Strange chapter title? Well, I couldn't help it. Somebody used this in their review and it amused me so much I'm using it here. Fanfic, unfortunately, will not allow me to use symbols in my title so I had to spell it all out. Oh sorrow.

The day had started normally. He woke up, changed out of his nightclothes and ate a lovely breakfast courtesy of his wife. And then he saw it.

It was a dark, ugly mark on the calendar. A heart. He groaned when he realized what it meant.

"Cecilia, do you know what day it is?"

She blinked. "You're not about to panic, are you?"

"It's the dance festival. What is this? Kids dancing close with each other…don't they know what that leads to? I can tell you what it leads to! Stuff it shouldn't lead to! There the kids are, dancing close, and they get funny ideas in their heads. What if Aria…nope, not going to happen."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't spoil this day for Aria, Kyle. We got into our fair share of trouble ourselves when we were young. Don't you remember our first dance?"

"Yes, actually, and I know exactly where it led: Aria."

Cecilia would have replied if Aria hadn't stumbled downstairs, yawning.

"'Morning!" She said, cheerfully.

Nobody said anything as Aria looked slowly over to the wall, noticed the calendar and was immediately reminded of what specific and very special day it was.

"It's the dance festival!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down. "It's going to be so fun! Especially since I'm actually going to participate this year."

She turned to them humming softly and looking starry-eyed.

Kyle's expression was so complicated it can barely be described: one part irritation at the festival, one part murder for the boys, and one part protective for his poor little girl.

"Why would you want to go to the dance festival?" he said. "Trust me. It's not that great. Besides, who said you could go?"

"Um, mom did."

Cecilia smiled sweetly. "Yes, I did say she could go. Is there a problem with that, Kyle, dear?"

"But, you're just a little girl! You're barely fifteen!"

"And I'm not really a child anymore, dad."

"But you're my little girl!"

"Well…yeah, that doesn't change." She looked sheepish. "But maybe I want a boyfriend…you know."

"But—but boys are perverse and evil creatures when it comes to innocent little girls!"

"And that's okay!" Aria said, rather loudly. "I like perversity."

"Whaaat?!"

"Honey, she's joking," said Cecilia.

Aria face broke into a grin. "Sorry, daddy."

"Who are you going with!?"

"Orland."

Kyle nearly had a heart attack.

"If she wants to go, she can go," Cecilia said. "Now run along, dear, before your father gets over his shellshock and starts thinking coherently again."

Aria scampered off through the front door, leaving it to slam behind her.

The racket snapped Kyle out of his shock. "Ceci, where's my hammer?"

"Kyle, NO, you are not killing anyone."

"Fine. Where's that scythe?"

She buried her face in her hands just as there was a light knock on the door. It snapped Kyle's attention.

He opened the door and immediately went tense.

There was Orland, trying to look uninterested and disaffected, yet peering around Kyle into the kitchen.

"Is Aria here?" He said.

Kyle looked back at Cecilia, as if begging her for help.

Taking the cue, she edged herself in front of Kyle and put on a sunny smile. "Why, Orland, hi! How's your father?"

"Fine."

"Aria just left."

"Oh. Thanks. Not that it really matters that much."

"You're welcome."

He sort of skulked off, before turning back around. "Um, do you know where she's gone? I mean, I don't really need to see her or anything…I'm just curious."

"Hm. No. I don't know where that girl goes half the time…" Cecilia said.

Orland sort of kicked his feet and walked away, looking a bit more glum than usual.

He went to the park, which was where the kids usually hung out on off-days (the older people in the town always referred to it as that "damn sinful teenage hangout-thing where everything that's wrong with the world thrives").

Near the fountain was a pack of girls giggling horribly. It always meant trouble. A giggling girl was like a roaring lion: dangerous and probably means they're about to eat you.

In one corner were the boys, looking timid and scared, shuffling their feet.

"Hi, Orland," Roy said.

"What's going on?" Orland asked.

"Um…the girl's are doing something evil," Leonel said, bringing the brim of his hat over his eyes.

"We think they're trying to summon a demon or something! Wouldn't that be neat?" Roy was trying to get the best look he could of the group of girls without actually getting closer.

"You can't summon demons. It's a known fact," Orland said, his voice a bit too sharp. What morons…

"Yeah, tell them that!" Leonel said. "Look, they have these weird instruments and tools and stuff. Some of it looks really sharp and threatening…"

This intrigued Orland. "All right. I suppose I should go see…not that I care. Just to satisfy my intellectual curiosity."

"He's probably just going to ogle the girls," Roy said.

"Am not!" Orland said. "I could care less if the girls were there or not! I just want to see how dangerous those objects really are. My interest is intellectual."

"So you're going to intellectually ogle, girls?" Roy laughed.

Orland grimaced and stomped away, right to the group of girls.

All at once as if on a hive mind, the girls looked up, eyeing him.

"Go away, Orland! We're still working here!" Cammy said.

"On what?" was his reply.

"On horrible stuff that'll rot your eyes out if you see, that's what."

Being a teenage boy, horrible stuff that would rot his eye balls out intrigued him greatly.

"Let me see then," Orland said. "I've got an extra eye to spare."

"Should we show him, girls!?" Cammy said loudly.

There were several high-pitched squees of approval.

As all the girls parted, what Orland saw nearly made his eyeballs jump for cover. There was Aria, but a different Aria, like an Aria from a different dimension.

She wore a long dress, her hair twisted in knots and adorned with flowers and jewels only Leann could afford (and Leann was standing beside her holding a wicked looking instrument known as an eyelash curler, but Orland didn't notice her). Make-up was slathered across her face. That wasn't all. There were other things awry about her.

Something was different in her chest-region, actually. Something he had never really noticed before until now when she was wearing this low top.

Before he knew it, he was staring. And then he pointed right at her chest. "What are those things?"

"Hm? Like them? They're new!" She giggled, blushing insanely. The girls followed suit and only Leann had the decency to look offended at Orland's behavior.

"And what am I suppose to say to that?" He had the feeling he had just stepped into a minefield on the level of "does this shirt/dress/female garment make me look fat?"

"I'm going to seduce you with them!" Her voice was so cheerful and innocent, he half-wondered if she knew what she was saying. The other half was not wondering about that…at all.

"If you think you're going to use your newly-discovered assets to seduce me, you're sadly mistaken," he said, sticking his nose in the air and trying to look as nonchalant as he possibly could.

"Orland, you're implying I would have to work that hard. All I'd have to do is snap a finger and you'll be there!"

"Not true!"

"Is too." She stuck out her tongue and snapped her finger. "See, you're here!"

"What! That doesn't—"

She snapped her finger again. "Haha! You're here again!"

"That's cheating!"

Third time, she snapped her finger. "Wow! You're here again."

Orland's face turned red from a mixture of embarrassment and agitation. "Dammit." And he walked away, not wanting to prove her right a fourth time.

And the girls giggled in triumph.

"Man, what was that?" Roy said as Orland walked by. "They ate you alive. All you needed to do was hand them salt and they're set."

"Well, he got further than we did," Leonel said. "I'm still kinda sort of debating on whether I should talk to Leann. She's so pretty. I don't know…she'd just say no…"

"Yeah. It would be nice if girls couldn't say no. Like, all you'd have to do is say 'Hi!' and they're yours. Because rejection sucks…." Roy mused.

"Have fun with that. I'm going to find better things to do with my time than—" But before Orland could finish, Roy, his eyes wide, pointed at the horrible mob of giggle-monsters. Apparently, Roy had just caught site of the newly-made over Aria for the first time. How a girl usually so tomboyish became so girly-looking was beyond anyone to know.

"Oh my god! Aria's a girl!" he screamed.

Orland nearly fell over. "I know. It was a little shocking to me, too."

"Where did those things come from?!"

"She said she grew them."

"Like cabbage?" piped Leonel.

"I don't want to know," Orland groaned.

"I never knew she was pretty…" Roy said. "Why is she so pretty now?"

"Could it be the layer of make-up?" Orland said.

"No, I don't know what it is. It's just something. You know, maybe I should talk to her."

For some reason, the way Roy was talking about Aria bothered Orland to no end. He could just see that jerk go up to Aria and ask her out and she would say yes and—and then she'd never talk to him again. Because deep down he knew she would like Roy more than him…Roy liked talking, for one. Roy liked people and could be around them for more than five minutes without thinking they were idiots. Mostly because Roy himself was an idiot (well, he wasn't really even if he skipped out on homework and work in general. Orland just considered everyone stupid). But Orland liked talking to her…he'd do anything to keep talking to her.

So, without thinking, he braved the distance to Aria, braved the mocking laughter of the girls, and said, "It's the dance festival and I don't really care if you say yes or no. But you might as well dance with me."

Aria knew that was the closest he'd come to begging her. So, her face so red and her smile so wide, she said, "I thought you'd never ask."

The girls all laughed.

"That's so cuuute!" Cammy said. "You've melted the ice prince's heart!"

"Did not. I just don't have anything else to do, okay? And dancing with Aria just might be a tiny bit better than nothing. Just a bit." He bent his face forward, however, to hide his reddening cheeks.

As Aria took his hand, they stepped in front of the fountain, and were about to step into a dance when…

The very ground began to shake.

"What's going—" He heard Aria's voice yell, but she was drowned out.

From behind them came a booming voice, "THAT'S MY DAUGHTER"

"Errr…" was all Orland could say as he scrambled off the ground.

"THIS IS THE RAGE OF A FATHER"

"Uhhh"

"STAY AWAY FROM HER"

"…."

And then the force of nature walked away.

"Daaaaaad," Aria screamed, chasing after him. "How could you do this to me!? I'm telling mom!"

Orland stood where he was, stiff.

Douglass walked by. "Hey, what'd you know? I passed on the torch."

What Douglass didn't mention, but Orland knew, was that the torch was the red-hot torch of father rage.

"Dammit," Orland said under his breath and headed home.

XXX

Yay! Kyle's psychotic! Aria seduces Orland …and the boys really need to find a hobby besides mooning after girls. This chapter is probably the epitome of a fun little drabble written for no reason. Well, other than the fact I have no life and love writing this stuff.