The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

By the time the dismissal bell rang for school, almost every heart was fluttering with anticipation of the night to come. Girls couldn't wait to scramble back to their dorm to the beautiful dresses or flashy tuxedos awaiting them. Guys couldn't wait for the night to end so that they could throw off their tuxedos and their partner's clothes as well. Everyone was in a frenzy, all because of some simple dance, even Ember was rushing to get back to her dorm. Nobody would have thought that the girl who loved getting her hands and knees caked in dirt would also love attending dances. She was well aware it didn't exactly quite fit her personality which was why she kept her excitement on the down low. Such a task was simple all throughout the day, but now that she was nearing her dorm, a little skip was in her steps and a wide smile was growing across her face. This was the first dance she would be attending since middle school. Her mind was a little foggy, but from what she could remember from seventh grade, there was food, a DJ, and an endless amount of dancing. She was sure that a high school dance would be ten times, if not twenty times, better than a middle school one. Her high hopes for the dance made her walk even faster. It took her a total of six minutes to get to her dorm. On a regular day, it took her ten, but, of course, today was a special day for her, so slowly trudging to her dorm was out of the question. That constant speed walking of hers came to a slow as she eyed a lengthy dry cleaners bag hanging on her door knob. Thinking that the article of clothing had been delivered to the wrong dorm, she thumbed the shiny gold tag hanging off of it. As she read the writing on the tag, the smile on her face grew so wide that her cheekbones began to ache.

"Love: Landon, Jared, Casper, and Princess," She read it out loud a second time, her voice full of excitement.

Her eyes snagged onto the eraser marks under the name 'Princess'. She brought the tag closer to her face in an attempt to figure out what had originally been written. The faint scrawl of an 'R' and 'e' was able to be made out in the smudged pencil. She carefully ripped the tag off, intending to keep it. She then slipped into her dorm, eager to try on the dress. Her hands slightly shook with nerves as she took the zipper between her fingers, dragging it down to reveal the dress hidden in the bag. Those nerves of hers dissipated to make way for the pure happiness swallowing her heart. There was no room for any other feeling, not when such a beautiful dress was gifted to her. It was a thin-strapped ivy-green dress that was covered in a faint pattern of roses outlined in white. The white outline shone when she tilted it in the direction of the light on her ceiling. Without a doubt, this dress cost more than all the clothes Ember had in her closet. If it weren't for the High-tiers, she wouldn't currently be running her hand down the soft fabric of the dress, imagining how it would feel to put it on. Instead, she would be frowning at the ugly brown dress that she would have been forced to wear, as it was the only dress she owned. Thankfully, she could attend the dance in a dress that was suitable for the occasion rather than a dress that looked like something a mother would force their child to wear for a school photo because it would make them look 'so grown up!'.

    "Oh, shit!" Ember exclaimed, "What the hell am I doing? I gotta yell at those idiots for spending their money on this damn thing!"

    Sure, she may have been overjoyed that the High-tiers cared enough about her to take their time in buying her dress, but she wasn't exactly comfortable with them spending their money on her. That was exactly why she was hell-bent on making sure those four never did something like this again. Her plan was one that went out the window when all of them answered the group FaceTime call. Before she could voice her displeasure with them sending her the dress, they all started excitedly chattering away.

    "Did you get the dress? I'm assuming you did since you called us! Do you like it, hate it, or love it? Please say it's the last one!" Landon slurred his words due to how fast he was speaking.