Chapter Eleven: Getting Ready
What was left of May sped by so quickly, that by the time Bea realized it half of June had passed too. Bea had been continuing with her strict flying practice schedule. She had mixed feelings about the practice. On the days when they were working on speed Bea felt amazing. She had actually gotten faster as she had worked hard on her form. It had become almost a little embarrassing how much faster she was than either Veronica or Laura. Sometimes, if Bea wasn't focused Veronica would get close to her in time or be right on her heels as they dashed by Ms. Hill. But so far there had yet to be a day when Bea did not have the time to beat. Bea would have relished the moments as Veronica's face twisted up in anger after losing again to Bea, but Bea was absolutely terrible at the agility drills. The other days of practice where a nightmare that just didn't seem to be getting any better. Ms. Hill had them flying through various types of obstacle courses and Bea couldn't maneuver herself and maintain speed. Laura was almost always first. Bea was happy though to see her doing well. She didn't mind losing the first spot to her. The annoying thing was that she was never second. Veronica had a fair amount of agility and it killed Bea to watch her beat her every single day on obstacles. Bea tried hard not to let it get to her though and instead did her best to channel that energy into focusing even more. Besides, she knew that Veronica was doing the exact same thing on the speed runs. Ms. Hill had mentioned that by January the official field would be completed and open for them to practice on occasionally and that until then they would keep working on the separate skills of speed and agility on alternating practice days. Bea got incredibly nervous when she thought about the course. Would she be able to get herself together enough to beat Veronica? She knew that no matter how else the competition went down that she had to beat Veronica. They could be the final two as long as Bea was not last. Bea was positive that Ms. Hill had used the hatred that brewed between Bea and Veronica to push the two girls. Nearly every practice she had barked at one of them to goad them into trying harder to beat the other. Laura was happily left out of all of this.
With all of her focus on flying practice Bea had barely even noticed the passing school days. She did her best in class to keep up, but some days she was exceptionally tired and found her mind wandering more than it used to. Luckily she had Curtis to help her out. She had learned long ago that it did her no good to ask Catherine for extra help on school work. Catherine was willing to study together and to enter into discussions with Bea about topics at school, but Catherine had flat out refused to ever let Bea copy her notes. Bea had sometimes caught Catherine glaring at her in class when Bea's pencil had slipped from her hands during a daydream. But Curtis was in a similar boat, having lessons with the Ancients every day after school. Bea was so grateful that Curtis seemed to be handling his busy schedule better than she was. He passed her his notebooks every now and then, to let her copy down notes, and caught her up on readings that she had failed to complete.
Bea needed the help as the days sped by and everyone was suddenly faced with exams at the end of the term before summer break. Somehow, by a sheer miracle it felt to Bea, she had completed her exams and actually felt somewhat confident that she had done OK.
With the summer break, Ms. Hill had insisted that the girls have the weekend schedule of long morning practice every single day. Bea was eager to ask Ms. Hill what was going to happen on the solstice. She wanted to believe that Ms. Hill wouldn't dream of making them practice on that day, but Bea tried to ready herself for anything as she headed to practice that Saturday morning. Bea didn't get a chance to ask Ms. Hill at the start of practice, but at the end she made a point of catching Ms. Hill before she left the field.
"Ms. Hill?"
"Featherstone?" Ms. Hill didn't pause as she gathered her things and started towards the school. Clearly, if Bea wanted a word, it would have to be while running alongside Ms. Hill.
Bea did her best to keep up as she blurted out, "Do we have practice on Tuesday?"
"What? Tuesday? Of course! What's wrong with your head Featherstone?" Ms. Hill looked at Bea with an expression of confusion and pity that annoyed Bea to no end.
"Tuesday is the solstice," Bea said in a clear voice, determined to not let Ms. Hill's brusque behavior get her down.
Ms. Hill stopped. It was so sudden that Bea continued walking a few paces before she caught herself and turned to face Ms. Hill in anticipation.
"The solstice . . ." Ms. Hill was mumbling under her breath. Bea waited.
"Yes, Featherstone!"
"What?" Bea was confused.
Ms. Hill looked at Bea's expectant face and said loudly to Veronica and Laura as well, "Tuesday practice will be the same as every other day. The solstice celebrations are at night. Our practice won't interfere."
Laura looked taken aback. "Wait, but what about the morning after? We stay up all night on the solstice. You can't make us fly the following morning."
Ms. Hill nodded. Bea's heart leapt. Maybe they would get a day off after all.
"Good point, Alder. Wednesday's practice is rescheduled for noon to six in the evening. That should give you three enough time to sleep in and be ready for the day."
Ms. Hill didn't even give the girls a chance to reply. She continued her brisk walk back to the school and left Laura and Veronica and Bea in silence.
"Tough luck, huh?" Laura said with a small smile as she started heading to the pod station to return home.
Bea just shook her head.
Veronica had been a few paces in front of them and she turned to both and said, "The solstice is a waste of time anyway. It's for kids. This race is much more important. At least it is to me." With a toss of her hair, Veronica had hopped into her pod and was off for home.
Laura looked at Bea and asked, "Do you think the solstice is just for kids?"
"No!" Bea replied indignantly. "It's important isn't it? I bet Veronica will be there having fun just like the rest of us that night, you know?"
Laura laughed in agreement and they said their goodbyes as they went on their separate ways home.
Bea woke up the following morning to get ready for her long practice when she heard something that made her heart sink.
"Bea! Get in here, mom says you're going to be late!"
It was Steven, Bea's insanely annoying brother. He had mercifully been away from home for most of the past three years or so as he attended training school to enter into dust management. He was in his last year and was preparing to enter into his career after his graduation. Bea dreaded his brief returns to home during breaks. He seemed to get more annoying with every year. When he was younger, he would just pick on Bea and tease her, now that he was older he always spoke to her in such a superior way that it made her want to punch him in the stomach.
Bea jumped, and quickly finished buttoning her shirt when she heard Steven plodding down the hallway. She readied herself for his usual disregard for manners as he would always tear open her door and barge in like he owned the entire house. But instead he made a quick rapping on the door.
"Bea!"
He rapped the door again and said in a pompous voice, "Beatrice! You really shouldn't keep mom waiting like this. It shows a complete lack of respect."
He started rapping the door again and Bea ripped the door open mid knock. She stared at her brother as she stomped to the breakfast table. Her father was obviously still asleep. Mrs. Featherstone was finishing placing toast on Bea's plate.
"Mom, when did HE get here?"
Mrs. Featherstone gave a little laugh that she always shared for Bea and Steven when they were fighting. "Last night, honey. After you had gone to bed."
Steven sat himself down at the table and said, "Really Bea, you'd think you could get over all this childlike behavior. You are going off to training soon."
"But why did you have to come back again? I wanted some peace and quiet."
Steven sat his juice down, shared a smile with his mother that made Bea wa
nt to vomit and declared, "I just wanted to see you guys, that's all."
Sunday and Monday seemed to drag on far too slowly with practice not going well and being at home with Steven always being somewhere to share words of wisdom. Tuesday morning, Bea robotically forced herself to practice. She was sure that her excitement for the evening was going to mess with her focus, but she just kept thinking that if she flew faster she could somehow fly forward through time into the evenings' celebrations. Bea had already told her mother that she would be heading to Catherine's after practice. They were going to spend the afternoon playing around and getting ready for the evening. Catherine's house was the best place to get ready for anything. When they were younger, the two girls would beg Mrs. Royce to help them with their dresses and to put curls and pretty hair pins in their hair. Mrs. Featherstone always said no to any sort of waste of dust but, luckily, hadn't objected to Bea using dust at Catherine's. Bea was grateful for her mother's opinions because they meant that the girls never got ready for anything at Bea's house. This saved her the embarrassments of letting Catherine see her own mother's poor magic. Bea didn't like feeling this way about her mother. She usually felt quite proud to think of her job as a flier. But there was no denying that when it came to magic, Mrs. Featherstone was not very talented.
Bea arrived at Catherine's house and found herself inside Catherine's room. Bea lost her breath when she saw all the beautiful dresses tossed onto the bed. Catherine had her wings out and was wearing a shimmering silver dress that made her wings sparkle. Her rich curly hair had been twisted up onto of her head, leaving random curls to fall down across her shoulders. Bea stared enviously at her friend for a moment before Catherine took notice of her and laughed.
"Bea, don't stare. You look ridiculous like that."
Bea laughed too and plopped herself on the one corner of Catherine's bed that was not covered in abandoned dresses.
"How long have you been trying things on?" she asked as her fingers ran over the floral accents on a delicate green dress.
Catherine's face wrinkled up as she sighed at herself in the mirror. "All morning. I just can't seem to find the right one. Will you help me?"
"Yeah, but you usually never have this much trouble. I mean you try on a few each year, but this is crazy." Bea laughed and turned to survey the bed once more and missed Catherine's look of distress. Catherine shook her head of pretty curls and straightened her face into a casual smile as she turned her attention to her friend.
"What do you want to wear? Pick any of them. I have been teaching myself some great magic for making and fitting clothes and I am sure I can make any of them look beautiful on you."
Bea thought for a moment. The summer solstice was one of her favorite celebrations. It was one of the few that remained from the days long ago before the fairies moved to the islands. The fairies would celebrate the long night of summer by staying up all night, playing games, eating, dancing and singing. The fairies would bring out their most beautiful attire for the occasion and the female fairies would leave their wings out during the celebrations that took place outside at the park by the Main Hall. Bea had always loved gazing at the all the beautiful things and went crazy eating special solstice treats. Lately, she had really enjoyed getting dressed up herself and had relied on her good friend Catherine to find her the perfect dress. Though Mrs. Royce had usually helped the girls in the past, Catherine had told Bea that she wanted to do everything herself this year. Catherine reached across Bea and tugged a dress out from the bottom of a particularly precarious pile on the bed.
The dress was yellow. But not just yellow, it was the color of pale sunlight, golden and warm. Catherine smiled as she held it up in front of her and imagined it on Bea. "You have to try this one on. When I made it I kind of had you in mind."
Bea's eyes lit up as she gazed at the dress. Catherine had to be the best friend in the world to have known to make this dress. It was like she had been able to crawl into Bea's mind and steal her dreams. Bea tried it on and felt Catherine's dust shoot out and gently tug and gather the dress here and there.
"Not much to fix really. Guess I guessed you right," Catherine said with a satisfied grin and she turned Bea toward the long mirror in her room.
Bea couldn't stop smiling. The dress was perfect. It felt like she was wearing sunshine. It had a way of making Bea's wings more beautiful than she imagined they could be. She felt a pang of shame as she stared proudly at her wings. She had lately only thought of them in terms of how much faster they could make her fly. She hadn't given herself moments to stare at them. Seeing them in Catherine's room with the light shining through the walls, Bea was reminded of the day she bloomed and how she just couldn't stop staring at her reflection.
Bea tore herself back to Catherine as she said enviously, "You made this?"
"Yeah, and those on the bed too. I mean, my mother told me I could use a bit of my dust to make some. I started a few days ago so that I could make more and not be too drained."
Bea laughed. "You sure you didn't start a few months ago, not days? Looks like you have enough dresses here for all the fairies on the island."
Catherine's face wrinkled again. "I know. It does look kind of bad doesn't it? There's a way to make the dress go back to dust, you know, to sort of recycle things. I don't know how to work it yet though. Curtis does, I'll ask him to help me hide the evidence of my craziness. I don't think my mother had this in mind when she said I could make a few."
Bea gave a nervous laugh with Catherine. She knew too well how angry Mrs. Royce could get at times and thought it best for Catherine to avoid a confrontation if she could.
"Thanks for this dress. I really mean that. It is breathtaking." Bea squeezed her friends hands in hers and she tried to convey how sincerely thankful she was as she gazed into her friends' face. But it was clear that Catherine's mind was somewhere else as she gave a modest smile and returned the squeeze. Bea took the chance to try to help her by turning her friend around to face her reflection in the mirror.
"This silver one is the one for you. You look amazing!" Bea pulled a springy lock of curl to lay across Catherine's shoulder as she smiled approvingly at her.
Catherine's face wrinkled again. But then she caught Bea's smile in the reflection and relaxed. "Do you think it really does look good?"
"YES! It is beautiful! And with your gorgeous hair and pretty little face, you really are a vision." Bea had plopped herself down into the chair that sat in front of the little vanity across the room and was tugging at her own straight, boring hair.
Catherine left her reflection to see to her friend. "Don't worry. We'll make your hair pretty too."
Bea felt just as she had as a small kid sitting in this very room. Her legs would kick around excitedly as Mrs. Royce would work her magic to make Bea's hair full of curls, and one year even made her hair a crazy bight shade of pink. Catherine saw Bea's silly behavior and laughed as she prepared herself to fix Bea's hair.
"I think you should keep your natural color this year. It is such a pretty shade of blue and looks really nice with the dress."
Bea nodded and replied, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. But I get curls right?"
"Yes, yes, you get curls." Catherine had taken a small step back and had gently directed her fingertips towards Bea's hair. She had started on the left side and sections of Bea's long, straight, blue hair wrapped themselves around nothing to create delicate, bouncy curls. Bea's smile was ridiculously huge as she watched the process in action. But Bea's smile faded as she saw that Catherine's expression had frozen.
"What's wrong?" Bea asked.
Catherine shook her hand a little and dust sprinkled feebly from her fingertips. "I think I'm out."
Bea stood up, not meaning to knock over the delicate chair she had been sitting on, and grabbed her friend’s wrists. "What do you mean, you're out?"
"Bea, don't freak out on me. It was bound to happen, right? I mean, I overdid it with all those dresses
. I think I just need some down time. This has happened to you before too, hasn't it?" Catherine said with half a smile
"NO!” Bea was pacing the room as she spoke. She found herself in front of the long mirror and she saw her hair, half beautiful curls, and half limp nothingness. She couldn't go to the solstice looking like this. She turned to her friend, but then realized she couldn't really be mad at Catherine. Catherine hadn't done anything wrong. If anything she had done everything right, so right that she could do nothing more. Of course Bea had never run out of dust. She had never done any complicated magic and had never been taxed to do lots of work either. She felt embarrassment wash over her and she thought how selfish she was being. She slowly walked back to the vanity, picked up the overturned chair, and searched for her friend's gaze in the mirror.
"I'm sorry. I freaked out. I know you have done so much. I have never done even half as much magic as you have done, just today. It would take a miracle for me to ever run out of dust. It never even crossed my mind as being a possibility. I'm sorry for being silly. Maybe we can ask your mom to fix my hair." Bea suggested imploringly.
Catherine's gaze froze. "No, we can't let her know that I ran out. I told her I would take care of everything this year. If she knew I had run out, she would be suspicious and she would probably find out about all these dresses."
"Oh, that would not be good. OK, it's no big deal. I'll just go to the solstice like this. Maybe I can twist up the straight side and pin it in the back so you can't tell." Bea offered, as she tugged at her hair and tried in a feeble attempt to style it with her own fumbling fingers.
Bea was surprised to hear Catherine laugh at her. "Don't be silly! We'll ask Curtis."
"Curtis! Are you sure?" Bea wasn't sure about letting a boy fix her hair, even if it was Curtis.
Catherine seemed to read Bea's mind as she said, "Curtis is amazing. Better than me. You don't know this, but he actually has taught me a lot of what I know how to do. He has this amazing knack for making things beautiful, I just don't get it. I really do sometimes think he was supposed to be a girl."
"He does have crazy magic skills. Are you sure?" Bea asked.
"To be honest, I think his heart broke a little bit every year that you, me and mother locked ourselves in here to get ready for the solstice. Let me go get him " Catherine left the room for a second and Bea could hear muffled voices through the walls. Then a door burst open and before Bea had a chance to focus, Curtis was standing behind Bea smiling at her reflection.
Catherine had followed him into the room and quietly shut the door behind her. Bea smiled at Curtis and asked, "Are you sure you are OK to do this though, after your lessons with the Ancients, do they leave you with much dust? I don't want both of you to be out."
Curtis couldn't wipe the huge smile off his face if he tried as he casually ran his fingers through Bea's hair.
Catherine grabbed her brother's arm and pulled his attention away from Bea and towards the bed piled high with dresses. "I also really need your help getting those back to dust. Will you be able to do both things before mother gets home? Please."
"Yeah, I'm good. Don't worry sis. Let's get Bea ready first though so she can relax and then we will get rid of the evidence of your vanity." Curtis turned again to Bea's reflection. He took a moment to assess the work Catherine had done on the left side. He kept checking how much curl the hair had and where the locks fell along her back.
"OK. I think we are good to go. You ready?" Bea gave a nervous nod and stiffened her shoulders as she prepared for Curtis' magic. Curtis too took a small step back and held his hand up. Dust shot delicately from his fingertips as he swept across Bea's hair. Any apprehension Bea may have shown on her face disappeared in an instant as Curtis recreated the same curls that Catherine had made before. Now, Bea had a beautiful head of bouncy playful curls. Bea was about to jump up and hug Curtis and Catherine in thanks when she found Curtis had gently placed his hands on her shoulders, keeping her in her seat.
"Now, I think you need to do something with these curls, because you look like you did when you were eight."
Bea shook her head and felt her hair gently bounce. "What do you mean? I love it like this!"
Curtis laughed through his nose, "I know you love it. But you look like a kid."
"Ooh, can you put pretty pins in it too, like your mom always does?"
"Pretty pins? Really, Bea?” Curtis shook his head and shared a knowing glance with his sister before he focused on Bea again.
"You are going to be going into training later this year. It is time for a new look, something a little more grown up, don't you think?" And without really waiting for Bea's response, sparkling, dancing dust had left Curtis' fingertips and wove themselves around Bea's hair. Sections on either side twisted back, leaving her face free of stray curls. Bea felt little pulls at her hair here and there and before she could even find her voice, Curtis had turned her around and given her a hand mirror so that she see the back of her hair. The curls were all delicately arranged and were cascading down her back between her wings. There were small sparkling pearls here and there that brought out the same pearls in her wings. Bea had to catch her breath as she stared at what Curtis had done. As she turned her head she could feel that there were no more bouncy curls for her toss around and enjoy. But instead, the formal look made her hold her head high and in a way that made Bea feel more mature and more beautiful than she had ever felt before.
"Thanks, Curtis," Bea mumbled as she continued to stare at his handiwork.
Curtis looked satisfied as he turned on his heel to look at Catherine's dresses. "You look really pretty sis," he said as he gave an approving nod.
Catherine found herself stuck in front of the mirror once more with her face wrinkled up again. Curtis grabbed her shoulders and lowered himself to whisper into her ear, "I still don't approve of why you are going to all of this trouble though."
Bea had just pulled herself from staring at her own reflection when she caught the end of Curtis' hushed words. "What are you two talking about? What do you mean you don't approve?"
Curtis made to speak, but Catherine cut him off, "Oh, you know, just that I wasted so much time and dust on all these silly dresses just because I wanted to do everything myself this year."
"Yea, that's it," Curtis said as he rolled his eyes. Bea wanted to press them further, but was soon distracted by Curtis as he had started working the complex magic of reversing the process of making all the dresses on Catherine's bed. As he pointed his fingers at each dress they were drawn up to hover over the floor. Slowly each dress seemed to erase itself in stages. The delicate accents disappeared first until simple dress forms remained and then those too faded and faded until, with a light snap, only dust remained. Curtis then directed the dust into small containers he had made appear out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes all of Catherine's incredibly hard work had been destroyed and forced into the little bottles that shone feebly in the sunlit room.
Bea grabbed one of the bottles and held it between her fingers. "So this is what recycled dust looks like. It is kind of dull, compared to other dust."
Curtis had gathered the remaining bottles into a bag and put his hand out for the last one Bea held. "Yeah, I know that the Ancients are trying to figure out a way to keep the grade when we recycle from things that used higher-grade dust. Right now, if you do that magic to get things back to dust, you just wind up with medium regular-grade."
"Thanks Curtis, for getting those cleared away for me. You really are a lifesaver. ” Catherine said as she took inventory of her room, checking that everything looked normal again.
"Thank you Curtis for fixing my hair too!" Bea added cheerfully.
Curtis smiled his thanks and added, "Yeah, but if anyone asks, that was all Catherine, OK?"
"No problem. So, are we leaving soon?" Bea was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.
Curtis laughed and headed back to his room. "Give me one second to get rea
dy myself, if you don't mind."
Soon the three of them were headed out the door. They took a pod that brought them right in front of the Main Hall. It was still early evening, but the park that encircled the Main Hall, at the center of island, seemed to be glowing and sparkling. There were beautiful flowers and streamers running all around the park and there were iridescent bubbles at intervals, each containing what Bea knew would later shine and sparkle like stars. The decorations wove all the way up to the streets of shops that curved around in front and behind the Main Hall. Here was where people set up stalls and carts to sell treats for the festivities. Just like other dream fairy food, everything was made with dust and had a delicate sweet taste too it. The flavor was not what was so enjoyable about these treats, however. There were little butterflies that were like the ones that were on Catherine's birthday cake when she turned eight. If you gave them a chance they would flutter in your mouth for a few moments. Little brightly colored flowers had a buttery quality to them as they would slowly melt and then take over your entire mouth with a divine sweetness. There were also sparkling stars that were the main treat of the festivities. These too had the same sweetness, but were rather like hard candies that stayed in your mouth setting off small sparkles that always made Bea's stomach jump in excitement.
Bea had already run off to get some treats, leaving Curtis and Catherine to try to catch up to her. Many of the fairies from the island had begun to arrive at the festivities. Younger fairies were all running up and down in front of the stalls and carts begging their parents to get them something. Bea's face flushed as she realized that she was soon completely surrounded by young fairies that had not even bloomed yet. She took a step away and let them rush forward to get their treats. Bea had just popped another sparkling star in her mouth when she spotted her parents. Her mother had a ridiculous grin on her face as she moved a little ahead of Mr. Featherstone.
"Wow, you look beautiful!" Mrs. Featherstone gushed.
Bea turned to Catherine with a smile. "All her, mom."
Mrs. Featherstone looked surprised and then smiled at Catherine. "Of course. I imagined you would take over the yearly rituals of getting ready. You are amazingly talented Catherine. I think even better than your mom." Mrs. Featherstone ended her praise with a gentle squeeze of Catherine's arm that made Catherine's face turn pink. The sun had started to go down and the little bubbles were making small popping noises as they each lit up into sparkling, brilliant balls of stars. The new lighting seemed to make the dresses that Catherine made sparkle and dance more than before. Bea felt silly and giddy and wanted to run around like she did as a kid. She looked enviously at the small group of kids that she had let pass in front of her to get treats earlier. Then Bea caught her mother whispering something to her father. Her father's faced seemed to change from his usual smile to one of concern. Mrs. Featherstone walked over and took Bea by the hand, away from the group. Bea could hear her father speaking with Curtis and Catherine behind her.
"You really do look so pretty. I know we don't let you do things like that with your hair usually and this dress, well, this dress is certainly nothing I could have made. But you know, it really is worth it to see you shine like this tonight."
Bea felt oddly embarrassed by her mother's words. "Whatever, mom."
Mrs. Featherstone's smile spoke so much. Bea always loved how her mother always seemed to really get what she was thinking.
"Listen. I wanted to talk to you about something." Mrs. Featherstone's voice had dropped a little as she leaned in to speak to Bea. "It's about the fire."
The True Stories of Dream Fairies: Bloom Page 11