It was the suckiest of all sucky days. Mina was walking the line between being extreme happiness and hysteria. Constance worried about the Fae Guild being attacked and promised that they would be on alert. Nix was sent to the healing ward to get his head taken care of, and Mei drove all the girls home. Once Mina reached the safe haven of her messy bed, she collapsed on a pile of clean laundry and slept through the night.
She woke around two Saturday afternoon.
Her mom must’ve seen how exhausted she was and let her sleep. “Woohoo, Meehna. Wakey wakey. Open door. We get you prettied up for you big date.” Mei was pounding on her bedroom in full on Mrs. Wong character.
“Mmmfff, not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin,” she grumbled loudly into her pillow. Mina turned her head to make sure the door was locked. It was. It was a terrible idea for her to go to the ball, especially when she had much bigger problems.
Maybe she could close her eyes and wish really hard and everything would just go away. It’d all be a dream.
No such luck. She heard a whooshing sound as the lock on the door turned with a click. Mei’s grinning face peeked through the crack in the door. “I huff and puff and blow your door in.” In other words, she used Fae magic.
Mei carried a large garment bag draped over her arm and gently laid it across Mina’s back, pretending not to see her in the pile of clothes and blankets amassed on her bed.
Mina groaned and pulled herself out from beneath the offending garment bag until she slid off the other side of the bed. Peeking up from beside the mattress, she glared at Mei. “I’ve decided to not go.”
“You have to go.” Mei gave her the stink eye and thrust her fists onto her hips. The dreaded finger came out and began to wave at her. “Every Fae Godmother dreams of this, and they never get the chance. They always boys. You make my dreams come true and be a girl for once.”
“I’m a girl,” Mina argued offensively.
“Not today you not. You stink like river. Get in the shower now.”
Mina cringed and pulled her collar up to sniff it. Oh yeah, she reeked. It was that odd combination of lake water and fish. Without another word of argument, she grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom. It wasn’t the world’s quickest shower, but it was fast in her book. She came back into her room wearing her pink polka dot robe, a towel wrapped around her brown hair, and her Cookie Monster slippers.
As Mei finished fluffing her pillow and placing it on her neatly made bed, she cast one look at Mina and started muttering about how she could give Charlie a run for his money in the odd costume department. In the few minutes she’d been gone, Mei the brownie had cleaned her room top to bottom. She could see her floor and the odd colored rug, her clothes were folded and put away—even the pictures and knickknacks had been dusted. If she hadn’t had known Mei was a brownie, she would surely have accused her of being a cleaning fairy.
But the cleanliness of the room was quickly forgotten at the sight of the glorious dress that peeked out of the unzipped garment bag on her closet door. Mina walked to the bag and reached out to run her fingers across the white bodice. It looked to have been embroidered in intricate fine silk half-moons. She noticed the barest glimmer of small crystals buried deep within the silk. The skirt flowed downward into what she first thought were squares of silk, but were actually feathers.
“What is it made of?” Mina asked, nervous she might brush across it too hard and break the threads of silk.
Mei grinned merrily. “You like? The bodice is made from the rarest spiders’ silk and moon crystals. The skirt is made from the feathers of the golden goose. You my dear are vera vera lucky.”
Tears formed in Mina’s eyes. Never before had she seen such splendor—and she would be the one wearing it! “Oh, Mei, thank you. You wouldn’t happen to have a rabbit’s foot and a four-leaf clover would you?”
Mei made a face. “Why? Those not lucky. Those superstitious mumbo jumbo.”
Her Godmother continued to fuss over her. She blow dried her hair and curled it, using a wee bit of Fae magic to get the curls flowing perfectly over one shoulder. “Now, this is a masquerade, right? So you need a mask.” She reached down to pull a feather from the skirt and cupped it into her hands. Bright gold light poured from between her fingers, and she held up a perfectly sculpted feather and crystal mask that matched the dress.
Mina couldn’t help but let out a little cry of joy.
Her mother came to look in on her. “Oh, she’s beautiful!”
“I know.” Mei smirked proudly, folding her arms. “She’ll make anyone fall in love with her tonight.”
Her mother ran to get the camera and spent the next ten minutes taking silly pictures along with serious ones. It was almost time for Brody to pick her up.