The next few weeks seemed to be back to normal. The initial excitement after the First Task had finally worn off, Silver's fight with the Dragon seemed to garner enough respect that people weren't glaring at him anymore. Silver suspected that Sonic might have also told the other Yagyus to leave him alone. He still got a few stares, but he got those before he became a Champion, so he didn't mind. But the normalcy wasn't to last as in their Transfiguration class Echo had an announcement "The Yule Ball is approaching. A tradition part of the Emerald Championship and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above although you may invite a younger student if you wish". There was murmurs going around the class, mostly from a specific half. Echo raised her voice silencing them "Dress robes will be worn, and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then…". She surveyed the class threateningly "The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to, er… let our hair down. But that does NOT mean that we will be relaxing the standards of behaviour we expect from Soleanna students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Shinobi student embarrasses the school in any way". The bell rang and there was the usual scurrying to get out but "Silver, a word, please". Silver went up to Echo's desk wondering what he could have possibly done. Echo waited until the rest of the class was gone "Silver, the champions and their partners-" "Partners? What partners?". Echo eyed his suspiciously as though she thought he was trying to be funny "Partners for the Yule Ball, Silver. Dance partners". Silver's insides churned "Dance? I don't dance" "Oh, yes, you do. That's what I'm telling you. Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball". Silver had an image of Menthor and Cynthia whenever they went out to work parties "I'm not dancing" "You are a Soleanna champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So, make sure you get yourself a partner". Silver desperately looked for an excuse "But-I- I can't…" "You heard me, Mr Silver".
Silver cursed whoever put his name in that Flame. Even more than when he found out about the Dragons. At this moment he would have rather gone a full ten rounds against that Stringer than ask a girl to go to the ball with him. Most of the school didn't share his dislike. Silver had never seen so many people sign up to stay at the school over the Christmas holidays, he's pretty sure every fourth year was staying. The girls especially were excited, in fact Silver might be imagining things but he was sure that the school didn't have this many girls a week ago. Everywhere he went they were giggling, whispering, planning "Why do they have to move in packs? How are you supposed to ask one of them" he asked Razor when a group of girls passed, a few of which were staring at Silver with interest. Silver didn't notice this, but Razor did "Yeah, it's a real nightmare for you, pal". Silver knew who he wanted to ask but working up the nerve was the difficult part. Amy was a year older than him, very pretty, a great Sky Chase player and she was very popular. Razor could read him easily "I can't believe you're the nervous one here. You're a Champion. You fought a Dragon. They'll be lining up for you" there was a hint of bitterness, but he was clearly trying to supress it as much as possible. He wasn't wrong either, the very next day a third year Gossamer swallow who Silver had never met before asked him to go to the ball with her. Silver was so taken aback that he accidently let out a "No" before actually thinking about it. The girl walked away looking rather hurt and Silver had to deal with taunting from Razor, Marcos and Larry all through the next History of Magic class. The next day two more girls asked him, a second-year jelly fish and to is horror a fifth year Chameleon who looked as though she might knock him out if he refused. Razor had a long laugh before saying "She was nice" "She was a foot taller than me". Silver kept reminding himself what Coral said about Reynard's fans "They only like him because he's famous". Silver doubted very much if any of the girls who had asked to be his partner so far would have wanted to go to the ball with him if he hadn't been a school champion. Then he wondered if this would bother him if Amy asked him.
Apart from the Chaos of the Yule Ball there wasn't much trouble. Even Silver's worries over Breezie didn't happen. When he asked Big about the interview, he told him "She didn' seem very int'rested in magical creatures, ter tell yeh the truth. She jus' wanted me ter talk about you, silver. Well, I told her we'd been friends since I went ter fetch yeh from yer Aunt an Uncle. 'Never had to tell him off in four years?' she asked. 'Never played you up in lessons, has he?' I told her no, an' she didn' seem happy at all. Yeh'd think she wanted me to say yeh were horrible, Silver". Razor nodded "Of course she did. She can't keep doing the tragic hero thing, it'd get boring. You were supposed to say Silver's a mad delinquent" "But he's not" Big said sounding shocked. Silver smiled at Big's faith in him "She should have talked to Infinite. She'd have a field day" "Well, yeh might've bent a few rules, Silver, bu' yeh're all righ' really, aren' you?" "Thanks, Big".
As the Yule Ball got closer many rumours were going about, some more realistic than others. For instance, Silver found it hard to believe Locke ordered 400 barrels of mead from Tatiana and was planning on letting students of any age drink it. What did seem to be confirmed was that Locke booked Crush 40 for the Ball. Silver at first didn't know what Crush 40 was since he never grew up in wizard culture but from the excitement, he quickly guessed they were some kind of band. The Yule Ball also seemed to relax some of the teachers. Chuck even let them play games on their last lesson of term and even took some time out to compliment Silver on his Summoning Charm. Hawking on the other hand was not so generous. He didn't let his own death stop him teaching so why would he let a silly dance do it. Echo and Striker kept them working until the last second of their classes and Infinite would sooner adopt Silver than let them play games in class. With less schoolwork Coral was nagging Silver to start working on the egg. It had been in Silver's trunk and hadn't been open since the victory party. Silver kept telling her he had two months left and wasn't going to bother when he had other things to worry about.
The trio were doing the last of their studying in the Common Room when Mighty and Ray came over "Razor, can we borrow Crusher?" "No, he's delivering a letter. Why do you want him?" "Oh, because we want to ask him to the ball… We have a letter, idiot". Razor frowned "Well, I really want to give him to you now. Who's the letter for?". Mighty glanced at Ray before changing the subject "You got a date to the Ball yet?". Razor rolled his eyes "No" "Well you better hurry before all the good ones are taken. I'm going with Perci" "What, you've already asked her". Mighty it his head "I knew I was forgetting something". Mighty looked around the Common Room until spotting Perci at the other end talking to her friends "Hey, Perci!". She looked up confused "What?" "Want to come to the ball with me". Perci gave him an appraising look before smiling "Yeah, sure" she went back to talking to Cocoa with a bit of a grin on her face. Mighty looked very proud of himself "See. Piece of cake. Come on, Ray, let's use one of the school Flickys". Once they left Razor scowled "We should get a move on. He's right, we don't speed up we're gonna end up with a pair of Krakens". Coral let out a sound of indignation "What's that supposed to mean?". Razor shrugged "Well, I'd rather go alone than you know…" "Oh, I see, you'll go with he best looking girl even if she's horrible" "Yeah, that sounds about right". Coral put her book down "I'm going to bed".
The Soleanna staff, demonstrating a continued desire to impress the visitors, seemed determined to show the castle at its best this Christmas. When the decorations went up, Silver noticed that they were the most stunning he had yet seen inside the school. Everlasting icicles had been attached to the banisters of the marble staircase; the usual twelve Christmas trees in the Great Hall were bedecked with everything from luminous holly berries to real, hooting, golden owls, and the suits of armour had all been bewitched to sing carols whenever anyone passed them. It was quite something to hear carols sung by an empty helmet that only knew half the words. Several times, Filch the caretaker had to extract Peeves from inside the armour, where he had taken to hiding, filling in the gaps in the songs with lyrics of his own invention, all of which were very rude. Silver and Razor meanwhile had still not made any progress in finding partners "There's always Lah" Silver joked, "We just have to grit our teeth and do it. By the time we get back to the Common Room tonight we'll have dates. Agreed" "Agreed". But all through the day whether it be break, lunch or class Amy was always with her friends. She didn't even go to the toilets without an escort of four other girls. Did she ever go anywhere alone? It wasn't until the end of their last class did Silver finally just give in. He left Razor and Coral on the way to dinner. He hurried through the packed corridors looking for her and quite quickly he spotted her leaving her Dark Arts class. He took a breath and calmly walked over to her "Uh, Amy, could I talk to you for a second?". He wished he was deaf; her giggling friends were nothing short of torture. Thankfully, she didn't "Okay" she happily followed him out of earshot of her classmates. Silver turned to face her, and he suddenly lost the words. He couldn't do it but he had to because Amy was now staring at him puzzled "Wangoballwime?" "I'm sorry?" "Uh… Would you like to go to the ball with me?" why did he have to go red? Why? Amy went red as well "Oh… Oh, Silver, I'm really sorry, I've already said I'd go with someone else" "Oh".
It was funny, a second ago Silver's insides were shaking like mad but now he wondered whether he had any insides "Oh, okay. No problem" "I'm really sorry" "It's okay". Then before he could stop himself "Who are you going with?" "Sonic" "Oh, alright". There was an awkward silence until Amy said "Well, bye" "Yeah, bye". They both left, Silver didn't feel like eating so headed back to the Common Room. He was starting to quite like Sonic. He was prepared to overlook the fact that he had once beaten him at Sky Chase, and was handsome, and popular, and nearly everyone's favourite champion. Now he suddenly realized that Sonic was in fact a useless pretty boy who didn't have enough brains to fill an eggcup. Entering the Common Room, he noticed Razor sitting sullenly in the corner with Blaze next to him speaking soothingly. Silver carefully approached "What's up, buddy?". Razor looked up with a face of horror "Why did I do it? I don't know what made me do it" "Do what?". Blaze looked like she was holding back a smirk "He… Er… Asked Mina to go to the Ball with him" she patted his arm sympathetically. Silver now had to hold back a smirk "You did what?" "I don't know what happened. She was there in the Entrance Hall talking to Sonic and when I passed her it just… Slipped out". He covered his face in shame "She didn't even answer. I came to my senses and ran for it before she could". Silver thought it was time to finally tell him "She's part Illumina. You were right. Her grandmother was one. It wasn't your fault, I bet you just walked past when she was turning on the old charm for Sonic and got a blast of it, but she was wasting her time. He's going with Amy Rose". Razor looked up "How do you know that" "I asked her, and she said no and told me".
Blaze was no longer smiling. Razor sighed "This is ridiculous. We're the only ones without a date. Well, except Antione. He asked Coral" "Seriously?". Some of the colour returned to Razor' face "Yeah. He told me after Potions! Said she's always been really nice, helping him out with work and stuff but she told him she was already going with someone. Ha! As if! She just didn't want to go with Ant". Blaze hit his arm "Don't laugh! That's your friend" "It was a joke". Coral then climbed through the portrait hole "Where have you two been?" "They've been getting rejected by the girls they asked" Blaze answered. Coral raised her eyebrows "All the good-looking ones taken, Razor?" she said mockingly. But Razor was now staring at Coral as if he discovered treasure "Coral, you're a girl" "Well spotted" "Well, you could come with one of us". Coral blushed "I can't. I'm going with someone" "No you're not. You just said that because of Antione". Coral's eyes had a rare and dangerous look "Oh, I did, did I? Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Razor, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl" "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. We all know you're a girl. Will you come with me now?" "I've already told you! I'm going with someone else!".
Coral stormed away and up to the girl's dormitory. Blaze crossed her arms and stared at Razor "Good job" "Well, fine then. Who's she going with" "I'm not telling you. It's her business". Razor rolled his eyes "Right, I'll work something out. Blaze you can go with Silver and-" "I can't!". Blaze was now blushing "I'm going with Antione. He asked me after Coral said no. I couldn't go otherwise, I'm in third year". Razor was surprised "Oh… Couldn't you just tell him-" "No! I said I'd go with him and unlike you, Razor, I don't abandon friends!" she stormed away. Silver and Razor sat in silence, the latter seemed to be trying to ignore Blaze's last words in an attempt to not lose his temper. Silver however had just spotted Lyco coming through the portrait hall. This was it, drastic times call for drastic measures "Wait here". He got up and hurried over "Uh, Lyco?" "Yeah" "Would you like to go to the ball with me?". Lyco was surprised but then giggled "Yes, alright then" "Great". He then lowered his voice so Razor wouldn't hear "Do you know anyone who might go with Razor?" "I would have thought he would go with Coral" No, she's already going with someone". Lyco's eyes widened "Really, who?" "No idea. She woulnd't tell us" "Well, I could ask my sister Leeta". Sister felt a lot of relief "Okay, thanks". He went back over to Razor and the two gave a look of understanding. This Ball was more trouble than it was worth.