clearly, they'd dealt with this before. It had to be fear, honestly. Even Cleopatra hadn't... Okay, well, she couldn't really say anything about that. She had a fear of people putting things around her wrists, so even bracelets were out of the question. She supposed to acted rather similar. Now she really pitied Chris and Mary.
"I think I can get it off. I think the fabric only got caught in it, but she wouldn't let me touch her. Maybe you can try," Mary offered, stepping out of the way and closer to Cleopatra. Cleopatra glanced at her for a second before her gaze went back over to Monet. The raven haired girl seemed to be ignoring everything being said about her. It was certainly an interesting thing.
"Well, she let both me and Jasmine try earlier... Is she really that afraid of it?" Cleopatra asked. Jasmine shrugged her free shoulder and put a hand on Monet's head, as if to comfort her. Mary rolled her eyes slightly at her and grabbed at Cleopatra's wrist, wrapping her fingers around the small area. The act surprised her and made Cleopatra jump a couple feet away from her. "Why you little..."
"Be a little nicer of other people's phobias, Cleo." Mary's warning was clear and Cleopatra sighed, walking back over to Jasmine and kneeling down so that she could look at Monet. She didn't really know what she was going, but Monet was really the first friend she had made in a while, ever since she and Bailey had lost most of their friends in fourth and fifth grade. Having her be so accepting and kind, especially that first day she had invited her to the bathroom picnic, had really gave Cleopatra a respect for the girl and she grew some fondness for her. She really should be a little more kind and understanding, just like the day that Monet had calmed her panic attack, but she didn't really know how. She'd normally been the one to provoke or poke fun at them, not be the one to help.
Monet let out another whine and Cleopatra sighed, defeated. So when Jasmine pulled her closer and Melissa worked on the zipper, Cleopatra took Monet's hand. The girl's eyes shot open in surprise but when she saw who it was, she made no attempt to stop it. She trusted her. Cleopatra could see it in her eyes. Why? Why did she trust her? She'd done nothing to earn her trust. Still, she'd do her best to calm her down. "Are you excited for the dance, Monet?" Monet shrugged slightly and Jasmine giggled.
"I think Mark's more excited than you are, Miss Knight. He was practicing the slow dance with me just so he'd get it right," Jasmine replied and Monet rolled her eyes slightly, though she looked like the distraction was helping. Or was it the calm way that Jasmine spoke? Cleopatra had a lot to learn. What was it that Chris did when she was having a panic attack? Why couldn't she remember? Did he distract her? Did he let her cry? It was the distraction, right?
"Miss Knight's a new one," Cleopatra said, trying to change the topic to something, anything that could make Monet talk. "Where'd that come from." Monet smiled slightly, as thought the name brought back many good memories.
"We used to play this game as kids... We called it Blaten... It was out made up world with monsters and talking trees and magic... Basically whatever we wanted it to be... Mark was the... Oh, what was it? We made up something for him? Do you remember, Jassy?" Monet pushed herself up into a sitting position and that was when Cleopatra knew it was working. Okay, so maybe she wasn't all that bad at this, but she still had no clue as to what she was doing.
"I think he was advisor or something. Though, he was the good sir... I dunno, it's been too long," Jasmine said with a giggle. Monet smiled and nodded her head.
"Jasmine was the leader or something like that. I think she was the princess but she was the one who always gave me and Mark the missions to do. And I was the knight, mostly because I found that more fun." Monet shrugged her shoulders. "We played it for years, even when we went to visit Jassy on her sets and stuff. And then, we just kinda gave it up one day. Then again, most kids grow out of that kind of thing faster than we did. I'm sure you had a game like that, right Cleo?"
"Oh... No. I didn't have the imagination that you guys had as a kid," Cleopatra quickly replied with a shrug, shooting a small glance in Mary's direction. "Bailey was really my only closest friend and we spent most of our time exploring the town. We didn't really play games like you guys did." Mary gave her a sad smile but before Monet could protest, Melissa got the zipper unstuck.
"See, there you go! All done!" Jasmine cheered, grabbing onto Monet's hands. "That wasn't so hard, now was it? I mean, you survived it after all!" Monet smiled weakly before reaching behind her to test the zipper. When she was satisfied with it, she gave her aunt a thumbs up. Melissa nodded her head at the two of them. "Thanks, Aunt M. It means a lot. And you too. Thanks for trying." Jasmine smiled at Mary, who nodded her head.
"Of course. I wish I could have done more. Now, you guys better finish because I think we're leaving in thirty minutes," Mary said, though Cleopatra knew for a fact that the motherly tone was directed towards her. It always had been. Mary was probably the closest she'd get to getting actually scolded by a mother.
"And Jasmine?" Melissa asked, drawing the blonde girl's attention towards her. Jasmine didn't respond, but the way she tilted her head and her small smile made it clear that she was listening to what she was saying. "You've got a makeup smug right here on your face. Might want to fix that before we take pictures and post them." Melissa pointed it out on her own face and Jasmine giggled, covering her face. Melissa chuckled and Mary gestured her out of the room. "Oh, one more thing." Melissa stopped before they left the room. "One of you might want to hurry up and finish so that Kyra isn't left with the boys."
And there was that. Kyra was here. Yeah, the two of them were getting along fine, but it didn't mean that they were friendly. The Bathroom picnic helped and the day before when they worked on their school project together, but Cleopatra knew the tension was still there. She knew that maybe she was being a little ridiculous, but with everything that happened with Bailey last night, she wasn't looking to make best friends with anyone. Not when it was so soon.
"Hey, I've got to help Mo with her hair and you're the host. You want to go spend some time with Kyra?" Jasmine asked as the door shut.
That's right. She was the host. It looked like she really didn't have much of a choice now. With a forced smile, one that she could make look real, she nodded to the two of them and said, "Alright. I'll see you when you're done." It was time to go spend some time with the boys, she guessed.
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Sebastian knew that Kyra and Cleopatra didn't really like each other, but he didn't really understand it until he saw the two of them. Then again, it wasn't like he knew them very well. After all, Kyra had always kinda been like this, secluded and closed off, ever since they'd really started talking in third grade. If she was still anything like that, then she was bound to have a few issues with anyone. Still, he knew how nice Kyra could be and so he could only hope that the two of them got over it soon. At this point, they could barely stand a few feet from the other.
"So... I don't remember seeing you in middle school," Sebastian started, turning to look over at Cleopatra. The statement was true. From what he could remember, Cleopatra hadn't been in the same middle school as him. He did remember Jasmine and Mark, if only by their names, but never a Cleopatra. Based off of her popularity now and how everyone reacted around her, she should have at least rung a bell. The gothic Lolita shrugged her shoulders and played with the lace on her dress slightly, which she'd turned to a tradition gothic Lolita dress for the occasion of the dance.
"Bailey and I got expelled from our middle school and they told the high school not to let us in. Said we caused enough trouble on our own. Since we live on the border neighborhood, we just transferred here without too much paperwork." The answer was nonchalant, like she was describing her boring weekend instead of explaining how she got expelled from her school.
"What kind of things did you do to get there?" Mark asked with a small chuckle. Out of everyone in their little group so far, he'd known about Cleopatra the longest so he'd obviously know what kind of trouble she could get into. It was a fair question.
"Oh, you know, the usual things. Vandalism, smoking in the bathroom, getting a few teachers to quit, alcohol, having sex in the closest... That sort of thing," Cleopatra shrugged her shoulders. Next to him, Sebastian felt Kyra tense up. The detective probably heard a lot about that sort of thing, so she probably didn't like hearing it from someone she knew personally. Though, they weren't the only ones who heard it. From the living room, Chris shouted; "CLEOPATRA! I SWEAR!" Cleopatra broke her mask and giggled, looking over into the room.
"Flirting with my teacher... Sleeping with the principle... Oh, whatever are you going to do with me?" She continued, giggling behind her hand. Sebastian heard Mary sigh and watched her place a hand on Chris's shoulder, no doubt explaining to him that some of the things that Cleopatra was saying was a joke at this point.
"What do your parents say about that?" Sebastian asked, genuinely curious at this point. There was no way that Cleopatra could get away with this much without some sort of trouble. Cleopatra tilted her head and turned around, her features making it easy to mistake her for a life sized doll. Her blank expression probably said enough for Sebastian to figure it out, but the girl explained it anyway.
"Chris is the one who handles all of that. My parents are far too busy to deal with me," She giggled and shrugged her shoulders, leaning against the counter again. "Hence why I can get away with so many things. Chris doesn't put up much of a fight." She folded her arms over each other and Sebastian looked over to see Chris sigh.
"Is that why you do that then?" Kyra asked, her curiosity clear in her voice. Cleopatra looked over in her direction, tilting her head again so that her natural curls slipped over her shoulder. "Is that why you do all of those things? Because you don't have anyone to stop you?" Cleopatra thought about it for a second before shrugging again.
"That and I guess I just like to rebel. It makes the conversation so much more interesting," Cleopatra replied. The group was quiet for a minute before Cleopatra got called over to talk to Chris, no doubt about how she needed to get her act together and keep her words in check at least while she had company. Sebastian concluded that it was only logical situation, since Chris was probably getting made a fool in front of the other parents in the room.
"Hey, Kyra?" Sebastian asked, drawing Kyra's attention away from Cleopatra and back over to him. It was also at this time that Jasmine and Monet came into the room, finally finished with getting ready. Kyra looked at him, waiting for his next words. "Do you still celebrate Chinese New Year? You know, since I know your grandfather doesn't like holidays and last I knew, your grandmother came down just to celebrate it with you every year."
"Wait, you celebrate Chinese New Year?" Jasmine asked, coming over and leaning on the counter. Monet joined her next to Mark, resting her hands down on the counter. Kyra sighed and reached up, gently brushing her side bags out of her face with her gloves, which she had changed to lavender to match her dress.
"Guys, I'm half chinese. That's not much of a big deal, you know. I just don't really look like it because I'm an albino and I'm half American," Kyra shrugged her shoulders again. "I don't even know anything about Chinese culture or anything, just the New Year because my grandmother comes down and celebrates it with me. So I can't answer any questions or tell you anything about it. But yeah, Seb, to answer your question, I do."
"How come you don't know anything about it?" Monet asked quietly, her voice just a little more quiet than normal.
"Yeah, why is that?" Mark was also curious. Kyra let out a sigh and Sebastian felt a little bad, knowing that he just put her on the spot. He knew that she didn't like the spotlight. She always liked to stick to the walls and be the silent one in the room, so maybe asking her a question in front of everyone wasn't the best choice he'd made yet.
"My grandfather just doesn't believe in holidays, that's all." Kyra folded her hands together and by the time anyone wanted to say anything about it, Cleopatra came back over.
"We're leaving now, if we want to make it back in time." She said, leaning against the counter. The others all looked at each other before Jasmine giggled and ran over to get her jacket. The others were quick to follow. It was time for homecoming. This was going to be an interesting day.
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The pictures went fairly well, considering that almost everyone's parents needed to get a couple hundred of them. And then Jasmine obsessed over every little one taken of her because she had to make sure that nothing was wrong with them before she could post them. Not that she was worried about posting any funny ones that they had done or anything but because she wanted to make sure that there was no chance for any of them to get attacked by some predators or anything like that on the internet. Once she was satisfied, they moved onto dinner, which had been full of enough chaos without it being homecoming. Everyone was talking over each other, carrying on at least three different conversations at the table. It was a little overwhelming for someone who didn't handle social interactions very well, but Kyra managed to get by. Instead, she had a nice, small conversation with Cleopatra, mostly about the book that she had managed to find a way to slip into her locker. Kyra had to admit that Cleopatra had been right and Jane Austin was a good author. The two of them chatted for a bit, not enough for them to get a good grasp on the other, but enough to surprise the rest of their friends.
And then it was time for the dance. They'd all gone in together and look around the place, which was decorated to match the theme, Movie Stars, but it didn't take them long to get dragged out to the dance floor. Kyra knew Jasmine was socializing with some of their other classmates, both upper and underclassmen. She also knew that she should be talking with some of the people in her former grade, like how Sebastian was. However, she seemed to be distracted. She wasn't sure why that was, maybe it was the music? Or maybe it was the way that everyone seemed to be getting along really well no matter what grade they were in. Or maybe it was the fact that someone had asked Cleopatra to dance and that's exactly what she was doing.
Cleopatra was the last person that Kyra knew who would accept invitation like that from people. So, what was going on? She was sure that Cleopatra was fine. There wasn't a chance that she was in danger. Still, Kyra didn't know what she should think. After all, it wasn't like Cleopatra did this often. Maybe she was looking for a distraction? Whatever it was, it was a little odd.
Then again, all of her new friends were a little odd. After all, Leo and Sasha were running around the place like maniacs who'd had just a little too much sugar. Anthony and Isa weren't even dancing at all. They were just sitting at a table like nothing was happening around them. Of course, Sebastian and Jasmine were socializing, like she should be doing instead of leaning against the wall. And then there was Mark and Monet, who's stepped right outside of the gym and were dancing out there because Monet complained about it being too loud for her. Kyra had wanted to go to the dance, hadn't she? So why didn't she want to do anything?
"Hey, Kyra?" Sebastian asked, laying a hand on her shoulder and bringing her out of her thoughts. "Would you want to dance with me?" The way he said it made it sound like he was done talking to people and just needed an excuse to get out of there. Kyra gave him a small smile and nodded her head. Sebastian took her hand and led her out to just outside of the dance circle. Sebastian really was a great guy. After all, he'd been on of the only people to want to try to pursue her to be friends when they were younger, especially after her parents had died and she shut herself off from the world under her grandfather's wing. He was certainly one of the nicest people that Kyra had met.
For this being her first homecoming experience, it was certainly a memory that Kyra didn't want to have to forget.