It was down in yon green valley, she is my heart's delight

After a short but intense series of courtships, it was time for the judges to calculate just how many points each of the girls received for their performances.

For Nick in particular this one was difficult. All the girls had tried their hardest. And unlike with introductions or table manners, this was something he was familiar with- how the girls approached love.

It was easier for the other girls, the ones who’d courted the other judges. When he was on the outside, looking in, he could judge things a little more objectively. But when he was the target of their confessions, it became a little trickier.

How should I rank them? How can I score them?! They were all doing their best, choosing one of them to be ranked higher than the others, that… no way!

It put him in a very awkward position. He wanted to be as generous as he could to all of their efforts, because he loved them all in their own ways. Maybe not going as far as Mary and giving all 10s, but he was going to be considerate of their feelings.

He took a deep breath, and exhaled, and began to write down his assessments, trying to be as clinical as possible when he factored in the criteria for the categories, such as when the girls had stumbled, or were a little too blunt.

This was the hardest event to score yet, by far. He wondered if the other judges were having nearly this much trouble as he was. But judging by how fast he heard them scratching on their own papers, he doubted that was the case.

Somehow, though, he managed to get it all down.

Dakota was quite pleased.

“And with this, it looks like we’ve got all the results finalized!” She declared, turning to the square where all the guests were standing. “Let’s take a look at our scores, shall we? There’s only one event left after this one, so this might just be the deciding contest! Will anyone be eliminated from the running? Or is the race going to get even tighter?!”

She was definitely enjoying this. With a flick of her cane, she summoned up a large black screen again, and everyone gathered around to see the names reorganize and the scores adjust.

Amelia – 8, 7, 7, 7, 7 – 36

Vivian – 7, 6, 7, 6, 8 – 34

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 1, 10, 7, 2, 10 – 30

Cinder – 6, 7, 8, 8, 7 – 36

Kim – 7, 8, 8, 9, 9 – 41

Dani – 4, 9, 8, 6, 7 = 34

Carly – 6, 7, 8, 7, 6 = 34

Marley – 8, 7, 9, 8, 7 – 39

Rose – 8, 7, 9, 6, 5 – 35

Morgana – 7, 9, 8, 10, 9 – 43

Dawn – 6, 7, 8, 6, 7 – 34

Sylvia – 7, 8, 8, 10, 9 – 42

Gina – 9, 7, 8, 8, 5 – 37

The results were quite a surprise. There were a lot of high scores for this contest, in no small part due to Nick’s very generous rankings.

“Whoa!” Morgana’s eyes widened. “I-I got so many points!” She certainly hadn’t been expecting that, to say the least.

Rose was less enthused. She sighed. “Well… I suppose there aren’t enough connoisseurs of true cinema among the judges,” she said with a sniff, turning up her nose.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was also not very happy. She scowled, tightening her lips into a thin line as she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip to the side.

Cinder scowled too. “36 points… is that a lot? Or a little?” She wasn’t sure what she felt about this result. Not that she cared anyway!

“There were quite a lot of interesting scores,” Dakota pointed out, tapping her cheek. “Would anyone on the judging panel care to share their thoughts on some of these… discrepancies?”

“I don’t see anything wrong with how Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin tried to court Nick,” Holly said bluntly. “And I’m not changing my mind, either.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had definitely been the frontrunner for most of the evening. But she’d hit a major stumbling block this round, getting by far the lowest score. Nick felt bad, but he couldn’t exactly blame Octavia and Mary for their scores. She was lucky that she’d gotten any points at all with that performance!

As for Gina…

“I… I got that many?” She asked quietly. She looked over at Octavia, fighting back the urge to tear up. Compared to the other girls, her score wasn’t that high. But what mattered most to her, even more than the points Nick had given her, were the 9 points she’d gotten from Octavia.

The butler said nothing, her lips tightened into a crisp line as she met the gaze of the teary-eyed girl.

As for Vivian…

“You gave her 9 points?!” Vivian had to fight back her outburst of frustration. She hadn’t had that many issues with Gina attempting to court Octavia, but seeing how highly her butler had scored her…

“Marley, Dani, you guys did so great!” Carly congratulated both women. “Especially you, Dani! Who did you even court? Serenity?”

Dani blushed. “I, um… I…”

“She went for Holly of all people,” Kim chirped, earning her a flustered glare from the tomboy. “It was so cool!”

“Talk about low hanging fruit,” Marley teased. “How hard could it be, courting her?”

“It definitely paid off for you,” Carly noted, taking stock of Holly’s high score of Dani’s performance. “Got her all flustered, did you?”

Dani blushed and nodded sheepishly.

“Mary, you were so generous!” Sylvia cooed, her eyes shining with excitement. “A whopping 10 out of 10! You’re so sweet!”

Mary blushed and looked away, the memory of what Sylvia whispered to her still hot in her ears.

“It was quite a surprising score indeed,” Dakota nodded, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “The surprise factor definitely must have played a role in that. So Mary, what did she say to you? You can tell the rest of the class.”

Amelia looked sharply at the host, and Sylvia stiffened, her face turning pale.

“N-no, I… I think… I’ll keep that private for now,” Mary stammered, averting her eyes. She wasn’t going to betray Sylvia’s confidence like that.

Dakota frowned, disappointed. “…Well, fine then,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Let’s move on then! Looking at these new scores, it’s time to factor in the totals! Let’s see how many points you all made together, shall we?”

She waved her cane, and the screen reoriented itself, revealing the total scores of all the girls as they were recalculated.

These results were even more surprising than the last, to everyone but Dawn, who had already calculated the results. Her surprise at that had been why she’d kept her mouth shut this whole time in the first place.

Because it definitely wasn’t an outcome anybody had expected.

Amelia – 114 + 36 = 150

Vivian – 116 + 34 = 150

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 118 + 30 = 148

Cinder – 113 + 36 = 149

Kim – 109 + 41 = 150

Dani – 117 + 34 = 151

Carly – 116 + 34 = 150

Marley – 110 + 39 = 149

Rose – 115 + 35 = 150

Morgana – 105 + 43 = 148

Dawn – 115 + 34 = 149

Sylvia – 107 + 42 = 149

Gina – 112 + 37 = 149

Another major revelation on the scores. Seeing how everything added up together, Nick was surprised. He hadn’t planned it out this way, but everyone’s scores were very closely packed together. It seemed like everything was going to come down to this last event.

“That’s… whoa,” he stammered, shaking his head.

Dakota smirked. “Yes, ‘whoa’ is right,” she agreed. “Don’t you like those new totals, everyone? Quite exciting, wouldn’t you think?”

“There are a lot of 150s,” Kim noted. “Like… a lot of them.”

“Let’s see, Amelia, Vivian, Kim, Carly, and Rose are all at 150,” Marley counted out. “And then Cinder, myself, Dawn, Sylvia, and Gina all have 149, too.”

“Yeah, the scores are almost completely even across the board,” Gina noted with curiosity. “That’s pretty lucky!”

“Yeah, almost a little too lucky,” Kim sniffed, looking over at Dakota suspiciously. “You think that was planned?”

“Not everything is a conspiracy, my girl,” Sylvia said, rolling her eyes. “You think Dakota would be able to rig the scores the judges provided? I certainly couldn’t do that when I was the host.”

“Not that we know of, anyway,” Dani pointed out, earning her a look from Sylvia.

“I didn’t.”

“I know, I’m messing with you,” the tomboy scoffed. “Regardless, Kim raises a good point, it’s pretty interesting that all the scores just happen to fall pretty darn close to the 150 point range,” she noted suspiciously.

“Yeah, but I think it’s a good thing that it turned out this way!” Carly pointed out. “With the scores arranged like that, it means that everybody’s really close together! And look, Dani, you’re even in first place.”

True, Dani was in first place by just a hair. At 151 points, she was the highest rank… even if it was pretty stiff competition.

Morgana sighed and slumped her shoulders. “I’m still at the bottom, though,” she said somberly. “148 points… still, that’s pretty close.”

“It’s incredibly close,” Dawn assured her. “You’re only 3 points behind Dani, who’s in first.”

“And not only that, you’re tied with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin,” Gina pointed out. “She was really high up in the previous round, don’t forget!”

True, Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had plunged from the top to the very bottom, even if only slightly. The fact that she was still in the running after the disastrous score she’d gotten in the last event spoke to just how well she’d managed to pad out her points in the previous ones.

She still wasn’t satisfied with that, though.

“I’m glad it shook out this way,” Dakota murmured, tapping her cheek. She had a sly smile on her face and the gleam of her golden eyes made Nick suspicious as to whether or not Kim’s suspicions of this all being rigged might have some merit after all.

And he was one of the judges! If anyone knew it was an absurd assertion, it was him. And yet Dakota just had that way about her that inspired suspicion.

Still… the glee on her face was something else. She seemed to be really enjoying herself, like this was a really fancy party that she was thrilled to attend herself.

Even if she was separated from the others…

Nick shook his head, dismissing those concerns. Right now, he needed to focus on Gina, because she was the one who was hosting this party. And judging by her behavior, she was rather thrilled by the whole thing.

“So what are we going to do now?” Dawn asked. She wasn’t trying to sound impatient, but there was only one event left, and things were getting close. She could already feel her ears twitching. Her competitive instincts were starting to flare up again.

“Didn’t Dakota say something about how we’re going to be doing these last two events back to back?” Rose questioned. Like Dawn, she was **** to get to the last event of the evening herself- she was only 1 point behind Dani, and she needed to make it up however she could.

“That’s exactly right,” Dakota confirmed with a nod. “We’ll be moving onto the last event of the evening shortly… assuming there are no objections from the lovely young lady playing host tonight, of course?” She turned to Gina with an amused expression on her face.

Gina stiffened. “Huh? Me? Why would I have any objections? I’m having a blast!”

“Well good!” Dakota chirped. “So I take it to mean that tonight has met your standards perfectly, in that case?”

The punk girl blushed. “W-well… not everything is perfect,” she stammered, shaking her head. “But this party has been pretty good… right, Amelia?”

She looked hopefully at the older woman, but all she received in return was a blank expression from the teacher.

“Why are you asking me that?” Amelia inquired, putting Gina on pause.

“…Huh?”

“This is your party after all,” she pointed out. “My opinion is irrelevant.”

She may have been trying to tell Gina not to worry about what she thought, but the way it appeared to Gina, she was saying that there was nothing she needed to say about it.

Which wasn’t a good thing…

Gina blanched, and then quickly her eyes leapt to the judge’s table.

“…I only got a 9,” she admitted, scratching her head. “So I guess… there’s still a little I could be doing better…”

“Oh come on, are you seriously trotting out Octavia’s assessment? Like it means something?” Vivian crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at the other girl. “Because, guess what? It doesn’t mean anything!”

“…You say that, and yet it seems like you’re the one who wants her approval more than anyone,” Carly pointed out with an amused smirk.

Morgana winced. “Carly’s… not wrong,” she mumbled.

Vivian’s eye twitched. “Octavia wasn’t grading your whole party you know!” She stated. “She was just grading your courtship skills! So maybe you managed to seduce her? Well, um… no, that’s not it at all, she was just respecting how… respectful you were!”

Nick was astounded by Vivian’s behavior. She was showing everyone something he could only consider a tantrum.

And it was like she didn’t even care.

“Miss Carrington, I think you would do well to keep such thoughts to yourself,” Amelia sternly rebuked the other girl.

Vivian sulked, and was tempted to throw the other woman’s words back in her face, but she refrained. She wasn’t going to get anywhere like this. So she took a deep breath and straightened her hair, and then smiled.

“Gina, your party is just splendid,” she informed the punk girl. “There’s no reason to doubt yourself, and you certainly have no need to seek vindication from other people.”

Gina blinked. “You really think so?”

Vivian rolled her eyes and smiled in amusement. “The point is that it doesn’t matter what I think,” the heiress reminded her. “But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here… there’s only one event left, isn’t that right?”

“That’s right!” Sylvia nodded excitedly. “And it’s a really fun and exciting one, too! You all are totally going to love it, my girls!”

Somehow, Dani wasn’t so sure about that. But the last one had gone okay.

“It’s not going to be a super-embarrassing challenge like the last one, right?” Morgana asked worriedly. She glanced over at Cinder. Like Ella, the latina stood separate from the others. But where Ella had oozed uncertainty, doubt, and shyness, the only thing emanating from Cinder was an aura of outright hostility.

When Cinder saw Morgana was looking at her, her expression tightened into an even deeper glare in response.

Morgana froze.

“Cinder, what about you?” Gina turned to the other girl, not intimidated by her outward edge. She’d lived a life full of sharp edges herself.

Cinder was alarmed by the other woman approaching her, and threw up her guard.

“What do you mean, ‘what about me’ eh?” She spat, narrowing her eyes into a glare. “Mind your own business.”

“I’m sorry if I’m being too nosy,” Gina apologized, flashing a good-natured smile. It looked crooked and out of place on her lips. “But I was concerned about Ella before. And since you’re here now, I wanted to make sure you were doing fine, before we moved onto the last event.”

She could see now why Dakota had asked her to take a moment and consider everything. After all, that was one of her duties, right? To make sure everybody was having a good time. If she wanted a successful party, that was the bare minimum.

And Cinder didn’t seem like she was having a good time. Not at all.

Cinder looked darkly at the punk girl, not sure what to say. “…I’m not a party person,” she spat. “So what I’m feeling doesn’t really matter.”

The aura of hostility surrounding her was a good ward against most things. But Gina wasn’t fazed by it.

“…Just tell me anyway,” she said. “If you’re upset about your score from the last event-”

“I don’t care about my score!” Cinder snapped, her cheeks flushing. “Why would I be bothered by something like that, anyway!? You think I care about courting that… that puta?!”

Rose tittered. “Certainly seems like she’s protesting quite a bit, no?”

“Rose, you’re not helping right now,” Dani said, shaking her head. “We’re trying to get her to relax and have fun with the rest of us.”

“You’re not going to ‘get’ me to do anything,” Cinder replied, turning her ire to Dani next. “Like I said, I don’t care about the event, or my score.”

Vivian was unconvinced. “If you don’t care, then why did you try so hard to court Nick back there, hmmm?” She asked.

Cinder’s cheeks flushed. “I-I didn’t!” She replied. “You consider that trying hard?!”

“Yep. And don’t try to deny it! Amelia and I saw the whole thing! And not to mention Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, right?” She turned to the slender assassin. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded in confirmation of Vivian’s testimony.

Cinder was trapped.

“…That was… for Ella’s sake,” she finally replied. “I’m not going to let myself be fooled by something so stupid! That would just be dumb!”

She followed that with a few choice words in spanish that Nick pretended he didn’t understand, for the sake of Cinder’s score. He didn’t want to deduct any points for her swearing.

But she certainly had a mouth on her.

Gina was familiar with that. But she was also familiar with people who lashed out in frustration towards others, and knew that pushing Cinder further would backfire severely.

“Okay then,” she nodded. “Then you’re fine with us going onto the next event? You’re not upset or anything?” She asked.

“Of course not!” Cinder snapped, crossing her arms defensively. “I’ll handle the next event just as well as I took care of this one!”

“That’s the spirit!” Dakota chirped. “I’m glad to hear you say that, because the last event of the evening is a dance!”

And just like that, Cinder turned pale as a sheet.

“…What?”