Chapter 8: Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights
"The times, they went and changed when I looked away. It's like one second I was in my kitchen making hamburger helper, then I blink and five million people are dead.
And that's not including the people I wished would die."
— 16 —
"It's nothing that you need to have,
"Cuz when I leave yo ass, boy,
"I's gon' leave wit' half!"
As was usual when Velvet's alarm went off, someone inevitably threw their pillow at her. It was the impetus to spring out of bed before they could hit her. This time, it was Fox, who was usually more accurate than that.
She stuck her tongue out at him. During the barrage of groaning and upset noises of people waking up on a Saturday morning, Velvet found time for the bathroom.
"Why this early?" Coco groaned.
"Because it's a special day!" Velvet said.
Coco propped herself up on one arm, the strap of her nightshirt falling down her shoulder. "Special days usually begin at least eight in the morning. It's still legally night."
"Hardly. See?" Velvet pointed out the window.
"No," Fox said telepathically, the only voice she heard that didn't sound groggy with sleep. She wondered if it was possible for a telepathy to sound groggy; it certainly conveyed tone and emotion right.
Velvet tsked. "The school dance?"
Coco blinked one eye and then the other, a typical covert Hunter sign for I am being held against my will please send rescue.
"Just because you don't want to take it seriously doesn't mean I don't," Velvet said.
Yatsuhashi let out a long groan. "Let me just get breakfast and I'll be right behind you."
"No, it has to be now!" Velvet said, stomping a foot. "I want to get to the ballroom and start scoping it out and get planning. Lay down the law before the other team helping us does it first and refuses to play ball."
"Breakfast," he said again unmovingly.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine. Grab a to-go plate for me or something. I've got to stake our claim!"
She quickly got dressed and left. No one but her seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. About a week ago, Professor Ozpin had put Teams CFVY and BASS in charge of the school dance. Apparently it had something to do with him being on a long recovery period after Montluçon, which gave them time. Velvet had already suspected her team would have been voluntold for the job, and had been counting Coco going out of her way to get the team assigned to a mission without asking anyone. Sure, she hoped Coco wouldn't, but Velvet knew better. But it turned out, getting injured in the line of duty really put a damper on Coco. She almost seemed reserved.
But the point was, Velvet was actually getting the chance to run the school dance. She had done the same thing back at Pharos Academy before, which was incidentally where she first ran into Coco. Velvet had more or less gotten into a club that did logistics and planning while she tried to find her niche. It turned out dances were fun and making them work doubly so.
So here she was. Or there she was going, at least. She suspected the 'gung ho, take no prisoners and ask no questions and just do whatever they wanted' attitudes of Team BASS meant one of them would probably have the same idea she did. She needed to get there first and establish seniority.
It was really the only thing to do.
Her fears were nearly confirmed when she ran into those assholes outside the dorm. With the sun still about an hour away and everything bathed in lamp light, she nearly broke out into a sprint to beat them.
Until she saw Blake spreading her legs to the side and bending forwards. She had an uncomfortable expression.
"Like this?" she asked, wearing what looked decidedly like winter running attire.
"I am not doing that," Shamrock said, shaking her head. His head? No, Velvet distinctly remembered Shamrock was a girl. She just looked kind of androgynous.
Jaune stood in front of them, arm stretched above his head. And then he repeated the gesture Blake was doing.
"I think it's called the sumo stretch or something," he said. "But I like to think of it as the Jack-O. You really want to limber your legs up before going for a morning run. Stretch out your quads, hamstrings, and other muscles I don't know the name for but know how to stretch and exercise."
Blake watched as he demonstrated how flexible he was. Jaune was limbering everything up, looking like something between a competitive fighter and someone about to demonstrate being able to break out of a pair of handcuffs. Blake was paying a little too much attention.
"Can I just power walk?" Shamrock asked.
Jaune leaned far enough forward so that his elbows were on the ground. "No. We're going to go at a baby pace. Nine minute mile for maybe just three miles. Once you three get used to it, we'll try to up the pace or the mileage."
"It's not so bad, I think," Weiss said, her sports leggings the tightest of all. "I think I pulled something near my groin after being forced to run the ten miles last week."
Their team leader smiled wide. "Yeah. And if prissy little Weiss can get into cardio with me, so can y'all. I'm fucking pumped. Y'all got no idea how long I've been waiting for running partners."
Blake lost her balance and wound up using her face as a third leg. Probably because she was too busy ogling her partner and not focusing on keeping balance.
"Gee, I wonder why, Jaune." Blake looked back through her legs and her eyes met Velvet's. A moment later she sort of rolled forwards and landed in a kind of tangled mess of limbs that could have been considered a crouch if Blake had any elegance at all.
"Velvet?" Blake asked, instantly scowling. One of her teammates took up a flanking position next to her as if they were actually going to fight. "What are you doing up so early?"
Just at the tone, Velvet felt herself heating up inside. It did wonders for the first week of February. "Taking my job seriously. Or did you forget what the professor asked us all to do?"
"No need to be snotty about it," Blake said.
Velvet ran one of her hands pointedly over her rabbit ears. "We don't have long to get this planned out. I'm sure there's some groundwork to do. I want to get started early and see the battlefield."
"I mean," Jaune said, "hang some streamers, get a disco ball, have an open mic night. No need to make an MOS out of it." He seemed to realize he said something stupid. But when he corrected himself, it wasn't to suddenly take things seriously, it was to say, "I mean, no need to make a whole career outta hanging ribbons."
Velvet compressed a sigh. "This is why I'm getting there early to make sure that your weird disco ball ideas don't ruin everything. We're in this together, so let's play ball."
"But not disco ball?" Jaune asked innocently.
"Yeah, uh—no," Velvet said, arms folded. "Just, I don't know, do your run and get breakfast or whatever, and then meet me in the ballroom. This is my team's show, and I'm calling the shots, so let's just make this work, okay?"
"You don't have to be so rude about it," Blake said.
"Your team isn't very good at following directions, and I'm worried," Velvet said. "There's already enough international uproar. We don't need to cause another one by making it a disaster for all these foreign exchange students."
Weiss looked thoughtful for a moment. "Do you really think that would be a problem?"
Velvet threw her hands up. "I don't know. All I know is the country's gone crazy, I can't call my dad to make sure he's okay, and there's more shaking sabers than a sausage party. Forgive me for being a little concerned about accidentally causing a war!"
"You have a dad in Atlas?" Weiss asked, surprised.
"The human one," Blake said, eyes narrowed.
Velvet gave Blake a very tired look, gesturing a wrist at her very human partner. Blake scowled, but Jaune didn't seem to catch the implication. He wasn't very smart.
"What does it matter if he's human?" Velvet asked. "We poked a thing in Montluçon, probably accidentally pissed off all those Grimm due to that scary white lady, and now my dad might die if it leads to war. Are we all on the same page here why I'm so determined that this event with all of these foreign students goes off without a hitch?"
Shamrock leaned against the dorm building wall. "We did our best in Montluçon, all of us. You can hardly blame us for it turning into a shitshow."
"I—" Velvet stopped and ran her head down her face. "Look, there's pretty much no way I can vent about what happened, and our role in it, that wouldn't just be me pointing fingers at you in silent condemnation. So let's not, please? Just do your whatever and show up to help me, okay? Good!"
Velvet quickly just excused herself without bothering to keep talking to the freshmen. It was like everything they did was somehow calculated just to get on her nerves. As if they knew how to push her buttons and were doing it on purpose to see how far they could get with her. She almost would've preferred what Cardin used to do to her. At least it wasn't ambiguous and he quickly lost interest.
She actually hadn't seen him in a while. She wondered if he'd forgotten how to breathe and just died when she wasn't watching.
The long walk to the ballroom helped calm Velvet's nerves. It was a wing of the Susebron Student Center near the tower at the heart of the academy. The building was very big. Velvet remembered spending her first year sleeping inside the massive room nearly two years ago. It reminded her of somewhat happier days.
She got in and found the light switch. She enjoyed the sound they made overhead flicking on one after another in a row. The room was as big as she remembered it, with the massive Valais windows, and stage, and the balconies overlooking the whole thing. She read somewhere that when the academy was new, it served as a kind of convention center to show off the wonders of the post-war world. It lasted only a couple years. Until the Catchfire Revolution brought an end to hope and optimism.
Velvet spent the morning going over the room, making notes on her scroll. Everything from how many people could reasonably fit in, to how many decorations they would need and where they would look best, to the chairs and tables collecting dust on the second floor and how she could use them.
She lost track of time.
Until Coco and the rest of the team came in with breakfast. Velvet sat down at one of the tables and opened the styrofoam tray.
"Saints, I needed this," Velvet said. "Thanks, guys. Coulda been a bit faster. I was getting hungry."
Coco shrugged. "I needed to drain the giant coffee machine dry first."
"Was it enough caffeine?"
"No!" Coco said. She didn't offer to sit down with Velvet or anything. In fact, it was hard not to notice the way she seemed to be keeping her distance from the rest of Team CFVY.
"I love what you've done with the place," Fox said, hand on his hips as he stared up at the ceiling. "I'm presuming you made changes. I can't see them, but I have faith in your ability to redecorate. Just so long as you didn't use the color gray."
Velvet sipped at her somewhat lukewarm coffee. "You don't even know what gray looks like."
Fox tilted his head. "I think I do. It's basically just the color blue, but more."
"Why blue?" Yatsuhashi asked.
Fox shrugged. "Depression is blue. And gray makes me feel empty. I saw it back in that fake world thing."
Coco self-consciously pushed her shades up tighter. She didn't say anything.
"Did you get much work done?" Yatsuhashi asked Velvet.
Velvet tossed her scroll to him before going in for some toast. Applying red Forever Fall honey to the slice, she said, "I made notes. We'll need to set up the stage. And that's the list of the decorations I think'll work. We'll need to run it by Professor Goodwitch for budget reasons."
She used her plastic knife to cut bits of banana onto her toast. They weren't fully ripe, with just a hint of blue remaining in the peel. "Shouldn't be too hard. We pull this off," she said around a mouthful of food, "and they'll be talking about this year's dance in every Huntsman academy for years to come."
Yatsuhashi looked impressed. "There's a lot of notes here. You sure you even needed us?"
"I'm used to doing the lion share for group work," Velvet said.
Coco frowned. "That's not true. Don't say that. We came out here to help you, but seems you already did most things yourself."
Velvet let out a breath. "Some of the logistics, yes. We still need to decide on appropriate music, a theme, and all that other stuff. Food, drinks. Do we get a band, ask around for student musicians, or play from a speaker? Oh gosh, what if what we like in Vale is bad taste in Mistral. Do kids from Atlas even know how to have fun? Do you think fun will piss them off?"
"Easy, easy, Velvet," Coco said.
"I'm sure even people from a glacial wasteland know what fun is," Yatsuhashi said, handing her scroll back. "You really shouldn't worry too hard."
Running her hand over her ears, Velvet said, "Worry too hard? I can't worry enough. There's so many little pieces and moving parts and it all has to come together right. Especially when it comes to Atlas."
"Why you bending over backwards for those guys?" Coco asked, adjusting her shades.
"Because we're on the brink of war?" Velvet said dubiously.
Everyone looked around. Except Fox, who was just kind of staring in no particular direction. He seemed to sense something was wrong, and proceeded to pretend to look really concerned about something.
"I don't think it's that bad," Coco said. "I was hanging out with Weiss last Friday and she didn't seem like she was worried about the world ending. She seemed more concerned with making a cake. And if anyone would be screwed over by a war, it would be her."
Velvet put her fingers in her mouth and pulled her lips to the side. "Stiff upper lip. I doubt she'd tell you if she was worried. Probably wouldn't even tell her team. If war happened, she'd be fine. She is a VIP. But me?" She threw her hands up. "I can't even talk to my dad anymore. That last package he sent me, do you know what it contained?"
Yatsuhashi folded his arms. "It was a letter telling you he was proud of you and to be brave. And hard light Dust. Maybe it's the last you're ever going to get."
She hissed inwardly. "Rhetorical question, Yatsuhashi."
He looked away. "Sorry. I thought you were asking."
Velvet cupped her hand over her mouth and breathed into them. "So I can't talk to my dad. I don't know if he's okay or not. He might be a prime target to kill in a war. And also, my weapon relies on hard light Dust, which I can't really afford on a student's non-existent salary, and I'm not going to get unless my dad can mail me it. So I'm on a timer that goes somewhere between becomes completely useless as a Huntress and maybe my dad dies. And so what I'd really like is that this party, which is going to involve students from all four kingdoms, doesn't piss off the kids from Atlas. It's a wonder they haven't been ordered back home. Maybe it's a ploy. They want something to go wrong so they can claim it's an issue."
"Atlas or Vale?" Yatsuhashi asked.
"Yes," Velvet said.
Coco frowned thoughtfully. She shuffled back and forth where she stood. "Yeah, but it's just a dance. What could possibly turn into a diplomatic incident or whatever?"
"What if someone from Atlas gets involved in a date rape?"
Fox blinked. "Okay, first of all, whoa, that's a really dark place to go. Two, it's a really poor assumption of everyone's character here. And C, I don't think a bunch of students doing anything could possibly result in a war. I don't even think it's really going to happen. Back home, the tribes used to rattle their sabers all the time to get what they wanted, but no one actually wanted to go to war. It's about pretending like you really mean it this time, and that you will go to war, but neither side really wants to do it. They just want to look tough and save face and try to get their way."
Velvet sighed. "I don't know. But I'm just really worried. There's so many things going wrong that I can't control; and the idea that maybe I can't have some control here; and if I don't keep things in line, things might go hardly wrong—that doesn't freak you guys out?"
Yatsuhashi sat down beside Velvet. "It's dumb to panic over stuff you can't control. It's terribly unhealthy, too, to start seeing control over them where there is none. It leads to madness."
She made herself smile. "Maybe. But what if? It's like the world's ending out there, and we're just here, planning a party? What if, guys?"
"No," he said simply, like that was just the complete end of the conversation, that entire line of thought. "You can control setting up a party plan. But you can't control—"
Something banged up above. Velvet nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked up to see Professor Ozpin standing on the balcony above the ballroom, looking down at them all.
"Professor!" Velvet said, springing to her feet. She hadn't heard him enter.
Fox looked off in the wrong direction. "Hm. Was wondering when you were gonna reveal yourself."
Professor Ozpin stared at Coco, and both adjusted their glasses in reflection of each other. "The end of the world is a curious little fear for a Huntress to have," he said calmly, looking each member of Team CFVY over. He was impossible to read. "For something so grave, people do enjoy throwing it out like seeds cast over a field. Yet every time, the field has proven barren. The grain never germinates, no matter how much we plough, no matter how much blood we use as fertilizer. It's always the same."
He moved for the stairs and climbed down slowly. "We're Hunters. Two dark ages, a dozen End-Times, a Wild Hunt, the Paingod of Chollor, a Great War, and the Catchfire Revolution—we're still here. Remnant still stands. And Hunters still have monsters to hunt." He reached the bottom and ran his finger along the bannister. Examining the dust on his finger, he said, "This dance isn't a place for us to worry. It's an event for you students to forget for a night. To relax and be children for just a night in our brutal lives."
Velvet found herself gritting her teeth. "So, what, I'm supposed to just not worry because war or not, there's still gonna be Grimm out there?"
Professor Ozpin seemed genuinely surprised by her. When he walked up to her, she suddenly felt so very small. Even with her rabbit ears standing on edge, Beacon's headmaster towered over everyone but Yatsuhashi. But where Yatsuhashi seemed to try to make himself seem smaller and take up less space, Professor Ozpin almost relished his size, his presence.
He leaned on his cane, looking down at her fractionally. "Do you suppose people would trust Huntsmen if all they knew was killing?"
Velvet cocked one of her ears. "I'm not following."
The man shook his head mildly. "No, I suppose you wouldn't. And that's exactly why we have to do this, these events like this silly little party, this social gathering, this normal night. There used to be a time when people didn't trust Hunters. They were freaks and outsiders on the fringes of society, killers of beast and Grimm for coin alone. You can still find people with that impression here and there in the high wilderness. Where instead of Hunters, they go by older names like slayer, witcher, ronin, hashashin, and a dozen other local varieties. But each of those is a name to be feared, not someone you ask for help."
He walked towards Fox, regarding the boy idly. "Presume you didn't become a Huntsman for good reason. Presume you did it just for coin. For power itself. An outsider at the fringes of society, someone with inhuman abilities, poorly understood by those who need your help. Could you trust that man?"
Fox actually looked back at him dead on. "No. That's just a mercenary. I've known the type."
"And that is why this little dance is so important. For all the horrors and pain our kind endures, we must never lose sight of why we fight. Sometimes money is a factor. Sometimes vanity. But most importantly of all, you should be fighting for the person to your left and right. You should be fighting for those little moments where you aren't a killing machine, you're just a person. It's a dangerous business in this world, leaving your front door. People need to know that the ones who make it safe for them are people just like them. Not transient monster killers, but people, with emotions, and beliefs, and convictions, and friends."
"And this dance is to remind us that we're people?" Coco said.
Ozpin smiled at her. "Exactly, Coco."
Coco tightened her lips.
"Hunters, at the end of the day, must never lose sight that they're still people," Ozpin said. "The four kingdoms have put great effort into rehabilitating our kind from killers on the fringes, to people like us. This dance is a night for every one of us, all the guests from the corner jungles of Vacuo to the polar caps of Atlas, to come together and forget our grim duty. To remind us that we're people. And that sometimes the greatest things worth fighting for, are the simple joys of knowing friends, of being a person.
"That is why I entrusted this dance to you. Oh sure, the school faculty could have handled it all, but that makes it impersonal. This is an event for Hunters by Hunters. Everyone will be there, everyone has to be there, or else the object lesson doesn't hit home."
"Being a bit on the nose there, huh?" Fox said.
The headmaster spread his hands. "After what you saw, I think it bears repeating. Your team gazed into the maw of oblivion, and came out swinging. I can see the way you are all still tense in your own ways."
Coco in particular tightened her lips.
Even the professor seemed to notice it, although he tactfully didn't comment directly. "So I need all of you to relax. I need you to create an environment where every student here can relax. Where we are all safe, we're all happy, and most importantly, we can all be stupid together for a night. To remind us of the real reason why we keep fighting, why we risk it all. If I have to be a little blunt with my hammer to get the point across, so be it. It is worth saying again and again. I trust you all to do this. Everyone here on campus will be there, mark my words. And I think it'll be fun!"
The members of Team CFVY exchange glances. Except for Fox, as usual. He seemed to somehow know exactly when someone was looking at him, purposely so he could look at a completely random direction. His little smile gave it away. But Velvet knew he understood.
Velvet took a long breath. "I understand, professor. We won't let you down. Thank you for choosing us for this."
Her response seemed to surprise him. "Oh, me? No. My old system was to just draw names from a hat. I thought it was funnier that way. But it turns out assigning random people to an important duty and hoping for the best tended to lead to disaster. Hilarious disaster, yes, but it rather undermines the point of the entire event. Professor Goodwitch is the one who actually recommended you specifically, and I'm not nearly suicidal enough to go against her better judgment."
Velvet made a face. "She recommended all of us?"
He raised his eyebrows, nodding. "Yes."
"Even the members of Team—"
Jaune Arc kicked open the door to the ballroom. "Kick the tires and light the fires! How exactly can we pretend to be helpful today? Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back."
Instantly, the friendly, vaguely absent-minded expression on the professor's face darkened to something unreadable.
Velvet jumped to her feet. "You!"
Weiss poked her head into the room, examining the door. "Unnecessarily dramatic. If you break the door, you're paying for it."
"Mr Arc," the professor said, voice intoned. "I would rather prefer you not cause damage to my school."
"Oh, it's gucci, mane. The trick is to turn the doorknob before you kick it down. No damage at all!" Jaune said simply, his team funneling in behind him. For the first time in Velvet's life, she saw Jaune actually wearing appropriate winter attire, instead of just trying to look like the next best thing away from naked. The only thing that ruined it was that he didn't zip his jacket up, leaving it entirely open face.
Coco stood a little more rigidly, staring at Ozpin. When her attention fell on the leader of Team BASS, she almost looked apologetic. She just kept adjusting her sunglasses, her smile looking fake.
"Hey, Coco," he said with a wave.
Coco took a step in his direction, away from the rest of her team. Although not before glancing and everyone else first, especially the professor. "Hey yourself, kid. Finally decided to show up."
Weiss rolled her eyes. "We would have been here sooner, but someone kept hogging the bathroom."
Blake scowled. "I had to put on makeup."
"It's a dance planning session, not a hot Saturday night date, Blake," Weiss said. "Some of us actually needed to shower too."
"You spent like half an hour in there after me," Blake said.
"I had to use skincare products. Why do you think I chose to go last? Because I knew I would take a lot of time and didn't want to inconvenience anybody else."
Jaune fistbumped Coco. "I'm slowly learning why my team doesn't go out running together. I'm not used to long lines for the bathroom."
Coco cocked a brow. "Get a pair of ovaries. You'll get used to it."
"In my next life, remember?" he asked, snapping his fingers at her.
Ozpin snapped his head towards Jaune, obsessively pushing up his glasses as if he was Coco. He gave everyone the side eyes, as if seeing if they were sensing anything weird or something. Velvet met his eyes and frowned in confusion.
"Man, I'm feeling left out," Fox said. "Why isn't anyone greeting me? You would think I would be the center of attention, just hanging over here by the side, in silence, brooding and stuff. But no!"
The girl who looked kind of like a garish circus ringmaster put a hand on her hip and sighed. She looked like she was trying too hard to advertise that she liked alternative rock or something. Girl was probably covered in tattoos under that get-up.
"Welcome to the club, Fox. We've got jackets," she said.
Fox frowned at Shamrock. "Every friend group really does have one of us, doesn't it?"
Shamrock made a strange gesture with her left hand. "I prefer to just watch the fireworks and eventually be there when someone has a mental breakdown and comes crying to me and my incredibly mentally stable shoulder."
He snapped his fingers. "Damn, I wish I was mentally stable."
"I offer coaching lessons starting at fifty lennies an hour," she said simply, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Do I get a discount for being handsome?"
She scowled. "You are blind. How would you know if you're handsome or not?"
Fox grimaced, sucking in air through his teeth. "Everyone knows the most attractive thing a guy can be is completely unaware of how attractive he is, and I have no idea. It's the perfect crime."
Velvet picked at the last bits of her breakfast, trying not to stare at Blake, who was staring at her. Or at least, Blake was pretending not to look at Velvet, in the same way Velvet was pretending to look at her. When Blake wasn't watching her partner bullshitting with Coco, at least.
Yatsuhashi elbowed her. As strong as he was, it was more or less just vaguely brushing up against Velvet.
"Hmm?" she said, chewing the now cold food.
"You're tense," he said.
"They're very loud all of a sudden and I have great hearing," she said.
He very obviously wasn't buying the lie. "Let it go, V."
Velvet scowled. "Since when have I had the nickname V?"
Yatsuhashi awkwardly sucked on his lips. "I mean, it sounded a lot better in my head. This felt like the kind of time for a comfy friend nickname."
"I want a cooler nickname," she said with a wink.
"Don't put me on the spot like this; I'm not good under pressure!" he said, holding up his hands and grimacing, but it was too goofy an expression to take seriously. They both laughed.
Ozpin cleared his throat. He was already standing several paces away from anybody else, as if he had been slowly backing away when no one was watching. "Well, with everybody here, I scarcely think I'm needed any more. Just remember why we're doing this. Everybody will be there at this dance, without exception. Make it count."
In the least enthusiastic voice that Velvet had ever heard, Jaune just up and said, "No, don't leave, you're so sexy, ahaha."
Everyone just kind of stopped what they were doing and stared at him. The range of emotions ran the gamut. Most of his own teammates were just rubbing their eyes, as if they completely expected this behavior from him, and didn't know why they thought he would behave any better.
Professor Ozpin coughed. "I'm going to file that away in my repressed memories drawer, Mr Arc. Thank you for your concern."
"Oh, I'm not concerned. I don't think of you. I tend to forget you exist half of the time," Jaune said with a shrug.
The professor stared for another long minute. And then he just kind of turned around and walked away. Really fast. But the direction he turned was the long way to the next door. So everyone just kind of watched him leave, power walking an awkward distance away in silence.
"What?" Jaune asked.
Weiss took a very long, very pained breath through her nose. "Okay! Moving on from that!"
Jaune waved a hand. "No, no, go back, I think I was the center of attention and didn't realize it."
"Moving on!" Weiss said sharply.
"Like to party stuff," Blake said, gesturing at the empty ballroom.
Yatsuhashi nudged Velvet. Holding her scroll up, Velvet said, "Yeah, I've got the basics for that."
"Theme, music, number of guests?" Jaune asked.
Velvet tried not to scowl as he interrupted her. "I was hoping we could figure that out. We can look up student rosters to see who'll be there."
"What about tickets? Not everyone's gon' buy."
"No tickets," Velvet said. "Everyone on campus is invited. We're all supposed to at least show up, you know?"
"Okay, I got the theme," Jaune said, cracking his knuckles. "Estoy en mi salsa. Let's wow 'em wit' an Ybor City, lil Habana tropical island vibe. Frilly dresses, suits, salsa music. Make it classy. Just like back home."
"We didn't agree to that," Velvet said, tapping her foot. "We all need to figure out food, drinks, logistics, theming, music, the whole wazoo."
"C'mon, who'd say no to turning a stale ball into Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights, Velvet?"
"For one, me," she said, staring him down. "I don't know what that means, and some weird niche theme would probably suck."
"I don't know, an island theme sounds fun," Blake said.
"Wishing for a homey mood, are we?" Velvet asked, and she saw the barest twitch from Blake's hairbow. Jaune was giving them both a weird look.
"We're thinking about this wrong," Fox said, holding up his hand. "Velvet, what do you have so far?"
Velvet took a breath, looking at her scroll. "Mostly figures for chairs, some food, setting up the stage, a timeline. Broad strokes stuff. We have a month to get this going, and that's really not a lot of time, logistically speaking."
"We should break up into groups and focus on certain aspects," Coco said.
Weiss nodded. "I like the sound of that. I'm good with logistics, I think. It'll be good practice for my future plans. If you get me the number of students, I can maybe figure out how much food and drink to order."
"That sounds kind of fun, too," Yatsuhashi said, awkwardly shifting in place.
"Yeah, yeah, divide and conquer," Jaune said, pounding a fist into a palm. "I'm dead set on a really out-there theme. Coco, you have an eye for style and are scary enough to reel me in if I go too far. You wanna work on that conmigo?"
Coco adjusted her shades, looking thoughtful. "Sure. Sounds fun. Maybe we can even do some field research to see what works best out in the real world."
"Alright, me and Coco on the theme. Weiss and Yatsuhashi on the things that go in peoples' mouths. Shamrock, Fox, you two are standing in awkwardly close proximity; what y'all thinking about?"
"Music?" Fox said with a shrug.
Shamrock shrugged. "Sure. I got a good ear. You wanna, Fox?"
He nodded. "Yeah. But in exchange, I want those mental stability pointers for free."
She tsked. "Damn. Well, I guess I have no choice. It's a deal."
Velvet's spine went rigid. As she and Blake met each other's eyes, "But that leaves Blake and I. And I already thought we'd do this democratically as a pair of teams!"
"Yeah," Blake said, in the same tone as Velvet, which only made Velvet want to grind her teeth. "Besides, what else is there to do? Theme, music, and food are already covered."
"Venue supplies," Yatsuhashi said. "Chairs, tables, plates, the stage. That sort of stuff."
Velvet shot her partner a glare, and he shrugged apologetically.
Coco adjusted her beret. "Alright, you two can work on that. Seems like Velvet already has most of that done in her time this. Should be easier."
Blake bit her inner lip, arms folded. "I mean, I guess?"
Velvet let out a long sigh. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Just follow my lead and we can make this easy."
"Team effort," Blake said.
Waving her scroll, Velvet said, "But I already got this mostly covered. We just need a student headcount and funds requisition."
"Sounds like it's settled," Shamrock said. "Jaune and Coco, me and Fox, Blake and Velvet, Weiss and Yatsuhashi."
"Yeah," Coco said. "Meet back up in a week and see what we've got. Play it by ear. This'll be fun."
"Bet," Jaune said.
"Mm," Velvet hummed, lips pursed to the side.
And there were muffled agreements from the rest of the people.
But Velvet knew better.
This was going to be a disaster. And everyone was going to blame her in the end when that happened.
a/n Update schedule might change due to work scheduling and my escapades with women in the irl. Stay tuned, dear reader!