Be polite to everybody, everybody except all your nearest and your dearest

Nick had a bit of a hard time figuring out how he should score everyone after all, this wasn’t the sort of thing he was used to.

Part of me wishes that the audience was deciding the rankings instead, he thought, tapping his pencil against the paper. That would be a lot less stressful.

He knew that nobody would hold his ranking against him. The women in his harem were more understanding than that, even Rose.

Really, he just had to answer to himself.

Nick glanced over at Mary, expecting that she was having a tough time as well. But he saw that she had already set down her pencil.

Then he glanced down at her sheet.

She gave everybody a 10? That’s so cute! Mary had given them all the top scores for politeness. Nick had half a mind to do that himself. But he knew that he should take this seriously- the girls were, after all, and unlike Mary’s pure mind, he could sense the distinction in the rules and understand the difference in each girl’s performance.

So he sighed, and began to assign them scores. At least I don’t have to rank them, he thought. A silver lining at least.

“Okay then!” Dakota clapped her hands together and smiled. “Has everyone finished giving their scores? Lovely! In that case, let’s get things started! Come now, young ladies!”

The girls gathered near the stage as Dakota summoned a large screen up to present the results.

“Let’s see the totals everyone decided on!” She declared.

The names of the girls flashed up on the screen.

Amelia

Vivian

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin

Ella

Kim

Dani

Carly

Marley

Rose

Morgana

Dawn

Sylvia

Gina

The girls all took a second to look at the blank signs beside their names.

“Now, going from left to right, we have Octavia, Holly, Nick, Mary, and Serenity,” Dakota declared. “Let’s see what each of them chose for their scores! Now normally, I would like Nick’s score to be posted first, as he’s the master. But it seems fitting we keep them in order. So we’ll start with Octavia first, and go right down the line, sound good?”

She winked at Nick, who just gave her an exasperated look in response.

Dakota giggled and waved her cane again. The names shifted, and the scores jumped up onto the screen. Each girl’s number was listed up next to their name, and then combined together to make a single score for this event.

Amelia – 8, 8, 8, 10, 6 – 40

Vivian – 9, 9, 7, 10, 7 – 42

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 6, 8, 8, 10, 10 – 42

Ella – 4, 8, 6, 10, 7 – 35

Kim – 6, 7, 7, 10, 7 – 37

Dani – 7, 9, 6, 10, 9 – 41

Carly – 7, 8, 9, 10, 7 – 41

Marley – 5, 7, 6, 10, 8 – 36

Rose – 7, 6, 8, 10, 8 – 39

Morgana – 5, 7, 7, 10, 7 – 36

Dawn – 8, 7, 8, 10, 8 – 41

Sylvia – 4, 7, 6, 10, 8 – 35

Gina – 6, 8, 8, 10, 7 – 39

Quite a commotion arose as the girls clustered around the screen to see what their scores ended up being.

“As expected,” Vivian said, holding her head up high. “I’ve done quite well for myself, wouldn’t you all agree?”

“As anticipated,” Amelia said, glancing sharply at her. But she didn’t have any words of rebuke to give.

“I didn’t think I’d do very well,” Kim sighed, scratching her head. She turned to Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. “But you scored pretty highly, huh?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded and flashed a cheerful smile.

Vivian looked over at the assassin, and masked her discomfort with a polite smile. She knew that she would definitely place highest. But she didn’t expect to tie with someone else, let alone an assassin who couldn’t even talk!

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s placing was rather hard to believe for most of the girls, actually. No one expected her to rank that highly in comparison to the others, especially since it seemed like this challenge was designed to be incredibly difficult for her.

“Ah…” In contrast, Ella had scored very low. She looked down and sighed. It wasn’t like she was surprised though. She expected that she’d score pretty low on any assessment here.

After all, she wasn’t cut out for any fancy high society stuff.

“Dani, we both scored really high!” Carly said to her partner, her eyes shining. “I’m really surprised by that!”

“I guess that everybody thought you did pretty good,” Dani said, feeling a little numb if she was being honest. She hadn’t expected to score that highly.

…She’d even gotten a higher score than Amelia! That seemed incredible.

“It seems everybody is quite curious about how the judges scored everyone,” Dakota noted. “I wonder if our judges would like to elaborate on the reasoning behind their decisions, hmm?” She turned to the judging table and batted her eyelashes innocently towards Nick.

He didn’t buy it for a moment. Dakota was just trying to stir things up.

“I ranked everyone high,” Mary said firmly. “Because they all tried their best! They were all trying to be nice and polite, and I think that’s the most important thing when it comes to being mature, at least in my opinion!”

Mary put her hands on her hips and stood up in firm defiance of the nature of this competition.

Dakota smirked in amusement.

“You’re so sweet, Mary,” Holly said. “I tried to go off the criteria at least.”

“That’s the important thing here,” Dakota agreed. “Trying to meet the expectations set by the challenge itself! Wouldn’t you agree, Nick?”

She looked directly at him now. “I saw you deliberating,” she continued. “You really put a lot of heart into your rankings.”

“…That’s right,” Nick said, trying to tactfully frame his response. “I wanted to make sure that the effort everyone put in was rewarded.”

He hadn’t given anyone a 10. Mostly he’d just passed around 7s and 8s, in order to hit at the averages depending on where the scores fell in his opinion of being mature and tactful or not.

But there were a couple of 6s.

“You gave me a 6, huh?” Dani pointed out. She raised her eyebrow. “I see how it is…”

Nick winced. “Sorry, Dani. But as sweet as you were to Amelia, I didn’t sense anything insulting from you. And since the nature of the contest was passive-aggressiveness…”

“No, it’s fine,” Dani said, shaking her head. “I probably would have done the same thing.”

“But why did I get a 6?!” Sylvia protested. “I was being very passive-aggressive!”

“More like aggressive-aggressive,” Kim muttered under her breath.

“Sylvia… you need more tact,” Nick said, lacking tact in his statement himself.

She sighed and nodded. “Yeah… you’re probably right,” she admitted sheepishly. “You’re probably right…”

Of course, there was someone else here who had given very harsh estimations herself.

And that was Octavia. She’d given the lowest number out of anyone, by scoring Ella at a 4. And she hadn’t given anyone a 10, not even Vivian.

“What about you, Octavia?” Dakota asked, turning to the butler. “Would you like to share your perspective on the situation at all? Maybe tell us why you ranked all the girls’ introductions the way you did, perhaps?”

The gleeful smile on her face showed just what she thought of that. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. Octavia stared blankly back at her, not sharing in her delight in the slightest.

But she slowly nodded.

“I graded everyone based on how well I perceived them withstanding the harsh scrutiny of high society,” Octavia replied. “No more, no less. If you stammered or showed hesitation, if you let your real thoughts leak out too easily, then you scored low. That is all.”

“But you didn’t even give me a 10?” Vivian crossed her arms and pouted. “Octavia!”

“A 10 would be a perfect score,” Octavia said bluntly. She narrowed her eyes into piercing daggers. “A perfect score would mean you have nothing further to learn. And no one here has reached that level yet.”

Well… that was hard to dispute.

“So it seems we have Mary, who grades rather generously, and Octavia, who grades harshly,” Dakota mused. She turned to the last judge to have weighed in on any of this, Serenity. “Serenity? What about you?”

Serenity said nothing. She narrowed her eyes and her discolored lips curled up into a sneer.

That was probably about as much as could be expected from her.

“Well then, in that case, shall we move on with the party then?” Dakota asked, turning back to the girls in the crowd. “We have more events scheduled, of course, and… you know what? I think we should move on to the next one right now!”

“Wait, what?” Nick’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Already?” Gina was taken aback as well. “But I thought we would continue with the party proper for a while longer.”

“Well, if you want to spend some more time on small talk, that’s perfectly fine,” Dakota replied, shooting the punk girl a look. “But I think things match up well to move onto this next event now. What do you say? It’s your party, after all. It’s up to you.”

Gina looked troubled, and that was troubling for Nick. What WAS this next event Dakota was alluding to? Somehow, he didn’t think it would be good, if Gina was this hesitant. But he didn’t say anything.

It was Gina’s party, and whatever she wanted to do, they would do.

Gina made a choice that surprised him though.

“What do you guys think?” She asked, turning to the other girls. They all looked curiously at her.

“What do you mean?” Dani asked.

Morgana swallowed. “Are… are you asking what do we want to do?”

Gina nodded. “That’s exactly it,” she replied. “Do you guys want to move onto the next event? Or just keep hanging around and chatting? This is a party, after all, the wants of the guests should be respected!”

Nick nodded, and he noticed a slight smile touch Amelia’s lips. They were both thinking the same thing- they were proud of how far Gina was coming!

There were a few murmurs of agreement, and soon the girls all reached a consensus.

“Bring on the next challenge!” Rose said boldly, holding her head up high. “I’ll certainly ace it, whatever it is!”

Rose hadn’t cracked 40 points yet, but that certainly didn’t affect her confidence, everybody could see that. Which was expected, honestly.

“I’m up for it,” Dawn said. “But I’d still like a heads-up for what we’ll be doing.”

She kept looking pointedly at Gina.

“Then it looks like we’re all in agreement then!” Dakota purred. “The second event starts now! And rather fittingly as well, I might add!”

Nick wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that.

“So what exactly is this second event?” Mary asked.

“Is it gonna be more insults?” Holly asked. “Because grading that one was pretty difficult. I’m used to the insults being directed at me, you know?”

Dakota chuckled. “No, no passive-aggressive introductions or anything like that,” she assured the other girls. “This is purely a test of skill!”

Somehow, Nick doubted that.

“There’s nothing fancier,” Gina said proudly, “than a wine tasting!”

Amelia raised her eyebrow. Morgana turned pale.

“W-wait, wine?!” She stammered, shaking her head. “But I’m only 18! I can’t drink ****!”

“I’m not 21 either,” Kim pointed out. “And as much as I’d like a champagne toast, I don’t think that’s going to fly with everybody here.”

She looked at Amelia as she said that, but then she turned and looked at Mary as well.

Indeed, Mary didn’t look thrilled by this idea.

“Wine?” She frowned. “I’m not a fan of this.”

“It definitely seems like a Gina activity though,” Carly laughed, shaking her head. “Leave it to her to grade us on our drinking!”

“Gina, would you care to elaborate on this activity?” Amelia asked her sharply. “Encouraging minors to drink…”

“No!” Gina shook her head. “It, um… they won’t actually be drinking or anything!”

Rose blinked. “Uh, then what’s the point?” She asked, frowning.

“I’m also curious how this would work,” Dawn said, frowning. “A classy wine tasting? What, are you judging us by who looks the most elegant when sampling a drink?”

Dakota shook her head. “Nothing so pedestrian!” She scoffed. “You’ll each be graded on your palate, of course!”

She flicked her cane and suddenly a large stack of wine bottles appeared on a table in the center of the room.

“Before you, you’ll see every wine there is to taste,” she said proudly. “Each of you will taste as many as you like, and then find the one that suits your palate best. Then, you’ll present your selection to the judges.”

“Ah, so the person who can puff up the wine the most like a pompous blowhard will win?” Dani cracked a grin. “That sounds fun.”

“The judges will grade your wine on a scale of 1 to 10, just like before,” Dakota explained. “To their personal taste, of course.”

“But you still didn’t address the issue of the minors drinking,” Marley pointed out.

Carly rolled his eyes. “Come on sis, we’re on a magic island where we can do whatever we want. You really think stuff like age of majority matters here?”

Marley glared at her sister. “Age of consent still matters,” she pointed out.

“I-I don’t want to drink any ****,” Ella stammered, shaking her head quickly. She had never touched a drop of **** before, because she was terrified what that would do to her existing emotional problems. And now she would have to drink HOW much of it?”

Mary looked suspiciously at Gina, but Gina shook her head. “I-I asked Vivian!” She said lamely. “And Vivian said a wine tasting was a very high-class activity! And I figured, well…”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin rolled her eyes and scoffed silently. Again, it seemed Gina hadn’t considered all the women in the harem for this little event of hers.

Vivian came to her rescue though. “Come on, Teach, you know as well as I do that a wine tasting ain’t about drinking wine, right?” She said with a laugh.

“Huh? It’s not?” Gina looked confused herself.

“But I thought we would be drinking,” Sylvia replied.

“You’re 18 too,” Marley reminded her mother. “You can’t drink either.”

Marley felt a little weird telling Sylvia that she couldn’t drink. The fact that Marley was old enough to drink **** but her mother technically was not, was rather amusing.

Sylvia puffed up her cheeks and scowled.

“Well, Teach?” Vivian’s shiny eyes stared into Amelia’s soul, and the older woman grunted in response, looking at her with a distasteful expression on her face.

“Vivian is correct,” Amelia admitted. “When tasting fine wine, you don’t traditionally drink the wine. That would be troublesome, as you would end up with a high number of **** participants. Rather, after the wine is tasted, you spit it out. Understood?”

“Oh, so we won’t be doing any drinking, then?” Morgana relaxed a little, but she still felt on edge. This wasn’t the kind of event she expected.

“High society spitting,” Dani rolled her eyes. “What will they think of next?”

“I’m in then!” Kim said. Frankly she’d been on Carly’s side about finding it unnecessarily restrictive that she couldn’t drink. Not that she’d wanted to, of course, but she would at least like the option.

Frankly the only reason she was refraining was because she was a bit of a rule-follower, and she didn’t want to get addicted to **** or **** or anything like that.

“Ella? What do you think?” Dawn turned and looked at the withdrawn girl. “Are you willing to at least try it?”

Ella gulped. “I-I guess so,” she nodded shakily. “But… it’s not like I’d be able to know what a good wine is anyway…”

“Don’t worry, Gina drinks all the time and I bet she wouldn’t, either,” Rose laughed.

Gina shot her a sharp look. “The only wine you like drinking comes out of a box,” she reminded the blonde.

“Hey! Box wine has great bang for your buck!” Rose snapped. “You’d do well to know that!”

Gina laughed. “Believe me, I know. But I think that you’ll only be able to pull out a win by trying the finest of vintages! Just you wait.”

With that, she walked over to the table and selected the first bottle that she wanted to try. She poured a bit into her sampling glass and took a sip, swishing it around in her mouth.

“There, delicious,” she said, dabbing at her lips with a napkin.

Dawn crinkled her forehead. “Gina, you’re not supposed to swallow it, remember?” She reminded the other woman.

Gina blanched.

“Oh, uh… yeah. Right. Sorry. It just tasted so good!”

“So what exactly are we supposed to be grading on, here?” Holly asked Dakota, still a little confused. “Which of the wines we like the most?”

“That’s right,” Dakota confirmed. “Once all the girls have presented you their selection, you’ll assign a numerical value to each one you taste.”

“But what if they all choose the same wine?” Mary pointed out, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She didn’t even like the taste of wine that much to begin with. “How do we choose?”

“Who says you have to choose?” Dakota asked.

Dani’s eyes widened. “Wait, so if we wanted to, we could all work together and choose the same wine, and then we’d all get the same number of points?”

Dakota nodded. “That’s absolutely something you can do,” she confirmed. “Now, is that the best course of action?”

She shrugged. “…Hard to say. If you want to play all nice and sweet and friendly, go for it. But all you’re doing is opening the door for someone else to get a better wine, and shoot above the rest of you. So do that at your own risk.”

“I’m not gonna piggyback on someone else’s decision!” Rose said adamantly. “I’m French after all! If there’s one thing I know, it’s wine!”

“I’m also gonna pick my own,” Dawn agreed. She wasn’t one for drinking, but then, she wouldn’t actually need to drink directly, would she? This way, she could pick the best flavor, and try and win for herself. Her competitive fires were burning.

Morgana and Ella both looked uncertain, and Kim looked doubtful as well, in spite of her bold attitude at the start. Sylvia, the only other person below the age of 21 in the room, was all smiles, of course, compared to Morgana and Kim.

Amelia sighed in exasperation. “I suppose… we must move forward then, shall we?” She decided, heading to go get a bottle of her own.

Vivian just laughed. “Nice event idea, Gina! Way to go!” She patted the other woman on the back as she passed by.