Chloe sat looking around the room. The yellow- gold maple floors glistened from their oiled based polyurethaned shine and holographic snowflakes dotting here and there. The room’s magical feel continued with the white satin banners, tablecloths, and bunting. The lights on the ceilings shone through blue filters giving everything an ethereal glow. The people in the room wore two things. The girls wore long, flowing dresses in either white or pale blues, greens, or pinks. The boys wore dark suits in black or navy with crisp white shirts. Everything was picture perfect yet like all things in Connecticut it was simply a facade.

The Whitehall Christian Academy’s annual Winter Masquerade Ball was the talk of the holiday season. Everyone wore a small mask to hide their features which to Chloe was ridiculous. They lied to each other’s faces the other three three hundred and sixty-four days of the year so why go through the hassle of using a mask tonight. The mask didn’t stop Chloe from recognizing her date kissing Kaitlyn Meyers in the locker room nor did it add sincerity when she found Chloe and professed it was just a one-time event. Kaitlyn Meyers spun the truth so much you had no idea what was real or not. The thing that surprised Chloe the most was Kaitlyn’s request that they work through this and try to be friends. When Chloe pointed out that Kaitlyn’s tongue down Jake’s throat did not bode well as the start to a friendship, Kaitlyn groaned loudly announcing how difficult Chloe often made things.

Jake for his part was giving the two women wide berth for the moment as he spiked the punch bowl. No one would ever believe anyone at the WCA could do this if caught. The blame would fall to some invisible party that had snuck in and tried to ruin the party. Accusing someone from Danbury of any wrongdoing, was like calling the Pope an atheist. It was just not done and yet here was Chloe, sitting in the corner of the gym because her date lip locked another classmate, with everyone smiling pretending everything as copasetic.

Well almost everyone. The band the committee had chosen was not the typical bubble gum pop act that graced most of their dances. The songs were clean and appropriate yet carried an edge to them. The base beats felt almost like they were being strangled back to fit in with the atmosphere and people. Chloe would have bet and won that the reason the band was still wearing their coats in the overheating gym was that tattoos graced their arms. Several of the member’s heads were covered by knit caps. This was probably due to a piercing somewhere which the chaperones and teaching staff would never approve of. Chloe mused at what each member of the band was really like but constantly kept looking at the lead singer. He had a piercing blue stare that felt like it reading your soul when it fell on you.

Shifting in her seat, Chloe glanced up at the clock wishing the hands of time moved faster. Her parents were chaperoning which meant she was stuck there until the last song played and the final student left the property. For Chloe, this could not happen fast enough.

Chloe Harland