So, you guys might have noticed the change in the cover of this book. That's the new face claim for Alia, Amrita Rao. Thanks to everyone who went and voted in the pole.
And I just crossed 25 favourites. Yayyy!
I jerked my bedroll open, dropping it ungracefully on the floor before plopping down upon it similarly.
"Heyo guys! Welcome to the genie blog," Jordan said mellowly from beside me wearing purple palazzos and a lavender crop top, her hair arranged in a loose bun, devoid of any jewellery except for two small gold hoop earrings. She smiled at the phone in her hand, "I'm having a slumber party right now with my girls in the auditorium. Follow me on my social media handles for live updates. And shout out to Rassy for the cool fanart. Ok, peace out!"
She turned the video off and laid back down on her bedroll with a content sigh, only be met by a pillow straight to her face.
"WAKE UP sleepyhead!" Killa shouted aggravated from her spot next to Audrey who was braiding Ruby's long hair.
Really, really, REALLY long hair...
"We're not here to sleep, we're here to cheer Ally up!"
Jordan peeled the pillow off her face revealing an annoyed look directed straight towards the Incan, grumbling, "I wasn't going to sleep," under her breath. I couldn't help but let out a short breathy laugh.
Killa was wearing a size-extra maroon graphic tee with the words 'Princess Power' on it and black shorts underneath. Her long hair was hanging loose down her back but her bangs were clipped to the side of her face with two simple black hairpins.
Audrey was wearing a light blue nightgown with light pink lace on it, her hair arranged in a braid down her back while some strands framed her face strategically.
Ruby, who had long golden hair like her mother accompanied with hazel eyes, had on a purple satin night set, the shirt being a button-up and the pyjamas reaching down to her ankles. If you looked closely enough you would see the flecks of paint all over her clothes. Her hair was being arranged into the french braid, so long that they seemed to encircle Audrey like a snake.
Oh yeah, snake, I had to tutor him tomorrow, didn't I?
Wait, why was I thinking about that?
Get a grip me- where was I? Oh yeah, I was giving an overly long description of the girl's clothes for no particular reason other than I just wanted to.
I was wearing a simple white and black striped, sleeveless, crop tee with aqua and royal blue gradient shorts. My hair was half up into a bun while the other half tumbled down my back.
And this wasn't a stylistic choice. Jane- who was wearing a lavender nightgown with little pink bows printed all over it, her hair loose as well- had accidentally tugged on my bun causing a lot of it to come out loose and even though I probably looked like a real hot mess I was too lazy to arrange it back.
Ahh, laziness, the bane of every human's existence...
All our bedroll were arranged in a circle on the stage reminding me worryingly of a cult. There was a noticeable open space present between Ruby and Jane for Lonnie who was running a tad bit late.
If you define half-an-hour as a tad bit.
Not that any of us were expecting anything else. All of us knew of Lonnie and her late-night rendevous, where she snuck out of her dorm to practice her martial arts and sword fighting skills. I mean, she wasn't exactly quiet while doing it.
Lonnie was very self-conscious regarding her warrior side which didn't make sense to me really cause the very reason everyone loves Mulan was because she was a badass warrior. But for some reason, Lonnie preferred to hide that part of herself from everyone else and we all had come to a silent agreement to respect her privacy and not bring it up.
"She probably lost track of time on one of her 'walks'," Audrey said with a short chuckle, her eyes still fixed on Ruby's golden hair.
"I can't believe she thinks she's smart enough to get away with these practices with me as her roommate," Alex huffed, her pink hair arranged in a low ponytail. She was throwing a hair tie up into the air and then catching it rhythmically, "These demigod ears don't miss anything. I can hear birds chirping from all over the ground but she thinks I can't hear the annoyingly loud creaks in the floor as she walks by." She set the hair tie and her hands onto her chest with an annoyed look, wrinkling the fabric of her cotton candy pink satin nightdress, similar to that of Ruby's but also with a white-collar.
I reached out and condescendingly patted her head, "There, there, don't pout."
She pushed my hand away sending me a sarcastic smile.
"I'M HERE," boomed a voice, echoing across the otherwise empty hall, as the door flew open and Lonnie ran in
She slid to a stop beside us with a huge grin on her face; her hair a tangled mess as she wore a flowery-pink jacket with similarly flowery pyjamas below; her lungs heaving up and down, out of breath and a bedroll tucked under her arms.
"I'm sorry," she exclaimed as she unrolled the bedroll and set it down on the floor (much more gracefully then I had), and then practically fell upon it, "I was... um- on a walk... I kinda lost track of time."
I exchanged a look with Audrey and we had to immediately look away to avoid bursting out laughing.
"Lonnie?" Ally said as Lonnie tried to untangle her hair with her hands causing Audrey and Ruby to send her a chastising look.
"Yeah?" Lonnie said not noticing the looks.
"Could you scoot over a bit?" Ally said fiddling with ends of the shirt of her baby blue, white polka-dotted nightwear; her hair half up, half down, "I kinda invited someone else as well," she turned to all of us sheepishly continuing, "I hope you all don't mind. I just..."
"It's ok Ally," Ruby said with a soft smile. Ruby was a very timid and quiet person, not saying much unless she needed to.
While she did communicate quite less with words, her paintings seemed to convey a thousand emotions at the same time. She could easily weave colours together to recreate complex human figures and detailed landscapes.
Come to think of it, she could probably become really good friends with Mal.
"Yeah Ally, this slumber party was organised for you after all," Audrey said finishing the braid and tapping Ruby on the shoulder to let her know, "As long as it's not a VK I'm fine with whoever comes."
I rolled my eyes at her comment.
"Who did you invite though?" asked Alex curiously, her restless hand now resorting to stretching and relaxing the hair tie, passing it from one hand to the other.
Ally opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by the sound of the door banging open again.
"Hiya," the feminine voice said calmly, contrasting the scary wide grin on her face.
"MADDIE?!"
The chorus of all our exclamations filled the room in unison. I saw Killa drop her face into her arms with a groan from the corner of my eyes while Jordan furiously typed something into her phone, raising it for a moment to take a photo.
"That's my name!" Maddie said with an excited grin, bounding down the stairs towards us, "A thing which everyone can use but myself."
"What's she talking about?" Killa whispered annoyedly. I just shook my head in amusement.
Maddie, daughter of the Mad Hatter, was wearing the most eccentric set of clothes I had ever seen in my life. She was wearing a neon pink shirt which seemed to have been embroidered by a blind person with multicoloured strings. Her ankle-length bottoms seemed to be patched together by scraps of different track pants. Her straight brown hair reached just below her shoulders, while her forehead was covered with side bangs matching her brown eyes. Atop her head was the most simple part of her attire which was still something that stood out completely in the otherwise casual settings- a plain black fedora.
Maddie tackled Ally into her hug, both screaming/laughing in the process while Killa had a nerve ticking in her forehead.
After a few moments, the two pulled away, still with huge grins on their faces as they giggled slightly.
"How did you even get in?" Killa asked annoyedly, folding her arms together, "Did you ask for permission? No, you didn't, did you? Al, throw them out. You're breaking rules. Sorry Maddie, but you're breaking rules. You're a rule breaker. RULE BREAKER! You both are rule-breakers! But I'm not. Nah I'm the most non-rule breaker... ish person ever! Actually, I think I might be the most non-rule breakerish person in the w-"
"I already got permission," Ally looking slightly miffed... ok, really miffed, "from FG."
Maddie attended the Wonderland School of Wonders in- well- Wonderland. Ally used to go there too before she shifted to Auradon last year. Maddie and Ally were- and still are- best friends in Ally's old school, rumours stating that they were seldom apart.
Killa, for some unknown reason, doesn't really like Maddie (as you might have already noticed). And the fact that both the girls were in the same room amused me to no end.
"How've you been doing Maddie?" Ruby asked politely. Audrey, on the other hand, was looking at the girl's attire up and down in disgust.
"The swivelling of a fan with input of me, ending of the word right down to the tee."
Everybody's head swivelled towards Ally with the same questioning expression on their faces as she shrugged.
"She's doing fine."
"Ahh..."s, "Ok"s and "Right"s filtered out from all our mouths (except for Killa who exclaimed aloud, "That makes no sense!" Maddie following with a, "Sense is nothing but the illusion of our minds," and Killa following with an eloquent, "What?!").
The scene was interrupted by a low growling filling the room.
We all looked towards Lonnie to see her clutching her stomach embarrassedly.
"Anyone have anything to eat," Lonnie asked awkwardly looking around, "cause I'm famished."
I snorted. You don't need to say that twice.
"Killa, what'd you get?" Jordan asked, still not looking up from her phone. I peeked to see her posting a pic of Maddie with the caption "Fashion Sale or Fashion Fail?" and a poll bellow it.
"Huh?" Killa looked at her with a completely blank look on her face.
Jordan looked up.
"What did you get?" No answer. "For the snacks?"
Killa again looked at her blankly.
Then her eyes widened in realisation, a flicker of horror embedded in them.
"Oh no," she breathed out," I forgot..."
There was a moment of quiet.
And then like a storm interrupting the calm all the girls burst out into screams of annoyance and anger.
A tip for everyone out there: Never mess with another person's food, especially in a party.
"WHAT THE HELL KILZ!"
"HOW COULD YOU FORGET!"
"No... food? No food?!"
"You freaking organised this party! How could you JUST FORGET!"
"KILLAA!"
"I want food!"
Even quiet little Ruby had joined into the shouting match. The only person who wasn't shouting was Maddie who seemed to have conjured a cup of tea out of nowhere and was sipping it watching the others in delight as if looking at her favourite TV show.
She saw me staring at and grinned with undilated amusement. She reached a hand behind her back and pulled another teacup out of nowhere. She poured some tea into it from her own cup. I watched in fascination and the tea level from neither of the cup's seemed to reduce as she transferred them, almost as if Maddie's teacup was receiving tea from a pipe underneath. She then extended one of the cups towards me and asked, a grin still present on her face, "Would you like some tea?"
I love how she had the calmest expression on her face as if she HADN'T JUST CONJURED UP TEA OUT OF NOWHERE!
"Uhh-" I said, my mind still reeling, "No thanks."
Maddie shrugged and threw the cup of the stage behind her!
I waited for the resounding crash of china on wood but it never came.
I stared at Maddie in awe.
"Are you magic?" I asked hesitantly.
"Nope."
She continued to sip her tea without any further explanation.
Shout out to anyone who can give me the correct explanation for Maddie's riddle, ya know the one which Ally translated to 'She's doing fine'. Remember that it can have the most flawed logic in the world too. This is Maddie we're talking about, her thought process will be as confusing as the riddle itself.