In a Bedroom

A young woman around the age of 19 with long wavy blonde hair with a small strand sticking up and stunning blue eyes, was sitting in her room eating breakfast while practicing for an event later today. Every 6 months starting at the age of 18, girls visit the town matchmaker in hopes of being able to be married by 20 years of age. This girl is seen to have written words on her arm and is reciting them.

"Quiet and demure. Graceful. Polite," she repeats as she shoves food in her mouth."Delicate. Refined. Poised. Punctual!" she exclaims as she finishes writing down her notes. The sound of a rooster could be heard in the distance signifying late morning. Surprised she rushes out of bed to get ready for the day, and do her chores.

"Monty!" She calls out while blowing on her arm. "Mo-ah! There you are. Who's the smartest doggy in the world? Come on, smart boy. Can you help me with my chores today?" she coos at the small dog as she attaches a stick with a bone on it and a bag of chicken feed to him. As he starts freaking out and running around she opens the door and lets him run outside. He starts chasing the bone all across the estate feeding the chickens that are just wandering around. Going up to the shrine he paces by the family horse Tony who just looks on with an un-amused expression as he runs passed.

In the shrine is the girl's father, a blonde haired man with bushy eyebrows, blonde hair, deep emerald eyes, and a cane, praying to the ones who passed for the girl to finally succeed in finding a groom. "Honorable ancestors, please help my dear Amelia impress the Matchmaker today." Barking gets louder and louder as Monty runs up to the shrine and around the praying man, dragging chicken seed through the shrine with chickens not far behind. With one final plead he gets up and exits.

As Amelia walks up the stairs of the shrine, she stops and pushes the bone into Monty's mouth. Standing up she bumps into her father, "Father, I brought your...Whoa!" She says as she drops the serving platter with a tea kettle and cup.

Her father manages to catch the tea kettle, "Amelia."

"I brought a spare." She says while she pulls out another cup.

"Amelia," her father says while she pours the tea into a cup.

"Remember, the doctor said three cups of tea in the morning..." she says while obviously not listening.

"Amelia."

"And three at night."

Her father finally getting her attention tells her, "Amelia, you should already be in town. We are counting on you..."

"To uphold the family honor. Don't worry, Father. I won't let you down," Amelia said reassuringly to her father as she pulls down her sleeve over her ink covered arm. "Wish me luck."

"Hurry!" Arthur, her father yells. Looking down at Monty with the bone in his mouth he sighs, "I'm going to pray some more."

Town square with people running everywhere

"Francine, is your daughter here yet? The Matchmaker is not a patient woman," A woman says as she exits a building acknowledging the two waiting women outside.

"Of all days to be late... I should have prayed to the ancestors for luck." The older woman said. She was very beautiful with dirty blonde hair in a bun, gorgeous indigo eyes, and a very elegant dress.

"Maman I don't think they'd be that lucky, they're all dead," concluded the younger woman. She was about 19 as well and almost identical to Amelia except for her purple eyes and curly hair with a curled strand sticking out. "Besides, according to legend crickets are a huge good luck charm. Mind if I test it out?"

" Go ahead Madeline, but be careful!"

Walking to the edge of the road Madeline covers her eyes and starts to walk forward into the road. As she is walking people start to swerve and avoid her crashing into each other, all the while Francine is cringing and covering her eyes. Taking her hand off her eyes she exclaims happy, "It worked maman, crickets are lucky!" Looking around she notices all the people crashed in the road. "Oh."

"Don't worry about it mon cher, at least you're alright," Francine calls out. Sighing she looks around starting to get impatient waiting for Amelia.

Hearing a horse neighing in the distance she turns to find Amelia arriving quickly on Tony. Pulling in to a quick stop, she jumps off the horse. "I'm here," she exclaims as she throws her hands in the air. Looking over at her angry mother, "What? But maman, I had to..."

"None of your excuses. Now, let's get you two cleaned up." She says as she pushes both girls into the beauty parlor.

Walking over to Madeline the head woman yells happily, "Ah Amelia, I'm glad you could finally arrive!"

Madeline sighing explains to the woman, "Sorry miss, but I'm Madeline." After that she is pulled away by another woman.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear. Now Amelia," turning to Amelia. "We better get started!"

Pulling Amelia behind a curtain, she starts undressing and dumping her in a bath full of water. "It's freezing," Amelia shivers.

"It would've been warm if you had been on time," her mother explains. The woman, Michelle, comes back with a jug of water and dumps it on her. Sitting up, Amelia starts to cover herself to keep warm while Michelle started to wash her hair. With a sponge in hand Francine takes Amelia's arm. "Amelia what's this?" she asks referring to the ink on her arm.

"Notes, in case I forget something." She says taking her arm back. Madeline done with her bath and in a new set of clothes gives the cricket to her mother.

"I'll go get some more lucky charms," she says while walking away.

"Hurry back," Her mother yells.

"I will."

A few minutes later after Amelia is dry from her bath, Michelle and another woman, Emma, start doing her hair and putting it up. After much resistance they finally got that pesky strand to stay down. But while they weren't looking Amelia undid the strand and let it stay up. Finishing up with the hair, her mom dragged Amelia and Madeline outside and to the boutique. Walking along they came upon a board game where two men were playing. Amelia after a few minutes of inspecting interrupted and made the winning move of the game. The man who's turn it was thanked her while the other looked at the board with disbelieve. Francine came by and grabbed Amelia's arm. Reaching the boutique two women started to dress her. With the corset first they tugged the strings till they were tight, and started to pick out an elegant dress. It was a long sleeved dress that went down to below her knees in layers, and had a lace outer layer.

Leaving the boutique she noticed that Madeline was in a similar version to her dress, but it was longer and purple. Walking through town they came upon a girl playing with her doll and a couple of boys pretending to be soldiers. One of the boys had taken the girl's doll and was keeping it out of reach. Amelia grabbed it and handed it back to the girl, who thanked her while hugging it to her chest with her brother chasing the boys in the background.

In the final preparation for the Matchmaker, Amelia was sitting down while there was makeup applied to her. Finishing up her mother pulled out a a star hair pin as the final touch. "There. You're ready."

Madeline appeared from her side of the room with a maple pendant in her hair. "Not yet. Here is my necklace Amelia, to give you the feeling that I'll be in there with you." She said while taking of her necklace which had two charms, A star and a maple leaf. She also handed Amelia the cricket from earlier while Amelia laughed. Finally they were ready.

Walking to the Matchmaker's Amelia looks to the sky and pleads under her breath, "Ancestors, hear my plea, please don't let me screw up today. It would have affect my family dearly. Also please keep my father standing tall."

Looking over and noticing her sister's nervous expression Madeline reassures her, "You'll do great don't worry about it." Amelia smiled and muttered a thank you.

Lining up with the rest of the girls the two girls waited to be called. All of a sudden a large woman burst out with a checklist. "Amelia Kirkland."

"Here," Amelia calls as she raises her hand.

"Speaking without permission," the woman points out as she writes on the notepad.

Amelia cringed walking into the building in front of her, "Oops." When she got in the Matchmaker slammed the door behind her.

Inspecting Amelia the Matchmaker shook her head and wrote down while she said, "Too skinny. Hmph. Not good for bearing children." While she said this the cricket in the cage attached to Amelia's hip escaped and was bouncing around while Amelia tried to catch it. When she caught it she tried to put it back in the cage, but it jumped away. With the Matchmaker coming back she shoved the cricket in her mouth. "Recite the final admonition."

Nodding Amelia pulled out the fan and spit out the cricket, "Fulfill your duty calmly and respectfully." She says looking down at her ink stained arm now with the ink a bit blurry. "Reflect before you snack...Act! This shall bring you honor and glory." she hurries fanning herself feeling more nervous than she was before.

The Matchmaker grabbed her arm, covering the ink and looked at her fan for any sign of cheating. "Hmm. This way." She pulls Amelia over to a table. Letting go of Amelia's arm the ink stained her hand unknowingly. Bringing over the teapot, she gestures to Amelia, "Now, pour the tea."

Amelia bewildered reaches for the teapot all the while paying close attention to the Matchmaker's ink covered hand. The Matchmaker explains while rambling on, "To please your future in-laws, you must demonstrate a sense of dignity and refinement." And with that she wipes her fingers around her mouth creating a beard of ink. Amelia too engrossed in the fact that the woman hasn't noticed the ink on her hands and face, misses the teacup when she starts to pour the tea. Catching herself she starts to pour the tea into the cup. Looking down she notices the cricket relaxing into the cup. "You must also be poised." The Matchmaker grabs the cup and pulls it towards her.

"Pardon me."

"And silent!" The woman smells the tea breathing in. "Ah."

Climbing on the table Amelia grabs the cup, "Could I just take that back?" Fighting back and forth for the cup Amelia braces her foot on the Matchmaker, "One moment." The Matchmaker and Amelia fall back with the tea and the cricket falling on the Matchmaker.

"Why you clumsy..." The woman goes after her. In her clothes you can see the cricket moving around inside trying to get out. While moving around trying to get the cricket out the Matchmaker into a pot of hot coals spilling them on the floor. She fell on top of them before jumping up with the back of her dress on fire. Thinking quickly Amelia grabbed the tea kettle and threw the remainder of the tea on the jumping woman.

Outside while listening to the shattering of glass, Francine and Madeline were waiting outside cringing. "It's seems to be going better than the previous times don't you think maman?"

"I guess so," Francine sighs with her hands on her face. Bursting out of the door with smoke behind her Amelia runs towards her mom and sister. Following her was the furious Matchmaker soaking wet with makeup running down her face. Following Amelia the cricket hops back into his cage closing the door.

"You are a disgrace!" yells the Matchmaker throwing the tea kettle on the ground shattering it. "You may look like a bride, but you will never bring your family honor!" And with that she rushes back inside. Distraught with the words that were said to her, Amelia starts to walk home with the townsfolk giving her sorrowful looks.

Translations:

maman: Mom

mon cher: my dear

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