*****
Anita headed to The Island later that night to see Cleo. It felt like ages since she’d seen her. She walked into the bar and heard Cleo before she saw her, ‘I knew she would win. I told you. She’s never been beaten yet, and she wasn’t going to let a few Descendants stop her.’
‘Hey Cleo,’ Anita called across the room, waving at her best friend. She made gestures which hopefully meant ‘I’m going to get a drink, I’ll come over in a minute’, and headed to the ugly little bar to place her order. The Island was packed full of people who’d been at the Chase, both those who’d been in the crowd and contestants, but thankfully the Descendants didn’t appear to be around. At least that gives me more time until I have to give Marcus an answer, thought Anita, suddenly unsteadied as an overexcited Cleo yanked her sideways. She’d bounded across the room to wrap her arms around Anita in a frenzied hug.
‘YOU DID IT!’ Cleo squealed. ‘WELL DONE!’
‘Thanks. It was a bit close for comfort this time, but I just about managed to get to the scroll first.’
‘Well, I knew you would do it all along. Now, let me buy you a celebratory drink.’ Anita put her hand up to protest, but Cleo shot her a warning look so ferocious that she backed down immediately.
‘Thanks. I’ll have an Empire then please,’ a cocktail made of a curious mix of spirits that Anita had never quite managed to determine. This Cleo seemed pleased with, presumably because the drink was both extremely potent and suitably extravagant. Cleo called the order to the bartender, who said he would bring the drinks over, then dragged Anita back to the table where she’d been sitting. Cleo shooed the guys she’d been talking to away (this always amazed Anita) and leant in conspiratorially; clearly there was something Cleo wanted to discuss.
‘So,’ she started, still totally over the top, ‘I’ve heard a rumour.’
‘Oh, a new and different past time for you. I’m thrilled you’re branching out…’
‘Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit you know.’
‘No?’ Anita replied sarcastically.
Cleo gave her a chastising look, but couldn’t contain herself any longer, so pressed on. ‘I’ve heard that Marcus is inviting someone outside his usual circle to the ball.’
‘Really?’ asked Anita, feeling a slight flutter of panic. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Well, you know James, the Mind Councillor who organised the Chase?’
‘Yes.’
‘His son Henry has invited me to the ball!’
‘Congratulations,’ said Anita, with genuine feeling, internally slightly surprised, although she didn’t know why; it was exactly the kind of thing that Cleo always managed to engineer.
‘Thanks,’ Cleo shot back, looking smug, ‘we can discuss how I pulled that one off in a minute, but anyway, he came in to see me last night for a drink, and we drank a little too much Island Punch. He started saying that Marcus’ friends had all been teasing him about not having a date for the ball. Pretty much everyone else in their circle has a date, most of them with each other, obviously, apart from Marcus, Henry, and one other notable exception,’ said Cleo, eyeing Anita deviously, ‘some girl called Missy, who will be attending the ball with Bas.’
‘What kind of a name is Missy?’ laughed Anita. ‘And who is she?’ she asked, feeling both relieved and a tiny bit jealous, if she was being totally honest with herself. She didn’t want to go out with Bas, but she felt a bit possessive over him anyway.
‘She’s the daughter of some senior Councillor. It was probably orchestrated by their parents if you ask me...but anyway, Henry said they’d all been teasing Marcus about it yesterday, and he said he had options outside the normal crowd. Apparently, he said he wasn’t going to tell anyone who he’d decided to take because he wanted it to be a surprise on the night.’ Anita sat very still, not saying a word. Should she tell Cleo? It would be good to talk to someone about it. But before she got a chance, Cleo was already speculating as to who it could be. ‘I think it’s that girl in our Mind class; the useless one who thinks she’s practically a gift from the Gods. Or maybe the girl that Austin chose to pick the pigeon this morning. Maybe he’s in on it too. I can’t imagine Austin would like it if Marcus turned up at the ball with someone outside their circle unless he knew about it first.’
‘Cleo,’ Anita said quietly.
‘Uh huh,’ Cleo replied, at the same time as thanking the waiter for the drinks he’d put down in front of them.
‘There’s something I need to talk to you about,’ she said slowly, ‘outside.’
Cleo looked worried. ‘Is everything alright?’
‘Yep, just something I want to talk to you about, but it’s a bit crowded in here.’
‘Okay,’ said Cleo, as they picked up their drinks and headed to the back door. They sat down on a bench overlooking the river and Anita took a sip of her toxic cocktail.
‘Delicious, as always,’ she stalled.
‘You didn’t bring me out here to talk about cocktails,’ replied Cleo, anxious to find out what Anita wanted to talk about; she could practically smell the gossip.
‘No,’ said Anita, wondering how to approach this. ‘You know the other week when I turned down Marcus’ offer to go back to his with the others?’
‘No,’ gasped Cleo, ‘you went?!’
Anita smirked and shook her head, ‘no.’
‘Oh. Sorry, carry on.’
‘The following day, I was running by the river, when Marcus ran up behind me. He asked if he could join me for a run, so obviously I put him through his paces.’ Now Cleo smirked. ‘We got a fair distance before he wanted to stop for a break, and we chatted for a bit.’ Cleo’s face was frozen in a look of open-mouthed disbelief, and Anita had to stifle a laugh as she continued. ‘And he asked me to go to the ball with him. Well, it was more of a command than a question really…’
‘…so you’re the one he’s taking to the ball?’
‘Well, I’m not sure.’
‘You’re not sure? What do you mean you’re not sure? Presumably you said yes?’
‘Um.’
‘Um?’
‘Well, I told him ‘maybe’.’
‘You told him ‘maybe’?’ Cleo repeated, in a disgusted voice.
‘Yes.’
‘Right.’
They sat there in dumbfounded silence for a minute before Cleo piped up again. ‘As you know, this doesn’t normally happen to me, but I’m basically speechless. You’ve got to go to the ball with him.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?! Because he’s a Descendant and can you imagine the look on bitch-face Gwyneth’s face if you do?’
‘That’s probably the best reason I’ve thought of so far,’ laughed Anita. ‘But other than that, I just don’t know if it’s a good idea.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t want to draw attention to myself.’
‘You didn’t stop to consider that when you won the Chase this morning.’
‘I know.’
‘Even so, why not? A bit of attention can be fun you know.’
‘Hmmm.’
‘And you have to lead the first dance, so it may as well be with someone who’ll look good, and by the relic, he looks good.’
‘That makes it even worse. Everyone’s going to be looking at me leading the first dance anyway, but if I’m dancing with him, everyone will be looking at me and speculating what’s going on between us and why he chose me.’
‘Let them speculate and enjoy the attention. That’s what I’d do.’
‘Yes, well you’ve always been better than I have at that.’
‘You should go with him. Enjoy it. Put two fingers up to bitch-face Gwyn. I saw her shove you at the start of the Chase. You know you want to.’
‘I’m still thinking about it. Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know what I decide. But in the meantime don’t you dare tell anyone.’
Cleo looked hurt
. ‘Me? Gossip? Never.’
‘Come on, let’s go back inside. I think I need another drink.’