The inside of the Allerton dance hall was suffocatingly hot and steamy, especially with the leather jacket Rose was wearing. This and the cigarette trousers that she was wearing had been the subject of great debate earlier that evening, seeing as they were practically illegal for girls to wear. But Rose really liked the leather look and the freedom and power that came with men's trousers, and she decided that matched with a silky, dark purple blouse underneath the jacket, she looked rather good. Her hair was pinned up in a simple high bun with a blue ribbon as a headband, and she had matched it all with deep red lipstick and her usual dark eyeliner and mascara. That and the black stilettos gave it enough of a feminine look for her friends to decide that it wasn't too strange and okay to go out in. She had tried in vain to coax the others into wearing leather jackets and trousers as well, but they didn't feel up to dealing with the reaction they would get from such radical clothing. They had to make sure to leave Nonnatus before anyone noticed them. The nuns would've thrown a thousand fits if they had seen Rose going out like that. Not to mention Trixie's, shall we say, racy choice of style.

     They down their first scotch and coke of the evening as they wait for the band to go on. The wait gave them plenty of time to continue the second great debate of the evening: what they should do about the lads.

     "I think they're fun," Trixie shrugs. "They're funny, gorgeous, and they're in a band, which makes them 10 times hotter."

     "She has a point," Rose nods, and she and Trixie laugh and clink glasses.

     "They're also disgusting players," Sarah points out.

      "Oh, she also has a point," Rose concedes, looking between Sarah and Trixie.

      "Well, how about this," Val suggests. "If one of them is rude tonight, we leave, simple as that."

      "Sounds good," they hum in agreement.

      "It's not like we have anything better to do anyway," Rose finishes her drink. "Might as well enjoy a good party."

     Val moved to respond but was interrupted by the boys in question finally jumping onto the stage.

     "Hello, everybody, hope you're having a wonderful night," Paul speaks into the microphone as he adjusts his guitar strap around his neck. "We're gonna start by playing a little song for you called Maybelline!"

     The girls finally shake up their hesitations and make their way over to the dancefloor, where they notice Iris and a few of her friends.

     "Hey!" Trixie rushes over and embraces her. "You're going to the egg party tonight, right?"

     "Yeah, it's my first one," Iris smiles excitedly.

     "Oh, no worries, it's their first one too," Trixie gives an evil grin as she nods over to the others.

     "Oy, stop trying to make us sound like losers," Rose calls over.

     "Speaking of that, was it really necessary to bring the egg?" Sarah chimes in. "Keeping an egg in your purse all night seems like a recipe for disaster."

     "Of course it's necessary; it's the whole theme!" Val cries, pretending to be horrified. "And hush with your logic! Clearly you need another drink." She grabs Sarah by the arm and drags her to the bar.

     "You would get drinks without me?!" Rose cries, feigning hurt as she hurries behind them. As they trip over to the bar, the git of the group makes his presence known.

     "Hello again, everyone," John starts into the microphone. "It's been a while since I've seen some of you. Is that a new haircut, Chuck? I'd recommend a different barber."

     The crowd all laughs, including Chuck, although it was clearly a forced one and red was tinting his cheeks.

     "'Ey, no worries, mate, you still managed to get Jim's girlfriend didn't you?"

     The laughter continues and Chuck and his apparent girlfriend look like they want to crawl under the ground, while a boy across the room who appears to be Jim shoots death glares at Lennon.

     "Anyway, this next one's called Slippin' and Slidin'!"

     As the guitars start up again, the crowd goes back to dancing. The three girls finish their second drinks of the night before hurrying to find boys to dance with.

   "Care for a spin, love?" A shorter, light-brown haired boy calls Rose's attention from behind her. She recognizes him as one of Iris's friends as she nods, and takes his hand. He wasn't the best dancer, but it was still fun, and the laughter and smiles on her face were all too evident to the lead singer on the stage.

    "You a friend of Iris's?" He asks her after a while.

     "Sort of, I suppose. She's a friend of my friend, really. Are you?"

     "Yeah. We're in the same class," he grins.

     "Is everybody friends with her?" Rose laughs.

     The song comes to an end, the band says goodnight, and Rose leaves the boy, whose name she realizes she never learned, before rushing back to the others.

     "So are we going now or?" Sarah asks, clearly ready to get on with the evening.

     "I figured we'd meet up with the boys first in the back," Trixie replies with a sly grin, marching them all over to the tiny dressing room beside the stage (as Sarah rolls her eyes at her).

     Iris, knowing them the best, stepped ahead of them and knocked on the narrow wooden door, which was opened shortly after by a surprised looking George. "Oh, hello."

    "Hello, George," Iris replies chirpily. "We thought we might as well meet you here so we can head to the party together."

     "Oh, alright then," he stammers shyly, flustered at Iris's unexpected arrival into his dressing room.

    The rest of the pack follow her in slowly, where they found the other boys getting ready to leave. Paul was fluffing his hard in the small, round mirror while John slouched into the musty couch with his legs wide apart, blowing smoke lazily through his lips. There was another boy sat on the arm of the sofa, tuning his guitar, who Rose had never seen before.

    "Guys, Iris and those birds from the other night are here," George calls out to his friends." Oh, erm, sorry," he turns back to the girls as he realizes what he's said. "And that over there is Stu, by the way," he adds. "He's our bassist."

    Stu nods over and says hello politely and they smile back at him, before Paul quickly takes over.

    "He wasn't at our last show because he had some art thing. But he's coming to Hamburg with us!" Paul says, messing about with his hair for a minute more before jumping around to face his thrill for the evening. "How are you ladies? What'd you think of the show?"

    "Oh it was fab! You're quite good at that guitar thing," Val moves closer to him, flirtatiously.

   "Are we gonna get going soon or are we just gonna stay here and flirt badly all night?" John groans over from the sofa.

    This makes Val turn a little red and Paul and everyone else shoots him a glare, which he seems to ignore.

    "Come on then," John continues without a care. "If I don't get a beer in me soon, I'll go mad."

     Rose huffs at him, and John notices her glare, causing a smirk to cross over his face as the others gather their jackets and start making their way out of the door. Rose tries to follow, but a leather clad arm blocks her path.

    "May I ask why you're blocking me from leaving?" She sighs, looking up at the owner of the arm.

   "May I ask why you have a problem with me?" He mocks her tone.

   "Well, that attitude and the fact that you're blocking my way might have something to do with it," she checks her wristwatch. "Look, is this gonna take a while? I have places to be."

   "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was preventing her majesty from getting to important places like parties," he sneers.

    "Well, you are, and thank you for getting my title right," she grins.

    At this, he couldn't help a smile from creeping onto his surly face. "Alright, listen here Miss Smartass, I have a feeling you're just playing hard to get."

   "You do like to flatter yourself, don't you," Rose crosses her arms and shifts her weight to her other leg. "If this is your idea of a girl showing she fancies you, then I'm afraid that any girl you thought you had in the past was actually disgusted by you. Maybe you were just rejected so often you started trying to comfort yourself with fantasies."

   "Haha," he mocks dryly. "You are funny aren't you? Well you can pack it in. I don't need a little prim girl like you ruining me night. It's been a long day."

   "And how exactly do you know I'm 'prim' then? You don't even know me.
"What?" He scoffs. "A girl who jumps at shadows in the dark? I bet you're as innocent as the nuns you work with. I bet that kiss with Paulie last week was your first one ever. And that you're just scared of the good time a lad like me could show you." He wriggles his eyebrows as he adds the last bit.

   It was Rose's turn to scoff as she takes a step towards John so that he's pushed against the wall and begins to sneer.

   "Okay, Mr. Experienced-Good-Time. You might like to think you've seen and done it all, but compared to mine, your life's been that of a sheltered little school boy. If you really think you're the most 'dangerous' thing I've come across," she leans forward to whisper the last part in his ear, causing John to have to stop his breath from hitching in his throat. "Then you have no idea of the things that I've done."

    As she leans back, a knowing and slightly dark smirk cross her face, leaving him stunned enough that this time, he didn't stop her from leaving. 

...

I both like this chapter and don't...I feel like it needs a lot of edits...anyway, what do you guys think so far? What do you think Rose did?

The pic at the top is of cigarette pants, which became common around 1957...a lot of people think that women before the 60s never wore pants, but actually, after the revolution of the 20s, many women started wearing pants so they could have more of the freedom of men. They just couldn't wear them to most places as they weren't allowed bc god forbid they wear pants