charity project // mischa bachinski (ride the cyclone)

9 - a prince

Mischa took a bite of his lunch. "Y/n, what is Halloween?"

"Halloween? Oh, it's pretty fun. It's like a holiday that celebrates scary stuff. Children and teenagers and sometimes adults dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating. We ring people's doorbells and they give us candy."

"On the bulletin board in the choir room, there was a paper that said 'Halloween Party'."

I lit up. "I nearly forgot about that! Every year for Halloween, our choir has a Halloween party at Blackwood Cafe. It's pretty cool."

"Are you going?"

"Of course. How about you?"

He shrugged. "If you're going, I'll definitely go."

"What will your costume be?"

Mischa looked up. "I have no idea. What will yours be?"

"I think I'll be a princess. I'll probably ask Ms. DaSilva if I can raid the old costume closet. She'll probably have something in there."

"You would be a very good princess. It suits you."

...

Maybe a week or so later, Mischa figured out what he was going to be.

"A prince," He stated proudly.

I looked up from my social sciences worksheet. "Why's that?"

"Noel told me to. He also said he can find me the costume."

Of course Noel had put him up to this.

"Since when did you start doing anything Noel told you to do?" I joked.

"Since I started having terrible costume ideas, that's when."

"Terrible costume ideas?"

Mischa nodded. "You should've heard him laugh when I told him about the egg idea."

I stifled a giggle. "That is one of the ideas of all time."

"Just one," he agreed.

"How are classes going?"

He wavered. "Alright. English is still not too good."

I thought about it. "Here. How about I tutor you - hmm... let's say - once a week. How do Thursdays after school work?"
"You'd do that for me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"That would be amazing. I don't know how to thank you."

"Good. You don't need to."

...

After a few successful English tests, it was time for the annual Halloween party. In my spare time, I'd gotten Ocean to help me with my costume. I did, in fact, get to go through the old costumes and I found one that I liked. It was light pink, with a tulle skirt and long silk sleeves. Ocean, who was incredibly talented at practically everything, sewed in the waist to fit me better. We'd also sewn pearls into the skirt as well as lace detailing on the torso, sleeves, and neckline. She let me borrow a pageant crown of hers as well.

...

I walked into the cafe. I've got to admit: I did feel very pretty and very powerful as I was walking in.

"Y/n! You're here!" Constance cried. "And look at you! You're... you're..."

"Beautiful? Stunning? Very, very pretty?" I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked back.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Mischa. I couldn't form any coherent words.

"When.. I.. The... What... Sorry... I-" I grasped at straws for something, just something to say.

Mischa just smiled serenely. "You're welcome."

He was in costume as well. He had a white blouse, which was laced up and had a bit of ruffles on the neckline and at the sleeves. He had some black, high waisted pants that had several buttons.

"Damn. Noel dressed you up nice," I said in hushed tones.

"Thanks."

Noel emerged from the bathrooms. Was he wearing lingerie? And was that a wig? I squinted.

"Noel, what exactly are you?" I asked.

"A hooker. In post-war France. Wasn't it obvious?" he deadpanned.

I slowly shook my head. "Yeah, yeah. Of course. I see it now."

He looked at me expectantly.

"What?" I looked around.

"No thank you? Nothing?'

"Thank you? For what?"

"For giving that poor boy a costume. He wanted to be an egg, for goodness sake."

"Right, right! Thank you!" I beamed.

For a while, we played a few games, such as candy poker, hide and seek, and charades. Eventually, we all got a bit bored and maintained conversation amongst ourselves. All was well until...

"Y/n, you and Mischa are absolutely adorable together!" Constance gushed. "I never would've expected it, but I love it!"

Both of us froze.

"Mischa and I? Oh, you have the wrong idea! I mean, we are pretty close, but you know-"

Mischa cut me off. "My friend here has trouble with words. What she means is that as of now we're just pretty good friends."

As of now?

I silently thanked him and he nodded.

"My bad," she apologized. "I didn't mean to make any assumptions."

"You're good, Constance. Honest mistake," I smiled.

We carried on with our incessant conversing for a while. Later, Ocean came up to us, camera in hand.

"Could I get a picture of you two for the yearbook? I love the matching costumes. Maybe it'll convince more people to join choir next year."

"Of course!"

We stood up and posed in front of a wall. Mischa wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I wrapped an arm around his back. We smiled as the camera shutter went off.

"Thank you for your time!" Ocean waved as she walked back to continue talking to Constance.