Chapter 5, A party fit for a Queen

Chapter 5: A party fit for a Queen

8:54pm

        It had finally come. The Gate’s family had been planning this surprise party for Leighton since her birthday the year before. Surprising Leighton wasn’t exactly easy, so a lot of effort went into just hiding it from her.

        “Rebekah just called” Daniel informed, as he stumbled into the room, peeling his glasses off “She said, that her and Leigh will be here in about five minutes”.

        “Awesome!” Roselyn returned as she motioned for everyone to fall into their hiding places. Ducking behind tables, and hiding around corners, everyone prepared to slip away.

        Roselyn just hopped that Leighton would be in a good mood, and would enjoy the effort everyone put into this party for her. They rented a large ballroom and invited, practically her entire school.

        The theme of the party took hours of planning, but finally one was settled upon.         Pink and Gold. Surely she would love it; pink was her favorite color.
When she was elected prom queen the year before she bought a puffy pink dress with gold accents, and absolutely adored it.

        Roselyn bought the miscellaneous parts for the center pieces at a very high-end boutique, and invested a lot of time and money into them. Each vase was blown glass, composed mainly of pinks and greens, with diamonds stretched into the glass. Each vase was filled with colorful, scented gel beads, which encompassed the golden roses, also made of glass. Around the vases laid hundreds of pink and white rose medals and name tags printed onto golden paper.

        In the doorway of the ballroom hung a light pink ball gown, just awaiting the birthday girl’s arrival, and underneath a pair of white ballet flats rested neatly.

        After crossing the grand archways of the ballroom, and walking past the ball gown, the next thing to catch Leighton’s eyes would be the majestic gift table, bursting with presents of various sizes and colors; which rested neatly upon the light pink swirled table cloth.

        Nothing could have been planned more. This party occupied the empty thoughts of everyone in the family for a year, and it was finally about to happen.

        As Roselyn dimmed the lights, the randomly placed hot pink lanterns, and flickering tea lights placed on each table gently lit the room.

        “She’s coming!!” The lookout whispered as she ran into the room and ducked behind a table. Quickly Roselyn turned down the music that softly played in the background, and switched off the lights.

        Suddenly the room was quiet. Everyone anxiously awaited the footsteps of royalty. Daniel ducked down next to the lights so he could flip them on when his daughter peeked through the door; Danni and Jaime ducked under a table, with Noah in the center of them, and Roselyn pressed her body as close to the nearest wall as was possible.

        Even Daniel’s mother, grandma Elise Gates, was hunched over in her seat, elegantly hidden behind an over sized bouquet of flowers, trying not to be seen.

        The lights in the hallway outside allowed just enough light to shimmer underneath the door that everyone could watch Leighton’s feet as they gracefully approached.

        “Are you sure the seminar’s in this room? It looks so dark” She asked, as her aunt Rebekah ushered her closer and closer.

        Twenty seconds seemed to last forever, but everyone could sense it soon coming to a close when they could finally hear the doorknob begin to turn. Soon the door flung open, and everyone stayed quiet for just a moment longer.

        Puzzled, Leighton prepared to walk away just as the lights flung on.

“SURPRISE!!!” everyone collectively shouted, as they sprung from their hiding spots.

        With the biggest grin on her face, Leighton swooped over and gave her dad a giant hug, out of mere instinct. She wouldn’t have ordinarily done so, but in public the Gates acted as though they were a perfectly functional family. They seemed to have it all, to the outside world.

        Her dad was running for governor of their small gated community, her mom worked part time for the police department, she was elected prom queen every year of high school, her little sister Danni was a strait “A” student, and Jaime was a star athlete… but reality was actually much different. Daniel was a distant workaholic, Roselyn was absent, Leighton was lonely, Danni was secretly failing, Jaime was forgotten, and no one ever really calculated Noah into the mix, because his whereabouts were unknown 90% of the time. However, in public, the Gates knew how to fake it, especially for their father’s campaign.

        “What’s all this?!!” Leighton rhetorically asked as she made her rounds and hugged everyone. One of the first things that caught her attention was the large banner that hung not far from the door. “Happy 17^th Leighton Elizabeth Gates!!”

 

        Looking past the banner, she laid eyes on the ball gown that hung behind it. Stopping dead in her tracks, she let out a high pitched screech after a moment or two. “O.M.G, is that mine?!” Running to it, she clinched on tight.

        “Com’on you can try it on in here” Roselyn assured her as she swooped up the pile of hair curlers and berets from a nearby table, and guided her to a room towards the back of the ball room.

        Half an hour later, Leighton made her appearance. Her hair was elegantly pulled to the side, braided half way, with the rest curled and laying elegantly over her shoulder. Her gown fit perfectly, it was custom made just for her, and had every gold laced diamond hand-stitched into it.

        The tips of her dress, gracefully rested on her off-white ballet flats, making her feel like royalty.

        The night was wonderful. The food was gourmet, the music was a hit, and the dancers were sublime. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

        As Leighton grabbed onto the hand of her high school crush, and asked him to dance, Noah couldn’t help but to watch the clock.  

        9:46pm. He knew he had to slip away any moment, and figured he could do so without being noticed. Amongst the hundreds of people, it was easy to get lost. Inspecting his watch intently for a minute more, he hopped out of his seat and covertly made his way to the door.

        Suddenly that feeling of imminent doom fell over Danni once more. This time it was stronger than before.  She knew someone was about to die, she just did. Trying to brush it off, no longer worked. Before she could fully realize what she was doing, she stood on top of a chair and surveyed the party to find every member of her family. Surely they were safe if they were here, with her…but were they?

        “Daddy, Jamie, Mom, Leigh-” Reciting each individual’s name as she spotted them, she swiftly realized Noah was missing. Quickly thinking back to his conversation with Haroon, she glanced down at her watch to see it strike 9:49pm. Only eleven minutes from when he was supposed to meet Haroon. She nearly fell to the ground when she realized what was happening. Someone was going to die, and it was Noah.

        What could she possibly do? She had no idea where he was, or how to get there, but knew that in a matter of time, it would be too late. Taking a step back, she ran into the wall. Sliding down it, she soon found herself sitting on the ground with her knees pulled in tight. She had to save her brother’s life, but what proof did she have that it was even in danger? A feeling? Surely everyone would think she was crazy. Racking her brain for a solution, tears began to uncontrollably stream down her face. Her brother was about to die, and no one would ever believe her.

        Out of the corner of her eye, Roselyn saw her daughter crying and rushed towards her in distress. Despite their dysfunctional relationship, her motherly instinct kicked in and she just wanted to hold her daughter; but before she could make her way to her she got a text. For a moment she battled herself over whether or not she even wanted to read it, but she soon stopped to check it.

        Nearly falling where she stood, her face went white as a ghost. After gazing down into her hands for several moments, she gazed up with a glassy stare. Knowing something was wrong, Danni ran to her. “Maybe she knew something about Noah”, she thought to herself as she pushed through the crowd to meet her mother, but before she could catch up, Roselyn ran to the door.

        Quickly chasing behind, Danni yelled for her mother to stop. “Mom, wait! Mom…is it Noah?!” Her mother’s behavior only scared her more, and she began to uncontrollably sob. “MOM!!” She yelled again. Her mother never once looked back, or even acknowledged that she could be heard.