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Chapter One/ Prologue : The Night they gave themselves away
Mina, Lucy, and Nikolina, three first year students, have been making their way from one school building to another, going down the staircase at the back. Lucy was going on off how cruel it was to make them go to classes the Friday they had the Winter dance, “ It’s like they hate the thought of us being calm,” she finished off, her rants have gotten shorter over the weeks to fit in the breaks they had between classes.
“ This was really quick,” Maina said, they made it to half the stair case when she was a group of boys at it’s end, and elbowed Nikolina.
She looked down, then sighed, rolling her eyes. Attempting to meet her eyes at the end of the stairs was Damian, their classmate, with whom Nikolina exercised a ridiculous, insult-filled, rivalry. It used to be upfront until they have gotten too many detentions and warnings, and now it fed itself on passivity.
“ Hey, Nikole,” he yelled up at them, “ You have a date for Winter Ball? I feel like doing charity work.”
“ Mhm,” she waited for them to come to the end of the stairs to reply, and raised her head as she passed him, “ I seem not to be in need of charity. More people have asked me out than they have spoken to you.”
Damian chuckled as he leaned on the stair’s railing, “ That is because more people are aware I have standards, unlike some.”
“ Rather unlikely,” she said as they walked off.
Mina heard – turn to his friends, “ Let’s go, boys, it seems the ice-heart hadn’t thawed yet.”
She waited for them to be considerably away to get closer to Nikolina, “ So many people asked you out?” she whispered, “ You said you weren’t going with anyone?”
“ I am not” Nikolina said evenly, “ That doesn’t mean I wasn’t asked to.”
“ Oh really?” She said, unbelieving. Nikolina and Damian had flaunted their achievements and status at each other from the start of their useless pettiness, but lately, they have started flaunting things which weren’t even true. “ Like who?”.
“ Damian just asked me out,” she said.
“ And who else?”
“ More people than he has talked to, which is barely anyone,” she noticed her face, and sighed, “ We will be late to class,” she said, urging Mina forward.
Her mood was worsening as the Winter Dance was drawing closer, and Mina and Lucy shared a knowing look, Lucy moving so they'd be at her each side. “ You know,” Lucy said, “ you can still meet him later and say ‘yes’.”
“ What, no? Damian- ewww Damian.”
“ Refresh us, who are you going with?”
“ I am going by my lovely self, thank you.”
“ Well it seems like you’re saving yourself for someone.”
“ Saving? I would rather die-”
“ Then admit that you like him,” Mina finished in sing-song voice.
Their quarrels have been testing her nerves for a long time, ruining her classes and meals, and when Nikolina missed a special outing she had planned for the three of them because she was stuck in detention with him, Mina decided that she will fight back in her own way. “ You know,” she had told you then, “ I think opposites attract. Which isn’t like you’re that opposite, you’re really a similar kind of annoying bastards, but hate is actually really close to love, don’t you think.”
Nikolina didn’t agree with her then, and still she stood her ground on hating. Mina hopped that if she planted the idea enough, they might start liking each other, and she would no longer have to listen to every annoying thing Damian did. “ Admit it,” she told Nikolina now, “ you’re growing weak for him.”
“ Me?” the horror was adject on her face, she stopped walking, and showed to the end of her lip, which was still slightly swollen and red beyond normally, “ I still have bruises from just how much I am weak for him.”
Mina rolled her eyes. Nikolina and Damian had annoyed the training instructor so much they ended up brawling for half-a-day – on that detention they were weeks ago. Nikolina went out with a bruised lip out of it, and she used every opportunity to show it.
“ Sure, let’s not be late,” Lucy said.
Keeping her walking pace, Nick went on complaining, “ Besides it’s just like the planner he is, trying to ask someone on the day of the dance, never can do anything on time-”
***
That day after the classes ended, small havoc insured in the dormitories. Two rooms next to each other shared a common bathroom, which was functional on any other day, but currently housed eight coming-and-going girls, buzzing with one mutual havoc. Mina had finished curling her hair, and was subsequently thrown out of the bathroom. “ We need space,” Anika, a girl from the other dorm said, then looked at her wet hands from showering and the hot iron Mina was unplugging a step away and exclaimed, “ You’ll electrocute us”
“ Just you,” she said, “ but don’t worry, I am going,” she slipped past them into the dorm, there were two beds to each side of the room, and a long window to the long edge, opposite from the doors.
Nikolina was leaned against the window, looking aside to the school yard and wanning evening. She was already ready, had been for the past half an hour, staring off. She had knee-length black dress with strap sleeves which left her arm bare, she wore gloves and a shawl over her upper arms, to hide the fainted bruises from practices, but it was vaguely transparent and they still showed through.
If Maine didn’t focus on them, but instead on the figure, the black hair pulled back in a bun, small pendant necklace hanging from the arched neck, she seemed prettier than most days.
She didn’t do much to her face though, except from hiding the bruise by her lip, and her eyes seemed to have a sad quality to them, almost murky.
Nikolina didn’t turn her head, but said slowly, “ The night will come soon, you lot are taking awfully long.”
“ Easy for you to say, miss-I-never-cared-for-dances,” replied Anika from the bathroom, “ Some of us are trying-”
Nikolina rolled her eyes but then said, “ I am sorry, do you need help?”
They heard a crash, then a muffled curse, then a “ Yes!” and Nikolina strolled over the bathroom to help.
Another girl, Lucy, walked out and came to sit at the bed by Mina. They watched Nik braid Anika’s hair back at rushed speed, apologizing to each little painful sound Anika gave. “ I am sorry I’ll go faster - easier.”
“ Icy heart” Lucy told Mina, “ she really does only hate him.”
“ Hate” Mina said, making quotation marks with her fingers, “ It’s only a matter of time-”
Lucy made a chuckling sound, putting one arm over Mina’s shoulder to whisper closer to her, “ I am sure real-life shipping your friends is bad for them.”
“ They need it,” she said, “ They are basically obsessed with hating each other. Which is basically obsessed with each other.”
“ Mhm, right” Lucy showed to one of her hands, “ here is obsessed,” she showed to her other hand, far away, “ here is love.”
Mina looked up, “ I am between them? Really?”
Lucy gave a tired sigh. Nikolina had finished braiding Anika, and she was showing them to get going, “ We will all be late if we wait,” she said.
She had lead them to cafeteria which was reorganized for the Dance, tables moved to the sides and making little nooks for sitting, pleasant decorations hanging from the ceiling, Nikolina speared no time on them, however, finding a little table with glasses of champagne and sneaking one away to swallow up.
Lucy shook her arm, “ Already?” she scolded.
Nikolina snapped her head to the side, “ I was waiting hours for you to get ready,” she left the glass on the windowsill, behind the curtains, there was no use putting it empty back. Soon the ceremony started, and they gathered back.
***
The ball had lasted till an hour after midnight, when most of teachers left, and a large number of students, after that still, the dancing went on, and the lights were slowly dimming, signaling to people to leave.
Lucy and Mina were sitting on the benches in one of the “nooks” created by moved tables, watching around at mingling people. Mina’s head felt heavy, and she had rested her chin on the table.
Nikolina was leaned on one of the poles in the cafeteria, a glass of something dangling in her hands.
“ She looks too drunk,” Lucy said in a whinnying voice. “ We need to get her.”
“ She will be fine,” Mina said. Nikolina tugged on the small pendant she was wearing, then emptied the glass, and put it beside her. “ Maybe we could get her,” Mina changed her mind.
Just as Lucy was about to stand up, thought, she held her back down. A figure had approached Nikolina, stumbling a little, and in the dark she recognized Damian.
The music had changed since the start of the evening, now seeming like the choice was surrendered to some student or a radio, and some 50ties style corny song was on.
Mina held onto Lucy’s wrist firmly as she watched them exchange something she couldn’t hear, and then he offered a hand to Nikolina and she took it.
Mina squealed a little, pulling Lucy to sit back down, “ Oh my God, look at them,” she said, whispering, afraid they might snap out of it if she points at them.
They had moved awkwardly, stumbling at points. She attempted to spin him and they almost fell.
After than they held tighter to one another, her shoes evening out the height difference. They danced very close, and slow, almost so Mina could describe it as swaying in a hug.
She pulled out a small photo apparat she snuck by before in the dress pocket, and attempted to center them in the picture against the dark.
“ Really?” Lucy asked.
“ Shh, I am getting blackmailing material.”
She took one picture, they took a few steps towards the end-wall, where the light came from the windows and they could be seen better in the picture, looking behind them, no one else was dancing. “ Oooh, this is going to be good.”
She was about to take a third photo, when he attempted to spin her, but she stumbled, and he lost footing, and her back hit into the table, bringing a few glasses down with a shatter.
Damian held her up before she hit the floor, and got away from the broken glass. He looked around, as if searching who saw, he caught sight of them and nodded once shortly.
He brought her over, supported by one hand around bellow the shoulders, Mina lowered the camera down, looking dumbly at him. They never had much conversation beside him and Nikolina arguing.
Now, he smiled awkwardly, his eyes large, clearly drunk as well, and put her down on the bench next to Mina, “ I will leave this here with you guys,” he said, “ Please take her to the dorm.”
They nodded, then watched him leave. Nikolina seemed not to be fully conscious of it, leaning with her whole torso against Mina, mumbling something.
“ Right,” Lucy said, “ Let’s take her.”
They had brought her up, to the stumbly way out of cafeteria, and into the hallway, praying they don’t meet any teachers. Along the way, she had got enough sense to take off her shoes, and then they walked slowly but more securely, back to the dorm.
Mina wanted to interview her about the dance, but Lucy told her not to irritate a drunk, and by the sight of Nikolina, she wasn’t aware they meant her.
Next morning, Nikolina woke up with a heavy head, still in the evening dress. She had changed awkwardly into day clothes, speaking little to her roommates.
Lucy looked at her judgingly, “ You were quite a mess, last night,” she said.
“ Mhm,” Nina said, not quite listening to the lecture. She was aware they had failed, she woke up knowing it. She was sad yesterday that they had went with the whole ‘hating’ thing to begin with, thinking of how they could’ve dance the whole night together. But now, now together with that, she knew they failed, and she wanted to hit them both for it.
“ I’ll never drink again,” she promised Lucy, but the other seemed to find sarcasm in her tone.
“ Be serious about it! You- you could’ve gotten poisoned! What then?”
“ Do you know what you did get?” Mina asked, rising an old camera up from her bed table ominously, but Lucy caught her off.
“ Not now, irresponsible drinking is a worse problem-”
Soon, they had made their way down the stairs, in belief breakfast would cure the hungover fully, and at a hallway out of the doors, they passed by Damian and his friends.
She stooped, regarding him by his last name “ Nikolai”.
“ Eliot,” he regarded her by hers.
“ I hope you are aware certain actions I have taken under heavy intoxication last night are no true witness to how I feel about you,” she said.
He nodded, “ Likewise.”
“ Very well,” she said, “ I hope we continue with no further mention of this.”
“ Why you are taking a toll on my morning just by speaking of them now,” he smirked, old, passive-aggressive smirk he built for this, “ I suppose your morning can’t be tolled on with the hangover you must be carrying around. Quite shameful of a lady to get so drunk.”
She rolled her eyes, continuing down the corridor and said, “ Likewise, Damian, if you were a lady, you’d be a disgrace of one.”
Mina caught up with her quickly, complaining, “ Come on. You can’t just do that.”
“ What?” she asked, and Mina made a frustrated gesture. She would be harder to deal with now, so Nikolina continued, “ I was drunk, and he decided to dance with me, drunk as well. There is nothing more to it. I’d have dance with whoever approached.”
“ Which is why,” Lucy took the opportunity, “ You shouldn’t be getting so drunk.”
“ Fine, I agree. Happy?” she asked. But she herself wasn’t. They couldn’t go on pretending they were enemies now, it would be too off, too forced. But what else could they be?