Chapter Ten: Will Not the Time Fly?


*day 1*

"Lily, you must stay still!"

"I cannot help it, Mother! I'm just so excited. Cinders! Be sure to double-check your measurements! My dress must fit perfectly, like a dream..."

"Yes, Lily," Rosie mumbles over the pins between her teeth. She is in Rosemary's room with both her cousins and aunt. She is getting measurements for making the lasses' dresses for the upcoming festival.

"Well, if the dress does not fit you right, it will be your fault because you kept wiggling and all," Rosemary scoffs, impatient for Rosie to measure her.

"Mother!" Lily whines, looking at the hobbitess who watches all with large sad eyes from the doorway, and then shoots daggers at her sister, who glares back.

"Now, girls, girls! It will not do to have such looks on your faces. You will quickly have lines and wrinkles on your lovely faces."

Lily and Rosemary instantly turn towards their mother with the faces of angels. "Yes, Mother," they answer in unison.

Rosie gets up from the floor, measuring tape in her hands. "All right, Lily, I have finished." She then turns to her other cousin.

"Did you double-check the measurements?" Lily asks.

"Did you write the measurements down?" Aunt May demands at the same time.

"Yes, Lily, I have rechecked the measurements three times. And I have written down the measurements right here, Aunt May," Rosie answers, holding up a piece of paper that was resting on the floor.

Aunt May nods in approval. Rosie then turns her attention to Rosemary and starts taking down measurements. Lily twirls; a dreamy sigh escapes her lips. She then goes to a box, lifts up a dark blue cloth, and presses it to her chest. She moves to the full-length mirror in a corner of the room and examines her reflection.

"It matches my eyes perfectly," she says delightedly.

Rosie glances over at her cousin, her eyes landing on the cloth. She is reminded of the dress she once had, also a shade of blue...at a party, and she had danced with... Rosie shakes her head and quickly finishes taking Rosemary's measurements.

"Green is more my color," Rosemary comments.

"Oh, it seems like the festival will never come!"

"Why does the time not fly?"

"Now, girls, if the time sped, Rosie would not complete your dresses in time. And you want to look your best," Aunt May says.

"Oh! To have a dance with the famous Frodo Baggins or Samwise Gamgee!" Lily exclaims.

Rosie shakes her head. The next few days will be long as she sews her cousins dresses and helps them prepare. The festival will be the only thing talked about in the hobbit hole -- and possibly the Shire.

"Well, don't just stand there, girl! You must start making my two angels' dresses immediately!" Aunt May commands.

Rosie only nods as she picks up the boxes with the cloth. Lily turns away from the mirror and adds the blue cloth to the pile.

"Off with you now!" Rosemary retorts, trying to hurry her cousin out the door.


*day 5*

"Oh, Mother, I heard some girls at the market today talking about Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck, and Pippin Took." Rosemary is shaking with excitement.

"They are talked about every day at the market! I have heard how quite a few girls follow them around, hoping to impress them!" Lily interrupts.

"Mother!"

"Now, Lily, let your sister talk. Go ahead, dear."

"Thank you." Rosemary pauses to glare at her sister across the table. "Well, it seems that the four famous hobbits are going to attend the festival on all seven nights!"

"Oh, may we go all seven nights, Mother?!"

"But our dresses...!" Rosemary protests, perplexed.

"What about them?"

"Mother only bought enough fabric for each of us to have three dresses."

"You mean we were only going to go to the festival three nights, Mother?" Lily turns to May.

"Well, we can go the entire week if you wish, my dears," May answers her daughter.

"But what shall we wear?!" Lily wonders worryingly.

"I know, Lily! We can have Cinder-Rose take some of our old dresses, unfix them, and put on new lace and whatever else we want. They would be just like new!" Rosemary exclaims excitedly.

"Brilliant thinking, my dear!" May praises.

"I probably could have thought of that," Lily grumbles.

Rosemary ignores her sisters mutterings. "Cinders!"


*day 11*

"And 1, 2, 3! 1, 2, 3! 1, 2... Stop, stop!"

The tired dance teacher -- he has been to several hobbit holes, teaching the new dance to many young hobbits -- wrings his hands.

"Miss Lily, it is step, hop, then turn. Not step, turn, and hop. Now, one more time from the beginning."

"By the time the festival comes, my feet will be too numb to dance," Rosemary mutters under her breath.


*day 18*

"Aunt May, may I attend the festival?" Rosie asks timidly.

May raises her eyebrows and looks at her niece from head to toe and then vice versa carefully. "Why would you desire to go to the festival, Cinders? To see your old friends? Would they even recognize you, in your clothes and dirty hair? You will be the laughingstock of the festival. And you would disgrace the family. We are admired for showing you charity, but to allow you there..."

"I could try to stay out of sight."

"Hm, we shall see. Right now there are more important things that we must concern ourselves with."

"Yes, Aunt May."


*day 25*

"Are you certain you wont tire yourself with attending the entire festival, Mister Frodo?"

"I believe I will be fine, especially with having you around, my boy. It will be nice to have a party in the party field again."

"Aye," Sam says softly.

Frodo glances at his friend and sees Sam with a glazed expression on his face. "Sam?"

"Sam.."

"Sam!"

Sam jumps and blinks curiously at his master several times.

"What's the matter, Sam?" Frodo asks, peering into Sams face with concern, though he half-guesses what the matter is.

"Nothing, Mister Frodo," Sam whispers. "Just memories."


*day 30*

"Walk forward, 1, 2, 3! And turn twice. Then walk back. Then dip--"

Thud!

"Ow."

"Lily!"

Uh, uh, turn from your partner... Just once...!

CRASH!

"Oops!"

"Rosemary!"

"Cinder-Rose!!!"


IMPORTANT (!!!) Author's Note: Thanks everyone for the reviews, they are a big encouragement to me. Okay, here is where I need help. I was going to write a chapter or two about the first four nights of the festival, but have had terrible writer's block; nothing is coming. So I need your opinion and vote: should I try to ride this writer's block through and write about the first half of the festival? Or should my next chapter be when Rosie goes to the festival? Which ever opinion has the most favored votes will be the one I will try to do. So please let me know what you think.

~Rosa Cotton~