Janessa's view

The party is awesome.

The pool, my friends, the awesome snacks, Eleanor's outdone herself. And no fairy dress-up! Although, let's be honest, at least half the girls would've been totally cool with that. Myself included.

Not to mention the fact that Reenee and I have made up. I missed my dorky little sister, and the fact that she was wearing my ring made me almost scream! And she wants me to call her Reenee again!

I've learned my lesson this time, though. She's not a baby, and I can't treat her that way, no matter how much my inner mama(sister?)-bear instincts want me to. She's grown up (well, almost) and mature. And she's one heck of a powerhouse. When I touched her to have her transport us here, I could instantly sense the energy just underneath her skin. Magic class must be going great!

Isla splashes me, and I splash her back. Max laughs at the both of us, and then we all get drenched as Finn does a catapult in. I notice Lucy instantly dive under the water and appear a ways away, looking flustered, while Brietta rolls her eyes and chases after her.

"Hi, Finn!" Isla says happily, waving to him.

"Hi, Isla. Max. Jenna."

"Nessa." I remind him.

He shrugs. "Be glad I didn't call you Nessie the Loch Ness Monster." On that nickname, his voice turns into a thick scottish accent, mimicking his great-grandfather.

"Aye, I forgot he used to call you that." Aunt Maira and Uncle Hans Jr sit down on the side of the pool, Maira smiling at us.

"Aunt Maira!" I whoop, swimming over. I heave myself out and hug them both, soaking through their clothes.

Uncle Hans laughs. "Hello, Nessa. Been a while. Last time I saw you, you were---" he holds his hands about ankle level. "Hmm, maybe that's a bit off."

"Just a bit." Maira agrees.

Finn rolls his eyes. "You guys, this is a kid's party."

"Oh I'm sorry, are we embarrassing you?" Aunt Maira says. I notice now that her accent is a lot thicker than I remember it being, and even Uncle Hans has a trace of one. Weird how that works. Finn and Eleanor don't have one, yet they grew up there.

"Yes, you are." Finn scowls, and dives under, swimming away.

Aunt Maira laughs, standing. "Well, we've filled our quota for the day, then. We just came by to say hi and tell you all you might want to start drying off. Presents and cake and all that will start soon."

"CAKE!" Isla shrieks, successfully alerting the rest of the courtyard. Everyone starts heading in, and getting out of the pool. Aunt Endora is standing by the doorway leading inside, changing everyone back into their normal clothes by magic before they set foot inside, threatening anyone who gets one drop of liquid on her nice carpet.

After we're all gathered inside, waiting for cake, I realize that Lucy and Brietta aren't sitting by Serene. Looking around, I also realize that Serene and Eleanor are nowhere to be found.

"Here's the cake!" I suddenly hear, and look to see Reenee and Elea are coming out of the kitchen, holding the cake together. I distinctly remember it being brown before, but now it's a weird pink color. Maybe strawberry?

Eleanor and Reenee set the cake down on the table. Before anyone can move, I flick my fingers and light all of the candles with blue flames. Eleanor beams, and sits in front of it.

"Time to sing the annoying ritualistic song!" Reenee cheers, which for some reason makes Eleanor laugh while everyone else just gives her a weird look. But we sing Happy Birthday, and Eleanor blows out her candles.

When we cut into the cake, Eleanor gets first slice, obvi, but when everyone else starts getting theirs, there's a murmur of confusion.

Aunt Endora steps in. "For those of you wondering, yes, it was a chocolate cake. These two---" she sends a reproachful, but teasing, glare toward her daughter and Reene, "---somehow changed it into a dragon fruit cake. If you don't like it, then eat snacks. But it's my daughter's favorite, so it's what ya get!"

Everyone kind of laughs, but I notice some people looking toward Reenee in a kind of annoyed way. I ignore it, and dig in. To my surprise, it's not bad. It's not chocolate, but it's a decent enough taste.

Apparently I'm one of the only ones, though, because soon enough nearly everyone but my friend group, Reenee's, Danielle, Finn, Evan, and Hayder are all outside again, their cake left on the table with only small bites taken. Eleanor looks crestfallen, her own cake forgotten in her lap.

Reenee sets hers down. "I'm sorry, Eleanor. I should've just left it."

"No." Eleanor says, her voice coming out strong for quite a small person. "It's stupid. I don't even know why I'm upset."

"They're jerks." Lucy says quietly, then goes pink when everyone looks at her. "I mean, it's exotic. I think it's good. It's your birthday, so why should you have to eat something you don't like if they can't deal with an odd taste? Or an odd person, for that matter. That's the problem with Auradon," she continues, on a roll now. "They can't fully accept that some people are different, and like strange things, and kids are allowed to be, you know, who they want to be, and..." She trails off, going beet red now. "Happy birthday." she says weakly.

I notice Finn is looking at her differently, actually looking at her for the first time I've seen. "Well said." he finally tells her. She beams, although only after he looks away.

"You know what?" Isla stands up. "Let's kill th---"

"---em?" Max finishes. "Isla, honey, what have we said about murder? It's illegal, even if you're going to be Queen and will probably change that law." He says sweetly, rubbing her shoulder. Everyone laughs, and she slaps him away.

"No, you dimwit, let's kill the party. Let's get everyone else to leave. We'll have a party your way, Elea."

"I'm fine with that." Eleanor says, straightening up and reaching for her cake again. "Tell Mummy to get them to leave."

"Gladly." Isla stands up and leaves the room, and a few minutes later we hear sudden noises like firecrackers, a lot of screams, and then Isla and Endora come in, the tips of their hair smoking. Aunt Maira and Uncle Hans follow, looking amused.

"They're gone." Isla proclaims calmly, flopping on the couch.

"Hooray!" Eleanor says, bouncing in her seat. "Mummy, could you stash their presents in my room for later? I'll only open the presents from current company now."

"Sure." Endora waves her wand, and about ninety-five percent of the presents pop away. "Now, I'm going to take a few pictures, then I'll leave you alone. Got it?"

"Really? Pictures?" Finn whines.

"Would you rather it be I take a picture of every second of this party?" Aunt Maira asks, glaring at her son.

"NO, MOM!"

"Open presents!" Brietta urges Eleanor, who takes one quickly before anything escalates. She tears open one with bronze wrapping paper, and a gorgeous tiara falls onto her lap, a gold one made of what looks like vines and flowers.

"Oh!" Elea breathes, holding it delicately. "It's beautiful." She looks at the tag, then up at Hayder. "How did you---"

He smiles. "I noticed you take your heritage very seriously. That's fairy-spun. I have a lot of friends in Pixie Hollow."

Eleanor sets it gently beside her. "I'll wear it for the coronation. Or Cotillion. Whichever dress it matches better."

"Probably Cotillion." Lucy says, then claps her hands to her mouth. Eleanor squeals.

"So you did make them, didn't you?"

"Make what?" Serene and I ask at the same time.

Lucy goes red, burrowing her face into her hands. Brietta looks up at Serene, and both of them shrug. Clearly, no one in this room knows what's happening except Lucy and Eleanor.

"Didn't you tell anyone?" Eleanor asks Lucy. The poor girl shakes her head, and Eleanor smiles. "She's making both of my dresses, along with her own."

"WHAT?" Brietta shouts. "WHY WASN'T THIS OFFERED TO ME?!"

"Or me!" Serene pipes up.

"I'm making your Cotillion dresses." Lucy says finally, looking up. "That's why I told you not to buy them yet. You already bought your Coronation dresses."

"Okay, that's freaking awesome." Max says.

"Is that why you've been hanging around my mom's shop so often?" Evan asks.

"And why fabric keeps disappearing, but Mom said 'don't worry about it'?" Danielle asks in a less-nice tone.

"She said I could use whatever I wanted." Lucy says, looking guilty. "Was I not supposed to---? Um, can we just---go back to presents? Please?"

"Sorry I ruined the surprise." Eleanor apologizes.

"You didn't, I did." Lucy sighs.

"It doesn't matter." Isla says. "Open mine next!" She tosses a purple box towards Eleanor, who catches it and rips the paper open.

"Ohhh, cool!" She yells, pulling out a full set of the book series, The Fairy Realm. "How did you---"

"I asked your mom, and apparently despite loving that series, you didn't have the full set." Isla explains.

"I could never find it!" Eleanor says, hugging them to her chest. "Mummy, I'm staying up until four AM to read these." She announces to her Mom.

"Three."

"Three-thirty."

"Deal."

"Yes!" Eleanor reches for the next box, and opens Max's up to a cute set of nail polish, all colors of the rainbow. "Ooooh! Any girls who want to stay tonight, maybe I'll do this instead."

"Wait, this was going to be a sleepover?" Brietta asks. "Because if so, I am so in."

"Mummy?" Eleanor looks to her mother, who shrugs, snapping pictures.

"I'm cool with it if all of your parents are. Boys are even welcome."

Uncle Chad, who I didn't notice had entered the room at some point, coughs loudly and not-very discreetly.

"Dear, she's turning fifteen." Aunt Endora says airily. "Besides, Finn'll protect her if anyone---"

"AUNT DORI!" Finn yells in shock. "WHY AM I RELATED TO SUCH AWFUL ADULTS?!"

Aunt Endora laughs with Aunt Maira. Neither Uncle looks amused, but Aunt Endora just stands up, snaps one last picture, and then grabs her husband's hand. "We'll leave you kids now."

"But---" Hans and Chad argue. Both wives merely push them out, closing the door behind them.

"Blegh. Adults." Isla says. Everyone murmurs in agreement, and then Eleanor continues unwrapping. She gets a rhinestone decorator from Evan and Danielle, and a Three Musketeers Barbie doll set from Reenee and I, (which she squealed about for a solid thirty seconds) and a set of colored contacts from Brietta, who is the only one besides Isla, myself, and Eleanor to be obsessed with how Twilight vampires look. (Evan had never even heard of Twilight, and I now have a very amusing video on my phone as we try to explain the plotline to him and get to Renesmee.)

Finally, there's only Lucy's.

Eleanor shuts her eyes, holding the box to her chest. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease!" And rips it open, revealing two amazing gowns that she instantly pulls out, holding up in the air, and screaming.

"Whoa." Finn says, his jaw dropping. One dress is green, with gold borders on the sleeves and neck. The other is gold, sleeveless, and looks like it's made of pure magic, sort of like Queen Clarion's dress does.

"Lucy, you made those? How?" Serene asks.

Lucy shrugs. "It's what I've been doing on weekends. Also, working on your dresses and mine. I used magic to help speed things along, but it's still done by hand, mostly.

"Lucy-goosey, they're wonderful!" Eleanor practically moans, tears streaming down her face. Finn looks alarmed.

"Are you okay? Why are you crying?"

"Don't ask." Max advises. "Girls cry for weird reasons. Ow!" He says as Brietta tosses a pillow at him.

"Okay! We've had enough of this." Brietta declares, sitting up. "I vote we all go home, get PJ's and stuff, and---"

"No way!" Eleanor argues, standing. "No one's leaving. I'm holding you all hostage!" She cries happily. "Girls can borrow my clothes, boys can borrow Finn's."

"Say what now?" Finn starts, but Eleanor's on a roll.

"And we can stay up, and watch movies, and build a fort, and ohhhh, I know we're older, but can we please please please dress up?" She begs us all, her eyes shining as she clasps her fingers under her chin.

There's silence for a few seconds, and then Lucy stands up and takes Eleanor's hand, looking at all of us (while avoiding eye contact). "I'm in. If anyone doesn't fit Eleanor's clothes, I brought extras in case Brietta decided to splash someone from the pool and I had to apologize." She pats her purse, looking oddly determined.

I stand up at the same time as Reenee. "I'm cool with all of that. Boys?"

Hayder looks around at us all. "You guys realize that I'm not really friends with any of you?"

"Says who?" Serene tells him. Though I don't think I've ever seen him smile, his teeth are showing wide now as he watches my sister. I try to make eye contact with Reenee, but she turns pink, like she can sense me, and looks resolutely at the ground.

"Alright, then, I'm in." Max says.

"I suppose I have some extra sweatpants or something." Finn sighs. "But I don't have any extra sleeping bags, and no one is taking my bed."

Max laughs. "I'm cool with that."

"Yay!" Eleanor cheers, going around the circle and individually hugging each of us. "Come on come on come on!" she seizes my hand and Isla's, dragging us out of the room. Everyone follows, laughing loudly. 

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Wait till you guys see the dresses. I love love LOVE them so much but you'll have to wait until the chapters that have the Coronation and Cotillion in them.