A:
The moon shone in from outside as the night carried on. The mood energized the room. All the students looked glamorous in their designer gowns. They talked close and buzzed with expectations as they waited for the DJ to play music. The couples ready to take the dance floor stood to the side.
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An unshakeable feeling crept through my mind.
This was the night. That night, I'd officially ask Marla to be my girlfriend.
I had some factors in my favor. The moon looked down on us and the mood was great. I'd just looked heroic when fighting that fire demon Boss. It was almost perfect, except for the mystery that had just fallen into our laps and threatened to wreck the entire night.
Earlier, Cole'd come up to me almost frantically, wanting to discuss something about Betsy. So I talked with him before I would go to find Marla.
"...so she didn't seem to care that I came here with Luna. Totally weird behavior for Betsy, right? She's usually all prim and proper."
I nodded in understanding as I examined the other people in the room. Not only were they being flirtatious with one another, they had trouble balancing. People wobbled and swayed back and forth, although I thought it could've been the waves. Certainly, no alcohol was served to the students that night, but everyone acted like they'd been drinking.
The music started and the excited couples loaded the dance floor. Luna pulled Cole away, but I still saw no sign of Marla. At that moment, I had second thoughts. I wondered if I actually should ask her to dance right now.
I'd embarrass myself on the dance floor. Of course, I'd danced before, in the mirror to my favorite anime themes songs. But, admittedly, this would be my first time dancing with another person, least of all a girl. I knew the same principles would apply, and I figured I could get the basics down on the fly. But there was still a chance I wouldn't be any good at dancing.
The dance floor itself looked like it was from some 70s John Travolta flick with bellbottoms. Checkered with flashing colors like a Rubik's Cube, the disco ball bounced shadows across it. It was like being inside a kaleidoscope.
Some funky number with a bouncing bass line played as I locked eyes with Marla. I was relieved that a fast song was playing, but as soon as I walked up to her, it changed to something slow. Another disco classic with cascading violins and a heartfelt melody.
We didn't have to say anything. She just grabbed my arms and soon my hand grasped the curve of her waist. It fit perfectly. And she came in close, really close, rested her head on my shoulder and we swayed along to the music. The beat of the song felt incredibly slow; I felt her heart beating much faster than the tempo of the song.
The way our bodies moved together was so natural, I wondered why we hadn't been this all along. I couldn't help but vocalise what I was thinking, although I'd tried to keep it under my breath.
"We should've been dancing together the whole time."
When she heard this, Marla laughed and hugged me a little more closely.
This was the perfect moment. I ran through my prepared speech in my head and swallowed hard as I mustered up some courage.
But I took a few moments too long.
A girl in a short white dress had just come back inside. She wore heels that could poke your eye out, and one of them got caught on the door frame. As she came through the door, she spun around and almost face-planted. This was enough to catch my attention, but when she caught herself on the table holding the large crystal glass with the bright red fruit punch, that table gave way.
The girl and the table flipped over, sending the crystal bowl to the ground and into trillions of pieces. Not wanting to fall on the glass, she once again kept her balance and looked on in horror at the mess she'd made.
But no one else even seemed to notice. Everyone just started walking around the glass on their way to the dance floor. And a few minutes later, the staff came and picked everything up.
Something was wrong. Now our classmates were in danger of hurting themselves. It looked like only Marla and I were sober enough to do anything. I put my plans to ask Marla out on hold until the end of the night.
We left the dance floor when the mood became rowdy. Our chaperones, Mr. Pace and Dr. Prokter, come on to the floor. Mr. Pace threw Dr. Prokter around like on Dancing With The Stars and most of us watched on in awe. They cleared the floor and started doing some wild moves.
Marla looked at this and shook her head.
"It looks like we're the only ones with level heads. And of course, we're the only ones who didn't drink the punch."
I looked over at where some of the cruise staff were still wiping up the punch that the girl had knocked on the floor. There were already students hovering over by the table, waiting for it to be replaced.
Before we could decide what to do next, I noticed Betsy and Ian making their way to the dance floor.
B:
At this point, the chaperones had worn themselves out and there was a transition. This was when Betsy and Ian made their way onto the dance floor. The way the two of them marched out there, I doubt I was the only one who thought Ian was about to confess.
Ian confessing to Betsy would be huge news most days, but tonight might be number three or four on a list of notable events. But what happened was even more surprising than that.
Ian stood there with Betsy and looked like he was mustering up the courage to say something, but she stopped him. And to everyone's surprise, she asked the DJ to turn down the music and hand her the microphone. She got the attention of most of the room.
"Listen Ian, I know you had something I'm important to share with me, but I can't wait to ask you this."
Betsy looked around like she was soaking up the moment, and Ian looked like he was agonizing with anticipation.
"Ian, come make out with me in the janitor's closet!"
Betsy announced this to everyone and there was a pause, but the crowd embraced this and started cheering them on. And then Ian did indeed follow Betsy to the janitor's closet for what I could only assume was his first make-out session.
Everyone cheered. In fact, they were so pleased that the spirit of the room seemed to grow stronger. Once the DJ started playing again, the tunes were funkier and people were dancing more freely.
The atmosphere was becoming more lively, and one couple was starting to make a scene. Cole's friend Carmelo had been hanging out with a girl the entire, but now they were in a heated argument. The staff had just finished cleaning up the remains of the shattered crystal punch bowl that was knocked down earlier. They were pouring more punch into the new bowl when another girl, dressed in a red dress, marched up to Carmelo.
Now the two girls stared off for a second, while Carmelo stared on. The DJ let the beat drop just as the blue dress shoved the red dress right into Carmelo and marched off. Everyone thought the red dress was going to go crashing into the punch bowl, but Carmelo caught her and helped her balance.
But the red dress wasn't out yet, she grabbed a fist full of hair and yanked the escaping blue dress back. Blue dress turned around with a shove, and the two of them tumbled to the floor.
The DJ kept playing through all of this, and I couldn't help but think he was trying to play up the chaos with his song choices. The brashness of the strings seemed to reinforce the violence unfolding in front of us. Now they were rolling around the floor, and made their way back to the crystal bowl, which was now, once again, filled with bright red fruit punch.
The crowd its breath as they missed the flimsy table holding the bowl. Carmelo looked relieved and fled the scene as others broke up the fight.
That was when Luna come up to where I was standing with Marla.
"Hey Andy, do you mind if I borrow her for a moment?"
Luna whisked her off just as Cole approached, looking lost.
"Have you seen Luna anywhere?"
Before I could answer, Veronica interrupted. She'd been acting strange all night, and I was worried about what she may do next.
"Andy, can I borrow my brother for a moment?"
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Cole looked like he'd seen a ghost and stopped with fear. Without waiting for a reply, Veronica grabbed Cole and pulled him to the dance floor.
I stood there alone and watched on as the two of them stumbled to some boy band hit from the 90s. Veronica was into it, but Cole looked more embarrassed than I'd ever seen him. He kept looking around, like he expected his classmates to start booing them at any second.
After one song, Cole tried to leave, but Veronica had latched on to him and they were soon caught in another dance. This time the song was the dance hit I Can't Control My Emotions by the 90s pop idol Kimberly "Baby" Strokes. Listening to the lyrics for the first time, I'd realize it's a pretty suggestive song. The words made little sense, but the sensual message was picked up by everyone dancing.
Soon, Veronica's left knee was straddling the side of Cole's chest and she was dancing rather lewdly. But she didn't stick out because everyone was doing it. Cole had turned bright red and stood there as Veronica started grinding on him.
Just as it started getting wild, Marla came back.
"I need a breather. Want to take a walk outside?"
That seemed like a good idea. It was as good a chance as I'd get to ask her out, so I followed her back out onto the deck.
The door we came in through was packed, so Marla suggested a "shortcut". She insisted she'd mapped the entire layout of the ship to her head already, but we still ended up in the kitchen.
"We can go out through here, I think."
It was a cramped and messy professional kitchen. The busy cooks didn't even notice us as we walked through. One of them shoved us out of the way to take out another batch of the punch. But I recognized something sitting next to the large container that they used to create the entire batch.
There was a shiny silver flask sitting out of place next to the container. I picked it up and recognized it was Devin's. I had Marla put it in her purse and we walked through the kitchen through the other exit. But right after we were through the door, Kimi popped out of Marla's purse. She'd been quiet all night. She pretty much always was whenever we went out to events like this. In fact, she'd sworn to only come out in an urgent situation. So it shocked Marla and me to see her pop out on a crowded boat.
"Astra, I detected it. The residue of magic is all over that flask."
Apparently, the flask had contained some sort of magical potion. Kimi was sure of it, but it would take her a little longer to figure out what it was. I knew Devin had become a suspect. I couldn't imagine how he even got a magical potion. But I was glad he wasn't in the Gaia Defense Force Club.