The Fairy Isles

2. Preparing for the Festival

As I put my basket away, I heard my best friend yell my name to get my attention. "Aurora! There you are, I was hoping we could walk to your place together to get ready together." And I respond with "Of course, Lucy! I can't wait to go to the festival. It will be such a fun time and it will be great to see our friends who are back from school too." She agrees as she comes up next to me, and we begin the walk back to my house. We made it back so fast while waving to any shopkeepers, kids, and neighbors that we passed by. As we near my house, we can hear raised voices inside. Lucy looks at me with her eye brow raised and I shrug my shoulders as I reach the door to open it. The second we step inside, the voices are quiet, and we see my parents and Lucy's inside at the kitchen table. They all seem pretty tense, so I ask, "Is something going on?" And my mom says,"Oh no, sweetie, everything is great! I'm just having a nice chat with Lucy's parents. Do you two need a snack while you get ready for the festival?" Mom always makes the best snacks, so I'm thoroughly distracted from her asking that. Lucy says "ohhh snacks are always needed! Thanks, Fawn!" Mom responds."Sounds great! Why don't you ladies start getting ready, and I'll send the snacks over to you?" We nod our heads in sync, which makes all our parents chuckle.

Once we make it to my room, we immediately start talking about our hair and makeup options. I always handle our hair while Lucy tackles the makeup. We are lucky to have opposite skills so that we can always help each other. As we sit down, the get started, snacks appear on my desk. I send off a thank you to mom through my magic, and we start getting ready. With our work together, we have our hair and makeup done, so all we have to do is get our dresses on. I chose a rose gold to make my bright greens eyes pop, and it does the job perfectly! Lucy is rocking her coral dress and looks stunning like always. We head out of my room to let our parents take pictures before we head out. We know Lucy's parents will still be here, considering they are best friends with my parents, which is the reason Lucy and I are practically attached at the hip. We were destined to be best friends, I could feel it in my soul. As soon as our parents see us, they gush about how cute we are, and our moms start tearing up about the fact that we are growing up so fast. It's been happening more often since we are almost adults. I know they wish we could stay small forever, but we have to grow up at some point! Lucy decides to move things along and says, "Get your pictures in quick! We don't want to miss the beginning of the feast and not get the best pick of the food! You know how that's one of our favorite parts."

Our parents gush about how nice we look while they take pictures of us. They always take pictures, even if it's something we do every year. My mom and Lucy's mom have scrapbooks for every type of event. And of course they each have a scrapbook just for this festival, filled with pictures of us from every year. It's honestly so nice to have all the memories, so we never argue against taking pictures, which also makes our mom's happy.

As they take the last picture, my dad says, "Now be careful out there tonight, I heard a few girls have been harassed. Everyone is nervous about the lost Princess because she should have developed her powers by now but there's so many strong young ladies lately so they won't be able to figure out if she's one of them. It's making a lot of people uneasy, which is causing them to act out to try and help the crown. Of course, the King and Queen are the only ones who would be able to sense the lost Princess, so this harassment is doing no good to find her." I had no clue all of this was happening! I know all about the lost Princess. Honestly, everyone does, but this is a lot to take in since we are the same age as she would be. Hopefully, we don't see any harassment! I don't think my magic would take it well, even if it's not me. My magic doesn't enjoy any single person being bullied or spoken down to. Luckily my village is pretty peaceful, we will see how it is at the festival with all the students back and visitors for the festival. Lucy says "Luckily Aurora has strong magic, and she can just distract everyone without them even knowing it's her! You know we will be just fine." All the parents chuckle, and Lucy's dad says,"That is true, we all know how good Aurora is at her distractions!" This prompts our parents to laugh again and start reminiscing about all the silly situations we get ourselves out of. "Well, it looks like it's time for us to head out so you adults can keep doing whatever the heck it is you're doing!" I state to the room. All the parents respond back, telling us to have a great time. Lucy and I head out the door, waving bye to our parents.