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"Oh, gee, why else would I have left that early?" Esen spoke with a dash of sarcasm. "In all seriousness, though, hello, Melody." Her head went up a bit at the notice of the voice - yes, it was her roommate, albeit without the make-up that she identified her with during non-school hours. It did not have the time to lose its color completely - there was still pink in her cheeks. Luckily, though, there was no green on her lips - it was the 'normal' color. "Are you as overwhelmed as I am about this?" To be frank, Esen wanted to leave the crowd - except the gardens weren't opened yet and, of course, her mother was to come as well... right about...

"Thank you, sir," a green-haired woman spoke to a male who had kissed her hand in greeting. Giving him a nod, she left the man behind in order to find someone else - one who had a similar shade of hair that she had.
Esen turned her head behind her, catching a glimpse of the woman. "I hope she remembers what I told her earlier," the younger spoke in a quiet tone, hoping that 'Miss Fredrica Saylor' - so the check said - wouldn't embarrass Esen more than she already felt by being encouraged to go.

She flushed slightly, a good natured smile on her lips. "Sorry, sorry. I guess I was too caught up in trying to get a hold of my "brother"." Because yes, she did want Ignacio to come as this was something that involved his mother's work! Sadly she never got a hold of him.

"A bit, yes. I haven't gone to any sort of fancy thing like this since middle school, and even then I wasn't fond of these things." An understanding smile as she placed a gentle hand on her roommate's arm. "I, myself, was planning on going out to the gardens once they opened up to spend the remainder of the night there. Want to keep me company when they do?"

She was hoping, by the night's end, she'd have her own little group of people to converse with if there were enough people she knew to do so. However the blonde girl had no idea if Azzo was coming (this didn't seem his cup of tea), and she hadn't been able to ask Lil if she'd make it. Though maybe it wasn't the ideal place for some one with vision issues...

Brown eyes followed her roommates gaze to a woman who looked a lot like the green haired girl, which put her sights over at the doorway in time to catch Emmy. She resisted the urge to go and pounce the girl in a hug, needing to apologize furiously for not having gotten in touch with her. Maybe she'd get the chance to.

"Thank you, I will be sure to let them know." Emmeline curtsied one last time and moved on. She was incredibly glad to be done with the biggest errand she had to perform for the night. She sauntered through the crowd to see if anyone was there she knew. She didn't want to spend the night alone in a room full of people. To her, there was no worse of a feeling.However, there just happened to be someone she recognized. The person she spotted, there was no mistaking the identity of. She rushed over and embraced her as tightly as she could.

"Melody! I never thought I'd see you here! Wow, I thought I'd be completely alone. And who's your friend?" Emmy let go and thrust her hand out to the green haired girl. She flashed a rather large smile, and became unable to contain her happiness. "I'm Emmeline. Nice to meet you."

"The Princess," whispered Elke into Jada's ear, as quietly as she could. Then she checked her hair and rocked back on her heels, smiling and forming a heart with her hands in between them. "I will, Jada. Don't worry, it'll be okay!" With another hug, she said, "Good luck," and hurried out the door, back down the steps. There didn't really seem to be too many places to escape with someone to, she decided; if all else failed, surely she could come up with something.

So, before entirely giving up her height advantage over the rest of the world, she looked around. The Princess seemed to be dancing with a little boy, and the Captain was--well, she didn't know him, but it didn't look like Hero was gonna deck him, so instead of worrying about that she proceeded to the side of the dance floor, shoulders back, chin up. Maman sent her a somewhat annoyed look, which was kind of embarrassing, but. She would wait here for the Princess to finish her dance.

-A look of absolute delight had touched her young face as Mr Chamberlyn's polite greeting had touched her hand, and she still seemed to glow as she slipped away from the couple, well aware of the slowly forming line. So many people to arrive within the hour! Perhaps there would be more time to meet with the family later, but for now they were a hot commodity, just as Jada was soon to be. Every boy would ask for a dance.. would faun over her like a princess. She was a little jealous, but only a little really.

Dark fingers gripping at the delicate fabric of her dress, she began to walk, the soft swish of fabric barely audible under the sounds of talking of orchestral music. Her eyes gazed across the room for every man (she made note of 'boys' too, but they were lower priority) she saw that wasn't particularly lost in conversation, or already busy with his arm twisted about the waist of a pretty girl. She moved first towards the closest one she saw, smiling sweetly to the thirty something year old man already on his second drink. Poor naive girl.- "Lovely party isn't it?" -She crooned pleasantly when she'd finally got his attention, inclining her head lightly to look up at him.- "And so many people already. I imagine the dance floor will be just a mess of people by the time Jada is making her appearance." -Hint hint. He took it like a pro. Swinging back the rest of his drink in one gulp, he settled the glass onto a decorative little table, before offering his hand to the young girl. What the hell. He'd be plastered before the night was over, it wouldn't hurt to induldge the girl first. Maybe he'd even luck out and end up 'induldged' before the night was over.

Led to the dance floor Aurora's back arched softly, momentarily surprise as his fingers pressed against, her hand reaching up to intwine her fingers in his as the other hand came to rest on his shoulder. The notes of a new song started and Aurora was swept into a swirl, dress and loose ringlets sweeping against her skin like a breeze. His smile was delightful, and Aurora found herself melting into the few minutes they swirled and swayed about the dance floor.-

Fallon was as glued to Jada's side as Elke wanted to be glued to Serenade's. She was a solider on guard, though less literally than the formerly-blue-haired Zodiac in the room. Her eyes piqued to see the gift, but she said nothing, stoic.

Elke was a nice girl, but Fallon still viewed her as competition. She seemed very close to all the people that Fallon wanted to be closer to. She didn't take this competition lightly, especially when she surmised Elke might be dating Serenade -- the former target of her affections. The soft green hair of the piano-playing girl would always tug on Fallon, but she no longer felt compelled to woo her. Her eyes lingered on her for several more moments than she gave the other guests.

No way was Elke replacing Fallon as Jada's "best French friend" either.

"The necklace is lovely," Fallon said coolly. "Nice dress, as well." It wasn't in Fallon's particular tastes, but it was pretty. She, of course, assumed that her gown was of more sophisticated style.

Floor length gowns were a rule of old school black tie, granted they remained the norm for most modern events. A norm, not a necessity. Fallon considered herself slightly more progressive, even if the older crowd didn't. The fine materials of her designer dress swayed below the knee, lovely to her eyes and appropriate if done well (which, of course, she assumed she had done correctly). It helped that the build of the bodice made hiding gauze easy without making her look puffy. The gown she would have worn tonight was now her prom dress. Better to whip out the designer duds in a crowd that could appreciate them than save it for prom anyway. If Fallon could have read Elke's thoughts in that moment, no doubt would she have launched into an explanation of her outfit, shooting daggers at the girl the entire time. Really, Fallon was just looking for an excuse to dislike her.

Her smile brightened considerably when Elke departed. Until Jada made her leave, Fallon planned to stay planted by her side for moral support. She said so: "I'm here for moral support." She gave Jada a playful faux-massage and then stopped, grinning. "I think my mother is going to erect a shrine to your mother back in France." Her eyes rolled, and she laughed quietly so as not to draw attention from downstairs.

Iva, on the other hand, was thrilled to have been complimented by Michael Chamberlyn and waltzed through the party like everyone had heard the compliment, shoulders back, head high, hand grasping a glass of champagne. She would most certainly hold him to that dance.

Gene Baskov hated the word charity any time it was within one degree of Kevin Bacon away from himself. When your gym teacher saw that your hand-me-down coat had been handed down from your father and through a couple more siblings, and was about a foot too long in each arm, and he brought you in a coat that still had one of the tags on it, and said it used to be his kid's but it didn't fit him anymore: that was charity. Charity was good for the soul, if you were the one on the giving end -- but it was ******** hell if you had to be the recipient. Charity was a slow poison.

'Fundraiser' was a better word. He could handle a fundraiser. What was more, it doubled as a party, and Gene was good at parties; he'd been to plenty of them in his time. His salary was reflected in the careful tailoring of his designer formalwear and the precious stones on his cufflinks (the well-dressed gentleman always eschewed buttons in favor of cufflinks). He could do parties, and the hospital expected it -- they had a habit of expecting a lot of things from him that had to do with his being young and personable. He actually wasn't all that personable, was the thing, but you put on a certain face when you were doing your job, didn't you -- now it was a little annoying having to spend so much time working at it. At least there'd be hors d'oeuvres.

Gene knew better than to show up at a formal event without a plus one. He and Lizzy Keorattanavong from laproscopy had agreed to come together -- she was pretty and had a ginormous smile and paid child support, and kept beating him at Snood in the rolling weekly tournaments, but it was mostly based on the first two facts that the hospital had 'suggested' she attend, as well. So they'd do their doctorly jobs of networking and using their Vampire Dazzle skills, and in a few hours they'd meet up again to trade fake British accents and very seriously discuss Harry Potter and other accoutrements of genteel civilization. This was their agreed-upon plan.

When they checked in, Lizzy deftly offered, "Dr. Baskov and Dr. K, " -- which was how Lizzy rolled.