Chapter Three

As soon as we had crossed the threshold into my room, Mae threw herself onto my bed, "Well that Daniel Jackson is quite handsome. Why have I never seen him before?" I had moved over to my closet and started pulling out the few evening dresses I had. I laid them out on the bed as Mae continued staring at the ceiling.

"He's not from around here."

She sat up quickly and stared at me, "Oh, so where is he from? Queens?"

I shook my head and laughed, "No, farther than that." She gave me an exasperated look and I laughed again, "He's from Tennessee."

Her eyebrows shot up and she smirked, "How cute. A nice country boy." Shaking my head, I moved over to my small vanity and pulled my makeup out.

"Are you going to help me get ready or not?" Mae jumped to her feet and began to walk back and forth in front of the three dresses I had pulled from my closet.

She rubbed her chin and squinted at each dress, "So you're not going to say anything about that fine man sitting in your dining room right now?" She turned to me with a perfectly sculpted brow raised. I shook my head at her and pointed to the dresses. She scoffed as she turned back around and continued her inspection. If I knew Mae, then this was going to take longer than it should. "So that wasn't you out there looking at him with eyes full of love?" She turned and smirked at me, but I only rolled my eyes.

"I've only met him two hours ago." She shrugged, and I waved her off, "I was not looking at him with love in my eyes."

This time it was her turn to wave me off, "Please, you were looking at him with something in your eyes." I ignored her and sifted through the lipsticks in my hands. She snorted, trying to get my attention, "So you don't think he's handsome?" I tried to ignore her, but she started to nudge me, smirking at me in the reflection of the mirror.

Finally, I sighed and turned around, "I think you're khaki wacky." She rolled her eyes as I turned back to the mirror.

She fell back onto my bed again, "You sound like my mother." It was quiet for a moment as I stood up and made my way over to the bed. Mae's eyes were closed, and her hands were clasped together, resting on her stomach.

I laid down next to her, "How is that going?"

Mae squinted one eye open, "As well as you'd expect. She keeps pushing him at me and I keep stepping back. He's a dear, though." She nodded, "He sticks around despite the signs pointing to a dead end." She sighed, and I reached over, taking one of her hands in my own. She squeezed my hand and I smiled. Mae threw her free arm up, "But her! She doesn't get it. She doesn't get me. She just thinks I want to gallivant around with all different men when I should be getting married and settling down. I don't want any of that though. I don't want to get married and start popping out babies and be some housewife." She looked at me quickly, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." She looked back to the ceiling, sighing, "It's just not me, so I go out and do "indecent" things to get away from it."

We sat in silence for a few minutes before I turned and looked at her, speaking softly, "What do you want?"

"Truly?"

My smile widened, "Truly."

Her eyes sparkled as a grin broke out on her face, not matter how hard she tried to stay serious, "I want to be an actress. Being out there and playing a part in telling all these stories to people."

"You'd be a good actress."

She turned her head to look at me, "You think so?"

I nodded, "Oh yeah, you definitely have a flair for the dramatics." I laughed as her face hardened and she pushed me straight to the floor. She sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. I nudged her with my elbow, but she didn't move. "Mae, I was only kidding. I honestly think you'd be a great actress." She huffed and turned her head. Rolling my eyes, I thought over all the possible things I could say, so that she would at least look at me. I sighed. I didn't want to have to bring this up, but I had no choice. Resting my chin in the palm of my hand, I looked up at my best friend, "I think Daniel is very handsome." Her arms loosened, and she turned to me, a big smirk on her face.

"I knew it." She jumped up from her spot and went back to the dresses.

I picked myself up from the floor, "Yes, well are you going to help me get ready now?"

She finally picked a dress and shoved it into my arms, "Of course! You have to look perfect tonight." She winked at me, "Knock the socks right off of Tennessee." Shaking my head, I fought the grin that was threatening to break out on my lips. Mae pushed me forward and gestured to the dress, "Well get changed. I still have to fix your hair and do your makeup."

I stepped forward, "You act as though I'm incapable of doing these things on my own." Mae only pushed me harder, so I shut my mouth and slipped into the dress. Mae circled me and pulled a bit at some parts of the dress before she stopped in front of me and clapped, a grin on her face, "Perfect." She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the vanity. Pushing me onto the small stool in front of the mirror, she picked up a few hairpins, "Now just a couple of finishing touches to your hair and makeup…" She combed her fingers through my hair and pinned a few rolls before tossing the extra pins down and picked up my favorite red lipstick. After a few more swipes of brushes, Mae was satisfied, and she turned me around to face the mirror, "What do you think?"

I smiled at her through the reflection, "Perfect." I turned to face her, "Thank you, Mae."

She smirked, helping me up from the stool, "Don't mention it, kid." I rolled my eyes at her and waited as she primped herself for a minute before taking my hand again and leading me down the hall, back to the dining room. Everyone was in their same spots around the table, talking over coffee, but they stopped when Mae and I stepped into the room. Ma gushed about how nice we looked while Pops' expression turned stern and I could tell that he wanted to change his mind and make me stay home, but he kept quiet. Mae smirked over at Richard, "You fellas ready to go?" Richard nodded and stood up, slapping Daniel's shoulder. I looked over to the sharpshooter who had been rooted to his spot, but was roused by Richard's smack. He stared at me as he stood from his seat and followed Richard over to the front door. Mae and I followed closely behind, calling our goodbyes back to my parents.

Thank you to all of my readers. I hope you enjoy this chapter. The next one will have more interactions between Clara and our wonderful Private Jackson. I wanted to use this chapter to show the friendship between Clara and Mae because it's important to me and to Clara's character. This is a romance, but it's not just a romance. There's a lot of other things that are going to be happening and Clara is not just a love interest. This is her story, so we're going to be seeing all different aspects of her life.

Oh and khaki wacky means boy crazy.