"I know, mom," James said, rolling his eyes for the millionth time as he was lectured about manners and girls. "You act like she's just some random girl... I'm not gonna hurt her," He said confidently as she adjusted a tie around his neck. It felt like it took ages for him to peel away from her while she worked to continuously 'fix' his dress clothes. Finally, the door was closing behind him and he had no doubt his mother would be watching him until he disappeared from view. He had a type of dark dress jacket over a white shirt and dress pants. It required a lot of argument to keep his mom from following him to Sasha's place. Despite the number of times that his mom looked him over, James still felt the need to do so again upon reaching the girl's door, clearing his throat and trying to keep his heart from racing as he reached up and knocked. When it was answered, he smiled brightly, "H-" He started before Sasha's mother cut in, wanting pictures and the like before the girl swept him away from the door and what, to a child, was a potentially dangerous scenario: embarrassing pictures of them before their first dance. Ugh.

As they reached a safe distance away, he started to laugh, shaking his head. "Thanks for saving me," He teased as she released his hand and he took a moment to catch his breath, taking her pace in the walk. All things considered, he was just glad he didn't fall over and humiliate himself in their escape as he finally got to see her dress and she complimented him on how he looked. He shrugged as though it was an outfit that had been thrown together at the last minute, "Your dress looks, uh... Cute," He stammered sincerely, blushing slightly. "We can stay as late as you like, I've not got a curfew," He said proudly, "As long as I don't wake my parents up if they're asleep." Cigarettes and alcohol filled the air, but it was the norm for most places in London. He lightly took her hand as they approached, a few older students asked for their tickets and they showed them before being let inside. The music could be heard from beyond the front doors, but James wasn't quite so familiar with it. It wasn't in his favorite genre so it typically fell off of his radar. He glanced down at his watch and wow was she right, they had all night, which was good simply because he felt like it would take him that long to get over his nerves.

After entering the gym, he looked around, scanning over the faces of everybody. He could see Matt with Aisha and even Alex, who seemed to be having a relatively good time. Honestly, James almost felt bad for asking her after him and still getting the date. Matt didn't quite see them, James figured, so they took their own walk out to the floor, James' most dreaded moment of the night. He tried to look at other people around him... Would he really have to look that stupid? Oh geeze this was going to be a trainwreck. It wouldn't take long before Matt [I]did[/I] spot them, took his girlfriend's hand, and nearly ran James over. "Oi, little brother, good to see you finally came," He said and James flinched, half-expecting to get an embarrassing ruffle of his hair. Nothing happened though as his brother smiled down, wrapping an arm around Aisha, "C'mon, we'll show you two lovebirds how to have fun!" He said excitedly as the couple took the Freshmen under their wings and showed them around the dance floor and James quickly realized that nerves were something entirely created in his head.

As the night moved on, it seemed as though a lot of people were getting tired and the entire rhythm of the room changed at the turn of a song. Something slow... soft... James looked around in fear as he saw what felt like a million different options flood the room. They could have left minutes ago, and now it was too late. He looked back to Sasha, rather unsure what to do, wondering if Matt would come to their rescue a second time. There was no such luck, he and Aisha were buried in one another's arms, not to mention she had stopped him before he could help them, mentioning that it was their job to work it out. Matt simply sighed, giving her his tired, teasing line, [I]"C'est la vie."[/I] The girl would roll her eyes as she always did, call him a jackass, and start the dance.

"U-uh..." James couldn't bring himself to look at her, "Sorry... What do you think?" He asked, almost afraid of the answer. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't keep himself from walking on eggshells for fear of hurting whatever they had before the dance. If worse came to worst, they could always just... annul the night, right? Easy fix. Then they would always know it didn't work out, if she didn't want to. It wasn't like it would actually ruin them. He silently, and every so slightly, shook his head, [I]Don't be a pessimistic idiot,[/I] He scolded himself, finally looking her way, smiling. Even if he had wanted to, there was no way he could keep himself from doing it.