SOOOOO hey everyone, no I'm not dead, surprisingly. Well, I'm a little over two weeks into my senior year of high school and the stress is here, applying to college and shit and doing auditions for dance programs, I really just want to die. I updated this because I also want to start a new story, but I didn't want to start a new story and leave this one hanging, so I came back to this. I feel like I rambled a lot in this one because I really wasn't sure where I wanted to go with this and basically improvised this entire chapter in three hours, so I feel like this one is a filler and really isn't detrimental to the book as a whole /maybe besides the very ending part/ so you could honestly probably skip this, but the idea of the next chapter may be a bit confusing. But don't worry we'll be getting back to all the angst and fun stuff next chapter. I also don't know if I'll be updating this again before I post my next book but we'll see! Thanks so much for reading and putting up with my constant procrastination. I hope to update more often because I am only taking three real classes while everything else is choir and dance. Happy reading and hope you enjoy this installment.
THIS CHAPTER WAS UPDATED AND PROOFREAD FOR TYPOS, GRAMMAR, AND PLOT/TIMELINE ISSUES AS OF 7/17/2020
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Anslee had gone to bed with the happiest feeling she'd had in awhile and for once in the past two weeks, her mind had avoided nightmares that night. She had even managed to wake up in a good mood the next morning; much to Rachel's pleasure, she was relieved things were finally getting back to normal.
Ans sat at the table in the kitchen with her mom, both of them sipping coffee; Rachel looked through her files on the table while Anslee scrolled through warm-up sequences her coach had sent her for the team on her phone. Both sat in happy silence before Harvey came out of the bathroom, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and a trail of toothpaste down his chin, holding up two ties, looking for an opinion. Rachel and Anslee looked up at the man with identical smirks.
"Hmph er hmph?" Harvey gestured to each of the two ties with each hmph.
"Burgundy," Rachel answered nonchalantly going back to her files, making Harvey look to Anslee for her approval.
"I agree, the burgundy brings out your eyes," Ans nodded with a laugh.
Harvey muffled out a thank you as he turned back into the bathroom to finish brushing his teeth and put on his tie.
Anslee laughed again and went back to looking through the warm-ups when Rachel spoke, "So since you're going to prom you're going to let me take you prom dress shopping, right?" the mother asked in an almost giddy tone as if she were a teenager again.
"If you really want to," Anslee shrugged as she took a sip of her home made chai latte.
"Why do you act like you don't really care about going? You seemed excited last night when you told us," Rachel frowned.
"I am excited, believe me," Anslee chimed, "I just don't want to make a huge deal out of it and get my hopes up."
"Hopes up for what?" The mother quirked an eyebrow.
"I don't know, I just always feel like some things are too good to be true sometimes and something always manages to go wrong," the brunette looked down at the table.
Rachel got up and walked behind Anslee to put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, "Don't say that, you deserve the world Anslee Grace, and I promise that nothing will go wrong." she reached down to kiss her daughter's head, "Now finish your coffee and let's go, we're leaving in ten minutes.
Anslee smiled to herself, she really didn't know what she would do without her mother. Rachel was her rock, and she loved her mom more than anything in the world. the teen looked up from the table and at Rachel, "Hey mom? I love you." she spoke with a smile.
Rachel stopped and looked back at her daughter with an equal smile, "I love you too, Ans."
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The car ride to school was short lived and Anslee actually looked forward to being at high school for once. Not only did she dish out what happened to Jenni as soon as she saw her, but she found a note in her locker from Nico inviting her to come sit with him and a few of his friends they were going to prom with, and of course, she could bring Jenni too.
"Nico Gargano asked you to prom?!" Jenni nearly yelled as her and Anslee were walking down the hallway to their first period class.
"Jesus Jen might as well tell the whole world!" Anslee looked to her best friend with wide eyes hoping she didn't draw any unwanted attention to the two.
"I'm sorry but this really is huge," Jenni gave Anslee a look, "I mean come on you can't tell me this isn't huge."
Anslee smiled to herself, "Yeah it's huge, but we don't have to tell everyone quite yet," Anslee nudged Jenni, "Now come on or we're going to be late to Government." the girl spoke, dragging her friend towards the classroom.
Lunchtime rolled around so slow Anslee thought maybe time had stopped on purpose, but once the lunch bell rang she nearly bolted to the cafeteria in anticipation to see Nico. The girl quickly went through the lunch line, grabbing a fruit medley and a water, before she made her way to the table where Nico usually sat with his friends, though she didn't see Nico there quite yet. Despite that, she was still given an invitation to sit with them, and she wasn't about to let him not being there get to her.
Anslee took a breath before walking towards Nico's table, where she saw a few familiar faces of his friends. As soon as she got close enough, one of the boys, Eric, who was a tall and lanky boy with blonde hair, noticed her and motioned to his friends that Anslee was approaching. One of the girls, Jessica, a medium sized girl with long sandy blonde hair who was captain of the Varsity Softball Team, turned to look at Anslee and smiled.
"Hey Anslee, Nico told us you were coming to sit with us, is Jenni coming too?" Jessica looked around for Anslee's friend.
"No, she needed a bit of help with AP Physics so she went to Mr. Hiducho for help, where do you want me to sit?" Anslee smiled back, feeling a little more comfortable now since his friends knew she was coming.
"Nico usually sits on the other side of the table," Jessica pointed to the opposite side of her.
"Got it," Ans smiled, walking around the table to sit next to the sear Nico usually sat in. Before she could even get her plastic fork out of the plastic it came in, she was already bombarded with a question from a girl in her pre-calc class named Rebecca.
"So Nico asked you to prom right?" the ebony-haired girl asked with an anticipated smile.
"Uh...yeah, he did, last night we went out for pizza so I could tutor him on some things for History and he asked me then," Ans replied, a blush dawning her cheeks as she remembered it.
"I sure did," chimed in the voice of Nico himself as he took a seat next to Anslee, not hesitating to reach over and kiss her head, making her blush deepen.
The group laughed and another boy, Silas, who was mixed and wore his hair in his natural short afro, spoke up, "It's about time, too. Man he wouldn't shut up about you Anslee, we were wondering if he'd ever grow a pair and ask." he joked.
"Hey, ouch," Nico put a hand to his heart faking hurt, "In my defense, I thought Anslee was going to say no and tell me she'd already been asked by someone else."
Ans looked over to Nico and rolled her eyes playfully, "Right, whatever you say," she laughed, playfully punching him in the arm.
"Believe me, or don't," he smirked, throwing his hands up in defeat.
"We don't," Jessica laughed, making the rest of the table laugh.
The group finally started to eat and made small conversation here and there until Anslee finally started to actually talk, "So this is the prom group?"
"Yup," Caroline, a blonde girl who was on the Volleyball Team, nodded, "All of us, plus a few others that aren't in this lunch period, most of us went together junior year. The girls were going to get our nails and hair done together on the day of prom if you want to tag along, we can add you to the appointment."
"Wow, really?" Anslee smiled, "Yeah that'd be awesome, I'd have to check with my mom first, but that sounds awesome."
"Then it's settled, Anslee, welcome officially to the prom group," Nico smiled to her, making her blush again.
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As if the week couldn't get any better, Anslee had almost forgotten that Rachel and Harvey were taking her to the Ballet that Friday, and just like lunch on Monday, the time leading up to Friday seemed like it couldn't go any slower. Although, she did get to spend more time with Nico and Jenni was finally able to join them for lunch and quickly cliqued with the group.
Anslee stood in her room, putting a pair of gold stud earrings in her ear piercings to accent the same burgundy colored dress she wore the night Bruce had crashed dinner with Harvey, Rachel, and Ans. Saying Anslee was excited for this performance was an understatement, she was raving about it ever since Rachel and Harvey gave her the tickets, she gave everyone an earful about it when they asked her about it. Having this night finally here was a dream come true and almost seemed unreal.
"Ans, come on, sweetheart, we have to get there early to beat the crowd, yeah?" Rachel stood in the doorway of her daughter's room clad in a black dress with her hair back and out of her face in a low fancy bun, Rachel was the epitome of beauty and Anslee always admired how she looked nice and pretty no matter what time of day it was. She was even envious to say her mother could rock the sweatpants and messy bun look better than she could.
"Coming," Anslee answered, turning to grab her clutch and then following her mother towards the front door while Harvey stood in a suit out in the hall of the complex.
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"Slow down, Ans, our seats are still going to be there when we get in," Harvey called to Anslee who was already five steps ahead of him and Rachel. He was happy the girl was excited for the performance. Even though it was Rachel's idea to get her the tickets, he was still happy he could be a part of the gift giving and getting to take her.
"It's not every day you get to see the Moscow Ballet, Harv," Anslee turned to look at him and stopped, waiting for the two to catch up.
Rachel smirked at her child's giddiness, "We know, we know," The mother looked to her daughter with a knowing look.
"Come on it's just up ahead," Anslee urged them, walking towards the performance hall faster than Harvey and Rachel, but when she had finally made it to the front of the building, she approached the box office only to stop dead in her tracks, her smile fading as her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach.
Rachel frowned seeing the life leave Anslee's movement, "Ans, what's up, baby?" she asked as her and Harvey joined Anslee in front of the box office. Across the window was a large gray sign with big white lettering reading 'Performance Cancelled'.
"This is a joke right?" Anslee muttered out, frowning, when upon closer inspection there was a pinned up newspaper article.
"Love Boat: Billionaire Absconds With Entire Russian Ballet," Anslee read aloud, looking at the picture of a boat and then below it, a picture of none other than Bruce Wayne himself, as her blood boiled and anger filled her every being.
"Oh my God," Rachel muttered out loud as she turned from the newspaper article, rolling her eyes, annoyed with Bruce very much at the moment.