Skywood's Finest

Chapter 8: Royal Living

"Are you gonna tell us why you're so extremely late?" Chloe shouted at Cadence when she walked into the café to meet them.

"It's a crazy story actually- I found my phone in the trash can and changed the time on my clock!" Cadence explained. "I'm so, so sorry."

Spencer just nodded her head. She didn't believe Cadence's "crazy story". She took a big bite of her banana chocolate chip muffin and chewed it very slowly, waiting for someone else to say something.

Lilly broke the silence. "It's alright, at least you made it! What do you want to order? I'll pay for it."

Spencer rolled her eyes. Lilly actually bought this story? She sighed, frustrated. Spencer sometimes wished she were as nice as Lilly. Lilly was such a great person, and everyone loved her. She was friends with practically everyone, and she could even talk to the boys at school without saying or doing something stupid. Because Lilly was friends with these boys, it sometimes created problems for Spencer. Once, in seventh grade, Lilly accidentally told Spencer's crush, Austin, that she thought he was cute and had fuzzy hair. Spencer is fearless, and she didn't have time to be embarrassed over the 'cute' thing. But fuzzy hair? Really Spence, really?

Lilly's chair made a SCREEEECH-ing noise, scraping against the dark hardwood floor, and snapping Spencer away from memory lane. Lilly Rose from the chair and Cadence followed her onto the end of the line.

She had nearly forgotten that, by this time tomorrow, she would be away from here- away from Lilly, away from the castle, and away from her 'terrible' life. In a way... She would miss it. She would miss Lilly most of all. Not one person in the world could replace her. Lilly knew what was on Spencer's mind before she even said it aloud. Lilly have the perfect gifts, often for no occasion whatsoever, and she'd say "you're my best friend, so you deserve it." Lilly took Spencer on every family vacation. Spencer had met Lilly's relatives in Hawaii, traveled to Disney World twice, and vacationed in Hershey Park 6 times with Lilly. When they were ten, they went to see Hannah Montana together, and when they were twelve, even though Lilly didn't listen to her music, the two went to see Kelly Clarkson for Spencer's birthday. It was next to impossible to imagine life without Lilly.

* * * * * * * *

At 4 o'clock, it was time for the girls to change into fancy party dresses and go to the Princess and Queen's "Sweet Fifteen" Party.

The girls were gathered in the Loft, dividers separated the room into five sections. The dividers were thick black curtains on silver poles, and in each section, one of the five girls was changing into a beautiful dress. Each makeshift dressing room contained a full-length mirror and a hairbrush.

Spencer unzipped her bag and pulled out a hot pink dress with sparkling gold accents. She smiled hilariously into the mirror and made a few more faces.

"Let's do this!" She said with a very confident and determined expression.

After slipping into her dress, Spencer looked for the brown leather sandals she'd packed, and slid them on. Lilly had given them, along with her favorite brown leather buckled boots, to Spencer as a just-be chase gift. Lilly's mom had made them herself, and had given them to Lilly as a thank-you present for helping out at her clothing shop. Spencer was much closer to Lilly's mom than she was to her "adoptive mother".

When the rest of the girls were finished changing, they put bathrobes on over their dresses and played fashion show.

Lilly was up first. She strutted down the "catwalk" like a movie star in a pretty light turquoise dress with flower and sequin designs.

Now it was Cadence's turn. She tripped over the carpet they'd laid out to be the runway and practically somersaulted forward, landing on her bottom. All of the girls laughed uncontrollably, including Cadence herself. She climbed back onto her feet and did a silly pose, still laughing crazily. She was wearing a navy blue dress that was tied with a cream ribbon and bow in the center, and the skirt was a checkerboard of cream and navy. She was wearing the same navy blue wedges as before, but a different headband contained her crazy curls.

Chloe danced along the carpet like a professional dancing on a Broadway stage. She performed a high leap at the end with her toes perfectly pointed, like she'd done it a million times. Spencer didn't doubt that she had. The four other girls applauded and cheered. Even Spencer, to her own surprise. Chloe was often no more than a nuisance to all of them. Tonight, it seemed that they all not only didn't mind her presence, but were also enjoying it for the first time in a while.

Next, it was finally Spencer's turn. She just wanted to get it over with- she was never the fashion-model type of girl. She twirled quickly down the runway so she wouldn't have to be on it for very long.

The whole room became dead silent when Destiny approached the runway. Because Destiny is the queen, she always has to dress amazingly. Not that Destiny doesn't love it... She adores getting dressed up. What girl doesn't want to be a princess?

Well, the answer is Spencer.

Destiny floated down the catwalk like a fairy flying through the trees.

"Ooooh," all the girls, even Chloe, singsonged. Spencer glanced around, and everyone's jaws were dropped and their mouths made wide O-shapes. She could see the pang of jealousy in their eyes, and she knew for a fact they all admired her gracefulness and her beautiful, expensive blue ball gown.

"Alright, that's everyone! Now I think we should get going!" Cadence remarked.

Lilly, Spencer, Cadence, Destiny, and Chloe gathered their belongings, walked one-by-one out of the Loft, and Lilly locked the door behind them. They danced around the halls eagerly as they followed the sound of upbeat party music right up to the beautifully decorated glass ballroom doors.