Chapter 20

The ball was tomorrow and I was almost ready, the only thing I needed done was the mask. In front of me was the little animal farm in Mineral Town. I had called earlier to let May know that I was coming by and I had needed her help with something. Knocking on the door I glanced around, the farm was much more put together than mine.

"Hellooo?" I could hear the small voice coming from inside the house. May opened the door and almost jumped into me. "Jill! I was wondering when you were going to get here!"

"Sorry, it took me a little longer than I would have liked." I had been taking my time, I constantly kept looking around to see if Claire or Cliff was anywhere. I did not want to deal with them. "But I need your help."

The young girl crossed her arms. "I know that. What do you need help with?"

"I need a mask. And I'm artistically challenged." I pulled out a piece of paper from my rucksack. "If you could get it to look like this, it would really help me out."

May's eyes started to sparkle. "Omigod! Yes! I'll help you!" The little girl jumped on me giving me a huge hug. "I've always wanted to do something like this." She pulled back. "Do you have the materials?"

I nodded. I pulled out a large amount of items. Thread, material, beads, sequins and other things. "I was unsure what you would need, so I just brought a bunch of stuff."

May nodded at the materials. "This'll do." The first thing she did was pull out a measuring tape from her pocket and pulled it out next to my face. Then she pulled out a pencil and made marks on a piece of fabric.

Over the next hour we sat on the floor in May's room, talking and laughing. The young girl was extremely mature for her age. I was never that mature, I was still running around like a little dog chasing it's tail.

"Hey May, how old are you?" I asked while gluing on little beads on the edge of the mask.

"I'll be turning nine in two months." She held out her index finger and middle finger, then gave me a big grin. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen. But I'll be nineteen in a month."

May nodded. "So, is there anybody your going to the big ball with? I would go but grandpa says it's just for the grownups. But your not a grownup yet. Your only eighteen."

I laughed. "I'm legally an adult."

"But are you going with anybody?"

I felt my face turn red. "I well.. Uh…. Not really…. No. I don't think so anyways." I turned down and looked at the ground. The first thing that came to my mind was Cliff and Claire, then Skye. Maybe he would be at the ball, but since he didn't live in any of the villages mentioned he probably wouldn't be attending. I hadn't talked to him in days.

"Well that's too bad. You can always hook up with someone at the ball!" May joked.

I jumped back in shock. "Aren't you only eight years old?"

"Yeah, but grandpa is too busy to care, so I read a lot at the library."

"I see."

We sat in silence while we tried finish the mask. The moment came when May jumped up in joy. "Finished!" She held the mask outwards, as if somebody was standing in front of her.

I jumped up with her and clapped. "Thanks May!" I hugged the little girl with enthusiasm. She quickly hugged back, making sure she didn't ruin the fragile mask.

"Your welcome!" She practically almost squealed. She presented me the mask by bowing and holding it out with her head held low.

I returned the bow and took it. "Thank you." May looked up and we both started to laugh. Looking outside her window I sighed. "I should go. I don't want to be walking alone at night."

May nodded, though she looked a little upset. "Okay….. When will you come back again?"

"I'm not sure, but I will come back soon."

"Promise?" She held out her pinkie finger.

"Promise." We linked pinkies and shook on it. "I'll see you later then."

May nodded. "Yep. See you next time."

She followed me downstairs and waved until I couldn't see her anymore. I looked at the mask in my hand, it was a dark purple, almost black. Small gold beads ran across the trim, and a small pink and purple feather sat daintily just above the right eye. A thin black piece was tied around the back. I stretched it, it was very stretchy. I had seen what the other girls had gotten, mine was almost identical to everyone else's. Well almost, mine was better. They had bought theirs from a store, mine had more value. I had made it with a special little friend.

It didn't take that long to get back to Forget-Me-Not Valley. I was lucky enough to get by without running into anybody. I didn't want to deal with anything until after the ball. I walked quickly back to the farm, ready to eat dinner and relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow was going to be chaos, the girls were going to be running around like a bunch of confused chickens. I, of course, was going to be dragged into the middle of it all.

I ate a quick dinner of vegetables ad eggs, stir fried. Then sat down on the couch and turned on a movie. I was pretty sure that it was a horror movie, but it was so poorly done I spent most of my time laughing at the crappy effects and monsters.

I fell asleep in the middle of the third movie. It must have been around three in the morning.

For the rest of the night I dreamt of Skye. Some things were good, others were bad.

I awoke to the sound of banging on my door.

"Jill!" The banging began to increase in speed and loudness. "Get up! You've been sleeping all day!"

I grumbled and looked at my clock. It was three in the afternoon. I had been sleeping all day. "Omigod!" I quickly jumped off the couch and ran to open the door. "I'm so sorry. I was up late last night."

Muffy pusher her way through. "It doesn't matter anymore." She walked over and grabbed the dress, which was laying on a chair. "We have to get to Luminas and get ready. A limo is coming to pick us up at five thirty." She quickly left the house. "Come on!!"

I stood blankly for a moment but quickly grabbed my shoes, and brushed my teeth. Then followed Muffy who was standing outside impatiently.

"We tried calling you, but nobody picked up." She eyed my hands. "Don't you have a mask?"

"Oh! Right!" I turned to open the door. "I completely forgot." I ran inside and grabbed the mask.

Muffy looked even more irritated. "Now lets go!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me while she started to slowly run. "We need all the time we have."

"Is it really going to take an hour and half to get ready?"

Muffy turned around and shot a look at me. "Actually it takes around two hours, but we'll have to move fast now."

I groaned. An hour and half of Muffy and Lumina going crazy. And then Nami and me complaining about how we don't like this. "Fun." I said out loud. Muffy shot me a look. Her response was simply tightening her grip and running faster.

When we arrived at the mansion, Muffy was almost out of breath. I could tell she didn't run that often, the fact that she hadn't fallen down, while running in heels, amazed me. Sebastian ushered us in and hurried us up the stairs towards Luminas bedroom. I knew that once I entered the room, it was going to be an hour and a half of hell. I had to brace myself.

Lumina sighed in relief when Muffy and I entered her room. "There you are! We were unsure if you were going to show." She grabbed my arm and pushed me over to a small vanity. "Your getting your hair done now. Everyone else's is already done."

I gulped. I didn't want them to do anything extreme to my hair. But at least I didn't have to wait for them to do everyone else's.

"Shouldn't we do her makeup first?" Celia suggested.

Muffy and Lumina nodded. "I guess your right." Muffy said. "Lumina, you do her make up. I'll do her hair after." The two girls shook hands on it, while everyone else scrambled to grab their dresses and change.

Lumina was light on the make up. She put on a little mascara and eye shadow. "You don't need much make up. It'll take away from the colour of your eyes." She then put a little bit of lip gloss on. "It's flavoured, just so you know." After that, she jumped up. "Finished! Your turn Muffy!"

Muffy clapped in excitement. "Yay! I'm going to have fun."

I gulped again. Muffy was amazing at doing hair. I knew that, but I didn't want my hair to be any different that it usually was. "Can you uh.. Take it easy on the styling. I don't want it too be much different."

Muffy let out a little grin. "Is there somebody you want to be able to notice you?"

I turned red. "No!" Okay, well so maybe I did.

"No need to get touchy. You'll tell us after won't you?"

I looked down at my feet. "Maybe…."

Muffy sighed and began to play with my hair. "Well if you want your hair to be the same, I can leave it in the ponytail, but how about I curl the ends?"

I nodded. "Sure, why not."

"Good." She pulled up the already heated curling iron and began to curl my hair. "I'll only curl it a bit, okay?"

"Okay."

About twenty minutes later Muffy put down the iron. "There, done."

I looked in the mirror, I had never seen myself like that before. I actually looked beautiful. I had always considered myself ordinary. But now I felt like something more. The other girls looked at me, they seemed almost as shocked as I did.

"See if you clean up the farmer look once in awhile, you can pull off the princess look." Celia chuckled.

Lumina elbowed her. "You're one too talk Celia."

Celia laughed. "Yeah, but I do wear make up daily."

"You just started when you and Marlin officially started dating." Muffy giggled.

Celia crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out. "At least I have a boyfriend."

Muffy stuck her tongue out back in a mocking way. "Hey! Griffin is just a little slow that's all."

"A little?" Lumina said under her breath. Well it was actually quite loud.

"What about Rock? He seems pretty slow."

Lumina turned red. "Well actually… we have done some stuff."

Everyone in the room turned to Lumina who was now as red as a tomato. "Spill!" Muffy chirped.

Lumina shook her head. "N-no! We said we weren't going to say anything!" She quickly changed the subject. "What about you Nami? How are you and Gustafa doing?"

Nami looked at her a little embarrassed. "We're fine."

"Didn't he write you a song the other day?" Flora asked.

Nami nodded, her face a light shade of pink.

Muffy started to pout. "Does that mean I'm the only one who hasn't gotten anywhere?"

Everyone looked at Flora, who hadn't said anything about her and Carter. She looked at the ground. "Well, maybe a we're a little closer than we were before…."

Muffy huffed. "Well what about you Jill?"

I looked at her, then glanced at Celia. Celia looked unsure. "Well, no I don't have anybody I'm seeing." Okay, I really didn't like lying, but what else could I do? They wouldn't understand.

Muffy sighed in relief. "Good, I thought I was the only one."

Celia put her hand to her forehead. "It's okay to be single Muffy. You don't always need to be with someone. Haven't you had your bad share of men?"

Muffy gave a defeated look. "I guess your right."

"Good, now lets finish getting ready. We need to be ready by five thirty!" Lumina piped in.

We all nodded and continued to get ready for the ball. I was now excited for it.

ZOMG!!!! I UPDATED!!!!! Do you all hate me? Do you want to kill me? Or do you think I am the bestest person in the whole friggen world for updating!???? I actually wanted to put this up before Halloween, but I got sidetracked. Just thank my friend for bugging me to update. And I swear that in the next chapter I will put in some good stuff between Jill and Skye!! SO KEEP ON READING!!!!!