My phone screen informed me that I'd been facetiming my mum for two hours. As expected, grandpa wasn't doing any better, but we were both glad she'd gotten there to spend some time with him. "Ok, I'm going to go grab the washing. I'll talk to you later," I said to my mum.

"You? Washing clothes?" She laughed.

"Yes, it's surprisingly simple."

"Did you separate the whites?" She asked, alarmed.

"Duh," I replied, uncomfortably chuckling. "Okay, bye." I quickly hung up.

I'd forgotten to separate the whites, and my all white costume was in that load. Taking in a deep breath and praying to the heavens that my costume had been saved, I opened the door. My beautiful and very, very expensive shorts and top were now a weird grey colour. Fabulous.

My phone rang. "What do you want, Holden?"

"That's no way to talk to the love of your life, now is it?" Parker replied.

"Parker? Why are you answering Holden's phone?"

"He's busy fluffing his hair. Anyway, the limo is dropping by to pick you up in an hour."

He hung up.

Guess I didn't have many options. I put the shorts and top on. Thirty minutes into my eyeliner, I decided it wasn't going to look any better than the shoddy crayon line I currently had and gave up. If I took any longer, I wouldn't have time to finish lacing my boots up.

The doorbell rang and I hefted the wings onto my shoulders before opening the door.

"You go for a roll in the mud, angel?" Holden joked. He was in a crisp white suit, blonde hair swept back prince-like.

"Lost your wings buddy?" I replied.

"In the limo," he gestured.

I locked the door and walked towards the limo. Holden opened the door for me before crossing to the other side to get in. Just as I was shutting the door, I heard a crunching noise. "Damn," I snarled. I'd clipped my wings in the door. I opened it again and pulled the wing inside. It was now crooked.

Across from me, Parker was laughing. He was in black on black as expected. "Surprise," Holden grinned, handing him a huge set of black wings.

"The hell am I supposed to be?" Parker replied.

"Satan? I don't care. You look like you're going to a funeral."

The limo arrived at the hotel early and we all got out. Holden and Parker strapped their wings on while I tried to bend the crook in my wing back out. Hardly anyone was there yet, but we put on our masks anyway.

"I feel ridiculous," Parker commented.

"You look it too," Holden reaffirmed, hitting his friend on the back.

Another limo had stopped behind us and out came a few girls. Two were dressed in princess gowns while three were dressed as angels. One of the brown-haired angels turned and walked off quickly when she spotted Holden.

"I'll be back," he said, taking off, apparently after her.

The group of girls looked towards us, apparently analyzing me because they couldn't seem to tear their eyes away. "Fresh meat," Parker said to me. "And you can stop trying to fix that wing. You look like you were dropped from a moving vehicle into an ash tray."

"Thank you. You look like a furry turd," I smiled.

"Charming."

Inside, there was a golden sign that said 'Pemberton Academy' on it. We followed it to the ballroom. There was a queue outside because the committee had felt it necessary for everyone to walk down the stairs under a spotlight.

"There a back entrance?" I asked Parker.

"Kinky," he replied.

"You are nasty."

"Nope. Only one way in, unless you want to use an emergency exit and trigger alarms."

I recognized Holden walking down the steps, arms linked with that brown-haired angel. Deep down, I could feel my stomach turning; it was a strange feeling. If he was going to continue pulling those stunts, I was going to end up humiliated, proving to Pemberton that I was another one of Holden's conquests. After all, they all seemed to favour him, except maybe Logan.

"Come on," Parker said, bringing me back to the disturbing reality of a huge light beaming down on me.

Hushed chatter fell across the floor, most people probably wondering firstly what was wrong my costume, and secondly, who the girl was with Parker Lennox. A few steps down, I caught sight of Holden talking to the angel and missed a step, sending me forward. Parker reached out and held out his hand, skipping the next step, beating me down. I fell straight into him, but luckily, I was unable to knock him over.

"Thanks," I replied quickly.

"Maybe try to stay on planet earth," he said, letting go of me.

"What are you even supposed to be now?" I asked, trying to ease the awkwardness as we made it to the base of the steps.

"Clearly just confused, after putting these dumb things on," he said, pointing to his wings.

Unlike on the yacht, everyone seemed to be avoiding Parker, even though it was blindingly obvious that it was him. Across the room, I spotted Elaine on her phone near the bathrooms. It was hard not to spot the hot cop. She was about as far away from the punch table as possible.

"I'm going to go talk to Elaine, you wanna come with?"

"No thanks. You go have fun, pizza."

"Ok turdball."

"Elaine!" I exclaimed as I approached her. "You look amazing!"

"Thought you weren't going to make it when I saw Holden walk in earlier; almost thought the angel was you until I realised she wasn't wearing that cute outfit I chose for you," she grinned. "What's going on anyway?"

"Long story. No matter."

"Woah woah," she said, stepping back from me. "What the hell happened to the costume?"

"Apparently this is why you separate the whites."

"Huh. I'll note that down on things to do if I ever have to wash my clothes." I smiled again. Even though she was as wildly rich as these kids, she didn't try to pretend she wasn't, but she didn't make me feel weird about it either.

Glancing over at Parker, I noticed he was still alone. That was when I overheard a few guys talking as they left the bathrooms. "They're done for. He probably can't even afford for the tuition anymore," one said. I thought back to when I'd watched two of his platinum cards decline. "Their stocks have tanked. I had a hundred grand in stocks, lost half my fucking money."

'Low' by Flo Rida came on and Elaine dragged me out onto the dance floor. "Come on, this is a classic!"

She pumped her fists and waved her arms around to the beat of the music, grabbing my arm, forcing me to join in. I shook her off and she laughed. I just couldn't pull it off; I always had that people were watching me, even though I was sure they could care less. Then the chorus came on and she dragged me by the wrists to go down low. I laughed, bobbing down as she did, stopping when my wings hit the ground.

"The angel in you stopping you from going any lower?" She joked. The song finished and the straps rubbing against my skin were starting to make me sweat. We went over to the refreshment table to grab some drinks and cool off.

"I am hell sweaty," I said, after gulping down a mouthful of orange cordial. Elaine brushed her loosely curled blonde hair over her shoulder and fixed up her hat. In the corner, Holden was still talking to the angel. I glanced back to Elaine whose eyes were now wide. I looked behind me. A girl with brown, dead straight hair was standing behind me, arms crossed with two others behind her.

"Look what the cat dragged in," she said, looking Elaine up and down. "When'd they start letting working girls in here?" The girls behind her laughed.

"More expensive than you can afford," Elaine spat. "Try this on for size." She poured what was left of her orange cordial down the girl's white gown, leaving her shrieking. "Let's go," Elaine said to me. That was when I realised the girl was the one that'd poured the bowl of punch on Elaine on Stephanie's yacht.

"Who the hell was that?" I asked when we far away enough from them. I glanced over my shoulder just to make sure she wasn't coming after us for a replay of the yacht scene.

"Clarissa. My ex best friend," she said nonchalantly.

"Why does she seem to hate you so much?"

"Because I did something she didn't like." She paused for a moment, staring into the distance. I followed her line of sight to Holden and the angel. "I know you've been looking at them all night," she said, changing the subject.

"Who is that?" I asked, hoping Elaine wouldn't think I was desperate, pathetic, or worse, a jealous controlling 'girlfriend'.

"Don't worry. I'd be worried too," she grinned. "That's Allie, Holden's ex. In the history of Pemberton, that's probably been his only serious relationship. That's why the jersey thing was such a big deal; he didn't do that for all of his supposed girlfriends."

"I see."

It became obvious why he'd suddenly had a costume idea. Holden had found out what Allie would be wearing to the dance and decided to match her. Excellent. If this broke out somehow, I'd be the butt of a joke.

"I need to talk to Parker for a sec, you wanna come with?" I asked, secretly hoping she wouldn't want to, given the whole big Holden and I sham.

"No thanks. Maybe I'll talk to Clarissa's friends some other time."

"They're Clarissa's friends?"

"They run in the same circles," Elaine replied.

"Right. Sorry."

"Not your fault," she smiled. "I hope Holden's different, for your sake."

I made my way through the crowd to Parker. Getting to him was surprisingly easy, because he had just parted from a few people that had decided to talk to him. "What's going on with Holden?" I asked.

"Jealous? An unattractive quality in most," he replied.

"Jealous? What? No? I thought we were pretending to be dating. How is this pretending?" I hissed.

"Possessive. Some people think that's hot, but it's not my thing."

"Seriously!"

"I don't know exactly how the clogs in Holden's head work, but if I had to guess...she's an angel tonight, you're an angel tonight; she's a brunette, you're a brunette. He's trying not to look pathetic in front of the student body while talking to her."

"And I'm the body double!?"

"You'll have to double check with him." He even giggled slightly at the awful pun.

"You know that was a bad joke right?"

Suddenly, there was a loud screech of microphones. Someone cleared their throat and tapped the microphone twice. "If I could have your attention," the girl said. "The committee's votes have been tallied, and the best costume goes to..." she waited and a drumroll effect was played for dramatic effect. "The prince of darkness and his fallen angel."

The spotlight suddenly shone down on Parker and me and I had to shield my eyes from the light. "So that's what they think I am," Parker pondered.

"if you guys could head up on stage," the girl said.

"They're going to unmask us, aren't they?" I asked.

"Probably. Happens every year."

"And it'll be weird for me to have been your costume buddy and your apparent partner to the ball since I'm supposed to be dating Holden right?" I whispered.

"Yup."

"You distract 'em, and I take off?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Guys?" The girl on stage repeated. Parker turned and the spotlight shifted slightly. I spotted a clearing in the crowd and I sprinted past them, beelining for the staircase. "Sorry, sorry!" I exclaimed repeatedly. I took the stairs two at a time, lucky not to sprain an ankle or fall on my face. Man, who knew I was so good at wearing heels?

Just as I made it to the door, I felt a gentle tug behind my head. I turned, just as the mask fell from my face.

"See you again soon, Daisy," Logan said, dangling my mask by one of its ribbons, seconds before I shut the door behind me.

~*~*~

Thank you for reading & please remember to vote!

Next update is Saturday!!