Sumire Arrives at the Ball

Sumire could only sigh as she looked out of the window, boredly watching the city pass as the carriage rumbled along.
“Why so glum, Sue?” Janise asked from the seat opposite her in the carriage, lightly moving her folding fan.
“Just how much are we going to need to talk at the ball?” Sumire sighed. She gave a hopeful smile. “Maybe we could find a quiet corner somewhere and just enjoy ourselves.”
Janise gave her a sympathetic look. “You know that’s not how the game works, Sue,” she remarked. There wasn’t any admonishment in her voice, but Sumire couldn’t help but deflate at her words.
The ‘game’, as Janise liked to call it, was what every party that the members of the Wynrose Theatre Company were invited to inevitably became: a night filled with nearly every actress, actor, director, and playwright putting on their best face to secure patronage for the next year while socialites jockeyed for who could be seen with the biggest name for the longest.
Sumire sometimes wondered if there was someone keeping track of it all and assigning scores. It would have actually made a bit more sense then.
“Come on,” Janise said, tucking her fan away. “It’s not that bad. There are plenty of worse ways to spend an evening. You might even meet a nice little someone.”
Sumire had to keep from rolling her eyes. If history was any teacher, the chances of any real romance were slim to none.
“Failing that,” Janise continued, ignoring Sumire’s bemused expression. “There are other ways we can entertain ourselves.”
“Entertain isn’t the word I would use to describe it,” Sumire remarked dryly. There was nothing entertaining about listening to some foppish merchant brag about his recent and soon-to-be fortunes. However, that bragging often came with opportunity. “Though you do have a point,” she conceded.
Janise nearly preened as she took her fan back out. “That’s the idea,” she said.
This time, Sumire did roll her eyes before returning her gaze out the window. She still wasn’t happy about having to go to the ball. Far from it.
But Janise wasn’t wrong. Parties like this rarely came without some sort of opportunity beyond buttering up patrons for the theatre. Sumire tried to focus on that. It was better than dreading the inevitable superficial socializing.
It wasn’t long before the carriage pulled up outside the manor house hosting the night’s festivities. The exterior was elegant, if simple with manicured hedges and topiary trees lined beneath cream-colored brickwork. Lanterns dotted the walls, seemingly unneeded as ample light shone through the large windows and main entrance of the building.
Sumire made a quick check of her reflection in the carriage’s mirror as a footman dressed in formal blue-and-white livery stepped forward to open their door. She followed Janise out of the carriage, both of them taking the hand offered them by the dutiful footman and joined the short queue of waiting partygoers.
It never ceased to amaze Sumire how members of high-society seemingly insisted on having their arrival announced at every party. Granted, she was well aware that being seen was near if not the top of the list of reasons why anyone went to these events to begin with. Perhaps announcing each person’s arrival before all but shooing them off for the next guest was how more… enthusiastic guests were reigned in. Sumire could think of a couple people of note that would give any performer at Wynrose a run for their money when it came to theatrics.
Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Sumire glanced around as the queue slowly moved forward. Janise had, unsurprisingly, already struck up a conversation with who she could only guess was a merchant of decent standing if dress clothes were anything to go by.
Choosing to ignore them, Sumire directed her attention forwards. She recognized a few of the people ahead of her like the Weisses. Pity Abigail didn't seem to be with them, but Gavan and Beatrice were some of the precious few that attended these parties that Sumire could actually bear to be around.
The line shuffled its way forward while she surveyed the other guests and, before long, Sumire found herself and Janise at the front of the line of guests. The pair of them stood at the top of an ornate staircase above an expansive ballroom filled with milling attendees. Standing beside them, the attendant only seemed to take a single glance at them before turning towards the crowd below.
“Janise Thompson and Violet Kosaka of the Wynrose Theatre Company,” he announced.
A smattering of applause rose from beneath them as Sumire descended the stairs with Janise. Fans of the theater were common at these gatherings along with some personal admirers, though she felt that the latter was a bit of a loose use of the term.
When she had first joined Wynrose, she would get so excited at just the idea of going to a party like tonight. The music. The dancing. The clothes she was given to wear.
And the food, oh, the food!
And her first party as an actress had indeed been exciting, at least for a while. Janise had introduced her to some benefactors of the theatre who exchanged pleasantries with her and even a couple young men who had shared a dance with her.
However, once Janise had separated to do some socializing herself, the polite conversations became little more than small smiles made towards her. It didn’t take long for Sumire to notice the real looks directed towards her. The sidelong glances. The upturned faces. How one man’s gaze flittered across her before seemingly refusing to look her way again as he walked away in the opposite direction.
It wasn’t until a few parties later, after nearly a year on stage and making a name for herself, that those same guests would bother to give her more than the time of day. Now some were even eager to meet Violet and try their luck at getting one of the rising stars of Wynrose on their arm.
She didn't expect tonight to be much different, so Sumire did what she did best and put on a performance she had come to learn well.

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This is an excerpt from a story I'm writing to help workshop my character and figure out how they behave and interact with each other. 
Sumire, so far, is one of my favorite to write as it's fun thinking what a cynic like her has going through her head.