dancing is a human right [tomie's surprise party]

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, feeling a bit out of sorts with this assignment, but he took a steadying breath, determined to succeed. Besides, everyone was waiting for the guest of honor and somehow it had fallen to him to convince her. Oh wait, he had assigned himself that duty, but he hadn't anticipating be quite this nervous.

JR and the rest of his yearmates had been hard at work all day and this was the last piece of planning that needed to be done. It had all started when he was talking about Shelby and Benny about how it sucked that Tomie wouldn't be at the dance. It was punishment for punching Matthew Maverick in the face so JR was just glad that she hadn't been sent home, but after all the stress of asking her to the dance with the note that had gone terribly wrong, it all felt like an exercise in futility. He didn't even want to go to the dance now that Tomie wasn't going to and Benny had mentioned how cool it would be if they could throw their own party separate from the camp dance. At first, it had just been a pipe dream 'that would be cool' idea, but then thinking on it, a light had come into JR's eyes and he leaned towards his friends to ask and plot and plan.

It wasn't long before all of his yearmates were whispering and helping to execute their little secret. Only two rules: Don't tell Tomie and don't let the counselors catch on. JR wasn't positive about how they would react, but he'd rather not get in trouble before they had even started. Wendy had agreed to take on the invitations, making sure everyone knew of the party taking place later today, Rion, Kat and Patty volunteered to decorate the cabin, Hazel was sorting out the music, Lachie and Rion the snacks, Benny and Shelby were helping him organize everything, and now the 'Get Tomie to the Party' part of the plan fell on his shoulders.

Luckily for them, the night was cooling off from the intense heat that had made him sweat earlier in the day and the slight breeze that brushed against his cheeks was refreshing. The night sky was dusky with a dusting of stars and the porch light above Tomie's cabin door shone down on him in a golden orange hue as JR stood up on her porch a little straighter, pushing his shoulders back. He rapped twice lightly as he leaned over to peer in the screen door. "Tomie?" he called so that she knew it was him. Well aware of the fact that she probably thought that he was already at the camp dance happening in the pavilion, he hoped she would be pleased by the surprise visit. He tried to keep the smile off his face so she wouldn't suspect anything and rehearsed in his mind the nonchalant words he had planned on the way over here as he waited out on her porch.

[ This is the surprise Tomie party we discussed. Everyone is welcome to post once JR gets Tomie to the decorated cabin. I'll put a message in the Twelvie group chat when that point happens in the thread. I mentioned vaguely some of the different things that different people signed up for, but feel free to add your own details, etc. @Lachie Allen @Patience Blackstone @Simon Cresswell @Brendan de Havilland @Hyperion Hollyoake @Fingal Mac Duibhshithe @Archie Macnair @Katerina Masi @Ophelia Morigan @Benny Rivera @Hazel So @Shelby Trickett @Tomie Vos @Wiltrud Wagner @Wendy Willbond @any other twelvie who I missed apologies <33 ]

So, no dance tonight.

Whatever.

Tomie flicked a page over, skimming the other side with only mild interest. She’d read Uzumaki so many times now that it was only really fun to skim through to look at the details more closely than she had when she’d been reading it to really get invested. With a huff, the brunette glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was so early, she thought. Tomie was surrounded by people all the time – she barely spent a moment alone. Tonight, knowing that all of her friends were having fun without her, each minute was feeling more like an hour.

The young witch glanced up from her page as there was a knock on the door. Shelby, maybe? When they’d first talked about the dance, she and Shelby had gone through outfit ideas. Tomie hadn’t had that much to contribute; she’d brought exactly one dress, and only at the insistence of her mother. Yellow wasn’t her colour, though, and she’d die before wearing a dress anywhere other than around her own house.

Well, almost. She’d put it on just to show Shelby, and wrinkled her nose in the mirror. Benny had come over just then, too. He’d told her she looked pretty so she’d punched him in the arm and gone and gotten changed back into her normal clothes. He was probably just being sincere, but she hadn’t liked it anyway. He’d seen her in dresses before, but there was no need for the image to be reinforced for anyone – including herself.

That voice was definitely JR's voice though. “Uhh…” Tomie crawled down to the other side of the top bunk, half crouching and half lying down as she crossed her forearms on the rail at the end and rested her chin on them. “It’s open, come in?” she called. A part of her had quietly hoped that Benny wouldn’t go to the dance, and would stay and hang out with her instead. If he’d been banned, that’s what she would have done. But he’d seemed super excited in the past day or so, so it wasn’t like she’d actually ask him to do it. "JR?" she asked curiously.

The call of her voice beckoning him in made his nerves seem real, but he inhaled a short little huff and headed in, the screen door clacking against the frame louder than he thought it would. Once he had spied her on the top bunk, he gave her a wide-eyed amused look before shrugging it off and glancing around. It seemed much neater in here than his cabin, he noted, as he leaned against the bunk bed opposite of hers, one hand tucked in his pocket.

"Whatcha doing?" he asked, trying to be casual, but actually trying to buy him some time. Bloody hell, this was like trying to ask her to the dance all over again. At least this time, he knew sending a note was not a good idea, no matter how 'romantic' it would be. He almost rolled his eyes at the thought but instead he focused on Tomie.

He hoped she had no idea what was going on, but judging by her expression, it looked like she might be a little surprised to see him. That felt good and also not. Maybe Benny should have done this part? He was glad that everyone had managed to keep the secret to themselves. Clearly, that wasn't their strong suit, he thought, remembering how the note had had everyone's 'input'.

Just spit it out, you dolt. He pinched himself a bit with the hand was surreptitiously in his pocket and put voice to the words that he had been rehearsing on the way over here. "Are you tired.. or do you think you'd want to take a walk.. with me or something?" he glanced down at his shoes before sneaking his gaze back up to her, hoping to see something positive there.

“Just reading,” she said, “are you ditching the dance?” Tomie was confused. She felt a bit impressed though, at the thought that he might have ditched the dance to hang out with her. After a moment, she smiled, swung her legs over the side of the bed and jumped down from where she was. She landed lithely, her socked feet flat and steady on the floor. He was still wearing his shoes, she’d noted, but she didn’t have the heart to tell him to take them off at this point.

In a very sudden and quick movement, she swiped off her headband– it was a white cloth one that she used when she did her skincare routine, aka washed and moisturised her face. She must have forgotten to take it off before, but she must have looked dumb in it. The girl tossed it to the side, feeling a little self conscious between that and makeshift PJs – just some basketball shorts and a recently-sleeveless t-shirt. She leaned against the metal ladder of her bunk.

“I mean, I already had a shower, so not really?” she shrugged, offering an easy smile. “But if you wanna hang out we could play cards or something?” Tomie suggested hopefully. “I have snacks?”

"Sort of," he answered vaguely and waved a hand as if it were nothing. Not like he could elaborate there without spilling too much of the secret. He admired the agile and graceful way she leaped down, wondering, doubting if he would have had the same ease as she did before his eyes tracked where she threw her headband, curious at the move but not really caring enough. After dealing with his sisters, he knew girls were weird about things like 'my nail polish doesn't match my shirt' and complaining that such a thing was a 'travesty'. Nola, especially. He hadn't really noticed anything like that with Tomie, which was a really nice change for him, but then again, Tomie was really different from any other girls he knew.

Ordinarily, playing cards and eating snacks with Tomie in her cabin would have been fun and slightly daring considering the rules about boys in girls cabins and vice versa. Especially since it was just them two, but right now, it felt like a disaster. He tried to smile back at her, just as easy, but he was worried it felt more like a grimace as he tried to wrack his brain for an excuse or a reason or something he could use to help him get her out of here.

"I can't play cards because I.. got a splinter earlier. Nurse told me to baby it," he rolled his eyes and tried to laugh, but he was doing all he could to try to make it seem like he was cool and collected while half of his brain was panicking. He couldn't exactly force her out of her cabin if she didn't want to go. But everyone was literally waiting for him to pull this off and get her back to the party cabin. "Are you sure?" he asked as he sent a glance to the door. "It's nice and cool outside, we could walk around or something?" His gaze slid back to her and even he wasn't convinced that this would be enough to get her to agree. He inhaled slowly as an idea came to him and he disregarded it and then he considered it again, all in the span of less than two second. He had heard an older Slytherin student use this line on his younger girlfriend back in term and he had been surprised that it had worked as well as it did. He hadn't been taking notes or anything though.. Here goes nothing.

"Would you do it.. for me?" he asked and gave her his biggest smile.

“O...Kay,” Tomie said, clearly unconvinced by the worst excuse she’d ever heard someone give when they didn’t want to hang out with a friend. Why had he come here, then, if he didn’t want to hang out? They could sit in her bed and look at comics together or something, like she’d done with Wendy and Shelby the other day. Didn’t that sound fun?

Tomie scratched her shin on the back of her other leg, still leaning against the metal ladder to her bed. “Walk around?” she repeated, not sounding especially impressed. Tomie was an easy-going sort of person most of the time, but she was also prone to feeling things pretty strongly, and she’d – embarrassingly – cried in the shower earlier about not being able to go to the dance. She didn’t even know why! She hated dancing, probably! Anyway, her stubbornness probably had something to do with that stuff. Her feeeelinggs or whatever.

Why did he look so shifty, though? She tucked some hair behind one ear. Was he going to try ask her out again or something? They hadn’t talked about it at all since that one walk they’d gone on when she’d fractured her wrist. He’d admitted he had a crush on her, but then after she’d been banned from the dance, she’d delivered the information to him when they’d been in a group with their friends. Which was admittedly a bit... rude of her? Maybe? Anyway, the point was that they hadn’t talked about any of that since then; it was kinda weird to bring up.

“I dunno,” she started, “I just…” She trailed off when he started speaking though, and she couldn’t help but smile back in the face of his massive grin. It made her laugh. “Stop it,” she teased, snapping her leg out to give him a quick kick. Tomie glanced up at the ceiling, shaking her head. “Sure, why not,” she said, feeling a bit reluctant. She laughed again, though. “I’ll get my shoes on.”

"Yeah, it'll be fun," he said, trying to bluster his way into convincing her. Her tone made him think she was far from being convinced though. But he couldn't go back to her surprise party without her. He never should have agreed to this. Benny or Shelby probably would've done a better job at it and that thought rankled him, but he wasn't willing to give up just yet.

His ballsy move didn't have the reaction he had expected. JR wasn't sure what exactly he expected but her laughing at him and trying to kick him, which he dodged deftly with a grin, jumping back a step as he laughed along with her. "Really?" he asked, surprised that she agreed, stunned that that had actually worked, but glad nonetheless. "Let's go!" he said, excited as he walked backwards toward the door and pushed it open with his back.

He wanted for her to get her shoes on and then shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking toward the secret party. Their footsteps crunched against the gravel path, the noise loud against the backdrop of chirping crickets. Only the faint hum of music could be heard from the party going on in the pavilion. JR snuck a glance at Tomie and tried to act casual, which he wasn't exactly great at. "Nice weather out here tonight.."

“Whatever,” Tomie said, still smiling.

She tied her shoelaces quickly, a part of her wanting to get changed out of her PJs before heading out. She felt a bit awkward asking him to wait for her to do that though, so her basketball shorts and cut-up t-shirt would just have to do. If they were just going for a walk, then that would be fine, right? He’d said the weather was nice out there, and if she had to, she could use tomorrow’s basketball shorts as pyjamas. Tomie didn’t really like going to bed dirty, but if the alternative was sitting alone in her room and waiting for Shelby to come back from the dance, then dirty it was.

She closed the door behind her, glancing around as if she was waiting for an adult to appear and tell her she was doing something wrong. Walking around at night seemed like the kind of thing she’d get in trouble for, especially when she was banned from the current camp activity. She glanced at her friend when he commented on the weather, slowing down as she watched his expression in the dim light. “Why are you being so suspicious?” Tomie asked, suspicion in her own voice as she narrowed her eyes playfully. She didn’t stop smiling though; she’d been expecting to be alone tonight, and hanging out with JR was better.

“What’re you up to?” she asked. The girl glanced back in the direction of her dorm, wondering if someone was going in there and putting slugs in her bed or something. She looked back at JR with folded arms.

His gaze was so intent on the other cabin that he was trying to get her to that he almost didn't notice when she started to slow. The sounds of their footsteps on the gravel had been synced until he noticed she was a couple steps behind. He turned his head, the orange glow of the camp light shining on her dark hair and he tried to hide his immediate smile.

"Suspicious? Pssshhhh," he scoffed as he loped back toward her and nudged her back playfully, steering her from behind with his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not up to anything. I just wanted to take a walk with you, where's the crime in that, Vos?" he asked lightly, hoping she couldn't tell he was nervous about her finding out and ruining the big surprise. They all hadn't put this much work into the surprise for her only to guess what was happening ten feet away from the cabin.

"Stop being so paranoid," he added, hoping to throw her off.

He moved back to where she was and put his hands on her shoulders. “Nuh-uh,” Tomie said, ducking out from his hands and taking a couple of steps back. “Are you gonna prank me, JR? Is someone about to jump out from around that corner…? Hmm...?” Tomie peered into the dark, then looked back at him, a grin appearing on her face.

Just a walk, huh? “Why don’t we walk this way, then?” she asked, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. She took a couple of slow steps backwards, back in the direction of her cabin. Her expression and her tone were teasing; she was challenging him to come up with something on the spot, because he was clearly acting weird and Tomie was perceptive enough – and knew him well enough – to see it.

“Don’t you think breaking my wrist was enough?” she teased, laughing as she poked fun at him. It was all very well-natured; if Benny had skipped the dance too, and was going to jump out of the darkness and give her a scare, well, it would still be a lot better than how she’d originally imagined her night going.

JR thought he was going to succeed in getting her to the party without her figuring out what was going on but soon enough she was slipping away from his grasp and he couldn't help but smile back when he saw the grin on her face. "No, I'm not going to prank you," he said, even as he was laughing through the words. "I swear," he said holding up his hand as if in promise. The fact that she was so suspicious made him laugh even more. "I think everyone's at the dance anyway..." he added, trying to convince her.. not that that was necessarily the truth either.

"Wait what?" he asked dumbly as she started walking in the opposite direction before he shook his head and tried to grab her hand again. "No, come on. This way is better. I mean this is a good path. You know.. because.." he tried to think of a good reason why he needed her to walk this way. He was wondering why she had to be so stubborn while also enjoying how she teased. Why was she always so fun?

He frowned at her and released his grip on her wrist at mention of her previous injury. "I didn't mean to," he muttered defensively before he stopped and stared resolutely at her. He had to get her to the party. It was literally his only job. He thought hard, his brain whirring in those few seconds. "Ok fine, I'll tell you. I have a surprise for you, but if you don't want to see what it is, by all means go back to your cabin," JR said before turning around and taking a few steps in the opposite direction. It was a risk to leave it up to her, but he hoped she would be curious enough to want to find out.

Or he'd just have to go get the big guns and have Shelby convince her or something.

He was laughing in between speaking and Tomie was laughing too; her friend was up to something, and the teasing was fun. His expression just made her laugh more, and for a moment when they were playing around and laughing together, she wondered if this was actually what having a crush felt like.

And then her joke hit a soft spot and he let go of her hand, defensive. “Yeah I knoooow,” she protested, still smiling a bit. It wasn’t as if he’d really pushed her or something; no hard feelings. JR fixed her with a more serious look, so she copied his stance, still teasing. She didn’t really care if someone was about to jump out or dump a bucket of honey on her or something. Maybe she’d go back to her dorm and find her mattress on the roof. Whatever. It was already much more fun than it had been.

“Ooh,” she said at his words, half-convinced it was a setup but still unable to resist. She caught up to him in a couple of steps and bumped him lightly with her shoulder, grinning. “Better not be a prank,” she said, grinning.

He felt slightly mollified that she was still smiling at him in that way she had and her tone made him think that she wasn't actually upset. JR actually had been more concerned about the injury than she had been for some reason. Crazy, brave girl. He noticed her mimicking his stance and half of his mind was distracted by how stubborn she was being after all the work they had put into this surprise that she might not even get to see and the other half couldn't stop wanting to smile at the way she was acting. Teasing, playful, it made him want to smile again and again. Except he didn't want her to think he was simple or anything.

So he was happy but more so relieved when he heard her footsteps behind him and felt her bumping his shoulder which he returned, although with more gentleness than he might have otherwise. The memory of her previous injury still lingering in his mind. But he just rolled his eyes at her. "I wouldn't do that to you, now would I?" he asked, sliding back into the comfort of the teasing, sarcastic banter they usually had.

"Besides, we're almost there," he said as they neared the cabins that had been turned into a party just for Tomie with all of their yearmates. If Tomie couldn't go to the dance, they would bring the dance to her. "C'mon, it's this cabin," he said as he glanced through the window and saw everyone scurrying about ready to yell surprise like they had planned. He half-turned to grab her hand and tugged her through the doorway then stepped out of the way so she could see everything they had done just for her.

Her curiosity was building, but mostly Tomie couldn't help but marvel at the fact that she was incredibly lucky. She didn’t know what JR was up to – clearly something – but even a prank would beat being alone when everyone else was together. She was lucky to have a friend like him. She tucked some hair behind an ear as she followed along, keeping alert in case she had to dive out of the way of a bucket of pig’s blood or something… Even these kinds of thoughts were very upbeat.

“Uh-huh,” Tomie answered, unconvinced. She tried to peek over his shoulder and into the cabin, but he’d taken her hand and was leading her forward now. She nearly tripped, but caught herself at the last moment, straightening up only to see... Everyone. Confusion flashed across her features briefly.

The moment it clicked, Tomie's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Merlin," she said under her breath. All of her friends were here; they'd all skipped the dance to have one of their own... And apparently she was the guest of honour. She looked from face to blurry face, grinning like an idiot, before quickly wiping the tears away and stepping through the door. She really felt like the luckiest person alive.


/end

He had pulled her through the doorway and then turned back to see her reaction. Her surprised expression, and whispered exclaim, and even the welling tears made his mouth turn into the biggest satisfied grin. JR was happy to melt back into the background as they rest of their friends greeted her, showing her the different things that had decorated and food they had gathered and makeshift dancefloor they had created.

JR shuffled back and nudged Benny with his shoulder, holding his knuckles out to congratulate his friend as Tomie was treated like the guest of honor she was. He was happy that they had come up with this idea and even more proud that they had been able to pull it off. He refused to think back to his worries and fears of not being able to complete his mission. Seeing her here now was all he needed.

/end