After lunch me and Erina went to our English class, Leo and Cadence both didn’t turn up, although I was used to Cadence not being there due to her house arrest and all that. But Leo’s absence had been worrying me. I hadn’t seen them for several days and it had slipped my mind to ask. I made a mental note to ask the nurse about it at the party. But for now there was little I could do about it. The Lesson passed quickly enough and I was sort of itching to get out of there. Mr Healey had been his usual dreary dispassionate self, and as normal the class had half fallen asleep listening to him. It made us super grateful when the bell rang and we all left.

“Ugh, he’s so dreary” Erina moans once out of earshot.

“Thats normal I suppose. If he ever perks up I’m going to look out the window as I’m sure we’ll see some soaring swines gracefully flying around the campus”

“Too true” she giggles as we leave the building via a set of sliding doors past the gymnasium. The building where we had our English lessons was this weirdly abstract looking building with balconies and outside elevators. We had our lessons on the bottom floor though so it didn’t really matter. The gymnasium attached to the building used the balconies and the lift to have extra inside areas where you could spectate the sports events. It was also much bigger than the hall where we had the festival performance, with room for several different sports matches to happen side by side.

Since the building was situated just off centre of the campus. It was only a couple of moments from the dorms. Since I was holding my tablet Erina put her card to the scanner and let us in. It was a couple of hours until the party was supposed to be starting so we decided to hang out in my room for a bit and listen to music before we went our separate ways to get prepared. But before I got in the lift I caught a glimpse of movement behind one of the fish tanks in the lobby. I shrugged and wrote it off as a fish that must have spooked and got in the lift before the doors closed on me.

***

She was there, she was standing right there and Cadence just couldn’t do anything about it. She clutches her bag to her chest as she slumped on the floor behind the fish tank where she had hid from Sylvie. She was with that scary dragon girl again, the one that pulled her by her shirt out from behind the stage and dumped her on the floor.

The sight of her brought some of the memories back and the pain and sadness paralysed her, only the fear of being grabbed like that again forced her to hide. She buried her face in her bag.

“Useless…” she muttered to herself and stood up from the floor as the lift, and her apology, moved further and further away.

***

After a couple of hours of playing video games and fooling about with Erina, we went our momentarily separate ways and I was left by myself to get ready. I had to find the dress first though, I had put it away in my wardrobe a while back at this point. I opened up the doors and immediately spotted it as it stood out amongst my normal jackets and hoodies. I unhooked the hanger and draped it over my arm. I also picked up a pair of flats from my cluster of shoes because I didn’t feel like traipsing around in heels.

I had my bandages replaced only recently so I didn’t have to worry about them too much. I grabbed a hairband and pulled my long unruly white hair into a long ponytail that swished around the small of my back. I put some music on via an app on my new tablet and went to go close the blinds to make sure no-one was spying on me getting changed. That was one downside out this place, having to make sure they were closed otherwise you’d be changing in the bathroom.

You’re gonna be, maybe the one that lifts me baby.

You’re gonna be, maybe the one that fits me baby.

I began humming to the tune as I stripped off my clothes down to my underwear, taking off the bra as the dress had support built in. I grab a set of tights from a drawer and pull them on as it could be quite cold on the balcony adjacent to the common room, and I’d assume we’d end up spilling out there. As I changed I began thinking about the party. I was starting to feel a bit hungry so I hope the Nurse had thought ahead for me in terms of food. I wonder who else was going to be there as well. I hadn’t met all the new movers, just a handful. And out of the ones I had met…

Lets just say I had mixed impressions of those.

After a couple of moments fidgeting about with the dress I was happy with how it felt and opened the wardrobe door all the way to expose the mirror that was on the other side. I did a few poses and thought I looked good enough, like I was there to have a good time. I slipped on the flats and tucked my College student ID card into the case of my tablet so I didn’t have to carry a bag. I took a final look in the mirror and did a twirl, as bad as the autumn festival had been for me. I’m glad that I could still wear this and it hadn’t been damaged in the incident.

I did a reassured nod to myself in the mirror and turned towards the door. It was time to see what Maeve and Erina had concocted to make themselves look presentable. I was going to enjoy this.

No-one was about in the corridor, but I could see the common room at the end of the hall lit up and the faint sound of music drifted towards me from it.

I walked in the opposite direction towards Erina and Maeve’s rooms hoping that no one would see me and spoil the surprise, thankfully I didn’t run into anyone. I knocked onto Erina’s door, excited to see her all dressed up.

After a moment or two the door opens..

“Tadaaa!” Erina exclaims jokingly, she is wearing an absolutely stunning blue and white dress with a bare back to allow for her wings, the side benefit for me of course was that it showed off her sexy back and prominent shoulder blades. It was the first time I’d got to admire how her wings looked.

They seemed so delicate at their small retracted stage, but it was really cool seeing the build up of reddish scales around the base of them,

“You look absolutely gorgeous!” And I really meant it, she’d broken out a make-up kit and given herself a light makeover with mascara, blush and a bit of foundation too. It was an entirely new side of her. I tried to resist jumping her with kisses and failed...badly.

“Woah! Down there tiger!” She laughs after a few kisses, I backed off with a pout.

“But you looked so good!” I pout.

“You two better not be like that at the party” A familiar voice calls out from the doorway. I turn to see Maeve there with her familiar mischievous smirk on her face. She had gone for a look that was very her. She had a floral button shirt and a dark red leather miniskirt. She looked really fiery.

“That look suits you Maeve, very fiery” Erina says, clearly coming to the same conclusion as me.

“Well it’s no dress, but I think it’s good enough. I’ve never been a dress kind of girl particularly” she shrugs.

“Me neither, but I’m happy to dress up for my girlfriend. Plus it does feel nice to swish about for once. It’s a different sort of airy to my normal gear”

“You’d look great regardless Erina, because that’s the type of radiant dragon you are!” Maeve’s grin grows wider and she gestures a retching motion.

“Anyway” Maeve says whilst Erina is blushing such a deep red I thought she might have a fireball burning in her cheeks. “Shall we join the party?” I nod and straighten up, regaining my composure after I had melted in the awe of Erina’s visage.

“Be out in a sec” Erina calls out from behind as I step past Maeve into the hallway. “I have to find some shoes!” I leaned on the wall as Maeve kept the door open. I was super excited for this party, but super worried about the feathered chump being there too, but never mind. If he is there and he tries anything I’m sure me, Erina and Maeve would put him in his place.