Lucy opened the door to her room and let Natasia in. There she saw some snack bowls placed on a table on one side of the room, some pillows laid out on the floor, and what appeared Maddie sitting down in a large bean bag chair. Or at least what she assumed was Maddie. The poor girl had been sitting in the chair a few minutes prior but ended up sinking into the middle of it, leaving only her legs and arms dangling from it.
"Hey guys," Maddie said.
"Maddie, is that you?" Natasia asked.
"Yeah. Uh... a little help please?" She stuck out her arm and Lucy and Natasia both grabbed on to try and pull her out.
"Ready?" Lucy asked. Natasia nodded. "Okay then... heave!" The two pulled hard and got the girl out of the gigantic chair.
"Ahh... much better," the mermaid said. "It was stuffy in there." She fixed up her hair and dusted off her blue seashell-patterned nightgown before smiling and hugging Natasia. "I'm so glad you made it, Nat! For a while there, I thought Lucy and me were going to have this sleepover by ourselves."
"Hey, you didn't think I was gonna miss out on my first one, did you?" Natasia replying with a smirk on her face.
"Great! Now that we're all here, let's get this party started!" Lucy went over to her nightstand and docked her phone into a black Beats speaker. She opened up her music library and selected Ariana Grande's latest album, appropriately named Sweetener. The speakers blared out the track of "No Tears Left To Cry", filling the room with music.
The princess grabbed her makeup kit from her vanity and brought it over to her friends. "Girls, it's time for makeovers!"
The three opened up the kit and started reaching for the differently colored nail polishes, eyeliners, and lipstick.
As Maddie opened up a bottle of sea foam green and ocean blue nail polish, she thought about something. "Hey girls, why are we doing makeup at night again? Won't the makeup just rub off when we go to sleep?"
"I don't know. I just read this stuff in a magazine and wanted to try it out," Lucy said as she sat on the pillow and put small cotton balls between her toes.
"We can just wash our faces afterwards. But not without some selfies, of course," Natasia added. She opened up a small compact mirror and took one of the brushes so she can apply some blush onto Lucy's face.
"Good point," Maddie said. She sat down before Lucy and stirred the brush into the bottle of nail polish. "Are you ready for your makeover, princess?"
Lucy closed her eyes and put out her hands. "I'm ready. Now, make me beautiful, girls!"
Maddie got to painting Lucy's nails while Natasia got started with her makeup. She put on some blush on her friend's cheeks and eyeliner on her eyes. She added some false eyelashes too.
"Hey Lucy, mind if I change your hair too?" Natasia asked.
Lucy turned to her and took hold of her hair, feeling oddly protective of it. "You're not gonna cut it off, are you?"
"I wouldn't do that. I promise." Natasia raised her hand and crossed her heart. "I'm just gonna add some style to it, that's all. You know, make it pop!"
Lucy's eyes widened at hearing that word. Natasia noticed this as well.
"N-No, not literally. I'm not going to put some firecracker in it, I swear! I'd never do that to my friends, honest!"
The princess turned back and began to calm down, understanding that the cat-loving girl was just joking. "Okay, I trust you." She let her friend do what she wanted. "Go ahead, Nat."
Natasia felt glad. "Don't worry, Lucy. When I'm done with your hair, you're gonna see a whole new you." She removed Lucy's scrunchy and let her hair fall. She then grabbed a hair curler and got to work.
After about ten minutes, Natasia was done with Lucy's hair while Maddie finished her nails.
"And... Done! What do you think, Lucy?" Maddie said, removing the cotton balls from Lucy's toes and cleaning up the nail polish from both their hands.
Lucy looked at her nails and were impressed. Her nails were decorated with a small undersea theme. The Ocean blue base served as the background with some sea foam green shells and golden sand nail polish for the ocean floor. "Wow, Maddie! This looks amazing!"
"Totally! This looks so cool that it might even top Reese's paintings," Natasia commented.
"Oh, it was nothing. Lanie and I take trips out to sea sometimes and I just remembered the scene. You know, like remembering home," Maddie said, feeling very happy and a bit bashful that her friends found her nail art interesting.
"Okay Nat, now show me what you did with my hair," Lucy told her friend. "You didn't really cut it, did you?"
"You're still going on about that? I told you I didn't," Natasia giggled a bit. She grabbed a hand mirror and gave it to Lucy, who held it away from her face at first. "Now, allow me to present, the brand new Lucy!"
Lucy looked at herself in the mirror and was a bit at a loss for words. Her blonde hair was now in two rather big and spiraling pigtails. Her hair was parted on the left side and a small blue hairclip was on her right. Instead of her cherry red earrings, she now wore white pearl ones. Her makeup was a bit subtle but still looked good on her, but that couldn't distract her from what had happened to her hair.
"Uh... Nat..."
"Yes?" Natasia said as she stood next to her.
"Nat... what did you do to my hair?" Lucy asked.
"Well, you told me I couldn't cut your hair, and I sort of wanted to make you look like one of my heroes... so I made your hair just like Miyako Gotokuji."
"Who?" Both Maddie and Lucy asked.
"Miyako Gotokuji... you know... Rolling Bubbles from Demashita! Pawapafu Garazu Zetto," she replied.
The two still looked confused. "Um... Nattie ... You do know that I have no clue about your animes, right?" Lucy said.
"Me neither," Maddie added.
"Really? In American, it's supposed to be Powerpuff Girls Z." she stated as a matter-matter-of-factly. "Anyway, do you like it?"
Lucy wasn't sure what to say. On one hand, she did sort of like her new hair. It was pretty unique compared to her usual look. On the other hand, it looked silly. Like she was ready to come up to Olive Garden and open up a bottle of Montoya Cabernet.
"I...I like it," said Lucy.
"You do? You're not just saying that are you?" Natasia asked.
"No, of course I like it. It's different", Lucy said, although she thought differently. 'Note to self, change hair back to ponytail at first opportunity.'
"Yay!" Natasia cheered. She took out her phone from her bag and took a quick snapshot of Lucy and her new look. "Lucy, smile!" Lucy awkwardly did so at first as Natasia took the first shot.
"How is it?" asked the princess.
"Not a good one. Come on Lucy, give me a genuine smile."
Lucy lightened up and did her pose.
"Oh, I want to be in it too!" Maddie said.
Smiling, Nat held up her phone so that the three of them would be in the picture. "Say cheese!"
"CHEESE!" The photo was taken and the girls laughed at the picture.
"That was great. Now it's my turn," Natasia said. The young racer sat down on a chair and removed the ties holding her braid together. "I'm ready."
While her back was turned, an idea came to Lucy. She quietly whispered her idea into Maddie's ear. "Hey Maddie, I think I got a plan for Nat's makeover. Just follow my lead, okay?"
Maddison looked at her friend at first and nodded. "Gotcha."
As they were talking, Natasia noticed her friends standing behind her, which was a bit weird. "Hey girls, what's going on?"
Lucy's head shot back up and forced a smile. "Oh, uh... nothing, nothing. Hehe..." She went into her closet and took out a large, white cloth. "Let's get you set up."
"Huh, what's this for?" Natasia asked as Lucy put the cloth on her.
"It's, uh... to help with the makeover. So you won't get those pajamas of yours messy in case some of the hair dye spills out."
"Wait! You're gonna dye my hair?" Natasia said, seemingly shocked by this.
"Y-Yeah. Right Maddie?"
Maddie grabbed what looked to be a small canister of instant hair color wax. "R-Right. It's only a temporary dye. You can wash it off right away. Is that okay with you?"
Natasia thought for a moment. She had thought of dying her hair recently, but she just wasn't too good at doing her own hair. Her parents didn't exactly approve of the idea, and she didn't have enough in her allowance to get her hair dyed professionally either. At least if the dye was washable, she could at least have some fun with it and not get in trouble later.
"Alright, I'll let you dye it. What color is it anyway?" Maddie was about to answer but Natasia cut her off. "No wait, don't tell me. I want to be surprised."
"Well then, let's get you looking like a princess!" Lucy tried to keep herself from giggling at the word "princess". She had a devious plan in mind for her friend.
(20 minutes later...)
It took a bit longer than it had taken Natasia to spruce Lucy up but finally it was done. Lucy stepped back and admired her work.
"Aaaannddd... Done! What do you think, Nat?" She handed her the mirror and stood back.
Natasia's eyes widened when she saw what happened to her. Her hair had been dyed a dark brown and braided into cinnamon buns on the side of her head. She also had makeup that made her look a bit older and the cloth she wore turned out to be some kind of dress.
"What did you do to me?!" Natasia gasped.
Lucy crossed her arms and had that same smug look her mom always had. "Ta-da! Now you're Princess Leia! Serves you right for making me look like a nerdy anime girl."
"That's not fair! You told me I could do what I wanted to your hair. You know that I don't do Star Wars!" Natasia said.
"And you said I could do what I wanted to yours. And you know that I don't like anime. This makes us even," Lucy shot back.
The two girls glared each other down, angry at the other for how absurd they looked. But as they did, they couldn't help but notice how funny they did indeed look.
Slowly, the serious looks they had began to falter. Natasia's lips began to curve as a smile formed. The same happened with Lucy as she let out a snicker. Little by little, the snickering turned into giggling for both girls, then chuckling. The two broke out in laughter soon after.
"HAHAHA... You should get a good look at yourself, Natasia! You look ridiculous!" Lucy laughed.
"Me?! What about you? You look like Luna Platz from Mega Man Star Force! HAHAHA!" Natasia shot back.
The two laughed at each other so much that all the negativity from before seemed to have disappeared. Even Maddie was laughing out loud, now that her friends were both in a good mood.
"Haha... Oh I'm so glad that the two of you aren't fighting anymore," Maddie said, smiling.
The two girls looked at each other and smiled.
"Yeah, it was a pretty stupid thing to be fighting about. Right Nat?" Lucy said.
Natasia nodded. "Right. But something did occur to me." The girl put on her "thinking face."
"What is it?" Lucy asked.
"Well, the two of us already got our makeovers, right?"
"Right," Lucy nodded.
"But we aren't exactly done with it yet, are we?" Natasia had that mischievous grin on her face again.
Lucy got the idea and grinned as well. "No. No we aren't." They both turned to face Maddie.
Upon seeing their faces, Maddie felt uncomfortable and a bit creeped out.
"Uh... girls?"
Both girls stood up and slowly began making their way over to their friend.
"Come here, Maddie. It's your turn to be pretty." The way Lucy said that was in a sort of eerie tone.
"What are you two doing?" Maddie asked, concerned.
The two slowly crept up to Maddie, with Natasia grabbing a hair curler and scissors while Lucy got the makeup.
"Yeah, Maddie. It's not fair that we got makeovers while you didn't." Natasia laughed a bit.
Maddie was kept backing up until she hit the wall, effectively trapping her into a corner. She looked fearfully at her friends. "N-Now girls... can't we talk about this?"
The two just shook their heads. "Nope."
"EEP!"
What followed next was the girls finishing the mermaid's makeover. Maddie got up and looked at herself in the mirror. She was stunned to see that her long and brown hair was now in curls. Lucy had put her in a gray robe, possibly one of her Star Wars cloaks that she shared with Kevin, and a scarf around her neck. Madison had been turned into Hermione Granger.
Like her friends, Maddie was in a mix of surprise, shock, and anger at first but soon cane to realize that it was all in good fun. The three spent quite some of that time to take pictures, do poses, and dress up in whatever else they could find. They basically just had fun and let their imaginations run wild for a while. That part of the night ended with a selfie of the three laying on the floor together with various makeup, hair decorations, and the costumes they wore, laughing and having a grand time.
After the first part of the sleepover, which took over an hour, Lucy and her friends sat on the pillows and got some snacks.
"So, what do we do next?" Maddie asked.
Lucy thought for a second and remembered what she read in the magazine. "How about some truth or dare?"
"I could go with that. What about you, Maddie?" Natasia said.
Maddie nodded. "Sounds neat! Who goes first?"
Lucy raised her hand. "I will." She turned to Maddie and said, "Now Maddie, truth or dare?"
It only took Maddie a second to reply. "Truth."
"Have you ever had a crush on anyone?"
Maddie immediately started blushing. "W-What?"
Lucy had that smirk on her face once more. "You heard me. I said 'Have you ever had a crush on anyone?'"
Maddie gulped. The question was too sudden and too personal for her. However, she knew that it would be best to just answer the question as quick as she could, unless she wanted Lucy to become upset like before.
"Well, I uh..." She tried to think of an answer but nothing came to mind. At least not one she would like to admit. Still, the two were looking on, waiting for her reply. "...it's... Kevin." She said the last part as a whisper before burying her face into her pillow.
Lucy and Natasia leaned closer and asked, "Could you say that again? I didn't catch it."
"It's Kevin," she said, a little bit louder but still very softly.
Her two friends suddenly squealed in surprise and joy.
"OH...MY...MOD! Kevin?!" Lucy said. "You have a crush on him?" Maddie could only nod while keeping her blushing face hidden. "Since when?"
Maddie raised her head a bit to respond. "I-I don't know... maybe a couple of years back? I don't really remember when it started but I..." Her eyes started to water as she began to feel a bit ashamed. She sobbed as she buried her face back in the pillow. At the same time, the girls could hear rain beginning to pour outside.
The princess and her friend felt sorry for the mermaid. Lucy scooted to her side, as did Natasia, and began to comfort their friend.
"Hey, hey... There's no need to cry, Maddie. It's okay," Lucy said as she patted her friend's back.
"No, it's not! It's weird! You and Kevin are my best friends." Maddie said between sobs.
"Hey!" Natasia said, feeling offended, only to be shushed by Lucy.
"Isn't having a crush on my best friend wrong?" Maddie continued.
"Oh Maddie, you having a crush on my brother isn't so bad. You're a sweet girl. I don't mind if you two like each other." Lucy genuinely thought for quite a while now that Maddie and Kevin could be a cute couple, as long as they don't argue or hurt each other in any way.
"B-But that's the other problem. I don't even know if he likes me back." The mermaid was still quite saddened by this thought. The rain outside fell a bit harder, almost in sync with her emotions.
Something that only her friends and her guardians knew about her was that she had the uncanny ability to cause rainstorms, depending on her mood. If she was happy, then the skies remained clear and sunny (or just clear and starry in this case). But when she felt a great sadness or fear, well... let's just say that a raincoat, boots, and possibly a life jacket was a safe bet to be carrying around.
"Aw, Maddie... I'm sure he does," Lucy cooed.
Maddison wiped away her tears. "R-Really?"
Lucy smiled. "I'll tell you what. When he and dad come back from the convention tomorrow, I can go ask him. Okay?"
"Okay. Thanks Lucy." Maddie tilted her head up but didn't realize that her makeup had rubbed off and made a mess.
"Ooh, Maddie, your makeup... it's dripping," Natasia commented.
Lucy handed her a tissue which she gladly took. "Thanks." She wiped away the makeup that stained her face and started to feel better. Even the rain outside stopped. "Sorry about that, girls. Whose turn is it?"
"It's your turn," Lucy said.
Maddie nodded. "Oh, right. So Lucy, truth or dare?"
"I choose dare."
"Okay." Maddie tried to think up a very funny dare to challenge her friend. "I dare you... to lick Sour Bill."
"What?!" Lucy said, feeling shocked and a bit disgusted by it. "You've gotta be kidding me! I'm not doing that!"
Natasia wagged her finger. "Tsk... tsk... That's not how the game goes, Lucy. You know the rules, no backing out of a dare." She put her hands on her hips and said, "Besides, I thought you loved sour candies."
"I do, but it's just that..." Lucy tried to come up with an excuse but was having a hard time doing so.
"Just what? You're scared? Are you a scaredy cat?" Natasia taunted. "Or maybe you prefer a chicken?" She stood up and began imitating the fowl by flapping her arms and clucking.
Maddie placed her hand on her friend's shoulder. "It's okay, Lucy. You don't have to do the dare if you don't want to."
Lucy grew annoyed and got a determined look on her face. "I am not a chicken!"
Natasia crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Prove it."
"Fine, I will!" She went over to her phone and dialed the number for the castle staff, which was then followed by some ringing. After a few seconds, the person on the other side picked up.
"Hello?" a female voice said.
"Yes, Jill?" Lucy said.
"Oh, Princess Lucy, hi. Is there anything you need?"
"Could you please tell Sour Bill to come to my room?"
"As you wish, my princess."
Both princess and servant hung up the phone, leaving the princess to wait for the sour ball. After a short while, Sour Bill came into the room.
"You called for me, princess?" he asked.
"I did, Bill. I want you to do something for me," Lucy said.
Sour Bill didn't seem pleased. It wasn't really a secret to anyone that he disliked the twins. He was originally programmed to follow the game's ruler, i.e. Vanellope (and by extension, Rancis). But to him, those two were perfectly capable of doing everything themselves and gave him enough time for a break when he wished. But that changed when Lucy and Kevin were born. Suffice it to say, after being the twins' nanny for several years, his patience towards them had worn thin.
"What is it?" he said, not even bothering to be polite to his game's princess.
"I just want you to bow down for a few seconds," she replied.
Sour Bill looked at her, upset, though it was hard to tell since "upset" was his default emotion next to sleepy.
"Are you serious? You called me up here just for that?"
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Would you just do it?"
The sour candy man sighed. "Fine. As you command, princess." He bowed down, leaving his head exposed for the three little girls' plan.
Lucy saw her chance. "Okay, so you're gonna feel a slight tingle." She placed her hands on the older candy's head before he had any time to process what she just said. She took one more look at her friends, as if asking them if she had to do this. Both girls nodded, though Maddie hid part of her face with her pillow. She closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, then proceeded to drag her tongue on the old majordomo's dome.
"What did you-" Sour Bill was barely able to start asking when he felt that familiar feeling of a rough and wet tongue scraping across his head. As a candy person, being eaten was definitely one of his worst nightmares. It was so high on his list of fears that it gave him flashbacks of Ralph putting him in his mouth many years ago.
After a few seconds, Lucy pulled back and pushed herself away from Sour Bill, who stood there in horror before falling backwards, seemingly unconscious.
"YUCK! That was the worst thing I tasted in my life!" Lucy yelled out. She ran to her nightstand and pulled out some packets of Sour Skittles and started chomping them down.
"You're overreacting. I'm sure a Warhead is much worse than that," Natasia chuckled while Maddie began feeling sorry for putting her friend through such a dare. She also felt kind of bad for Sour Bill for having to go through that too
Once she finished off her third packet, Lucy grabbed a yellow Warhead and put that in her mouth too. The extremely sour candy caused her to immediately pucker up her lips from the flavor and even tried to spit it back out. However, her puckered lips practically shut themselves and refused her to do so. With no choice, Lucy ended up swallowing the candy, finally able to get the sour taste out of her mouth.
After a few seconds, Lucy grabbed a Sprite bottle from underneath her bed and took a few sips of it, getting some relief from both the Warhead and Sour Bill's taste.
"I'll say it one more time. THAT was the most disgusting, repulsive, grossest, most stomach-turning thing I've ever tasted!" She took another swig of the Sprite bottle.
Natasia was now laying down and texting on her phone, only glancing at her friend to take a quick snapshot of her before resuming her text. "You do realize that Ralph put Sour Bill in his mouth too, right?"
Lucy suddenly spat out her soda when she heard this. "WHAT?!"
This time, Natasia didn't even bother looking away from her phone. "You heard me. Ralph put Billy boy over there in his mouth when he asked him where your mom was when she was still a glitch."
"Is that true?" Maddie asked.
"You better believe it," Natasia replied simply.
"R-Ralph? I-I-I have Ralph germs?!" Lucy exclaimed.
Natasia shrugged. "I guess so."
Lucy looked like she was about to throw up. "I think I'm gonna be sick!" She rushed into her bathroom and began vomiting into the toilet.
Maddie looked worried about her friend. "Should we check up on her to see if she's alright?" The sound of her friend puking her guts out was a bit sickening to her.
"I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen Bill here respawn a few times before. I'm sure that whatever Ralph germs he had on him must be gone by now," Natasia casually said.
Maddie went over to Sour Bill, who was still by the door. His eyes were now blank and his greenish color had become pale. "What about Sour bill? Should we help him?"
Natasia peeped from the side of her phone and shook her head. "There's no way I'm touching Ralph germs."
"Th-The h-horr-ror..." the sour ball said weakly.