I woke up with the sun shining in my face. I stretched as I yawned and sat up, realizing that Ha Yeon slept over last night. I looked over to the airbed we had set up last night and she looked like a mess. I laughed before throwing a pillow at her and shouting. "Yah, Ha Yeon! It's Saturday, we're gonna be late for ball!!"

As soon as I mentioned ball, she woke up and sat upright. "What! What time is it, I-" she started to freak out.

"Calm down, I'm just kidding, it's only 8:17am." I chuckled. She immediately looked at me with a pouty face and sighed. "Great, now I can't go back to sleep. Well." she said as she got up. "Let's shower and get ready to go out, I set up some appointments today for us before ball."

I looked at her confused. "Appointments? For what?"

"For ball, dummy. What, are we supposed to go to senior ball looking like this?" she gestured at our dishelveled hair and messy clothes. 

"Oh, right." I said as I slapped my cheeks to wake myself up a little more.

"Go get ready!" she threw the pillow back at me. 

"Okay, okay, okay, calm down." I said as I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Today is the day.

It's 9:42am. We woke up a little while ago to go and rehearse down in the ballroom for the little event we'd be performing at later that night. I walked over to a table and sat down as I looked around at the venue. It was an indoor ballroom with a beautiful detailed ceiling and lights. The staff walked around swiftly, setting up decorations and a DJ booth by the stage. I stopped one of the staff members when I realized I didn't know exactly what kind of event and who we were perfroming for. 

"Excuse me, what event is going on here tonight?"

He looked at me and answered. "There is a senior ball going on here tonight." 

"Senior ball?"

"It's like prom. Kind of a formal event, girls dress nice, guys dress classy, etc."

"Ah, thank you." I said as he walked away to continue his work. I don't actually really know what a ball, or prom, or whatever it's called, is. We don't have those kinds of things back in Korea. I thought about it for a little while and shrugged. "We'll find out later what it's all about then."

"Yah, Park Chanyeol, get back up here. We're running XOXO again!" Suho called out to me. 

"I'm coming." I jumped back up on stage. "Are the other members on their way? It's kind of hard to do this song without all of us." As if on cue, D.O walked up on stage. 

"Yeah, I just called Lay, they're on their way from the airport already."

"Cool. Let's run this again, then. I want our audience tonight to know who we are by the time we're done. Well, if they don't already know who we are." Kai smiled.

"So we're singing for a bunch of teenagers at their senior ball, when they don't even know us. When did that become a good idea?" Tao slumped into his chair. The other members of EXO-M arrived about 4 hours ago and we practiced our set numerous times.

"Well, by the end of the night, they'll know who we are. That's good, right?" Xiumin said, trying to be hopeful. 

"I'm just saying, but not every American likes K-POP. Especially not teenagers. Girls, sure. Guys, not so much." Lay said. 

I tried to lift the mood. "They'll love us you guys, don't worry. We always do good for the fans back home, so we can do even better here to impress our US fanbase, okay?"

"Chanyeol is right. We can do this you guys." Sehun stood up. "Let's practice the set a couple more times and then we'll get dinner before we have to come back and get ready. All the boys hollered at the positivity. 

"Yeah, this is gonna be awesome." Baekhyun smiled. 

I stared at myself in the mirror for a long time with my mouth hanging open before I felt Ha Yeon grab my chin and shut my mouth close.

"You look weird like that. Stop it." she laughed. 

"I don't even recognize myself. Who is this person I'm seeing in the mirror??" I spun around. I felt like a real princess. I guess this is what senior ball is meant for, to fell special when you're just average ol' me. I turned around and looked at my friends. Ha Yeon and I had more friends that we made here in America, so we decided to go to ball with them as a group. 

"Soo Min, Ha Yeon, you guys are absolutely gorgeous!" Maya said. She was the first friend we'd made on the first day of school, and I loved her almost as much as I loved Ha Yeon. She was like a sister to me. 

"Seriously, sometimes I wish I was Korean!" Krista said as she laughed. "But then again, I don't know if I'd be as pretty as you guys if I was.."

"Of course you would be Krista, don't even doubt it." I said as I hugged her and Maya. "You guys look amazing too. I can't wait to take a bunch of pictures so Ha Yeon and I can remember this night when we leave to go back to Korea." I said frowning a little bit. 

"No! Don't talk about that right now. It's our senior year and there's so much more after ball, including graduation. There's still like 2 months left." Maya said smiling back at Ha Yeon and I. 

"Yeah, don't make me depressed before ball, Soo Min." Krista said hitting my arm lightly. Ha Yeon grabbed all of us for a huge group hug. 

"Let's have the time of our lives tonight!!" she squealed. I nodded my head and we walked out of my house to get into the limo awaiting us outside. 

"Aish, it's already 6:12, the event starts at 7, right?" Chen said as we sat in the van. We were currently at a stop because there was so much traffic. 

"Why are there limos everywhere?" Kyungsoo looked out the window and noticed that there were tons of limos in the streets. Soon all the members were looking out the window. 

"Yeah, why is that? Is there some kind of special event happening right now? And.... why are all these limos heading towards our hotel?" Kai said as the van started moving again. We all noticed that the limos were in fact all stopping in front of the hotel they were staying at. 

"The only event happening here tonight is....." I had to remember what it was called exactly. "Senior ball...?" I was a little confused. Was this kind of event so special that it required limos? And a lot of them at that.

The van stopped and we got out and quickly ran to the elevator, just so people wouldn't question anything. When we got in the elevator and to our room, we got ready for the night ahead. 

"Okay guys, we can do this. Let's make them love us." We all laughed and put our hands into the center. "EXO!"

We got out of the limo and I gasped at the hotel. "Omo, so nice!!" I found myself squealing. Yeah, I could be a real girl sometimes. Maya, Krista, and Ha Yeon smiled too, and we walked arm in arm as we went to the lobby of the hotel. 

"The lobby is even nicer!" I gasped. 

"Just wait til you see the actual ballroom Soo Min, I think you might run out of breath if you keep gasping now." Maya laughed. 

"It's only 6:50, so we can't go in until 7, but we can wait here for 10 minutes." Krista said. There were a lot of others from our school already waiting around so we decided to do the same and sat down. About 5 minutes later, the elevator opened and I looked up. Not that there was anything special about the group of people coming out of the elevator. I just found it peculiar that they all wore sunglasses and masks. They all swiftly walked towards the opposite direction. "Huh." 

"What is it?" Ha Yeon said, noticing that I made a small sound. 

"Look at that group of people, they look like serial killers."

"Yah, Soo Min, you don't even know those people, yet you're already labeling them as serial killers?" 

"No one wears that much black and covers up their faces like that unless they have something to hide." I said looking her straight in the eye. But I started laughing too. "Just kidding their favorite color is probably black, that's why." A voice boomed from the ballroom entrance, and everyone in the lobby turned to look.

"Students attending senior ball my now enter, please don't forget to check-in at the table by the door and grab your wristband, you will not be able to get back into the dance if you leave." the teacher said, finishing his announcement. "Please enjoy your senior ball!" He yelled before walking back to the table to begin check-ins.

"I'm so pumped! C'mon gals, let's go." Krista pulled the three of us along to the table. We all checked in and took our wristbands.

I don't know why I was feeling queasy and nervous, but it all went away as soon as I entered the ballroom. "Oh my god." It was all so beautiful. The ballroom itself was stunning and the decorations and lights made everything so much more enticing and wonderful to look at. We walked over to a table right next to the stage, dance floors, and photobooths. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I squealed even more. "Photobooth!!" I grabbed Maya, Krista, and Ha Yeon and dragged them to the photobooth. 

"You guys ready?" Kai said as he shook off his nerves but jumping around. 

"Yeah, I'm really pumped actually!" Lay exhaled. "We've performed XOXO so many times before, but I don't know why I'm so nervous this time."

"It's because we're performing for people who've never heard of us before." Suho patted him on the back. "It'll be all cool, XOXO has been a hit back home, hopefully it'll be like that here too. 

I jumped up and down trying to calm myself. We were behind the stage, waiting for the DJ to let everyone get settled before he played a couple of songs and then introduced them. We all sat and waited for a while, maybe an hour or so, before the DJ walked in. "Okay guys, it's 8:12pm." After I play one more song, I'll introduce you guys and you'll be on. Everybody good?"

We all nodded. "Good. Good luck out there guys, I'm sure the audience will love you. You're EXO for cryin' out loud." He laughed before giving us a thumbs up and walking back through the curtain. 

This was it. I certainly hoped this audience wasn't going to be to tough on us. 

A couple of minutes later, we heard the song end and the DJ picked up a mic. "Ladies and gentlemen, everyone knows that senior ball is supposed to be a truly amazing experience. Now, we couldn't get any bands like Maroon 5 here for you tonight, but we did get a great group to perform for you tonight. Before you guys boo and throw at whoever you think is coming out, you should know that this group is very famous in Korea. Yes, they are a K-POP group, but really, you gotta give them a shot, you'll all love them by the end. And let's be honest, they might be cooler than most of you here." He joked. "I'm just kidding. But without further ado, I give you EXO from South Korea!" 

To my surprise, I heard no booing, only claps and 'Whoops.' So far so good. The stage opened up with our usual setup for our song 'XOXO'.