December 13th, 2016

Kinsky, California, USA

The Ball

The Kinsky High Winter Ball was a minor event, for the most part. Wedged between the two biggest events of the year, it did not provide the communal launching off point which Homecoming had, nor the grandiose flair of Prom. Rather it was a smaller, intimate event, taking place in just the main basketball court, and was set up by the student government with the intention of all funds going to a local holiday-themed charity. Of course, all of our cast attended. 

Emily and Ash were the first to come, setting up the main STUGO table and assisting with the blue and silver decorations which lined the darkened court. A few minutes later, their set of volunteers – Rose, Aaron, and Sadja – came in to further help the set up.

A bit closer to the start of the ball, Rose watched her boyfriend as he set up flower vases at the center of rounded tables. 

“You know Aaron, I’m impressed. You’ve been carrying boxes around for half an hour now, and you haven’t complained once.”

Aaron, who currently held a box of the fake flowers, pointed to himself. “Oh, me? Honestly, I’m unbothered. Just glad that finals are over.”

“Agreed,” Sadja interjected, walking over with a handful of plastic plates. “I feel like my whole life flashed before my eyes the entire week. I don’t think I would have survived physics if it weren’t for the test bank.”

Aaron, grinning, nodded. “You can say that again.”

Emily walked over to the group just as the conversation had begun. She shook her head. “Oh no, not you guys too.”

Sadja, embarrassed she was caught, gave an exasperated laugh and scratched the back of her hair. “Well, I mean, I’ve been struggling with that class all semester… and it’s not like I had an Emily to help me out on it, so…”

Emily tilted her head. “Oh, so if you didn’t have me as a tutor, the very next thing you’d resort to is cheating?”

While Sadja turned red, Aaron – who had finished setting up the flowers – took a seat on the table. “Listen, I’ve got no shame. Physics kicks my ass.”

Emily giggled. “I’m just teasing the two of you. But make sure you don’t talk about that too loud. I heard Mr. Hersch already found out about it.” 

Aaron and Sadja both changed their expressions to that of an eminent and strong fear. Yet before any more could be said in the conversation, the group heard the court doors open. As it was still too early for any student to come in, they all turned around to see who it was.

Kat wore a brilliant dark blue dress, its velvet hems and her blonde hair creating a ray of light around her as she approached. On top of her head was a crown of light-blue flowers, and although the flowers were fake they did no less of a job at accentuating her presence. Her arm was held by Lukas, a little less confident but no less well-dressed, with a freshly ironed black suit and white dress shirt.

The others looked on in awe. Rose, who examined Kat’s outfit, smiled and crossed her arms. “You didn’t need to go that hard. I mean, it’s just the Winter Ball. The only people who are going to be dressed like that are the lower classmen.”

Kat shrugged. “I felt like dressing up. Besides, I need to use all these blue dresses at some point. Blue isn’t a good color for springtime.”

Aaron pointed over at Lukas. “Did he feel like dressing up?”

Kat giggled. “Just took a little bit of convincing. Right, honey?”

Lukas, who could barely breathe under the weight of his clothes, simply nodded. Emily, who was off to the side helping direct volunteers, came back to the group. “Well, I for one am glad somebody’s still putting the ‘Ball’ in ‘Kinsky High Annual Winter Ball’.”

Ash, who saw the two enter from a distance, jogged over to where the girl was. “Kat, you look amazing!” she proclaimed.

Kat smiled. “Thanks. I even made sure to use those color theory tricks you taught me, with the crown and the dress.”

The artist nodded. “Couldn’t have done it better myself.”

Sadja turned back over to the door. “Head’s up. Looks like we finally got people coming in.”

…

One of those people, who arrived ten or so minutes later, was Maria. She wore her white dress, though had on her purple coat to protect her from the elements outside. From the passenger seat of her car she took out a still warm pan, its top covered in tin foil, and quickly made her way into the court.

Rodrigo – who arrived a bit earlier –  and Lukas, were sitting at a table near the entrance when they noticed Maria come in. Their eyes both lit up.

“Hey, Maria! Over here!” They both called.

Maria turned towards them, and smiled. She approached with the pan.

“You guys know the drill at this point,” she said, taking the aluminum cover off. “Friend’s price is a dollar. Take however many you want. Ones on the right are green chile, ones on the left are red chicken.”

Their boys took out their wallets, each handing Maria a dollar bill. She slanted the pan their way to reveal a large batch of hot fresh tamales, to which they each took one. 

Ash walked over, looking at the two boys who had already begun devouring their meals. 

“Matthews might get mad if you eat them here.”

Rodrigo looked up, a look of hunger-quenched satisfaction on his face. “Tell Matthews he can screw it!”

Ash looked at the boy unamused. “I don’t think I will, thank you.”

“Do you guys know where Cole is? There’s something I wanted to ask him,” Maria asked.

Lukas shrugged his shoulders. “If he’s here, I don’t know about it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I dunno. He’s been pretty radio silent recently.”

Maria’s face turned downward. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. You guys mind if I leave the tamale tray here?”

Rodrigo chewed the food in his mouth. “If you don’t mind a few going missing while you’re gone.”

Maria shook her head. “Think I’ll just stay close by.”

Kat walked up to the group. Maria turned towards her as she came closer. “Hey Kat, want a tamale?”

She shook her head. “Not right now, but I might take some to go. Just thinking of grabbing something small.”

Emily pointed behind her. “The snack bar is now up, if you want to go get something.” 

Kat smiled, and walked over to where Emily had directed her. There was a long table draped in a dark blue cover, holding bowls of salty and sweet foods. As she came into the small line building up at the table, her attention turned towards the foods and deciding which one she wanted. But as her eyes drew around the table, she came to the realization of the person standing just in front of her – Isaac, who had on a silver watch which Kat recognized and a blue blazer which she didn’t. At first she considered not saying anything, but then she wondered if that was appropriate – perhaps some innocent acknowledgment would be better. Kat decided to go down this latter path. 

“Could you pass me one of those chocolate chip cookies?”

Isaac turned his head, and smiled when he saw her. He looked over at the cookies, hesitating as he examined the bowls.

“They still have some M&M ones left. You sure you don’t want one of those instead?”

Kat’s face lightened up. “Sure, I’ll have one.”

Isaac grabbed two of the cookies, and gently placed both of them on her plate. The two didn’t speak further beyond that, and went their separate ways once they got to the end of the line.

Kat walked off a bit, eating one of the cookies off her plate, when she looked up. “Oh, Hi Cole,” she let out, staring astonished at the figure in front of her.

Cole’s eyes drifted in her direction. He was leaning against the wall at the end of the court, wearing his regular gray hoodie and jeans. His countenance didn’t betray any emotion.

“Hey,” he answered back simply.

“The others were looking for you, near the entrance.” She approached him, and with a gentle hand ran her fingers through his hair. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just a little tired.”

Kat removed her hand, and beckoned to him. “Come on, let’s go and find them.”

Back at the table, Lukas and Rodrigo stared at the tamales, with Maria keeping a close eye on them not too far away. Lukas could hear a conversation between Rose and Sadja next to him.

“So, I started using Pfivira, like you suggested,” Sadja spoke plainly, leaning over to Rose’s side.

“Oh? And how is it?” 

“Much better. I don’t get the cramps anymore, and it does help that I only have to take it every few days instead of daily.”

Rose nodded, resting her head on her hand. “Yeah, that’s great! Honestly – and I know you’re not supposed to do this – but I usually only take it the day before Aaron and I have sex. ‘Cause like, we only ever do it once a week when his parents aren’t home, and there’s that thing about how… you know, if your body does something regularly enough that it just sort of knows, right? So I feel like it’s okay.”

“Aaron wears a condom, right?”

“Oh yeah, of course he does. That’s another reason why I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

“Yeah, I get it. I can’t really do that because, well… I do it more irregularly. But I’m glad this works a lot better all the same.”

Something about the conversation made Lukas uncomfortable, and he wasn’t sure why. Given Kat’s much more risque sexual behavior, perhaps it was warranted – but that’s not what Lukas was thinking about. The reality is that there are certain lines of thinking that cannot be crossed, else they begin to weigh on the conscience. You can think of friends, or you can think of sexual partners, but you cannot keep both thoughts in your head at the same time. Cole had fallen under this trap when he had seen the picture of Sadja. Yet, even further, there is a separation between men’s sexuality and women’s sexuality. This is why Lukas felt so ill at ease.

Fortunately, Lukas was snapped out of the feeling thanks to the return of Kat, with Cole following closely behind her. The others were happy to see him, though he yet again did not seem to lift in spirits.

“I see you went casual-casual,” Rodrigo commented, seeing Cole’s clothes. “Kinda wish I did that myself. I’m sweating in this dress shirt.”

“Sweating? It’s freezing in here.” Ash spoke as she approached the table.

“You think it’s freezing everywhere.”

“Women are more sensitive to colder temperatures, you know.”

The others began to break into yet another conversation, while Cole watched on passively. He was broken from his trance when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you something,” Maria whispered. “Away from the others, if you please.”

Cole’s heart rate spiked. He stumbled over his words. “Y-yeah, yeah, of course.”

Maria led him over to an isolated section of the makeshift ballroom, looking back over to see that all the others stayed in their spots. “Sorry, I just wanted to ask you alone so the others didn’t get the wrong idea.”

Cole’s fear turned to confusion. “H-huh?”

“Okay, well, you remember when we walked by the pier in October, and I said I hadn’t been there in a long time?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, on the 22nd and the 23rd, they’re having this special winter holiday celebration over there. And I was wondering if you wanted to check it out with me.”

Cole leaned his head slightly. “You’re not inviting the others?”

Maria shrugged. “Well, I mean, you’ve helped me so much these past four months… I felt like I owe you one. Lunch and a trip to the pier, all on me.”

Cole’s initial thoughts were to reject the proposal, in fear that it may lead him deeper down the hole he was currently trying to get himself out of. But he caught himself, and realized that a trip to the pier might be a way to finally end his anxiety. He ended up siding with the latter.

“I mean, sure… if that’s what you want.”

Maria’s eyes widened, and her face lit up. “R-really? I mean, well, I just expected you to be busy this close to Christmas, and-”

“I can do the 22nd no problem.”

Maria stopped, and smiled. “In that case, I’ll see you then.”

A brief, faint smile appeared on Cole’s lips as well. “Sounds good to me.”

The two walked back to the table, and saw that in their absence Aaron and Russell had joined the group. Maria walked back over to the tamale tray, leaning over to inspect it carefully.

“You didn’t take one while I was gone…” She asked, turning slowly towards Aaron, “…did you?”

Aaron was caught off-guard. “Whaddya lookin’ at me like that for?! Of course I didn’t take anything!”

“Are you sure? I could have sworn there were more in here, last I checked…”

The boy began to sweat. “I didn’t take one! I-I swear!”

After watching Aaron grovel in terror for a sufficient amount of time, Maria broke into a giggle and left the poor boy alone. On the other side of the table, Cole greeted Russell, and the group talked amongst each other. Eventually, Emily came back to the table from her role as ball supervisor.

“The photo booth is set up now, on that side,” she motioned to it. “If any of you want to take a picture.”

Kat seemed excited. “Oh, that reminds me! We haven’t taken our picture yet this year!”

The girl grabbed Lukas’ arm, who obliged by following her steps. But just a few moments later, she turned around to see Cole still standing at the table.

“Hey, you coming?”

Cole seemed surprised. “What, take a picture with you guys dressed like this? I’m gonna look like a dork.”

“You always look like a dork,” Lukas interjected, winking. “Now come and take a picture with us.”

Pressured by the two, the boy relented and followed them to the empty booth. There was an older woman manning the station, who seemed quite happy that the three had chosen to come by – it was clear none of the other high schoolers seemed interested – and guided them through the steps of setting up their photo. There were a few props on the table, and Kat grabbed some before they sat inside.

Cole was hesitant about the whole affair, and for those few moments of set up his mind began to go depressed, wishing he was somewhere else, wishing that he wasn’t there – not necessarily in the photo booth, but anywhere. In the Winter Ball, in the high school, in Kinsky. It was one of those pits in your stomach when being around something fun is sad, being around friends hurts, and seeing others laugh makes you angry. It’s a feeling that Cole has had on and off for almost a year now, and had begun to grow in intensity over the past few weeks.

But it didn’t last long. As the three got into their seats, Kat sat in the middle of the two boys. As the photo’s timer counted down, the girl suddenly reached her hands over their shoulders and held them close, her laughter vibrating through their ears, causing a chain reaction. Lukas laughed too, and Cole found himself caught in the excitement as the screen in front of them flashed in a quick flurry of succession.

When they got out, they had an opportunity to see the photos. Cole had smiled in every one.