"There is a welcoming party for the 3rd years at the Ballroom tonight, you in?"
It is the first official day for everyone which means that there were going to be two major things happening today. First would be the sorting of the first years and second, would be the welcoming party of the 3rd years.
The welcoming party for the third year is an annual event, a lot of second-year students look forward to it. This party is held to help the third years socialize with one another since classes would be mixed houses starting 3rd year. It also helps lessen the tension between the houses - if that is actually even possible.
"I'm not sure," I answered Anne. "I still have a few more things I have to do for tomorrow's initiation."
Right, since today was the sorting of the first years, tomorrow was going to be their initiation.
Anne groaned at my reason, "But we already double checked everything."
She was right, everything was all set for tomorrow. I just did not want to attend such a useless party. I would bet a million, a fight would start during the party and I really was not in the mood to see such a thing occur.
"You have to go you know,” Tony was sitting on my bean bag. "If a fight occurs between our house and another it would be best if you are there to answer for them or, even better, prevent it."
I groaned; Tony was right. The thought had already occurred to me, I was just being lazy.
"I just don't wanna see that asshole," I sighed when I thought of Ace being there.
Anne looked at me cheekily, "You know they say that the more you hate, the more you love right?"
I rolled my eyes and pretended to vomit, the thought of Ace and me together truly made my stomach churn. Disgusting.
"Our President would never fall for such a guy," Tony sided with me.
I smiled, at least he was being rational.
Anne laughed a little, "You know the two of you are so smart but when it comes to love, you two are so darn stupid."
Tony and I stared at her with a smirk as Anne laughed again. She was so entertained by us.
The party was going to start in about two hours. It was going to be a formal party, so my best choice of outfit was a dress. I sighed before I stood up from my bed and walked towards my cabinet. I began to scan what I could wear for tonight.
I already had a dress in mind, but I thought another might change it, nothing did.
After a while, the other two headed back to their own room, they were probably going to prepare for the party already. I continued to lie on my bed but a little while later, I began to prepare as well.
I took about a half-hour shower and right after I began to dry my hair. When it was fully dry, I tied it up and begun to do my makeup. I went for a simple look, I never wanted to get attention during parties, I never liked entertaining people.
After applying my makeup, I changed to the dress I had selected. It was a blue halter dress that runs until my lower thighs. The halter was laced and so was the bottom. I wore a thick belt that highlighted my thin waist. This dress was actually new, I was planning on using it for another event, but It was more fitting for tonight.
In order to look classier, I decided to go with my silver-colored heals. It had small gems at the tip that reflects shiny lights. I wore contacts like I always do, my eyes are not in perfect vision anymore. Glasses were not my thing, so I rarely use them.
To end my look, I threw on a silver bracelet and loop earrings. I wore my caramel hair up, it felt better that way then I decided to curl the tips more to give it more volume. I smiled at my vanity mirror; this was good enough.
I sat on my study table and decided to give a final scan of everything that had to be done for tomorrow. I made sure there was no mistake as I waited for the other two to arrive. I knew more or less they were going to drop by and pick me up. They always do.
***
The party was already ongoing when the three of us arrived. As I had expected Sir Macklet Woo was in charge, he was always the one in charge of these kinds of parties. That was why it always ends up being luxurious.
Sir Macklet was incredibly rich and just like Miss Randell, he has been in the school for quite a while.
I scanned the whole hall when I entered, as I had expected the students were sticking with their own housemates. Like me, most of the students from Iota wore blue if not, it was either white or black. It was not like there were any rules that one had to be wearing their own house color but why would anyone wear the color of the enemy?
This made it easy to distinguish who belonged in what house. Iota wore blue, Zeta wore yellow, Beta wore red, and Kappa wore green.
I was on my way to get a drink when someone caught my eyes.
As I had expected, even though Ace was not a third year, he was here, just like Nathan. The house presidents were always welcome to come to any sort of event that the school has. Most of the time they were even required to come. I felt myself utter a curse under my breath, hoping I would not have to face him tonight.
Ironically, my wish immediately got crushed.
"Vandia," Ace said in a low voice as he made his way towards me.
I wanted to ignore him so badly, but I wasn't the type to be rude. I spun myself around slowly to face him before nodding my head a little, a sign for him to continue.
"You know, my dad always tells me that a woman has a lot to say. Tell me, are you secretly a dude?" He laughed as if he found me amusing.
"If you have nothing important to say, do leave me alone," I tried my best to sound civil.
"How harsh," he held his heart as if he were attacked.
I gave him a smirk. Ever since we met last year, he has always been on my tail. I did not really know what he got out of annoying me, he just seemed to enjoy it a lot.
"Did you know, the Vandia corporation has been recruiting me?" He walked closer and gave me a glass of wine.
I knew that. I knew that very well.
My dad has even mentioned him a few times before, he told me that Ace had a lot of potential as a doctor.
"Yes," I answered and took the wine.
His hair was gelled up tonight which made him look neat. He was wearing a white dress shirt and a maroon coat on top. He wore a maroon tie as well. He represented his house so well, only his dark blue eyes did not fit well.
I respected him, I really did, it was just that there was something about him that pissed me off. I did not know if it was his attitude or his looks. I just hated him to the core.
"They even offered an arrange marriage," He smirked.
WHAT?
I almost spat out the wine I was drinking. I found myself coughing a few times, but I managed to get a hold of myself quickly.
"Stop joking," I tried to sound calm. I was not.
"It's not a joke Vandia." He inched closer again, it made me back off a little only to realize there was already a pillar behind me. He stood tall, I had to look up at him to maintain eye contact.
"Your father doesn't wanna hand over the company to just anyone, not even your cousin. You nor Chase are planning on taking doctoring so your dad, he approached me. He said if I agree to a marriage, he will make sure you comply. I think there was something about a command he can give you since you didn't take doctoring." He took a few sips of his drink and watched me amused.
I may be the type to remain silent, but my emotions were always plastered on my face. No wonder he looked so triumphant. Everything he said made sense, there was no lie mixed in it.
When I took on Engineering instead of Doctoring, I made a promise with my father that I would do anything he told me to, I would grant him one wish. It has been two years since I made him that promise, I thought he would have forgotten it, but I guess he did not.
"Go ahead then. To me, marriage is nothing but two people getting rocked down by the law," I sighed.
"Cold. On top of that, wearing that blue dress makes you look like the Ice Queen," he seemed to be disappointed. I looked at him questioningly, but he turned his back and waved farewell.
I bit my lower lip as I tried to assess what had just happened.
Why did he look bothered?
"President," I felt someone tug on my arm. It was Anne, she was smiling brightly in her light blue tutu dress. She looked like a fairy. Her grey hair was half tied up, it had a lot of volumes. I found Tony approaching as well, he was also wearing blue. He had a grey dress shirt and a dark blue coat on top. His ruffly brown hair was gelled back but there were still a few strings that fell on his forehead.
He took my glass of wine, "Your tolerance level is way too low even for a glass of wine."
He drunk all of it and I gave him a look of annoyance, "Am not!"
I tried to deny it, but he just looked at me like I was a spoiled kid.
Tony is one of the few people who understood me on a whole new level. He seemed to always know when something is bothering me, when I am annoyed or even when I am flustered. He knew me so well that at times I start to feel like he was made to understand me.
Tony has always been my ideal guy.
He was smart, handsome, wise, well built - what else can you possibly ask for?
Still, it did not mean I was in love with him.
Our house, Iota, is the house with the lowest number of couples. It was probably because most of us are really focused on our life goals and studies. On the other hand, Kappa had the highest number of couples. Almost all of them were romantics, they always seemed to be on cloud nine.
I was still stuck in my reverie when I heard Mr. Macklet start to announce that the Presidents of each house would need to take someone from another house to dance. I found myself smirking, I had to invite a guy from another house to dance with me, pathetic.
All the other House Heads were guys, so it was going to be easy for them to approach any girl from another house. I held onto the bridge of my nose as I tried to calculate how I could get out of the situation. The thought of excusing myself to the restroom seemed pretty great.
I was still trying to figure out how I could escape when I found a hand in front of me.
Initially, I thought it was Ace, I thought he was out to annoy me again, but I was surprised to see Nathaniel, the house president of Kappa in front of me.
I was still surprised but I smiled and took his hand. We made our way to the dance floor.
Jake Nathaniel Anderson, I met him last year. He was not the President of Kappa back then yet, but he was always so kind. I got close to him because we were always the first two to arrive during a mixed meeting.
Nathan was tall and had a big built. He wore a light green dress suit and a dark green coat. His long blonde hair was gelled back, and he had a green bow tie. He looked cute despite how tall he was.
"A woman should never be the one who approaches a man," he gave me a small smile and a wink. His blue-green eyes always get my attention.
Kappa, I guess they truly were the kindest.
"Thanks," I gave him another small smile as we swayed to the slow music.
I once again scanned the hall; I was rather shocked to find that Chase was dancing with Anne. I did not even know that they knew each other. Of course, it was also possible that Chase just randomly selected her.
Arkee Chase Vandia is my older brother, by like 2 minutes.
He is the house President of Zeta, we never really gotten along well but we still treat each other like siblings. If we had not worked together before our first year, we would not have been able to get the courses we truly wanted. Just like me, Chase never wanted doctoring.
I continued to scan the room because one of the House Head was missing, Ace was missing. I found him standing in the corner, he had not asked anyone to dance with him.
Well, who would want to dance with him anyway?
I pitied the guy.
Mr. Macklet did not point him out, maybe he did not want to embarrass him in front of everyone. It was useless though because everyone noticed him anyway.
I continued to follow Nathan's lead and swayed slowly together with him, every time he spun me around, I would notice Ace looking at me.
What was his problem?
After the song ended, I went straight back to Tony who was leaning on a high table. He leaned over and whispered, "If I was a head, I would have danced with you as well."
I smiled at his cute comment.
Anne came back blushing. Tony and I gave her a look of a tease. She flushed and turned around; we did not push her through.
I went back to the drink station when I found a guy talking to Ace. I could not help but notice it because he was talking quite loudly, Ace, on the other hand, seemed calm. It was not like him.
The guy was from Zeta, he was unfamiliar.
The guy from Zeta was speaking but I could barely hear it. The next thing I knew was he pushed Ace on the chest. Ace had backed off a little due to the impact, but he regained his stand. His black hair blocked his right eye. He stood firm but he did not do anything, he simply smirked and utter a word.
'Pitiful.'
I was able to make out what he said. That one word had pissed the guy off because the next thing I knew was the guy pulling a punch on Ace. It did not reach his face instead Ace's foot reached his stomach.
A crowd immediately formed around them which blocked my view.
"If you want to fight or challenge one another, you need to do it with two house umpires," Mr. Macklet boomed over the audio system. It made everyone cover their ears.
"I'm ready to fight," the Zeta dude announced. I still could not see them properly, but I heard no reply from Ace.
"Do it, Pres!" Someone from Beta shouted, the rest begun to cheer for Ace as well.
Ace still did not respond.
"Sadly, challenges are not permitted until a week after," Mr. Macklet laughed. "So, tell me, who started it? It seems that deductions of house points would happen on the very first day."
"He did," the guy from Zeta screamed and I found myself rolling my eyes.
I made my way through the crowd. I was pretty convinced that Ace was going to deny it but he simply laughed it off. He did not defend himself. Mr. Macklet asked him again, but he just shrugged it off. He ran his hand through his hair and looked at Mr. Macklet, who was still on stage, nonchalantly.
"The guy from Zeta started it," I stated.
Ace looked at me stunned. In fact, everyone was looking at me stunned.
I was not quite sure why I spoke at that moment, I just felt like I had to, so I did.
"What are you doing," Tony whispered in a low voice beside me. "If you get involved, we could get a deduction as well."
I gestured a hand to him saying that I got this handled.
"The guy from Zeta was the first to push him off, he didn't even do anything then. The next thing I saw was he," I pointed at the Zeta guy.
"He tried to punch Ace. Ace simply blocked him and kicked his stomach. I am pretty sure those that were near him saw it as well, but since they are mostly from the house of Zeta, they can just say it the other way around. I wouldn't gain anything from defending Ace, I might even lose points for our house because I spoke so it's your choice to believe whatever," I sighed.
I looked at Ace and the guy from Zeta blanky and then looked at the stage towards Mr. Macklet.
"I saw the same thing," someone from the house of Kappa spoke up. A few more agreed but just as I had expected the people from Zeta had denied it.
"We would talk about this at the office, Ace and John please follow me," Mr. Macklet went down the stage and signaled the two of them to follow him.
I was about to walk away when I heard someone whisper next to me.
"The devil speaks, thanks Vandia."
Ace.
