“Says the girl who’s cosplaying a mattress!” Theodora squawked. “Back me up, Kiara!”
“I’d rather look like a mattress than a hand job,” Kiara said sourly in her glove dress. She'd definitely gotten the worst pick.
The triplets began to squabble. It was hard to tell who was saying what, because all of the triplets sounded identical.
“Girls, please, we don’t have time for this,” Odette told her daughters. “Let’s see the opening dance again.”
Theodora, Kiara, and Odessa lined up on stage before they broke out into a coordinated ballet sequence, which would’ve been lovely to watch… if Odessa hadn’t stepped on Kiara’s glove skirt and caused the three of them to come tumbling down in a heap.
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “What are you guys doing?” I asked with a laugh.
“We’re putting on a fashion show,” Aunt Imogen explained. “It was your friend Marcus’ idea. Help morale around the city and all that.”
“Yeah, exceptmymorale is in the toilet, because this is a disaster!” Odette cracked. “The show is tomorrow, and it couldn’t be more of a mess.”
“Things would’ve been fine if my nephew hadn’t insisted on turning the whole show into a musical.” A petite brunette woman emerged from behind the scenes, holding a collection of sheet music and looking flustered. A white cat purred at her side. She hastily rearranged her sheet music. “I was good to go before Marcus came and made all these changes, and now, I’m more confused than ever.”
“It wasn’t such a bad idea, Talia,” Aunt Imogen started. “Marcus is a good director, and he had some splendid ideas.”
“Except I demanded that I play the lead, because my singing voice isbeautiful,and he said no!” Odette squeaked.
Odette broke out into a croaking ballad that made several of the unicorns around us bray.
I winced. “What did Marcus think of all this?”
“Unfortunately, after seeing the first run-through, our director got frustrated. Marcus gave up and went home,” Talia explained. “So Imogen decided you’d be the first one we should call for help. After all, a fashion show endorsed by the princess herself is sure to get attention.”
“I don’t know what to do. Jonah and I spent all week making these dresses, and it’s too late to change them now,” Aunt Imogen moaned.
That explains why they look so ridiculous.“I’m sure if we put our heads together we can think of something,” I insisted. “Run the whole thing over again from the beginning, and I’ll tell you what I think.”
“Very well.” Odette pulled at her dress. “I swear, this gown is giving me a wedgie.”
“As long as a unicorn horn isn’t where it shouldn’t be,” Talia joked.
Odette’s mouth fell open in outrage. “Don’t speak about my husband’s endowments that way!”
A light laugh caught my attention, and I turned my chair. Queen Emmaline was sitting on a stair by the stage. I didn’t know Kallie’s mother would be here. She’d been so quiet I hadn’t noticed… though it was easy to get overlooked when Imogen and Odette were in the same room together.
Queen Emmaline didn’t exactly make me uncomfortable, but she was an intimidating figure. I suppose she had the right to be here just as much as I did, so I did my best to focus on the performance and not on impressing her.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the rehearsal. I made some suggestions and helped Aunt Imogen with the alterations for some of the garments. After all, I wasn’t going to put my name on this fashion show unless it was as good as I could possibly make it.
The other models in the show were actually unicorns the girls had dressed up in different outfits. One had a doughnut-shaped hat around her horn with a cape draping down her back that looked like sugar sprinkles, and another was dressed to look like a scarecrow. The unusual garments looked very pretty on the unicorns. I thought Aunt Imogen should start designing clothes for animals instead of people, because they made more sense.
Of course, Oberi insisted she wanted to be a part of the show now, too. My Familiar proudly strutted her stuff up and down the stage in a giant green hat that was adorned with fake flowers. It was so heavy that it almost toppled off her head and killed me on one of the walk-throughs.
Seriously, though. That thing hurt coming down. I was going to have a bruise. By the end of rehearsal, everyone was feeling much better.
“You’ve saved the show, Ava,” Aunt Imogen insisted. “We wouldn’t have known what to do if you hadn’t gotten here. We really needed an outside opinion.”
“Glad I could be of service.” I wasn’t fully on board with the entire production, but I’d done what I could to save it. Odette had insisted on coming down from the ceiling in her puff ball outfit riding a giant plastic banana to start the show, and we hadn’t been able to talk her out of it. She’d declared it wouldmake an impression.
It would certainly do that. However this show performed, it would certainly be one the Elves never forgot.
As I turned away from the stage, Queen Emmaline rose. “Princess. If we could, I think we should have a conversation.”
She wanted to talk to me? Why?
