Chapter 5:

Renale's POV

Curiosity killed me throughout the day. Lumaria was a good actor when it came to pretending to date Hikari, but maybe today his acting failed on him. I haven't seen him all day, not even when I first came in he wasn't there to greet me. I asked his friend, Steffan, but he shrugged and said he hadn't seen him all morning either. As he said that, his brown pupils wandered around the hall as he tried to avoid making eye contact. I walked away and I knew he was lying through his teeth. I shrugged it off until Hikari confronted me, looking like a total mess.

After thinking through it, I have come to a conclusion. Crap, I'm turning into some kind of freak mad scientist. Anyway, my conclusion is…Lumaria broke up with her.

I was relived that she was out of his life, but now she on my case more than ever. I would dirty looks from her constantly and she shove her weight against me in the hall and cause me to drop all of my books. She's been a total bitch to me before but now it was ridiculous. After flashing me a dirty look for the 46th time during seventh period, I decided needed to talk to Lumaria.

I tossed my backpack over my shoulder and rushed out of the school. I jog down the steps, through the sea of kids, and wait at the bottom of the steps for Lumaria, or his friend at the very least. My wish was granted as Lumaria walked out and his beautiful azure orbs met my eyes. He flashed me a tiny smile and the corners of my mouth curved upward as well.

"Hey Rena, what's up?" He asked as we began walking down the sidewalk.

I snapped out of my fangirl daze and remembered what I need to talk to him about. "What happened between you and Hikari? She's been acting even more aggressive toward everyone today, especially me, and earlier today she called me a damned stealer," I explained briefly.

"I broke up with her and she slapped me. She was hoping I'd ask her to the dance, but I dumped her instead. I feel bad for it, but she was annoying," He smirked slightly. "Which reminds me…" He pulled out something from behind his back.

The next thing I knew, he got down on one knee and held out a lovely red rose. Dewdrops clung to the petals and a small card was attached to the stem with white ribbon. Lumaria smiled slightly, with a nervous tint to it. My heart skipped a beat when I read was written in cursive on the card:

Will you go to the Holiday Dance with me? –Lumaria

I placed a shaking hand over my heart and stared at him in shock. He was doing a pretty good job at trying to hide how nervous he was, but his fingers were shaking slightly. I didn't know what to say. No one has ever done something like this to me before, but then again every single person in school hated me. The biggest and probably the dumbest grin crossed my face as I took a shaky step toward Lumaria and gently took the rose from his hand.

"Yes, I'll go with you," I replied, joy spreading through my body.

Lumaria's eyes lit up before he jumped to his feet and threw his strong arms around me. I felt the wind get knocked out of me but I drew in a breath, re-filling my lungs, and hugged him back. I still held the rose in one hand as he gently kissed my forehead. We stood there for a couple minutes on the sidewalk, trapped in each other's hugs.

"I kinda overdid it, didn't it?" Lumaria broke the silence between us.

I laughed. "Yeah, just a little," I replied.

Lumaria released me from his grip and gave me a quick wave before he began jogging down the street. I winked back and literally pranced home. Me, the reject of the student body, was just asked out by Lumaria who was the lead in the school play and was one of the most popular kids in school? This had to be some twisted dream. My dad wasn't home, so I threw my backpack down on my bed and got lost in my fantasies of the night that was next week. I put the rose in a vase of water and gently placed it on my nightstand, where it would get plenty of sun. After doing this, I realized something that almost made my dream shatter into millions of pieces.

I didn't own one dress.

Lumaria's POV

Steffan was at my house that night. We did homework, like we usually did when he was over on a weekday, but silence hung over us the whole time, which wasn't normal. Every time he glanced up from his work, I could see the so-what-happened expression in his eyes behind his glasses. I decided to put it off, not really wanting to talk about it. We rehearsed our lines for the play a little bit but Steffan's curiosity got the best of him after only ten minutes of practicing.

"How'd it go with Renale? Did she slap you?" He joked. Thank god, the question wasn't about Hikari.

"She said yes!" I replied.

"Really? That's awesome, but Hikari's going to be pissed at you," Steffan pointed out. "Speaking of that, was she on your case today?" He wondered.

I leaned against my bed. "Not at all, but she was on Renale's case all day. She won't quit until I dump Renale, if Hikari can't have me, nobody can,"

Steffan put a hand under his chin and though for a couple moments. He shrugged his shoulders and sighed, obviously disappointed in his thoughts. "I don't know how to help you, dude. I've never had a girlfriend before, but all I can say is ignore her and maybe she'll leave and Renale alone,"

I nodded towards him in thanks and we went straight back to rehearsing. Memories of Hikari and I were already fading and were being replaced with thoughts of school, the upcoming play in March, and Renale.

Renale's POV

That weekend when my dad was knocked out on the couch, drunk at two in the afternoon, I snuck out. I ran through town to the gardens, where I knew I would find Arina. I found her there talking with the same guy that had black hair from a little while ago, Braig I think. This time he had an eye patch and part of his right cheek was covered in bandages. Arina looked as bored as hell as her green pupils gazed around. Her eyes met mine as she gave a quick wave to me. Braig looked up and rested a hand on his hip.

"Hi Renale, you look excited. Was your dad actually nice for once?" She joked.

"No…" I replied breathlessly. "A boy…named Lumaria…asked me…to the…dance…next week…" I explained in between breaths.

Arina's eyes lit up. "A boy asked you out? You're already doing better than me; nobody wanted the freak to be their date when I was in high school," She replied.

"And nobody wanted to date the super-genius in high school, so it's perfect. Even and Arina, freak and genius dating," Braig commented.

Arina groaned with annoyance. "For the last time, Even and I ARE NOT DATING!" She yelled.

Braig held up his hands defensively. "I was only making a comment, even Ienzo thinks you're going out," He smirked.

"You just enjoy corrupting the kid, don't you?" Arina replied, crossing her arms.

"Well, I'll leave you two to have your 'girl talk' I gotta get going," Braig made quotation marks with his fingers before he walked away.

Arina rolled her eyes before she turned toward me again. "So, this Lumaria guy asked you out? Is he handsome? Is he nice?" She bombarded me with questions about my new boyfriend.

"He truly is handsome and he gave me a rose when he asked me out!" I was in a dream as I remembered the moments in my life. I shook my head as I remembered why I came here in the first place. "But the only problem is…I don't own a single dress or a piece of nice clothing,"

"Don't you go anywhere nice once in a while?" Arina raised an eyebrow.

"The only nice place my dad goes to is a bar," I muttered under my breath. "Can you help me pick out a dress?" I asked, sounding like a three-year-old.

Arina smiled a bit. "Defiantly, this could be fun actually…"

Later, Arina and I were walking down the sidewalk in downtown Radiant Garden. I had grabbed my purse on the way out of my house before, but Arina insisted that she would pay. I felt a little comforted but I was nervous too. I haven't worn a dress since my mom's funeral, and I had grown a lot since. We passed various shops and boutiques lining the sidewalk, and Arina ignored most of them. The majority of them were designer dress shops with dresses 300$ a piece. She led me to a small, but bright, shop next to the flower shop and took me inside.

The interior was much bigger than the exterior. The store was packed with racks overflowing with dress clothes and dresses EVERYWHERE. On the other side of the shop were racks lined neatly with shoes and every type of jewelry imaginable. I prayed she wasn't going to make me wear heels. She spun a rack around as her eyes scanned the dresses everywhere.

"Any preferences?" She asked as she examined an orange mermaid-style dress.

"I don't know, I haven't worn a dress in years. But I don't like the color orange just to tell you," I replied, making her put the dress back. "I don't even know if I'll look good in one,'

Arina gave me a confused/shocked look. "You're going to look great in one! You got a cute body and some nice curves there! If I look good in one, then you will look good in one!" She exclaimed. "Plus this shop has a lot of cute dresses that are pretty cheap too. I got the dress I wore for my cousin's wedding here a few weeks ago,"

"I don't like the really short dresses or strapless one, only because I'm afraid it'll fall down," I told her as she continued to go through dresses, finally answering her question.

"I learned that the hard way. I wore a strapless teal dress to my other cousin's sweet sixteen and it fell down in front of everyone, that was the most embarrassing moment of my life," She picked up a dressed and held onto it.

I gazed around with her and picked up a golden dress with rhinestones decorating the halter straps. Arina stared at white dress with a black strap around the bust line for a while before she shook her head. I had gotten a few dresses myself, but she was the expert, not me. Some of these dresses would fit her really well; she had a similar body build to me and had short, layered auburn hair and green eyes. Arina picked out a purple gown before she led me into the dressing rooms, thank god were the only ones there.

"Is this the part where I try on all of the different dresses that'll take about an hour?" I joked as Arina and I set down the dresses we picked out.

"Yes, take a couple dresses in the changing room with you and show them to me when you're done changing into them," She introduced.

The first dress I tried on was a long purple gown with light purple straps. Arina looked at me from head to toe and shook her head. The next dress was a black spaghetti strap dress with layers of bunched-up white fabric underneath the black skirt. I kinda liked it, but it made my butt look fat. The next one had a dark green bodice and a silver jewel in the center and the skirt had layers of white fabric flowing down to the floor (Author: This dress is actually based off my ballet costume from a dance recital I was in). Arina made a so-so motion with her hand, so I gave it to her to hang onto.

Dress after dress, rejection after rejection, I was getting exhausted. Who knew trying on a bunch of dresses was so tiring! Now, I wanted to find the perfect dress that I could impress Lumaria in, and fast because I was getting impatient. After I ran out of dresses to try, much to my relief, I poked my head out of the changing stall.

"Was there any dress that stood out at all?" I asked Arina.

"Some had really weird backs, one was too short, and another had a color that look REALLY bad on you…" She thought to herself as she mumbled under her breath. Her pale green eyes grew wide as she rushed out of the changing room.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. How could she ditch me at a time like this? I began to put my regular clothes back on, when she came running back. She handed me a dress, much to my displeasure, and told me to try it on. I carefully slipped it on and stepped out to let Arina see. Her eyes lit up and a smile crossed her face.

"Oh my god, that looks AMAZING on you!" She exclaimed, sounding more like a teenager than a twenty-three-year-old as she steered me toward the mirror.

My jaw dropped at the sight of myself. It was a simple spaghetti-strap black dress that ended a little above my knee and had a white ribbon tied around the bust line and white rimming the bottom. The tiny sparkles on the dress shimmered, even in the cheap lighting of the dressing room. Arina also picked up a satin three-quarter-length shrug and slid it over my shoulders. I turned and posed in the mirror, admiring my look.

"Whoa, I think I found my dress," I smiled to myself as Arina and I high-fived.

I quickly changed back into my regular clothes and we purchased the dress. Arina and I strode back as the sun began to set. I held the bag that contained my new dress and shrug at my side and I only could smile to myself. I just need to put up with Hikari for the nest week and then Lumaria and I will go to the dance together. As excited as I was, I had an uneasy feeling inside about going. I tried to shake it off, but I couldn't. Hikari kept flashing through my mind, making me beginning to doubt weather, I should go or not…

Author: Thank you SOO much to Euregatto for giving me an idea! I know what will happened later on, but I just need an idea for what should happen next. This has come so far from just a little idea that came to my head in the middle of math! I was origianlly going to make it a one-shot but now I'm glad I didn't.

Oh, and I'll be going away from the summer from June 29 to August 16 and I won't have acess to fanfiction. So if I don't update before that date, then I'll just be away for the summer. Hope you enjoyed!

~yukihikari99

PS You can check out the dress on my profile!