Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Pokémon, or Pokémon Special. If I did, OldRivalShipping would be so canon it couldn't possibly be even more canon. The end.
- - x x x x x - -
"So…this bit on the history of the Hoenn region…"
Once again, I wondered what I had possibly done to deserve this. Just why had I deigned to tutor her? It wasn't as though I actually enjoyed having to explain things to people. The fact that she was infuriatingly prone to repeating what I had attempted to drill into her head just moments before made matters even worse. Hearing my own answers parroted back at you was one of the most annoying things I had ever experienced, and, sadly, it was becoming much of a trend in my life, much like how I came to find myself surrounded by an increasingly worrying degree of obnoxiousness.
After yet another ridiculous and nonsensical question, I decided I had had enough. "Blue, for goodness sake," I snapped with no small degree of utmost exasperation, "if you don't wrap your head around this concept by the next few weeks, you're going to fail the exams, and all this would have been a waste of time and effort. Do you honestly want that?"
In response to that, she pouted at me, affixing a pleading look upon her face. "Don't say that, that's just mean!" the girl gasped in a combination of mock hurt and indignation, looking scandalised. "Why're you always so ungracious?"
I refrained from rolling my eyes with great difficulty. "I'm not ungracious if I'm still teaching you," I informed her; seeing as eyes widen with pretended outrage, I hastily cut in before she could launch into yet another tirade on how damned mean and ungraciously horrible I was. "I can't say you're a bad student," I growled under my breath, "but would it kill you to be able to remember important dates and discoveries, as opposed to trivial tidbits of information I did not ask for?"
Lamentably, after being forced to give her my Pokégear number as well as e-mail address, she had come to contact me with increasingly unnerving regularity, for the most trivial and mind-numbingly mundane of matters. I had foolishly, perhaps, presumed at first it was because she was sincerely concerned with her grades, and was actually keen on not flunking the year and scraping through with a mediocre pass. Not that I had much knowledge of what her grades were like, but if her performance in these tutoring sessions were anything to go by, she still had a long way to go. Sometimes, I wondered. I really did. Such obfuscating, deliberate silliness just had to be an act. There was absolutely no way anybody could be as ridiculously inane.
"Trivial? Since when were people's social lives trivial? People's hearts are fragile things, and they need to be handled with care! I'm sure you would agree if you've ever had your feelings trampled on before! Which I don't doubt, mind you, because despite the fact that I'm sure you're quite the ladies' man, you're only human, and all people will experience that at some point in their—"
I ground my teeth, once again refraining from slapping myself out of sheer force of will. "They have absolutely no importance with your academics! And if I recall correctly, the only reason we're still here is because you're convinced you need help with passing some classes. Isn't that right?" Ladies' man? Where in the world had she gotten that from? I wisely decided to ignore that second bit. The very notion, it was just preposterous.
She frowned at me. "Well, yes, but—"
"But nothing. Right, well, you know what? Desperate times call for desperate measures." I set the book down to appraise her; she tilted her head to the side, looking genuinely curious.
"What do you mean?" Really, if I didn't know better, I could have sworn she had the oddest and most unfitting of grins on her face; however, when I blinked, the strangely victorious smile was gone, and I began to wonder if I was imagining things. Late-night revision sessions, conducted via text messaging – I also regretted the fact that she had somehow found my actual phone number, since this effectively meant I had no peace whatsoever now – had become commonplace, and, with the exams just around the corner, I honestly had no idea how she was going to be able to pass the year. Just last night, at about three in the morning, I had been rudely awoken by a text from none other than this most peculiarly obnoxious girl in front of me, bearing the most cryptic of messages.
"I hope you're ready. For everything. (: xx Blue."
What on earth could that possibly mean? It made me want to tear my hair out with frustration. I refocused my attention upon her, still rather unnerved by her smug smile. "As if you don't know."
"Oooh, I'm inflamed by curiosity now. What desperate measures will you be resorting to, pray tell? No need to be coy about it, such an act will never work on me," she added with a knowing smirk. I felt my eye twitch. "I would know, of all people. Won't you agree?"
"Whatever it is you're doing, stop it. You're the most annoying and bothersome person I've ever had the misfortune to meet." I ran a hand through my hair, wondering if I really ought to say what was on my mind. It seemed like the only thing that could goad her into productivity, seeing as how that damned dance was the only thing she ever talked about, apart from who was going with whom, and who was planning on wearing what. "…I'll…"
"You'll what?" she taunted gleefully, pleased that she had managed to get under my skin to such a degree. I, for one, couldn't believe she could do it so easily, and stayed silent. "Come on, say it, you have me on tenterhooks."
"Oh, shut up," I fumed.
"Green, honey, has anyone ever told you you're absolutely adorable when you're angry?" She giggled with utmost amusement as I stopped mid-rant, to stare at her, completely and utterly aghast.
"A-adorable?" I echoed faintly, not believing I had even heard my name and that…that word in the same sentence. "Would you…care to repeat that?"
"I wouldn't mind, actually. Here, once again, for your ears only: you sound utterly delectable when you're furious."
"…gack." Whilst I prided myself on my – on the most part – inestimable calm and composure, this was something I had never, ever had to hear before. "Are you flirting with me?" I demanded, though I immediately regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth; I could not believe I, of all people, said that. This was horrendous. What was the obnoxious woman doing to me?
"Hmm…well, if you look at it that way…" She suddenly closed the gap between us, and we were now face-to-face, her eyes boring into mine. Being subject to her scrutiny was a highly discomfiting experience, to say the least.
"Annoying woman. Don't you dare play around with me. I'm not one of your toys."
"Of course you're not. You're much more than that, uhohoho…"
"Cheh. Now you really leave me with no choice. But then and again, seeing as how something like that will probably never happen, I'm perfectly sure I have nothing to fear."
"Oh? Now I'm really intrigued," she purred, drawing up even closer against me. "Tell me more."
Good grief. How had we gone from discussing Hoenn's history to…to this? It just beggared belief. I attempted to backpedal slightly, to claw back some of the personal space I had lost. In response, she merely leaned in closer, still wearing that insouciant, self-satisfied smile. If I bent any further backwards, I would be doing yoga. In the middle of the playing field. Surrounded by books.
"I have a preposition to make."
"Well, then, cut to the chase. You really know how to play hard-to-get, don't you?" I swear, the more time I spent with her, the more audacious she got. It was almost as though instead of researching subject matter that came up in projects and assignments, she spent her time looking up methods to irritate me even further, and sad to say, it worked extremely well. I preferred it when she hadn't bothered me much during those honeymoon weeks just after my transfer, though now, such peace was but a wistful dream for me.
"Okay, no, really, hear me out. In the highly unlikely event that you manage to actually pass the exam—"
"Oh ho ho, is this a direct challenge?" We were now practically nose-to-nose, so disturbingly close as we were; I felt my shoulders beginning to ache from attempting to support me in such an uncomfortable position; the fact that she was still smiling didn't help in the slightest.
"Keep quiet and let me continue, you loud, pesky woman. As I was saying, in the unlikely event that you not only manage to pass the exam, but also be one of the top students for each subject, I'll…ugh. Let's just say this: hard work reaps its own rewards."
"Oooh, like what? Though, hmm, your criteria sound impossibly hard to fulfil. You're a really tough taskmaster, do you know that? But I like it that way. It makes the reward all the sweeter." My elbows decided to give way right then, and I found myself plummeting ungraciously to earth, landing on the soft grass with a gentle thump.
"Ngh." I attempted to scramble back upright, only to be forced back down as she grinned, leaning dangerously low over me; I fought back an indignant cough with difficulty. For a few moments, I stared up at her, feeling slightly bemused; this was the first time I ever had to look up to Blue, of all people, and it was, to be honest, an extremely odd perspective.
Due to the fact that her hands were planted on the ground either side of me, there was no way I could have rolled or wriggled away from her scrutiny. Blast it. To make things worse, I needed to sneeze; her long hair was tickling my nose. In some vague, detached part of my mind, I wondered what this scene looked like to an outsider, a casual onlooker; just attempting to conjure up such an awkward mental image was more than sufficient for me to stop.
"What do you think you're doing? Get off!"
Blue ignored me. "So, what do I get if I manage to fulfil all of the aforementioned criteria?" she breathed, eyes narrowing slightly. "Remember that conversation we had a few weeks ago in front of my house? About not underestimating me?"
I stopped and glared at her. "Yeah. I do. What about it?"
"Do you honestly believe I can't achieve that?" Her tone was serious now, though that sly, secretive smirk was still playing across her lips.
"You haven't done a very good job of proving yourself. Therefore, I have every right to be sceptical."
"Well, then, we'll see, won't we? So, what's this little preposition you have to make? Will it be worth my while? Hohohoho…knowing you, it probably will be."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded, though predictably enough, she gave me no answer. By this point, I was well and truly sick of lying here and having my psychological buttons pushed. If she didn't let me up in the immediate future, I would have to resort to her technique…though the prospect of doing that didn't appeal to me in the slightest.
She shrugged, still looking annoyingly smug. "You tell me."
"If this serves as any motivation for you, I'll…I'll…" Damn. I couldn't say this. It was like admitting defeat to peer pressure and all that. It was embarrassing to even think about what I had in mind. How could I even be considering this? It only went to show how annoying she was.
"You'll stutter at me?" she chortled, biting back a hysterical burst of laughter; pulling away from our highly uncomfortable physical proximity, she sat back on my damned knees, dissolving into a fit of giggles. "Oh, wow, that's really frightening."
I scowled at her, attempting to lever myself up to a more comfortable half-sitting position, though my efforts were thwarted only somewhat by the fact that she was still sitting on my legs. "Oi. Get off."
She finally deigned to let me go, still wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "I can't believe this."
I watched as she flopped down and rolled over in the grass, chuckling in that infuriating manner of hers. "This is just rich. The great Green Oak, stammering like a shy, lovestruck boy. It's sweet, and I haven't seen it directed towards me for a while…or from you, for that matter. Well, you know what they say. There's a first for everything."
"I am not a shy, lovestruck boy," I positively hissed in response, clenching my fists. She rolled over again to affix me with an upside-down look of utmost amusement.
"Sure you aren't."
Time to bite the bullet. I had to remind myself the chances of this happening were slim, so I might as well take the risk. "I'll take you to that accursed…dance if you pass the exams and be one of the top students for your subjects. No, wait. Not just one of the top students. In the top five. How's that for incentive?"
Well, that sure wiped the smile from her face. For several moments, I finally got what I was craving so badly – peace and quiet. A welcome silence rushed in to fill the gap left by her absurdly distracting giggling, as she stared up at me with utmost shock. Here and now, she looked almost fetching, with her long, auburn locks standing out in stark contrast against the bright green of the grass upon which she lay. A slow smile spread across her face, blue eyes aglow with the glint of disbelief. May thunder strike me down for saying so, but…she looked almost…appealing from this angle, especially given that she had been momentarily stunned into silence. It was almost worth the sacrifice.
"You're kidding."
I frowned at her. "Do you think I'd joke about something like this? And even voluntarily attend that blasted function? Remember, I do everything for a reason. Everything."
A slight frown creased her brow. "No…you're right. Oh my goodness, you're right."
I watched as she sat up, tossing her head and sending strands of cinnamon-brown flying from her face; running her hands through her hair, she grinned impishly across at me. "My, my. I'm very flattered. You're taking this very seriously, aren't you?"
"What do you think?" I replied through gritted teeth, "I'm doing this for fun?"
"Well, I don't know. You tell me. I know I am."
"What was that?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just thinking out loud."
I shot her a sidelong glance. "Something tells me you're deliberately withholding information from me," I informed her as bluntly as I could; she merely waggled a finger at me, a slight smirk on her lips.
"Oh? And whyever so?"
"You know why."
"Ooh…um…" She batted her eyelashes innocently at me. "Gee, this is awfully hard. I'm sure you have the answer, though."
"No, I don't, actually. Care to enlighten me?"
"Ah, well, all will be revealed in due course, Green."
"Tch."
Leaning back against the tree, she surveyed me with the air of a fascinated child appraising a Pokémon it had never seen before; it went without saying I did not quite enjoy this kind of treatment. "What now?"
"We-ell," she began, thoughtfully tapping her chin with a long-nailed finger, "I was thinking. You seemed awfully averse to the very prospect of attending the ball—"
"For perfectly good reason," I finished for her. "Case closed. End of story. Next question."
"—but now that you've made me this preposition, I want to be sure you'll not break your promise."
"Promise? I made no promise. It was an offer. And it's only a promise if you uphold your side of the bargain."
"Ah, yes, the little issue of my grades."
"Right you are. Keep going." It felt distinctly harsh to be so sardonic and sarcastic towards her, though it was quite difficult not to be, in the face of such idiosyncratic musings.
"Well, all right. So, I'll keep my side of the bargain, if you keep yours. Sounds fair?"
"…yes." I wondered where this was heading towards.
"Good! We'll seal the deal." She clapped her hands together with glee, a distinctly businesslike tone in her voice; discomfited, I gaped at her.
"With what?" What was this business of sealing deals? Couldn't she just take my word for it? I hated the prospect of attending a function like that, where I was going to be made to dress up in a suit and dance with some girl and pretend to enjoy ghastly canapés. However, that didn't mean I would do anything in my power to back out of it if I had already had an agreement with someone.
"A kiss." It seemed as though she were holding her face straight with great difficulty, and I resisted the urge to grab her by the shoulders and give her a firm shake.
"What? What did you say? Are. You. Serious?"
She pouted at me in what she evidently thought was a charming and winsome manner; I felt some of my irritation momentarily fade away, only to flare back at her words. "Of course. Haven't you heard of the phrase? Sealed with a kiss?"
"No!" I glared at her. "And why would I kiss a total stranger? I'm not another one of your lovestruck little stalkers, thanks."
The girl gasped at that, looking genuinely injured. "A total stranger? We've known each other since you transferred here! And you've been tutoring me for the past month! I wouldn't call us total strangers!"
"That's beside the point."
"Well, at any rate, I want to be sure you won't bail out on me. Imagine, if I managed to ace the exams and top the year, all for nothing! How awful." Blue shuddered a bit at that, and I felt my brows knit with exasperation.
"It's not for nothing. You would be well-equipped for university, and what's more, stand a chance at graduating high school!"
"But I need motivation!"
It was like arguing with a child.
"You're impossible."
"Come on, now's the perfect time. The athletics people are too far away to see what we're doing, and if you want, you can put a book in front of our faces or something, and make it look like you're explaining some obscure little detail in the text to me! I mean, if I keep reminding you about our deal, you'll get even more annoyed, am I right?"
I gaped at her. "You had this all figured out, didn't you? Not only are you obnoxious, irritating and annoying, but you're a regular minx as well. Whatever next?"
"Ohohoho…you flatter me. Now, chop-chop! I suppose I can cut you some slack for now, though. It doesn't have to be on the lips."
For now? What could she possibly mean by that? And why was I the one doing the kissing, when she was the one who insisted on it?
"Ngh." With great reluctance, I selected the biggest, thickest textbook I owned – on history, predictably enough – and held it in front of my face. "Come closer," I hissed at her through clenched teeth. "I don't have a Girafarig's neck."
Once again, she drew closer to me, eyes glinting with mischief. "Anywhere you like," she cooed, and I scowled at her; she merely laughed at my expression. I watched as she closed her eyes, lips curving upwards in a smile filled with devious anticipation.
This was still humiliating, even if it wasn't on the lips. Why was I allowing myself to be prodded and poked by this girl, of all people? However, I already knew the answer: I would get no peace unless I kissed her and sealed the deal, so to speak.
Ensuring that our features were completely and utterly obscured by the tremendous tome, I leaned forwards, gingerly planting a kiss on her cheek. Her skin was smooth and warm to the touch, and as I pulled away, I felt a wide grin spread itself across her face. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"
"Shut up," I warned her. "There's only so far you can push me in one day, and you've just reached that limit." Retreating to a more comfortable distance, I stuffed the book into my bag, determined not to look at her. "I'm telling you now, this will never happen again. Repeat this to anyone, and you can consider our deal null and void."
She grinned at me. "My lips are sealed."
"They had better be."
- - x x x x x - -
"What do you mean, dance lessons? Aren't we supposed to have more important things to worry about? Like revision? Seeing as how the exams are less than two months away?" I snarled, grabbing a protesting Red by the collar and shaking him. "Don't fool around—"
A group of juniors passing by stopped to give us curious stares, only ambling on when I glared at them. Wait until they get to this year, and have to cope with the likes of, well, obnoxious women.
"Hey, d'you think I'd joke about something like this?" he objected, attempting to extricate his shirt from my grip. "Besides, I find it every bit as awkward as you do. Or will. Whatever floats your boat."
"Nobody finds it as awkward as I do—"
"Also, the ball's one week after the exams, and it won't do to have bad dancers like me out loose and stepping on feet left, right and centre, yeah? And this is meant to be a bit of a reprieve from all that cram-studying we've been doing. A chance to have a little bit of fun before all the pressure, so to speak."
"—I don't even like dancing. I'm not even going to the stupid function."
For a moment, Red stopped trying to prise his shirt-collar from my fingers. "Really? But…urrr…somebody told me otherwise."
"Oh yeah? Who was tha—no. She told you, didn't she? Noisy woman."
"What? No! Not the she you're talking or thinking about! I mean, ah, um…y'know…Yellow." He looked rather sheepish as he said her name, absently raising a hand to run his fingers through his dark hair.
It was my turn to be surprised. "And how does she know?" I demanded, allowing my grip to slacken; Red straightened his jacket, taking his time to speak.
"Ah, well, you know girls. They talk to each other. Tell one another things."
"You don't say."
"Speaking of which. I also heard there's no way you can bail out of this. Some kind of pact you made?"
How did he even know so much? It had to be Blue. Stupid girl and telling her exes everything. "Not exactly. Once again, I'd like to ask: how do you know all this? And did you find out how exactly I was coerced into agreement?"
"Naw. Yellow only mentioned you were going, and you had made some sort of agreement with Blue. That's all we know. Hey, don't pull faces like that. I'm sure she'll be great fun to go with. Heck, going out with her was more like being, I don't know, just…friends. Or something like that."
"I see."
"But still! Dance lessons. Why do we even need them? It's not like we'll be doing all that much waltzing, anyways…right?"
"I wish. Don't you remember last time? I was up for almost the whole four hours because she kept wanting to dance!"
"Oh yeah, I do, actually…hey, but it was an experience, right?"
I could only snort disbelievingly in response.
- - x x x x x - -
"Ah, c'est fantastique, everyone is here today!" She strode into the gymnasium, looking as though she owned the place; immaculately dressed and coiffed as always, Fantina stopped to beam at us. Upon sighting my less-than-impressed look, she tutted disparagingly, waggling a finger at me. "You there, why looking so glum? This is a wonderful opportunity to hone your skills at the art of dancing!"
"Yeah, Green, why so serious?" Blue murmured, appearing seemingly from nowhere to slip her hand through my resolutely crossed arms; she took advantage of my momentary surprise to loosen my arms, grabbing hold of my hand. "I hope you're a good dancer, I won't quite fancy having my toes trampled on for five hours…"
I attempted to ignore her, as well as the multitude of curious stares we were receiving. The last thing I needed was to have some…some nonexistent relationship being hinted at, and being relegated as a laughingstock by the entire school. "What do you think you're doing?" I hissed at her from between clenched teeth. She gave me a coy, one-sided smile.
"Nothing," she smirked, entwining her slender fingers with mine; all-too-aware of the raised eyebrows directed our way, I gave up on attempting to prise my hand free, and settled for pondering upon the curious sensation of her hand in mine. It was not altogether unpleasant, though admitting as such would be like conceding defeat. The rest of Fantina's speech faded away into the background as I glanced around me, wondering who had been unfortunate – or silly – enough to allow themselves to be press-ganged into such a tribulation. To my left, Ruby was looking absolutely at ease, eyes obscured by the glinting lenses of his newest pair of glasses – Sapphire had apparently accidentally squashed the last pair during one fine study lesson – whilst the girl in question looked distinctly uneasy, no doubt regretting her decision to attend this practise session. Silver was staring at Fantina with eyebrows raised impossibly high, an air of scepticism hanging around him, whilst Gold, it seemed, had been distracted by the females in this group of students and was surreptitiously trying to catch their eyes. Red, on the other hand, looked rather sheepish, and not altogether sure as to what he was doing here, and Yellow seemed, if anything, every bit as lost.
To my right, Maylene was peering through her fingers at the drama teacher as though she had never seen her before, though Candice and Whitney were all smiles, no doubt already picking out potential dance partners from the various other unamused or abashed-looking males in their immediate vicinity. Roark, on the other hand, appeared every bit as dubious as Bugsy and Aaron did; evidently, they did not regard dancing with as much importance as some certain people did. Good for them. As for the sixth-formers, they were conspicuously absent, no doubt because they had been through this already last year, and presumably had no need – or desire – to touch up on their dancing moves.
Why did it have to be compulsory for my year, I don't even want to know.
I was snapped out of my musings by a tug at my sleeve. I blinked, to glance sidelong at Blue. "What now?"
"They're starting the lesson," she declared gleefully, tossing her chestnut locks over her shoulder. I grunted in response, slowly and resignedly unfolding my arms, and allowing myself to be led towards an empty space between Janine and Falkner, and Roark and Gardenia. Over the top Yellow's head, Red shrugged at me: best get this over with, huh?
"Now, eyes to the front, and watching Juan!" Fantina clapped her hands together for attention, before moving into position to demonstrate; the university lecturer bowed at her, before holding her right hand in his.
"Take hold of your partner's hand, like so," he began; I heard a chorus of giggling break out, and uncomfortable foot-shufflings. No prizes for guessing who the culprits were. Juan ignored them, continuing as though he had not been interrupted. "Do not grab on too tightly, or you'll risk breaking their fingers. Don't be too limp and lifeless, either. Ladies, place your other hand on your partner's right shoulder, and gentlemen, yours goes on your partner's waist."
Blue grinned devilishly at me. "Isn't this fun?" she whispered, the light of mischief dancing in her eyes; I snorted. "Hardly." Our shared physical proximity brought back to mind last Friday, and that incident I was not keen on remembering. She idly drummed her fingers against my shoulder as we waited for the music to play.
"Could you stop that?"
The annoying woman giggled and sighed at my expression. "Oh, all right." However, that didn't stop her hands from wandering: seconds later, she tutted under her breath, before proceeding to reach up and tug at my hair. "Does it ever lie flat?"
"Ow! Hey, leave me alone. No, seriously, stop," I growled, attempting to slap her hands away; she sighed again, lapsing back into silence, though her eyes continued to flicker back and forth, as she watched the others tackle the milestone of actually facing one another and gingerly holding hands in what they thought was the right 'waltz pose'.
The first strains of music began to play through the gymnasium, and, taking up position once more, Fantina and Juan began their demonstration. From here, it looked deceptively simple, though I had long since learned from painful experience that ballroom-dancing was a lot harder than it looked, and more often than not, resulted in squashed toes.
"If you are the leader, then your partner will have to follow your actions in opposite; now, on a count of…un, deux, trois!" Juan stepped forwards, easing effortlessly into a waltz; Fantina's extensive skirts swished as they circled slowly, coming to a stop after a few beats. The purple-haired teacher smiled broadly at us. "Now, it is your turn to try!"
Great. Just great. As they switched the music to one with a slower, easier-to-follow beat, I glanced down at our feet, thankful to note that Blue wasn't wearing anything remotely dangerous: just a pair of sneakers, which, at the worst, would succeed in flattening my tarsals: nothing major.
"On the first beat, the boy steps forward with his left foot; then, step forward and to the right with your right foot, tracing an upside-down L on the floor as you do this." Fantina prowled through the ranks of awkwardly-shuffling students, pausing here and there to correct postures. "Slide your left foot over to the right, and stand with your feet together. Oh, and do try to keep from falling over as you do that. Enchantee! Now, step back with your right foot…no, no, no, Aaron, your right foot, that one, that one!"
It was amazing how much of this I still remembered, even after two years; whilst everyone else had their eyes firmly fixed to the floor and misstepping left, right and centre, I found it surprisingly easy to lead Blue into the dance; tearing her eyes away from carefully following my steps, she glanced up at me, looking rather surprised. "You never told me you could dance! I always thought you didn't want to attend because, I don't know, you had two left feet." She giggled a little at that, and I rolled my eyes.
"I don't like it because it's an exercise in patience," I informed her in my most matter-of-fact tone. "There's no reason why we have to attend the ball, other than the fact that it serves as distraction from more important things."
"Hmph," she pouted, allowing me to twirl her in a lazy circle, "I'm sure we'd make a great pair on the dance floor."
"That's provided you even pass the exams." By this point, I became acutely aware of the fact that everyone else had stopped dancing, and we were the only two still at it. Feeling a dull flush creeping up towards my face, I released my partner's hands, coming to an abrupt standstill and determined not to look at anyone.
It went without saying Gold looked gobsmacked, whilst Silver was now glaring daggers at me; I returned his look with one of pointed indifference, and in the background, Red was grinning like the loon he was.
Fantina looked every bit as gleeful as Blue did. "See? This wasn't too bad! You've let your inner dancer free, and now you can truly enjoy yourself…"
I wished, more than anything at the moment, that the gymnasium floor would just open up and swallow me whole.
All I could possibly hope for, at this point, was that Blue lost the damned bet. I did not want to attend this accursed function. Not now, not ever, and most certainly not on another person's account, all because I made some stupid promise.
- - x x x x x - -
BACKCHAT!: Oh god, this chapter was a doozy. I wrote most of it a while ago, got distracted, and abandoned it for a few days due to…um. Homework. And completing SoulSilver. Yeeeah. So, well, exams are around the corner, and the next update will probably be in…gee, I dunno. A few weeks? I'm afraid the time of Speedy Gonzales-esque updates has temporarily come to a close, but don't fret! We're, by my estimation, probably about halfway through this odyssey. Bear with me!
Andand. I have lots of fun writing as Green…just because. I don't know, but I tend to write grumpy guys better than happy dorks 8'D Don't ask why the first section came out so freakishly long. I just kept adding more and more to it, because Green/Blue interaction is awesome. And believe you me, Blue's a lot smarter than she lets on. Obfuscating stupidity gets you very far, in this case 8D
Yes, this was sort of based on my own experienced in tenth grade learning how to waltz and all that. It wasn't as bad as Green makes it out to be, apart from the prerequisite foot-steppings and reluctant partners, haha.
Okay well. Enough from me. Great love to all of you who faved/reviewed, and as always, I love to see what y'all have to say. Of course, this chapter probably has (more than) a few errors after I got tired of proof-reading at 2am [hello, best story-writing time ever], so, uh, as always, bear with me.
Peace out!
