"Chelsea, over here!" Chelsea looked in the direction of the voice and smiled when she saw Lanna and Julia seated at a table towards the back off Duke's Diner.
"Hey ladies," she chirped, plopping down next to Lanna.
"Morning," both of the blondes greeted.
"It's been awhile since we've had a girl's day, huh?" Julia grinned excitedly.
"Ugh, it's been way too long," Lanna groaned in agreement. Chelsea quirked an eyebrow at her friend's exaggeration.
"A week is way too long?"
"Yeah, and we would have got together sooner if you weren't so busy with Denny," Julia said, saying his name in a sing-song voice and winking. Lanna wasn't phased.
"Please, Denny and me are friends." Julia suddenly looked very concerned and reached across the table to feel her forehead.
"Oh, darlin', you...you feel like you're in DENIAL," she drawled, chuckling as the darker blond knocked her hand away and looked to Chelsea for assistance.
"Chels, you're friends with both me and Denny, please tell our ditzy friend that we're not like that." Chelsea took her sweet time chewing the large amount of chocolate chip pancake she had wedged in her mouth as she thought of how to answer. Of course, she knew Denny and Lanna were totally infatuated with each other; it would be obvious to anyone who spent more than two seconds with the two. Chelsea had wondered why Lanna always denied it so visciously. Denny, on the other hand, frequently gushed to her about his feelings for the blond on the basis that she 'crossed her heart' not to tell her anything he said.
She swallowed and gave a noncommital shrug. "You guys are definitely friends." Friends that were totally in love. Lanna smirked, obviously placated.
"Thank you very much, you gorgeous thing, you," she turned back to Julia, who still looked unconvinced. "And you really have no room to talk about denial. You wouldn't recognize your feelings for Elliot if they walked in butt naked and shook their danglies in your face." Julia gasped in horror.
"Why would Juju's feelings have danglies?" Chelsea giggled, but she couldn't be heard over Julia's embarrassed babblings. The young brunette sighed contentedly and continued to eat her pancakes while her friends continued to tease each other. A day off really was overdue for her; she had been putting nearly everything she had into her work on the farm, determined to be successful. While her efforts were starting to pay off, she was becoming increasingly stressed, so when Lanna marched into her house the previous night and declared that it was time for another girl's day out, she could have cried tears of joy. Gannon had had no problem with looking after her farm for one day, saying that she deserved to go have fun.
"What kind of dress are you going to get while we're in the city, Chel? I'm not sure how fancy to go..." Julia asked, poking at her eggs thoughtfully. Chelsea blinked.
"Huh?" What did she need to buy a dress for? Lanna rolled her eyes.
"Well it's a Gourmet event, of course it's formal, you can't go in like, a sun dress or whatever. But don't worry, I'll help you girls pick out something perfect."
"What are you talking about? What event?" Chelsea asked, her eyes crinkling in confusion. Her two companions stared oddly at her for a moment.
"What do you mean, 'what event'? Haven't you checked your mail lately?" Lanna asked in a scolding tone. Chelsea raised her eyes thoughtfully towards the ceiling before sighing ashamedly.
"No, I've forgotten the past few days." The two blonds shook their heads, exasperated.
"If your head wasn't attached..." Julia said worriedly, but almost instantly, she brightened back up. "But Pierre Gourmet sent out a letter to the whole town a few days ago, inviting everyone to a huge fancy dinner tomorrow evening!" Chelsea's eyebrows raised towards her hairline.
"Oh?" She was a little surprised at the sudden mention of the Gourmet; she hadn't seen him since they met a week earlier.
"Isn't it exciting?" Lana squealed. "I wonder what he's like? I mean I've seen him a few times, he lives really close to my house. He hasn't come out much though."
"I haven't even seen him," Julia pouted. "What's he look like?" Chelsea absently opened her mouth to answer, but Lanna beat her to it."
"Well, he's a little short for a guy. He has blond hair, and he's always wearing this weird purple top hat and-"
"He has purple eyes," Chelsea added without thinking. Lanna and Julia stared at her, surprised.
"You've met him?" They inquired at the same time, leaning towards their friend, suddenly becoming a lot more interested. Chelsea inwardly cringed as she felt her cheeks warm up a little.
"Um yeah, about a week ago, while I was walking home." They just leaned even closer, curiosity glowing in their eyes.
"Well?"
"What's he like?"
Chelsea rolled her eyes, but smiled. These girls took the art of gossiping very seriously.
"We didn't really talk that much...but he was nice. He likes to keep his distance though, Gannon said he freaked out when he tried to shake his hand. I think he must be a germaphobe, or something," she said, shrugging. The blonds looked at each other and oohed.
"That's interesting...oh! Speak of the devil," Lanna said. The three women's heads swerved to face the door as the chime sounded. Pierre strolled in looking rather enthusiastic. He hopped on one of the stools at the bar, and he and Duke began to converse. Pierre was very animated, gesturing with his hands to accent his words. Chelse felt her lips twitch into a smile; he really was like a big kid.
"I wonder what they're talking about," Lanna pouted, cupping her hands around her ears as if it would amplify their voices.
"Food, probably," Chelsea chuckled. She pried her eyes away from the purple clad man and glanced down at her watch; seeing the time, she clapped her hands together. "We better get going, if we miss the boat I'm going to cry." The women stood up, each throwing some bills on the table. The scraping of their chairs as they pushed them back must have been particularly loud, for Pierre turned away from Duke and looked towards their table. His purple eyes flicked over the two blonds and came to rest on Chelsea, who looked up at him at that same moment. Chelsea, a little embarrassed that she had been caught staring, smiled politely. He returned the gesture as she turned to follow her friends, who exchanged glances, having witnessed the little exchange.
"So...what was with that little staring contest?" Julia asked, leaning back against the railings of the boat. Chelsea blinked. It took her a moment to figure out what she was talking about; it had been quite awhile since they had left the diner. She rolled her eyes, turning around to rest her elbows on the railing.
"If you're talking about me smiling at Pierre, I don't know why you're reading so far into it. We smiled at each other, it's called being friendly," she said. Lanna snorted.
"Please, that look you gave each other was intense. You were having eye sex!" she said, poking Chelsea in the stomach accusingly. The brunette gaped.
"What the hell, Lanna. You're such a pervert," she grumbled, but she couldn't help smiling a little. "Really now, eye sex? What does that even mean?"
"It means just what you think it means, darlin'. Bowchickabowwow," Julia drawled comically. A burst of giggles escaped Chelsea's lips as she hid her face behind her hands.
"What is wrong with you two?" she pouted after sliding her hands off her face. "You've never teased me like this before about a guy."
"Because," Lanna shrugged, "there hasn't been a guy to tease you about until now. I know how you are with the men of the Island, you're friends and you don't think about bonking any of them." Chelsea turned red.
"Lanna! Please!" Lanna opened her mouth to press her point, but Julia clapped her hand over it before she could begin again.
"What she means," the less vulgar blond clarified,"is that none of the men are right for you, romantically." Chelsea raised an eyebrow, wondering where they were going with this.
"Yeah, and?" Lanna finally managed to wrestle the hand away from her face.
"But now there's Pierre. And you two would be so adorable together," she cooed, squeezing Chelsea's cheeks as Julia nodded in agreement.
"Oww, would you stop it, please?" She swatted Lanna's hands away. "And thats very presumptuous of you to say, as we've established that none of us know Pierre,"she said, rubbing her sore cheeks.
"But-" both of her friends began to argue, but Chelsea cut them off.
"Oh, look, the ship's docking!" she cried with genuine excitement. She clasped Lanna's and Julia's hands with her own and began to pull them towards the exiting ramp, although her efforts were unnecesarry; the other two women were just as eager to get off the boat as she was.
Chelsea studied herself in the long mirror hanging on her door. She smoothed a wrinkle from her dress before giving a playful twirl and curtseying to herself. She was getting more and more excited with each passing moment.
While doing her work around the farm, she was uncharacteristically impatient to finish as she was looking forward to getting ready; she didn't get many opportunities to dress up these days. It had taken her awhile to decide what to do with her hair; after pulling her bandana out, she decided that just wearing it straight would be too plain. Opening up the cabinet under her sink, she sifted through all the what nots until she found the curling iron, still in the packaging, that she had once received as a gift. She smiled as she plugged it in, glad that she was finally getting a chance to use it. After she was satisfied with her loose ringlets, she put the iron away and stepped back to admire her work.
She didn't look half bad.
While looking in the mirror, a few loud knocks sounded from the front door.
"And there are my dates," she hummed as she skipped to open it. Behind the door was Gannon, who wasn't dressed any different than usual, and Eliza. The little girl was wearing a powder blue dress with lace around both the collar and bottom, and her big blonde curls were pulled into a bun, with two stray pieces hanging down on each side.
She looked even more adorable than usual.
"Took yeh long en-" Gannon stopped mid sentence as Chelsea stepped out, revealing her new look. He gaped for a moment, his eyes large. His gaze made her a little unsure about her appearance.
"Do I look okay, G?" She asked, rubbing her forearm. While he babbled rather incoherently, Eliza stepped forward and grasped her hand.
"You look amazing, Chelsea!" She said. Gannon chuckled, rubbing his neck with his massive hand.
"Yeah, yeh look beautiful." She felt her face warm up a little at his statement. He was always saying that she was pretty, so the words weren't what surprised her, but the soft tone in which he spoke them. She absolutely beamed.
"Aww, thank you." She smoothed her dress one last time. "Well, shall we?" She placed her hand in the crook of Gannon's elbow and used the remaining one to hold Eliza's. The three of them set off towards the field where festivals were normally held.
"Ohh, I'm so excited," Eliza squealed. "I've never been to a fancy party before!" She jerked Chelsea's hand as she attempted to start running. The woman chuckled, pulling her back.
"Woah there, you have to remember that your father and I are old. Its harder for us to keep up." Gannon snorted.
"Speak for yerself, I'm in my prime." He said, tugging playfully at one of her curls. Chelsea pouted.
"You're so mean. I'm waiting for the day you send me off to one of those elderly care centers."
"Don't worry, as long as you can cook I'll keep yeh around."
"Wow, thanks G." Eliza looked from Chelsea to her father and back and tutted.
"You guys are silly. Chelsea, you aren't even old and daddy would never send you away, jeez," she said seriously, the loose curls bouncing as she shook her head. Gannon rolled his eyes as he picked up his daughter and sat her on his shoulder.
"Daddy!" She squealed, placing one of her tiny hands on top of his head to steady herself.