SPOILER! THERE'S A CLIFHANGER AT THE END OF THIS LONG CHAPTER. :D And I'm so excited to write the next chapter, which will be the event mentioned in this chapter. I'm literally giggling out of fangirliness in excitement for it. It's going to be so much fun. ;D
And I'm having a contest! Tell me what you think happened at the last Coates student function and what you predict people will be wearing to the next chapter's event! (Sorry for being so vague, but I don't want to spoil this chapter by telling you what the event is.) Whoever has the best idea for the last Coates student function and whoever gets a majority of the outfit ideas correct will win my virtual love and an appearance in a future chapter of the story as an OC! (The two things will be judged separately, so there will be two winners and two new characters.)
So, read, review, predict, and get ready for the best student function Coates Academy has ever had!
A few weeks passed. I became better and better friends with Penny. Sometimes, though, when she was in a bad mood, I would get these flashes of monsters and scary things. I just shook it off and figured I wasn't getting enough sleep. My sister remained rebellious with Drake, getting in trouble for beating up kids and kissing Drake in public. Diana was best friends with my sister, so it was harder to hide my jealousy of her. And Caine…he was as charming and handsome as ever. My heart leapt whenever he looked at me. I was crushing on him, big time.
Then, one Monday morning in the dining hall, a voice came over the loudspeaker. "Good morning, students," it greeted us. "Please remember that classes will be cancelled on Halloween, and after much debate amongst the faculty, we have decided to put the events of the last student function behind us and host Coates Academy's infamous All Hallows Eve Celebration. Come in costume, and dance the night away to both festive and current music. There will be food, punch, and snacks, and a raffle. Thank you, and have a good day."
The entire dining hall immediately erupted in talk and gossip. People were glancing around for someone they could ask. I couldn't help but cross my fingers and hope that Caine would ask me. I knew it was hopeless, but I could still dream. "Sounds fun," my sister remarked. "Diana, are you going?" Diana shrugged and looked around the hall in disdain.
"Depends on who asks me," she shrugged. Caine immediately looked at her. "Don't even think about it, Caine," Diana said with a cruel laugh. "I bet you'll never get a date." Caine frowned.
"Lots of girls love me," he defended himself. Diana laughed even harder.
"Uh-huh, sure, Caine," she replied, getting up to leave, "Whatever you want to believe."
"Well, I'm definitely going, Drake grinned. "It'll be even more fun to scare kids while in a terrifying costume. Hey, Isabella, want to go to the dance with me?" My sister smiled.
"Sure, but only if I get to wear a badass costume," she agreed, and Drake half scowled, half grinned at her. "What about you, Bridget?" Isabella asked. I immediately blushed, reminding myself that no one knew about my fantasies of Caine asking me to the dance.
"Oh, I-I don't know," I answered, "I mean, if someone asks me…" I trailed off, blushing. Penny nodded in agreement with me.
"Well, then I'll just find someone to ask you out." My sister said with a smile that could have been either kind or mischievous. I smiled back gratefully, but secretly worried she'd set me up with someone totally gross, like that fat Chunk kid in my math class. "And if they don't…" She looked at Drake and they both grinned.
"Drake, I swear, if you say 'It's clobbering time' I will throw you into a wall." Caine interrupted, and Drake gave him the finger. "Hey!" Caine said in a warning tone, and raised a hand. Drake glared and got up to leave.
"Hey, Caine, want to make it any more obvious?" My sister said in a tone that said 'Shut the hell up, idiot!' Caine raised his hands in mock surrender and followed Drake out. I wondered what they were talking about. When he was gone, Isabella rolled her eyes and turned back to me.
"What happened at the last student function?" I asked Isabella, and she grinned evilly. "Well…it wasn't entirely my fault," she began, "I mean, a few other kids got in trouble too." She stopped, not really sure how to explain it without putting all of the blame on herself. Penny shook her head.
"Come on, Isabella, we all know you were the one who…" she trailed off. "Never mind. It isn't really a story to tell while eating. Especially not good for a public place." I looked at my sister incredulously. She just smiled and took a sip of water.
"It was one hell of a good time, though," she admitted, and I shook my head, not wanting to know. "Anyway, about your dates…" Penny and I looked at each other, knowing exactly who we both wanted to go with, but not about to tell her. "Ugh, the thing is, besides Drake and Caine, there are honestly no good looking guys in this entire f**king school. It's pathetic. And no, Drake is under no circumstances up for debate. He is MINE. Got it?"
"The guy's a freaking psychopath," Penny rolled her eyes. "You're the only person I know who would ever like him." My sister nodded like that was a reasonable answer, then turned back to the matter at hand.
"Oh! How about Frederico? He's okay looking, and not that much of an a**hole. You should go with him!" I rolled my eyes and shook my head, fantasizing about the boy who had just left the table.
…..
By lunchtime the next day, everyone was in an uproar about the dance. It was as if someone had flooded the entire place with radiation that stopped us all from thinking straight. Every time I saw a person of the opposite gender, I would clam up and break into a mental chorus of: Is he good looking? Will he ask me out? Would I say yes? Do I look ask-out-able? And whenever I talked to Caine, I was almost petrified.
As our little group sat at our usual table, we were talking about the dance (of course). "Okay, so how does this costume sound?" Drake asked us all and showed a crude drawing of him with a whip of some sort. It was hard to tell, seeing as it was done on a napkin. "I wanted something more unusual than the same old Halloween axe-murderer, you know?" My sister nodded, most likely imagining the different ways to kill someone with the costume. Diana did not share the same feeling.
"Yes, because we all know you like to keep your victims guessing, Drake," she said drily. "What will it be this time? A bullet, whip, axe, or chainsaw?" Caine snickered, and Drake glared at him. Diana grabbed the drawing out of my sister's hands. "What the hell, Drake? You look like Indiana Jones in five-year-old's-drawing form." Everyone but Drake laughed. He snatched back the drawing, crumpling it up and throwing it in Caine's face. Somehow, the wad of paper changed course midair and missed his head. Caine grinned.
"Seriously, Caine?" Diana said, rolling her eyes. "It's not like the world has to know."
"Know what?" I asked in confusion.
"Nothing" replied everyone at the table in unison. I frowned. I hated being kept in the dark.
"Whatever," Drake said. "Any of you losers have dates yet?" He looked at all of us. I looked at my plate, not meeting anyone's eyes. Drake grinned when none of us spoke up. "That's what I thought," he said with a superior smile that made Caine glare. "I'm out of here. See you b!tches later." He left the table, and my sister followed him. Caine looked at his food, deep in thought. I knew he was thinking about someone he could ask, but I wasn't going to kid myself and think he might ask me.
"Maybe I should ask Panda," Diana mused, assessing the lanky dark haired boy on the other side of the room. "He's pretty cute, even if he isn't exactly my type." I watched as Caine's dark eyes narrowed in jealousy. "Don't even think about it," Diana said, also noticing Caine's expression. Again, I was left feeling as if there was something going on that I didn't know about.
"Fine," Caine said flatly, "I just don't think-"
"Do me a favor, Caine," Diana practically snarled, "And shut the hell up." Caine frowned but obeyed her. I could see what Penny had said weeks earlier, about Caine doing whatever she said, completely under her spell. I felt envy rise in my chest, and tried to keep it from showing on my face. She's my sister's best friend, I thought, my sister's best friend. "You know what?" Diana suddenly announced? "I think I will." She walked over, confident as always, and Caine, Penny, and I watched as she said something to Panda. All the boys around him started hooting and pounding Panda on the back. The poor boy turned bright red and nodded, a helpless victim of peer pressure at its finest.
Still, he had done well. Now he had the hottest girl at Coates going with him to the dance. I rolled my eyes at Penny, who smiled and raised her eyebrows. Then I realized what she meant. With Diana taken, Caine had to ask someone else of he'd look like a loser. And Caine Soren does not like to look like a loser. I smiled back at Penny. We still had a chance.
On my way to class a few hours later, Caine came up to me. I assumed he was going to ask about the homework, so I tried to put the fantasy of him asking me to the dance out of my head, but I couldn't help but blush a little. He opened his mouth, and instead of asking for my homework, something entirely different came out of his mouth.
"Bridget," Caine said with an irresistible smile, "would you like to go to the dance with me?"