"Are you going to the ball?" Shupple asked as we sat down to start the game. I looked at her unsure of exactly what to say. Hesitation sunk into me like a plague, but I just continued to stort the cards as my thoughts moved about exactly how to answer this.
"I think so... since..." I stated still unsure of what I was trying to convey. However, Shupple finished the statement for me in a way that made my eyes move away again.
"Since Lupe kind of forced you into going?" Shupple asked. Yep here it came. I nodded slightly and couldn’t help but look down at my cards unable to meet her expression. Silence was all that filled me in that small instance, and I calculated that with the way that Shupple was answering the situation, she would just continue talking anyways.
"Do you have a date?" Shupple questioned after another moment. I blinked unsure how that had suddenly appeared in her mind. I had been expecting her to comment about a few other things, but it had once again focused back on me in this manner. Finally I just found that the simplest solution would be to answer as directly as Shupple had asked.
"No. I don't." I answered looking at my cards and starting to move them around in my hands again unsure of whether or not to continue the statement or just leave it in the air.
"Ah," Shupple acknowledged but pushed the situation no further, and we continued the game almost in an overly calm manner…. Well calm in retrospect with the frantic movements that everyone expressed in the mansion as they got ready for the dance. Once again I caught myself debating actually going to the dance. Why was my mind such a fence sitter when it came to decisions such as these? I found myself internally blaming the nature in which I had grown up in, but at the back of my mind, I knew this to be a false accusation even without fully understanding the truth of the matter. It was once said that to find the truth, one must search out all the falsity first, and I found this saying becoming a parallel in my situation at the moment.
"Speed." I said aloud surprised at first at saying it but the finding that Shupple had said it as well, I understood what had happened. Both our thoughts were somewhere else at the moment, and the game had progressed so much slower than usual that we actually had finished at the exact same time. I looked at Shupple, and for a brief moment, I wondered what her mind was on. Then quickly I acknowledged the tie for that was the only relevant matter at the moment.
"So... tie then?" I said aloud, and Shupple made a half nod before collecting the cards and beginning to reshuffle the deck. There was a strange notion in me to at least try and make conversation while we played in game in order to relieve my thoughts of other matters. “
So... is there a certain reason why you aren't going to the Ball, besides hating Valentine's Day?" Oh for the love of internal bleeding… Had I really just said that? Shupple had already made a valid point to state that she was not going, and It was not right for me to press the matter in this way. However, that was the first thing that had come to mind, and I could not take it back now that it was fluttering about in the air like a wayward butterfly.
Shupple paused, and my last hope that maybe she had not heard me correctly and I could change my question before the matter moved out of hand died. However, Shupple continued shuffling the deck as though she had not heard me, and I realized that she was planning exactly how to reply. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.
"I was kind of the girl who stood out in the crowds when I was small." Shupple answered simplistically in the way I had replied about not having a date to the Ball. With this simplicity however, one could understand a lot more than what was said. I gave a slight nod wondering if she had taken this question to heart and was now somewhat upset with me over it. However, she changed the subject, and the flow of the conversation continued as if nothing had stopped it in the first place. For that I was grateful.
"I was reading, by the way." Shupple said aloud. Now wait… what was she talking about? I understood that there was a need to change the subject, but she had said something completely out of the blue, and I was unsure of any part of it. I tilted my head to one side and waited of Shupple to explain.
"I wasn't taking a nap in my room, I was just reading. That's all." Shupple explained, and I found that her voice was starting to shift into a whisper as though it was some kind of secret.
Unsure of what to reply with, I simply answered “Ah,” and left the rest in the air. Shupple took this understanding and dealt me another hand of cards. Before starting the game, Shupple turned and opened the window. For reasons that I cannot explain, I found that my eyes shifted down to my sketchbook for a moment before returning to my cards and then up to Shupple again. This strange transaction of movement continued for a few seconds before Shupple’s voice brought my full attention back up again.
"Something the matter?" Shupple asked, and with that my skin jumped. I sighed to try and blow this sudden surprise away yet it did not good for I could tell Shupple continued to understand something had started to perturb me. Even then I was not entirely sure what was wrong.
"Um... N-no. It was nothing. It's nothing. Nothing..." I answered, but with this statement allowed to free roam, I found that it only seemed to confuse Shupple a bit. I wished in that instant I hadn’t sounded as unnerved as I had and been more convincing on the matter. However, when one does not truly know what is wrong, one finds that he cannot really say that nothing is the matter… or something is the matter in that instance as well… what a strange paradox yet I had no time to really contemplate this for much longer for Shupple began to answer.
"Are you sure?" Shupple asked, and I froze completely calm in that instant.
Suddenly, Shupple had seized my cards and set them down. Even quicker still, she grabbed my hand and gave it a slight squeeze. This whole event was less that a second long but would leave my in internal debate for more than a week later. Smiling at me, Shupple continued. "You can tell me anything if you're having troubles, okay?" She said rather suddenly, and it that moment her face shifted. I nodded and then found that my eyes had shifted back to the fact that she had put her hand on mine. Recoiling in that moment, Shupple pulled her hand back and appeared to be trying to consol herself in one way or another. I found that my eyes had shifted away again and that I was giving a blank stare to the flier sticking on the wall that reminded me ever still that there was a Ball that Lupe had all but demanded that I attend.
"Sorry... about that.... Heh... Sorry," Shupple commented into the air nervously. I brought my eyes back and found that she was refusing to meet my gaze. Turning my head to one side and failing to calm a strange nervousness that had come about inside, I looked away as well and found once again that I was staring at my sketchbook. Picking it up where I had left it, I started to fumble with it before finally flipping it open and starting to draw some of the miscellaneous objects in the room. Shupple started to look down at her cards as if unsure of anything to do.
“No….” I finally said aloud from the safety of behind the sketchbook I was now using as a strange deterrent shield. “No… it’s fine… thank you,” I answered as I started to draw a flower vase sitting on a stand not far off.
“Y-a…” Shupple answered lightly still avoiding any half way looks I gave her. “D… don’t worry about it….” She broke off again, and I didn’t know whether or not to continue the conversation or just leave it to its eventual resting place above the stratosphere. However, I knew that the latter was just my hope and would not happen in any sense.
Looking down at my sketchbook, I found that I was drawing pretty much everything in the room besides Shupple, and there was a blurred area on the page where she should have been sitting. Suddenly the sound of movement brought my eye down to a hallway. A Chinchou Gijika came bounding out of the hallway pursued by an Arcanine Gijika. Both of them continued through the main room and down another hallway. In that moment, I caught myself humming the Benny Hill chase music and that it was playing internally as my Own Tempo. Shaking my head and laughing nervously, I finished the hum as they ran off.
I turned my head back and found that Shupple was eyeing me with her head turned to one side. Seeing that I was looking at her, Shupple’s eyes darted away once again downwards, and I found that my eyes had shifted away again as well. “That was….” I said trying to start a relevant conversation and yet failing to chose the correct words. “Interesting… did you see them…..? I wonder what the Chinchou did…..”
Shupple just shrugged and continued to not say anything. I sighed and then looked back at my sketchbook. The picture was nearly done…. Hearing yet another sound, I looked down the exact same hall that I had just watched the Chinchou run out of and found that Lupe had appeared to hire another friend who was now helping to put up the Ball posters. I flipped to another page and started drawing the mass amounts of posters that were now down the hall. Oh confound it. The question was once again left in my mind, and like ravaged ravenous ravens, the dual sides of my mind began the hot debate of what to do about the Valentine’s Day Ball. Shaking my head, I looked back at Shupple who by that time had changed seating positions and was not moving her hand slightly and causing several of the cards that were left on the ground to move along with her slowly rotating hand.
I looked back over again at the hallway, and with that, Lupe seemed to notice that I was sitting in the main room. I turned my head not sure whether or not I could try and convince her once again that going to the Ball was not on my list of things to do. After a moment of talking with the Froslass Gijika that was with her, Lupe walked out into the main room once again.
“Hello,” I said as they came in. The Froslass gave a nod and Lupe waved.
“Oh right,” Lupe said turning her head from me and Shupple to the Froslass. “This is Faye by the way. She never introduced herself at the previous meeting thing that Estelle had held.”
“Hello,” Shupple said finally nodding almost to herself.
I tried to give a halfway smile and succeeded. Faye gave another nod and then looked about the room as if trying to depict where in the mansion she was. Indeed the sudden thought of actually making a map of the area came to mind…. I would have to do that later….
“The mansion is huge….” Faye commented after a moment, and I looked down at my sketchbook unsure of what exactly to say along with this.
“I didn’t exactly know the number of people at the headquarters so I just… kind of…” I said breaking off.
Lupe cut in quickly enough. “Yep but it’s grand and good,” she answered.
“You built the house?” Faye asked. I found that it was more of a generalized statement rather han a question, and after a moment I nodded my head.
“It is a nice house…” Shupple commuted, and my attention was brought back to her.
“Thanks again…” I answered aloud still not accustomed to the strange fame of doing reverse sketch. It was just a move that… No. I wouldn’t pounder the depths of moves while in the middle of a conversation. They would probably believe that I was just nervous… Nervous… Almost on cue, I felt a strange nervousness come about. Indeed there were only what… three people I was actually talking to in that moment, yet it was enough. I wanted to move away and hide back up in my room for the rest of the day.
“The Valentine’s Day Ball is going to be great!” Lupe said, and suddenly I was drawn out of my still strange nervous inner monologue to realize that I had missed some of the conversation. Sighing to myself I made a mental note that sooner or later I was going to have to kill it.
“So did you decide to come Shupple?” Lupe continued. Oh for… I had missed another bit of the conversation and it had shifted before I had even realized it. I needed to stay more intune… hah… pun off of my Own Tempo….hah…
“Aw come on,” Lupe said again, and I blinked ever frustrated with myself for missing yet another part of the conversation.
“I already said I hate Valentine’s Day,” Shupple answered. “And it doesn’t… really…”
“Why is everyone so negative about Valentine’s Day!” Lupe answered frustrated. Faye gave somewhat of a shrug and then seemed to start her own comment.
“From my understanding, you don’t have to stay during the entire Ball,” Faye said aloud. “So you could come for a little bit… that is what I am considering…” Faye answered this last part almost to herself.
“See there you go! You should come Shupple!” Lupe said matter of factly as she put her hands on her hips and all but beamed at Shupple.
My eyes moved back to Shupple and found that she was avoiding not only my looks but also Lupe and Faye’s. She had gathered up all the cards in her hand and was not moving them in-between her fingers methodically.
“I just don’t…” Shupple tried once again.
“And everyone’s going to be there including Mear,” Lupe continued with almost a proud statement that she had managed to get me to go.
“Ya… I’m going…” I answered somewhat quietly as I looked down at my sketchbook and flipped a pen between my index and forefinger.
“And it’s not like everyone needs a date,” Lupe continued. “We can all just go in a group and have fun.”
“I…” Shupple tried again.
“If she doesn’t want to go she doesn’t have to,” Faye reminded Lupe with a calm manner.
“Come on Shupple…” I said after a moment. “We can all go together….”
Suddenly I found that Shupple, Lupe, and Faye were all looking straight at me. Yes indeed you can only imagine what came out of that. Nerves were already making their way through my system in both direct and indirect ways. However, a part of me did want to see this through. I mean.. the Ball can’t be that bad right? It.. can’t be that bad.
“…..a-alright….” Shupple answered looking down at her hand of cards.
Lupe all but jumped up and down. “Good good,” she answered lightly. “We’ll get everyone to come and it’ll be so much fun!”
“Y…. ya….” Shupple answered starting to avoid everyone’s attention again.
“We still have fliers to put up, Lupe,” Faye commented.
“Oh right,” Lupe answered putting her hands together and beaming for a moment before taking a half step to the side. “Time to go then! Bye~”
With that, Lupe and Faye started walking off again. I looked back at Shupple who seemed to be staring only at her cards.
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LoL... six pages. ^_^ anyways, hope this is ok. I was kinda on a roll for some reason. Later~
Mear
KC
