Forgot to mention this in the first chapter, but anything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling, I only own the Haneys and the Shaws :)

Chapter 2

The Bridesmaids

Seven days after their arrival in Orange County, Jane took Mr. and Mrs. Haney, Lukas, Rachel, Jeremy, and Alexis to the wedding site.

They had rented a house that had a large ballroom hall with a beautiful chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling. The floors were wooden and polished and smooth, shining in the sunlight, and there were dozens of round tables that stood at the edge of the room.

Jane told them that the ceremony would take place in the hall, and then they would go outside for appetizers, and while that happened, the groomsmen and the bridesmaids were to help staff set up the hall for dinner and for the partying that would come after. Then, they would go out to the beach, which was a short walk away, and enjoy ice cream and various other desserts at a small restaurant at the edge of the beach, and the kids would have the chance to cool down and have some fun while the adults drank.

Currently, Rachel was helping Brendon roll out the light green carpet that Jane would walk over. Jane and Lukas were setting up chairs beside the carpet, just one per row so they wouldn't have to take down much and so they could see what would go where, and Mr. Haney and Jordan were setting up the arch at the back, in front of the large windows that looked out over the beautiful garden that was located behind the hall. Jeremy was put in charge of babysitting Alexis while Mrs. Haney got the dresses and suits ready for when the other bridesmaids and groomsmen would arrive.

"Here," said Brendon, handing Rachel a hammer and a thick nail, "just hammer it into the floor, it'll keep it in place."

"Won't that leave a hole in the floor?" said Rachel.

"If you squish it in between two planks, it should be fine," said Brendon, shrugging.

Rachel went to the corner of the carpet and hammered the nail through the carpet into the wood. She made sure to leave it out a tiny bit so they could take it out, but not too much that anybody could trip over. She straightened up when she was done and wiped her sweaty bangs out of her face. Even in shorts and a tank top, it was stifling hot in California.

"Rachel!" called Mrs. Haney from the top of the stairs just outside the hall, where the bedrooms that were to be used as groomsmen and bridesmaids rooms were. "The other girls are here, I want photos of you all changed! Call Jeremy, Lukas, and Jordan, too!"

"Coming, Mom!" said Rachel, poking her head out the door briefly to watch her mother disappear into a room with excited chatter.

Rachel headed toward Jeremy, Lukas, and Jordan, telling them that they should get changed into their suits for photos and for the rehearsal. Jeremy handed Alexis to Brendon and the four of them were off, heading up the stairs. Rachel parted with them by the first door and went inside, met with the smell of nice perfume and nail polish.

"Perfect, she's here!" squealed a girl with dark skin and brown, curly hair. She was wearing nothing but an underskirt and a corset, her lemon-yellow dress hung on the closet door behind her. "My name is May."

"I'm Rachel," grinned Rachel, sticking out her hand to shake May's hand.

"Oh, you're Jane's little sister, aren't you?" said a girl with blonde hair. "I'm Renee, Jane's old roommate from college."

The last girl, Havannah, had dyed-red hair that matched her red dress. Mrs. Haney had finished steaming out the few wrinkles of Rachel's dress and gave it to her, and then headed off to check on the boys.

"Here," said Renee, handing Rachel a corset, "don't do it too tight, but get a feel for it. Jane wants all of us to wear one under our dresses."

"Why?" said Rachel, looking at the corset.

"Makes us look nice," said May. "Here's your underskirt, Rachel."

Rachel got into her underskirt and corset and got into her dress, and Havannah quickly put her hair up into a somewhat elegant bun before the four girls stood in front of the large wardrobe mirror together.

"We look so good!" said May excitedly. Her lemon-yellow dress suited her very well, and it complimented her dark skintone. Renee was wearing a sapphire green dress, which brought out the green in her eyes.

"Ladies, are you done?" said Mrs. Haney, poking her head into the room. A smile broke out onto her face. "Oh, you all look so gorgeous! I love the lace, Renee. It really suits the dress. Oh—here, let's get a quick picture, and then Jane wants to meet up with us to go over everything."

They posed for a picture, which Jane jokingly called a rough-draft of the bridesmaids. Jane was very delighted to see all four of them in their dresses and was close to tears.

They headed out to the landing just by the edge of the stairs, where the men were already standing with Brendon, who held four ties in four different colours; salmon, lemon-yellow, ruby-red, and sapphire-green.

Jane put all the girls next to the guys and switched some of them up depending on height and who looked better together. Rachel was switched from Lukas to Brendon's friend Jasper to Jordan. Jeremy ended up with May, who was just as short as Rachel and Jeremy, who were both the same height; Lukas stood beside Renee, and Jasper and Havannah seemed to be close friends already judging on how happy they were to be partnered together. The men got their ties, and Jane smiled happily.

"Great!" she said, clapping her hands together. "So, the plan is for you eight to go out, the men leading the ladies. Mum and Alexis will go first, and Dad and I will go last, yes?"

It was quite a simple plan. Rachel nodded and Jordan held out his arm for her to hold on. It felt strangely natural to hold onto Jordan's arm, and he grinned at her as Mrs. Haney picked up Alexis and began to walk down the stairs and into the hall, where Brendon stood by the doorway.

May and Jeremy went next, for they were the shortest pair, and then Jordan helped Rachel down the stairs, for she was wearing tall silver heels that she had yet to get used to. Lukas and Renee followed, and then Jasper and Havannah, and lastly, Jane and Mr. Haney went down.

Rachel and Jordan parted right before the arch and stood at the side. Rachel stood between May and Renee, and grinned at Lukas, who was tugging at his tie uncomfortably. They went over it again (and laughed very hard when May almost tripped over her heels and almost dragged Jeremy down with her) and then they were dismissed to go change back into their normal clothes again while Mr. Haney, Mrs. Haney, Jane, and Brendon put away the chairs.

"Two days from now, it's all going to happen," said Jane walking into the girls' room and flopping down among the unused underskirts and corsets that lay on the bed. "I will no longer be a Haney."

"You better than me right now," mumbled Rachel, and the others laughed.

"Jordan seems quite fond of you," Renee commented.

"Yeah," said Rachel, shrugging. "I'm not really into him, to be honest."

"Got somebody back home, then?" said Jane, wiggling her eyebrows.

"No," said Rachel. "He's dating someone else."

She turned away from the room to hang up her dress in the wardrobe, where Renee's and Havannah's dresses already hung, and she put her heels at the bottom. Lastly, she put her corset and underskirt into one of the shelves that were at the side.

"You know what we need?" said Jane then. "A bridesmaid day."

"What will that include?" said Havannah.

"Ice cream, beach walks, and blasting music in the car," said Jane.

Everybody agreed with the plan, and once they cleared the idea with Mrs. Haney, they went off to the car. Rachel sat in the backseat with May and Renee, and Havannah sat in the passenger's seat while Jane drove. She started the car, and they went off.

They blasted The Beatles and Queen while they drove, screaming along with the music on the abandoned roads they took. They paused for ice cream along the way, and around dinnertime, they went to a small diner and ordered a large dinner to eat, taking the leftovers back home. Rachel loved the girls, and found that they were all becoming quite close already. Still, they weren't the same as her friends back home, she thought, as she felt her wand, which she had stuck into her rucksack at the last second before leaving to the rented house that morning.

They walked on the beach and found a nice spot to sit and watch the sunset over drinks (everybody but Jane and Rachel took alcoholic drinks) and soon, Rachel found herself with just Jane in the car to go back to her house.

"Had fun today?" asked Jane, turning down the radio and turning up the AC so they could cool off.

"Definitely," grinned Rachel.

They got back around eleven o'clock, and went quietly to their rooms. Rachel had barely changed into her pajamas and brushed her teeth before she had fallen asleep.