CHAPTER SIX

 Everything is set for the homecoming and everyone in their best clothes. Toriah is with her-so-called friends.

"Look, there's Ian." Natalie excitedly points out.

"Oh my God." Bianca squeaks.

The two are excited to see Ian. Are they the only ones, though?

"I'll go say hi to Ian." Toriah excitedly mentions.

Before Natalie could take moves to approach Ian, Toriah already had it in mind. Before they knew it, she ran off to Ian.

"What the fuck?" Natalie's eyes are full of anger and rage.

"Natalie, relax. Let her go." Bianca puts her hand on Natalie's shoulder to calm her down and stop her from following Toriah.

"I just feel like hurting her right now." Natalie admits.

Unfortunately, they could do nothing but stare and perhaps feel bad.

"Hey. Looking handsome." Toriah complements upon getting to Ian.

"Nice dress." Ian says, almost smiling.

"What, are you kidding? Ian Deo just complimented my dress right now."

"Shut up."

"I will. Alright upcoming King."

All Ian could do was blush.

"What, it's obvious."

As Toriah and Ian look by their side, they have a captivating view of Cuthbert making out with a girl.

"Ewe, look at those two. You know, I find this disgusting." Toriah comments as she looks away.

"Really?"

Toriah and Ian have an eye contact and Ian can see the sarcasm, desperation and the undeniable fact that Toriah did not mean it.

"I have to catch up with Nats. Bye."

Unbeknown, Toriah rushes to Nat and Bianca. Before she can utter a word, Natalie blankly takes a cup of juice and splash it on Toriah.

"Sorry, accident." Natalie sarcastically mentions.

"Fuck you, Nat." Toriah is genuinely annoyed.

Toriah was not at all playing. She knew these girls did it on purpose and just kinda felt her day was ruined. As she was heading to the washroom, she sees two people on stage carrying an envelope. Now the headteacher is present.

"Hey people!" The girl excitedly announces.

The entire hall shouts. These two students made the crowd active in all ways possible and then it was time. The long-awaited time.

"The homecoming King and Queen are…" The guy starts to announce.

"Let's start with the queen…" The girl follows as she hands the boy an envelope.

"Alright so the homecoming queen is…" The boy unfolds the envelope and shows the girl the envelope.

"NATALIE JAMES!" The two finally announce.

Natalie and Bianca embrace each other as Natalie shouts in excitement. Some people are applauding and well, some aren't that happy.

"Please come to the stage." The boy adds as the light is on Natalie.

As Natalie gets on stage, she is welcomed by the principal's handshake and some other members of the school execute.

"Natalie, stand here. Now it's time for the homecoming King." The boy says as he hands another envelope to the girl.

"People, are you ready!" The girl shouts making the crowd lively.

The entire hall buzzes in excitement.

"Now this one is someone was already nominated last year and he made it." The boy says as he looks at the name from the envelope.

"This will mark it twice in a roll." The girl adds.

"He is none other than…" The boy starts.

"IAN DEO!" The girl shouts out the name.

The entire hall cheers. The excitement from everyone is really crazy and it never gets odd. The hall cheers him as though it is his first time to win it and yet they all agree that he is the perfect guy for the position. Everyone was cheering up until they got their sashes, crowns and a scholarship to Edinberg. Now we can tell how happy Ian is. Now it was time for the homecoming queen and king's first dance. Ian couldn't focus as he kept looking away.

"Watchu looking at?" Natalie pulls Ian to look at her.

Ian sees Toriah leaving and walks over Natalie, leaving her all embarrassed.

"Ian!" Natalie helplessly screams.

A warm masculine hand pulls Toriah and pins her against the wall.

"Hey there King." Toriah smiles at Ian, ignoring the closeness.

Before she could utter another word, Ian leans in and presses his soft lips on Toriah's. She closes her eyes to feel it better and for the first time, she sees wireworks in her eyes. As the kiss is done, she looks at Ian in the eye, afraid to fall deeper, she moves away.

"What was that for?" Toriah sounds nervous.

"Are you disgusted?" Ian smirks.

"You stupid. Look, Natalie's watching. You guys aren't doing the dance?"

"At least I got a scholarship."

"You're evil. I have to go to the washroom. Your prom queen ruined my dress." Toriah starts to walk away.

Ian escorts Toriah to the changing room and makes himself comfortable on a sink surface while Toriah gets into one of the changing rooms.

"You must be happy that you're finally going to Edinberg. I'm genuinely happy for you. You'll get to live with your dad and all that. You might also meet some really nice girls and... –" Toriah is trying her best to clean up her dress.

"Stop."

"No for real. You'll get to meet some real people. Toriah won't be there to annoy you."

Ian shrug. He didn't really seem bothered. In the meantime, Toriah keeps on trying to wash the juice off.

"Gosh…this won't come off."

"You, okay?"

"The stains won't come off. Could you help with the zip, I think the best option right now will be to take it off."

Toriah gets out of the washroom and turns her back on Ian to help with the zip. Ian touches the zip and slowly open it with conscious. As the zip is getting down, it ends on Toriah's booty. Ian pushes away Toriah's hair to the front, presses his hand on her neck and slowly move his fingers on Toriah's uncovered back and slides it to her booty. Toriah feels a chill pass through her spine and she can suddenly feel Ian's grip and then he turns her over. Ian looks into Toriah's eyes which seem really desperate.

"I've just remembered, I don't have anything to change into." Toriah is trying to break the contact.

While still maintaining the eye contact, Ian zips Toriah's dress. He then gets closer to Toriah. There is no space in between them. He then holds her hand.

"Do…do you like…_" Ian gently moves his fingers down Toriah's face making her even more nervous.

"Ian, the principal is looking for you." A girl says, unsure of what is going on.

Toriah is still looking at Ian with pleading eyes and he lets her free. Without another word, Ian walks out. The sweet moment has been ruined and it is by Lauren.

"Toriah…" Lauren stops Toriah who is also about to leave.

"My dress has been ruined; I'll go change it now." Toriah excuses herself.

Lauren's over protectiveness of Toriah and her disagreement pertaining Ian had completely affected her friendship with Toriah. Toriah did not even want to look at Lauren. As Toriah was about to leave the hall, she bumped into her roommates.

"Toriah, where are you headed?" Samya curiously asks as she pulls Toriah who was about to walk out.

"Have a drink, please."

Lisa hands her a red disposable cup with champaign and forces it into her mouth. Toriah drinks up the whole of it.

"What's this?" Toriah finally asks, unsure of what she had just consumed.

"Sparkling champaign." Samya says

"Do you like it?" Lisa adds.

"Of course. It's really nice."

"They started sharing it a while ago and we noticed you weren't around." Lisa comments.

"I was at the washroom. Well, Natalie ruined my dress with juice."

Samya and Lisa look at Toriah's dress and notice the undeniable stain on the dress. They both look emo.

"Aww."

"That's really sad, baby girl."

"I know. That's why I want to go to the hostel right now."

"Don't go just yet."

"Look, there. It's time to crown the best dressed."

"Yaay!"

Samya looked genuinely happy and Toriah just wasn't in the mood.

"Hey people!" The two MC's get on stage again.

The entire hall cheers and not to mention the excitement in Samya and Lisa who are continuously jumping up and down. The two speak simultaneously, the boy and the girl respectively.

"You know what time it is…"

"We're about to crown the best dressed tonight."

"That is right."

The two MCs kept on making noise and it wasn't really helping for Toriah.

"So the school has voted…"

"And the best dressed tonight…."

"Is non other than…

"TORIAH JOHNSON!"

Toriah couldn't believe it. Samya and Lisa were all over Toriah. They had believed in her and suddenly the lights were on her.

"Go on, Toriah."

Toriah wasn't about to believe it, but since it was Samya, she undoubtably walked to the stage. She was given a tiara, a sash with the words 'BEST DRESSED' cascading and some flowers. As she's coming down from the stage, she meets Ian's eyes who's smiling at her. He's sitting with the principles. She ignores him and gets to the girls. They share a little celebration and then she starts to walk out. 

This moment is really bad for Natalie and Bianca.

"Bianca, Bianca wait up!" Natalie screams as she is running after Bianca who seems to be heartbroken.

"Just leave me alone, Natalie. You lied to me." Bianca cries.

"No. Look at me Bianca." Natalie puts her hands on Bianca's face who is uncontrollably crying.

"No. You lied to me."

"No. Just look at me, Bianca." Natalie has finally gotten Bianca's attention.

"I helped you to become the homecoming queen and you said you would make me the best dressed at least but none of that happened. Instead, Toriah won and not me!"

"Look, I have no idea of how all this happened but I'll make it right to you."

"How will you do that, huh?"

"Bianca, you know you're like a sister to me. What do you want, I'll get you whatever you want, alright? And yes, this holiday, you and I will travel to South Africa."

"Really?" There is a smile on Bianca's face and she wipes off the tears.

"Yes. I just have to inform my mom, am sure she'll be happy and she'll surely come visit me. I can't wait to tell her about all this." Natalie dials up her mom's number, her face glowing with excitement.

"What is it?" Natalie's mom answers angrily before Natalie could utter a word.

"Mom, well…I wanted to tell you that-"

"What is it, have you started passing?"

"I wanted to say that I am finally homecoming queen."

"To hell with your homecoming bullshit!" The words pierced on Natalie's chest like a sword. Tears started to roll down as her mom kept shouting at her.

"When will you come to see me?" Natalie finally wipes out her eyes, ready to hear a tangible response.

"Am not coming anytime soon." Natalie hangs up the call knowing she's failed again. She starts crying uncontrollably and Toriah witnessed all that was happening.

"So, no matter what I do she will never love me?" Natalie falls on Bianca's wrap as she is uncontrollably crying and Bianca is trying her best to soothe her.

"I tried…I tried everything, I've always been a perfect daughter. She told me to be above everyone, I did just that, just to draw her attention and visit me I became the queen and she still doesn't want to see me, why?" Natalie suddenly notices the presence of Toriah and angrily gets up.

"You, what are you doing here?"

"Sorry to interrupt but for disturbing other people's peace, that's what you'll get." Toriah walks away. At this moment, Natalie can't even say anything to her but feel bad.

 As Toriah's about to walk out, someone calls her just as she's about to walk out of the room.

"Toriah…"

"Ian, aren't you supposed to be with the principal?"

"You know what, fuck this party."

Toriah walks out smiling as Ian joins her out. She went to change her dress.

"So…where are we going?"

Without a word, they get to the cafeteria's rooftop. Ian seats down and Toriah joins her.

"The view's really beautiful."

Toriah looks at Ian, then the stars and smile.

"Yeah."

"Not to mention, today has been crazy. I wish I could call my mom and tell her about all this."

"What are you waiting for?"

"She's probably studying for an exam and I don't want to disturb her. I'll call her next week."

"That's crazy."

"I know."

Now there's some kind of dead seriousness as Toriah gets lost in the stars.

"Can you date someone like me?" Toriah vividly turns to look at Ian.

"Yeah." Without much thought, Toriah responds.