19. Dinner
2194 Words
The castle fills up with extra princes and princesses on Thursday. I'm at school most of the day but when I do see them, I run away. They're having dinner tonight and starting the mating ball in the morning. I skip play practice, so I can go to dinner.
Thora helps me get ready at 4. I'm going to be Evie for dinner. She says it's because Evie's not afraid of princes and there's a lot. She puts me in a short tight black dress with no straps. Then some jewelry and super high heels. My hair is down and half curly like they wear theirs with a tiara on top. I look like a real queen.
She goes to grab her speech and I head to Dipak's office. Supposed to be there at 5.
I get out of the advisor elevator wing on 1 and there is so much royalty is the guest room hallway. I dive back into the elevator. I'll stay home. I hit the 4, 87 times. It opens and I tackle Mikey and Tye. Tye's dressed like a prince too.
"AAAAHHHHH!"
Mikey picks me up around my waist with my back to him.
I lean back and try to bite his head.
"What are you doing?"
"STAYING HOME."
Thora steps out of another elevator. "We're going to fly from your balcony. I didn't think about so many princes being in the guests' rooms." She fixes my hair. "Perfect."
"She f*****g bit me." Mikey wipes his head off, and we follow Thora to my room.
We get outside Dipak's office and Tye pecks on the window. It opens and we fly in. I sit in my spot and smile. I made it.
Dipak stares at Tye. "Why?"
"I got bit. She made me bleed."
Thora sits as royally as she can. "Few too many princes in the castle, Dipak. We took a detour out a window."
Marcus shakes his head. "Evie isn't afraid of princes."
"The stage is the ballroom. I was not in the ballroom."
Dipak smiles. "She wasn't in character. For this weekend, the whole area is a stage. Make sure you get into character before you leave your apartment."
"There's still a lot."
The elevator dings and Elek and Nik come in dressed as princes. Mario, Collin, and Luke come in next. Luke a prince.
Omar heals Mikey's head. "Do not bite your brother."
"Sorry."
Luke cracks up laughing. "I'm glad I don't have a sister."
"Yea, they bite."
Dipak stands up. "I'm not making a big speech in here. We are going to be introduced when we enter. Also, the new entry for the ballroom is done. It is on the 3rd floor. Boys enter on 1 side. Girls on the other. Immediately upon entering, you will turn and face each other. Then go down 1 flight of steps. You come together on a middle landing on the second level. Then you turn and go down a flight of steps together. That is when you are introduced. Nobody fall down the stairs. That being said, the only people entering this way are..." He gets a paper. "Miculai, Dracul, Frode, me, Marcus, Tre, Tye, Mason and the girls we are escorting. Mason, you are escorting Coral. Samson couldn't make it tonight."
"Fine."
"I have Elkie. Marcus has Nadine. Tye, you have Dorseti. Tre you have Evie. Keep in mind this is not a ball. You are escorting them to their seat. That is all. Evie will be beside Nadine. Dorseti will be at that table as well."
"Ok."
"AND ME." Coral jumps up.
"Got it. Thank you. I know we talked about it before. This is not the mate games. However, if you witness someone being stupid that is participating in the games, let someone at the table know, so we can remove them from the games. If you don't have a formal introduction, you can go now."
Dorseti and Elkie get escorted in and Thora fixes them with a box. They're in short tight dresses too. Then we go to the 3rd floor entry area. Dipak talks me into being Evie again. Then I line up with the girls. I go in perfectly. Then me and Tre get introduced. He's still a pharaoh.
"I don't know how we keep forgetting to fix that."
"Dipak likes being a God."
He laughs and takes me to my seat.
A servant puts a bunch of papers in front of me and I look around. The boys' table is on the other side of the dance floor. Collin is over there with Luke, Mario, and Mikey. I want to go over there.
Nadine sits down then stands right back up. "I forgot I have to make the speech."
"Did you plan it?"
"No."
Me and Thora laugh as she goes to the center of the dance floor.
"Hi everyone. Welcome to dinner. This was not supposed to be formal. I specifically said not formal on all the papers. However, they dressed me like this and told me not to look like a dumpster." Everyone cracks up laughing. "You know that I have been working on this for a long time. I am so excited that it's finally here. Like I have tried to stress from the beginning, this is an event for adults. Where they can come together from everywhere and have fun. Hopefully, some people will meet their mates. But I want everyone to have fun. I'm going to explain the system quickly. The paper in front of you. On the first page is a map of the entire campus. Turn the page. This is the listing of events. 15 pages of them. You can not possibly see them all. There's not enough time. So take a highlighter off the table. Highlight the events you don't want to miss. Whether that be 3 events or 15. Highlight them. Then check the times and plan out your days according to what you highlighted. So thank you all for coming and I hope that helps."
I flip through the paper. Magic show. There's a play. Rides. A pool. A dance. Comedy show. A petting zoo. I jump up and run for Collin. Me and Luke nearly collide in the middle of the dance floor.
"STOP."
I wiggle and show Luke my paper. "Petting zoo."
He points at his. "Haunted house."
Marcus comes up to us. "Go back to your spots."
"BUT." I point at the paper.
"I want to show mom."
"After dinner. We have to be royal right now."
"Fine." We turn around and go back.
Marcus shrugs his shoulders. "This is an adults-only event. However, the castle teenagers will be there. And they seem to be very excited."
Everyone laughs and I sit by Thora. She gives me a highlighter. "Highlight what you want to see. Stuff you can't miss. He can help you with it later."
"Ok."
She stands up. "I want to bring something up quick. The first event listed is orientation. It will run in the mornings on Friday and Saturday. It is a 1-hour event discussing everything from the map to the different areas. It's a lot of information crammed into an hour. But it is well worth going, especially if you don't know how we run things. To make it easier for everyone here. An orientation is scheduled for tonight at 7pm. That's immediately following dinner. It is not mandatory, you do not have to stay, but we figured we would give everyone here the opportunity to do this tonight and not take an hour out of the event tomorrow. Again, not required. You're free to leave for your room or the village after dinner, but there is really helpful information if you want to stay and hear it tonight."
Dipak smiles. "Thank you. Now, I'm not going to talk a long time. The woman was invited to the werewolf mating ball last year. She liked it and now here we are." We crack up laughing. "Thank you for coming. We hope everyone has a good time. Remember the entire area is a safe zone. Do not break that rule. We have humans, werewolves, vampires, magicians. I even saw a unicorn out there this morning. Everyone, every species is safe here. Do not forget that. Let's eat dinner." He motions for the food.
I eat and try highlighting stuff. It seems I highlighted half of everything. I push everything away and lay my head down. I should have stayed home.
"This concludes dinner. We are going to begin orientation in 10 minutes. Feel free to stay and grab another drink or go visit the village. Whatever you choose. But you have 10 minutes before it starts."
Nadine nudges me with her elbow. "Come on. We'll take a real tour of it." She gets the boys, and we get in an elevator. "Change in your rooms quickly. We're going to go over and see what's open."
I run to my room and throw on a human dress. Then back to the elevator.
Collin picks me up. "Let's put on some shoes and get your hair pulled back, Princess Evie."
I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. I love him.
He carries me to my room. "Did you highlight anything?"
"Ugh." I plop my head on his shoulder. "I'll just stay home."
"No reason for that. I'll help you tomorrow, before we go over."
"Thank you."
We get over to the campus 20 minutes later. Everyone is staring at the haunted house.
"It's a mental hospital or insane asylum. I made it."
Mikey smiles. "I have to go in that thing."
The brains are dressed up as mental patients that have had surgery done. One is sitting in a rocking chair beside the door. A bandage is over his whole head, and he has blood where his eyes should be.
"Check that one out." Luke is pointing to a balcony. A brain is hanging with a rope around her throat.
Mikey, Mario, and Luke run in.
I try to follow them and Collin holds my hand.
"You sure want to go in baby?"
"Yea, I want to see it."
"Ok. Remember it's fake."
We get inside and there's hospital music playing. The building seems like it could collapse. I keep hearing drips and creaking. We go down a hallway, and it's kind of dark. I hold Collin with both hands.
"We can go back."
"No. I want to see it."
The whole thing is so creepy. There's flashing lights. Fog. Blood. I peek in 1 room and a doctor is removing the top of a patient's head. I cover my eyes.
Collin keeps me going. "It's a show baby. Nothing real."
In the next room, the patient is standing there repeatedly smacking his head on the door. The blood runs down the glass.
I touch my head and Collin keeps me going. I never did that.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" A patient jumped out at me.
"Are you new here?"
I shake from head to toe.
In every room, a different scene plays out.
We get to the top floor and a doctor jumps out at us. He has a saw or something. I scream and run. Collin has hold of me so fast. He picks me up. "Cover your eyes baby. I'll get us out."
I bury my eyes in his neck and close them tight. I hold on and ignore the sounds.
"Well shit."
"What?" I don't peek.
"I thought getting out would be the end, but we're in the backyard. It's a cemetary."
I finally peek. It's foggy and dark, but I can see tombstones. "This might be fun. How is it dark?"
"We're under a dome."
"It's a maze. I can do a maze." I wiggle down and lead him down a path. "AAAHHHHH!" I jump back on him and hide my eyes.
"All the patients who died in the house are buried in the backyard, and now haunt the place."
"You 2 good?" I hear Marcus and peek out.
"Yea, she's alright. Little jumpy."
"Exit's this way."
"Thank you."
Nadine is standing there when we get out. "Did you like it? Was it scary?"
"Collin carried me. I did get down for 30 seconds in the backyard though."
"The story was amazing. Usually I go to a haunted house, and they try to jump scare me a few times. Then it's over. This had a story to it. I loved the scenes that were playing. Easily the best I've ever been through."
I smile. "It was different. I think some of it was ok. The doctor pulling that guy's intestines out was so creepy."
"So, you like the show part?"
"Yea. I mean, maybe. Some of them."
"She was ok with the patients jumping at her. But the second she saw a doctor coming at her, she panicked."
She giggles. "Afraid he was going to take your intestin..." She freezes and stares at me.
Marcus smiles. "The boys are over at the pool. Go get swimsuits. There are slides over there too."
I run for it and drag Collin with me.
- Writer
