Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jessica couldn’t help but feel nervous. After all, the Deep Sea Horrors Masquerade was going to be her and Lochi’s first fancy night out together, which turned out to be at the perfect time considering she’d be going to her technically cousin’s wedding in the winter with him, so having a practice night for a formal party couldn’t hurt. However, that didn’t take away from the butterflies in her stomach tonight. Knowing she’d be nervous, she decided to arrive a little earlier than she and Lochi agreed so that she could munch on some food at the buffet table, which she managed to do by going unnoticed. Or maybe she was noticed, but not by anyone who could have possibly recognised her. After all, she was in a mask and only her pirate-outfitted friend would have seen her in her dress before putting on the mask since they got ready together. On days like these, it was nice having a girlfriend in her house.

Once she had had enough food, at least for now, Jessica made her way to the Great Hall, where Lochi would come find her (or she’d find him) and he’d ask her to dance. Stepping into the room, she took in the sight of the missing house tables and in their place, a dance floor with students of all houses and ages dressed to the nines. Nobody looked familiar. Maybe she should have stayed with Vivyan until Lochi found her... Taking a deep breath, the Slytherin walked off to the side with the other observers and watched the couples and groups of friends dance, glancing over at the entrance to the Great Hall every so often to see if she could spot her boyfriend in his matching suit to her dress. Perhaps it was a good thing that he had gifted her a septum piercing and an earring specifically for the night – at least he’d be able to recognize her from those two things.

Jessica must have watched the other students dancing long enough to have missed when Lochi stepped into the Great Hall, for he had found her before she had spotted him. “Hi Lochi!” she greeted with a large smile as he complimented her. “Thank you, you look very nice as well,” she said before leaning in to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek. She took his extended hand and followed him onto the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd of students and alumni. Jess enjoyed dancing although she wasn’t great at it. However, she wasn’t terrible enough to embarrass herself either unless of course her shoes caused her to fall. Good thing she opted for a shoe with a thicker heel and a platform – easier to manoeuvre in.

It seemed Lochi was also pretty comfortable dancing, for he decided to spin Jessica. She twirled once before he pulled her in to his chest. “Oooh, you’ve got moves?” she asked jokingly before he spun her again. This time, her twirl ended with a bang into another girl. Jessica gasped, feeling mortified, and quickly turned around to see that she had bumped a blonde girl into the boy she was dancing with. “Oh, my God! I’m sorry – Callie?” she asked, realizing halfway through her apology that she had just knocked down one of her best friends. Of course it was Callie. Who else would be wearing a dress that resembled the night sky? “Are you okay? I’m so sorry,” she apologized once more, helping Eden prop Callie back up onto her feet. “You both look really nice!”

The brunette rambled on, eventually asking her questions which were not ‘quick’ as she had started the conversation with. She considered his initial response for a moment. “He doesn’t have the tools here, but would he not just wait until he was home to make me something then?” Eden continued, explaining that if he were in Lochi’s shoes but with his current knowledge of jewelry, he would have only purchased an item if he was sure Callie would have liked it. Well, that didn’t help explain why Lochi had his mother make it for him.

The blond then threw another question at her and asked if she liked the septum piercing before pointing out that if his mother had made it, then she knew and approved their relationship. A smile crept onto Jessica’s lips as she thought about the question for a moment, beginning to pile the tastier looking snacks onto the plate that Eden had passed to her. Since she had already sampled many of them earlier, she knew which to stay away from and which the others most definitely had to try. She really enjoyed that many of them were decorated like sea creatures, monsters, and the best ones of all, sea monsters. It seemed the Prefects had really outdone themselves with the amount of effort they put into the night’s event.

“Yeah, I like it,” she admitted happily, smiling to herself. Maybe it was a good thing – a really good thing – that Lochi’s mother had accepted his request to manufacture Jessica’s nose ring. She continued to pile different foods onto the plate in silence when Eden had piped up with questions of his own. “It’s in London, close to Diagon Alley, actually. I think his mum makes custom jewelry, but his dad doesn’t,” she responded before placing a single crisp in her mouth. “Why – you thinking of getting Callie something now?” she asked after swallowing the snack.

Once they had about as much food as they could fit onto their plates, Jess led the way back to their table at the Great Hall. However, their dates were nowhere to be seen. Placing the plate down, Jess looked around but had no luck in spotting them. “Weird – do you think they’re still at Callie’s booth?” she asked, remembering that the blonde had mentioned switching out her shoes. Without any hesitation, Jessica took Eden’s hand in hers and led him into the large group in an attempt to prevent them from losing each other in the crowd. After wandering around the mass of partiers for a few minutes, Jess looked back at Eden and smirked. “Maybe we should go back – I don’t see them anywhere.” Upon emerging from the crowd, she let go of the Seventh Year’s hand and made her way back to the table, just before spotting Callie and Lochi off in the distance. “Oh, I think I see them!” she announced, waving one arm at them and reaching for food with the other.