Chapter 24: Invitation

"Dammit… why is there so much work?" Jaymee was sorting through a pile of cinematic records. "I'm in the dispatch, for heaven's sake… you'd think I wouldn't have this much work to do…" She slammed the book shut and put it onto the second pile on her desk. She began to reorganize the spells sheets that Leah had given her.

She'd become an assistant to those of the higher up classes, like Ronald. So on some days she'd help Leah, on some days she'd help William, and on some days she'd come along with Grell to the human world. Today she was helping Leah. Leah's day schedule was split into two.

As World War one had just ended, she was back onto her regular schedule, but most of her work was still in the shinigami world. Leah was a teacher on the first half of her schedule, and taught the spells class. On the second half of her schedule, she spent time correcting various cinematic records. Leah was teaching at the moment, and Jaymee was sorting through all the spells that Leah had given her for the next day's class.

A small piece of paper fell out. It was addressed to her. She took a look at it, read it over twice and put it in her folder. It was written in really cursive writing and she couldn't decipher anything that was written on it. She'd just ask Leah later as soon as she got on her break. A little later, she picked up the piece of paper and walked into the dispatch lobby for lunch. She found Leah sitting by herself, looking really annoyed. She already knew that the reason behind it was that William was in the human world.

Those two were so adorable. Both of them would get really annoyed whenever they weren't right beside each other or weren't calling each other every thirty seconds. Jaymee smiled and sat beside Leah.

"Hey"

"Hi"

"Did you have a bad day?"

"You have no idea" Leah said, doing a face palm. "What kind of idiot puts the wrong name on a cinematic record?"

"It looks like you've got a lot to deal with" Jaymee said. "I recently got this in the mail… I can't read a word of what this says. Can you tell me what it is?" She gave Leah the paper.

"Oh, this is the yearly invitation. Usually we have a social gathering every year" She waved her hand dismissively. "Apparently it's tradition or some random crap… Anyway, they've invited you to go, because you're a shinigami now."

"Wow, great! I can't wait! When is it?"

"It's at ten thirty tomorrow. I'm surprised you got the invitation so late." Leah said.

"I've never been to a ball before" Jaymee said with shining eyes.

"Your reaction is completely different from mine" Leah said laughing. "I hate anything fancy, and I don't really like balls. You should have seen me several years ago. I tried to think up any possible excuse for me not to go. But you seem happy enough"

"Yes! But I don't have a dress to wear…"

"That's ok. I have the perfect thing for you." Leah said. "I bought a dress for myself a little while ago, but I never wear it. I can give it to you, seeing as you'd probably look better in it."

"Ok"

About halfway through the day, Grell stumbled in through the doors of the dispatch lobby, white in the face. Jaymee stood up and ran to him.

"Are you all right?" She asked worriedly. He nodded.

"I'm fine."

"What was it?" She wondered.

"More escapees from hell... I think they're ready to make a move." He said. "There are more and more of them every day. It's such a bother. They're almost as strong as shinigami."

"This is getting out of hand… we need the help of the demon king and demon queen." Leah said.

"But you know them. Can't you go and talk to them?" Grell asked Leah. She shook her head.

"I've only had one audience with the demon queen. It was all right, seeing as I was the child of death at that time, and I was almost equal rank to her. But I already gave up my powers. I'm good friends with the princess, but she's not much help when it comes to the demon queen."

"Any help would be good. Who's the demon princess?" Grell asked.

"Lilyanne Michaelis. Would you happen to know her by chance?"

"She's the wench who stole my Sebas-chan!"

Leah snorted. "Well, they're royalty now… I thought you said that you were friends with her."

"More or less…"

"Either way, demons aren't really happy to have shinigami in their world." Leah said. "It's got to be the current child of death who does it."

"And that current child of death is who?" Jaymee wondered.

"It's likely you, Jaymee, but we can't be one hundred percent sure."

"Me? You've got to be kidding. I wasn't even born a shinigami!"

"Mother seems to like you a lot" Leah put in. "And you've got quite a bit of unusual powers up your sleeves. I do think it's a high chance, but I don't want to do anything just in case it turns out that you're not the child of death."

"Ok…"

Jaymee sat down and thought hard.

"You said you're close friends with the demon princess, so why not have her help us? We don't need the demon king and demon queen."

"However, they act as her quote on quote 'parents'… and they don't really like it when regular shinigami visit hell. We usually meet in the human world and go for lunch or something, but never more than that. As you know, shinigami and demons don't usually get along." Leah said.

"Ok, we'll think about it" Grell said, fully recovered now. He turned to Jaymee. "You got your invitation today, right?"

"Yeah" Jaymee said.

"You're going, right?"

"Sure I am. I wouldn't miss this for anything!" She smiled.

"So why don't you go with me? After all, it's usually custom to go with someone"

"Why not" She said happily

They walked home hand in hand, with Leah tagging along.

"Hold it, lovebirds" She said. Jaymee and Grell froze and turned around. Leah was grinning, holding a camera. "Have I ever told you that I love collecting pictures? Come on now, you two, smile for me"

They both posed for the camera, with some shots of them doing stupid faces and some of them looking normal.

"I'll give you a copy" Leah promised Jaymee.