"Mom said you have to be there."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Levi said as he parked the car in front of his cousin Mikasa's middle school. He unlocked his car doors, took the keys out of the ignition, and as they got out, he slammed his door and pressed the lock button on his keys. Mikasa let out a small smirk as she watched her older cousin stuff his keys into his pocket. He was way too grumpy to be chaperoning a middle school dance.

Mikasa was dressed up as a black cat. It was something that she could easily dress up as. All she bought were the ears and the tail and she was ready to go. She even bought Levi a matching set. Being the nice family member he is, he wore it. But he didn't go so far as to put whiskers on his face. That was one thing he did not want to do.

They walked straight to the entrance of the gym, where the dance was being held. They both peeked through the man standing at the door to see how many people were there. Not many. In fact, he only saw adults there. All the kids that showed up early were waiting in line until the dance actually started. Levi checked his watch. 5:40. The dance didn't start until 6:00. But, as a chaperone, the paper said he had to be there a bit early.

Just as he and Mikasa were about to walk in, a hand stopped him. "Sorry sir, the kids can't get in until the dance starts!"

The man who stopped them was way taller than Levi was in comparison. So, he had to look up at who was talking. The guy had a brown suit on with a red tie. His hair was blond and his face was oddly square. He also wore a name tag with "Mr. Smith" written on it. Probably the principal. Levi took notice that he wasn't really wearing a costume, much like himself, but he was wearing a sailors hat. He was smiling down at them, which made Levi feel like he was being mocked for his short stature, but he decided not to make a big deal since a bunch of pre-teens were right next to them. He forced himself to smile back at the man before looking at Mikasa.

Mikasa shrugged at him, and without a word she went to the back of the line were her friends were.

"As you were, Mr. Cat! Come right in!" The Mr. Smith man said as he gestured Levi to come inside the gym. Before stepping in, Mr. Smith stuck a name tag that said "Chaperone" onto his jacket.

He took in his surroundings. All the gym light were on, which was probably for the best because there were still people running around putting decorations up. It looked like any Halloween themes Junior High dance. There were bats hanging around the ceiling, dry ice was used around the punch bowl, and decorative pumpkins and cobwebs were on the tables. Not too bad.

"Oh, great! Another adult! Over here, Kitty!" a voice said across the gym. He looked in the direction the voice came from and spotted a red headed lady wearing a track suit with a sweatband around her head. He gave a half scowl in her direction for calling him "kitty", but proceeded to go towards her anyway.

She was busy tying up little baggies full of candy when he made his way to her.

She met his eyes and gave him a big smile. "You must be another chaperone. There were so little volunteers this year, so any help is great! Thanks for being here," she told him. Her voice was high, but it sounded natural. She made his cheeks feel hot.

Maybe he should have let Mikasa paint on his face.

"Yeah, uh," he was going to say that he, in fact, didn't volunteer but he thought otherwise, "I had nothing else to do tonight." Nice one, Levi. Nice.

The smile never left her face, but it seemed to get brighter and brighter. "Wanna help me tie up the rest of the goodies?"

He didn't want to say anything stupid, so he nodded and went straight to the bags. Looking at them closely, he decided they were nice. Glittery, purple plastic bag with little candy corn decorations. The tie was plain black. Simple, but nice. He made his own face of approval to himself.

"I'm Ms. Ral, by the way. Petra if you want to call me that," she was saying as she introduced herself. "I'm the P.E. teacher here."

Levi hummed in response. Ms. Ral? So she isn't married. He thought about that a bit longer until her hand waved in front of his face. "Huh?"

"I said what's your name? Who's your kid?"

He blinked at her. "Oh, I don't have a kid. I'm single," he said without thinking. Yeah, like she wanted to know if you were available or not. "I'm here for Mikasa Ackermann. That's my younger cousin. My name is Levi," he said quickly. Maybe she didn't hear that he said he was single.

Her sweet smile turned into a smug, "Okay, Levi who is single. It's nice to meet you." Her hand extended out to him and he took it.

"Likewise," he responded. He tried to keep his face as neutral as possible while shaking her hands. They were pretty soft for a Phys Ed. Teacher. He'd imagine athletic people with rough hands, but maybe she moisturized them often. He wouldn't know, though. He wasn't athletic himself.

Petra cleared her throat and he snapped out of his thoughts once again. Her eyes drifted to their hands, still holding, still shaking, only faster than they had started.

He quickly withdrew his hand and muttered an apology, to which she replied with a little laugh.

"I have Mikasa in my class you know. She's a real fast runner," she told him.

He couldn't help but feel pride for her. "Yeah, she's atheletic."

Petra's smug look returned, "I bet you're ath—"

"The party starts in 7 minutes!"

Petra let out a playful shriek and gently nudged Levi, "We have to finishing tying these up!"

For the next 7 minutes they said nothing, only frantically trying to get the bags of candy done.

Levi tied up the last bag and they set it aside in a hiding place so the students wouldn't find it. He looked at Petra, who was wiping fake sweat from her forehead. "What a work out!"

It was his turn to purse his lips in a tiny smirk. "That was about the most exciting thing I did all day."

"I know right? I live for tying bags of candy for students. It's the only thing I look forward to every year," she joked.

"Do you dance, Mr. Ackermann?" she asked as they made their way to the food table. The adults had to hand out the food in the beginning to make sure every child ate something for free. Then everything would have to be paid for. A dollar for pizza, a dollar for soda, 50 cents for treats like marshmallow bars; the works.

"Not really," he told her. "I don't dance." His hands went up to adjust his cat ears. A bad attempt to hide his being nervous around the teacher.

"Aw, too bad," she said teasingly. "I wanted to ask you for one dance."

"Did I say I don't dance? I meant I only dance with PE teachers."