Chapter Twenty-eight: A fairy tale ending…or is it?
Hitomi walked into the gym with Merle and Millerna. She adjusted her hat and prayed that no one actually recognized her. It had turned out that she wasn't allowed to change her character. The advertising committee was afraid that if others heard of this, they'd want to change too. They apologized for the mistake because her character was truly supposed to be in the male box. The only thing she could do with dress up as a female version of Peter Pan. That was her original plan but after putting her costume on, she looked like Peter Pan dress up like Tinkerbell.
Both her friends looked great. Millerna wore exactly what Cinderella wore to the ball. As usual heads turned as she walked into the room. She had her hair put up, wore a crystal blue grown and transparent shoes. She looked gorgeous. Merle came as a fairly. She wore a short, strapless orange dress. She left her hair down and put highlights in them that matched her dress. She bought to fake plastic wings and poured glitter all over her body.
"Wow this place looks great!" Millerna exclaimed. "The committee really did a great job with it this year." The gym walls were covered with dark blue wallpaper and millions of yellow stars, making it look like the sky. A slow turning disco ball hung from the roof. Little round tables lit by candles stood near the refreshment table. Balloons of every color hung from every corner of the room. Some fell to the ground, moving to the rhythm of the dancers.
"I wonder where Yukari is," Hitomi screamed over the loud music.
"She's probably already out there looking for Amano." Millerna giggled. "Shouldn't we be looking for our princes too?"
"You go. I'll stay with Merle." Hitomi said noticing the look of discouragement on her friends face. For the last two weeks, Merle seemed to be out of energy. Hitomi knew it had something to do with Folken since she stopped mentioning him. All of her friends tried cheering her up but nothing really worked.
"I'm fine, you guys go. I'm really perfectly fine," Merle smiled.
"Arr…what pretty ladies we have here." Somebody grabbed Millerna by the waist. "Y'all will make me a great deal of gold after I sell ya," said Dryden who was dressed up as a pirate
"Dryden!" Millerna turned around to kiss him on the cheek, "how did you find us so fast?"
"It wasn't hard. I just went around grabbing all the pretty blonds until I found one that didn't scream and run away or slap me," he joked, laughing.
Millerna giggled and kissed him again, "You look great, the costume really worked out great for you."
Dryden used his free arm to lift up is eye patch. "Yeah, I'm still working on the accent thing." He looked Millerna up and down and whispered into her ear, "but you look even better than I imagined."
"Hey guys, have any of you seen Amano yet?" Yukari joined the group.
"Nope, we just got-"
"WA-HAHAHAHAHAHA," an insane laugh interrupted the conversation, making all four girl jump. "Hey guys, looking for me?" a person dressed up like the jester, took his mask off.
"Amano! You scared the hell out of me!" Yukari slapped the guy on the head.
"Well now that we're all here, I say we go dance," Millerna suggested, ignoring Amano who kept on laughing. She pulled Dryden onto the dance floor without waiting for an answer.
***
"Are you okay?" Hitomi asked Merle.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she smiled, "Why don't you go look for Van. I know you're dying to find him."
"But…what about you?"
"I have to go around asking questions and stuff for the paper. I'll be okay." She pushed her friend away. "Go."
Merle sighed in relief as she watched her friend disappear into the crowd. It was not that she didn't appreciate what they were doing but she just wanted so time alone. They always insist that she tags along whenever they had a group outing. Truth was, she never really wanted to go. She'd just be the odd ball in the group, but if she didn't go, they'd all freak out and think that she was going into depression.
Merle looked around the room and decided to go talk to the refreshment people first. It was getting hot and she could get a drink while she interviewed. The refreshment table was half way across the room. She had to cut through the dance floor to get there. It wasn't going to be an easy job considering all the couples she'd have to break up. Squeezing through the crowd of people, Merle moved slowly across the floor. She had to jump up frequently to make sure she was heading the right direction. It was one of the disadvantages of being short. The loud booming music was making her head turn, and the people jumping around wasn't helping much. Merle smiled as she looked up at the stage. They were lucky this year to have been able to get a live band. They weren't super stars but their music was good.
"Hey Merle! You look great," somebody said from behind.
Merle turned around then immediately rolled her eyes, "What are you Prince Charming?"
"Of course! Who else?" Allen answered, looking every proud of himself. He dusted his white shirt and ran his hand through his hair, "Don't you think that roll fits perfectly?"
She looked at him in disgust, "all I have to say is that it hid your real personality pretty well."
"Do you jump at everyone that tries to be nice?" he pretended to be offended.
"Only the gay ass losers," she rolled her eyes, "What do want Allen?"
"Well I saw that you are alone and I thought to myself that a beautiful girl such as yourself doesn't deserve to be alone on a night like this."
"Aww, prince charming doesn't have a date?" she mocked not bothering to hide her amusement.
"No, that's not it."
"Good bye Allen, have a nice night," Merle waved.
"No! Wait!" he begged, "Oh come on, just one dance. It's a good song." he began to dance to the music, trying to show of his moves, and not even noticing that Merle was walking away.
"Your act only works on an audience," she said not caring if he heard her or not, "and now that you don't have an audience, I say give it a break and get a life."
As she turned her attention back to her destination, Merle realized that everyone had stopped dancing and the music had died down. She followed everyone's gaze up onto the stage where the vice principal was making an announcement, "Is everyone having fun?" he screamed into the microphone. There was a total silence in the gym, and then someone coughed up 'Loser'.
"I'll take that as a yes," he put on a forced smile and gave the crowd thumbs up. "Okay," he cleared his throat and adjusted his tie, "I'll get down to the point. Tonight, we are very fortunate to have a special presentation. I'm sure most of you have heard him before. It's been a while but he's back on stage, and he's going to sing for us his most recent song." The vice principal moved to the stairs and said before leaving, "now please put you're hands together for 'Phantom of the Opera'." Half the crowd unenthusiastically clapped while the other half just stood in silence or left of the dance floor. Merle took out her notebook and smiled to herself, 'oh boy, this should be interesting.' She got out a pen from her purse and got ready to write.
On the stage, a single light went on. Beneath it was a guy dressed up as the phantom of the opera, sitting on a stool. His mask hind the top half of his face, and he held a guitar. He adjusted the strings on his guitar and the microphone. "This is the song that I recently wrote for a very special person here in the crowd tonight. I'm sorry if I hurt you and I hope this song will clear any misunderstandings," he said before beginning to sing.
"Find me here, and speak to me. I want to feel you, I need to hear you.
You are the light, that's leading me, to the place, where I find peace…again."
Merle dropped her notebook and pen onto the ground. Her mouth dropped up as she listened to every word. There was no way she could not recognize that voice; she heard in too many times in the past weeks.
"You are the strength, that keeps me walking. You are the hope, that keeps me trusting.
You are the life, to my soul. You are my purpose, you're everything."
'Is it him?' she wondered.
"And how can I stand here with you, and not be moved by you. Would you tell me how, could it be any better than this...yeah."
"Oh My God! Who's that hunk?" a girl near by squalled.
"I wish my boyfriend would write that kind of song and sing it to me." Her friend sighed dreamy, "whoever he's singing to is so lucky. She's got to be stupid not to forgive him."
"You calm the storms, and you give me rest. You hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall.
You still my heart, and you take my breath away. Would you take me in. Take me deeper, now…"
Merle blinked three times to make sure she was seeing right. It looked like he was looking straight at her. 'Could it be?'
"And how can I stand here with you, and not be moved by you. Would you tell me how, could it be any better than this.
And how can I stand here with you, and not be moved by you. Would you tell me how could it be, any better than this."
The crowd, mainly girls, started to scream and yell, but Merle stood there immobile, staring at the singer.
"Cause you're all I want. You're all I need. You're everything, everything. You're all I want. You're all I need. You're everything, everything. You're all I want. You're all I need. You're everything, everything… You're all I want… You're all I need…everything. Everything!"
Merle bit her lip as a single tear rolled down her cheeks. There was no doubt in her mind that 'Phantom of the Opera' was indeed Folken. The voice sounded exactly like him and everything about him was familiar. The way he tilted his head when he sang, the way he held his guitar, the way he sang every word like as if it came from the bottom of his heart.
"And how can I stand here with you, and not be moved by you. Would you tell me how could it be any better than this…"
Merle lowered her head as the music slowly faded. As the people all around her screamed and cheered, all she could do was stare at her feet. It wasn't because she didn't want others to see her crying but she didn't want to face Folken. She knew that if she looked at him after this, she wouldn't be able to pull away. Wiping her face clean, she pushed her hair behind her ears, picked up her things from the floor and ran out the gym.
***
"Hey." Hitomi jumped as she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Turning around, a wide smile appeared on her face as she saw Van dressed up as Aladdin. She couldn't help noticing how good he looked almost bare-chested. "Hey yourself. You look great!"
"So do you," his eyes traveled her body, "um…just one question, what are you supposed to be?"
"Long story," she waved her hand indicating that she didn't want to talk about it.
"Where are your friends? I saw you come in with them." Van asked looking around.
"Millerna, Yukari and their dates are dancing." Hitomi pointed to the dance floor, "and Merle just left to go look for someone to interview. She has to do an article for the school paper."
"Oh, so you wanna dance?"
"Um…I'm not good at it," Hitomi looked away embarrassed.
"Come on, it's no big deal." Van took her hand and led her onto the dance floor. Together, they danced through a few fast songs, enjoying the beat of the music. Just when the noise was getting a little too much for Hitomi to handle, the volume decreased and a slow song came on. At first she was a little hesitant, seeing that everyone around them had gotten into a tight embrace. Thought they have been together a lot since she finally told Allen to get a life, she was still unsure of the whole public affection thing. The truth was she didn't know if they were actually 'together'. Of course they went to places together, held hands and kissed quite a few times, but they never talked about 'where they were'.
"Are you just going to stand there and stare at other people while they dance?" Van's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"I-no," she blushed. She watched him approached her step by step; then softly take her into his arms as if she was a priceless piece of fragile figurine. Slowly, they moved to the music, enjoying the feeling of being in each other's arms. Hitomi smiled softly and leaned against his shoulder. "God this is so perfect," she whispered, "I never want it to end." She hadn't realized what she said until she felt Van's body tense. She looked up at him and saw the same look of seriousness as the night when they were talking about summer plans. "I'm sorry," she bit her lip, "I didn't mean it that way, I was just off in some-"
"It's okay…I feel the same way," he smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Before his lips touched hers, the music ended and another fast song came on. "It's a little crowded here! Do you want to go check out the decorations for the play?" Van screamed over the loud booming music. Hitomi nodded and followed him out the gym.
***
"Wow, everything sure looks great," Hitomi stared at the stage amazed. "We really did a great job."
"Yeah, we did," Van agreed, walking behind her. "I can't wait to see how the whole thing turns out."
"Oh, I forgot!" Hitomi slapped herself on the head, "After we're done all our performances…which should be Sunday night, we're all going out to celebrate." She smiled happily but Van didn't seem so excited. "I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier but it slipped my mind," she apologized.
"Did the teacher plan this or is it just a group thing?"
"Group thing."
"Then it won't be a problem if I don't come right?" he asked.
"What do you mean not come?" Hitomi demanded getting frustrated, "You're the main character! How can you not come?"
"I don't know, I probably won't have time," he answered not looking at her.
"What's wrong? Why do you always say that when I ask you a question?" she walked around to face him, "if you have to do something you can tell me. I'm not forcing you to come but at lest tell me why you can't."
"It's nothing."
"Why are you being so stubborn? I'm always apologizing for the things I say but I don't even no why I have to. There's nothing wrong about asking a friend what he's going to do over the summer!" she raised her hands in frustration.
"So I'm just a friend?" he asked looking hurt.
"Friend tells each other things but I hardly know anything about you!"
"You really want to know? You really want to know why I can't come to the celebration and why I don't know what I'm going to do over the summer?" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I'm moving."
~ Lifehouse, Everything
***Dun Dun Dun!!!*Suspense music plays* how was that for an ending? *Audience 'BOOOO's' and author ducks for cover* okay okay, it not the ending! But the next chapter will be…that is if I can fix the whole thing into one chapter. You find out why Van's moving and what the couple is going to do about it. More or else what I'M going to do about it. ^_^ and we find out have happens to Merle's and Folken's rocky relationship. The big question is: Happy ending or not? So you better not miss it! And I better start writing…~_~; please please please review!!! I'm not posting until I get 100 reviews. Haha, j/k So until next time, enjoy! ~Bishouji88***