Dance of the Lunars

Off to the Ball

"Come on Cinder!" yelled Iko. "Start getting ready. The dance is in less than two hours!"

"I'm not sure I even want to go to the dance," Cinder declared dryly.

"Really Cinder," Scarlet interjected. "You've got to come. It'll be fun. And you're not going to just stay here, alone, and fix all of these busted i devices."

"Why not," Cinder whined. "I'm not going to dance. I'm not going to sing on the stage. And I'm definitely not going with a date, so what's the point?"

"The point is to have fun, cous." Winter walked in with her hair down, covering her scars, and had on a short sleeved, gray dress that's bottom was loosely hanging down just pass her knees. "If you even think about staying behind again," straining to look serious as she continued. "I will take and hide all of your 'projects' for a month."

Cress came into Iko's room with a white dress on that was way too big for her. "None of your outfits are the right size for me. There's no way I'll be able to dance in this!" In Cinder's opinion, all of her friends were getting too stressed out about the school dance. "Do you have anything else, Iko?"

"I don't know." She looked around the room, then stepped into her closet to repeat the process. A few seconds later, she gasped and shouted, "YES!" Iko ran out with a small dress in her hands that was midnight blue. She held it up to Cress and smiled. "Try this on," Iko ordered. 

Cress strolled back into the bathroom to struggling to walk in the dress threatening to trip her. 

"Anyway," Iko turned back to face Cinder. "You're going with them. Even if we have to drag you by your hair."

Cinder didn't like dances. She thought that they all shouldn't go out much at all because of there, deformities. They had been and/or were being bullied by Levana and her group. Sometimes, they not only left scars on your psyche, but on your flesh as well.

One of Levana's friends had jumped Winter a few years back and made her dig her nails into her cheek. Then, Scarlet got into a fight and her attacked tried to rip her shoulder out with his teeth. What happened to Cinder was Levana personally cornered her in an alley (as a kid) and burned several parts of her body with a lighter. But one of the worst and most horrifying out of all their encounters was little Cress's. Sybil Mira, Levana's right-hand-chick, and some other dude, drugged her, cut off her once down to her ankles hair, and gave her cuts all over her appendages. Up her arms and legs, on her neck and scalp. On both arms, Sybil scrawled the word "shell" in gashes. The places Sybil missed were her hands, feet, face, and torso. Cinder and her friends didn't mind seeing these injuries, but the last person who saw one of their scars freaked out and told people that they were suicidal.

Iko had already graduated high school and was learning how to be a fashion designer. Which was why her closet was half the size of her bedroom. We all jumped when a squeal of delight came from the bathroom. Seconds later, Cress bolted in with the dark dress on, it fit her perfectly. It hugged her neck and the sleeves reached her wrists. The hem was above her knees and exposed her scratched up legs. Nothing a pair of black tights couldn't fix. "I love it!" Cress cried. "Where did you get this?"

"I bought it a week ago and through it in the wash. I forgot to read the label, which said 'Wash in only cold water'. It shrank, so I put it away," blushing while explaining, she tried not to sound dumb. "You can have it if you want. I think you're the only one who can fit in that thing now."

"Really?" Cress glanced down at the dress in aw. "Thank you so much."

"Great," Scarlet announced pleasantly. "Now, it's Cinder's turn to try on dresses."