[center][h2][color=orangered]~ Carmen ~[/color][/h2][/center]

Carmen put her hand over her mouth as she made a dramatic gasp. [color=orangered]"Fashion? [i]Waiting?[/i] Please Lily, being fashionable is a full time job!"[/color]

She was opening her mouth to remind Lily what her favorite waltz was called when it was suddenly cut off and replaced with something you would sooner hear in a trashy house party than in a formal ballroom.

Carmen's smile quickly evaporated.

[color=orangered][i]"Who..."[/i][/color] At that moment she saw Criston walking towards them from the DJ booth with a stupid grin on his face. As she connected the dots in her head her face did everything it could to stop the scowl her heart had from showing itself, to no avail.

Unlike Lily and her calm and graceful reaction, Carmen's brain also didn't do a good job of stopping her from speaking her mind to Maria's son.

[color=orangered]"'New selection'?"[/color] she began, her words dripping with annoyance.

[color=orangered]"You [i][u]ruined[/u][/i] the atmosphere. Has your mother taught you [i]anything?![/i] [b]Look around you.[/b] Does this look like a trashy house party to you? Do you really think that this [u]formal ballroom[/u], that [u][b]I[/b][/u] spent hours painstakingly designing down to each individual light on the chandeliers, is an appropriate setting for loud, overcompressed EDM that's so bland and devoid of real rhythmic intensity that even the drunk frat bros at the trashy house party you [i]should[/i] be playing this at would yell and complain about the DJ's terrible taste in music?"[/color]

Carmen's face, which was known for being simultaneously beautiful and intimidating, was in full force as her tirade continued.

[color=orangered]"Well, what you think doesn't matter, because it is [i]abundantly clear[/i] that you have no idea how to run an event, or how to have good taste in music. So allow me to address my last question for you: [i][b]it's not.[/b][/i] It's not appropriate for [i]anywhere[/i], [u]least of all[/u] and exquisitely prepared ballroom with wine and cocktails. A ballroom is for waltzes and other traditional dance music, like the one that you so rudely and heathenistically interrupted. It's not [i]about[/i] what you like, Mr. So-Called Host. It's about what the event [i]demands[/i], and this event [i]demands[/i] that you leave the music selection to someone that actually knows a thing or two about it. Or, better yet, just leave entirely."[/color]

When he didn't leave in the 0.3 seconds of silence after she finished, the skylark continued. She had noticed that Edric was nowhere to be seen, and assumed that he justifiably would rather not be in the company of a Calandra tirade. She also noticed the girl Criston was with, and almost felt sorry for the girl, who had tried to be friendly moments ago. Under other circumstances, the skylark would have responded in kind, but she was...[i]occupied[/i].

[color=orangered]"Look at me, Criston. I am wearing [i]a ball gown[/i]. [i]In a ballroom.[/i] While I recognize that I may be the only one who wants to waltz to Strauss, it is [u]insulting[/u] and [u]degrading[/u] that you would subject this beautiful room and these beautiful people to such hideous low-brow music, and cut off [i]Lily's favorite waltz[/i] in the process. Have you no decency? Have you no respect for others? And [i]have you no care that this trash is what the new students are being welcomed with?[/i]"[/color]

[color=orangered]"Actually, don't answer that. I already know the answer."[/color]

And with that, Carmen wheeled around and began to leave. [color=orangered]"I'm going to find Maria. You're free to come along, dear,"[/color] she said to Lily. Before she left, though, she pulled her trumpet from her back and to her lips, sending a powerful sound wave to the sound speakers, short-circuiting them. [color=orangered]"Even [i]silence[/i] is better than that drivel,"[/color] she said to herself as she walked out the door.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, Mizuki chuckled and didn't know why.