The Descendants Series Vol. 2

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

“You look perfect,” Bailey said as she bent down to straighten the bottom of my dress. 

“It seems like a little too much,” I said, looking at myself in the mirror.

“Trust me,” she said, standing back up. 

“Are you going to be staying for this gala?” I asked.

“Oh, no,” she said.  “Only very important people are invited to this.  I’m not one of them.  Plus, I don’t think I’d even want to go.”

“That makes two of us,” I said.

“At least you’ll have Kade and the others with you, so it shouldn’t be too bad,” she said.

Her saying Kade’s name made me think of what I heard between the two of them the night before.  I still didn’t know if I believed it or not that nothing was going on between them.  Bailey certainly didn’t act like there was, but she could just be fooling me.

“I’m going to go now,” she said now.  “Mrs. Slayter said for me to go back to the house after I finished helping you.  She said she was going to be up here in a little while.”

“Alright,” I said, and looked at her through the mirror.  I still didn’t believe it or not if she and Kade were together.  I knew what I heard, and it didn’t sound like nothing.

“I’ll be there to help you out of the dress when you get back,” she said.

“Hopefully it’ll be easier to get off than get on,” I said.

She smiled and turned to walk out of the room. 

Once Arianna and I had gotten to Headquarters, we headed up to the room that I had stayed in.  Bailey was already there with my dress, still in the garment bag, and was waiting for me to do my hair and makeup.  Once I had gotten it on, I took a look at it in the mirror.

My dress was a deep sapphire blue, the exact color of my necklace that was around my neck.  I couldn’t help but notice that it made my eyes bluer than I’d ever seen them before, even with the red line going through my right one. 

 I ran my hands down the silky fabric of the dress, and then turned sideways to see the back of it.  It dipped low, coming down right to my waist.  The straps crossed over my shoulder blades, the diamonds sown into them shinned like my necklace.  They continued in a thin strip under the bust of the dress.  There was also a slit that went almost the entire way up my leg. 

Bailey really didn’t use that much makeup, barely any at all actually.  She and Arianna both thought that I didn’t need anything but gloss on my lips and mascara once they got a good look at me.  As for my hair, Bailey had gathered it up at the nape of my neck so that it flowed in thick curls down my back.

As I looked at myself, a memory came back at me, one of my mother.  I was about eight when she and my father had to go to a gala for his work.  She’d worn a dress similar to the one that I had on, only the back didn’t dip so low and there wasn’t a huge slit in it either.

And I realized I looked exactly the way she did.

“You've got the figure for that dress,” someone said from behind me.  Arianna was there, fully dressed and ready in a dark green dress and her hair elegantly pinned back.  “He's going to love it.”

I knew who she meant by ‘he’.

“I'm not so sure about that.  He doesn't have any feelings for me anymore. I don't see why they're making us do this,” I said, sighing.