Seacombe Halpworth Annual Winter Ball

[NPC]

Once the crowds had finished filtering through into the main room, the announcer from before took the stage as the band finished up their number. They struck the floor with their staff again to catch the students' attention, before clearing their throat and leaning into the microphone. In their hands was a golden envelope.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please." they announced in a clear voice "I would like to announce the winners of the voting, and introduce to you your Winter Ball Court for this year."

"First of all, the court members. Your princes are..." they paused to open the envelope "In joint third place, Admiral and Grove, in second place, James Florian." He paused to allow the applause.

"Your princesses are, in third place Gigi LeChace. In second place, Aristeides. If the princes and princesses of the court could join me on stage please..." they paused again, allowing the applause and the mentioned students to come up on stage.

Once they were assembled and their assorted crowns and sashes had been handed out, the announcer cleared their throat again, taking out another golden envelope.

"And now, the moment you have been waiting for, your Winter Ball King and Queen," he opened the envelope, allowing an expectant hush to fall over the room "Your King... Areli Triton! And Your Queen... Isla Triton! If you could join us on stage please, after which the king and queen will have their traditional dance."

He stepped aside, allowing space for Eli and Isla to take centrestage as staff members waited with crowns and sashes for them, the band gathering to start up the song as soon as they were ready to dance.

[Isla Triton]

Isla smiled. The way Eli talked about things was inspiring and made her excited about life. "It will only be fun if you're there though," she pointed out. She wanted Eli to be a part of her creations in the future.

She nodded in agreement about Aristeides. The girl tended to go about things in an underhanded manner that left a bitter taste in Isla's mouth. She saw Eli's gaze follow hers and the agreement there, but was startled by the soft blush. In return she gave him a soft smile. "Well, I guess we'll soon find out."

Turning her attention to the stage, Isla applauded for the second and third place winners, turning in curiosity to see the look on Aristeides' face when she didn't win the title she wanted. "Interesting," she murmured as everyone moved to the stage to don their crowns and sashes.

She squeezed Eli's arm when they announced his name as king. And she laughed when her own names was announced. "I think someone is going to accuse us of cheating since we're cousins. Come on, you. Escort me up to the stage and don't let me trip."

[Eli Triton]

"Well I hope I can be." he smiled, it was a little bittersweet given that he didn't know how his future would go, if he'd ever be able to live beneath the waves or not, but knowing that she wanted him there made him happy, he was always glad to know she was just as fond of him as he was of her.

He clapped politely for the winners - harder for the boys considering they contained his roommate and his friend - and smiled as he watched them head up. He was surprised, if James didn't win king, who did? He was so good at all the princely things, who else could beat him? He looked around the room, trying to figure out who of the remaining occupants could have been voted king.

When the king and queen announcements were made, he was too busy being delighted about Isla to properly process what else he'd heard.
"Well done! I knew you could do it!" he beamed, blinking in confusion at her when she asked him to escort her up. That was when he realised that Areli was his name, that he was king.
"Wait, what?" he blinked, taking her arm almost automatically and walking up to the stage, looking bemused.

[Admiral]

Admiral waited patiently for Aristeides to make up her mind. He was a good dog and could be patient, but when she agreed and then commanded him to heel, that wasn't exactly what he had had in mind. He supposed that was better than not escorting her at all though. He happily followed Aristeides into the main room.

Admiral waited beside Aristeides for the announcement to be made. It was kind of exciting and he was trying very hard not to bounce up and down in his excitement. And then when he heard his own name, Admiral's whole face lit up in surprise and delight. He clapped for everyone else though, and turned to Aristeides when her name was called. "Congratulations! You won!" he cried delightedly. "Shall I escort you to the stage, my lady?"

[James Florian]

    James gave Grove a simple nod in response to what Grove had to say. Both of which were statements James intended to keep, Grove was either going to have fun tonight, or they would head back to the dorm room where the two of them could hang out in either the common room or the lounge where they would be able to find some interesting to do. It didn't matter either way if they stayed or if they went. James was going to make sure Grove had some fun tonight.

    "Me? A damsel in distress? Only in your dreams Grove." James said with an eyeroll and a joking tone of voice. The both of them knew that as a Prince, he would never be the one that needs for rescuing for two reasons. One, it was going to be his job one day to save the day and that seemed to be the only thing the school focused on. Secondly, he was no damsel. Okay? If that was the case his name would have been 'Princess Jane' or something even more fancy. No, he was Prince James and the key word there would be Prince. 

    James was about to reply to Grove's insistence that he was not going to win, but before he could even open his mouth the staff came out and called the attention of the students. It was finally time to reveal the Winter Ball court. When Grove's name was announced, James laughed and said with a small laugh "See I told you that you would win, but someone didn't believe me!" That's when he realized that his name had been called too, and it was safe to say that James was a little blindsided by it. Yeah he knew people liked him, and Grove had been insisting that James would win, but a part of himself didn't believe him. After all he had only been here for a short while, not even a full semester yet. He had believed that the school would pick people that had been here longer for the winter ball court. Well apparently not.

    He wasn't also about to let his friend try to worm himself out of this, Grove had won and he was going to go up on that stage with James to get the fancy sashes and crowns to prove once and for all people liked gingers. Especially those raised by dwarfs, liked to carve, and could be a momma bear sometimes and so far James only knew one person that fit that description was good old Grove. So in order to make sure his friend went up there, James latched on to Grove's arm and gently pulled him in the direction of the stage while saying "Come on, let's go get you that crown of yours."

[Aristeides]

Aristeides took her place in the main room in a convenient place near the stage, knowing she would have to walk up to it in a moment. As the rest of the court was announced, she smiled politely and waited, all this talk of princes and princesses didn't concern her, it didn't really matter who the rest of the court was, because she was going to be the queen.

The sound of her name snapped her out of her quiet, graceful confidence. Second place? Second place? How was that possible, how could she be in second place? She wasn't in second place for anything, hers was a life of coming first.

When Admiral offered her his utterly delighted congratulations, she turned an icy look on him that could have killed.
"No. I didn't." she hissed, ignoring his offer to escort her to the stage and sweeping up there dramatically herself. Onlookers could be forgiven for forgetting that her hair was not actually a flame here at Seacombe Halpworth, because she certainly looked like she was giving off sparks. Aristeides had done very well keeping a lid on her explosive temper for the most part, she very rarely allowed anybody to see the full brunt of it, and most of the time she could hide that it was even there until she could be alone to let it out.

Tonight, however, it was a little more obvious. Behind her gracious smile her teeth were clenched and her hands were balled into fists so tight they'd turned white, her eyes burned with the vicious fire of a thousand suns. She accepted her crown (given quickly, the staffmember almost fleeing from her wrath) and stayed on the stage for exactly as long as was required, before stalking off the second she was able to.

[Grove]

As much as James liked to think that he wasn't a damsel in distress, Grove was basically his white knight considering the number of times Grove had to keep him out of trouble. Not to mention the one time Grove had actually saved the prince. "Sure Jim," Grove agreed, readily. "But when you need your white knight, you know where to find me."

Grove's mouth dropped open when he heard his name called. He was still astonished when he turned to look at his triumphant friend. "But how?" he asked. He literally had no friends outside of James. He kept to himself and didn't really even try to interact with people so he had no idea how this had even happened.

Grove let himself be pulled onto the stage with the others, allowing them to crown him. Everything about this felt so surreal.

[Admiral]

When Aristeides turned to Admiral, his delighted cheerfulness fell away in an instant. He whimpered softly because she was mad and she was mad at him. He felt like a scolded puppy. He hadn't meant to make her angry with him. 

But he was still expected to be up on the stage. And then he remembered why and he was all smiles again. He walked excitedly up the stage and took his place by the other two young men. "Congrats guys!" he said with a bright smile. "This is really exciting."

[Isla Triton]

Isla laughed at Eli's reaction. She nudged him, smiling. "You and I won," she told him. "You made King. I'm so happy for you." She climbed the steps to the stage. She could see that Aristeides was not happy about this, but for the moment there was nothing Isla could do about it.

She gracefully accepted her crown and her sash, looking every bit the princess she was, bowing her head respectfully at the rest of the student body who had been kind enough to vote for her. Then she turned to Eli. "We should probably get that dance over with sooner rather than later."

[James Florian]

    "Sure Grove." James said with a small eyeroll when his friend said he was the Prince's Knight in shining armor. Granted it was true, Grove saved James' skin or at least steered him away from danger so many times now that to insist that it wasn't true was a fool's quest. Well it was always known James wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, especially when it came to his pride. There was no way you would get a willing confession out of the lad when his pride and stubbornness took hold. "Of course if you ever need a hero to swing in and save the day, you now where to find me." He said with a small grin. 

    A huge smile broke out onto James' face when he saw his best friend's reaction to his name being called. The surprise the lumberjack was feeling was shown clearly on his face and when questioned about how he had won, James replied "Well someone might have done a little campaigning for his amazing friend." A huge grin was taking up the Prince's face, this was his doing. If he hadn't spoke so highly of his friend he didn't think he would have won. It was a nice surprise for his friend who had done so much for the Prince over the years. 

    By the time the pair reached the stage, they were the last ones to clamor up and receive their crowns. The entire time he had a grin on his face, and when the crown graced Grove's head he clapped for his friend. He wondered what was going on in his head since it wasn't everyday the socially awkward giant won the title of being the third most popular kid in school. Hopefully it was nice happy thoughts, unlike the girl who had won the same title as he did, but for the girls instead and boy did she look pissed. As if second place wasn't good enough. Did she realize that she could have easily gotten nothing? Why couldn't she at least pretend to be happy? James sincerely hoped that he wouldn't be required to dance with her or take photos in the photo booth for the school later. That would probably be extremely awkward for the Prince.

James was pulled back to his friend and the guy who had tied with Grove for third -Admiral was it?- when he spoke up. "Yeah this is amazing. Eli and Isla really deserved the title King and Queen. I can't think of anyone else here that would have been a better fit than them." The Prince said as he watched the two of them make their way through the crowd and onto the stage as well.  

[Eli Triton]

"Right, the dance, yes," Eli nodded, almost dislodging the crown on his head. He winced slightly, lifting a hand to steady it before giving her an almost desperate look. He felt like he'd suddenly forgotten everything he knew about being a prince, right when all eyes were on him. He took a deep breath and tried to block out the crowd, focusing instead on Isla. It was just an ordinary ball, nobody was looking at him because he wasn't the crown prince, he was just dancing with a princess and all he had to focus on was his own feet.

He took her hand and lead her to the dance floor, trying to pretend the people hadn't just cleared the space so they could watch them, and imagine that they were simply other dancers who happened to be further away than normal, that was all.

"I apologise in advance to your feet," he gave her a rueful smile.

[Isla Triton]

Isla winced when Eli nearly knocked his own crown off. She moved to readjust it for him, but he beat her to it. She squeezed his hand because he was looking pretty freaked out right about now. She couldn't blame him. She wasn't the best dancer either. Actually, she was kind of awful. Her legs never did what they were supposed to.

Isla returned the smile. "I'll probably step on your feet too," she confessed. "But it's just dancing. Me and you. We'll get through this together, like always." She nodded, confidently, not sure if she was telling all of that to Eli, or herself. But she and Eli were a good team. They would be fine.

[Eli Triton]

"You're not as heavy as me," he countered, smiling slightly. He couldn't imagine her stepping on his feet would hurt too much, she always seemed so graceful and delicate to him - delicate but strong, anyway, if there was such a thing. Either way he didn't think she would do too much damage, not as much as he would anyway. He may be slender but he was solid with muscle from all that swimming, and that weighed a lot.

He at least knew the basics, so despite his lack of grace he moved into the correct position once they reached the centre of the dance floor. The band struck up and he began to move, taking tiny careful steps to try and minimise the risk of damage.

"We're not doing too bad, right?" he murmured with an awkward grin as they managed to make it through the first half of the song without incident.

[Isla Triton]

Isla smiled. She may not be as heavy as Eli for sure, but her legs didn’t always do what they were supposed to do. Plus, she had to wear fancy high heels which would probably hurt more. She shrugged. “You’ve had a few more years of practice walking. Not to mention I’m wearing high heels.”

Isla was grateful though that Eli was taking small steps. She was not good at ballroom dancing when she wasn’t wearing high heels. She didn’t want to break her ankle just because she was kind of a klutz. But of course, as soon as Eli mentioned that they were doing well, Isla stumbled, losing her balance momentarily and turning one of her ankles painfully. She gripped onto Eli for support. “Think we could bow out gracefully?”

[Grove]

Grove snorted at James. As if he wasn’t Jim’s very own white knight. He’d saved Jim so many times that he had lost count now. It had become something of a joke with his family about how Grove was going to save James’ hide next.

Grove turned to look at James. His best friend had convinced people to vote for him. He couldn’t believe that he would do that for him. “You did this?” he asked, his voice full of awe and wonder. Grove kind of wanted to kiss him for that. If they were expected up on stage he would have hauled James in for a hug. Instead he reached out and clamped James’ shoulder, squeezing it with gratitude. He hoped his friend would understand.

Grove followed James up to the stage, still mostly stunned that this was happening. People had voted for him all because James had asked him to. He turned to the other guy and gave him a small smile and a nod.