54 Social Week (3)

I nodded as this was the one thing I wasn't going to give up on.

"Are you really sure?" Alex asked me again with irritation clearly present in his voice this time while Luke was almost becoming speechless again.

"Yup," I confidently answered as Cillian and Henry desperately tried to hold their laughter in.

I had two more hours to spend at this event. I wasn't going to torture myself in shoes I knew I couldn't walk in. My presence here was clearly not helping Luke as Alex talked for him while he clearly seemed dismayed.

"Since it seems my presence is not required anymore, I'll head toward the dessert table." I tried to escape from Luke's group of friends.

Luke suddenly grabbed my wrist, "No, your presence is still required here."

'Meaning, don't you leave my sight,' I thought.

"Yes, we have been wanting to meet you for a quite a long time." Henry added.

"We have heard about you from my school as well," Another person joined in.

"My school as well!" Another person walked up to us.

"You mean the incident of how Charles and I accidentally entered the sixth district?" I asked to see how up to date they were.

"No, I meant how you were the first student in our circle to skip class." The person replied while looking astonished from my question.

It looked like even Cillian and Henry didn't know as they stopped smiling from shock. Luke stiffly smiled as he pretended to not hear anything while Alex started to look in another direction.

"It was a joke?" I tried to fix my blunder.

However, it was clear that none of Luke's friends believed me as they already seen the reaction of Alex and Luke to my 'joke'.

"Where are your partners?" I asked to attempt to switch to another topic.

"Out in the terrace," Cillian answered.

"Then I'll go join them," I suggested to Luke.

"No, it's about time we go to the next event scheduled for us." Luke tried to excuse himself from his group of friends.

"I thought we were supposed to stay here for another hour from looking at the original schedule," I whispered to Luke while I chose to walk barefoot.

"We're going to the next event earlier than planned," Luke waited for our hover car to come down.

Once we were inside the hover car that was on its route to our next event, Luke started his lecture.

"I know you never attended these kinds of events before, but I thought you would know the proper etiquette of the first district by now," Luke grabbed my shoulders.

I did know the proper etiquette of the first district, but I couldn't possibly perform them in those shoes!

"You try wearing these shoes!" I complained to Luke as I pointed to the heels in the dress shoes.

Luke sighed when we were near the next mansion that was grander than the previous event. Unexpectedly, Luke tore off the heels on the bottom of the dress shoes. "Is this good enough?"

I tried on the dress shoes again to see that it was much better than before, "Yea."

I grabbed Luke's hand when I got out of the hover car to find Ben standing at the entrance of the ballroom that was much greater than the previous mansion. Grand white chandeliers decorated the ceiling with no signs of a typical buffet table in the middle of the venue.

A great orchestra played classical music for guests to enjoy and famous performers were invited to show off great illusions through dancing and singing.

"Thank you for coming to my event," Ben greeted the couple before us.

"Hey Rika!" Ben brightly smiled at me after the couple went into the ballroom.

"Are you the host here?" I asked.

If Ben was the host, this meant that this was one of his family's mansions. I wondered if I could find some games and light novels here just like his villa.

'Maybe I should sneak out of the ballroom later to see if there's any room like Ben's villa,' I thought.

"Yea, thanks for coming." Ben sheepishly replied while his partner greeted Luke.

"I heard alot about you Rika!" A girl wearing a simple white gown brilliantly smiled.

"You are?" I asked from her sudden friendly greeting.

"My name is Alice Nuelle Carsen." Alice grabbed both of my hands.

She was Ben's partner! The mysterious partner of Ben that I never got to see. Unfortunately, we couldn't continue the conversation when Ben noticed the long line of guests behind us.

"We'll have to talk later together," Ben apologized to us.

"Lunch is served in a separate dining quarter on the second floor," Luke said to me while I searched for the familiar buffet table.

"Rika!" Ellen greeted me once she noticed Luke and I entering the ballroom.

"How many events did you go to before this?" I asked with great curiosity.

"This is actually our first event," Ellen replied with a bit of shame in her voice.

"It's ok, this is actually our second event," I tried to console Ellen.

"Isn't this way too early for it to be your second event?" Allan joined our conversation.

"Things happened in our last event," Luke smiled dazzlingly in response.

From our last event, I learned that the brighter and stiffer Luke's smile got, the more trouble I was in. This meant that Luke was still enraged from the last event. Both Allan and Ellen nodded like they indirectly knew what Luke was talking about.

"Well, I'll stay here with Ellen so you can mingle with Allan and his friends," I glanced at the spot that Allan stood before coming to greet us.

Since I was with Ellen this time, Luke hesitantly followed Allan as he introduced Luke to his friends. Two floors made up the ballroom. Guests could dine on the second floor while looking at the first floor to see an inflow of more guests entering the ballroom.

"Want to go to the second floor?" I asked Ellen as I planned to sneak out of the ballroom.

"Sure, I haven't been to the second floor yet." Ellen innocently replied unaware of my plans.

We walked up the stairs to go to the second floor.

"There isn't much to see here," I mumbled to myself as it was filled with elegant dining tables and chairs.

"Well, it is the dining quarters where they'll be serving lunch." Ellen nonchalantly muttered.

The dining area was empty except for waiters and waitresses placing utensils and napkins on the tables to prepare for lunch.

"Hey, what's that?" I asked when I spotted a closed off area at the edge of dining area.

"Probably where the staff go up and down between the floors," Ellen casually guessed.

I leaned closer against the railings to study the closed off area as I wondered if the closed off area was actually a way to enter the other parts of Ben's mansion. The railings were tall as the height of my shoulders. I was confident that I could lean even further to find an opening to enter the closed off space since it was an arm's length away.

"Rika!" Ellen yelled when I found myself unexpectedly falling from the second floor from a wide space between the bars of the railing.

'Huh?' I thought as the guests stopped their conversations to watch a girl suddenly falling from the second floor.

I felt the time slowdown in the air as the wind whooshed into my ears. My neatly arranged hair was above the corner of my eyes before I looked down to find Ellen quickly running down the stairs with great panic. I opened and closed my eyes until I found myself caught by one of the dancers on the stage when I expected to land on the hard floor.

"My mistake?" I awkwardly explained to the dancer as the choreography was interrupted from my sudden appearance.

When I looked down from the stage, I found all the guests looking up at the stage with great wonder and curiosity.

Ben and Alice now stood in the edge of the ballroom frozen from shock instead of continuing to greet the incoming guests. Meanwhile, Luke hung his head down in despair while Allan and his friends tried to console him.

Instead of going down from the stage, I danced some steps of ballet that I learned in kindergarten and elementary school. But, all the other dancers stood there unmoving from the surprise.

After I finished a simple solo without any music from the orchestra, I bowed to the audience while the dancers and singers watched me in wonder, "Thank you for watching this play."