Friday, 13th November

I had brought myself to prepare for the dance lesson. I took an extra care with braiding my hair, although what for, I didn't know. I dressed up my favourite dress, wore heels and long coat and set off to the dark. I was shaking. I'm not sure if it was due to the cold or nervousness, I kind of feel it was both.

On my way to the dance hall, I wondered why I even went there. Is there any point in bringing pain to my already hurt feelings? Do I really need to see Jack dancing with another girl with my own eyes? For two hours straight? But as I said before, I promised it, and I wasn't going back once I decided to go.

I was still shaking when I met Ana. "Hi," she smiled. "Are you nervous?" She knew I was, that was why she asked. I nodded and smiled back. My nervousness was noticeable even from the smile. I saw Ana had a few strands of hair dyed purple and light green, so I said: "Nice hair," to try to relive the tension a bit.

"Let's go," she said and we went up the stairs into the building. Everything I saw after we entered was making my insides twitch. The wave of warm air from the hidden heaters. The luxurious chandeliers. The fancy decorative paintings. The soft thuds our high heels were making on the thick red carpet. The extraordinary scent filling the long hall leading to the ballroom. The lights and shades and angles and heights and sounds and people moving around. Everything.

Ana gave me an encouraging look, so I assumed we reached the door. I put my hand on the handle - almost. I couldn't help hesistating. "Let's wait until the music ends. I don't want to interrupt," I suggested, and so we sat ourselves on the chairs in front of the doors to the dance hall.

When the hall went silent, I almost missed it as I felt so uneasy and distracted with talking to Tooth. She nudged me gently and we sneaked inside.

The first person to welcome us was the dance teacher's wife, but I barely brought myself to paying attention to her since I was already lookind for Jack. I found him a few couples to the left, where he was prepared for the music to start, holding his partner in standart pose. When he spotted me, he smiled the beautiful bright smile only he could pull. Then they started dancing an his smile fell in concentration.

"Come on, we gotta act serious! It's a serious dance!" And then he cracked up.

I chased the uninvited memory back to the edge of my mind and took a seat by one of the tables around the hall.

Even though I couldn't help feeling a bit envious, I stayed quite calm. A few days before, I overheard that he only went to the dance lessons again because the girl he was dancing with couldn't find a partner, and also the lessons will soon be over. Okay, I have to admit I was more than just 'a little bit' envious, especially when they danced slow waltz, but I was still doing quite fine.

It wasn't long after we entered Jack came to our table. He had that striking smile again, this time with something amazed in it.

"I didn't know you'd come."

The first thing I thought of was: "Surprise!" and I immediately thought how silly it must have sounded.

"It really is." He greeted Tooth and then looked back at me. "You both look amazing. Nice hair, by the way."

"Thank you." I instinctively reached for the braid and fixed it a little.

..

When I wasn't watching the couples move around, I was talking to Tooth about those dances they were learning and from time to time, I added a funny story from my own lessons. Besides that, we were also discussing our trip to some Christmas market since December was just around the corner. In short, I was having quite a good time considering I didn't want to go.

Jack even offered to buy a bottle of water for me, and when he dissapeared to the bar, Tooth commented: "Wow. Such a gentleman."

"I know, that's why I like him," I giggled.

They all had a short break, so Jack had time to sit with us and talk when he returned with the water. And the first thing he picked as a topic was, surprisingly: "You're not baking today?" He probably remembered the apple pie I baked and told him about some time ago. He seemed concerned that he didn't get to taste it.

"Apparently."

"Well that's good, because when you bake on Fridays, you don't bring it to school."

"I wouldn't bring the pie even if I baked it on Monday, it's kinda hard to transport." But I thought that, no matter how he regretted not tasting the pie, there was something else he wanted to talk about.

"So, do you want to dance later?"

I smiled, because I felt that things were just about to get a whole lot better.