Lightning-Dono: Nothing to say, but that this and the next few chapters are going to be awfully fun, but stressful, to write. I've never been to a formal wedding before and I've never been married before (duurrrr...), so it's going to be hard for me to describe it. I'll try my best!
Answer to the reviews:
A fan of fire emblem - Have you jumped on that "the-word-'fan'-in-the-username" bandwagon, too? Just kidding. Hey, well, good guess, then! I suppose I made that a tad bit too obvious? I couldn't think of anything that else I could do.
Ann Fan - You know you want to say 'drama'. =P It's okay with me. Besides, I've seen people doing this before, so I thought I'd do that instead of bringing up my review count. Yes, Karen seems moody, but she's just trying to hide her emotions. She's actually very excited and nervous about it.
Heh, I wrote this while listening to 'Karenai Hana' and stuff, so don't mind of this chapter is all soft and...lurvey. =O
I keep thinking of Rick with a mustache...Whyyy...
-----
It was a couple of days later. Today was the day. Kind of. The day before the wedding, that is.
"Now, Rick, you have to be serious about this," my mom said with a serious tone as she laid a snowy white cloth over the reception table. As if I wasn't going to be serious about it anyway. Karen would practically freak out if I went and screwed the whole wedding up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Popuri admiring everything in the church with a highly suspicious look. I got an icy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Yes, mom," I replied, even though my mind was floating in a different universe. May was skipping up and down the isle with her basket of flower petals, throwing them roughly into the air, only to succeed in making them hit the ground faster than necessary. Karen spotted this error and walked over to May with a warning look.
"You toss them into the air like this." Karen demonstrated, and the petals twirled neatly through the air and landed on the newly polished pews. May nodded, more out of fear than understanding. "Oh, and alternate hands as you do it. I suggest you start off with your right."
May decided to speak up. "Why?"
This question shook Karen a bit, mostly to know that someone was daring to question her methods.
"Well, because that's your strong hand, I suppose..." Her voice trailed off into an invisible void.
I glanced over at another table where Jeff was just finishing up the cake, which was, fortunately, not completely pink. He squeezed just a bit more icing on the edge, not that it made a difference. No one would ever notice that there wasn't a clump of icing right behind the fake leaf of an artificial flower at the bottom of the cake. Nevertheless, he went cross-eyed and tried to fill it in perfectly. I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. Turning my head sideways, I caught a glimpse of Karen's perfectly placed eyeliner and her thin, dream-like eyelashes.
"Stop spacing out, doofus, help us!" She tossed me a cluster of flowers. "Place these around the church. Here are some hooks that you can put on the wall. Just remove the piece of paper at the bottom to use the sticky part." She tossed me a small bag of hooks. "And hang the flowers on them." Indicating the small string attached to the bottom, she walked off to place hers on the side of one of the pews. Shrugging, I found an area that was isolated from all the other flowers. Ripping the bottom off easily, I placed the hook on the wall. I hung the flowers on at a different angle, hoping for a more abstract effect, but it fell limply into place. So much for that.
"So, sport, how do you think the rehearsal went?" Father asked after a brief rehearsal of the wedding. The only problem was that I found it extremely hard to kiss Karen infront of the crowd of people. 'Crowd' being some parental figures and Carter. Eventually I managed to do it, only after tilting my head the wrong way, so Karen's forehead collided with my nose painfully.
"Dammit," Karen had muttered, rubbing her forehead with one hand.
"Let's try that again," I had whispered, horrified that our parents were watching us embarrass ourselves.
I thought about all this and shrugged. "It didn't go too well, but tomorrow will be better," I promised foolishly.
"Aw, it wasn't that bad!" Karen butt in, trying to sound pleased about how everything had gone.
"How can you say that?" I asked, my nose still sore.
"Well, aside from the fact that you leaned your head the other way, everything was fine," she pointed out discouragingly.
"Uh-huh," I replied bitterly, still plagued by the fact that she blaming everything on me.
"You know, I'm not very fond of kissing anyone in public. But if I can do it, so can you!" She pumped a fist energetically into the air.
"Yeah...I hope I don't mess up tomorrow. I don't feel like getting a nosebleed and bleeding all over my suit." I grinned at her sheepishly. She smiled back.
"You better keep hoping you won't mess up. That was pretty darn painful."
She waved animatedly as she disappeared into the shop.
Mom was absent-mindedly filling a vase with leftover flowers, humming.
"You know, Rick, back in the day I used to be afraid to kiss your father," she reminisced thoughtfully. I wondered what she was getting at. Did my emotions influence everyone or something?
"Really?" I asked, trying to sound attentive.
"Yes. So you know what I did?" She laughed in a ditzy way as she remembered this.
"What?"
"I practiced. On a stuffed animal of some sort. Over time, I found it more comfortable."
I wondered what she was getting at.
"What are you...saying?" I gulped. She turned towards me, drying off her hands with a towel.
"What I'm saying is that you looked terrified up there. You need to have confidence and know what you're doing." I blanched. Did she expect me to sit in my room for hours on end kissing a stuffed animal? "That's why-,"
"Do I have to?" I interrupted. Popuri snickered behind me.
She cogitated upon this for a bit. "Well, no, but it was just a suggestion," she said at last in a voice of pure exasperation.
I let out a sigh of relief and started to set the table while Popuri worked on her growing scrapbook. Peering over her shoulder, I noticed that each page was color-coordinated with the colors purple and brown. It gave me a sick feeling about Kai. She glued a picture of Kai and her onto the purple page fondly and pressed it down firmly.
"What?" She said when she realized that I was there.
"Nothing," I replied, placing a dish carefully at each place at the table.
"You have something against Kai, don't you?" She said, steering this little conversation into a wider and rougher territory.
"No." I felt my face grow hot with anger. My voice didn't sound all that controlled, either.
"Yes you do," she insisted. Now she wanted me to hate Kai? At one point in time I might've taken kindly to this and admitted it without a fight, but somehow my methods had changed over the course of a few months. My temper bubbled over the line.
"Yeah, well, just shut up about it!" I said loudly. Mom turned her head.
"Rick!" She said wearily. I closed my mouth, violent thoughts crossing my mind. Popuri was silent as she rustled through her little photo album.
Throughout dinner, everyone sat there stiffly, hardly touching their food. Well, father was a blatant exception.
"Congratulations, Rick," he said thickly, his mouth filled with the apple pie that mom had made for dessert.
"Thanks," I mumbled, raising the cup of fresh milk up to my mouth slowly, intending to take a sip. He thought I was accepting a toast somehow. I swear that this guy is just too dense to be true. Reaching over the table, he knocked his cup into mine. How much beer had he had? The milk splashed soundlessly onto my face and clothes. Popuri gave father a disgusted look and grabbed a towel to aid me. I welcomed her help as she handed me the towel to wipe my face off on.
"Oops! Sorry, there." He chuckled, to my displeasure, and continued to eat as though nothing had happened.
After that ridiculous incident at the table, Popuri and I shared a very open loathing for him.
"Popuri?"
"Yes?"
"Can you invite Ann to the wedding please?" I was fumbling through the drawer for stationary, just incase Ann somehow forgot.
"Sure. I'll just tell her." Popuri walked out of the house and I heard her run to the Inn, despite the darkening sky that was streaked with the colors from the setting sun.
I sat back down on the chair, exhausted. I still had a white streak on the sleeve of my shirt, thanks to my father, but I ignored it.
"Well, tomorrow's the day," I told myself quietly, breathing rapidly. "It's not even time and I'm already excited," I laughed, getting up and neatly pushing in the chair.
Popuri came back into the house with a natty grin. "She's going to come!" She exclaimed breathlessly.
"Good! We'll have a full house...er...church tomorrow."
All I needed for tomorrow now was a couple of miracle and some luck.
-----
There you are! I rushed a bit on this chapter because I absolutely can't wait to write about the next day! I thank this fanfic for getting me out of Writer's Block! ((clings))
Answer to the reviews:
A fan of fire emblem - Have you jumped on that "the-word-'fan'-in-the-username" bandwagon, too? Just kidding. Hey, well, good guess, then! I suppose I made that a tad bit too obvious? I couldn't think of anything that else I could do.
Ann Fan - You know you want to say 'drama'. =P It's okay with me. Besides, I've seen people doing this before, so I thought I'd do that instead of bringing up my review count. Yes, Karen seems moody, but she's just trying to hide her emotions. She's actually very excited and nervous about it.
Heh, I wrote this while listening to 'Karenai Hana' and stuff, so don't mind of this chapter is all soft and...lurvey. =O
I keep thinking of Rick with a mustache...Whyyy...
-----
It was a couple of days later. Today was the day. Kind of. The day before the wedding, that is.
"Now, Rick, you have to be serious about this," my mom said with a serious tone as she laid a snowy white cloth over the reception table. As if I wasn't going to be serious about it anyway. Karen would practically freak out if I went and screwed the whole wedding up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Popuri admiring everything in the church with a highly suspicious look. I got an icy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Yes, mom," I replied, even though my mind was floating in a different universe. May was skipping up and down the isle with her basket of flower petals, throwing them roughly into the air, only to succeed in making them hit the ground faster than necessary. Karen spotted this error and walked over to May with a warning look.
"You toss them into the air like this." Karen demonstrated, and the petals twirled neatly through the air and landed on the newly polished pews. May nodded, more out of fear than understanding. "Oh, and alternate hands as you do it. I suggest you start off with your right."
May decided to speak up. "Why?"
This question shook Karen a bit, mostly to know that someone was daring to question her methods.
"Well, because that's your strong hand, I suppose..." Her voice trailed off into an invisible void.
I glanced over at another table where Jeff was just finishing up the cake, which was, fortunately, not completely pink. He squeezed just a bit more icing on the edge, not that it made a difference. No one would ever notice that there wasn't a clump of icing right behind the fake leaf of an artificial flower at the bottom of the cake. Nevertheless, he went cross-eyed and tried to fill it in perfectly. I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. Turning my head sideways, I caught a glimpse of Karen's perfectly placed eyeliner and her thin, dream-like eyelashes.
"Stop spacing out, doofus, help us!" She tossed me a cluster of flowers. "Place these around the church. Here are some hooks that you can put on the wall. Just remove the piece of paper at the bottom to use the sticky part." She tossed me a small bag of hooks. "And hang the flowers on them." Indicating the small string attached to the bottom, she walked off to place hers on the side of one of the pews. Shrugging, I found an area that was isolated from all the other flowers. Ripping the bottom off easily, I placed the hook on the wall. I hung the flowers on at a different angle, hoping for a more abstract effect, but it fell limply into place. So much for that.
"So, sport, how do you think the rehearsal went?" Father asked after a brief rehearsal of the wedding. The only problem was that I found it extremely hard to kiss Karen infront of the crowd of people. 'Crowd' being some parental figures and Carter. Eventually I managed to do it, only after tilting my head the wrong way, so Karen's forehead collided with my nose painfully.
"Dammit," Karen had muttered, rubbing her forehead with one hand.
"Let's try that again," I had whispered, horrified that our parents were watching us embarrass ourselves.
I thought about all this and shrugged. "It didn't go too well, but tomorrow will be better," I promised foolishly.
"Aw, it wasn't that bad!" Karen butt in, trying to sound pleased about how everything had gone.
"How can you say that?" I asked, my nose still sore.
"Well, aside from the fact that you leaned your head the other way, everything was fine," she pointed out discouragingly.
"Uh-huh," I replied bitterly, still plagued by the fact that she blaming everything on me.
"You know, I'm not very fond of kissing anyone in public. But if I can do it, so can you!" She pumped a fist energetically into the air.
"Yeah...I hope I don't mess up tomorrow. I don't feel like getting a nosebleed and bleeding all over my suit." I grinned at her sheepishly. She smiled back.
"You better keep hoping you won't mess up. That was pretty darn painful."
She waved animatedly as she disappeared into the shop.
Mom was absent-mindedly filling a vase with leftover flowers, humming.
"You know, Rick, back in the day I used to be afraid to kiss your father," she reminisced thoughtfully. I wondered what she was getting at. Did my emotions influence everyone or something?
"Really?" I asked, trying to sound attentive.
"Yes. So you know what I did?" She laughed in a ditzy way as she remembered this.
"What?"
"I practiced. On a stuffed animal of some sort. Over time, I found it more comfortable."
I wondered what she was getting at.
"What are you...saying?" I gulped. She turned towards me, drying off her hands with a towel.
"What I'm saying is that you looked terrified up there. You need to have confidence and know what you're doing." I blanched. Did she expect me to sit in my room for hours on end kissing a stuffed animal? "That's why-,"
"Do I have to?" I interrupted. Popuri snickered behind me.
She cogitated upon this for a bit. "Well, no, but it was just a suggestion," she said at last in a voice of pure exasperation.
I let out a sigh of relief and started to set the table while Popuri worked on her growing scrapbook. Peering over her shoulder, I noticed that each page was color-coordinated with the colors purple and brown. It gave me a sick feeling about Kai. She glued a picture of Kai and her onto the purple page fondly and pressed it down firmly.
"What?" She said when she realized that I was there.
"Nothing," I replied, placing a dish carefully at each place at the table.
"You have something against Kai, don't you?" She said, steering this little conversation into a wider and rougher territory.
"No." I felt my face grow hot with anger. My voice didn't sound all that controlled, either.
"Yes you do," she insisted. Now she wanted me to hate Kai? At one point in time I might've taken kindly to this and admitted it without a fight, but somehow my methods had changed over the course of a few months. My temper bubbled over the line.
"Yeah, well, just shut up about it!" I said loudly. Mom turned her head.
"Rick!" She said wearily. I closed my mouth, violent thoughts crossing my mind. Popuri was silent as she rustled through her little photo album.
Throughout dinner, everyone sat there stiffly, hardly touching their food. Well, father was a blatant exception.
"Congratulations, Rick," he said thickly, his mouth filled with the apple pie that mom had made for dessert.
"Thanks," I mumbled, raising the cup of fresh milk up to my mouth slowly, intending to take a sip. He thought I was accepting a toast somehow. I swear that this guy is just too dense to be true. Reaching over the table, he knocked his cup into mine. How much beer had he had? The milk splashed soundlessly onto my face and clothes. Popuri gave father a disgusted look and grabbed a towel to aid me. I welcomed her help as she handed me the towel to wipe my face off on.
"Oops! Sorry, there." He chuckled, to my displeasure, and continued to eat as though nothing had happened.
After that ridiculous incident at the table, Popuri and I shared a very open loathing for him.
"Popuri?"
"Yes?"
"Can you invite Ann to the wedding please?" I was fumbling through the drawer for stationary, just incase Ann somehow forgot.
"Sure. I'll just tell her." Popuri walked out of the house and I heard her run to the Inn, despite the darkening sky that was streaked with the colors from the setting sun.
I sat back down on the chair, exhausted. I still had a white streak on the sleeve of my shirt, thanks to my father, but I ignored it.
"Well, tomorrow's the day," I told myself quietly, breathing rapidly. "It's not even time and I'm already excited," I laughed, getting up and neatly pushing in the chair.
Popuri came back into the house with a natty grin. "She's going to come!" She exclaimed breathlessly.
"Good! We'll have a full house...er...church tomorrow."
All I needed for tomorrow now was a couple of miracle and some luck.
-----
There you are! I rushed a bit on this chapter because I absolutely can't wait to write about the next day! I thank this fanfic for getting me out of Writer's Block! ((clings))