Chapter 234.

Chapter 234. The Valentine’s Day School Dance: I Said I Won’t Let Go. (2/4)

By the time we finished our food the bell rang. It signaled the end of lunch and the beginning of the school dance. 

The teacher for our next class entered the room when the bell rang and took attendance.

“Everyone eligible to attend the Valentine’s Day dance can head to the gymnasium now. For anyone voluntarily not attending, you are to remain in the classroom and are not permitted to leave until the end of the school day. For anyone who failed a final exam last semester, the punishment is that you may not attend. Luckily, it seems nobody failed any of their final exams in this class this time around. Please note, it will count as an absence if you skip out on class and don’t attend the school dance.”

There were a few groans of protest in the class. Mainly from the more antisocial people in the class who didn’t have any interest in going to the dance. But it was the same situation for the Halloween dance. You had to stay in class and self-study if you weren’t going to attend. 

Just like this one, not everyone had the freedom to attend the first school dance. For example, in the first semester where the midterms were before the Halloween dance, a punishment for failing a midterm was to not be allowed to attend the Halloween dance. For Rosa, because she’d failed all her midterms last semester, this was actually her first time attending a school dance in high school.

In the case of the Halloween dance, it was intended to be a reward, a means for students to destress after midterms. As for the Valentine’s Day dance, it was there to unwind and relax before the midterms one week later, it was a reward for passing the final exams in the first semester. Both these events were rewards and there for students to destress.

With the teacher’s announcement, students of all classes piled into the hallway. Only 3-4 lone students stayed back in the class to study. They were the studious types who believed such time was better spent studying than flailing your hands around in the air like headless chickens.

I used to be in their camp. No, I am still in your camp damn it! Take me back, guys! I don’t really want to go!

Rosa heartlessly dragged me by the arm out of the room despite the great reluctance in my heart. I’m a loner! Loners don’t attend school dances!

The only thing I’d been given enough time to do was store my bag away inside the locker I hardly ever used in the hallway. I used it so rarely I almost didn’t even remember the combination to it.

In no time, I suddenly found myself part of a crowded battlefield behind enemy lines on foreign soil. To be more specific, the disorderly line outside the gymnasium where students were pushing to get into the gymnasium to secure a spot on the wall. 

By now, I could already hear the music blasting loud like we were at some sort of concert. I immediately felt nauseous. How could people tolerate such obnoxiously loud music? It was something unbearable for a man who enjoyed peace and quiet like me.

When we eventually reached the front of the line, we had to pay a $5 entry fee. If I were to make a rather conservative estimate where just five hundred of the approximately nine hundred students at this school attended, the profit from that alone amounted to $2500. 

Lots of kids also bought stupid amounts of glow sticks at these events as well, thinking it made them look cool by swinging them around in circles with their hands or tied to strings. I’m sure they marked them up two to three times the base price. Then food and drinks as well. I estimated they could probably make around $10000 with the turnout.

They might pay the DJ $1000. There were also the costs for food and beverages, decorations, and other miscellaneous items as well. By my estimates, I was sure they could profit around $5000 off of the dance so long as the DJ they got was good enough to keep everyone around.

When we got to the front of the line, we were greeted by two individuals behind a table beside the entrance to the gymnasium.

One was the student council president. The other was a girl I might have mistaken for Alicia if I’d seen her from behind. Her hair was a similar length and the same color as Alicia’s. She also had similarly colored blue eyes. Her facial features were what distinguished her though.

From the looks of things, she was similarly on the student council. I couldn’t help but wonder whether she was the vice president, treasurer, or secretary?

What the hell? If he has a girl who looks so similar to Alicia beside him, why not just go for her? Wouldn’t that be easier? Well, I guess it could be a problem related to her personality. Just because she looks similar doesn’t mean she’s not a bitch.

When Rosa and I handed over our $5 entry fee to the student council president, the girl who resembled Alicia stamped the back of our right hands. She wasn’t paying much attention to anyone entering and was fully focused on everyone’s hands and ensuring nobody snuck in without paying.

Rosa and I entered the gymnasium and I immediately secured an open spot by the wall opposite the side with the bleachers on the gymnasium's second story. I sat down on the ground with my knees up and my back to the wall as I examined the various decorations. I’d taken these actions so naturally because this was the sort of thing I was used to. Dancing? It was not for me at all.

There was a disco ball hung at the center of the gymnasium that glittered as it spun in place. It was a staple for such an event. 

A multicolored lighting system was set up all around the gymnasium. They were aimed up at the walls in the direction of the disco ball as they swiveled randomly within the confines of a circle. The multicolored light beams they shot out rotated in a circular fashion on their own while simultaneously phase shifting between different colors. Those beams of light all reflected off the disco ball from all angles and provided even more randomness to the light beams inside the poorly illuminated gymnasium with the lights all off.

Overhead, there were many red, white, and pink paper hearts hung on strings from durable similarly colored paper tape that stretched from wall to wall. They crisscrossed and formed a collage overhead. 

There were a few large heart-shaped decorations made out of artificial roses hung up on the walls as well. The school saved certain decorations for reuse from one Valentine’s Day dance to the next. These artificial rose decorations were one of those that were often reused.

The others were handmade by volunteers, who assisted the student council, from construction paper. The tape made use of double-sided duct tape that they attached a soft scruffy type of paper to hide it. It definitely took a good amount of manpower and time to prepare all of this.

Meanwhile, as I examined the room, the DJ consecutively spun out ten-second remixes of upbeat popular songs. They were his own mixes where he’d swapped out different songs and soundtracks to give them his own personal touch to raise the energy inside the room. With the wild lighting and electric atmosphere, it worked wonders. With the gym fully packed, he spoke into the microphone energetically and pumped everyone up.

“This is your DJ, DJZeeeeee, is everyone ready to party!”

A loud cheer erupted from the students in the surroundings, “Yeeeeeeaaaah!”

“I can’t hear you! I said, are you ready to PARTYYYYYY!” The DJ raised his right arm up, pointed at the ceiling with his index finger, and sported an intense daring smile.

“YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Kids in the gymnasium responded in kind with fervor as their arms rose up high above their heads guided by the DJ’s actions.

“No…” I raised one hand holding the middle finger up while nobody was looking and quietly muttered that out.

“You really intend to sit here the entire school dance aside from the slow dances!” Rosa looked at me with an amused smile, bent down beside my ear, and asked me loudly when she saw my lackluster response. With how loud the music was, unless you shouted, you couldn’t hear what anyone said.

“Of course! You told me I only had to put up with the slow dances! That much I can do! As for dancing while flailing my hands about in the air like a madman who’s performing some cultist ritual, I’d like to avoid such humiliation play!”

“Hahaha! Well, that’s a bit of a shame! I’m going to dance with Alicia then, I’ll come looking for you when a slow song starts! Remember, you’re not allowed to run away!”

“I won’t run away! Please enjoy yourself without worry! This overly social environment is one that is far beyond someone like me!”

“If you say so~ see you soon~!”