The Crystal Palace

Birthday Preparations

On the day of Crystal's birthday, she was lying in bed, fast asleep, and Vanessa had to toss her out of bed as usual.

"Oh Crystal," said Vanessa. "Why do you have to be so difficult on your birthday? I thought that you would be jumping out of bed in excitement."

"I just don't like getting out of bed," muttered Crystal.

"Well, you should be getting dressed. Your birthday party is starting in three hours."

"Oh yeah," said Crystal. "I should get dressed at once."

Soon, Crystal was laying three dresses on her bed. One dress was as white as snow and sparkled whenever it was moved. The second dress was made of blue satin and shone like the sky. The third dress was rose pink and was decorated with beautiful flowers.

"I think that you should wear the blue dress," said Vanessa. "It matches your tiara and crystal necklace perfectly. Besides, you love blue."

"You're right," said Crystal. "Besides, it's my favourite dress."

Crystal wore the beautiful blue dress with her usual crystal tiara and necklace. She also wore snowflake earrings and light blue eyeshadow with pale pink blush and pink lipstick. Crystal rarely wore makeup, but she was expected to look gorgeous on her birthday.

Crystal's hair was styled up into elegant curls and had a rosette tieback. Her silvery blue hair looked very stunning.

"You look beautiful, birthday princess," said Vanessa without a hint of envy in her voice. She was always wholehearted when she praised Crystal's beauty.

Crystal knew that her best friend was right. She was beautiful. And she meant to have a wonderful birthday, even if she had to put up with cocky Prince Archie, whom she had successfully avoided all week.

Still, Crystal felt nervous as she went down the stairs in her blue high-heeled shoes. She was definitely the prettiest person in the room, and everyone looked at her in admiration.

"Oh Crystal, you look lovely," said Lily as she threw her arms around her sister. Lily was wearing a light green dress which smelled of fresh flowers and her golden hair looked like a halo. Her outfit was sweet and simple, just like Lily herself.

"Thank you Lily," said Crystal. "You look pretty too."

Some princes from neighbouring kingdoms came and tried their best by acting regal. But Crystal felt extremely uncomfortable in their presence. It was obviously an act to impress her.

"Princess Crystal," came Archie's voice. He was wearing a white suit, but his usual cocky smile was showing.

Crystal tried her best not to roll her eyes at the annoying prince. At least Archie was honest about his thoughts.

One of the other princes tried to have an intelligent conversation about one of Crystal's favourite books, but it was clear that he didn't know a thing about the book. Archie interrupted him to explain what exactly had happened in the book.

The lunch was extremely delicious, but Crystal felt horrified when a prince came up and asked her to dance. How could she explain her horrible dancing skills?

Luckily at that moment, Lily started coughing horribly, which drew the attention away from Crystal at once. Everyone started to panic, afraid that the younger princess may die at any moment.

"I'll take her to the sickbay," said Crystal at once. Even at her own birthday party, her sister came first.

Crystal grabbed Lily's hand and led her out of the ballroom. Instantly Lily's coughs seemed to subside.

There was nobody in the sickbay, but Crystal knew where Lily's medicine was at. But Lily stopped her before she could feed her the medicine.

"Lily, I know that you don't like the medicine, but you have to take it, or you'll..."

"I'll die," said Lily. "Actually, I wasn't really coughing. I was providing a distraction so that the prince would forget all about dancing with you."

"Oh," said Crystal. "Thanks for the distraction then."

"Can we go to the library together?" asked Lily. "I want to hang out with you for a bit."

"Sure," said Crystal. "I miss hanging out with you."