A little excitement had started up when Diana's parents chose to host a Christmas season's party at the pleas of both Diana and Anne.
Aunt Josephine wouldn't be holding hers for a awhile yet and a party, though both girl's agreed it could never compete with Jo's, was a lovely event to look forward too.
So for weeks the pair had worked with Mrs. Barry over theme, decor and food. The furniture had been shifted entirely from the entire downstairs, to leave room for dancing.
Mrs. Barry shown a random act of extreme kindness and didn't only order new party dresses for herself and her two daughters, but also one for Anne. She informed them all of this when Marilla had finally accepted to come in for tea while the girls debated over colors for decor. Marilla had been horrified and demanded that she pay the women back, but Mrs. Barry refused entirely. She said to take it as payment for the stress her prejudice had put on young Anne's heart. This didn't stop Anne from being sent every other day with a basket of pastries and other small gifts but it had finally satisfied both women.
The second the new outfits were ready, the day before the party, she sent their farmhand out on the errand to fetch them as quickly as he could, and he would be payed extra if he was speedy. This sent the boy on a run for his life and she called her other boy from the coop to gather up the pair from Green Gables.
About an hour had passed before on the hill a dot was speeding with boxes of dresses, the fastest Mrs. Barry had ever seen a trip to the dressmakers take. She gave him his promised reward and sent him back out to mend the stable door. The boxes were labeled delicately and with good time, Anne and Marilla appeared in the entry way.
Diana sped down the stairs, apparently forgetting everything she had ever been taught about manners and almost knocked Anne over with a hug. They all walked back inside and pulled their newest garments from the packaging, the youngest of the group was left in it's packaging as she was napping.
Elizabeth Barry opened her box first, quickly checking over the details she had requested and pulled at seams to ensure they would last. Her dress was of a vibrant deep blue, while Minnie May's was a sky blue. After examining her gown, she turned to watch the others unbox their own.
Diana pulled a lavender dress from her own box, with the spread ruffle collar she was so fond of. (Think the dress she wore to Josephine's party) The neck between the ruffles was rounded at the collarbone rather then high up her neck as her previous party dress had been. She was growing into a lovely young women and her clothes had to reflect it. A sash still came in cream, but beneath the dress was a boneless corset, along with a lavender hair ribbon trimmed in cream lace. The corset would be comfortable enough for her to enjoy the night in but still show off how incredibly slim her waist was.
Diana snatched it up, eyes shining in happiness. The lacy undergarment was a passage of womanhood. Anne squealed and hugged her friend, sharing in her joy. Diana gestured for Anne to get on with opening her own box, which she happily did. She pulled a silky garment of emerald green, with white lace trim and of course, large puffed sleeves. She held it up in front of herself, and hugged it tight as though if she loosened her grip it may disappear altogether.
Marilla was smiling but she shook her head at Anne's antics. "Look beneath it child."
Anne lowered her dress the slightest bit to gasp in delight at the boneless corset before her. She pulled it out and Diana and herself squealed in excitement. Her hair ribbon lay abandoned but nobody minded as she was too busy taking joy in her other delights.
Marilla walked to the front door, calling over her shoulder for Anne to mind her manners and to actually sleep before the party, and with that, she left. They had decided to let Anne stay over at the Barry's so she could oversee the preparations and she and Diana could assist each other in getting ready.
—
Diana tugged roughly through Anne's hair that had grown longer since the incident of her dying and cutting it. She did however, skip running a comb through it this morning and had tugged the knotted bits into her signature braids. Diana already had curling rags in, and while her mother twisted Minnie May's up, Diana was in charge of taming Anne's mess of hair. Anne whined and tilted her head as Diana pulled at a knot.
"If you had any sense at all, you would have caught these knots this morning and we wouldn't have to do this." Diana scoffed, pulling harder.
Anne grumbled.
"Talk about something pleasant Diana, to make this agonizing process go faster."
Diana grinned a little. Anne had brought this upon herself.
"Well, in your opinion of pleasant things, hmm."
She tore through another knot.
"Gilbert Blythe."
Anne scoffed. "As if Diana."
"And yet it is."
"No it's not."
"Let me think, his nose is rather nicely shaped, isn't it."
Anne was silent.
"And his jaw is lovely."
Not a peep.
"His hair is always so pleasant and soft looking."
She didn't even squeak when Diana pulled out the largest knot of all.
"And those eyes are so warm and friendly."
The knots were gone and Anne was shut up.
Diana continued on as she began to wrap Anne's hair with the rags.
"Very bright that boy, almost your equal."
She twisted tightly and Anne hissed through her teeth.
"Not terribly built by physical standards, all that time away from home did his figure nicely."
She pulled another piece of hair snug.
Anne finally piped up.
"You know Diana, if I hadn't been quite so observant of you and your interactions with Jerry I would think you'd be willing to give Ruby a run for her money."
Diana rolled her eyes and pulled as tight as she could, just for that comment.
"Well Jerry isn't coming but Gilbert will be. But so will Ruby so be careful of her position and his in relation to the mistletoe."
Anne's attention was piqued.
"Mistletoe?"
Diana snugged another curl.
"Yes, we are bringing in little ones for each doorway and some random positions on the ceiling, just to make the party a bit more lively."
Anne sighed, partially from the concept and partially from Diana pulling her hair nearly away from her scalp.
"That's very romantical, mistletoe. But I shan't get caught under it with anyone, is Cole coming to the party?"
Diana shook her head at Anne's quick topic change.
"He should be, Aunt Jo said she'd bring him along."
Anne smiled and shifted with pleasure in her seat.
Diana tugged the last piece of hair into its rag and finally Anne's hair was curled.
Minnie Mays nurse hurried into the doors, with both arms loaded down with the weight of both dresses and holly branches.
"You two are supposed to form a few crowns of this, especially your own. The rest of the household can work on the others and then it's straight to bed with both of you."
She scurried from the room and both girls grinned at the idea of being able to stay up a little later.
They lay out their dress so they wouldn't crinkle and began to form little circlets of the holly branches.
Which proved to be rather challenging. The pointed leaves were stiff and painful, so they had to remove the pointed tips from the ends. The branch itself was hard to form but with some trial and error they had created their own crowns along with four others before they ran out of holly.
They lay out the crowns, and dawned their night dresses. It wasn't long before they were both laying in Diana's bed side by side.
"Diana?"
"Yes?"
Anne fell silent for a moment, the only sound being her breathing.
"Do you think, Gilbert likes green?"
Diana almost jumped up and danced in victory, she'd been waiting for so long for either of them to say anything like this. She squeezed her toes and fists to contain her excitement.
"I would think so, he wears it, doesn't he?"
Anne shrugged beside her.
Diana pushed down her millions of questions, this was ever so delicate and she would handle it like a piece of fine china.
"Don't worry about it Anne, you're always beautiful in our eyes."
Anne hummed her response and leaned onto Diana's shoulder.
Diana smiled and closed her eyes for the night
—
When she rose, Anne was still asleep beside her and the sun had barely begun breathing. Not that it mattered to Diana. She was far too excited to stay asleep and wait on the sun.
Diana pulled her candle from her bed and struck a match to life. She padded barefoot out of her bed, careful not to rouse Anne.
The girl tip toed to the stair banister, where she watched the ever working household scramble to fix all last minute decorations, setting out food, straightening tablecloths and garland.
She grinned joyfully, filling the excitement bubble in her chest. Unable to wait any longer, she dashed back to her own room and pounced on Anne.
Anne startled and shot up straight only to come nose to nose with an overeager bosom friend.
She grinned and tugged her legs from under the quilt they had shared. They both bounced up off the bed and ran to Diana's dressing room.
Diana hurriedly picked up two rags and the pair dipped them into her basin, and began to scrub at their skin, as the sun began to filter through the window.
Faces now clean, they both turned to remove their nightgowns, leaving them shivering in their chemises.
Unsure of which layers came first, they chose to pull the corset over the chemise- partially because of Anne's fear of fainting and the corset being removed, leaving her bare in public. Diana did not share the fear but instead chose to do the same, nervous about the texture of it against her bare skin.
Anne, always a bold one, offered to go first. She clipped the front closed around her torso and Diana stood behind her, gathered up the laces and pulled. She did so without warning, however and Anne stumbled backwards.
"Warn me next time Diana, I'll hold the bed post."
They shuffled over to the bed post and Diana tugged the strings until Anne deemed herself just on the edge of uncomfortable. Diana tied off the end and walked in front of her friend to see the effect it had on her figure. It had pulled her waist in neatly, and while it made no drastic stick of her waist, it still looked nice on her.
Anne handed her dark haired friend her own corset, and waited while she fidgeted with the front clasps. Once they had closed, Diana gripped the end of her bed.
"Go for it."
Anne tightened her friends waist until Diana raised a hand as signal to stop.
They both examined the effect together.
Anne sighed in partial jealousy.
"Oh dear Diana, how small your waist is. I envy your perfection."
Diana laughed, was relieved that she could and replied, "You're perfect too Anne, Gilbert will fall over tonight when he sees you."
Anne just shook her head and walked over to where the dresses lay side by side, and pulled her forest green to her. Diana hurried over, cursing herself for bringing him up, and helped Anne to tug the dress over her head, careful not to catch her curling rags. She stopped midway in shock.
"Anne!"
Anne froze and turned to meet her eye. "What?!"
"We forgot to put our stockings on before our corsets!"
Anne's mouth dropped slightly. "Uh oh."
They both hurried over to where their stockings lay with their hair ribbons.
Anne gathered up Diana's stockings and ungracefully dropped onto her stomach.
"Dear Princess Diana, please allow me to grace your lovely feet with these meager stockings."
Diana laughed and allowed Anne to awkwardly pull them up her shins. She extended an arm and pulled Anne to her feet, and with a snatch of Anne's own stockings, dropped down onto her stomach with as much grace as she could. Which wasn't much.
"Dearest, most beautiful Princess Cordelia, allow me."
Anne lifted a foot and then the other and Diana managed to pull both up as needed.
She got back up and finished pulling Anne's lovely dress down over her body. Anne pulled the white lace at the end of her puffed sleeves and hem to straighten them while Diana clipped the shiny black buttons, little ones, up the back.
She slipped into her own lavender dress, tracing the collar and the ruffles that extended from her shoulder and met in the middle of her chest, while Anne's nimble fingers buttoned up the little cream beads that lined her spine.
The pair bounced on their toes excitedly, grasping each others hands while they spun joyfully. High on their own anticipation, they slid on their shoes and Diana began to unwind her own hair ribbons while Anne lay dreamily on her bed.
Diana peered at Anne in the corner of her mirror. She had propped her legs against the wall while she waited for Diana's assistance. Last rag removed, Diana's ocean of glossy curls hung full and beautiful over her shoulders. Satisfied, she pulled the upper bits back with her new cream trimmed ribbon and smiled at her reflection.
Anne left the bed and dropped her chin on Diana's shoulder. "Diana, if you aren't the splitting image of a princess." Her voice trailed off.
Diana set to pull Anne's own hair from it's strips of cloth, smiling as ruby ringlets dropped down neatly.
She had done well.
While her hair was a bit thinner then Diana's waves, the curls still came out nicely and held fast to the green ribbon.
Anne smiled at her own reflection, pleaser with what she saw.
Fully clothed and ready for festivities, the pair flounced down the stairs.
It was only late morning when they made their way downstairs but the entire party had been set up, and Minnie May was sitting on a velvet chair, swinging her legs while her nurse slowly pulled her curling rags loose.
Both of Diana's parents were fixing anything they were not pleased with, and hanging last minute bits of mistletoe from the ceiling. Anne mentally mapped out the ceilings and door frames that were littered with with the seemingly innocent plant.
And finally, the first knock at the door sounded, one promising to kick off the night.
(if you want the next part, all you have to do is say so)