Grace was going to be thirteen and to her that was very important because that meant she was going to be a teenager. Grace had made many plans on what she would do as a teenager and the first of those plans began when she turned thirteen and so that meant she would have a lot of work to do in terms of getting things ready. Grace was explaining all of the Elisha on one mildly dreary february afternoon before the arrival of her birthday. Proudly, Grace displayed the detailed plan she'd curated in order to have the most picture perfect teenager years imaginable.
"As you can see," Grace said proudly displaying her ornately decorated seven year plan which laid out milestones for each year. "I have planned out the perfect schedule to make sure that in the next seven years I do all of the most important teenage things." she announced. Elisha chuckled at this as she read over some of the listed items.
"You've really got every movie cliche of all time on this list huh?" she asked. Grace ignored the hint of sarcasm in her friend's voice and reaffirmed her commitment to achieving the goals that she'd laid out for her teenage years.
"If I follow what I wrote for this list I will have the most perfect experience ever and that all starts with a perfect thirteenth birthday party." she said "It will be extravagant, magnificent, and another synonym I can't think of right now." she concluded. Elisha gave her an overall supportive but tired gaze and reassured her that her part would be great. Grace already knew that it would be because she'd planned it and Grace was very good at planning things to be perfect. This year to celebrate her time would be split into two.
First dinner with her parents as always but, to celebrate her officially being a teenager her parents had rented out one of those huge ballrooms and she'd be having her official party there. Unlike previous years Grace had invited not just her dance group but her entire class as well. In her mind's eye she had a picture of herself in a gorgeous dress descending some stairs to an adoring group of friends and peers as she rang in the beginning of the next stage of her life. She lived for it, the idea of that moment, of showing everyone a perfect version of herself.
And so to achieve that moment of true beauty and perfection Grace would first have to acquire the things that she needed and she needed a dress. Grace already had many nice dresses in her closet and anyone of them would work but her mother had insisted she get a new one for the party and Grace wasn't going to say no to new clothes. What she would say no to however was shopping with her mother. Grace loved her mom very much and she of course knew her mom loved her. But shopping with her was absolutely exhausting and she refused to do it.
"Can't you just drop me off at the mall and come get me when I'm done?" she begged. Her mother laughed at this.
"That is how kids get kidnapped Grace." she said. Grace mumbled under her breath about being almost thirteen but knew better than to mention that complaint out loud lest she be treated to a speech about how many girls went missing every year and were never found. Rather, Grace went for a different approach in terms of making this particular shopping trip at the very least bearable.
"Can I invite Simon along then?" she asked. Her mother looked at her curiously.
"I highly doubt he'd want to go dress shopping." her mother said and Grace had to hold back laughter because her and Simon did everything together. Simon could ask if she wanted to go riffle through the trash and as long as her parents agreed she'd be over there. The feeling was mutual on his end as well but rather than say that she asked a different question.
"Can I call and check just in case?" she asked and her mother sighed and nodded so Grace called to see if Simon would want to join them dress shopping later that day and just as she knew he would Simon agreed. Grace was of the opinion that boring thighs were much more interesting when you brought along someone else so she had a habit of dragging Simon along on her most boring endeavors. Not that he ever seemed to mind of course.
"Where are we going again?" Simon asked as he climbed into the limo which had parked outside of his house. Grace's mother chuckled.
"Why would you agree to come if you don't even know where you're going?" she asked. Simon shrugged.
"I wasn't doing anything else." he said casually. Simon was almost never doing anything from Grace's perspective but she also had to consider the idea that he did do stuff but at the same time she did so it always seemed like he was free. Or maybe he was always free and she was his only friend. Grace hoped that it wasn't the latter just for his own sake.
"We're going to the mall." Grace told him and Simon nodded before opening a packet of nuts that were kept in a compartment of the limo. They rode and the two talked casually about how absolutely amazing her party was going to be paired with some casual teasing about how she was going to be a teenager meanwhile poor young Simon would still be a child. Grace didn't actually care that Simon was about a month younger than her, but Simon did and so she teased him about it.
The three arrived at the mall and immediately shuffled to the luxury dress shop that Grace had been going to her entire life. This place would measure you and make alterations as well as selling dresses that were premade. Grace always just purchased the first thing she tried on so as to not prolong the experience but this time she'd already decided to actually put in effort for this special occasion. As they entered her mother exchanged words with the seamstress which didn't interest her. She looked around the shop only to find herself laughing upon noticing Simon.
Clearly he'd never been in a shop like this before or at least not one of it's scale. He stared in awe at the giant chandelier and the dresses with prices in the four digits and Grace laughed to herself because all of this was so normal to her she'd forgotten it was a thing people could be impressed by. That was one of the things she enjoyed most about her and Simon's friendship, things that were foreign and interesting to one were mundane to the other. It's an interesting feeling to see the things you don't question through new eyes.
Simon sat in a chair as Grace was measured in the mirror for dress sizes and spoke casually about his feelings on the place that they now patronized.
"Do you shop here all of the time?" Simon asked. Grace shook her head.
"Only on special occasions." she replied as her measurements were finished.
"How long does this usually take?" he asked. This time it was her mother to answer, not with a time frame but with an ominous warning.
"Your best friend is a perfectionist, get comfortable." she said. Grace might have taken offense to that had it not been true. Of course she wanted this to be perfect, it was her birthday and she figured that this was a time in which her need to be perfect was at least understandable. After all, her entire class would be there if things went poorly which acted as a motivator to make sure that they didn't. The woman brought out some dresses to choose from and she went into the dressing room to try them on.
After each one she'd step out of the dressing room and do a spin in front of the mirrors that were there and try to imagine herself in that moment under the lights in front of everyone who's opinion mattered to her and she'd see if could see it clearly. If she couldn't then that dress wasn't the one. Her mother would sometimes make comments about a dress and try to give suggestions but she knew her daughter well enough to know that if it didn't feel right whatever she said wouldn't matter much.
Sometimes Grace would ask Simon what he thought but it was pretty obvious he wasn't invested. Half of the time he was staring at the floor when giving his answer so Grace figured his advice wasn't worth much of anything. Still even without his help Grace managed to find a dress that she wanted. She could close her eyes and picture it in her mind's eye and it was perfect just as that moment should be. The dress was purchased and because the day was still young Simon decided to stay over for a while longer.
"This is my seven year plan." Grace announced showing off the same elaborate list that she'd shown to Elisha the day before. The two sat in her bedroom as they often did when Simon came over, neither feeling particularly in the mood to go out on the balcony considering the weather. She handed the paper to Simon who read it over and chuckled.
"So your seven year plan is to live your life like a Disney channel movie?" he asked. Grace rolled her eyes.
"Elisha said the same thing and both of you are wrong. The plan is awesome and I stand by that." she said stubbornly. Simon shrugged.
"I don't see the point in trying to make things go the way you want. In my experience the more you try to make things happen in a certain way the more the universe will go out of it's way to stop those things from happening." he assessed. Grace ignored his rationalization in favor of teasing him for her own amusement.
"And how much experience do you have considering the fact that I'm almost a teenager and you're not?" she questioned. Simon looked frustrated and embarrassed at that comment and muttered under his breath.
"How long do you plan to keep this up?" he asked. Grace laughed to herself.
"Only until you become a teenager too." she said jokingly. Simon caught the fallacy and exposed it immediately.
"You're not a teenagher yet though, which means we are still on equal footing." he responded seriously as if he'd just won an ultimate game of wits. If Simon had truly been more adept in terms of wit he probably would have known that trying to win a logic game against Grace Monroe was about as pointless as trying to drain the ocean.
"Do you know how to waltz?" Grace asked. Simon was so caught off guard by the sudden change of subject that he completely forgot what he'd been talking about which was of course what she'd intended. Simon shook his head.
"No, why would I know that?" he asked, confused. Grace feigned surprise.
"You mean not everyone is taught a basic waltz in grade school?" she asked. The look Simon gave her indicated he wasn't sure if she was joking and Grace clarified. "I'm messing with you." she said before making an offer. "You want me to teach you?" she asked. Simon looked even more confused.
"Why?" he asked though based on the way the word curved up at the end and the redness in his ears Grace realized the question was asked out of nervousness rather than disinterest. She figured Simon probably didn't want to embarrass himself in front of her which was something she related to. She did her best to reassure him.
"Well, my birthday is literally going to be in a ballroom, just for your own sake it's probably best if you learn." she explained. Simon still looked nervous and unconvinced. "It's easy I swear." she promised. Finally Simon nodded and she explained the basic concept.
"I'll lead, since you don't know how, you just follow." she explained. Grace started playing some music from her phone and she took one of his hands in her own and repeated the things she'd been told when learning this dance in one of her gym classes. "It's forward, right, backward, left." she said before demonstrating. Once again Simon didn't look her in the eyes but at least this time he seemed to be paying attention to something more important than the floor. As the two moved around the room Simon quickly became proficient.
"You were right, it's not that hard." he said after getting more comfortable with the dance. He even managed to look her in the eye while telling her that. Grace gave him a smile and offered a suggestion.
"Do you want to lead?" she asked and at that moment all of the progress Simon had shown fell away as he tripped over his own feet and fell onto the floor. Grace helped him up and he looked sheepish. "I guess that answers that question." she said to no one in particular.
"Sorry about falling over." Simon said honestly. Grace waved his concern off.
"Don't worry about it," she said. "I wouldn't have expected anything less from Simon ``left-feet`` Laurent." she added jokingly. This seemed to put him in better spirits as he chuckled at her comment.
"I guess some people just aren't meant to dance." he offered. Grace shook her head at this.
"Anyone can dance and that includes you. All you need is a little motivator so to give you that, you can dance with me at the party." she said. Simon shook his head furiously.
"There's no way I'm doing that," he said seriously. Grace gave him a sly look.
"That goes against the rules of birthdays, you've got to do what the birthday girl says." she explained and Simon sighed because he'd finally remembered the pointlessness of trying to argue with Grace Monroe gave up because he was going to do itv whether he liked it or not. Grace smiled once she saw that fact had sunk in. "See, now you've got a motivator to learn." she announced. Simon rolled his eyes.
"And as your gift I'm going to spend an hour talking to everyone at the party of how you helped me create the Esmoroth trilogy to motivate you to never cross me again." he explained. Grace laughed.
"That is why security will be waiting to toss you out the moment you try to open your mouth." she shot back. Simon was quick with a retort.
"I'm a skinny kid, I'll just climb in through the window and continue with my tales of magic and intrigue." he threatened. Grace wanted to respond but couldn't help but laugh and Simon let out an excited exclamation. "Ha! You broke, I win." he said having been the one to last longer. Grace's laughter subsided and she affirmed Simon's victory.
"Yeah yeah, you win."