I see them moving, see them dancing, yeah they're doing that

Nick and Ella arrived at the Banquet Hall just in time to see things start to wind down and the other girls finish up their meals.

They all responded with surprise when they saw him.

“Hey, Nick!” Rose rushed up to him right away. “Guess what? I’ve got 9900 BP now!” She declared proudly.

“Oh, wow! That’s great, Rose!” Nick said. “Look at your hair! It’s gotten a lot longer now!”

“I know, isn’t it great?” The blonde preened, fluffing her curls and tilting up her head. “Longer than it was before! And it’s going to keep getting longer, because I plan to make a lot more money these next few days, too!”

“That… that’s so much…” Ella was gobsmacked. She couldn’t imagine having that much BP at her disposal, she didn’t even have half that! And she had spent so much on clothes…

“I’m gonna get 10000 BP,” Rose declared, placing her hands on her hips.

“That’s certainly a lofty goal,” Carly laughed. “Careful though. With Kim’s new transformation upgrade, she might make even more than that.”

“Oh? Transformation upgrade?” Nick turned to Kim, and noticed that she was only wearing lingerie. It was a lot more clothing than she’d been wearing when she ran out of the Master’s Suite that morning, but it wasn’t the schoolgirl uniform he’d been expecting. Not only that, but Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was also wearing lingerie, which caught him by surprise.

Rose was a little miffed that Nick had turned his eyes from her so readily.

“I upgraded my Model Employee transformation,” Kim revealed. “Now I can leave the boutique while on the job, as long as I’m modeling clothes to wear!” She did a little twirl. “And not only that, I can pick whatever outfit I want from the boutique to wear, as long as I’m making an effort to sell it to someone else!”

Nick nodded. That would certainly improve her selection of clothing.

“Now she really is a ‘model’ employee,” Vivian joked, earning her a look from Kim. Nick relaxed a little, glad to see that the two of them weren’t at each other’s throats for once. With what Kim had confided in him on their date, he’d been worried about them, but it looked like they’d managed to bury the hatchet.

“You won’t get there before me,” Rose said confidently. “I’m going to be the first contestant to make it to 10000 BP, just you watch!”

Dawn blinked. “…Wouldn’t that be Mary, then?” She pointed out.

“EH!?” Rose gasped. “No! No, she didn’t!”

“Dawn’s right, actually, my girl,” Sylvia noted. “Remember, Mary got 10000 BP for a short period of time, before spending all of it on her wedding ring.” As the host at the time, Sylvia knew that better than anyone.

Rose looked like she was going to throw up.

“D-doesn’t count!” She whined. “Mary’s not on the show anymore, anyway, so she’s not a contestant! So ha!”

It was about as petulant and pedantic as you could get, but that was definitely Rose.

Dawn looked curiously at Sylvia. “You seem to remember quite a lot from your time as a host,” she noted. “Not only this, but the effects of transformation upgrades, as well. And yet… I seem to recall you saying something before, about only being able to remember what Marley’s transformation upgrades would do?”

Sylvia blanched.

“Err… perhaps I was exaggerating slightly,” she stammered, starting to sweat.

“Hey, yeah!” Carly nodded. “If that was the case, then why did Dakota tell you to keep your mouth shut?”

Sylvia began to sweat even more. But Dakota had already left, so she couldn’t answer that question herself.

“Weeeeeeelllll… maybe I was downplaying how much I remembered, just a tiny bit?” Sylvia admitted sheepishly. “Can you blame me, though?! Like Dakota said, it’s against the rules! The only ones I bothered to remember were Mimi- err, Marley’s, and the rest I just put out of mind! I could remember them if I tried, but that would be a whole lot of effort, and-”

“Let’s just drop the topic right now, okay?” Nick asked, coming to Sylvia’s rescue.

She sighed in relief. “Thank you, Daddy.”

While that fuss was occurring, Rose was furiously checking and rechecking her bounty sheet. She didn’t want to acknowledge Mary getting to 10000 BP first, and she didn’t want to run the risk of Kim leapfrogging her either, even with all the expenses she’d had these last few days.

She needed a way to get some BP- any BP- now!

And she had just the ticket for it.

“Excuse me!” Rose blurted out loudly. “Would anyone like to make out with me, please?”

Everyone stared at her in shock.

“Huh?!” Morgana turned bright red. “M-make out?!”

“One of my bounties here says that if I French kiss another contestant in front of Nick, then I’ll get 100 BP,” Rose explained. “Would anyone like to lend a hand? I’ll owe a favor!”

“Rose! You don’t have to do that!” Nick sputtered, blushing. He knew full well that Rose wasn’t attracted to women.

“Unchaste behavior such as that, for money…” Amelia didn’t mean that to come off as judgmental as she sounded, but she didn’t exactly approve of Rose’s request. To make out with someone just for a bit of BP seemed rather crass and thoughtless.

“I’m not doing it!” Dani’s face heated up, cutting off that line of thought before anybody could say anything. “Just because I’m the only lesbian here-!”

“It’s okay, Dani, nobody was thinking that,” Nick assured her. “Come on, Rose, it’s just 100 BP,” he pointed out. “Do you really have to… …Okay, yes, I guess you do.”

He changed his tune when he saw the fierce look of determination on Rose’s face. She definitely was aiming for this.

But only a couple people were actually considering it.

“I’ll do it!” Sylvia chirped. “It would be fun! Making out in front of Daddy… oh, but then, I would want to kiss Daddy first… hmm, that’s troubling…”

Oh, so it was possible for Nick to have more problems with this idea than he thought.

Rose was growing increasingly ****. “Vivian? What about you?” She asked, turning to the heiress hopefully. “It’ll probably turn on Nick!”

“Hmm… that’s a bit tempting,” Vivian admitted. Her eyes flicked over to Nick for a moment and she shook her head. “…No thanks. If you want, I could just give you the money though.”

Rose winced. **** as she was… that would feel even weirder.

“I can do it,” Gina said, shrugging. “I don’t mind kissing girls.”

Rose brightened. “Really?”

“Sure.” She skipped over to Rose and flashed her a playful smile. “I’ve done my fair share before. At parties and stuff, for free drinks. Won’t be a big deal at all.”

“Gina, you sure about this?” Nick couldn’t deny that the idea was arousing, but he didn’t want anyone to feel pressured into-

Before he could even finish his thought, Gina closed the distance between herself and Rose, and pressed her lips up against the blonde’s.

Rose’s eyes widened in shock and she dropped her bounty sheet. She was too startled by the sudden kiss to even register when it disappeared, so taken aback that her brain stopped working momentarily. She’d been so **** for someone to kiss her, but hadn’t expected anyone to take her up on the offer.

After a few seconds of Gina’s tongue probing against her mouth, she managed to part her lips enough to give her entrance, and soon enough they were making out.

Really making out.

Gina backed Rose up against one of the tables, practically pushing her on top of it as she grabbed her hip with one hand and the back of her head with the other. She dove into kiss with all the hunger she usually saved for giving Nick blowjobs, and Rose couldn’t compete. She looked like a floundering child desperately trying to stay above the surface as she struggled to kiss the punk girl back, and if this was a fight for dominance, for the first time Gina was the winner.

“W-wow,” Ella murmured, verbalizing what everyone else was feeling.

Vivian whistled and the twins watched in amusement and shock. Dani felt a little hot under the collar herself.

“I, uh, had no idea Gina could be so… wow,” was all the tomboy could stammer out.

Carly smirked at her. “Regretting picking me now?” She teased, earning her an elbow from her partner.

Nick was definitely the most enraptured by the kiss, though. He got to see Gina go wild on someone else for once, and reconfirmed again that however bold and seductive Rose might appear to be on the surface, she really was about as inexperienced as it came.

“…Haaaahhh!” Gina pulled back, leaving Rose gasping for air. As she stepped away from the flummoxed blonde, Rose had to grab the back of a chair to keep from collapsing in a sweaty heap. Her eyes were unfocused and she was caught in a daze, hardly able to think straight.

Rose: 9900 BP + 100 BP = 10000 BP

“I-I did it…” She rasped out, wiping the saliva from her lips. “I made it to 10000 BP! And I did it first! Yes!”

Dawn cleared her throat. “Mary still-”

Rose shut her up with a glare, before returning to her cheers of triumph. Gina just smirked and wiped off her lips, shooting a coy glance over to Nick. Her eyes trailed down to the bulge in his crotch and she considered propositioning him, only to remember what her whole goal was today.

Oh, right. I’m supposed to be on my best behavior and act more mature now. Whoops.

She glanced at Amelia, who didn’t look amused. But she wasn’t condemning the behavior, either. She understood the motivation of all parties involved, and as exasperated as she was, she couldn’t really be that judgy about it.

Meanwhile, Rose was trying desperately to forget it had happened at all. She couldn’t even look at Gina now, and looking at Nick just got her all flustered. So she put her hands on her hips and held her head up high while avoiding half the room, much to the amusement of several of the other girls.

“Good thing Gina did it,” Kim noted with an amused smile. “I was almost tempted myself, just to win that favor. The kiss would be whatever, but I could have gotten Rose to model for a day in return!” She laughed.

Then she caught a sour stare from Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. The lingerie-clad woman crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, clearly not appreciating Kim’s “joke” very much.

“I think she’s jealous,” Vivian teased. “She wants to be your full-time model!”

“Sorry,” Kim awkwardly apologized, scratching her head. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s smile quickly returned and she nodded cheerfully.

Nick just felt really awkward and weird now. But Sylvia was absolutely loving this. Even though she knew they had to get going and start planning out the party, she didn’t want to break up the festive atmosphere they had going on here, with all the contestants right at home getting along and enjoying themselves.

Amelia had no such compunctions, though, and loudly cleared her throat.

“I believe there is something we still need to discuss, Gina?” She said, regarding the punk girl once she got everybody’s attention.

Gina stared blankly at her for a second, not sure what she meant by that.

Then she gasped.

“Holy shit! You’re right! I totally forgot!” Apparently Rose wasn’t the only one who’d been knocked into a stupor by that kiss. “Yeah, the party!”

“The party? You mean your party tonight?” Nick asked. “That’s right, I almost forgot.”

“What’s the theme going to be?” Carly asked curiously. “Hopefully I’m dressed for the occasion this time!” She hadn’t minded going naked at the last one, but if she had to be dressed like a host for this one, well…

“It’s gonna be something we can all participate in, right?” Dani eyed Gina warily. More than anyone here she was cautious about what the punk girl intended, especially after that kiss. If Gina was aiming for anything sexual with Nick, well, that would be a complete nonstarter for her. And she could imagine the punk girl doing some kind of “Best Blowjob” contest or something like that.

Gross.

But Gina looked pretty flummoxed about it. “A-actually, it kind of slipped my mind,” she admitted to the others with a sheepish laugh. “I was gonna ask Sylvia for help.”

“That would be smart,” Dawn agreed. “She was the host after all. She’d be able to come up with a good contest.”

“Or a very bad contest,” Kim noted, eyeing Sylvia suspiciously. “Dani’s right, it doesn’t have to be a sexual thing you know.”

Dani nodded in agreement, glad she had someone on her side.

“Come on, give me some credit!” Sylvia scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Do you really think I would do something like that?”

Considering that was the purpose of her creation, she was kind of asking a lot of them to give her leeway here.

“If you’re putting it up to vote, I have some ideas,” Vivian suggested.

“Nope, no way, not a chance,” Gina cut her off right there. “Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have brought this up. But as fun as everybody getting a chance to come up with an idea for all of us to do together would be, that’s not gonna work.”

Nick was curious what she meant by that. “Gina? You good?” He asked, approaching her. She seemed a little on edge, which was unusual for her.

She **** a smile onto her lips and nodded.

“Yeah, don’t worry Nick,” she assured him with a shake of her head. “It’s just that this is something I want to do for myself, you know? If I bring everyone together for some big project… I might end up slacking off.” She glanced over at Dawn.

The cat girl looked nervous, confused why Gina was staring at her. Then Gina turned her attention to Amelia.

“I’m trying to do this myself,” Gina said. “But if I let someone like Vivian plan the whole thing, well… it’s not gonna be my party, you know? Knowing me, I’m just going to slack off the whole time and let her handle it.”

She shook her head, continuing to meet Amelia’s gaze. “Part of being mature… that means taking responsibility and doing things for yourself, right? So yeah, Sylvia’s gonna help out a bit… but I’m going to come up with something. Myself.”

“Yeah, that’s great, Gina!” Sylvia nodded encouragingly.

“Well, who knows? This could be fun!” Carly laughed. “You certainly proved to Rose that you know how to have a good time!”

“Hey!” Rose blushed.

“No kissing girls, please, I don’t want that,” Ella mumbled, shaking her head frantically.

“Oh, there’s one thing I can say for sure though,” Gina added, glancing at Kim. “This is going to be a really classy party, alright? So come wearing some really classy clothes and stuff. You know, something fancy? It’s not gonna be a sex party or some rave or something like that. Think, like, the kind of clothes we wore to Mary’s wedding!”

“Fancy clothes, huh? I can get behind that,” Vivian nodded, stroking her chin.

“Wh-what?!” Ella stammered. “B-b-but I don’t have anything l-like that…”

“Can I wear fancy and slutty?” Sylvia wondered, stroking her chin thoughtfully like Vivian was. “It’s certainly worth a try.”

Carly looked down at her own costume. “Well… I might be able to get by with this,” she judged. “The host club uniform is pretty snazzy.”

“You definitely look great in it,” Dani agreed. “But Ella raised a good point. Not everybody is going to have fancy clothes to rely on…”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin definitely didn’t. The lingerie she was wearing was only slightly classier than the full-length leather jumpsuits she always wore.

But Kim was happy to provide a solution to that.

“Oh, I know!” Kim chirped, and everyone glanced at her. Nick met her gaze, remembering her dress from the night before, and blushed. Gina probably wasn’t aware of Kim’s expanded suite of outfits, but it was a good thing she had something to fall back on.

And then, suddenly, Kim snapped her fingers and suddenly she was wearing a floor-length ball gown. She did a tiny twirl, showing it off for everybody.

“What do you guys think?” She giggled. “We’re running a special sale on them. Anybody in the mood for buying? Act now, and you can have your pick of the lot immediately!”

“I-I guess, that could be-”

Morgana didn’t get a chance to finish her statement, because Vivian jumped in.

“Oh, and before you make a decision on payment, consider the element of surprise,” she added, casting a sly glance Nick’s way. “Ask yourself, ‘do I want Nick to see me in this before the party? Or do I want to make a big impact on him by showing up dressed in my finest?’ The choice is yours!”

Kim nodded in approval of Vivian’s quick thinking. That would discourage some of the shyer and/or more ambitious girls from relying on Nick to cover the cost. It might have been a little sleazy, but there WAS value in Nick not seeing what the girls had going on until the big moment.

At the same time, Nick could take a hint.

“Well, while you ladies are all picking out your clothes, I think I’m gonna go step out for a little, sound good?” He laughed, nodding to Ella. He slipped out of the Banquet Hall, finally able to breathe.

This party idea… I’m glad Gina’s taking some agency and really trying to do something for herself now, he thought, considering the idea she’d pitched. I just hope that she’s picking this theme because she actually wants to, and not because she feels like she has to.

The Gina he knew always rebelled against authority… but the Gina he knew from even earlier, when she was a little girl, had always obediently followed her parent’s directions, and Amelia as well.

If her presence was causing Gina to slip into old habits, that could be a good or bad thing- Nick honestly didn’t know. There was no question that she could use some balance in her life. But he didn’t want her to tread all over the things she liked in a quest to win the affection of a dominant mother figure that she’d always looked up to.

Hopefully, Gina wasn’t bouncing from one **** to the other. But Nick was going to be vigilant and try to make sure she really was having fun at this party. If she was trying to **** herself… that wouldn’t be good. He liked Gina being mature and responsible. But he loved that free and unyielding nature she had, and wanted her to channel that in a positive way. Forcing herself to be stuffed up and boring in the name of maturity definitely wasn’t that.