🌸Before you Read🌸

🌸For once, I got nothing, so I hope you all enjoy this part! Let the party begin!

🌸The Party🌸

Whatever happened hours ago was simply left in the past. There were more important things I needed to worry about. First and foremost, I needed to make sure everyone was having a good time. Honestly, I would've had other plans I would've done first, but my moms—out of Mori's range of hearing of course—had to remind me that I had other guests.

For once, I wish I wouldn't have invited so many people. Don't get me wrong. I loved being in a room filled with people, especially since this was what I was going to get myself into when I become a top Pro Hero and a fashion designer. It was just hard when I hardly knew people that were outside 1-B and the good chunk I knew from 1-A.

I didn't want to mess up again. I couldn't afford to mess up again. So, since the party started, I had to kindly tell Mori that. As heroes, we would have to be comfortable with this sort of thing, but at the same time, I wanted him to have a good time. He should be able to enjoy himself, not worry about the good forty plus people I had invited. As the invitation said, everyone was required to have a date, even if that meant people from other schools. I didn't care. It was good practice for me to mingle with people. Not that it was hard or anything. Talking about people's dresses, what they were up to, and if they were enjoying themselves was definitely an easy thing for me to do.

Within a half hour, I had forgotten about the mistake that I was. People were smiling, dancing to whatever song the DJ we had on, eating the food we had, and admiring the decorations we had put up. Of course, like Mori and I both told Hana and Yui, both arrangements were beautiful that every other table was different. Much to Yui's distaste, there wasn't one person who messed with the succulents that were inside the vases. Instead, if the succulents were surrounding the vases, people would pick them up from time to time, moving them around. Yui was so furious that Hana had to hold her back to protect whoever decided to move one.

Hana had to have been having more fun with that than she looked.

"Happy Birthday! I'm Katashi Sanada; it's nice to meet you."

I turned around to see Misaki standing beside a boy with blue hair and a purple bowtie that matched her short lace dress. It went pretty nicely with his blue hair, making me wonder if that was part of the reason Misaki was so attracted to this guy.

Sanada stretched out his hand, giving a nice smile as he did.

"Thanks. It's nice to—" I started to say as I grabbed his outreached hand, only for his hand to melt at the touch, turning into water. I snatched my hand away, feeling a cool liquid replace where his hand was once at.

Upon seeing my reaction, the guy laughed. "Oh, you should have seen your face! Sorry, I had to do that!"

Funny guy huh? I tucked my free hand behind my back as I wiped the water off my hand and onto the skirt of my dress. Two can play that game.

My eyes looked over towards Misaki, who was holding in her laughter as much as she could. Of course, while the sound never came out, the girl smiled more than I had ever seen her do before. Just like all the other couples I wanted to get together by the end of the night, she was absolutely smitten with this guy, and he probably was too if he asked her to go with her and was staying by her side.

It would've been too easy to start getting those two to notice each other, so I just looked back at Sanada and smiled. While I did, I felt my vine push out of my elbow, curling around my lower arm and snaking its way from behind Sanada.

"Oh no need to worry, I'm just glad you're having fun," I said to him, keeping my eyes steady on his blue ones, so he wouldn't be suspicious about my vine creeping up from behind. "I don't think I've seen a Quirk work like that before. Is your body completely made of water or can you just melt into water whenever you want?

Sanada's smile grew, oblivious to everything going on. He started to explain to me how his Quirk worked, and as he did, my vine started to poke him in the back. Whenever that happened, Sanada would stop and look over his shoulder, but I was quicker with my vine and would have it disappear before he could see it.

Talking to him, I learned that he could control small amounts of water and could liquify his body whenever he wanted. He would've said more before he finally got annoyed and turned around, grabbing my vine before I could retract it.

Instead of getting mad, the guy just laughed. "Not too bad, Sakai, not too bad."

He turned around as I retracted the vine back under my skin. I couldn't help but to smile at my child-like prank, but hey, if Sanada could joke around with his Quirk, then I knew he'd appreciate the same.

Of course, I didn't think about how Misaki would take it. She was unusually quiet for once, and seeing that, I turned to look at her. Before I could ask how she was doing, she tugged on Sanada's arm and asked if he'd like to go on the dance floor with her. He smiled and waved back at me as he left to dance with her.

If only the music wasn't so fast, then I would have been positive that all my friends were doing the same. The more I thought about it, the DJ we hired should've played a slow song by now. I looked around the room, seeing some of my classmates dancing in the middle of the floor while others were sitting at the round tables that were pushed to the sides of the room. At one of the tables, I saw Mori sitting down with Akiba and Raiden. I frowned, realizing none of them were with their dates like they should have been. I mean, Mori, I understood why as I didn't want him to get bored being beside me, but the other two?

Maybe it was time to take a break from everything and start intervening. Looking around, I knew everyone was pretty happy. I talked to a majority of the people here, which meant I could now take matters into my own hands.

"Oh my gosh, Sakura, I absolutely love your dress," a familiar voice gushed.

I turned around to see the two people I needed to see the most right now: Kita and Tami. Both of them should have been at that table with their dates, but instead, they were on the other side, almost avoiding them at all cost. Would it kill them to at least try? Sure, it was good to see that Tami was mingling with other people, but honestly, I wasn't sure how the boys would be doing considering they were all as quiet as mice.

If only I could somehow make way to get to the DJ, I would.

"Thank you," I said as I grabbed the long skirt with one hand and swished it for fun. "Yours look amazing, Kita. Pink is totally your color."

The girl blushed, almost causing her face to turn the same color. It was the truth though. The dress really complemented her pink hair and her legs as it had a long slit down the side. It was very different from the light blue dress Tami wore, which reached to her knees and would flare out whenever she turned. Of course, I helped Tami pick out that dress, making sure it'd be comfortable for her. Not that I don't think she minded wearing a dress for once as it she had her hands tucked away in the pockets.

"You know," I said, looking over at Tami. "I don't think I saw you and Raiden together at all tonight."

The blonde scratched the back of her neck. "I—we just have been busy. I mean, I needed to make sure the cookies I baked were doing okay, and your moms wanted my opinion on the center pieces. They're both really cool centerpieces."

Kita nodded her head in agreement, and seeing it, I knew exactly what they were up to. Instead of falling for the bait like I should have, I just crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. I looked over at the table where the boys sat, realizing they were literally just sitting there. Their ties were loosen a bit as their jackets hung on the back of their chairs.

I looked over at Tami and Kita. Kita looked pretty normal, not showing any signs of abnormality, but Tami was different. She didn't have to say a word for me to know she was lying. We had been best friends since she moved here to Japan, so I knew all the signs of whenever she was uncomfortable or when she was hiding something. Seeing how she was avoiding eye contact, scratching the back of her neck, shifting from one foot to the other, I knew she was uncomfortable and not telling me the truth.

"Okay, what did Raiden do?" I asked. "Do I have to give the guy a beating or something?"

Her eyes widened as she quickly shook her head at me. "No no no! It's not that! I swear—"

"Then why aren't you two sitting with them," I asked, glancing over at Kita. "Is there something I should know about?"

Kita scratched the back of her horn as she slowly tore her gaze off of me.

To my surprise, it wasn't Kita who answered.

"It's just...awkward," Tami whispered. "I mean, this whole party is a whole lot of fun, and I'm glad you invited me and all, but I...I just feel like we're all pressured to be with our dates, and I-I don't know, I guess I just see Raiden as a friend, and then I look around and see so many people with their dates—it's weird."

Kita nodded her head in agreement.

"You do realize I only did that so people wouldn't feel so lonely if a slow song came on, right?" I asked. "Look, if you're really feeling uncomfortable, we can hang out for a little bit at a different table. I'm just going to go get some punch and will meet you there in a bit.

Both of them nodded their head as they did, slowly making their way towards an empty table that was close by. I frowned the moment they had their backs towards me. On any other day, Kita and Tami would've been fine being around Akiba and Raiden. I didn't quite understand what made this so different. I mean, that was one of the reasons why I wanted people to have a date. It was so awkward standing there by yourself with no one to dance with, and knowing Tami of all people, well, she'd probably run straight towards the bathroom never to come out again if that happened.

True, my true intentions were to get some of my friends together, but like, this was so weird seeing how much they were avoiding each other. Was this party really that awkward?

No. It couldn't have been! They were just overthinking it, which is something Tami was known to do. Surely, without realizing it, she probably rubbed off on Kita, who I wouldn't be surprised if she was self-conscious whenever she was around Akiba.

I noticed both Misaki and Sanada dancing together with a mob of people on the dance floor, wishing more people would just follow their example. Guess that was asking for too much.

Shoving those thoughts away, I walked over to the punch table, seeing a girl standing there. I felt bad not knowing her by name, but I did recognized her from 1-A, as she had long strawberry blonde hair that looked red as she wore a ruby colored dress.

Her long hair was in a similar hairstyle as mine as it hung down in curls. It was the perfect hairstyle to go with her dress. She didn't even have to tell me the designer as I recognized it as one of Foxglove's latest designs from her fall collection. The way the skirt flared out around the floor, but not in a poofy way as it had a slit in the side, made it one of my favorite pieces in the collection. Seeing it on her made her look like a supermodel, especially since it had a plunging neckline.

"Wow, your dress looks amazing," I complimented her as I took a glass from the table and drank from it. It would've been rude not to make small talk with her being that I tried to make it a point to say hi to everyone.

Not only that, but talking to someone else would be a good distraction before I would have to go back to Kita and Tami. Nothing against my friends or anything, but I hated the fact that I unintentionally made them uncomfortable.

"Thanks, I had it specially designed by Foxglove herself. It's a one of a kind," she told me.

I took everything in me not to spit out the drink as I lowered it. "Sorry, I think I misheard you, a one of a kind? I'm not trying to be rude, but I thought I remembered seeing that in her fall collection last September. One of Foxglove's sidekicks wore it on the runway."

My comment was something I shouldn't have said. I didn't realize it right away. Even as the girl's face heated up, and her hand tightened around her cup, I didn't think twice of it. All I could look at was the designs on the bottom.

"Well, as of right now it's one of a kind because the dress hasn't been released yet," the girl said. "What about you. Where did you get your dress from?"

For once, I looked down at my dress, immediately regretting this whole conversation. I mean, I guess it was a given since she was my guest, but maybe if I didn't say anything, I wouldn't have suddenly felt so underdressed. There was no way for that to even happen because I was still wearing a formal dress like everyone else. It was just that mine was a two piece, showing off an inch of my midsection. The green beads on the top of it were still holding together nicely, and there were no layers of the skirt missing.

"I actually made it," I told her, looking her right in the eyes.

My moms always told me that I did a great job with sewing that I needed to branch off into designing rather than just fixing up my clothes at home. I had planned this whole sweet sixteen party for months, four months to be exact. During those four months, I decided to buy a pattern, find emerald green material, and sew my first outfit. It was hard, but I was proud of what came out of it.

Had they not given me that extra push, I might've had something completely different on. Maybe then I wouldn't have gotten the judging look from the girl standing beside me.

"That's cute," she said. "Did you make the decorations too?"

I drew in a deep breath when she said that. Did I make the decorations? What kind of comment was that? Was she mocking me?

If I could slap this girl, I would, but now wasn't the time.

"No," I told her. "With the exception of the flowers on the tables. Those actually came from my moms' flower shop."

It took everything inside for me to say that, but now wasn't a time to make a scene. This was my party after all. Everything was supposed to be perfect. If I would've told her how I really felt, then everything would just fall apart just like...

I froze.

"I didn't know your mom ran a flower shop," the girl sounded a bit intrigued. "Which flower shop does she run?"

My mouth opened to answer, but I felt as if I could move. It was a common misconception when I said my moms' flower shop, as most people thought I meant "mom's". That was something I encountered on a daily basis. Hearing it come from her mouth wasn't something new. Usually, it was easy to explain if I chose to do that.

Yet, the tone of voice she was using, I felt like she was judging me. It was so sharp, different from the slurs I heard hours before the party started. Despite it, all I could hear was her voice ringing in the back of my head.

Would they have adopted your pooor ass if they knew?

I turned my head to see both my moms standing next together as they were talking to one of my classmates about something. None of them seemed to have pitied or felt bad.

Then again...

Yoou ruined everything. Everything, you hear me?

For once, I knew how Tami felt when she found out about her dad. Except, she never did anything bad.

I, on the other hand, was born a villain.

"Well, is her flower shop uptown or downtown?"

"Sorry," I apologized as I ducked my head. My hand quickly went up to my eyes, catching the first tear before it even fell. As much as I disliked the idea of keeping my hair down, I was grateful as it could cover the few tears that were about ready to come out. "I think something flew into my eye. I'll be right back."

The girl turned around to the table, accepting my lie. With her distracted, I walked out of the main room that we were in and tried to make it look as natural as I could that I was just going to the bathroom. From what I could see past the thick strands of my dark hair, people seemed to be minding their own business, not really paying attention to me.

As much as I loved the center of attention, this was the one time I was glad I could escape.

🌸End of Part 3🌸

🌸Chapter Question🌸
What's your favorite thing to do at a huge party or dance?

🌸Character Spotlight: Hiromi Asami 🌸
Book: Kita's Legacy
Likes: Going to the Salon

🌸Character Spotlight: Tami Smith🌸
Book: I'm No Hero
Likes: Dino Nuggets

Song: Star Maker from BNHA