Time Limit

Camille

JUST A FRIEND, NOT A HOPELESS CRUSH

I nervously fiddled with the lace on my pink tulle dress.  Tonight was the masquerade ball and Lucas had asked me out. Lucas. I still hadn't gotten over the fact that I had thought he was Hayden. And said yes when he asked me to the ball. I'd made an utter fool of myself. And now I'd ruined all chances I had of dancing with Hayden. Or even more.

Hayden used to call me the Queen of Sarcasm.  I don't know why, somehow I felt completely different when I was on the phone with him. I felt like Camille 2.0, the cool, hard-to-get girl.

Oh, who was I kidding? I was a complete wreck. Hayden would find out, he wouldn't like me any more, and... and...

I sighed and stared at my reflection in the mirror. My hair was wavy and hung down just above my waist, just before the tight frilly top of my gown fanned out in gorgeous pink tulle. Violet has spent ages agonizing over whether there should be gold sequins or not. In the end, we opted for silver and I guess I did kind of look good. At the very least I'd look the part when I danced with Lucas.

Before Lucas realised what a doofus I was.

I shook off the unpleasant thoughts and turned to Violet. "My mask, please?"

———————

I headed down the hallway with a couple of PJO girls  (one of which reminded me of Samantha's sidekick Ariana— I think her name was Serena), AJ and Brooke.  It was an unspoken fact that AJ didn't like Brooke.  The PJO girls surrounded AJ and Serena while Brooke and I pretty much trailed behind them.  It reminded me of the school hallways again, when I kept trying to fight my way to the middle and miserably failing while people like Samantha effortlessly hogged the limelight.  People like Samantha and... and... 

I pushed the thoughts down.  It was all over- I was at Fandom Academie now.  But those voices -Samantha's, and the other... kept echoing in my head: "oh, hey, Camille," while her followers giggled.  Her look of disgust as she saw my twice-inspired outfit at the class party.  "Camille, what on earth are you doing?!" when I tried to play kpop at that same party.  And the worst memory of all...

I was a failure, I was a wreck.  Lucas would hate me and then politely excuse himself; I'd sit down all alone and watch Hayden dancing with some other girl, that Serena maybe, who would bat her inch-long eyelids and he would completely forget me...

I caught myself.  Hayden liked me as a friend, that was all.  Why should I care if he danced with anyone else?

I looked at Brooke, walking in silence beside me.

"Are you excited about this?" I asked her, kind of awkwardly.

"No," she said flatly.

Okay, I had never met anyone this unwilling to speak.  I turned back to my thoughts of Hayden.

"You're probably worried your date will dump you, right?"

Wait wha-

I turned to Brooke who was grinning wickedly.  "You are worried, aren't you?  It's pretty obvious, you know."

I flushed.  "No, no... I mean, well, kinda."

Brooke laughed.  "I knew it.  You don't have to worry, though.  You're a cute, perky blonde.  I'm the one who has to worry about AJ or one of her friends sashaying in and stealing my date before I can say Hogwarts."