Face Value

Part 28

TWENTY EIGHT.

"You're lying!" Atali spat. "These are clearly fakes. You can't come in!"

Hiccup felt anxiety tighten his stomach as he faced the vicious girl opposite him. Atali's green eyes flashed with malice and her expression twisted her pretty face. Her titian hair was swept up into a sleek bun and she wore an elegant and expensive sleeveless black gown with a large satin bow on her hip and a glittering necklace around her throat. Atali was acting exactly as he had anticipated and for a moment, a wave of hopeless resignation swept over him. This was just what had happened the last year and-to a lesser extent-for much of his life. Just when something looked good, fate or the Norns would throw some giant spanner in the works and his life would take a turn for the worst. Automatically, he shifted his weight slightly onto his right leg, his prosthesis clicking softly as he took a deep breath.

"Then you have a problem," he said clearly. Atali pressed her lips together in a furious expression.

"The nerve, you one-legged thief!" she snapped. "Trying to pass off fake tickets..." He frowned.

"Actually, I bought the tickets in good faith from one of your committee," Hiccup repeated. He pulled a folded packet of papers from his inside pocket. "I was issued with an official receipt." Atali frowned as she saw it, stamped with the Prom stamp and then tossed her head.

"I decided Justin wasn't allowed to sell tickets because he would sell one to you," she announced breezily. "So I made sure he was only given fake tickets."

"Have you heard yourself?" Astrid asked her, her voice edged with anger. Hiccup could feel her grip tighten ferociously on his arm and he almost winced. "You are sounding crazy."

"So you believe that because you are on the Prom committee that you can hand out fake tickets?" he asked Atali. The redhead gave a smug smile.

"Fakes."

"It doesn't matter," Hiccup told her sternly. "I paid money in good faith. I received a receipt in return for what I thought were real tickets. Justin sold what he believed were real tickets." He turned over another piece of paper. "And the money has been deposited in the Prom account of which you are the signatory. Here is the deposit receipt. So therefore you took money for fake goods which you supplied. You've just admitted to fraud."

Atali stared at him.

"Fraud is a criminal offence," he told her clearly. "So I'm calling the police. Now."

"They wouldn't waste their time coming to a High School Prom," she said hastily, her eyes still mocking. He leaned closer.

"Have you forgotten who my father is?" he asked her softly. "Dad worked for the Tourist and Island Development Board for twenty years and he knows everyone! One phone call and the Chief of Police will be here in person to arrest you!" The girl glared back at him.

"You're bluffing!" she hissed.

"Am I?" he asked her simply. "You see, you're deluding yourself, Atali. Prom is a School event, not your personal party. So you don't get to exclude people who you don't like because, as a Senior, I have an equal right to you to attend. Irrespective of whether you are on the Prom Committee or not. You see, everything you did to make the Prom happen doesn't matter at all when it comes to who has a right to attend."

"I'm the Chair of Prom Committee, you one-legged worm, and I say who attends!" she spat. Hiccup unfolded another piece of paper.

"Nope," he told her bluntly. "You see, after your little outburst in the lunchroom, I went to see Principal Queen and she confirmed that everyone has a right to attend-despite your nasty, dirty tricks." He turned over the email and showed it to her, rewarded by her mouth dropping open and face paling. "So she sent this email to every staff member-including all of those here and copied to me, just in case-so they all know that any Senior who attends with the money for a ticket MUST be allowed into Prom, no matter what you say."