Chapter Three
Clyde could not concentrate for the rest of the afternoon. Normally he didn't pay much attention in class anyway, but now he was even more reclusive in class than usual. After Luke broke the news to Clyde about Rani's date for the Ball, it left Clyde contemplating the fact that he was not only being forced to go to the Ball, but now he had to go and watch the girl he had longed for for ages, on a date with someone else.
"So she didn't say who she was going with?" Clyde asked Luke, as they walked home from school, Rani once again absent from their usual walk home.
"No, the bell rang before I could get her to tell me" Luke said, the two of them now just outside 13 Bannerman Road "Listen, we'll get Rani to come over later we can talk to her about it then."
"No!" Clyde almost shouted, stopping in his tracks "Luke, I can't! Don't you see, she's made her mind up. She's got a date now, she's clearly not interested" Clyde stressed, and he made to go home, clearly upset.
"Clyde!" Luke called after him, but this only made Clyde pick up speed and he ran all the way down the street and eventually rounded the corner to get home.
Luke sighed and headed into the house, straight up to the attic where he flung his school bag down heavily on the floor.
Sarah Jane looked up from her work, surprised "Luke, what's the matter?"
"It's Clyde and Rani. Rani's got a date for the Ball, and Clyde hasn't taken it well. Rani wasn't with us all day, and now Clyde's run off home, I think he's upset."
Sarah Jane came and sat next to Luke on the steps, she put her arm around his shoulders.
"Don't worry Luke, they'll sort it all out." She kissed his cheek. Luke gave a sigh, hoping his mum was right.
Things for the three friends went from bad to worse as the week progressed. Rani eventually started hanging around with Luke again, but whenever Rani was around, Clyde decided to do a disappearing act. However, when the three of them had the same classes they had no choice but to be together. Luke would always end up sitting in between his two friends, and Clyde and Rani hardly said two words to eachother. This was noticed by a few of their classmates, who started gossiping amongst themselves about how Clyde and Rani didn't seem to be talking, which was unusual considering you could never shut the two of them up normally. Rani still refused to say who her date was for the Ball, no matter how hard both Clyde and Luke had tried to get the information out of her.
Friday night soon rolled around; Clyde was getting ready at Luke's house. Both boys were wearing the equivalent of a dinner suit, complete with bow ties.
"Oh look at you, you look so handsome the pair of you!" Sarah Jane grinned, as they came into the attic.
"We look like bloody penguins!" Clyde stressed, trying to tug at his bow tie.
Sarah Jane laughed "This calls for photos."
"Aww Sarah Jane do we have to?" Clyde continued to moan.
"Come on Clyde, we may aswell, the school photographer is taking photos there tonight aswell."
"Oh you are joking me?" Clyde just wanted the ground to create a big hole and swallow him up.
Luke grinned, he was going to enjoy this night, despite Clyde wishing the complete opposite.
Sarah Jane took some photos before they headed to the car.
"Looks like Haresh and Rani have already left" Sarah Jane noted, as they got in the car, spotting the absence of his car across the road.
"We're a bit late already" Luke said, doing up his seatbelt "I hope Mr. Chandra won't be too mad."
"He'll be fine Luke, don't worry. You can blame it on me if worse comes to worse" Sarah Jane offered, as they drove off.
They swiftly arrived at the school; it was incredibly cold outside now, so it was no wonder why outside was pretty much deserted.
Luke and Clyde made their way into the school and headed into the gym, most of the sixth form were already there by the looks of it. All the guys dressed in fancy suits, the girls all in their dresses. The room was decorated with alternate white and black drapes around the room, covered in fairy lights. There were large lit Christmas trees in corners of the room and silver tables and chairs dotted around the room. A makeshift dance floor was covering a vast area of the room, right next to a small stage area for the DJ. The other side of the room held the buffet area and somewhere to get the drinks. Loud music was playing and most of the sixth formers were dancing, whilst others were in groups, either sitting down or standing together, chatting and having fun.
"Luke, Clyde!" Rani called happily, she hurried over to them. Both the boys spotted her and smiled at what they saw. Rani was dressed in a floor length red satin dress; under her bust was a sparkly silver band. Her dark hair was let down, with slight waves, but the top part was partially tied up with a sparkly clip. She had on make-up, which made her eyes look even more intense and beautiful.
"Wow Rani, you look awesome" Luke commented.
Rani grinned "Thanks Luke." She briefly glanced at Clyde only to see him gawping at her.
Luke nudged Clyde out of his state of stunned admiration, which caused the love struck teen to cough and look at Rani properly.
"Uh, yeah you look great." But in his heart he wanted to say so much more.
Rani still smiled "Thanks! You both look very smart in your suits."
"What d'ya reckon, I could be the next James Bond?" Clyde said cheekily, straightening his bow tie.
Rani giggled "Not quite, Clyde."
"Ah well that means you can't be the bond girl then."
"Oh what a shame" she pretended to look disappointed and the three of them laughed. Luke suddenly felt like they were back to normal again, the trio having a laugh together. Just as it should be. This was quickly lost, however, as a taller, dark haired guy approached Rani.
"Rani, what are you doing hanging around with these losers?"
"Ollie, this is Luke and Clyde. Remember I told you about them."
"Oh right, hi" he said to the boys, not sounding at all pleased at being introduced to them.
"Guys this is Ollie" Rani introduced them. Only to get a rather shady response from them both.
Luke smiled politely, but not enough to reach his eyes, and Clyde looked like he wanted to strangle Ollie with his bare hands.
"Shall we go and dance?" Rani suggested to Ollie, who smiled at her.
"Sure Princess" he took hold of her hand and led her away from the boys.
"Princess?" Clyde turned to Luke, furious "And who is he to call us losers, who the hell does he think he is?"
"He's captain of the school football team" Luke informed him "You don't want to mess with him Clyde; he's got friends in high places."
"Yeah, him and his other lofty friends!" Clyde said angrily "Why did Rani agree to go out with him, he's such an arrogant prat!"
"Clyde, calm down. Come on, come over to the buffet with me and we'll get a drink."
Clyde had to be literally dragged by Luke to the end of the room, where Rani's dad was standing, observing the proceedings. Luke set to work helping with the buffet; and Clyde sat down on a chair near to Luke, watching everyone having a good time, he was particularly keen on keeping an eye on Rani and Ollie.
A couple of hours into the Ball and things were going well, that is for everyone besides Clyde. He had not moved from the spot since he sat down, now in a very sour mood. Luke meanwhile, was enjoying chatting to everyone else and had managed to grab a few dances with a few girls, including Rani. Rani herself was enjoying the Ball, she had spent most of her time dancing, chatting with Ollie and his friends and had managed to spend some time with Luke. Clyde on the other hand was a different matter. She could see him watching her with a very disgruntled expression on his face, she was tempted to go over and ask him for a dance, but she was worried he would snap at her if she did.
Rani left Ollie briefly to go and get herself a drink, Luke smiled at her as he saw her approach.
"Hey Rani, you want a drink?"
"You read my mind" Rani smiled, taking the drink off Luke and grabbing a seat next to Clyde "Clyde, are you alright? You don't seem to be having a good time?"
"That's because I'm not" Clyde said, grumpily "Rani, why are you here with that loser?"
"He's not a loser!" Rani was quick to jump to Ollie's defence "Anyway where's your date for the Ball. Did you not ask anyone?"
"Well the girl I wanted to ask was already taken" Clyde admitted.
Rani looked somewhat curious "Who did you want to ask?"
"It doesn't matter" Clyde was quick to respond "She's not interested" he briefly looked down at his hands.
"I'm sure she is, why don't you just go and ask her to dance? Everyone's dancing with eachother. Ollie hasn't minded me dancing with other people."
Clyde rolled his eyes, getting frustrated again "Ollie, Ollie, Ollie... is that all you talk about now?"
"Clyde, why are you being like this?" Rani was utterly perplexed by his behaviour.
"You could do so much better" Clyde said truthfully, gazing into her eyes.
"Well no one else will have me" Rani said, dejectedly, looking down at her hands like Clyde had done earlier.
Clyde lifted Rani's chin up so he could look into her eyes seriously "You don't realise how wrong you are about that."
Rani gazed back at him, matching his serious look, she felt very confused by how Clyde was acting, he was blowing hot and cold. She didn't know where she stood with him anymore. This didn't stop Rani from doing the only thing she could think of at this moment, she took Clyde's hand and asked him sweetly "Come on, dance with me?"
"Do I have to?" Clyde moaned.
Rani smiled "Yes, come on. You'll enjoy it I promise" and she dragged him onto the dance floor.
The music was still very upbeat and Clyde at last started enjoying himself, now that he and Rani seemed to be back to normal, well they were being chatty and smiling more, so it was heading in the right direction at least. It wasn't long though into their second dance, that their happiness was blasted apart. As they were dancing, Rani had been spun around by Clyde and in the corner of the room Rani spotted Ollie sat on one of the chairs across the room, with a long haired blonde girl sitting on his lap, having a passionate kiss.