I ruled the dance floor with a pack of girlfriends

Nick winced when he saw Cinder’s reaction to the challenge Dakota proposed.

A dance competition? What… what even is that? Almost immediately, Nick’s mind went to something like one of those reality shows, like “So You Are Under the Impression That You Can Dance?” or something like that.

It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing he associated with a fancy party. Judging by the atmosphere in the room, though, he considered that maybe he wasn’t thinking about the right kind of dance.

That’s right… we’re in a ballroom. I should have expected this would be the natural conclusion.

Ballroom dancing, that was the last event. And it was just the sort of thing he could imagine people doing at a fancy party like this one.

Not only that… it was the sort of event that Gina would dream up for a fancy party.

So yeah, that was going to be the last event. Dancing.

No wonder Cinder looked so pale.

“D-dancing?” She stammered out, taking a step back. “You… you want me to dance?”

“No, no, certainly not!” Dakota crooned, shaking her head. “I don’t want you to dance! I want everybody to dance! You’re all going to show the judges just how good you are at gliding elegantly across the dance floor! That was the nature of the event that Gina and Sylvia conceived of, anyway.”

“B-but I don’t even know how to dance!” Morgana squeaked.

“It would seem that this is quite an unbalanced challenge indeed,” Amelia noted, frowning slightly. “What if a guest like Morgana lacks the knowledge of how to dance?”

Dakota answered that very reasonable question with a shrug.

“Don’t look at me, again, this was Gina’s idea. Not mine,” she replied, passing the blame like a child who didn’t want to get chewed out by their parents.

Gina winced. “I… I just thought… you see it all the time in movies and stuff,” she pointed out. “Ballroom dancing and the like! So I just thought, um… that it would be a good idea, that’s all!”

“And I seconded the motion!” Sylvia said, nodding with a proud smile on her face.

Nick highly doubted she knew the first thing about dancing herself.

“I don’t know how to dance,” Dani groaned. “I didn’t even go to my prom!”

“Well… I sort of did,” Dawn said, glancing over at Nick.

“Well, if you gals don’t want to try your hand at ballroom dancing, there are always horizontal dance moves you could try,” Vivian pointed out with a sly grin on her face.

“Very funny,” Marley scowled.

“Still, ballroom dancing… that sounds so sweet and romantic,” Rose said, swooning. “I can’t wait for my time to dance!”

“Kim, if you had a job at a dance studio, now would be the time to pull that one out of your sleeve,” Carly said with an amused look on her face.

Kim didn’t appreciate the joke.

“Now ladies, I know this might catch some of you by surprise,” Dakota said, restraining her amused expression. “But I think this is going to be a perfectly lovely opportunity for all of you! A chance to dance with Nick, and everything.”

That put Cinder’s opposition to the idea on principle in a whole new light. Now she was passionately opposed to the idea.

“Absolutely not!” She exploded. “Dancing with him!?”

In contrast, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s sharp ears twitched, and a sly smile spread across her face as she considered the idea thoughtfully.

Dani winced. “Kinda figured that’s where we were going with this.”

“Dani’s right, this is getting pretty predictable,” Dawn agreed.

Dakota frowned. “Well, don’t look at me when you say that,” she sniffed. “Remember, just the messenger here.”

“We know it’s not your fault,” Carly said, trying to smooth things over. “But even you’ve gotta admit, Dakota, this is a little unfair! I mean, how many people have any experience ballroom dancing? The only kind of dancing I ever did was at the clubs!”

Rose raised her hand cheerfully, and so did Vivian and Amelia, both of whom were expected given their backgrounds. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin also raised her hand, which came as a bit of a surprise. Then again, she did have Dancer as one of her transformation paths.

Dawn did as well.

“You know how to ballroom dance?” Morgana asked, her eyes widening.

“My parents insisted I take lessons,” she replied, not sounding at all pleased about it. “They said it would be important for when I got married.”

She rolled her eyes. “Hasn’t served me so well until now, though.”

Still, Carly’s point was quite aptly made.

“There, you see?” Marley emphasized, joining her sister’s side. “There’s only five people here who even know how to ballroom dance in the first place!”

Gina felt nothing but shame blossoming across her face as she looked down, embarrassed. Sylvia looked a little sheepish as well.

But Dakota’s grin was filled with amusement.

“I agree, it’s quite the tragedy,” she said with a smirk. “All you lovely young ladies, trying your best… but unfortunately, that’s just the way it goes sometimes, not every challenge is going to be a good fit.”

She was definitely relishing the fact that everyone’s frustration with the event had nothing to do with her.

Instead, Dakota stared pointedly at Gina, who shrank back a little.

“Now, the way Gina had proposed the event in the first place, involved each of you girls sharing a song with Nick. You’d each have a dance with him, and at the end of the night, you would each be scored based on how well you managed to dance.”

She looked around the room at the displeased sea of faces, then turned to the judge table. Mary was shaking her head frantically while Holly looked a little ashamed of how much she was hoping to see that. Serenity was amused in general and Octavia was unreadable as always.

Nick himself felt tense and uncertain. He wanted to keep Gina’s perspective in mind, but he also wanted her to throw a good party, and right now those two things were in conflict.

“…For obvious reasons, we might have to make a few changes,” Dakota added, glancing pointedly to Dani as she said that. “After all, I’m sure there are a couple people here who wouldn’t be thrilled at the idea of dancing with a boy.”

Dani frowned. She shrugged. “I mean, it wouldn’t be my first choice,” she replied. “But there’s nothing wrong with one dance. So we’d be a little close together, so what? It’s not as embarrassing as actually having to court him or anything.

That was probably her transformation speaking, Nick guessed. But at the same time, Dani was a pretty physical person, and she didn’t care much about dancing in the first place. Maybe she didn’t even think of it as that intimate of an act.

But regardless, there were other problems to deal with here.

“I think we should probably change it, if so many people are opposed to the idea,” Sylvia relented. She turned to Gina. “Gina, what do you think?”

“Yes! No, definitely change it,” Gina nodded. “Dakota, our deal from before is still in effect, right? We’re going to do the last two events my way?”

“That’s right,” Dakota nodded. “But keep in mind, the fundamental nature of the event is still set in stone. We’re going to be holding a dance of some sort, Gina. And ballroom dancing at that. Beyond that restriction, whatever you want to do…”

She shrugged. It was up to them now.

“…I can postpone the actual event itself, of course,” she added. “To give you all time to come up with something. Consult with one another, maybe even consult the judges. This is the final event of the evening, after all, and I want it to be a good one.”

And with that, Dakota departed the stage, pulling up a chair and sitting down in it with her arms crossed and an amused look on her face.

She’s really enjoying watching Gina squirm like this, huh? Nick wasn’t a fan of the way Dakota seemed to be taking pleasure in Gina’s struggles to develop a fun event. It seemed petty and spiteful. At the same time, though, he could understand why she felt that way.

I guess after having all of her ideas criticized and torn apart whenever she proposes something as a host, she’s enjoying seeing someone else be stuck in the same situation she’s always in, trying to come up with ideas, Nick considered thoughtfully.

It wasn’t the best thing in the world. But he could understand where she was coming from a little. Not that he agreed with it.

“What do you think?” Nick turned to Holly and Mary, the closest girls to him. “Should we go and help them out?”

“Dakota did say they could consult with the judges,” Holly said, standing up. “I wouldn’t mind sharing my two cents!”

Oh great, that could only go dreadfully. Nick fought back his urge to reveal his real feelings on the subject and got up along with Mary.

Serenity made a grunting snort in response, and rolled her eyes. Clearly she wasn’t going to be much help in this regard.

As for Octavia…

To Nick’s surprise, she actually rose from her seat, looking elegant as always as she did so.

Their eyes met, and she gave him a sharp nod.

Apparently Gina had won her over with her earlier courtship. Which was a relief. Having someone like her helping would definitely be good.

Especially when the ideas being tossed around were ones like…

“What if we brought in a dancing video game from our room?” Carly proposed. “Dani, you were good at that! And it’s pretty easy to learn the moves! That way, we could use the game’s score to calculate the points, we wouldn’t even need the judges!”

“If it was just that, I wouldn’t have complained in the first place,” Dani replied, shaking her head. “I can do dancing like that. But it’s gotta be ballroom dancing.”

“Which is a pretty crummy restriction if you ask me,” Marley complained. “How’s that even supposed to work for me?”

“Dakota did say you’d be able to be separate from me for a little while,” Carly reminded her sister, glancing over at the host, who was still lounging back in her chair. “Think that we’ll get a respite for this event, too?”

Dakota could have come over and reassured them, but she didn’t. Instead, she took a sip from her drink, and waved Nola over to the other girls instead.

Nola sighed, and **** a smile onto her face. She really was exhausted… “…Dakota would like me to inform you of something she already shared with the judges,” the leprechaun said. “You two will be free to dance on your own.”

Marley sighed in relief.

“At least that’s not a problem,” Kim nodded. “Still, doesn’t fix the main issue here. It’s not like I learned how to dance with all those jobs.”

“And the only dancing Morgana’s ever done has been on a stripper pole,” Rose reminded everyone unhelpfully.

Morgana’s jaw dropped and her face turned bright red. “Don’t… don’t bring that back up!” She wailed. “That was just-!”

“It was a bachelorette party… or bachelor party, or… whatever,” Rose sniffed. “Kim, you were there too, you remember, right?”

Kim’s eye twitched. She wanted to sock the actress in the jaw for bringing that up.

“How exactly is that relevant to this conversation?” She asked instead.

Rose shrugged. “You had Nick all to yourself last night,” she reminded the other girl. “You didn’t think to take a moment to go dancing on your perfect date?”

Kim blushed. “We were doing other stuff!” She snapped. “If the event was about jumping out of a plane with a parachute, then maybe-!”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they don’t do that kind of thing at fancy parties,” Carly giggled.

“You would be surprised,” Vivian said, earning her some strange looks from the others.

“Nick, what do you think?” Dawn asked, turning to Nick as he approached. “Any ideas you might want to bring into this?”

“Yes, anything you can think of would be much appreciated,” Gina agreed with a nod. She looked over at Nick, and he saw a flash of desperation in her eyes.

It was then that he realized just how much this really meant to her. For Gina, it was like the whole world was crumbling down. She’d come up with an idea, and it was now blowing up in her face.

Badly.

That… he wasn’t sure what he could do about that.

“We just have to come up with something we can do involving belly dancing,” Holly said firmly. “That’s the criteria Dakota laid out for you, so-”

“Ballroom dancing,” Mary corrected her sharply.

Holly rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Says the girl who’s probably only ever done square dancing…”

“Okay, I think we’re getting off topic here,” Dani said, clapping her hands together. “Come on, guys! Let’s think this through, okay? Who else has any ideas?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s hand shot up immediately, surprising everybody.

“…You have an idea, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin?” Kim asked, trying to be understanding and encouraging while also being wary of whatever the other girl was going to propose.

She nodded cheerfully.

“Well, what is it then?” Cinder demanded, so impatient she’d completely forgotten that her roommate couldn’t talk. “The sooner we get this done with, the better!”

Cinder wasn’t exactly helping with the planning herself. She was mostly just standing off to the side, grumbling.

If she had her way, they would just end this farce right now!

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin glared at her buddy for a moment, then sighed silently. She turned and looked at Nick, and pointed directly at him.

“Huh? Me?” Nick asked, confused.

“Figures,” Dani said, rolling her eyes.

“She does like him quite a lot,” Marley mused, remembering her own brief stint as a silent girl with bad people skills who latched onto Nick like a barnacle and refused to let go.

Speaking of which…

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin glided over to Nick and wrapped her arms tightly around his, squeezing him close. She rested her head on his shoulder and cooed silently, quite pleased with her position.

Mary was less enthusiastic.

“Um… ple-please let him go,” she said, trying to ask politely to start with.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin gave her a blank, frosty look. She wasn’t biting.

Mary frowned.

“So what’s this idea of yours then?” Rose asked, not getting what the assassin was trying to imply by hugging Nick like that.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked just as confused. She stared back at Rose and blinked innocently.

Rose frowned.

“…Your idea,” she said again.

“Does she even have one?” Vivian wondered, amused. “Maybe her idea is just to latch onto Nick, and she doesn’t care about dancing at all!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded vigorously and pointed at Vivian with a bright smile on her face.

Sylvia laughed out loud while Nick’s face turned red. Rose sulked, wishing she’d thought of that.

“We’re wasting time here,” Gina said, feeling a little antsy and impatient. This was HER party, after all, and things were getting derailed fast. “Come on, guys, you have to have something in mind, right?” She begged, looking around.

It felt like they’d been in this ballroom for weeks. She didn’t want to acknowledge the mental fatigue compiling on her, but the stress she was facing…

“Gina.”

Amelia’s sharp voice caught Gina’s ear, and she turned to look at the older woman with a hopeful gleam in her eye.

“Amelia? You… do you have an idea?” She asked, not trying to sound too ****. “Or Octavia, maybe?”

Neither woman was very good at showing support in general, and they both had rather cold expressions on their faces.

That was not a good sign for Gina, who suddenly felt very alone.

“You are too burdened by this,” Amelia said simply.

Gina blinked, confused. “…Burdened?” She wondered. “What… what are you talking about?”

“What was the purpose of choosing this theme for your party?” Amelia bluntly asked, causing Gina to flinch. “A fancy party, when you yourself no little about attending such things?”

Vivian winced in sympathy for Gina. “Yowch, Teach, don’t you think you’re being a little too hard on her?”

Gina couldn’t deny that the other woman was right, though. She looked down, her face stricken with pain.

“It’s all my fault,” Sylvia said, trying to intercede. “I came up with random ideas because I thought they would be fun… I shouldn’t have pushed so hard for ballroom dancing, I just thought, well, ‘ball’ was a good pun, so…”

Mary gave her a frosty look and she averted her eyes, even more embarrassed.

“I just wanted a fun, mature party, that’s all,” Gina said glumly. “Was that so wrong?”

“Well, yeah.” Vivian wasn’t one for sugarcoating. “Gina, those fancy parties? They suck. Like, they really, really suck. They’re so boring-”

“Lady Carrington, I do not believe that your perspective is helpful at the moment,” Octavia sharply chastised her ward.

Vivian winced, but she understood where the other woman was coming from. “Yeah… maybe not,” she relented sheepishly. “Still, um… you threw a great party,” she said, trying to make up for her previous statement. “The theme just… um… okay, shutting up now.”

For once, Vivian actually went silent. Even she could tell that her input wasn’t helping here.

As for Gina herself…

“Gina, it’s okay if the party isn’t going the way you want it to,” Nick said, trying to reach out to her. “You were trying to show everybody that you could do it, and you were trying to throw an event where we could all have fun.”

“Yeah, it’s not your fault that we’re not classy or cultured enough for a party like this!” Carly nodded in agreement, causing her sister to roll her eyes.

“Carly’s right, we’re the problem here,” Marley agreed. “A ballroom dancing competition would be perfect for girls who actually knew how to dance.”

“But maybe next time, we could learn?” Morgana suggested thoughtfully. “Just as, like, an idea, or something, maybe?”

“The important thing is that everyone is having fun, right?” Rose added. “And the winning part, but mostly the fun.”

“Hmph.” Cinder’s only word of “sympathy” was a grunt, but at least she wasn’t snapping at Gina or anything.

The outpouring of support actually brought up Gina’s mood a little. “You guys… thanks,” she said, looking around at the others. “It really means a lot to have you all, looking out for me and trying to help like this. Maybe it wasn’t such a mistake after all…”

“Hey, what are friends for?” Dawn asked with a halfhearted shrug. Not that she considered Gina her friend or anything.

“Yeah,” Kim nodded in agreement. “We just have to think really hard, and we’ll come up with a fun idea we can do!”

“Exactly,” Amelia nodded. “That is the important thing here.”

As everyone started working on coming up with an idea for the last event together, Dakota sat back in her seat and watched them all with a smile on her face. Seeing them all come together like this, working to plan out a challenge of their own, it brought out a funny little feeling right in her heart.

A feeling that stung something fierce.