Chapter Five

It was the day of the Solstice celebration so Della, Alden, and all the gnomes had chased everyone out of Everglen to finish decorating. So Sophie and all her friends went to Atlantis to shop for their outfits until it was time to start the celebration.

Once they arrived at the small rocky island that was the secret entrance to Atlantis, Fitz shuffled around the island looking for the box that contained the "entrance."

The entrance to Atlantis was a bottle that held a whirlpool inside. You would throw the bottle into the water below to make a whirlpool that you would jump in to get to the city that all the humans knew existed but had never found.

The first store that they went in was called "Shop till' You Drop!" and Biana was so excited because she would definitely "shop until she dropped," and that girl would never drop when shopping. So they were in there for a decent 20 minutes. Linh found her dress in that 20 minutes. Linh's dress was a gorgeous aquamarine, which was peculiar since she was a hydrokinetic. It had a V-neck that didn't show too much cleavage and was up to her knees in the back, but crossed over revealing her knees. The hem of the dress was adorned with rhinestones that made a beautiful design of soft waves of water, making her hydrokinetic powers stand out when she used them to wash the stain out that was on the skirt.

The next store was a tuxedo store called "Love Makes Dressing up Less Comfortable."

Tam snickered. "You would think they would name the store something more decent."

"Well it's true," Fitz said. "My dad said that before he married my mom, he didn't have to dress up too fancy on special occasions since he didn't have to match her."

"Well that's one reason our Fitzipoo over here shouldn't get married too early to Foster over her," Keefe commented.

"First of all, don't call me that. Second, I love Sophie so I don't care if I have to wear fancy clothing in order to go to some special occasion, and three, Sophie isn't into clothing like Biana so she wouldn't force me into something that I don't like," Fitz countered.

"Chill Fitz," Keefe said, backing up slowly and tripping into a rack.

BANG!

"Look, it's perfect," Keefe said, holding up a tuxedo with an ice blue tie with a vest in the same color to match his eyes. Somehow he found it while sprawled on the marble floor. "All I have to add now is a cape that's silver to make the flecks in my eyes stand out even more," he said, flashing his signature smirk.

"It looks perfect!" Biana cooed. "Come on, go try it on."

Biana dragged Keefe into the nearest dressing room, forcing him to try it on.

Keefe came out with a swoosh of the curtain, and started strutting down the aisle, like a model on a runway.

Biana applauded and urged her boyfriend to spin so then he could take in the full effect.

Keefe looked dazzling in his tuxedo. But Sophie pulled Fitz away and together they looked for Fitz's tux.

"How about this Sophie?" Fitz asked.

She turned around to see Fitz wearing an elaborate teal suit with a teal tie and a white shirt underneath. The cape was a dashing silver.

Sophie stared in awe as she took it all in.

"You look stunning," she said as he leaned down to kiss her.

When they returned to the place where they had left their friends, all of the boys had found a tux to match their eyes and style.

Keefe, Dex, and Tam all had a black suit while Fitz was the only one to have a suit to match his eyes. All four boys had on a tie that matched their eye color and silver capes.

The next store they came across was called "Elaborate Elf."

"Ooh! Look at that dress," Biana practically purred. "It's drop-dead gorgeous!"

"Just like you," Tam whispered, but everyone had heard him and gasped. "What?" He countered.

"Never mind," everyone muttered at the same time.

"Let's go in!" Biana said, quickly changing the subject.

Once they were inside, Fitz started dragging Sophie and grabbing so many dresses she thought she would go cross-eyed from all the choices.

She followed him to some sort of dressing room.

"Here, try this on," he said as he closed the door and turned his back towards her.

It was a lavender dress that hung down to her shins and made her look taller than she really was. It had a rose embroidery on the skirt and had a back that dipped very low.

After trying on HUNDREDS of different dresses, Sophie finally found the one she wanted.

It was a long teal dress that reached all the way to her toes. There was a thick band of silk that was three or four inches long that was under her breast. It formed an empire waist and it made the skirt of the dress cascade down her legs. It had a sweetheart neckline and a lace, long sleeved top. ( To see dress, click on link. ( search?q=teal+engagement+dresses&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS711US711&hl=en-US&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj00N3RucrUAhUIbz4KHaSCBEYQ_AUICSgB&biw=320&bih=492#imgrc=UOwnP2nOrvmx5M:)) ( And of COURSE it's teal. What else would it be?)

"You look amazing," Fitz stared as she came out of the dressing room. "Not that you didn't look amazing before," he defended.

"I didn't say anything," Sophie laughed at how he always tried to defend himself with words instead of actions, like most boys his age did.

"I never said you did," Fitz retorted.

He grabbed her hand and started twirling her and spinning and dancing all over the store while the rest of their friends watched in adoration as the two danced along to the soft gnomic music that was heard.

When they returned to Everglen in the afternoon, they stared at the immaculate building in wonder.

The mansion was already captivating with its tall towers and huge structure, but with all the decorations and places set up, the building was practically unrecognizable.

When they stepped inside, everything was covered top to bottom with either silver, teal, or white decorations giving the already enormous mansion an even larger looking effect.

"Wow," everyone breathed.

"I did say that we go all out during our parties," Fitz said with a proud smile on his face.

"Not as "all out" as your parents though Sophie. They used to throw the BEST parties ever, I wasn't born yet but I've heard stories. Well. That was before the incident with Jolie of course," a sudden silence swept over the group. A moment of silence seemed to be the respectful thing to do when mentioning Jolie's name.

No one could find anything to say after that so the group walked up the crystal staircase to get ready for the celebration.

Once all the girls were in Biana's room, and all the boys were in Fitz's room, they got changed with the newly bought clothes.

"Makeover time!" Biana yelled, holding up a bottle of 'Blushing Beauty' and a bottle of 'Lovely Lashes.' Sophie could spy several other bottles behind Biana.

Sophie groaned. She still never liked Biana giving her a makeover, especially with the elixirs she made Sophie drink. But it was the day of the Solstice celebration so she had to look at least slightly presentable. And there was also the fact that she wanted to astound Fitz.

"Okay so…." Sophie zoned out as Biana started talking about the newest beauty elixirs and what she would look best in and instead wondered what Fitz was doing. It was getting rather boring so why not check in with Fitz?

Hey, Sophie transmitted.

Whoa, you scared me, Fitz transmitted back.

Sophie giggled.

I hope nothing bad happened. Are you alright?

Other than the fact that I knocked the hair gel out of Keefe's hand which ended up getting splattered all over the floor, yeah I'm fine.

Wait what!? You got hair gel EVERYWHERE? I wish I could've seen that.

Well, it's a mess now. And Keefe is absolutely devastated with the loss of his 'dear hair gel.'

Ok! Well I hope that you're doing fine. See you downstairs in an hour! Love you!

Love you too Sophie, love you too.