She was late, late, late. The dance had already started like a to long ago and alison totally lost track of time when she was doing algebra. Not that algebra wasn't fun to her but she promised to be at the dance. She had to come to fit in with the rest because allot of people saw her as the odd duckling. Yes a odd duckling she was indeed, overanalyzing everything in her path. People, items, flaws everything she documented and kept record off in her books. The books where kept in her locked drawer. Nobody should find out about those or else all of her research would be contaminated.

In her room she quickly changed clothes and put on a blue summer dress while looking at herself in the mirror. Her glasses dangled on her neck with the chain as she thought to herself that she looked silly. What was she doing, she wouldn't fit in with the crowd. She sighed and started to doubt what to do and how would she act in the crowd.

She frowned while looking down at her feet. Her tendancy to not wear shoes overtook her. With her bare feet she walked out of the room and made her way downstairs to the dangerroom where the dance happened. Why did they call it a dance was one of the thoughts that crossed her mind. It was a party and they didn't have to dance, do they? She usually overthought everything and this was no difference.

When she arrived the place was already packed with people. She recognized allot of them but she was a people avoider. At the table they had drinks and she was ready for one. Picking up a drink she looked around room again. People where dancing, socialising and having fun. She was envious with them. Her problems where that she didn't know how to be normal since she wasn't normal. Not that she cared much about being normal. Normal was just a matter of opinion. She took a sip from her drink and started to observe again.

Kai respectfully placed one hand on Amber's waist and took her hand with his free one. It was a slow song, so this formal kind of dancing with each other was a must. Much more classy than just standing and swaying like many of the couples around them were doing. Sad, that no one knows how to dance anymore, he evaluated as he spun Amber around, the twirly fabric twirl, twirling around.

He had to admit that he was not the best ballroom dancer ever, he was more of a hoe-down, square-dancing, line dancer. Still, he thought that he could successfully navigate the room without incident. He was wrong.

He tugged on her hand to twirl Amber back towards him, and led her into the next step. Except someone was in that space that he was leading her into. Or two someones. And then he was going down, crashing into some other poor unsuspecting party-goer. (Carrick)

Sam turned his attention to her and Shin, and Kealey smiled at his compliment and the way Shin reacted. The blond nodded her head, ”I’m having a wonderful time. This is the first dance I’ve ever gotten to go to.”

Apparently Sam’s date was named Fade. Kealey smiled again at the practice of using code names to identify a person. ”Pleasure to meet you.” she said, holding out her hand to shake and casting Shin a grateful look for not throwing the whole “empath” thing out there immediately.

”I don’t think we’ve met, or that we’ve spoken about a new costume for you.”

Just then, Sam broke off and began to shout at a couple of kids who were kissing on the dance floor. Kealey let her eyes find the two and she blushed, chuckling at the teenage emotions.

”Oh Sam…” she said, ”Don’t be too hard on the young man…he’s absolutely enamored with the young lady.”

She couldn’t help but giggle a little more, blushing still.

”Teenagers feel things so strongly…” she pointed out, looking for punch to distract herself and casting a bashful grin around at the rest of the group. Had it gotten warmer?

Fade spoke, and Kealey found herself laughing again, ”So very different…but in some ways very much the same. I was thinking about it earlier when I was so very worried about my dress.”

It really was quite warm, Kealey noted again, and fanned herself for a moment, turning her attention to Fade, ”So…Shin says you can vanish?”

Taking the drink from Jenny his fingers touched hers for a second and he shot her another grin before he looked back to Kealey and nodded his head slightly, ”Enamored or not, I don’t want to have to deal with her father if he gets word that his daughter is kissing a boy on the dance floor, it took me a few hours to convince him to let her come here on a trial basis…” he frowned slightly as he shifted his attention from the pair who were back to dancing and not kissing back to Kealey.

”And you feel all of it don’t you?” Sam said trying his best to think other than his own feelings that varied from heartache to his own interest for the one who handed him a drink a few seconds ago. ”Let’s just hope you don’t get too overwhelmed with all the feelings…” Sam said with a smirk in Shin’s direction. Sam blinked with his good eye making it come off as a wink as he took a sip of his punch.

The sugary taste of it slid down his throat as he looked back to the dance floor, ”Well if I wasn’t a chaperone I probably would have been in a similar situation, I used to get chased out of school dances…” Sam said with a small shrug and a grin on his face remembering a few of the ‘dances’ he had to attend due to a mission related events. Sadness over whelmed his thoughts for a second even though he was still wearing a smile and then he realized whom he was conversing with. He looked up to Kealey who he knew would pick up on the feelings if he or the emotions stuck around to long.

Sipping his punch again Sam quickly turned his attention back to the dance floor and his good eye skimmed the crowd as they asked Jenny about her mutation. Eye fixing on a boy with wings who just entered then it fixed on a few others, a boy with green skin, Gawain and Twyla and then he spotted Katrina. Turning to Kealey, Shin and Jenny, he smiled and took another sip of his punch, ”If you’ll excuse me I spotted one of my students and it happens to be her birthday…”

Punch still in hand he continued walking towards the food where Katrina and an unknown boy were talking, silently wondering what happened between her and Koga or her and Fausto he approached her and cleared his throat. ”Hey kiddo!” Sam said to Katrina with a warm smile that was also directed to the boy she was taking to, ”I trust your having a good time?” turning his head to the boy he smiled, ”Name’s Sam, don’t think I have met you before…”

His hips swaying and his arms waving Carrick continued to dance oblivious to all those who would be commenting on him and his date. Sure he liked attention but not this kind of attention. It wasn’t bad attention just attention he’d prefer to avoid so when people saw him about the mansion they wouldn’t be tempted to ask what was up with him and Elizabeth, he didn’t know what was up with them anyways. He wanted to be just friends mainly because the idea of having a girlfriend scared him. He didn’t know how Elizabeth felt and for the time being he didn’t want to bother asking her.

Nodding his head slightly his shaggy hair bouncing up and down he smirked, ”Ain’t half bad!” Carrick said inching his head close to hers so she could hear him over the music and the crowd of people dancing next to him. Just as he was leaning back from round about complimenting her he mentally cursed when the music changed to a slower one. Something he was terrible at. ”Errr….” he wasn’t sure how the best way to tell her he didn’t know how to dance so all he did was lifted his hand and shrugged.

He might as well at least attempt to slow dance with her, she was after all supposed to be his date and the last thing he wanted to get beat up by Haylee who was adamant on him taking her roommate to the dance. Reaching out for Liz’s hand he was ready to dance with her but felt someone crash into him from behind forcing him forward threatening to knock Elizabeth over.

Closing his eyes he hoped that she saw it coming and decided to move out of the way, if she didn’t he hoped there would be no awkward landings, the last thing he wanted was the night to get weirder than it already was. ”Aww… Coddle!” Carrick muttered as he was falling to the floor with his eyes closed shut and his hands braced for impact.

As Elizabeth was getting into the flow of things, improvising moves on the spot and occasionally stealing some from other girls, she began loosening up more. Her mental barriers were lowered, as there just didn’t seem to be as much pressure building up behind them. The animal empath was only slightly aware of it, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. It was probably just because the only things within her range were probably moles or worms, and surely they couldn’t be experiencing many emotions.

But the girl was wrapped up in her own emotions, for once. It was so neat, just dancing with her friend (whatever kind the winged boy was) to some pretty good music. Then, she just faintly heard Carrick say something to her. “What?” she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the din in the room. Then she recalled what he said. She wasn’t half bad? So did that mean she wasn’t half good either? But the smile on her face stayed put. Being an average dancer was pretty good for someone who’d never really tried it!

And then the music changed. It was much slower and didn’t seem like it would work for the dancing Liz had been doing. Breathing a bit hard from her exertion, Liz dropped her arms and stood still, not really sure what to do. She glanced at Carrick, who appeared to be having some doubts about it. But before the blonde’s spirits could fall, her date held out his hand for her. Completely unaware of what she would have to do, Liz quickly looked around at everyone else. The people around her had all moved in closer together, like how she’d seen in movies. Nervous, Elizabeth locked eyes with Carrick and reached out to take his hand.

An instant before their fingers met, time seemed to hit a bend and turn everything into slow motion. She watched as something, no, someone crashed into Carrick, forcing the winged boy into a forward motion that would intersect with Liz very quickly. She watched her date’s eyes close. She watched as his arms raised and hands flattened to catch his fall. She watched as he fell into her.

Then time jumped forward and Liz found herself lying on the floor of the gymnasium, a small pounding in her head, and her date on top of her. With his head below her neck and above her stomach. Elizabeth managed to pick her head up and look at the guy lying on her. Her mouth was open and nothing was making sense to her. In her fuzziness and complete surprise, Liz said the first thing that formed a rational thought in her head. “Coddle? What does that mean, Carrick?”

Twyla’s mood was much improved now. Things were good. She was back, her best friend wasn’t making a giant mistake (that she didn’t already know about and plan for), she was at a dace, and...you could smell the tension as soon as you walked anywhere near the vicinity of Ruby, Gawain, and Van. Well, Ruby wasn’t a source of tension but it was obvious that neither of the boys were getting along. See? She wasn’t the only one who thought that this Van character was--civil, nice, Henri’s choices. SIGH. Fix it for her gal pal.

“No worries--I’m on it.” She smiled at Henri for a moment, although that smile wavered when she looked at her friend’s date.

“Darling,” Twyla briskly walked over to her boyfriend, feeling like one of those perfectly endearing and polite trophy wives out of a sneaky crime movie. She grabbed his hand with both of hers and leaned in close, pitching her voice low. “I have no idea what went on this side of the ladies room door but we’re playing nice now--this kid is Henri’s choice and her...er...stuff to deal with, ya know? We’re just here to support her and all that, she’s done the same for us.” Their relationship wasn’t the same thing at all really, but there were still people that didn’t quite understand it--Henri had never questioned it. Playing nice was the least Twyla could do.

“Besides,” Twyla pulled back so she could smile up at Gawain. “this is a dance--we should be dancing.” The girl used the arm she’d captured earlier to spin herself, giggling a bit as she did. Lighter mood. Smiles. Dancing. Fun. Just don’t look at him too much and you should be fine. She thought to herself, averting her eyes away from the boy in the tight pants. I just want to dance--everything is easier when you dance.

>>“Oh, I caught it--I mess up and you try to mess me up. You know you could have just said that, man, ‘you catch my meaning’ is such an intimidation killer.”

It was official now. Gawain hated Van's *ss.

Fortunately, Henri and Twyla arrived just in time; Ruby took over the conversation, and he didn't mind it one bit. The fox could take care of herself. And fry the guy if he didn't behave properly.

He pulled a smile as the girls walked up to them; he didn't want to make Henri feel awkward. It was not her fault her bf was begging to be punched.

>>“Darling, I have no idea what went on this side of the ladies room door but we’re playing nice now--this kid is Henri’s choice and her...er...stuff to deal with, ya know? We’re just here to support her and all that, she’s done the same for us.”

He relaxed as Twyla took his hand, and nodded with a smile. He looked at Henri. She deserved some fun too. And since she was a friend, he'd support her.
(Her, not him)

>>“Besides, this is a dance--we should be dancing.”

Gawain grinned.

"I thought ya'd never say that." taking her hand, he nodded to the others "Ladies, gentleman, excuse us, I owe my lady a dance."

Pulling Twyla to the dance floor, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Finally" he sighed. Dancing was much more fun than dealing with friends' boyfriends. It was about time.

Amber felt a little like a princess living in a fairy tale. Here she was in the middle of the dance floor dancing a slow dance with Kai. Her skirts twirled around her and even though she had no formal experience dancing, or really very little experience in general, she was holding her own. Even if it was mostly Kai's doing, leading her this way and that and she just following his lead. But at least she didn't fall flat on her face.

It was, of course, in the moment of that thought that disaster occurred! Kai sent Amber out to another twirl but instead of twirling and returning, she twirled and collided with something distinctly solid, warm and slightly squishy.

Amber blinked, suddenly realizing that she had somehow ended up on the floor, limbs sprawled out and intertwined with other limbs. Her cheeks reddened in profound embarrassment and she could all ready feel bruises forming on her knees, where the majority of the impact had occurred. Another blink put everyone into focus around her, Kai of course and, unexpectedly, her friend Liz and some boy she didn't know with wings. She smiled sheepishly at Liz.

All was going well. Which meant, on the basis of all the laws of the universe as they applied to Kai's life, that things must start going horribly wrong. Immediately. So not only did he just spin his partner into his roommate- he could now make out the person as they were being crashed into. But his desperate thought of I need to catch her! also went terribly awry.

Kai flung his arms forward and hurled his body into what he thought was open space. He reached for Amber, trying to grab her hand again and pull her to safety. But alas, he was much too late and only served to add himself to the growing pile of bodies.

WHAM! he hit the floor. Or was that an elbow?

"Ohmigosh! I'msosorry!" He began apologizing to anyone and everyone the second his head stopped it's silly spinning. This certainly wasn't going to help his roommates nerve's on his date. But maybe it would 'break the ice'? Carrick wouldn't want to kill him too bad then... right?

Shin began the formal introduction, naming Kealey as an extraordinary costume designer. Hmmm, truth be told, Fade's outfit could use a little tuning up, even if no one really saw her at all during a mission. Kealey was quick to stike up a conversation, a bit more bold than Fade was. Then again, the rush of emotions and crushing were still wearing off even after she and Sam let go of each other's hands. Grasping Kealey's hand, she nodded and said "nice to meet you too."

"Not yet, no. Though I would love to speak with you about a new uniform," she smiled. It came with the years. She hardly ever called it a costume these days, it just sounded more mature to say uniform, though no one else sounded immature when they said it. It was more for her own attempt at looking like even a severely undereducated woman could be modest. What calmed her down was how Kealey began to fan herself from the heat. At least others could feel it too, Fade was worried that if she spoke up about it, everyone would blame Sam for the temperature change since it only affected her. But it made her feel more comfortable that others were on the same heat boat as she was.

"Yes, I can fade," she smiled. It was always odd to use her name as a verb or hear it be used in that context. "Though so far, only from the majority of people, there are those who can still see me through other senses, like Sam for example. I'm working on how to make my heat signature invisible," she looked to Sam as if it were a bit of a playful threat. "What about you? Do you only have the power to create amazing costumes or do you have some other tricks up your sleeve?" she asked.

Sam's fingers lingered on her's as he took the cup of punch from her and she felt the tingle jolt her brain and jumpstart her heart. Hopefully, her cheeks did not change too vibrantly, the light was doing an amazing job of masking her blushing for the time being. He said something about getting kicked out of dances, it was hard to see Sam as a bad boy, at least not in the role she'd seen him in. Though everyone had a dark side. Hopefully he hadn't seen her's and never will. Just like that, he turned to walk away. Fade debated grabbing his arm and pulling him back, but she decided to smile at him from a distance and convince him to return through eye contact. And if that did not work, then she could always just physically try to pull him back.

And there was the blushing. Yup. Teenagers felt things strongly, indeed. Shin couldn't help but be just a little amused when Kealey giggled to herself. Mhm, he mentally agreed with her.

Enamored was a good word.

Even though, in his day, he would never... heh. He was correcting himself mentally. Never a good sign.

Another glance towards Kealey.

Yup. Definitely a good word.

And Sam got an eyeroll for that wink. Oh, come on. It wasn't like that. He wouldn't intentionally overwhelm her... if that's what Sam was getting at.

What was Sam getting at? Shin tilted his head.

Similar situation? What had ever happened with Alexandra, anyway? Sam hadn't told him much. He wondered why Sam was with Fade.

Ah well. Now, he was getting nosy. Was nosiness an emotion? Curiosity, maybe. Now, he was slightly curious. Shame that curiosity had to be put on hold for one minute, while Sam wandered off to talk to other people.

Shin's focus returned to Kealey at Fade's question. He'd let her handle answering that one.

Hands met the floor and with his eyes now shut he couldn’t tell what exactly he landed on but it was warm, to warm and far to soft for the gym floor. He opened his eyes slightly and it was dark, he moved his hand and felt and arm and then a waist… then it hit him his face was… no… his heart stopped momentarily and he tried to place himself somewhere else. Someone was on his legs keeping him pinned for the moment it didn’t matter where he was he just wanted everyone to disappear, that way it wouldn’t be as weird. He wanted to be someone where else, out of all the places his face could have landed it had to be here.

His face turned scarlet when he heard Elizabeth’s voice, her voice causing her chest to vibrate to remind him where his face was located. His eyes shut again and he lifted it slightly then opened them. Yep, he was looking at Elizabeth’s chest. Trying to hide the shade red that was apparent on his face he formed a weak smile. ”Shit…” he said with an air in his voice that basically said, ‘What else could it mean?’

His head lifted a bit more and he looked to her face which looked confused with a weak smile he averted his gaze to where his hand was and he spoke weakly, ”Sorry…” turning his head slightly he spotted the pair that were in the pile with him and his dat-friend. His roommate… he was apologizing now. ”Eejit…” Carrick muttered as he rolled his eyes and turned his head back to Liz who was still under him.

Wiggling his legs out from under Kai and his date he managed to push himself up. He blinked again and stood to see a few dozen people on the dance floor looking at them. He blinked once and debated if he should run or stay still hopping everyone wouldn’t be able to see them if they didn’t move.

He breathed in when he spotted a few of the guys near the food table grinning their approval of his landing spot as if he chose to land there. An idea came to mind and he debated if it was the right thing to do but before he could stop himself he raised one hand and bowed once then twice, making it seem like he did intend to land his face where it did. A few of the guys laughed and a few of the girls shook their heads. Reaching down and offering a hand to Liz he smirked slightly his face no longer red. ”Sorry again…” he mouthed to her as he debated kicking his roommate who put him in a situation like this.

Turning his head however he whispered to Kai, ”Take a bow!”

Oh. Well. When Carrick explained it like that. Elizabeth’s mouth stayed open a bit and a frown appeared, as if she had been about to say something but then forgot. Now she knew what that word meant. Too bad she was probably never going to use it again. She wasn’t one who frequently the use of curse words in practically any situation. Her frown soon vanished and she glanced around at people around her. It was then she noticed Amber sprawled on the floor as well, looking particularly well with her dark blue dress. She also noticed the guy that Amber was dancing with. He seemed familiar, she just couldn’t quite place his face or match a name to it.

And then Carrick apologized. As the blonde looked back to her date and met his eyes, she suddenly realized just where exactly his head was at. Her eyes flickered to herself and then back to Carrick, heat flooding her cheeks, making the two look like a pair of twin strawberries. “Oh, um…” she mumbled, completely embarrassed and having no idea what to do. Things were starting to make more sense now; she guessed the blow to her head from falling on the hard floor had jarred her thinking. She turned away from Carrick, just after he turned away from her gaze.

Soon, she could feel Carrick getting off her. As he got up, she turned her head and discovered she could breathe easily then. Taking a deep breath, she decided to prop herself up with her arms behind her, enabling her to do damage control. As she noticed all the pairs of non-dancing legs forming a ring around the quartet, Elizabeth’s cheeks burned with humiliation. She lowered her head, trying to hide as much of her face as she could. But then a movement near the top of her range of vision caught her attention.

It was Carrick, bowing low and smiling high. Elizabeth could hear the hearty laughs of several guys as her friend bowed. And then he turned to her, smirking still, even as he offered her his hand. Her shock and embarrassment branched off at that moment. The teen stared at the hand in disbelief, already connecting all the pieces. Carrick had planned all of this? Like she was some sort of prize or something? And he had fallen on purpose just to get close to her… Suddenly furious at the boy and embarrassed from everyone else, Elizabeth turned to the side and purposely ignored the offered hand, stumbling to her feet on her own. But while looking through anger-stained glasses, she missed his soundless apology.

She glanced around once more, deliberately looking over the jerk’s head until she saw Amber, her single look easily displaying all the things she was feeling. Then, the young empath and possessor turned promptly on her heel and pushed through the crowd, making her way toward the wall, fire burning over her entire face.

Amber rubbed her sore knees, looking down at the ground, her cheeks red and burning. She was so embarrassed and everyone around her was staring. They must surely think she was such a fool and a clutch, what had ever possessed her to think she could dance anyway? Why had she even come to this stupid dance? If only she had stayed home she could have avoided all of this and even if she didn't actually hear anyone laughing, there was enough laughter her head that she was convinced that everyone around her was just too polite to laugh but she knew they wanted to.

Amber looked nervously from Kai to Liz to the bird boy and back again, paralyzed by a profound social phobia. "I'm sorry I d-didn't mean too I d-didn't." She looked desperately at Kai and he looked almost as confused as she felt. She didn't think it was his fault, he wasn't the type to do something like that intentionally. Then again, she didn't know him all that well, now did she?

It was then that bird boy bowed, looking every bit like this was some grand performance. So, it was his fault that this had all happened? Had he somehow orchestrated it all? She didn't know him at all but she felt horrified for Liz's sake that he would do such a horrible thing to her. To her friend and to herself and Kai too. The nerve of some men, to just use people that that. It just wasn't right!

At that moment Liz ran out and Amber couldn't blame her friend for a moment, considering how she had just been used. "I'm sorry Kai, I'll be back as soon as I can." She sent a glare in the direction of bird boy before running after her friend, completely ignoring the stares of the crowd around her.