Chapter 12: Who’s Available Tonight?

*Samuel*

I gritted my teeth together and tried my best to ignore the blur of white and gold that was at the corner of my eye.

What was wrong with me? It was none of my business, but just now, when the boy put his arm around Ellie’s slim shoulders and pulled her against his side briefly, I couldn’t help but walk over to intervene, because it was obvious that she wasn’t that excited about the little trinkets that were being sold.

I felt my annoyance flair, thinking about how obvious the boy was being about his feelings. It was painfully clear that he had romantic feelings toward Ellie. And even though she had stealthily dodged his advances, I couldn’t help but wonder if she harbored similar sentiments toward the boy.

It could be that she just didn’t want to show affection in a public space. And that thought just made me clench my fists.

I took a deep breath and slightly shook my head. It was none of my business.

The only explanation I could come up with was that Ellie Collins was a talented and innocent young lady. So wasn’t it only natural for a professor to care about his top students? Wasn’t that what any decent professor would want?

I would love to help her succeed. If everything went the way I planned, she could eventually become a great asset to my business.

A win-win situation for both of us.

“Seems like all the clubs have gone above and beyond again this year,” Vincent caught up to me and commented as we perused the booths.

“Looks like so,” I agreed. A couple of colleagues who were also enjoying the Edenbrook Academy Gala walked by and nodded to us as greetings.

The majority of the professors saw the event as a way for our students to express themselves and to take a much-needed break from their normal coursework. The kids needed to be able to collaborate with one another. The skill would serve them well when they joined the rest of us in society.

“The debate club in particular seems to have taken advantage of their resources,” he continued.

The two of us just left the debate club display, which consisted of a full tournament between its couple dozen members. There was also a booth on the side where you could challenge some members in a debate. I was surprised by how popular that part of the display was. Edenbrook Academy appeared to have many argumentative students.

And of course, Penny Scranton certainly knew how to keep the male audience engaged.

Vincent leaned close. “By the way, what did you say to the girl just now? She looked panicked for a moment, and then her face turned bright red.”

“Just wished her good luck.”

Vincent’s eyes widened. “Wait, what? You walked over to speak to a female student just to wish her good luck? Something isn’t right.” He thought for a moment. “Who’s her dad? I didn’t know you were looking for a new business partnership…”

Well, Vincent and I were well aware that there were perks associated with teaching at Edenbrook Academy. The parents of the students here were the wealthiest, most influential people in the area. It would be much easier to approach those parents worth multi-millions or multi-billions as their child's professor when it came to business collaboration.

That was why each of the big families would at least have someone stationed in the school. It was just a way to expand and strengthen our network, which was one of the major factors in my decision to join the faculty besides my mother’s death wish.

However, Vincent obviously misunderstood Ellie’s situation.

“Vincent, she is on full scholarship.”

He stared at me like I was crazy. He looked toward Ellie’s direction and pondered aloud, “Ah, I remember. That’s the girl who came to your office hours the other day, right?”

“Yes, so?” I nodded, clearing my throat in what I hoped was a careless way.

Vincent hummed thoughtfully. “She’s quite pretty…”

I turned my head sharply, my eyes narrowing. “What are you trying to say?”

Most people didn’t know that when Vincent Lewis was outside of Edenbrook, he was a heartbreaker playboy who owned a couple dozen bars, restaurants, and clubs, including Neon Dreams.

He chuckled, clapping me on the shoulder. “Relax, Samuel. I was just wondering whether you were thinking about recruiting her after graduation.”

I took a deep breath in, wondering why I was so high-strung. Perhaps I too just wanted the performance tonight to go well.

I went over Ellie’s plan in my head, impressed by her vision, her tenacity, and her ability to gather resources at a moment’s notice.

“Should we make our way to the theater club stage then?” Vincent asked, gesturing to the other side of the large room to a curtained-off section. A crowd was already forming in that area as we approached the appointed performance time.

I nodded and the two of us strode toward the tall black curtain that stretched from floor to ceiling. As if we were in a real theater, a couple of club members dressed in black dress pants and white button-ups led us to two seats toward the front so we had a spectacular view of the large wooden stage.

I looked around at the sectioned-off area surrounded by thick black curtains. It had to be larger than Riverstone Theater, which was a bit ridiculous to me, but far from surprising. This was Edenbrook Academy afterall.

A familiar pair of eyes parted the curtain briefly and peeked out at the quickly forming crowd. Ellie’s caramel-colored eyes scanned the crowd from a thin slit in the curtain. She didn’t seem aware that people could clearly see her. Although, perhaps I was one of the few that was paying her any mind at all.

Then, as if she sensed my gaze, her eyes focused on me and I watched them widen. I smirked at her and winked, causing her eyes to quickly disappear and the curtain to fall shut once again.

Once the plush theater seats were completely filled about ten minutes later, the curtains parted revealing an impressively painted background of a fantasy forest with pastel-colored trees and soft, romantic lighting.

A pair of students dressed as gnomes crossed the stage, causing a light chuckle to flow over the audience. They served as the narrators, setting the scene for a love story between two fairies from different societies that were currently at war.

The narrators explained that two fairy lovers will meet in secret before a huge, epic battle breaks out.

I was unsurprised when Ellie appeared onstage, playing the role of the female lead fairy. A boy from her club joined her and they began their rendezvous as soft music began to play. They danced together, twisting and curling and taking light, artful steps on stage. I was surprised that it wasn’t that blond boy from earlier.

I couldn’t press down an upcurl of my mouth. He missed a good opportunity then.

After an elegant, romantic dance, Ellie and her fake love interest parted, each rushing to opposite sides of the stage. The music changed, morphing into an epic, base-heavy battle song. I knew that was the real highlight of the show.

A dozen or so fairy warriors barrelled onto the stage, dressed in bright-colored armor of purple and light shades of blue. They wielded long wooden staffs decorated with vine patterns.

The fairy warriors began to fight in time with the music, their steps well-timed as they danced toward each other and swung their fake weapons.

This was when the first special effect occurred.

No one else would notice Ellie’s subtle signal since I was likely the only one who was paying attention to her right now. She tugged on her ear lightly and glanced briefly toward the backstage area, where the tech crew undoubtedly lurked, awaiting their cue.

As soon as she gave the signal, fog began to pour over the stage, building an eerie atmosphere and obscuring parts of the stage as the actors continued to dance and spin. Lights began to flash quickly, giving the illusion of rapid movement and action.

The audience cheered as the special effects began to materialize.

Ellie was the one who had carefully sifted through the script and rented expensive theater equipment, such as soundboards and professional lighting in order to create these effects. She even had one of the students in their tech crew obtain a temporary license in pyrotechnics so that they could add small, simple fire effects to the more climactic scenes.

I marveled at the girl’s leadership and planning. She could have made it easier on herself by hiring professionals to do all the effects, instead of rush-training the students to do it, but she had insisted that the entire show be completely run by students of the theater club for the consideration of cost and club skillset development. I admired that greatly.

When one of the fairy leaders was struck down by a powerful attack, accompanied by a brief fire show, the whole room roared with excitement.

It wasn’t just the added, expensive effects that carried the show. The director of the show had obviously put a lot of thoughts behind it to make it look as real as possible. The death scene was touching and even brought some of the audience around me to tears.

The whole show was only a half hour and the entire room seemed in awe at how much action and effects were added in that short amount of time.

When the curtains fell, the entire room erupted in boisterous applause.

There was a standing ovation as the drapes rose again to reveal the theater club, who all bowed as one as they basked in the praise. Baskets of rose petals lined the rows of seats, and many people tossed handfuls of flower petals onto the actors and actresses.

I stood up as well and clapped for the theater club. Ellie was grinning in relief in the center of the club members, where she belonged in my opinion.

Almost immediately after the show, the entire gala was ushered out of the theater and to the main stage where the awards would be given out. We stood around the dark stage as the dean of the school pulled out a golden envelope, the winning clubs enclosed inside.

Mr. James P. Harrison was a frail old man who had to be in his nineties, but he was one of the most quick-witted men I'd ever known, always cracking jokes and giving sage advice.

He pushed his tiny spectacles up his nose and opened the envelope with slightly shaking fingers.

"I'd first like to thank each and every one of you for making the fifty-second Edenbrook Academy Gala one to remember," he said as he ripped the envelope's seal. "No matter which club is named the winner this year, it is my deepest hope that you will all acknowledge the hard work you did leading up to tonight."

I could feel the impatience flowing through the room as the old man slowly removed the single note card-sized page from the envelope.

"The winner of this year's Edenbrook Academy Gala is…" He paused and squinted at the name of the undoubtedly anxious winner. "...the Theater Club!"

There was about a half second of silence as the room took that information in. The reaction that immediately followed was even more explosive than the end of the theater club's play.

It seemed as if the whole gala was thrilled by the announcement, obviously especially the theater club themselves who ran up the stage with Ellie in the lead.

They jumped for joy on the stage, causing me to briefly fear for the structural integrity of the expensive stage.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from Ellie's face as she accepted the award. She was absolutely stunning in her white fairy dress with gold trim. Her heart-shaped face was glowing, and her smooth lips completely curved upward as she smiled widely. Her near, light brown curls bounced as she ran to high-five the rest of her team.

Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears, making the color extra warm and vibrant.

And that made my heart stutter in my chest.

I wanted to pull her into my arms.

Groaning internally, I turned on my heels to leave, afraid that if I stayed there longer, I wouldn’t be able to keep my distance from her after this.

The way she looked stirred up something inside me. It was dark but intense. I needed to do something about it.

I pulled out my phone and dialed a number. A sweet voice answered at the second ring.

“Master, what can I do for you?”

“Send me who’s available tonight. I would like to book an appointment.”