HAUNTED
୨⎯ chapter five ⎯୧

Bianca is hating ever agreeing so easily to be a debutante.

her and belly entered the shop where they would get their white dress for the ball and bianca already wanted to do nothing with this. she really doesn't know why she would ever agree to something like this. she also doesn't know why her mom was so happy and supportive that she was doing this if usually she wouldn't have let her.

"mom." bianca whined as lena placed about four dresses on her daughters arm. lena waved her finger, no, at her and send her off to the dressing room along with belly who susannah picked out the dresses for her. the first dress that bianca tried on made her look like that swan duster from beauty and the beast but in a bad way.

belly didn't liked her first one either. bianca and belly rushed back inside the dresser and grabbed their second one. the second one she liked a little bit more. it had flower designs, the bottom was a bit puffy but the chest area was square shaped but the strips were small. what she didn't like was that it made her look like she's was going to get married. even her mom agreed about her statement.

and the list went on and on for hours until bianca found the dress. the one that made her look like a princess through and through. it was an all silk white dress. the bottom was a perfect size of puffy, the sleeves weren't so long but they were the perfect size of sleeves for a dress, the front size was lined up with pearls. from the breast to the sleeves leading to the back that was opened like a V. the part where it separated the puffy part of the dress and the opened 'v' of the back there was a bow. it may be a bit to much for bianca, but it was absolutely perfect.

"oh baby." lena gasped standing up from her couch and putting her hands over her mouth. susannah and laurel gaping over bianca as well. the teenage girl stood in front of the mirror watching as the dress was her.

"this is going so good!" susannah squealed clapping her hands together and jumping up and down on her spot. bianca smiled to herself glancing down at the gown and then back up at the mirror. what caught her eye was blaise standing on the far right corner. smiling widely at his daughter and tears running down his eyes. bianca eyes widen and she snapped her head around. of course, he wasn't there.

he wasn't going to be there ever again.

└─── · 。゚☆ *.☽ .* ☆゚. ───┘

laurel dropped off belly and bianca at the club house where all of the debutante are going to gather around for the first time. bianca was forced to wear a dress that made her look like her grandmas table cloth. it was an all white or nude color dress, thin strings, there were blue flowers everywhere. the bottom was too puffy for her liking. she wore white flats and wore a fascinator that had feathers.

laurel told them that if anything happens to call her and she'll come and pick them up. bianca called her the second that she left making laurel laugh. "come on, i'm forcing you to suffer with me." belly said laughing. she intertwined their fingers together and pulled her to walk alongside her on the sidewalk.

bianca looked like a kid dragging her feet while belly was the mom forcing her child to behave. when the two girls were walking they spotted jeremiah up ahead. "hey," belly called out towards the watercolored eyes boy who frowned his eyebrows. "jeremiah!"

jeremiah chuckled as his mind finally processed the two girls standing in front of him. "oh my god, belly. i-oh-i didn't recognize you." jeremiah said. bianca cleared her throat making sure he knew she was there too. "bianca, hey, nice table cloth you're wearing.

"jackass." bianca deadpanned wanting so badly to grab her shoe and throw it smacking jeremiah on the head.

"be honest with me, do i look like a fool?" belly asked knowing that the boys were the most honest people ever, even if they broke your heart and hurt your feelings during the process.

"oh, um," jeremiah chuckled nervously eyeing belly up and down. "you look good. you look good. unlike grandma table cloth over there."

"okay, blue eye freak." bianca huffed leaning down and grabbed her white flat standing on one foot and about to swing her arm on jeremiah. belly held her back snatching the flat away and throwing it on the ground. bianca stuck her tongue at jeremiah who stuck it back.

"let me walk you guys over." jeremiah offered.

belly nodded her head standing in the middle of the fisher and wayne making sure that bianca doesn't hurt him in the process of walking. belly and jeremiah walked in front of bianca talking amongst themselves. bianca couldn't help but notice the way that jeremiah kept on stealing glances from her, smirking and sometimes even having to catch a hug breath of air after him and belly would make eye contact. expect, belly wasn't giving back the same actions.

once they reached the room, bianca wanted to puke on how many girls there were. all the girls grew quiet upon seeing the arrival of jeremiah fisher. bianca cringed at how many girls batted their eyelashes at jeremiah and tried fixing their posture and act almost seductive. then the attention was brought up bianca and belly who stood on each side of jeremiah.

belly had her arm wrapped through jeremiah but bianca had her arms crossed over her chest but her arm was touching his. all of the girls glared and gave bianca and belly nasty looks as they saw them with jeremiah. bianca knew what was going on through their minds. who are those girls? why are they with jeremiah? what do they have to do with jeremiah? ew, is he dating one of them?

"jeremiah." an older woman said.

"remember to stand tall, walk with confidence and don't let anyone make you think you're less than them just because this is your first time." bianca said even though she had no idea what to do in this situation either she told belly and herself what her dad would always tell her whenever bianca had to do any form of public speaking.

"paige." jeremiah greeted back quickly unhooking his arm with belly's and putting his hands on his hips.

paige walked over to the trio and gave jeremiah a weird look. "where is your shirt."

bianca snorted and belly laughed. jeremiah grabbed paige's hand and smiled innocently at her, "it's always a pleasure." he kissed her hand before standing back straight. "this is belly. i mean, uh, isabela conklin and this is bianca wayne. these two young woman are the ones my mom told you about. the one that doesn't look like a table cloth is my future wife."

belly smacked him for calling her his future while. on the other hand bianca smacked him and pinched him for the horrible name that she was already thinking about and didn't need him saying it over and over again.

"they're late." paige deadpanned.

"i'm so sorry." belly quickly said.

"sor-" bianca tried to curtsy but gave it quickly. "sorry.

"bianca you're table two and belly you're table three." paige said.

jeremiah quickly grabbed a snack from the table causing paige to scold at him. "knock 'em dead." jeremiah told the girls and ran off before he got in more trouble with paige.

"oh fuck me." bianca breathed out. one of the girls sitting at the table where she was assigned was the girl steven was with. shayla. bianca noticed this and squeezed her arm. belly glanced over at bianca who nodded her head over to table three. the girl that conrad was kissing. "someone should just struck us both with lighten."

"hurry up, girls." paige said giving them a look.

as bianca walked away from belly, the two best friends stuck out their hands towards each other and looked miserable. bianca dropped her hand and sighed deeply as she reached her table. god, shayla is pretty. bianca said as she noticed shayla was barely even wearing makeup, her clothes look like they came straight out of goodwill but somehow shayla was still managing to pull it off. and the way she was laughing. bianca groaned to herself.

"hi." bianca said politely. her hand found the back of the chair and pulled it so that she had space to sit down. all the girls surrounding the table said it back but were giving each other unknown looks. bianca put her lips in a tight line as she sat down and awkwardly looked everywhere.

"hey," god if you hear me, i hope you can feel how miserable i am right now. bianca thought quickly before turning her head over to shayla who held a soft grin. "you're best friends with stevens little sister, right? bianca?"

"yeah." bianca breathed out glancing down at her lap. she found herself starting to pick on her cuticles once more and shayla noticed.

"so, how's living with all those chaotic boys? must be hard for you and belly." shayla laughed leaning over her table so that the conversation was only between her and bianca.

"so hard. you should've seen them through their puberty phase. hilarious i have so many pictures of them that they will one hundred percent skin me alive if i show anyone." bianca said laughing as the fond memory of whenever she would record the boys voice cracks and they would threaten her if she ever showed anymore.

she glanced over at shayla. maybe i was wrong. bianca thought to herself. shayla and bianca continued doing small talk and at some point bianca completely forgot that she was the girl steven was currently talking to and thought of shayla as her sort of new friend.

that all went straight on pause the second that steven walked over to their table. he didn't want to, he saw bianca and shayla sitting at the same table and offered to go to table three where his sister is at. but leo took over belly's table and steven was forced to go to their table.

"i told my mom the only way i would do this, is if i could bring my girlfriend 'cause i thought it would be a deal killer, but the club has been surprisingly chill about the whole thing." a girl with auburn hair said.

bianca was trying her best, her very best, to focus on the random girl who was rambling on and on instead about the fact that shayla was whispering something inside of steven's ear. through her peripheral vision she could see steven's burning eyes staring straight at her the entire time.

bianca only turned her head to look at shayla when steven walked away. expect, steven looked over his shoulder and briefly locked eyes with bianca. bianca was the first one to break the look and smile at shayla who wanted disparately to get back into conversation with bianca but the girl in front of them was bringing everyone into her conversation.

"the things we do for college applications." she said sighing deeply.

shayla turned her head over towards the girl, "don't worry, marisa. you'll get in everywhere." she said almost like she was bored of hearing it constantly.

"where are you applying?" bianca couldn't help but ask. she wanted to slap herself so badly.

"you know the usual," marisa said making bianca nod slowly even though she had no idea what 'the usual' is. "every ivy minus cornell."

sure, the usual. bianca scoffed mentally to herself slouching down. shayla kicked her leg softly alerting bianca that paige was looking. bianca groaned softly and sat herself back up and straighten out her back.

"ithaca is so bleak." one of the girls said causing everyone on that table to laugh, even bianca let out an unsure laugh. she hated how much she had to act fake to be able to fit in with these group of girls. she wonders how much worse belly is doing.

"how about you?" marisa asked.

"oh, bianca is only a sophomore right? i think because conrad told me last year freshman." bianca glanced over at the girl that touched her hand. aubrey. one of conrad's ex girlfriends from last summer. they only talked once and that talk was shitty because all aubrey could talk about was how fine leo, jeremiah and conrad all are despite being in a relationship with conrad. worst part is that she was the one who broke up with conrad.

"junior, actually. i'm going to be a senior this fall." bianca said causing shaylas eyes to widen and aubrey rolled her eyes. "yeah, i skipped a grade during middle school. i'm the youngest senior."

"congratulations." shayla said proudly to her despite the fact that they've only just become friends and hardly know anything about each other. bianca smiled widely at shayla. no one has ever put much mind to her academic and how smart she actually is. her brilliance is overlooked by all and she would rather keep it like that. she wants to prove everyone wrong once she graduates as valedictorian.

"so, this is your first summer here in cousins?" one of the girls asked.

"no, i've been coming here since i was 8, just never associated with girls like you." bianca said not meaning it in a bad way, but it's true. it's so true that she earned bad looks from everyone like as if they were offended.

"she's cool, though. she's not like leo, jeremiah or conrad." shayla said also noticing the looks. bianca grinned at her attempt but shook her head.

"wait, are you and leo a thing?" a girl asked.

bianca chocked on her own saliva causing everyone's eyes to turn around and look at bianca. even her brother who rushed over to her and poured her a glass of water.

"this monster right here?" bianca asked and the girl nodded her head as she looked at leo with dreamy eyes. "ew, he's my brother. too old for you as well."

"oh!" she said but was still looking at leo. leo didn't look at the girl and just walked away after hearing that weird conversation. "are you going with jeremiah or conrad to the ball?"

"oh, my god back off, gigi." aubrey hissed.

"it was a question." greg giggled.

bianca grabbed one of the sweets from her plates and shoved them inside of her mouth. she wanted to get out of there so badly.

"they're all practically related, okay? you have nothing to worry about, gigi." aubrey said.

"i'm not worried." gigi said.

"i highly doubt they've ever even noticed you." bianca said lowly but no one seemed to hear her expect shayla.

"she's so over her head." shayla whispered to bianca. the girl turned her head over to shayla. "she thinks everyone is in love with her."

"that's very very sad." bianca said pouting out her lips at looking at gigi. "i wonder what it'll be like to live inside of her head."

"so, what's it like living with jeremiah and conrad's so mysterious." one of the girls asked. bianca could tell that they didn't believe that bianca actually lived with them.

bianca thought about what to say. she could either say something mean back or she could actually answer her question. that was the thing, she didn't want to answer her question. she didn't want to talk to her at all. she just wanted to either talk to shayla or run towards belly who was scanning the room for help from either leo or jeremiah.

"hello debutante," paige said saving bianca from talking. "a few small housekeeping bits i'd like to go over. we have a lot to look forward this season. now, i understand some of you might think that debating is outdated, it's something you're doing to applause your families. but the cousins debutant all is a part of history."

bianca smirked to herself as shayla took out a flask with alcohol and poured some inside of her cup. shayla glanced over at bianca and waved it without paige looking. bianca brought her cup down as shayla poured some inside. shayla only poured a little causing bianca to grab it and pour more and then passed it on to aubrey.

"you're a life saver." bianca whispered to shayla while looking directly at paige.

"that's why i'm here." shayla hummed smiling at bianca and bianca looked at her smiling back just the same.

"...there's a big sister who will guide you through the season so please introduce yourself." paige said clapping her hands softly together.

"i'm your big sis for a reason." shayla said turning around.

at this moment, bianca doesn't know if being closer to shayla is beneficial or not. she doesn't know if their friendship is going to be real or if she's just using her to get information from steven. if only she knew how much shayla was going to impact her life for the better.

▌ c. speaks . . . ˚. 𓄼
not edited!
i love shayla. i will never make
bianca hate shayla.
you'll see what i'm going to do with her 🤭🤭🤭
imma make her MY girlfriend 🤟