"Sophie!" Edaline called as Sophie appeared at Havenfield. "I need your help!"
"Yeah?" Sophie asked, making her way to her mom. "What do you need?"
"Well, we have been so busy with the wedding, and Grady's trying to pick up the slack with the animals, but we don't have much time to help all of them!"
"...Yeah?" Sophie asked, dreading the answer.
"So we need you to help more with the animals."
"Oh, okay, that sounds fine!" Sophie smiled. She loved helping with the animals, and she usually tried to help with them as much as possible anyway.
"Don't get too excited," Edaline warned. "Verdi's teeth need to be brushed. And Dad and the gnomes are busy with the Stegosaurus that just arrived yesterday. So that job is yours."
Sophie's grin collapsed off her face. Letting out a deep sigh, she tromped up to her room and dropped her bag on the ground before changing from her turquoise dress that matched her eyes to a red tunic over black leggings.
Aaina popped up in the corner of her spectral mirror and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Just outside to help with the animals," Sophie told her.
"You should put your hair in a ponytail," Aaina advised. "Remember what happened last time?"
Sophie groaned even louder as she remembered the time that Verdi decided that although she didn't like any of her delicious gnome produced veggies, Sophie's hair looked tasty, and the T-rex tried to eat the blond strands. The drooly smell hadn't come out for days.
"Thanks, Aaina," she said gratefully (but not without a tinge of grumpiness). She tied her hair back into a ponytail, and then decided that wasn't enough and twisted it into a tight bun.
She ran down the stairs, ready to get the Verdi brushing over with, and skidded out the door, almost toppling over when Grady appeared in front of her.
"Oops, sorry kiddo," He chuckled, steadying her with a hand. "I was just about to get you. We moved Verdi from her pasture to another one because she found an animal's nest." His shudder told her the rest. "So she's there now." He pointed to a secluded fenced-in area near the mastodon pasture.
Sophie nodded, trying not to imagine it, and headed over to Verdi's new enclosure, pausing to pick up the dinosaur's toothbrush on the way.
...
Sophie stood under the hot shower as streams of water rushed down her body, frantically shampooing her hair. The drool had gotten ALL OVER HER, and she needed to get it out before the next day. It was the dress fitting, and Sophie's hair had to look amazing. Or at least not be covered in drool. She didn't want to stink up her dress!
She toweled off and cautiously sniffed her hair, relieved when it smelled normal. Changing into comfy clothes, she sat down at her desk and started her homework.
Two hours later, she finished. Admittedly, most of that time had been chatting with her friends on her imparter or playing with Iggy.
She went downstairs for dinner, which was a plant that looked like green cornbread but tasted like steak.
"Is everything working and okay?" Jolie asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement and a tint of nerves.
"Yes," Edaline smiled at her daughter. "Everything's working perfectly. Still waiting on the butterflies, but I hailed them and they said they should be arriving tomorrow."
"GREAT!" Jolie practically sang. "And the fitting tomorrow? That's fine?"
"Yes, everything's fine. But everyone needs to be up early tomorrow for the fitting, okay?"
"What about school?" Sophie protested.
"You have to miss it. Is that okay? I couldn't get any other time, the store was packed."
"It's fine, nothing's really happening tomorrow anyway."
Sophie rushed up to her room and hailed Biana. They chattered for hours about nothing at all- the wedding, the schoolwork, an interesting tidbit Alvar had brought back from the ogres- before clicking away.
It took Sophie a while to fall asleep, but she eventually sank into a restless slumber, her mastodon stuffed animal clutched tightly to her chest.
PSA: If you see me responding to a comment, it's for one of a few reasons. Either you're being a jerk, your comment was irritating/straight up wrong, or you asked me a question/were confused about a detail. If you think your comment qualifies as the first two, don't make that comment!! If you get a response from me and you weren't asking some sort of question, then that's why I responded! Happy commenting darlings, hope you remember this xoxo
(if that seemed surprising to new readers, sorry, I promise I'm a nice person)