When Your Novel Strikes Back

by Heather Lawson

  Chapter the Ninth – A Delightfully Disastrous Date

  They all followed Dan, as he followed the minion, occasionally sniggering as he stumbled or tripped over the dress. They hovered in the doorway as Dan entered the large hall that they had been in previously. It had been redecorated in shades of red and pink. There was a large space for a dance floor and a band of minions was on the stage playing music for them. A table had been set at the base of the stage, candles lit in the centre and a small bouquet of roses in between the candles.

  “Dan! Don’t you look fabulous!” Wax said, rising from his chair and making his way over to Dan.

  He took Dan’s hand and led him back to the table, pulling out the chair for him and urging him to sit down.

  “Am I the woman on this date?” Dan asked, looking at the others uncertainly.

  Ally nodded, trying her best not to laugh while Ayesha and Heather were leaning on each other for support, clutching at their sides as they couldn’t stop laughing.

  “You are free to enjoy the dance floor and the buffet table over there,” Wax said, waving a hand in their general direction but not taking his eyes off Dan.

  Ayesha and Heather didn’t need to be told twice, they immediately made their way over to the buffet table and started piling food onto their plates, occasionally glancing back at the table and laughing at Dan some more. Ally hovered in the doorway and watched Clay and Crast move to the dance floor, swaying in time with the music and each other.

  “Ooooo, let’s dance!” Ayesha said, pulling Heather away from the buffet table and onto the dance floor. She left Heather on the dance floor and grabbed Ally, pulling her onto the floor too. The band started a relatively upbeat song and the three of them started to dance.

  “Hey, why don’t we see which of us can dance the worst?” Heather suggested.

  “I’m up for that!” Ayesha replied, breaking out into a malfunctioning robot dance.

  Heather and Ally watched Ayesha for a moment and then set about with their own routines. Heather did some ‘dad dancing’, starting with the lawnmower and the shopping cart. Ally burst into disco fever and moon walking, shimmying across the dance floor in front of the others. Dan looked up from the table and spotted them, he rolled his eyes and shook his head. He had hoped that they would behave and try to find a way to get him out of his date, that didn’t look likely now.

  “Dan, I feel like your heart isn’t in this,” Wax said, dabbing at the corner of his mouth with his napkin.

  “What gave you that idea?” Dan said, torn between watching the girls bad dancing or actually looking at Wax.

  “I know I’m not… the best of people,” Wax said. “But I feel that we could work.”

  He reached out and placed his hand on top of Dan’s. Dan turned to face Wax and snatched his hand away, throwing his fist into Wax’s face as an automatic reaction. Wax fell backwards off his chair and landed hard on the floor. The music stopped and everyone in the room stared at Dan.

  “What happened?” Heather asked, running over to him.

  “Does it matter? Let’s get out of here!” Dan shouted, pulling up the bottom of the dress so he could run without falling over.

  He headed out of the doorway they had first entered the room in and found his way back to the hole that they had eaten. He dived through it and sprinted up the hill again, desperate to get as far away from the fortress as he could. It took the others a few moments before they all caught up with him. When they finally reached the area where they had last seen Dan, they found him lying on the ground, his fist resting on top of his forehead and his eyes scrunched shut.

  “What’s wrong Dan?” Ally asked, kneeling beside him.

  “I left my clothes in there,” he replied, without opening his eyes.

  “We can fix that,” Ally said, patting him on the shoulder.

  “How?”

  “With the laptop.”

  Dan opened his eyes and looked at Ayesha. Ayesha stared back at him for a moment before opening the laptop slowly. She started typing and everyone noticed the lilac pillar wrapping its way around them once more. This time it wrapped around them so much that they couldn’t see each other. They began to panic until it dissolved once more and they found themselves standing in a circular room much like that of a tall tower.

  “What the…” Dan said.

  “What are we wearing?!” Heather asked, glancing down at herself.

  Dan was no longer wearing a dress, he was wearing a loose white shirt and tight-like trousers, brown in colour, with knee high boots. He curled his lip at the sight of himself in tights.

  “I look like an idi—” he began but stopped when he caught sight of Ally, Ayesha and Heather.

  “Poofy gowns!” Ayesha shouted happily.

  “Pointy hats!” Ally joined in the happy shouting.

  “Urg!” Heather added.

  “What’s wrong Heather?” Ayesha asked.

  “I’m wearing a dress! I haven’t worn a dress since I was fifteen!”

  “I think you look lovely,” Dan said, smirking a little.

  Heather shot him a glare and looked down at the dress she was wearing once more. It was a pale yellow, poofing out at the bottom. She had lace gloves to match the dress and a cone shaped hat with a little tail of yellow lace sticking out from it. Looking over at Ally and Ayesha she noticed that they were wearing similar dressed, Ayesha’s was green and Ally’s was blue. Heather pulled the hat off her head and threw it over her shoulder.

  “Why did you do this to us Ayesha?” she asked.

  “I thought it’d be fun to actually look like maidens,” she replied, grinning.

  Heather rolled her eyes, she had brought that on herself by referring to them as maidens in the first place. She glanced around the room they were standing in...there wasn’t a door.

  “How are we supposed to get out of here?” she asked.

  The rest of the group looked around the room too but found no way to get out. Dan looked out one of the windows and spotted a long wire spanning from their tower to the roof of another section of the building.

  “We’re in a tower, there’s a flat part of the building out there and a wire to get down there,” Dan said, coming back into the room. “We should be able to slide down it.”

  “We’ll go in pairs,” Clay said, grabbing Crast’s hand and leading her to the window. They grabbed a cloth from a box that was sitting to the left of the window and Clay held an end of the cloth in each hand. Crast hung onto his back, like he was giving her a piggy back and they pushed off from the window. The others ran to the window to see if they would make it across. They couldn’t help but cheer as they watched Clay and Crast land safely on the roof at the end of the wire.

  “Alright, who’s next?” Heather said, turning to the others.

  “I’ll go with someone next,” Dan offered.

  Ally, Ayesha and Heather glanced at each other. They shuffled from foot to foot, avoiding eye contact with Dan.

  “What?” Dan asked. “No one wants to go with me?!”

  Heather glanced at the other two and sighed.

  “Rock, paper, scissors?” she asked.

  “Okay,” Ally and Ayesha said.

  They made a small circle and thumped their fists three times, each picking something on the third bounce. Ally and Heather both picked Rock while Ayesha picked Scissors.

  “Oh come on!” Ayesha shouted.

  “Sorry Ayesha,” Heather said, patting her shoulder as though Ayesha had just found out she was dying.

  “Seriously? It’s not that big of a deal to go down a zip line with me,” Dan said.

  He had taken to leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

  “Come on, let’s get this over with,” Ayesha said.

  They took another cloth from the boxes and went down the zip line, Ayesha clinging to Dan as they went.

  Heather watched until they made it to the roof of the other building and then turned to face Ally.

  �
�Our turn,” she said, grabbing the last cloth. “Come on.”

  “I don’t think I can do it,” Ally said, fiddling with a piece of lace from her dress. “I hate heights.”

  “Just hold onto me and close your eyes,” Heather said.

  “O… okay,” Ally said, climbing onto Heather’s back and wrapping her arms around her neck so tightly she was almost choking her.

  “Here we go!” Heather said, pushing away from the window.

  “ARGH!!” Ally screamed as she felt the wind blowing into her face.