Okay, okay, you know the drill none of this is mine except for the plot so don't sue me for anything ok.
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Months passed and winter closed in. As Midwinter approached King Jonathan decided that the Squires deserve a treat. A ball was planned for all the Court and the Squires were expected to attend as part of their training. Kel didn't plan to go, but on the day of the ball she got two requests for a dance, Cleon of Kennan, a member of their study group and fourth year squire, and... Joren! She accepted Cleon's request and rushed to Lalasa, her maid. After Kel had explained the situation, Lalasa looked quite pleased with herself.
"What is it?" Asked Kel, "Why are you smiling like that?"
"Well it's like this miss Kel, I thought that you might be going to the ball. So I made a dress but when I asked you if you'd be going, you said no. But I thought that you would need a dress for formal situations sometime so I continued to make it and I finished it just now," explained Lalasa.
"Lalasa!" Exclaimed Kel, "you're a lifesaver," as Lalasa held up the dress, which was a pale green in a style that would let her move, yet still look graceful.
"Now miss Kel if you're to be ready in time for the ball you'd best start now," Lalasa said and gently pushed Kel into her change room to bathe and then put on the dress. When Kel had put it on and looked in the mirror she was impressed. The dress snugly fitted her tall, well-built frame and brought forth the green of her usually hazel eyes. After 20 minutes of arguing with Lalasa, Kel agreed to wearing some face paint, but only a little. The next problem posed was Kel's hair, in her year and a half as a Squire her hair had grown past her shoulders and she commonly kept it in a tail to which Lalasa said no, it just wasn't right to wear her hair in a tail to a ball of all places.
Somehow just as the bell rang to signal the beginning of supper, for the pages, and the beginning of the ball for those who were attending, Lalasa managed to finish pulling up Kel's hair. Seconds later Cleon knocked on the door, Lalasa admitted him along with several other squires, Neal, Merric, and Seaver among them. When Kel came out of the dressing room, having one last look at herself in the mirror, they all stared and Neal commented,
"We have got the right room for pre ball inspection, don't we? I mean this is Keladry of Mindelan's room, isn't it?"
"Of course it is, Neal," replied Kel,
"This damsel it seems knows my name but I don't know hers, have we met or do you know my name by reputation," Kel, suddenly very annoyed at Neal, replied,
"Of course we've met Neal." Neal's interested expression turned to one of mocking shock and then he laughed and said,
"I knew it was you all along, I just wanted to see how mad you would get." Kel muttered something that sounded quite like typical and various names of varying rudeness. They arrived at the ball soon after. Cleon asked Kel for the first dance and she accepted, wanting to get away from Merric and Seaver who had just started cracking jokes about Neal's welcome to Kel. The dance was a slow one and Cleon held Kel tightly, a bit closer than her comfort allowed, she was looking around the room when she noticed Joren staring at her, he took the hand of a pretty girl and dragged her onto the dance floor, all the time making for the area where Kel and Cleon were dancing. Soon they were beside each other and Joren cut on Cleon in leaving Kel helpless in the arms of Joren.
"You look very beautiful tonight," he murmured in her ear, just as the song finished. She returned to her seat wanting to get away from Joren. Kel sat down, waiting for this dratted ball to end. The second song ended and suddenly Neal was in front of her,
"Care to dance, pretty lady,"
"Yes, thank you, and I'll be sure to step on each and every toe for all this teasing of my appearance," she replied, quite viciously. Kel and Neal danced for quite a while, several dances in fact before he spotted one of the un-married and un-betrothed ladies who were to his liking. Kel again returned to her seat followed by a sad Neal, this lady obviously wasn't interested in a squire, albeit an old one, he sat down next to her gloomily. Owen came over soon after and asked Kel to dance.
"I know you two are close friends but, Neal, I'm not going to let you hog the best girl at this ball," Kel blushed modestly and followed Owen onto the dance floor, after one dance Kel retired from Owen's company, her toes seriously regretting her accepting his offer. As the night wore on, she danced with many of the squires from their group as well as her knight master and her brother Inness.
At 11pm when all the squires were thoroughly worn out from dancing, and chatting as they pleased, Joren came to stand in front of Kel, she didn't notice him until he cleared his throat. She had been snoozing on Cleon's shoulder for the past 20 minutes or so. He asked her to dance. She couldn't refuse so she let him lead her tired body onto the dance floor, the dance they joined was a common one and she had learnt it as a page, and being the only girl she had to dance with every boy in the class, and knew it of by heart so she put her body onto automatic and slept until she was brought back by a cool breeze on her face, she opened her eyes to find herself on a bench on one of the balconies which were situated just outside the ballroom, she looked up and found herself staring into the beautiful eyes of Joren,
"Where am I?" Kel said groggily, "Why aren't we in the ballroom?"
"You looked dead on your feet, I thought a breath of fresh air might make you better," answered Joren, "I also wanted to give you this," and with that Joren kissed Kel and walked off back into the ballroom. Kel stared into space for a minute considering what had just happened, why did he suddenly start kissing her when no one was around? She resolved to talk to Neal about it.
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