"What about this one?!" 

"No." 

"This one?!!"

"Nope." 

Biana held up another mask, this one with floral accents around the brim. "THIS ONE??" 

"No, too many flowers."      

"Marella! You're even more frustrating than Sophie! At least Sophie managed to pick one in the end! And the Foxfire masquerade is in exactly two days!" 

"I still don't understand something," Marella mentioned, ignoring Biana's exasperated mask-waving voice. Marella lowered her voice and whispered to her, "Aren't you guys part of some super-secret society that fights the Neverseen? Like secret agents or something? Why are you going to a masquerade party?" 

"Marella, it's not a "secret society". It's the Black Swan, and we try to protect the Elvin World from their evil plans-"

"So basically, you guys are secret agents."

"Marella no-"

Marella snapped her fingers excitedly and accidentally set off some flames on her hands. 

"Wait! Is this just a secret plan to infiltrate the party and stop another one of the Neverseen's evil plans?!" 

Biana dragged the pile of masks away from Marella's still-flaming hands and sighed. "We still are normal teenagers Marella. We can have fun."

"But-" 

"Now come on! Let's stop talking about the Neverseen and help you sort out this mask situation. Now, are you feeling cute, chic, or creepy?" 

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Marella adjusted the dark red, orange, and yellow pointed flareadon mask. There was dark black glitter sprinkled around it to make the colors look more muted and dark. There were two narrow slits for her eyes, and the ice-blue color of her eyes contrasted magnificently with the warm-colored mask. 

At least that was what Biana said. Personally, Marella found the whole "masked dance" thing quite uncomfortable. What if she ended up accidentally dancing with Valin or something? She would get drool everywhere and all over her clothes.

The mask didn't help matters. There was so much black glitter all over the place that it fell through the eyeholes of her mask, and stung her eyes.  

"Stop fussing with it!" Biana told her as they headed towards the ballroom in which the party would be held. 

"I can't! It's really itchy!" Marella complained, desperately scratching at her back, where two small wings hung, made of lace and some other unknown itchy materials. "Why did you choose the flareadon costume? Why couldn't I have gone as- well, whatever you are."  

Marella waved her hand in Biana's general direction as Biana fiddled with the wings she had attached to Marella's skin. Of course, Biana's outfit didn't need any adjusting at all, Marella thought grudgingly. 

Biana's slick black dress hugged her body's curves and hung especially tight around her legs. It looked near impossible to walk in. Marella could see her own reflection in the dress, which made her even more self-conscious of the fact her pointed bird-beak mask was lopsided, and that there was black glitter trailing behind her everywhere she walked. 

Biana's mask was ruby red, with black lace adornments that clashed magnificently with her teal eyes, which were also rimmed with some dark red gloss. Her perfect lips were coated in black lipstick, and when she smiled, you could see pristine white fangs lining her mouth, with blood (raspberry compote) coating them.  

"You chose the costume yourself! If you remember, I was the one who suggested we could go as vampires together with Linh and Sophie, and you said no, "because who wants to wear that thing?"." 

"Humph. Anyways, none of this is real right? Because this is just a" Marella's voice dipped into a whisper, "secret ploy to stop the Neverseen from infiltrating Foxfire, am I right?" 

"Marella! Just because we're part of the Black Swan, doesn't mean everything we do is about them. This is just a normal party!"

"Whatever you say." 

As the two girls walked down the halls to find the ballroom, Marella saw tons of people, all wearing masks, but she couldn't tell who anybody was. All the masks had a built-in charm on them that prevented you from recognizing the person's face. Otherwise, it would be no fun!

Marella only managed to keep track of Biana by the slinky dress she was wearing. Marella shoved two people aside to keep up but was surprised when they grabbed her arms. 

"AGH BIANA ITS THE NEVERSEEN!" Marella hollered, along with some very inappropriate curses that would make even the roughest sailor wince. Her hands lit on fire, and one of the "Neverseen members" let go with an unusually high-pitched shriek, while the other one simply sighed and doused her gloves with water. 

"Marella, it's us!" said the girl with the now wet gloves. She removed her white mask with pale blue jeweled designs, and Marella immediately flushed in embarrassment. 

Beneath the white mask was her silver-eyed black-haired friend, Linh. She exasperatedly wrung out her white gloves. "Didn't Biana tell you what we would be wearing?" 

"Yes, but when two people suddenly grab my arms from behind, I'm not going to turn around and carefully admire their clothing!" 

The other girl who had shrieked, who Marella presumed to be Sophie, shrugged. "She has a good point." 

Now that Marella knew it was Sophie underneath that honey-gold mask, she wondered how she hadn't noticed that underneath her mask, her eyes were a warm chestnut brown.  Sophie groaned as her horn fell off of her head. 

"It took me forever to stick that on!" she complained. 

Sophie was wearing an alicorn costume. She had a silver horn that used to be protruding from her head, and her dress hung lightly off her body and blew with every small wind. It was so white, it appeared to be glowing underneath the lights. 

Linh was dressed as a murcat, and her dress faded from deep blue into purple and was textured like scales. She had little dark blue cat ears perched on her head, and dark purple whiskers coming off her face. 

Biana came from around the corner, panting and panicked, her face red. "Neverseen!? Neverseen where!? Neverseen how!? Neverseen who!? Neverseen why!?" 

Then, she stopped in her tracks when she saw the three girls standing there laughing and stared dead-panned at them. 

"You've got to be kidding me." 

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"I'm so sorry for ruining your gloves Linh!" Marella exclaimed as Linh fingered her now-wet gloves while they walked into the masquerade party. 

Linh shrugged. "It's fine, they were itchy anyways." 

The ballroom was glowing gold and silver, and they were surrounded by hundreds of people, all in magically-enchanted masks that prevented you from seeing their true selves. 

"That one's Fitz, in the boring prince costume and the gold mask," Biana pointed to them. She was pointing to a tall guy wearing a white prince outfit with a golden collar, wearing a flashy gold mask, and try as she might discern Fitz's classic blue eyes and chestnut hair, Marella couldn't pick them out. 

"The masks are really good!" Sophie commented, obviously not being able to tell it was Fitz either. "And I like how you guys are opposites." 

"I was supposed to go in a matching princess outfit," Biana said, rolling her eyes. "I thought, no way in heck was I going to be wearing a matching outfit to my brother, like when couples do it it's cute, but when siblings do it-" 

"It's even cuter," Marella said with a smirk, watching Biana's face go red. 

"Do you know what Keefe and Dex are wearing?" Linh asked quickly before Biana exploded.

"No, Keefe refused to let me see what he was wearing," Biana muttered, crossing her arms. "What's Tam wearing though?"

"Ooooooo, why'd you wanna know what Tam's wearing?" Marella teased, elbowing her friend in her shoulder as Biana's face turned a magnificent pink.

"Tam's going as a 'black shadow monster', although it actually just looks like a cute black cat. But don't tell that to his face or else he'll go on a tangent about how it's a "black shadow monster" and that he's not "cute" and yadda yadda yadda," Linh replied. 

"Never seen you so sassy before Linh! What happened?" Sophie asked, nudging her with her elbow. 

"Just annoyed by the fact Tam refused to go as a black cat so we could have been matching," Linh replied, shrugging. 

"Hello ladies!" a voice said. They turned around to see a boy with a devilish looking smile wearing a dark green mask that had a strange button on the side of it and was wearing a dark green tunic with strange spikes on the back. 

Sophie surveyed him up and down and sighed. "Keefe."

He winked back. "Foster." 

"You seriously went as a gulon?" 

"Better than Fitzy's whole prince getup. I mean, who goes as a prince for Halloween?" 

"Exactly!!" Biana said, pointing to Keefe. "Finally! Somebody who understands!" 

"How'd you know it was Keefe?" Marella asked. 

"I can feel his mind," Sophie replied shrugging. "And I had a suspicion anyway when he walked over. He had a 'Keefe Walk'." 

"What's the button for?" Linh asked curiously. 

"Oh, it releases a bunch of stink along with a fart noise whenever I press it. Dex helped me attach it." 

"Why would you ever- you know what, I'm not even going to ask," Sophie said, sighing as Keefe smirked.  

The prince in the white and gold suit strolled over and grinned. 

"Hey, Fitz!" Keefe said to him and patted him on the shoulder.  Once Keefe withdrew his arm, however, there was a strange expression on his face.

 "Hey, Sophie," Fitz said, smiling at her.  

"Hey Fitz," Sophie replied, her neck turning bright red. Marella made a throw-up motion behind her back and Linh giggled at it. 

Biana rolled her eyes. "No hey sister?" 

"Nah," Fitz replied. He turned towards Sophie and held out his hand. "Wanna dance?" 

She took his hand, and her face flushed even harder. "Yes." 

As Sophie and Fitz walked away, Marella rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Wow. Way to ignore the rest of us. Am I just garbage compared to Sophie now or something?" 

Keefe was staring at the pair of them, his eyes narrowed and Biana sighed. "Keefe, we all know you like Sophie, but you don't have to be so jealous." 

"I'm not jealous," Keefe replied, still staring. 

"Then what?" the three girls asked simultaneously. They realized what they did, and they started to laugh together before Keefe silenced them. 

"Shhhh." 

"Why so serious?" Marella muttered, shrugging her shoulders. "It's just a dance." 

"No," Keefe said. 

"Then what?!" Biana said, feeling exasperated now. 

"I don't think that's Fitz." 

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"What do you mean that's not Fitz?" Biana asked, as the four of them safely lodged themselves into an abandoned corridor near the ballroom. 

"His emotions are all weird," Keefe replied, peaking into the ballroom at Fitz and Sophie. "Sophie's probably too," he winced at the word, "lovestruck to notice. But I've been friends with Fitz for longer than anybody else has, and those emotions are not his. He would never feel that kind of strange excitement. It's not a good one, it has a sinister feeling to it." 

"Then who is that?" Linh whispered, looking frightened. "And to think of it, I haven't seen Tam either." 

"It's the Neverseen!" Marella whisper-shouted, slamming her fist against her palm. "I knew it! This is just a mission undercover to defeat them-" 

"This isn't a mission," Biana whispered hoarsely. "This isn't a sneaky mission. This wasn't planned. And if that really is a Neverseen member, what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to get Sophie away from them without them noticing we suspect them?"

"How about we just attack them?" Marella suggested. "I can burn them, Linh can drown them, Biana can sneak attack them, and Keefe can be a distraction." 

"No," Keefe said, shaking his head. "We can't make sure that Sophie won't be hurt."

"What are you guys doing?" came a voice from behind them. The four of them turned around, and they saw Tam Song, wearing a black mask that did kinda look like a black cat, leaning against the wall. 

Keefe reached over and took Tam's hand in his and closed his eyes. Tam stared down at Keefe and withdrew his hand away. 

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" Tam asked, grabbing his hand away and wiping it on his cape. 

"He's definitely the real Tam," Keefe muttered. "I can sense the idiocy from a mile away." 

"Thank god he's not Neverseen!!" Linh cried out and hugged him. 

"What do you mean Neverseen?" Tam asked, after awkwardly patting Linh. "How would they be here at Foxfire?" 

"Keefe believes that Fitz isn't actually Fitz," Biana said. "He thinks he's a Neverseen imposter with one of the enchanted masks." 

"How does he know?" Tam asked.

"I felt him." 

Tam stared at Keefe. "That sounded so wrong in so many ways." 

"Shut up." 

"Anyways," Linh said. "What do we do?" 

"I say we ambush," Tam said. 

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I SAID!" Marella exclaimed excitedly. "I can finally attack a Neverseen member and shoot fire at them wearing this cool mask like I'm in some secret agent show and-" 

"Marella shh," Biana said, turning to Tam. "So what do we do?"

"Hey! You hated the idea when I suggested it!" Marella said, crossing her arms and pouting. 

Biana ignored her. "What do we do?"

They come up with a plan. 

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Marella rubbed her wrists and stood up from the corner she was hiding in. Biana grabbed her wrist and together, they vanished. 

Moving around invisibly was extremely unsettling. It felt like a ghost, moving seamlessly from place to place, without anybody seeing you. Marella didn't particularly like the feeling, but she withstood it as they moved towards the pair of them dancing. 

She noticed Tam and Keefe is one corner, and a Linh dancing with somebody getting closer and closer to Sophie and Fake Fitz. Linh stopped dancing and started to walk towards them, which was the sign to act.       

Tam and Keefe advanced and Marella and Biana took the other side. Linh tapped Fake Fitz on the shoulder and engaged him in some conversation. Then, Tam and Keefe jumped out at them, and Marella and Biana rushed them from the other side. 

Keefe tackled Not-Fitz and grabbed at his mask. Tam grabbed his arms and placed them behind his back. Marella lit flames on her hands and Biana clenched her hands into a fist, prepared to fight. 

The ballroom turned silent and stared at them as Keefe yanked the mask off. "GOT YOU NOW YOU FILTHY NEVERSEEN-- DEX?!" 

Their strawberry blond friend stared up sheepishly at them, his dimples stretching across his face. The entire ballroom rolled their eyes and went back to dancing. Marella heard a few of them mutter "Typical Keeper Crew". 

Biana's face flushed from embarrassment. "Dex? What? How-" 

Linh helped Dex off the ground and Dex dusted off his clothes. "It was a prank."

"A- a-prank??" Keefe stuttered. 

"Yes!" Dex replied, with a very Keefe-like smirk on his face. "Fitz, Tam and I were tired of you pranking us all the time so-"

"Wait, Tam was in on it too?" Biana asked, turning towards Tam. Tam nodded, looking very pleased at himself. 

Dex was laughing now. "You should have seen Keefe's face when he felt my shoulder! It was hilarious his whole face just dropped like-" Dex jutted his jaw out as low as possible, and the entire crew, minus Keefe started to laugh. 

"Bu- But, what about the sinister feeling I felt from you?!" Keefe exclaimed. "What was that?"

"That was just his sinister happiness about pranking you," Tam said, shrugging. "You guys, I can't believe you didn't find it suspicious when I just showed up behind you in an abandoned corridor!"

"Well-Well, you just like hiding in dark places!" Keefe sputtered back at him. 

"Where was Fitz?" Biana asked, after shaking away her shock. 

A tall guy in a black tailored suit with a dark mask and a black crown walked up and bowed, before taking the mask off. "At you service."  

"Wait, you were the guy I was dancing with?!" Linh asked, shocked. 

Fitz nodded. 

Biana stared at his outfit in disgust. "Seriously, you STILL went as a prince?!"

"Jeez, I just wanted to okay!"

"But it's a Halloween party and you went as a prince-" 

"Biana! Stop!" The whole crew yelled, before they all subsided into laughter as Biana muttered, "Nobody gets fashion." 

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"To tell you the truth, the thing I'm most disappointed about that party was that I didn't actually get to fight anyone," Marella commented as they walked out of the Foxfire ballroom and into the night air outside. 

"I'm just shocked that I was actually dancing with Dex, and not Fitz!" Sophie exclaimed, rubbing her arms because of the goosebumps that popped up from the cold air. 

"I'm shocked that the guys were actually smart enough to come up with that," Linh said. 

"It was a pretty good prank," Biana admitted grudgingly. 

"We know it was!" Dex said, as the guys caught up with them. Keefe still looked upset, his arms were crossed and he was jutting his lip out. 

The three guys exchanged high-fives, and the crew laughed, even Keefe who gave a grudging chuckle. 

"I'm gonna get you back!" Keefe yelled at them as Dex stuck his tongue out at him. "And the girls will help me!"

Keefe raised his hand for a high-five, and the four girls looked at each other, before shrugging and started to walk away. 

"Nah." 

And as the moon rose higher into the sky, the kids at the Foxfire campus described seeing a strange sight out in the night.

 It looked suspiciously like three boys doing a war dance circling one another, and four girls, one wielding a trombone, another with a trumpet, another with a camera, and one with a cymbal. 

The sounds could be hear all throughout the night. 

THE END -2987 Words