La Serenissima

Il Ballo del Doge

Music swirled around her in a blast, making her dizzy like she was on a tilt-o-whirl at an American carnival. In fact though, she was far from the dance floor and the Nicoletti family had only just stepped inside the old palace with Benedetto and Silvana leading the way and Gianna becoming her Carnevale dictator self that everyone had gotten a dose of over the week.

Ally had spent the entire day being made into a White Queen...and when she said White Queen, she put emphasis on white. Vittoria had sprayed her hair white, Gianna handled her incredibly beautiful white gown and Paola was painting her skin, nails and face white. The only true color on her body was the deep ruby on her lips, and they wouldn't even be seen behind her custom volto mask. While she was personally convinced that the red lips were unnecessary and no one would really be seeing them anyhow, her host sisters and even Silvana thought otherwise.

She looked around the elegant foyer, feeling extremely small next to the larger than life statues and even bigger frescos on the wall. They depicted the whole history of the fallen Kingdom, from its start through its battles and even to its fall. It was a time when Ally wished she could've been a fly on the wall to see the city in its hay day and she was instantly lost in the murals as her eyes drifted across, ignoring her family she was with as they moved to the opposite side of the lobby. While they headed towards the stairs, she was backing up and inspecting the paintings with a fine eye.

"Aletta," Silvana called her name and she turned, only to be met with not only her host mother, but her Lost King - Austin.

Taking a deep breath, Ally stepped back into her place, thankful her mask was hiding all her emotions behind it. He looked amazing, which she wasn't surprised at, she was just taken aback at how good he could look inside a costume. His own volto mask covered his face and topped with a silver crown, matching her own on her head. A red sash crossed his upper body under his cape, almost matching her lips that were hidden. She heard him greet her and as much as she wanted to leap forward and hug him tight, telling him that she had missed him this past week - but she didn't. She wouldn't.

It wasn't long before her white robe was shed and Gianna lined everyone up in two straight lines, with Austin positioned close to her. She had done a practice run earlier in the day, upon Gianna's insistence and knew how this went. Her court would walk ahead of her, all in off white suits and dresses, while she and her Lost King would make their royal arrival. They would be at the top of the grandeur staircase and the court would part, letting the reigning monarchs look over their 'subjects'. Yes, this was all from the mind of Gianna Maria Nicoletti. All of it.

Ally would do it, even if she didn't want to. In all honesty, she wanted to do one of two things - run away as far as she could from Austin and bury herself even further into university work before her graduation came and her job was secured, or she wanted to tear off both of their masks and show him just what she wanted to happen after the last ball. If only she was braver...and either way, it would completely screw up Gianna's vision.

Ally had taken on a temp T.A. position and flat lined more university students hopes of getting better marks on their papers than they truly deserved. While the students argued with her and pleaded and gave her the poorest excuses about why their papers were late or unsatisfactory, she was most times in a daydream; a wonderful daydream that had his lips on her and his hands all over her body. She was never craved someone before, it was all new to her and instead of that energy doing just that, it was being wasted on fifty or so thirty page papers all in Italian.