The picture above is Addelyn's dress for the ball 

CHAPTER 11
Charity Balls and Spiteful Progenitors 

WARNING: This chapter may contain slight discrimination on the basis of wealth and status. I apologize in advance to anyone who's feelings might get hurt from this. And I want you to know that I don't support any sort of discriminations. 

What the fuck was I thinking?

In that moment of anger, I called Cole and agreed to go to the ball with him.

But now I regret it.

Even sitting in Cole's well air-conditioned limo isn't helping me sweat any lesser at the thought of meeting my parents.

"Are you alright?" Cole asked and I nodded with a forced smile.

Maybe I won't meet them. It's a huge place with a lot of people. So, there's a great chance that I won't run into them.

Oh, who am I kidding? Fate just has a funny way of playing games.

As soon as I arrived, my window was hit with flashes of cameras. Cole got out of the limo and walked to my side to open the door for me.

Blocking out the cameras, we entered the hall to be greeted with the site of fancy business men dressed in suits and women wearing dresses worth thousands of bucks which they probably won't be using after this night.

All of them had one purpose for being here tonight: no, not charity, but to keep up their prestigious reputations.

The golden walls and the matching yellow lights hanging from the ceiling slightly made me uncomfortable. But I shrugged off the feeling as I walked hand in hand with Cole.

"Oh great!" Cole groaned as he saw the two figures approaching us.

"Cole honey, there you are." Mrs. Hamilton's chirpy voice rang in my ears as she pulled her son into a hug.

She broke away from the hug before turning her attention to me.

"Addelyn, what a pleasant surprise?" She beamed.

"You must be my son's date tonight." Mr. Hamilton said and I nodded in agreement.

"What about the Vanderbilt boy? Don't you usually attend these things with him?" Mrs. Hamilton questioned.

Oh yes, Mrs. Hamilton with her blunt question and absolute disrespect for others' privacy has quite a reputation in the society.

"Yes, I do. But tonight, he has another date. Actually, you might kno–"

"Mom, please excuse us. Addelyn and I have lot of people to attend to." Cole said deliberately interrupting me.

"Don't be rude, Cole." His mother scolded, "I raised you better than to interrupt a lady while she's speaking."

Cole mumbled a 'sorry' and Mrs. Hamilton gestured me to speak.

"Blake's date for the night is Terra Hale. Isn't she a family friend of yours?" I asked.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "Family friend? I don't know what lies she fed you, but she is definitely no friend of ours. She's the help's daughter."

"Really?" I smirked as I raised an eyebrow at Cole. He looked at his feet with a glare which was probably meant for his mother.

I should've known that the Hamiltons won't actually be acquainted with a scholarship student's family. They're very particular about their social circles which explains why Cole's mother disapproved of Terra as his date.

"Honey, we need to go receive the other guests." Mr. Hamilton informed his wife.

"You kids have fun. And Cole, could you please greet the Hendersons for us? We have a few other people to attend to." Mr. Hamilton said with a smile before leading his wife towards the new guests.

"Umm, my mom's quite a character....." he trailed off.

"She was nice." I said making him scoff. 

"About Terra–" He started.

"Please stop. I really don't want to talk about her." I said to which he nodded in understanding.

"I guess I should go talk to the Hendersons." He said, "Are you coming?"

"To meet the Hendersons? Hell no! They are a family of perverts." I complained and Cole chuckled shaking his head.

"Then I'll find you after I meet them." He said and I nodded.

I walked around to trying to find someone familiar to talk. Hazel and Asher must be around here somewhere.

"Addelyn", I heard a familiar voice call and I froze in my tracks.

Just play it cool, I told myself, if they don't care about you, you don't care about them.

I took a deep breath and turned around with a fake smile plastered on my face.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Frederick. It's a pleasure to meet you two again." My voice sounded way more confident than I was feeling, for which I mentally gave a pat on the back.

"That's not how you refer to us, Addelyn." The tall brown-haired man told me.

"Then what do I call you? Father? Dad? Daddy? I don't know. You never taught me." I replied.

"Don't act smart with us, Addelyn." The blonde woman beside him scolded.

I ignored what she said and spoke again, "So what brings you to me? Afraid people are going to gossip if you two don't converse with your offspring?"

The woman huffed, "We demand respect, Addelyn."

I sarcastically bowed down to them, "Respect enough for you?"

The man grinded his jaw, "Don't play games with us." He warned in a dangerously low voice.

I was about to respond when I felt an arm circle around my waist.

"Hello Mr. And Mrs. Frederick." Blake greeted with a polite smile.

"Bruce, it's nice to meet you again." The woman smiled back.

Blake tried to hide his amused smile whereas I shook my head in disappointment.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked seeing our expressions.

"No, everything's great." I replied.

"So Bruce, I see you're still dating my daughter. I hope you're taking good care of her." The man said.

"I take great care of her." He replied and turned to me, "Right Lynne?"

I rolled my eyes in response making him grin at me cheekily before turning his attention back to them.

"Well, if you'll excuse us, we need to get going." Blake said with a smile and pulled me away from them.

"Thank you" I said once we were away from my parents' view.

"I promised you that I'll keep you away from them, didn't I?" he asked and I smiled as I pulled him into a hug that lasted only a few seconds.

"So, you came?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It was a last moment decision."

"I'm glad you changed your mind." He smiled.

"Where's Terra?"

"Washroom." He replied and his zeroed on someone behind me.

"My mom's coming." Blake warned. I turned towards her with a smile.

"Addelyn" She smiled and gave me a short hug.

"Claire, how are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm doing great. You're looking beautiful my dear." She said and I gave her a smile.

Her eyes shifted towards Blake and she frowned.

"Blake, how many times have I told you match the tie with your date's dress? You need to be more careful with these things." She scolded eying his blue tie different from my red dress.

"Actually, I'm not his date." I told her making her eyes widen in surprise.

"Really? Then who is?"

"She's a friend of mine who's in the washr— Oh there she is." Blake said when he saw Terra walking towards us in the same night blue dress that I saw Blake buy for her at the mall.

"Mom, meet Terra Hale, Terra, this is my mom." He introduced them to each other.

"Hale?" Claire asked searching for the name in her head.

Most people who attend these things have huge business franchises, thus making their name very well-known among the others at these events. But unfortunately, "most people" don't include Terra.

"Her mother works for the Hamiltons." I informed Claire. Blake and Terra froze at my words causing me to smirk.

"Oh, in which branch of theirs?" Claire asked.

"Uhh......." Blake trailed off as he looked lost for words.

"She's the maid at their house actually." Terra replied honestly looking at her feet awkwardly.

"The maid?" Claire asked with her eyebrows raised. Blake nodded softly showing no surprise in his features.

So, he knew about this.

"Umm, where's Mr. Vanderbilt? I haven't seen him all night." Terra said, trying to make small talk to diffuse the tension but that just deepened the frown on Claire's face.

"He's not coming today." Blake replied awkwardly ignoring the glares that his mother was throwing at both their ways.

"Blake, a word please." Claire requested and walked away. Blake gave Terra an apologetic look and followed behind his mother.

I turned to look at Terra who was still staring Blake's and Claire's retrieving figures.

"Stop trying to fit in, Terra." I said, "It's not working. You don't belong in Blake's world, so stop trying to slither your way into it."

"I'm not trying anything." She replied softly but her voice held a bit of irritation.

"Stop pretending." I said with an eye-roll, "You reek of desperation."

"Am I the one who reeks of desperation?" she questioned, "Everyone can see how desperate you are to get Blake's attention." She said and I felt a feeling of irritation rush up inside me.

I clenched my fists feeling my nails dig deep into my skin, "Watch it, bitch. I will make you regret your words."

She scoffed, "What are you going to do? Drug me again? I won't be falling for that."

A corner of my lip twitched up in a smirk, "You see that statue next to you?" I asked pointing at the three-foot statue placed on a table right next to her.

"It's sculpted by the famous Claud Renoir and it costs 35 thousand dollars." Terra's eye balls practically bulged out of their sockets upon hearing that.

"I could just tip it a little bit, it'll fall and break. Then I'll simply put the blame on you. Gladly, the cameras don't point at this direction." I said looking around at all the security cameras.

"And then, you and your mom will be left in the streets in debt for years." I finished.

"I'll just tell them the truth." She said and I laughed at how naïve she was.

"Terra, everyone here knows me and they love me. Whereas you; you're just the maid's daughter." I said making her gulp.

"Besides" I started, "the moment you're put in a position to talk, you'll be a stuttering mess even if you're telling the truth. Whereas I can lie more fluently than you can sing ABC. They're definitely going to believe me."

"Cole will believe me." She argued, "He's the one throwing the ball, so only his opinion matters."

"No, what matters is his parents' opinion. They're the same people who didn't approve of you being their son's date. Do you really think they're going to believe you over me?" I asked and this time, she looked defeated

"Why are you so mean to me?" she asked and I could see tears starting to pool up in her eyes. A victorious smirk appeared on my lip on seeing the effect I had on her.

"Because you're not worthy of my kindness." I answered before walking away from her.

Author's Note

So, for everyone who expected Caddy moments, a jealous Blake and a heck load of drama; the ball's not over yet.

And how many of you feel bad for Terra? I know I do.

So, if you liked what you read, vote.

If you want to keep reading, add this to your library so you'll know when I update.

And if you made it till the end, thank you for reading and I love you so much!

Okay, have fun, enjoy life.

Signed,
Me