After talking to Cinder, I felt rejuvenated enough to go out for my birthday dinner. My father had reservations at the Chart House, a steak house on the waterfront in Malibu. Steak isn’t my favorite, but my dietician would be pleased because I’d lost a little weight recently from stress, and he’d demanded I start a higher calorie diet with more protein. In fact, he was probably responsible for my father’s restaurant choice. Anyway, at least it wasn’t sushi. Ick. On the plus side, the restaurant was beautiful. Seeing the sun set over the ocean was worth the drive in itself.
Dinner was pleasant, seeing as how my dad adored Vivian, was still thrilled by the new camaraderie between Juliette and me, and didn’t ask Rob any horrible so-you’re-dating-my-daughter questions. Even Anastasia hadn’t pouted too much.
The only embarrassing moment was when Jennifer gushed over Rob because he’d pulled out my chair for me. Poor Rob had turned bright red. I was sure I looked the same. Both Juliette and Anastasia hissed at their mom, wearing frighteningly identical glares. Thankfully, Jennifer got the hint and tried not to act too mom-ish from then on.
After dinner everyone was stuffed, but Dad insisted we order a few of their signature hot lava cakes—this was a birthday party, after all. Not one to say no to fudgy goodness, I happily agreed. As we waited for the dessert to arrive, Juliette started bouncing in her chair. “Can we do gifts now?”
“There are presents?” My cheeks heated up again. I hadn’t expected any gifts.
“Good ones,” Juliette said. “You’re going to love them. Can we give them to her now? Please, please, please?”
It was like watching a kindergartner on Christmas morning. We all laughed at her. “All right.” My dad conceded and handed me a long envelope that he’d pulled from the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket. “This is from the family. It was Juliette’s suggestion, so if you don’t like it, blame her.”
Juliette rolled her eyes but grinned so big she looked like she might burst. “Just open it!”
Her excitement was contagious, and I tore into the envelope as fast as my damaged fingers would let me. I nearly screamed with excitement when I saw what was waiting for me. As it was, I squealed a little, causing several other restaurant patrons to frown at our table. I was holding tickets to this year’s FantasyCon in my hands. I seriously couldn’t believe it.
“Are you kidding? I know this makes me a huge dork, but I have wanted to go to this every year since I was, like, twelve! Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I finally get to go! Thank you! I love it!”
The convention runs for five days, but the best day was always the last day—Sunday. I had, in my hands, five Sunday passes.
The day after tomorrow I would get to spend all day immersed in the worlds of my favorite books and movies. I’d get to meet a ton of my favorite authors and actors, get sequels to books that still haven’t come out yet, hear guest lectures, and get sneak peeks at a couple of upcoming movies. There was even a rumor that they were going to play ten whole minutes of The Druid Prince!
“Those aren’t just FantasyCon tickets,” Juliette said. “We got you seats for The Druid Prince discussion panel. I looked it up. The writer of the books and the director, producer, writer, and cast of the movie are all going to be there! They’re having a private meet-and-greet for all panel attendees, so you’re going to get to meet your BFF Brian Oliver! Can you believe it?”
Juliette was squealing now, enough that Dad told her to take a breath. I myself was in shock. As soon as my brain started functioning again, I realized just how many tickets I had. “You got me five tickets? Do you know how much these must have cost?”
Juliette waved dismissively. “Whatever. Dad owed you anyway.”
I decided not to think about that and asked another question before things could get awkward. “But why so many?”
Juliette flashed a wicked smile. “Well, obviously you didn’t want to go by yourself, and I thought it would be rude to get you only two tickets and make you have to choose between your friends.”
“You mean you were afraid I might not pick you,” I teased.
Juliette didn’t deny it. “Hello! Brian Oliver!”
I laughed again. “Okay, but why five? Did you have a specific guest list in mind?”
“Well, obviously you, me, Vivian and Rob, and I thought…” Juliette hesitated, biting her lip nervously.
“Who?” I asked. I honestly had no idea who else she could mean.
“I thought you could invite Cinder.” Juliette blushed, and hurried with the rest of her explanation. “I mean, The Druid Prince is totally your guys’ thing. I thought it would be the perfect excuse for you two to finally meet.”
I was shocked. Juliette wasn’t just trying to indulge one of my biggest passions—or hers—with this gift; she was doing so much more than that. She was trying to give me my best friend. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone had ever done for me. I was so overwhelmed by the gesture that I couldn’t speak.
“What do you think?” Juliette asked nervously.
“This gift is amazing, Juliette. Thank you so much for thinking about Cinder. That means a lot to me. I’d love to be able to go to this with him, but he’s out of town for the weekend at some work thing. He called to wish me happy birthday, and we could only speak for a couple minutes. He was so busy he said he wouldn’t have time to talk until Monday.”
“Bummer.” Juliette’s face fell into a pout for only a second before she perked back up. “Whatever. We’ll get him when the movie comes out. I mean, there’s no way you guys aren’t going to watch it together.”
My heart ached at the thought because I knew it was a hopeless cause. Cinder and I would never meet. I wouldn’t get to watch the movie with him, even though there was no one else in the world I’d rather see it with.
I needed to change the subject before I started to cry. “Well, anyway, Cinder can’t come.” I looked at my other stepsister, who was studiously ignoring everyone by playing with her phone. “Why don’t you come with us, Ana?”
Everyone at the table froze. Vivian, Rob, and Juliette gaped at me with incredulous, shocked faces. My dad and Jennifer were just as surprised, but they both watched Anastasia with held breaths and hopeful expressions. Anastasia was just as startled as everyone else. “Me?”
I ignored her unfriendliness and shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
The glare she hit me with was impressive, even for her. “I don’t need a pity invite. What makes you think I’d even want to go to some repulsive convention full of freaks with you and your friends, anyway?”
The looks of disappointment on both my dad’s and Jennifer’s faces angered me more than Anastasia’s insult. I wanted to say something rude back but when I glanced around the table again at my new family, I didn’t have the heart to make matters worse.
“It’s not a pity invite,” I said, forcing all the nonchalance I could manage into my voice. “Consider it more of a truce. A peace offering.”
Anastasia’s eyes narrowed as she waited for me to explain.
“Juliette and Rob are your friends too, and I know you like Brian Oliver. Come with us and have a good time. I’m not asking you to like me, and I don’t want you to come because I feel sorry for you. I’m inviting you as a way to apologize. I can’t help that I’ve intruded on your life and I can’t remove myself from it. What I can do is try to make up for it by giving you the chance to steal Brian Oliver from Kaylee Summers. As much as it pains me to say it, I think you’re prettier than she is. If anyone could manage it, you could.”
Dad and Jennifer were still frozen in place, unable to believe what was happening, but Juliette, Vivian, and Rob all laughed.
“She’s definitely aggressive enough,” Juliette agreed. She grinned at her sister and said, “You’re like a barracuda.”
Anastasia scoffed, but I could tell she was trying not to smile. “It doesn’t matter. I’m grounded until Christmas.”
“If you’d like to go with your sisters to the convention, I suppose I could unground you,” Dad said. “Assuming you can behave yourself.”
Ana looked as if she was grinding her teeth as much as I was at being referred to as sisters, but neither of us corrected him. Ana narrowed her eyes and asked, “Ungrounded for just the day?”
My dad and Jennifer shared a look. Dad shrugged and Jennifer nodded to Ana. “Ungrounded, as in early release. You can be done with your punishment as long as your behavior stays acceptable.”
I got the feeling getting let off the hook wasn’t something that happened often in this family because both Juliette’s and Ana’s eyes popped open in shock. Ana recovered faster than Juliette and shrugged in my direction, feigning indifference. “Fine, whatever. I’ll go to your stupid thing.”
The server came with our cake, and while everyone was distracted my dad reached over and squeezed my hand. “Thank you,” he mouthed.
“Thank you for my gift,” I said in return. “I love it.”
We all dug into our dessert—thankfully, there was no singing involved—and after a few minutes of comfortable silence, Rob turned to me. “So you’re not interested in winning Brian Oliver for yourself?” He was teasing, but there was true curiosity in his voice. “He’s already a fan of yours. All you’d have to do is tell him it was your blog he’s been quoting all day.”
“Oh, no!” I laughed. “That is not happening. I already have one rich, arrogant, playboy twisting up my heart. I don’t need another one. He’s all yours, Anastasia—unless Juliette wants to fight you for him.”
“Oh, I intend to,” Juliette said, making us all laugh again.
“All right, all right, enough of this,” Vivian interrupted. “It’s my turn to give you your gift.”
Vivian placed a large gift bag overflowing with colorful tissue paper in front of me.
“You got me a present? You didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh, yes I did. Hurry and open it before I tell you what it is.”
When I pulled the tissue paper away and saw folds of beautiful white lace, I gasped. “Did your dads make me a dress?”
I pushed my chair back and stood up as I pulled the gown out of the bag and held it up to my body. It was beautiful! It was a floor-length gown made of chiffon and white lace. It was the most elegant dress I’d ever seen. More than that, though, I recognized it. “Wait. Is this…?”
Vivian nodded. “I am not good with secrets; ask anyone. I almost spilled the beans about Sunday so many times, but Juliette would have killed me. When she told me what your dad was getting you, I went straight to my dads to help me with your costume. They were excited to help.”
“This is amazing!” I hoped my eyes conveyed my gratitude, even though I felt like panicking. The dress was gorgeous, but it was sleeveless and backless. It would show so much of my scars. I knew I’d felt beautiful when I’d tried on that gown at her house, but I didn’t think I could show my scars off at the convention no matter how much I wanted to dress like my favorite character.
“Look in the bag,” Vivian said, reading my thoughts.
I gasped again when I pulled out a gorgeous white cloak that matched the dress, and a pair of long, formal white satin gloves. “I know the gloves aren’t an official part of Ellamara’s costume,” Vivian said, “but they match, and will cover your scars perfectly. And here!”
Suddenly a hostess stood behind me, though I’d never seen anyone flag her down. The girl was holding a beautiful walking stick. It was about six feet tall, made of wood, and carved to look like intertwined tree branches. On the top, a large, pale-blue crystal-like orb was encased in the branches. It was an exact replica of Ellamara’s magic staff. I gingerly accepted the gift from the hostess, who wished me a happy birthday and then returned to her post. “It’s beautiful.”
Vivian pointed to the bottom of the staff. “It’s also fully functional.”
There was a thick rubber foot on the bottom, same as you’d find on crutches…or my cane. I gasped again and tested my weight against the staff. It would work perfectly.
“As much as I love Candy Cane,” Vivian said—she’d named my cane Candy after giving it its facelift because I said it reminded me of the board game Candy Land, “this just goes so much better with the outfit.”
I took a few steps to try it out and then whirled around to face a table full of smiling faces. “This is amazing, Vivian! Thank you! Thank your dads, too!”
“Sunday you won’t just be Ellamara Rodriguez; you’ll be Ellamara—the beautiful and mysterious mystic druid priestess.”
“There’s a costume competition,” Juliette added, “and we are so winning.”
“We?”
“Yeah. Vivian helped me with my costume, too. I’m going as the Princess Ratana.”
“And I’ll be going as the evil Queen Nesona,” Vivian said. “My dress rocks. We’re going to look fabulous!”
I squealed again. This was going to be so awesome. It was like a dream come true for a fantasy geek like me.
“I’ll tell my dads about Ana when I get home tonight. They won’t have any trouble finishing another Princess Ratana outfit by Sunday.”
I snorted. “Yeah, shouldn’t be too hard. There’s not really much to that costume.”
Juliette stuck her tongue out at me. “I think it’s hot.” She’d heard my rant on the stupid warrior-girl’s lack of clothing before. “Twin Princess Ratanas will definitely catch the judges’ attention. Not to mention, Brian Oliver’s.”
Rob laughed. “I get to hang out all day, just me and four amazingly hot girls dressed up like medieval princesses? Sweet.”
Vivian looked at Rob with a mischievous glint in her eyes that made him sit up in his chair. “What?”
She grinned at him with a sweet smile that was all too innocent. “There is a price for the honor of escorting us to the convention.”
Rob frowned. “What price?”
“Nothing too bad,” Juliette chirped. “Just a tunic.”
“A what?”
“And tights.” She giggled.
Rob processed this and then his face paled. “Oh, no! No way!”
All of us laughed, even Anastasia.
“Yes, way,” Vivian said. “You didn’t think that the Mystic Priestess, the Fair Ladies Ratana, and Evil Mummy Dearest were going to show up without their champion druid prince, did you, dear Cinder?”
“Um, yes, I did.”
I sort of felt bad for him, but not enough to let him get out of wearing a costume. “If it helps, you get to have a sword,” I offered.
“You can’t already have a costume for me,” he argued. “How would you know what size to make it?”
Vivian laughed. “My dad has a gift for sizing people up. You met him the night you came over to watch movies. Not to mention there are so many helpful pictures of you on Facebook.”
At Rob’s confused frown, Vivian smirked. “All those after-school practices you do without wearing a shirt have proved too tempting for the girls in our school.”
Wow. I was really going to have to friend some of the girls in our school. Or maybe start watching some soccer practices.
Vivian purred appreciatively, making Rob blush so fiercely I was sure his face would never be a normal shade again.
“Sorry,” I whispered, offering him my hand under the table for support. He snatched it up as if it might make him invisible, and shot me a grateful smile.
“Just think of the outfit as a uniform, and you’ll be fine,” Juliette teased.
“The costume will fit,” Vivian promised, “but you should come over to my place early in the morning Sunday, just in case they need to make any quick alterations. Actually, all of you need to come over early because my dads asked their friends from the show to come over and do our hair and makeup.”
“No way!” Juliette, Anastasia, and I all shouted together.
Both my dad and Jennifer erupted with laughter. “Nothing like a makeover to get a girl excited, eh?” Dad teased, sending a sympathetic smile Rob’s way.
Rob sighed and squeezed my hand again. “Fine. Because it’s Ella’s birthday, I will be her Prince Charming for the day.”
“My Prince Cinder.” I leaned over and kissed Rob’s cheek. “You’re the best.”
He gave me a rueful smile with a look that said I owed him, then turned back to Vivian. “I draw the line at makeup.”