• THE BALL; CINDERELLA'S PERSPECTIVE •

"Wow, this is so beautiful!" Hinata exclaimed as she checked herself out in the mirror. Neji was in full geek mode. He preened like a peacock at every single praise that was given to the dress and went ahead to boast about it.

"Of course! Although the veil was a last minute inclusion. Since Mebuki doesn't want you out of the house I figured that you wouldn't want anybody to know that you attended the party anyway. I made the veil out of..."

"Spare us the bragging drama princess, Hinata is already late to the party!" Tenten interrupted his self exaltation quite rudely but since it was for a valid reason an argument didn't spring up this time.

"Oh no!" Both Neji and Hinata exclaimed at the same time. They rushed to get Hinata ready for the party.

"We'd help you with the house work, just leave your phone with us so that we would be on the lookout for Mebuki's texts for you!" Tenten yelled as they scrambled around to pack whatever the ravenette needed.

"Have my phone, Hinata, we'd communicate through it." Neji put his phone in her purse.

"Don't forget the buns!" Hanabi ran towards them with the box of cinnamon buns in her hands.

"Thank you Hanabi." Hinata kissed her sister on the forehead and rushed to the door where Neji's driver was waiting for her.

"Wait! You forgot your shoes!"

Hinata raised her dress to view her legs. She was wearing flip flops. "Oops!" That would've been a sight to see had Neji not remembered her shoes.

They hastily wore her shoes for her (because she forgot how to put her shoes on in the hurry) and rushed her into the car.

"Have fun at the party!" Hanabi yelled after her.

"Win this thing for me, okay?" Tenten shouted.

"If anyone asks who made the dress, refer them to me!" Neji received an elbow jab for that.

"Thank you so much everyone, I'll make you proud!" Hinata promised them as the car pulled out of the Hyuga turned Haruno compound.

If falling flat on her face was a way to make somebody proud, Hinata excelled in it already. She wasn't looking at where she was going because of how much she was rushing and tripped over her own feet. How fantastic.

Sasuke came to help her up and from there he tasted her cinnamon buns. That was sorta like jumping the queue but hey, Hinata won! Her food, or more accurately her mother's food, would get publicized by the Uchiha prince!

They started dancing and Hinata had to concentrate hard on remembering the dance steps she was taught when she was young so that she wouldn't step on Sasuke's feet.

Fortunately for her, her muscles remembered everything her dance teacher taught so she didn't have to keep concentrating for long. With her mind off the dance steps Hinata now wondered how good Sasuke found her cinnamon buns. He led her to do a twirl and brought her back to his side.

"Uhm..."

"So..."

Hinata laughed nervously at the coincidence but didn't talk again until Sasuke spoke up.

"So did you make the buns yourself or did you get help?"

Hinata lit up at the question. She loved talking about cooking a lot because that was her area of expertise. "I did, following my mother's recipe." She replied happily. "She used to make the best pastries in Konoha but then again I might be biased because she's my mother...uhm so basically, yeah I made them myself."

Hinata trailed off with a laugh when she realised that she was rambling. Sasuke chuckled at that. "I don't doubt that, that your mum made the best pastries I mean!"

She also chuckled at his nervousness. It was apparent by now that Sasuke didn't recognize her. Neji's dress really did wonders in hiding her identity, Hinata mused. "Thank you." They continued to dance to the music in silence.

She was about to ask him her initial question when Neji's message tone (a boring ding ding ding) went off. Panic began to settle in Hinata at the sound. It could only mean one thing; that Mebuki was on her way home! "Excuse me." She checked the message.

Coconut ❤️🐼
Okay bad news! Run home!

She didn't need to be told twice. "I-I'm really sorry, I have to go!"

"W-what?! Wait! Can I meet you again sometime?!" Sasuke yelled after her but she was already running away. Everyone at the party made way for the two of them to pass, all puzzled by what was going on.

"We can always meet at school!" She told him and ran faster away from him.

"Wait!" There was no way Hinata could wait, didn't he understand that?! "What's your name?!" She couldn't tell him her name either.

The car drove out of the Uchiha compound and from there it was a race between Mebuki and Hinata to the house.

"Hurry! Hurry!!" Tenten, Hanabi and Neji goaded the girl from the moment she alighted from the car.

"Sakura is on her way!" Tenten yelled in panic. Hinata paused.

"Sakura? I thought it was Mebuki!"

"Do you really want to think about that right now?!" Tenten hollered back at her. Right. The matter was serious. She stripped out of the dress hastily and handed it over.

"She's almost here so hurry up!" Neji's voice sounded from the other side of the door which prompted the girls to be faster.

Sakura's car drove in five minutes after Neji's car drove out. What a close call!

"Ugh! This is so unfair!"

The pinkette walked into the house with a thunder cloud hovering above her head. Hinata shifted back subtly. It was always bad whenever Sakura got angry.

"Sakura...?" She called out tentatively. "I didn't think the party would end this soon-"

"It didn't!" Sakura snapped. Then she realised that she was losing control of her emotions so she closed her eyes and did a mental count down. While she did Hinata went to get a glass of strawberry juice for her.

"Here."

"Thank you." Sakura gulped down the drink like it was her lifeline.

"Are you feeling better now?" Hinata collected the empty glass from her.

"Yeah." Sakura contemplated on her answer. "Maybe...a bit."

"Care to tell what happened?" Hinata sat beside her to listen to her tale.

"Ugh...I don't want to think about it but...there was this latecomer, she wasn't even that pretty..."

Oops! This is about Hinata, isn't it?

"Then Sasuke tastes her dish and decides she's the winner! He didn't even taste the desserts the rest of us made! This. Is. So. Unfair!"

If Hinata could shrink into the chair she would. Sakura was angry at her and Sasuke even if she didn't know that she was the one she was angry at. Should she come clean to Sakura?

"If I know who that girl is, I would pound her head into fine powder!"

Er no.

Nevermind.

***

Your comments are hilarious and tempting but I won't say anything until the end of the story.

Ps: did I mention how big of a SasuHina fan I am in Symphony?

Hehe. Take that however you want!

Votes and comments, bye!

-Star.