Getting Ready

While we were driving to the Femme Fatale, I texted Fien to make sure that she would come over to babysit. I received a reply full of happy emoticons so my guess was that everything was still set to go.

I thought about how my life changed in the last two weeks. My social contacts used to be a lot more shallow, this week I even had people coming over, something I would have never allowed in the past. There were boundaries I would not allow to be crossed in order to stay in control. But now I made rather deep links with people, and I knew those links would remain with me for the rest of my life. I would probably have just avoided my newfound friends, if I had not become a part of the FBY. I looked at Anna, and even though I really hated her for framing me into this crazy FBY thing, I must admit, I was rather enjoying how my life changed and the changes we had brought to those around us. I was even enjoying the fact that I had friends now. All these changes had been for the better. Anna sure was someone very special to have such an effect on her surroundings, wasn't she?

When we got at Femme Fatale's, we went straight to the apartment. When I opened the door Mom ran over to us super excited. “That dress is marvelous! You are going to look so pretty in it!” It was clear that she was very happy with my dress. I saw Thea sipping a cup of tea. “Anna, You should have told us you knew Thea. I would have sent Claire there much sooner. She is so difficult when it comes to buying new clothes.” I rolled my eyes. Mom was embarrassing me super hard.

Mom always berated me that I did not spend enough money on clothes. I just bought what was necessary. I felt a sense of duty, to not spill money needlessly. Mom was a single mother taking care of us, and even though my brother worked, mom was the one paying him, and I knew he was severely underpaid. He said it was rent for still living here, and for all the help he got with Emma, but he made a lot less than minimum wages. I knew it was financially a big help that I did not often buy new clothes. But if I would say this out loud, mom would get angry and tell me that that was her concern and not mine. I knew that she felt guilty about the fact that I was consciously economic on my expenses. I think she wanted me to be more careless at this age. That is why I often got some cash after helping out. But even then, most of the time I ended up saving most of it, or using it for special ingredients, or stuff for Emma. Which was basically investing it back into the household.

Needless to say, all of that resulted in mom being super excited, for getting to see her daughter in a beautiful cocktail dress.

“Ah Anna, Claire, We meet again.” Thea said in a sinister tone. She had already started her drama act, she did the villain act so well, I could almost imagine the white cat in her lap. We went over to the living room. Thea had brought a make-up artist that would do my make-up before I could start test fitting the dress.

Thea had certainly outdone herself. It was a beautiful red embroiled shoulderless dress with long, also embroiled, see through sleeves. The red went from a deep dark red to bright fiery at the more prominent spots. It made a serious impact but it was still not too extravagant. If anything, I felt really empowered by wearing it.

Mom and Anna's eyes turned into hearts and were shooting sparkles.

“Just a second.” mom said and she went to her room. I could hear a lot of stumbling from her room. Was she rearranging furniture? When she came back after a couple of minutes, she gave me a necklace with a dark green diamond. “Your father gave these to me. He told me the green was the same color as my eyes. You should wear it tonight.” and she helped me put it on.

Then Thea looked at me and said “There is still something missing...” She rummaged around the bag and put some golden earrings on me. Then she took out two fine golden bali armbands and put them on my left arm. “I am lending these to you, so don't lose them. I will come by to pick them up one of the following days.”

“Anna, stop gawking, now it is your turn.” Thea said and gave me a little wink. She then opened a large box and took out Anna's matching dress. It was a little tighter than mine, and instead of the fiery warm colors, her dress made use of icy blues. “Summer and winter, I called these two. I made unique dresses for the two of you.”

Anna replaced her glasses with contacts, and went to the make-up artist.

“Why don't you always wear contacts?” I asked.

“Because I really love those manga characters with glasses. They have something really mystifying over them.” I shook my head. That was such an Anna answer. It put a little smile on my face.

She got dressed with Thea's help, and then she took a jewelry case out of her bag and proceeded to put on silver earrings, and a beautiful pearl necklace.

I noticed I was staring at Anna, but I really could not take my eyes off of her. She was really an amazing beauty. She could easily become a model with her length and looks. Mom rolled out a large oval mirror from her room and I saw the two of us next to each other. The sight gave me goosebumps. In these dresses we truly matched each other perfectly.

The both of us turned around and I heard a shutter close. Elodie, Gazette and Fien had arrived and they were now taking pictures of us.

“Oh fantastic! Can I have those for my catalog?”, Thea asked. Gazette and Elodie nodded happily. Of course they would be happy to give their pictures to a fashion icon for a catalog. It was like a dream come true for them. Elodie and Gazette suddenly became a lot more serious and started demanding poses. To start off, I had to put my hand on Anna's chest and look upward into her eyes. Then they positioned the mirror so that their shot would take a picture of the front and backside of the dresses at the same time. This was so embarrassing but at the same time I felt like I was being absorbed into Anna's eyes. Then Anna had to hold me at the waste from behind me. I could feel Anna's warmth and feeling her chest pressed against my back was very distracting. We did a few more poses before my embarrassment levels went through the roof, and I decided to call the photo shoot quits.

“How come you girls are here too?” I asked Gazette and Elodie. This question had been playing in my mind during the entire photo shoot.

“My mother did not trust Fien to babysit on her own. She sent me to help and Eline just tagged along. I hope it is not a problem?” Elodie answered.

Poor Fien, it is hard when you are not trusted. Well if she did a good job she would earn the trust to do it by herself next time, and she did not seem all too bothered by having those two here.

“Of course it isn't a problem, Mom said. I am glad we have three responsible girls taking care of little Emma tonight.”

“Where is Emma?” Fien asked. She was zipping around looking around the apartment like a dog that could not find her favorite toy.

“Rest assured, she will be here soon!” Mom said, hiding a little chuckle. “Frank is picking her up from the daycare. “Oh girls, remember if there is a problem tonight, Frank and I will be downstairs. If you get hungry, just tell us what you want from the brasserie’s menu, and we will bring it up.”

The girls seemed super happy with the free meal from Femme Fatale.

While they were further discussing details about the babysitting, Thea made some finishing details on our dresses. She was placing some small clams at precise locations on the inside that would make it easier to move and sit. After they were put into place it really was a lot easier to move around. I did not know such neat tricks existed.

When Emma arrived it was about time for us to leave. Emma stood in front of us in amazement. “My aunties are the most beautiful princesses ever!” She wanted to jump and hug us, but mom held her back to not ruin our make-up. “Your aunties have to remain pretty because they will be on television, you can look at them, but no touching” Mom explained. “Auntie Claire and Auntie Anna will be on television? Can I watch?”

“It is after bedtime, but we will record it, and you can watch it tomorrow. How does that sound?” Emma was pouting. I don't think I would have been able to resist that pout but mom was firm, and Emma knew that this would not work on mom, so the pout changed back into a smile pretty quickly.

“I just got a message to tell us our taxi is waiting.” Anna said.

We said goodbye to everyone and went to our taxi. The driver looked really happy to drive two beautiful women, and when he heard we were going to be on television he asked if he could take a selfie with us. There were several selfies of celebrities he had given a ride already decorating his dashboard. I guess he viewed it as his pride, driving around celebrities. Not that we really were celebrities, but it would take too long to explain all that, so we said it was alright. That clearly made his day. He drove us to the television studio and did not even charge us. He said it was on the house as a thank you for the selfie. Then he gave us his business card and wished us good luck.

At this point the nerves started to kick in.