Chapter 9: The Dark Dance

The gym is enveloped in darkness, as expected, and I can feel the sound of the drums reverberating in my body. The air is filled with the scent of pine sap and evergreen. A small breeze is blowing, enhancing the feeling of being in the woods. As a witch/wizard, being afraid of the dark really is not feasible, I guess.
I move a bit around in the gym while moving to the rhythm of the drums. Not bumping in people is impossible. I wonder, if I also bumped in a spirit, apart from other students? As the middle of the gym is too crowded for my taste, I move closer to the walls. As I finally found a place to stay for now, I start actually dancing.
Since its dark in here, I pay no attention towards whether my dancing looks silly or would be considered inappropriate. Not that anything would be considered inappropriate in this academy of free love anyways. Suddenly someone bumps into me, resulting in me stumbling a bit back and bumping in another person myself. While e bumped into me, I had felt e's hands shortly on my chest. Sexual harassment or accident? "I'm sorry, are you hurt?", I hear a sweet voice chirping… Pastel?! Now I doubt, that it was a pure accident. "I'm alright…", I answer, hesitating whether I should mention her accidental sexual harassment or not. I turn around to the person behind me. "I apologize for bumping into you. I hope you're unhurt?" The other person mumbles something, but I can't understand it, since the drums are so loud. "Oh, Elise, it's you? It must be fate that I bumped into you. I wanted to dance with you", Pastel flirts. "If bumping into people means you're fated, then I'm fated to be with a lot of people, since a third of the student body already bumped into me tonight.", I answer dryly. "Oh, well, if you don't want…" Pastel sounds a bit disappointed. Was I too harsh? "Then I will wait for the next chance to dance with you… Until then" The last words she whispers into my ear. Ok, I wasn't harsh enough.

After the dance finished, I immediately go to sleep, like everyone else. It sure was tiring, but also fun. Good thing we get to sleep in the next day.
The next morning Ellen acts strange. Well, she got rejected from William yesterday after all. Virginia is of course clueless and asks her, "What's up." "Nothing. Just… the dance.", Ellen answers. "Hmmm. Did Ellen have a date?" Virginia is really bad at reading the atmosphere. Ellen is immediately close to crying. Good job, Virginia.
"Whoa. I'm sorry!" Uh… are you okay? What happened?" Well, obviously Ellen is NOT ok, Virginia. You're really clueless, when it comes to love.
Ellen tries not to cry and sniffs. "Nothing." Why do you even try to act, if you suck at it so hard, Ellen? "Uhm… that doesn't look like nothing.", Virginia answers.
See, even clueless Virginia doesn't fall for this. "Nothing happened. Nothing ever will happen. He said… because of you…" Virginia looks at her, her expression half surprised and half doubting. "Wait, what? Me?" After her answer Ellen bursts out about how due to her being a roommate of Virginia's, he would see her as a sister. Out of the two brothers Virginia has, she manages to epically fail in concluding about Ellen's love interest, even though she ought to know, that William is more lovable than Donald. Virginia herself prefers William by far after all. I can't believe how clueless she is. "No, William of course. Seriously, it's so obvious, that it is about William and not Donald…" Though Ellen will fall for Donald after this, unless I would've gone for him. Virginia mentioning William's super-bitchy ex Angela after that, obviously doesn't comfort Ellen. Seriously Virginia, be more sensitive!
Virginia finally actually tries to comfort Ellen, by mentioning, that William wouldn't have wanted to hurt her – duh – but she is unsurprisingly not very good at it. I sigh. What should I do? In the game the player had 3 choices:

1) About William… 2) Change the topic and 3) Let it go.

Ellen doesn't look like she wants to talk about it and Virginia is bad with love stuff anyways, so I guess I shouldn't try to pry any further into what happened between the two. At least not for now. As for 'thinking outside of the box', I can't think of anything which couldn't be counted under any of the three options.
Maybe I'm losing my creativity or simply starting to give up. "Well, since we found out that Ellen has a crush on William and Virginia assessed, that I would have a crush on Grabiner, I wonder, who does Virginia like?" Virginia turns to me. "I don't like any boys."
Well, this is the school of free love, it doesn't have to be a boy, you know? "I never said it had to be a boy?" Virginia shrugs. "No. I don't like anybody that way."
"Why not?", Ellen asks. That isn't really a question about 'why' though? Love simply happens – or not, you know? "Maybe I have high standards?"
I do an exaggerated thinking-pose. "Maybe you're unsatisfied with your taste and simply refuse to acknowledge your feelings?" Virginia chuckles.
"That makes no sense at all." Oh right, now is my chance for 'thinking outside of the box' "I bet your type is… Raven?"
"Noooo! Okay, there is a serious rule. Whoever I eventually like, they have to be not afraid of sunlight!" I shrug. "Sounds simple enough. Other preferences apart from that?" Virginia acts as if she would be seriously thinking it over. "Uhm. No nerds. Sorry Ellen." Ellen folds her arms. "Well, I didn't want to go out with you anyway." "And what more? Slender or buffed?", I pry further. "Why would that matter?", Virginia asks. "Dancing?", Ellen adds into the interrogation. "Slow dancing is boring."
We keep playfully interrogating her like that for a while. Well, that didn't differ from the game at all, but Ellen cheered up a bit, and that is more important for me right now.

I deliberated whether to prepare the allowance envelopes for tomorrow today, but in the end I decided against it. The risk of not noticing a missing envelope, and thereby a missing allowance, is too great. I can't afford to make such mistakes. Apart from my treasurer duties, I spent the weekend in the gym playing and in the library practising drawing. It's too cold for the park, furthermore I'm sick of drawing nature. I want to draw people, so I use the magazines in the library as references. On Monday morning I find a note slipped under our door from Grabiner for me, requesting to see me after classes. Must be about the first fundraiser.
What was the occasion for the fundraiser again? I never paid it any attention. Well, I'll find out soon enough. As for class selection, I decided to focus on blue and green magic equally. I still have difficulties with teleportation, but I get better.
After my last class on Monday, for which I choose blue magic by Grabiner, I stay to discuss with him the fundraiser. "Ah, Miss Ojousama. As treasurer you are responsible for managing the freshman class tribute." The first fundraiser was for a tribute? What kind of tribute? I don't remember… "A tribute, Sir?" "The payments American wizards make to the tribal councils for the use of their land." An "Oh" escapes my lips. Right, there was something about Columbus being a name better not mentioned in American magic society and stuff, right? I wonder, what exactly happened. It kind of feels as if it is something we should know about, the same way Germans are forced to learn about the holocaust. Grabiner chuckles. I don't think I have seen him chuckle before? He looks cuter, when he isn't grumpy.
"Petunia in her wisdom does not consider it necessary for first-year-students to cover magical history." Given Grabiner's tastes, he definitely has a problem with that. Though I partly agree with him, it is an unfavourable situation to have to pay tributes without knowing 'why'. Being unaware of social conflicts or political tensions can be dangerous, after all. Well, given Potsdam's 'happy-go-lucky'-attitude, she probably doesn't care about such things at all.
"Professor Potsdam really wants us to be carefree like her, huh. Even though that can be dangerous…", I mutter. "Indeed. You may find that much of what that woman does is an act designed for similar purposes." Given Grabiner's overprotective nature, Potsdam attitude must be driving him crazy. Though I can relate to the wish of wanting to keep us 'innocent' by leaving us unaware of the dangers and problems of magical society, but sixteen years should be old enough, to learn about such stuff. "Now, for the Thanksgiving tribute. The funds come through two sources: ticket sales from the fall play, and candle sales at the shopping centre, where the school rents a kiosk. The purpose is to attain money from the outsiders – the non-magical – given willingly." I nod, since I already know about the candles.
"The candles are coloured and scented to provide 'festive cheer'. Each class produces their own design. Try not to embarrass yourself." He adds the last part with a smile, which shows me, that he expects me to fail. I already know some colour-scent-combinations, which would work well though…
Should I choose pink peppermint candles to become cuter? How does choosing pink peppermint-scented candles affect my cuteness anyway? Because Angela thought of them as childish? Maybe I should do something apart from candles? But am I… smart enough? I don't anticipate doing a raffle though, and I shouldn't do something too risky, since I want to do a good job. I decide to go with red cinnamon-scented votive candles. I like cinnamon, so I may also buy one. Plus this combination is a sure win.