I was at my tipping point. Lena not to mention the rest had me in the chair for four hours doing my hair, nails and scales. Then they fussed with my makeup, which smelt funny. All the while I watched them get undressed in front of me and change into beautiful attire. They have no shame. Besides me, Viola was getting a lot of attention and she was lapping it up. She would be the main star of the show, and I would finally get to hear her voice.
Suddenly Mr Dollarnote stepped into the room with a girl on either side of him.
“Don’t worry I am here to make this goldfish shine,” he clicked his fingers and one of the girls pulled me behind a dressing screen while the other opened a box to some purple green thing that I hadn’t had enough time to look at before I was forcibly stripped and sewn into the new garment. And then plonked down into the dreaded chair again as they got the bling out. There was a simple necklace and matching earrings and bracelet. Then they put two taillets which are basically anklets, that dangled near my monstrosity of ruffles. The refixed my hair and helped me up. “My work here is done, see you beautiful fishies later,” he waved blowing us a kiss making me want puke.
I got up to see what I looked like and gasped when I saw myself. In the four hours they had polished my entire body to almost glowing point and the dress was a green and purple similar colours to my tail. The mullet type dress had twisted chiffon drifting elegantly behind me with a sprinkle of ringtones on the strapless bodice. The jewels were nothing more than dazzling and the guy behind me was smiling from ear to ear. I turned around to find Sebastian eyeing me off while the seven began giggling.
“Do you like her Sebastian? We put a lot of TLC into her.” Lena said sliding in next to me in her dazzling white frock. “Nothing to go chitchatting away to daddy right,” she smiled.
“She can’t go out like that,” Sebastian said crossing his arms still looking at me.
“WHAT! We spent four hours on her, of course she can go, she’d probably be the prettiest one there,” Lena said pushing me behind her.
“That’s the point, you made her to pretty, I’d probably be robbed the second we left this room,” he explained the smile slowly returning. The remaining six all suddenly sighed. Oh come on, like no one didn’t see that coming. They honestly didn’t, did they? I was passed over to Sebastian who lightly kissed my cheek.
“Oh just snog her,” Dominique squealed. We all suddenly turned in surprise to the little mer who was suddenly blushing. I quickly glanced at Sebastian and we both grinned and moved to either side of Dominique.
“We better do what she says Sebastian,” I grinned and he nodded.
“Yes, we must,” we both kissed Dominique’s cheeks making her squeal and squirm beneath us.
“Nooo! Boys have cooties, yuck” she said wiping the side Sebastian kissed her. Everyone was giggling so hard I hadn’t noticed Sebastian wrap his arm around my waist and slowly drift to the door.
We slipped through and into the peaceful hallway and swam to the grand staircase leading down into the gallery. As soon as we appeared at the top of the stair case the paparazzi were onto us. The flashing lights and the countless questions overwhelmed me.
“Don’t worry, I’m here beside you just smile,” Sebastian whispered taking his arm off my waist letting me cling to him for support. When we were finally in the crowd I felt people touching me but tried to ignore it. It was a one off night. I finally decided to look at the surrounding crowds and smiled. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was invited to attend and it was lovely to see everyone put so much effort in, it was like they were attending a wedding.
“Aubrey who are you wearing tonight?” someone asked sticking a mic in my face. Well this was awkward I didn’t know Mr Dollarnotes real name. I just continued to smile and looked at him.
“Can’t you tell? It’s by the magic mer himself,” I said boldly before pulling Sebastian along hoping they wouldn’t question my vagueness. The one thing I couldn’t help but notice was all the mermen looking at me.
“They won’t bother you while I’m near, they know it would be a big mistake to even attempt to mess with me,” he whispered. There was no way this guy just had a meaningless title. Sebastian even to some extent had power over the seven making him untouchable. We entered the massive theatre and took a seat in an overhead booth. I gazed over the grand old theatre, it was newer than most of the city but it still had the old theatrical glamour about it, with the heavy red velvet curtains and the gold detailing. There were the rows of seat below and on the upper floors. But they also had a series of bench like swings dangling from the ceiling so even more mers could view the stage.
Sebastian handed me an old pair of opera binoculars with an ivory handle, probably a shipwreck find. I was fiddling with the focus I didn’t notice the couple coming up to us.
“Mother, you look lovely,” Sebastian called making me almost drop the antique. I looked up to see a well-built woman looking at me. Oh my god she was my future mother in law. I looked at the man next to her, wow he was buff. He gave me a dashing grin before receiving a little slap in the shoulder.
“These men, one must always keep them in line, hello I’m Faye and this is Marcus,” she held out her hand to me and I instantly got up to shake her hand. “Vey petite,” she noted and turned to Sebastian “Your nanna and pop won’t be coming, he’s done his back out again. I don’t think the pair of them have much life left in them. God only know how Genevieve is still fighting strong. Marcus stop gawking at Aubrey, it is most off putting. Where is your brother?” she asked looking around.
“Right here mother, sorry I’m late.” Oh mi gosh, he was hot. You could see the resemblance between him and Sebastian and Marcus, just he wasn’t as buff but his face was more chiselled. I felt Sebastian shift uncomfortably in his seat. “Hello sister, pleasure to meet you,” he gave me a firm handshake and sat down on the opposite side of me while his parents sat further back. Finally Genevieve swam up to us.
“My my dearie, you look stunning. Doesn’t she look scrumptious Sebastian, don’t you just love her like this?” I giggled seeing Sebastian squirm some more. “She’s so delectable in that colour,” she smirked. “Why don’t you have a girl yet? You can’t let Aubrey do all the work,” She said turning to my companion next to me.
“No Grandmama, I’m too busy for such distractions,” he answered. She snorted crossing her arms. She was like a completely different person when she was away from school.
“You’re worse than Sebastian when it comes to work. Settle down, have a few kids, a few hundred would be nice.” She added chuckling at her own joke we all just remained quiet.
“How has work been over at MIFE?” I asked changing the subject. She smiled at me swatting Sebastian so she could take his seat next to me.
“Oh same as usual, making brats cry, you know, all that good fun. But Effie…lost case there, I sent her back. She’s wasting everyone’s time, Ava owes me big time.”
The lights suddenly dimmed and we all turned to the stage ready for a great performance.
***
“That was spectacular! Did you see the guys doing those tricks and Viola, she was amazing and and ah it was so cool,” I grinned holding on to Sebastian’s arm.
“That was only the first part, after the intermission there will be more,” he smiled down at me. We entered one of the many rooms being used for the guests to mingle. “Do you want anything from the buffet table?” he asked.
“Anything chocolate would be perfect,” I grinned at him and watched him leave into the buffet room. I glanced around the room. It seemed the richer folks were mingling in here.
“Why is she here? Goodness why is that thing here? Who invited her? A Disgrace.” I heard some of the other mers whisper amongst themselves. I turned to see who they were talking about. All I saw was this girl who was almost a translucent pale purple but had little glowing dots running along her body. She looked even more timid than me. Instinctively I drifted over to her, she intrigued me.
“Hello,” I said softly making her jump. She looked at me her eyes widening.
“I’m terribly sorry, please forgive me,” she whispered ducking her head, reminding me of jelly.
“Sorry for what? I just wanted to say hello and tell you that I like your glow light thingy, you have that…umm…what was that word from science class? Bio…bioloom?”
“Bioluminescence?” I clicked my fingers and nodded.
“That’s the word. I wasn’t very good at science class; I never thought mers could have it. That’s cool” I smiled twirling my binoculars.
“Are you trying to make fun of me? Theres no other reason why a beauty like you would bother talking to me?” I stared at her stunned. I turned around to see everyone watching us whispering.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” I tilted my head, was I missing something? She suddenly shied away.
“Liora, it seems you’ve met my Halfling sister in law,” I turned to see Sebastian’s brother. “Aubrey this is Liora, she’s an Abyisial. She’s been helping me with working towards getting them some their rights.” He explained.
I looked back at the crowds, was that the reason they were so prejudiced. I just never this sort of thing happened here.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware of your connection or that you were a halfling,” Liora whispered gently to me.
Sebastian returned and gave me a bowl of an assortment of sweets. I offered some Liora who declined. Well more for me then.
“Liora, you made it,” the twins smiled coming in for a hug. The turned to me and smiled me. “Have you met our sister yet Aubrey,” they smiled at me. Their sister! Harper and Irene also came by and said hello to us but completely ignored Liora. This was so confusing.
Sebastian later explained to me that Liora was a love child and therefore the sisters have mixed views about her. And as for this ‘Rights’ thing was mostly just the older generations being biased towards the Abyisials. He assured me that it had been slowly changing for the better. Welcome to the sixties, everyone.
“Do you understand now?” he asked. I nodded a reply. We heard the gong that the show was about to begin soon and begun making our way back. Moving through the crowded door way I felt something tingling at me inside. I grabbed Sebastian’s shoulder that suddenly went ridged.
“No you seriously can’t be having it now! Not here with a million mermen…”
---
ooh the suspense.
so we meet another sister, Liora (means gods gift of light) the Abyisial, I don't think i'll mention her to much again, so we also meet Sebs parents and brother who remains nameless, and will probably stay that way.
and sorry for a bit of history lesson and the massive amount of dialect.
comment on what you thought of this chapter, what you think is coming up or just the story in general.