Disclaimer: The concept of Immortality used here belongs to Rysher.  Victoria and Justin belong to me.  I (the character Johanna) also belong to myself.  Alex is a real person, so I guess he belongs to himself, too (love ya, babe!).  This high school does exist (I went there *sigh*), and we did have a Mardi Gras themed prom my senior year.

This is the Hetskateers Challenge for January 2001.  Rated PG for minor language.  Enjoy!

Justin Le Faye tapped his foot impatiently.  Shrugging his shoulders in his tuxedo, he ran a hand through his hair one last time as he waited for his date to finish getting ready.  The winter formal at the high school she was attending was tonight, and since he had needed to do some business in Seattle anyway, Justin had timed his visit for the dance.

“Victoria!” Justin called again.  “The dance starts in five minutes!”  He was already waiting by the door and ready to go.

“So we’ll make an entrance!  Chill, darlin’!”  The reply came from Victoria’s bedroom – at least she wasn’t still in the bathroom.  Justin hoped she had at least finished putting on her makeup.  He *knew* that she had her hair done already.

A few seconds later, Victoria DiThon Kestral appeared at the head of the stairs.  Justin’s breath caught momentarily at the sight of the greatest love of his centuries long life.  She was wearing a simple black dress with an Oriental motif, and her hair was pulled up in a mass of curls behind her head.  This was Justin’s angel of the night, his Victory.  She rarely dressed up, but when she did, the effort was entirely worth it.

Victoria descended the stairs, taking in the sight of her beloved Justin in his elegant black tuxedo and silver vest.  He was a very handsome man, and the traces of his apparent youth all but disappeared in her eyes.  This was the man she had fallen in love with over two hundred years ago – her knight in shining armor still.

“My lady,” Justin said quietly, holding out his elbow.  He winked at her as she rolled her eyes, though she did slip her arm through his.  He opened the front door for her, and they headed for Justin’s rental car.

“You have your gun, right?” Victoria asked suddenly as she opened the car door.  “I was not about to try to hide a weapon in this dress.”

Justin laughed as he started up the car when she had slipped in.  “Well, we certainly know where your priorities are, love.  Your life or your looks?”

“Shut up and drive,” Victoria replied, giving him a gentle smack on the arm.  “You’re not the one wearing high heels!”

Alex pulled up to his girlfriend’s house and sent up a brief prayer that she wouldn’t kill him for being late.  They had planned for him to pick her up at eight so they wouldn’t have to wait in line outside to get in to the dance, but that had been ten minutes ago.  Of course, he was late for everything, so maybe she wouldn’t mind.  The door opened as he headed up the walk, but it wasn’t his date he saw standing there.

“Alex!” cried his girlfriend’s six-year-old little sister.  She was always thrilled to see him, for some reason.

“Hey, Nicki,” he replied with a grin.  “Can I come in?”  He ran his hand through his dark hair unconsciously as he waited for her response.

The little girl deliberated for a few seconds, then threw open the door.  “Sure,” she said brightly.

Alex laughed and stepped in the house.  Nicki’s mother appeared, camera in hand.  “Hi, Alex.  Johanna’s almost ready, she’s just putting on her shoes.”

“That’s okay,” he answered.  “I’m the one who was late.”  Alex was excited for the dance, and thrilled at the thought of seeing Johanna dressed up.  She *never* wore skirts, and he’d only seen her in a formal gown once before.  She had looked stunning then, and most likely would look even better now.

Johanna appeared suddenly at the foot of the stairs, a small smile on her face.  She was wearing a black dress with Japanese touches, and her hair was pulled off her neck in a bun.  Alex already thought she was beautiful – now she looked gorgeous.

In turn, Johanna’s smile widened as she saw her boyfriend.  Alex looked incredibly handsome in his tuxedo and carefully styled hair, which he usually never bothered to deal with.  She couldn’t wait for the dance, to be wrapped in his arms as they swayed to the music.  But the mood was broken when her mother started telling them where to stand in order to take pictures.

He squeezed her hand as they posed with smiles plastered on their faces for the pictures.  Johanna knew that she would not have much longer to wait.

Justin surveyed the dance floor from where he and Victoria were taking a chance to catch their breaths.  “You know,” he said conversationally, “I’m so used to normal dance clubs, with adults, and semi-normal music.  How in the hell do you put up with this?”

Laughing, Victoria glanced at the couple he was staring at in interest.  They weren’t exactly dancing – “freaking” was the currently the polite term for the way in which they were moving.  “Yeah, I know.  It’s gross.  Dancing has seriously gone downhill in the past couple of years.  That’s not dancing, that’s having sex while standing up and with your clothes still on.”  She shook her head and sighed.  “The sad thing is, this school is pretty much known for this type of thing during dances.  A couple DJs have even refused to come back.”

“I knew there was a reason I haven’t gone back to an actually high school for a couple decades.  That junior high we went to was psychotic enough for me,” Justin replied as he pulled Victoria into his arms.  She laughed and playfully kissed him on the nose.  The current song playing – a dance tune by Moby – ended, and something more normal came on.  “Hey, love, their playing our type of music.”

“Then let’s get out there and show the kiddies how it’s done.”  Victoria and Justin moved back onto the dance floor and proceeded to wow everyone around them with their excellent swing moves.

On the opposite side of the decorated cafeteria, Alex and Johanna were currently entertaining a group of their friends by doing the swing themselves.  Alex was the better dancer – he had had more classes in swing, and more recently.  But Johanna was doing better than she had at the last dance, so that was something.  When the song ended, both were smiling and laughing.  Dancing was something they both had in common, and they loved it.

Alex gave Johanna a peck on the lips, and said, “I’m going to go grab something to drink.  Want anything?”

She shook her head.  “No thanks, sweetheart.  I’ll wait for you here.”  He disappeared into the crowd, and Johanna began dancing with a group of some of her other friends.

Victoria and Justin ended the dance with a flourish and bowed to the circle of clapping students that had formed around them.  More of the dance music that had been playing earlier started, and their admirers slowly drifted off.

“I’m parched.  Can I get you anything?” Justin asked above the music.  Victoria shook her head.

“I’m just gonna watch the kiddies.  They’re actually pretty amusing,” she replied, gesturing to another freaking couple.  She grinned at him evilly.  “Maybe I’ll get some ideas for later.”  Justin laughed, and headed for the refreshments for some soda.

“Excuse me,” the Immortal said to a dark-haired teenager who was also picking up a glass.  This guy looked to be another visitor to the school; probably college-age, and the goatee simply reaffirmed this.

The two stood silently next to each other as they drank their soda.  The darker one finished first, and nodded to Justin before walking away towards the restrooms.  When Justin was also done, he decided to take the longer route around the commons of the high school to see what everyone was up to.  Avoiding a few secluded corners in which things were going on that he probably did not want to know about, he was surprised to see Victoria on the opposite side of the room.  In perfect timing, a slow song began.

Walking up to her but keeping his hands clasped behind his back, he leaned towards her ear and asked, “May I have this dance, my lady?”

She whirled around in surprise.  Justin also took a step back – this was not Victoria.  Same dress and hairstyle, similar build and face, but it was not his love.  But the poor girl had been standing alone, so after covering up his shock, Justin smiled encouragingly.

Johanna shrugged, vaguely surprised at this turn of events.  Why hadn’t guys ever asked her to dance *before* she fell madly in love with Alex?  “Why not?  My date seems to have disappeared.”  The cute blond took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor where they began to sway to the music.

Alex walked out of the bathroom in the midst of a slow song, so he immediately headed for where he had last seen his beloved girlfriend.  He smiled slightly as he saw her standing alone, leaning against the wall and watching the dancing crowd.  She would probably smack him for it, but the urge to sneak up on her was too overwhelming.

When he was within reach, Alex placed his hands lightly on her shoulders and then ran them down her back.  The velvet dress beneath his fingers felt very nice – Johanna knew that he had a fetish for anything “fuzzy.”  She began to lean into the sensation, so Alex wrapped his arms around her waist and placed his chin on her shoulder.  He took a deep breath of the elegant perfume she was wearing—

And realized that something was very wrong.

At about the same time, the girl he held in his arms tilted her head back, eyes closed, and whispered, “I love you, Justin.”  Alex froze, then let go of her and pushed himself away.

Victoria turned around, a concerned expression on her face.  “Jus’, what’s-?”  It wasn’t Justin, but a teenager with a pole-axed expression on his face.  “Oh.”

“I am so, so sorry,” Alex said, eyes wide.  “I swear, I thought you were someone else.”

Victoria furled her eyebrows in confusion.  “Well, I should probably slap you for that anyway, but we might cause a bit too much attention.”  She stared at him.  He was pretty cute…no, bad girl.  If he’d done that to her he was obviously in a pretty deep relationship with someone else.  Of course, considering what kids today thought was deep, that wasn’t saying a lot.  “Maybe we should just go find our respective dates and forget about this, okay?  No harm done.”

Alex nodded slowly.  He felt like an idiot.  This was possibly the first time he had done something humiliating that he hadn’t done on purpose.  “Sure.  Thanks.”  He nodded to her and turned around, walking along the edge of the crowd and trying to find Johanna.  A glance over his shoulder showed him that the mysterious girl was heading in the opposite direction.

When he was about three-fourths of the way around the room, he saw her again.  This time she was standing with her arms crossed, a bemused expression on her face.  Alex steeled himself and walked up to her.  “Did you find him?” he asked quietly.

Victoria glanced to her side.  It was that guy again.  She gestured to the dance floor.  “The blond dancing with the chick in the black dress like mine.”

Alex looked around at the dancers until he saw a girl in a black dress.  It was Johanna.  And she was dancing with a guy with blond hair.  He choked back a laugh, and the girl glanced at him sharply.  “I think your guy is dancing with my girlfriend.”

Victoria laughed, and then held out a hand to the guy.  “I believe we can help each other out then.  My name’s Victoria.”

“Alex.  Shall we go cut in?” They grinned evilly at each other.

“Let’s.”  Victoria led the way and approached Justin from behind to tap on his shoulder.  The girl raised her head and opened her eyes to look at her in confusion.

Justin turned and paled when he saw Victoria standing there.  A glance at the girl he’d been dancing with – Johanna, she’d said her name was – proved that her eyes were very wide as she looked at the guy next to Victoria.  “Alex,” she whispered.

Victoria and Johanna then sized each other up, noting the similar dresses and hairstyles.  “What I think we have here,” Victoria stated, “is a case of mistaken identity.”  The uncomfortable group nodded.

Just then, the DJ announced that the dance was over.  Victoria grinned evilly and reached into Justin’s pocket to pluck out his rental car keys.  “C’mon,” she said to the girl Justin had been dancing with.  “Let’s get out of here.  I’ll give you a ride home, and those two can suffer by themselves.”

“Johanna-,” Alex began plaintively.  She merely pulled him into a deep kiss before whirling away with the unknown girl.

“Bye, sweetheart!” she called to him as they disappeared into the crowd.

Justin and Alex turned to each other.  “I do believe I’ve been abandoned,” Justin said.  “Now I have no way back to her house.  Of course, I don’t think I want to go back at the moment.  I don’t know what she’d do to me.”

Alex grinned.  “Well, I’ve got a car, and considering we’re both in the same boat with our girls, you’re welcome to crash at my house tonight.”  He reached into his pocket and suddenly remembered something.  “Oh, crap.”

“What?” Justin asked.

“Johanna had my keys in her purse.”

Justin sighed.  “And Victoria had all of my cash in hers, so we can’t call a cab.  Looks like we’re walking, man.”

“You don’t think that was too mean, do you?” Johanna asked her newfound friend as they vegged out in front of Victoria’s television.  She’d called her mom and asked to stay the night at a friend’s house.  The identity of said friend had easily been altered so as to avoid concern, so she was home free for the rest of the night.

“Nah,” Victoria replied.  “You said Alex didn’t live to far away.  They’ll survive a walk.”

The two girls grinned at each other again.  This was certainly the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

~ finis ~

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This page was last updated: 2.18.5 ~jlg~