For the Orange Star Awards. SeasonStarAwards

"What in the world is this?" I questioned my best friend at the table next to me. We were seated in the cafeteria for lunch period, but we weren't concerned about the rancid food — if you could even call it food — seated on our trays. The whole cafeteria was abuzz as people muttered words to their cliques

She reached out to hit my hand. "Ow..." I moaned, as she retracted the slightly crumpled up invitation away from my grasp.

"This..." She glared at me, trying — but failing miserably — to straighten out the wrinkled piece of cardboard paper. "... is incredibly important."

"It's just an invitation, Vicky. No need to get so pissed off," I stated matter-of-factly.

"First off, do not call me Vicky— you know the reason why..." I snorted. She hated the name because of Vicky from Fairly Odd Parents. She had told me it made her feel evil and I would always laugh because she was evil. "... Second, This is an invitation to the most important party you'll probably ever be invited to in your life."

I took offense to that. "Hey!" I complained, as I grabbed my fork to poke at the mystery lunch. Yea... I wasn't gonna ingest that, I pushed my tray away.

"The point is, this masquerade ball..."

"A masquerade ball?" I raised a brow. Who still organizes those things these days?

She glared at me once again, making me conclude that she was indeed Vicky. "The point is..." She reiterated. "This was organized for the birthday party of Alexander Fabrello."

I wasn't the type who knew much about the world or the people in it. I stayed at home, except from school and visits to friends' houses, waiting for boy band comebacks. I had no idea who Alexander Fabrello was and I decided to voice my thoughts. "Who's Alexander Fabrello?"

Vicky gaped at me like I had just done a triple front flip, which I have no idea how to do. "How can you not know Alexander?"

"I just don't know him," I told her, not really concerned about the whole thing. Besides, I knew she had a tendency to embellish things and I honestly didn't care about what she talked about 10% of the time — which is a lot considering she is my best friend. We were way too different to be best friends but we both knew what the other wanted, that was what kept us together since elementary school.

It was symbiotic, really.

"He's the heir to the freaking company my dad works in. I had to beg a thousand times before my dad could give me one for you and I..." Her words faded as I realized how hungry I was. I skipped breakfast this morning all because I had woken up late and had no time to grab something edible — not even a freaking apple. I arrived in school 15 minutes into the first period and decided to skip the class. "Rich... no one knows how he looks... heir... ball... everyone wants to attend..."

I yawned subtly. My mind wandering to the missing piece in our trio, Ace. He had called in sick saying he was down with the flu. I hoped he was okay. He could shut Vicky up, alright.

I glanced up to look at Victoria who seemed to have magically stopped talking. Her lips were contorted in anger and she looked peeved. She immediately stood up from the table, grabbing her tray and storming off.

I would have asked why she was acted that way but I knew that would provoke her even more. I simply clutched the tray and followed after her. She had probably seen me yawn or I had spoken my thoughts out loud.

I must have riled her up because she walked on, not turning around to glance at me — not even once —as we got rid of the trays and walked out of the cafeteria.

"I'm sorry."

She paused in the scanty hallway, back still facing me. "This is something so serious and you yawned?" I sighed, thanking my stars I had not spoken out loud. She'd probably ignore me for a week.

She turned to look at me. "There's gonna be tons of cuisines available. Wanted you to try them with me..." She trailed off, raising a hand to her hair. The thought of 'food' made my ears shoot up. "But it's fine. I guess not."

I might seem like a glutton or even seem poor but I don't care about that. All I needed was good food,— I still wonder why I buy cafeteria food — hook me up with any kind of meat and I'd be your friend for life. That was exactly how Victoria and I had met. Through the power of meaty goodness.

Wait," I called out to her as she was about to walk off to class. The bell rang indicating that lunch period was over.

   "Yay! Just get a pretty dress and mask ready for tonight," She giggled, not even waiting for an actual response. Her face had already brightened up. "Wear that red dress we got last time."

  "It's an all teens party so don't worry, you won't be seeing any old people," She assured before skipping off to her next class.

  I snorted. Like I wanted to associate with rich snobs.

Well, she tricked me.

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Victoria gawked at me. "What? Do I look that pretty?" I asked, knowing the answer was an obvious no. The stare down she was giving me wasn't a good one.

"Why?" She asked simply, a frustrated look apparent on her face. I had that talent of making people frustrated so easily — definitely runs in the family.

I hoped she wouldn't try playing makeup artist on me right now, as we were both in my room because my mom had unfortunately, let her in the house without telling me because she was my best friend.

I wore a pleated, azure dress with black pumps. The dress seemed to be made of velvet and was sleeveless, reaching midi length. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with what I wore but that could probably be because of my horrible fashion sense.

"You seriously don't expect me to wear a petticoat that bounces up and down, do you?" I asked playfully, making an amazing demonstration with my hands of how a petticoat would usually move up and down.

"I don't mean that." She looked like she was on the verge of attacking me and I moved back slightly as her red ballerina dress bounced up. She would always freak out over the most simplest things.

"At least do something to your hair..." She trailed off, lifting her hands to mess up my perfectly made hair — It looked the same as usual but it was perfectly made — messing it up a little bit. "And why is your face so plain?"

"The mask is gonna be covering my face so what's the point?" I had absolutely no mask with me but I wasn't going to tell her that. She should have known that I hated preparations, parties and I couldn't even pull off a good outfit.

"Your mask?" She brought a hand out, with a knowing look on her face.

"It's somewhere?" It was more of a question than a response.

"I'll get one for you later," She said, bringing out lipstick from her bag and proceeding to force it on my lips even as I tried protesting.

"Let's go. The car's waiting outside."

————————————————–—————

Showing the invitation card to the security, he immediately allowed us in, but not without a questioning look at me. I know I'm not wearing a mask, genius.

My goal was to eat, eat, eat some more and then use a stomach ache as my convincing excuse not to dance.

Classical music played in the background as we both tried to scythe through the flood of teens in the dimly lit room. I got a few looks from people as we walked in. I know I look amazing so, no need to stare.

The huge ballroom was filled with considerably more amount of teenagers than I expected, dressed quite elegantly. Were they all rich snobs?

To be honest, I felt quite inferior to them as I noted the glitter and sparkle that seemed to fill the room. The chasm between the rich and I, was definitely huge.

It seemed Victoria knew I felt inferior at the moment because she gave me one of her world famous knowing looks and I responded by mouthing a 'What?'.

  "Let's find you a mask. I'm sure they had a stand for that the last time I was invited," She said, grabbing hold of my hand as we went up the stairs to a separate room.

I do not remember how my hand slipped out of her's without her knowledge but I do know that immediately I spotted a buffet, that was exactly when I left her side.

  Foie gras, tofu, caviar, shrimps and — were those truffles? — with many other familiar and not so familiar foods were laid on the table. All on one table! I sighed, suddenly feeling the urge to cry tears of joy. Was this my calling? Why do I feel so accomplished?

  "Do you want to try some?" I heard a male ask someone else.

  A female answered, "It's disgusting. Don't they have any salad?" I looked back, making sure to mark her face as she and her disappointed partner scurried away.

  I noticed some one at the other side of the table grabbing a plate. I quickly took a plate too and tried grabbing the unknown and untasted — soon to be tasted — delicacies and packing them onto my plate. I wasn't going to wait for someone to finish it all.

  The guy kept on staring at me. It was amusing to me as he glanced at me in probably awe or confusion, looking like he had just seen a mythical creature. I couldn't see his face so well but he wore a red mask and a tuxedo, his expression looked like he was surprised to see me. He also had a pretty athletic build.

  He placed some of the good stuff on his plate, hiding his face, then turned around to start walking away.

  "Never seen a girl eat as much as I do?" I asked jokingly, making him pause. I know I wasn't supposed to be talking to these kinda kids but the look on his face was way too funny to ignore.

  "Uh... Yea." He said, walking away but this time, he actually left. I wasn't sure if the guy was surprised to see me — doubt it though — or he was actually just shocked at how I made my plate so full in such a short period of time. I shrugged and continued placing even more sumptuous delicacies on the plate.

  The sight of people dancing around with different partners hit me as I looked downstairs, plate in hand trying to stuff a whole tofu in my mouth. It was fascinating, really. Watching people do things. I'd identify myself as a people watcher rather than a people person.

  That was all I thought until I was shoved to the side, making the plate of food stain my gown and the rest of the food fall downstairs. It hit a lady — who I recognized to be the one who badmouthed the amazing food — right on the head. The plate rolled down also but landed on the floor, shattering to pieces.

  She shrieked in a manner that seemed like she was from a horror movie, making every one else look at her. She then looked up, to my utmost dismay. I quickly bent down, looking at the person at my side. He didn't even seem apologetic and continued to look downstairs without sparing a glance at her or even the person he had 'desserted'.

  "You!" I said, amazed at how calm his visage looked even with the green mask still seated on his face. He was definitely one of those snobs that filled the ball. Those who didn't care about the feelings of food.

  His elbow rested on the railings with an overtly calm demeanor. I wished he would fall off.

  "You frigging pushed me," I said. All that juicy goodness, gone. I wasn't even concerned about the girl who had fortunately gotten the hit instead of the poor floor, I was concerned about all that food. I know I could get another plate but food is never meant to be treated in such manner.

  "So what?" I gaped at the definitely fake blonde in awe. Who in the world was he to say that?

  "You don't treat food that way." His lips quirked up at my words as he looked back downstairs.

He smiled a bit. "I thought you'd be concerned about your dress," He said nonchalantly, openly ogling my chest with the huge brown stain on it. Does he have no manners? "I guess you're not."

I quickly eyed him before turning around. "I am concerned about the dress. I just care about the food more," I said, using my hand to try making the stain even less visible but it got even worse, spreading to other places on the velvet cloth.

  "I had to do that for a reason. The girl kept pissing me off. I'm sorry." He said, his voice now void of any emotion. "Is that fine now?"

  "No... Not with the 'Is that fine now?' you have going on."

  "I'm sorry."

  "Good." It still sounded emotionless but I chose to ignore it, concentrating on the stain

  "Alexander Fabrello is the name. By the way, I love your brown eyes. Pretty radiant," He told me.

  Was that a compliment? Did he expect me to blush and say thank you or something? I turned back to look at him and replied back with a simple, "I don't like compliments."

  He looked shocked for a second or two but they were back to his cold looking blue eyes. Those eyes looked familiar despite the coldness in them. "Ok then," He said, walking back down the stairs.

He didn't even bother trying to offer some help with the mess he caused. I didn't need his help anyways.

  Still trying to fix up the stain, I heard a yell from behind me. "Where the heck were you?" Oops... I was going to have to deal with silver masked Victoria after dealing with a conceited, perverted, food wasting... guy.

  "I'm sorry Victoria but it's definitely not my fault." I pointed at the large table at my right. "They dragged me in."

  "Just don't..." She sighed. The effervescent feeling that had emanated from her when we had first arrived seemed to be replaced by a lethargic feeling. In her right hand, she clasped onto a blue mask tightly.

  "I'm..." She shut me up by putting the mask on me, tying it tightly at the back of my head.

  "I hear that more than 5 times a day, Audrey," She said, looking at the mess on my dress. "I feel like I'm babysitting a baby."

  Handing me the black shawl she had worn, she said with a slightly authoritative voice, "Let's just go downstairs." But instead of resisting, I followed her quietly, afraid I would provoke her once more. I used the shawl she had given me and wrapped it around my neck which effectively covered the hideous stain.

  Soon, she was off dancing with a dude while I stayed all by myself in the sidelines. She left me all alone as payback.

I was honestly restless and I really wanted to go back upstairs and chump on all the deserted desserts up there but I had been warned by Victoria.

Someone with a familiar red mask almost passed by me. It was the awestruck guy. His facial features were very well visible now and he looked oddly familiar. "Ace?"

He paused for a few seconds and was about to run but I caught hold of his tux before he could move. "Hi Drey?"

"Ace Fisher, weren't you supposed to be sick?"

He looked like a deer caught in headlights, his blue eyes widened in fear. "I was —"

I cut him off. "Why is our sick little fish at a masquerade ball."

He sighed. "It's my cousin's birthday."

I gasped with a hand over my mouth. I slowly released my grip on his tux, feeling betrayed. "You're one of these guys?"

"We aren't as rich as the Fabrellos, Audrey," He said. "We're just related."

"Fabrellos?" I asked, confused. I remember hearing that name more than once.

My eyes widened. Well, puck.

————————————————————

Try bringing this mask next time, Audrey — A.F

That was the note placed next to a vibrant green mask, sitting on the food table. The last tofu sat on a plate next to it also.

I only knew two people with the initial A.F and I was very sure it wasn't Ace Fisher because he was with me all through the event. It could only be one person, even though I had no idea how he knew my name.

"Does he think I'm Cinderella or something?"

I immediately grabbed the tofu and walked away, leaving the mask behind.