i "A… makeover?" Lila repeated mechanically as she let herself fall back on the bed./i

…..

"What do you suppose she means by that?" The curious male voice next to her startled her and made her jump on her feet.

"Hey! You… you scared me!" she exclaimed slightly pouting. "How should I know?..." Her expression seemed quite pensive. What idid/i Flare mean? Well whatever it was it must have been important, but now Lila thought of something else. The cookies Genie had so cruelly lured her out of bed with, seemed like heaven. Which brought in another question. If she was a goddess indeed, was she supposed to enjoy human food so much? Because she really did. She loved cookies and pie and roasted veggies and mushed potatoes with cheese. She loved those things. And then another question… Flare said the gods ate slightly different food than humans. Instantly Lila's mind flew to mythology and the stories she had read about ancient Greek gods that were fed with "nectar and ambrosia", foods that were supposedly superior to anything that could be eaten by normal people. So was that it? Was the food she was going to eat similar to that? That made her frown a little. She did love cookies… Could anything really top that?

" i A bmakeover/b is a term applied to changing one's appearance/i" Genie's voice interrupted her thoughts again. This time he had chosen to levitate next to her, disguised in what was probably intended to look like a scholar, with a pair of ridiculously large reading glasses and a dictionary of the English language at hand. He turned and looked at her in a rather weird way; like he was examining her. "Hmmm… I guess that's what she meant…

Lila was a smart girl. She noticed the concealed mockery in his tone of voice. Of course that was far from Genie's intention. All he wanted to do was tease her. Instead he gained a nice, rather scary (or at least that was its purpose, cause quite frankly her face was cute to amusing distorted like that) glare. Oh how lucky he was he his body was made of gas because otherwise he'd definitely get it. Although… Lila wondered. Was he really not material? Almost instinctively she poked his shoulder with her finger expecting for it to go right through him. Her face turned blood red when it didn't. He actually felt kind of fluffy at first, but then his body was solid, like actual human skin. She pulled her finger off quickly looking away.

"So… sorry" she mumbled. Little did she know that Genie could materialise his body at will and he did that kind of purposely. He didn't mind her touching him however. It made him feel a liiiitle awkward, but not enough to classify this as uncomfortable let alone annoying.

"Curious are we little miss goddess hm?" he mused deviously as he turned back to his natural form. "I am a genie. I am ethereal if I want to, material if I wish to, I can be invisible, visible, soft or hard, I can be whatever I choose to really~"

"Well whatever form, you are annoying" Lila pouted still blushing. She was surprised by herself… Reacting in such a way was so not her. If anything Lila wasn't rude, but this person made her feel strange. Not exactly uncomfortable, she couldn't really put her finger on it. Genie blinked.

"What did I do now?" he pouted a little as well, looking rather puzzled.

"Well you…" her phrase was interrupted by a long, drawn, twisted sound coming straight from her tummy. Her stomach was growling. If she was blushed before, then this time her face was ready for ignition. The embarrassment! If only she could crawl in a hole under the ground. Genie blinked and then chuckled in the most amused manner. He didn't even sound mocking.

"I guess gods gotta eat too eh princess?" he said smiling now. Her awkwardness and utter embarrassment only added to her cuteness as the blazing red painted her otherwise pale as snow skin.

"I… eh… " she was so confused. She just sighed and looked down defeated. "I guess so…" she was too embarrassed to even register his laughter. So totally embarrassed. Her stomach had never growled in front of anyone but her parents before… Especially a guy… Wait.. What? Was that what she acknowledged him as? She averted her eyes from him, closing them as if in pain, her face looked ready to explode. That made him feel a little guilty. He didn't know what it was but he had probably said or done something that had made her feel bad. He did tend to go ahead of himself sometimes. He prepared to apologise but she jumped on her feet suddenly and rushed to put her shoes on. "I guess I should hurry to breakfast then!" she exclaimed before she suddenly paused and looked at him puzzled. "Erm… what about you?.. Do you eat normal food or?". Her question made Genie smile.

"No. Don't worry I don't need food. I don't need sleep or any of those things."

"Oh ok then." She smiled awkwardly. She stopped for a moment and looked at her dress. "You know… Flare is right. I probably do need a makeover. I mean… these are the only clothes I have." She noticed pointing at herself.

"I can help you with that if you want. All I have to do is wiggle my finger~ But you'll have to spare a wish" he said with a mellow, drawn-out voice. Lila's cheeks were painted pink again.

"No no that's ok… It will be suspicious. I didn't bring anything with me so…"

"Hmm.. true, but you're a goddess right? I mean something like this should be a piece of cake for you" he shrugged. The puzzled looked made its way back on Lila's face.

"To be honest I've never used magic before… I think at least… I don't know how to do it…" she said plainly. The Genie smiled at her innocence. She knew nothing about magic and there he was, trying to trick her into using up a wish. Truth was he was pretty worried about Ali…

i Ali… I hope you're safe../i

"Anyway!" she announced getting up. "This dress will do for now. But.." she tapped her finger over her lips pensively. "What do I do about you?... I'm pretty sure they've got maids here so I can't let them find the lamp… or you"

"Then take me with you. Look~" he clapped his fingers and created a small chain. "I can shrink the lamp to a size that will allow you to carry it around your neck on this chain. I made the chain long enough so that is will go under the top of your dress." And there it was again. Lila's face turned blood red.

"Ehhh?!"

"Wha… I mean… no no no!" Genie couldn't help but blush a little as well and this time he couldn't really cover it. "That's not… I mean, don't worry, when I'm in the lamp I can't see outside so I won't peek or anything… Not that I would anyway… I mean…" he was stressed and all over the place and Lila's confused, embarrassed and borderline shocked expression didn't help. He sighed. "I'll just go in the lamp…" he said and let himself be sucked in like smoke before the lamp shrunk making a weird "poof" sound.

Lila stayed blinking and blushed until she took the little thing in her palm. She passed it through the delicate chain and put it around her neck before she walked to the small round mirror on the other side of the room. It looked rather pretty. Her gaze lingered on it a little before she tucked it inside her top and between her breasts, blushing a little at the idea that there was an actual person in there. She shook her head and proceeded to cover the chain as best she could with her hair; if anything her grandmother seemed very observant.

…..

The dining hall was as heavily decorated as the rest of the house. Sophia sure didn't spare expenses as far as carpeting, wall art and chandeliers were concerned. Or furniture of course. This was one over the top mansion. But then again, if Genie was right then Sophia wouldn't have had to spend money on all that. She'd just have to clap her fingers and everything she desired would happen. Was it really that way? Lila was utterly confused about the whole situation with gods and magic but she hope that with time she'd get used to it…

iOr I'll be able to efficiently run away eventually…/i

She smirked a small devious smirk at that though, she made sure to wipe off her face as soon as she walked into the dining room. Sophia was waiting for her on the other side of an unnecessarily large table. A dining set was in front of her and another in front of the chair next to her. Lila guessed that's where she had to sit. She took a small bow before starting to walk towards her seat.

"You're late." Sophia stated dryly. "Accuracy is a very important trait for a divine creature." She continued the same way.

"I apologize… I slept in." Lila said blushing a little. Sophia was right. Accuracy was important anyway, her mother had tried to teach her that, but for some odd reason, Lila always had a problem with it. She was barely ever right on her timing.

"That is not acceptable either. I'll let it go because it is the first time. But make it be the last as well. Solar can help you with that. Solar has impeccable timing skills. Plus I'll make sure he's the one who wakes you up in time for your morning activities. I sense Flare might have been too subtle." The old woman said with a hint of contempt in her voice. It was clear that Lila's plain nature was annoying her. She made a small nod to one of the servants and soon a whole army of them barged in carrying several trays and teapots and whatnots. Lila raised her head and widened her eyes trying to take a glimpse of what they were bringing. Sophia just looked at her with a slightly frustrated look. For sure the senior goddess could see that this child would be a handful. But the beauty and elegance… Well they'd have to work a little on the last one but surely a creature like her would be served the divine world on a plate. Just like all the weird delicacies that were placed on the table. Lila was really trying to take this all in. The foods before her looked like human food and yet they didn't look like it at all.. There were fruits and pastries and buns and bagels and jams and other spreads, but they all looked so… different. Sophia wouldn't ever admit it but she was slightly amused by Lila's baffled look. She sighed.

"You'll get used to it." She said plainly as a maid was pouring some tea in her cup. Strange as it was, the tea wasn't exactly liquid. It actually floated a little before settling into the cup and it was as if it was made of delicate smoke. Lila had never seen anything like that before. Plus it had a bright pinking, almost sparkling color and it actually looked like there was a gradient of pink in Sophia's cup.

"Wow…" the blue-eyed girl exclaimed as a reflex to the unusual image before her as the maid proceeded to pour some of the strange substance in her own cup. As soon as she was done, the girl raised the cup with both her hands and prepared to sip.

"Now wait a minute" Sophia ordered. At first Lila thought she had done something wrong -which she had- but in fact her grandmother stopped her for another reason. A small strand of smoke started moving inside Lila's nose and she tickled her so much she almost sneezed. Fortunately she didn't because that would have made Sophia furious. "Put it down child. Let it settle. This is the finest tea from Venus. Of course it's heavily processed as anything that comes from that planet is deadly poisonous." She said shaking her cup a little in a circular way. "Of course not for us but it still has unpleasant effects. If you don't wait the required amount of time then it will go up your nose and cause you digestion problems. Have a bun instead," the old woman suggested pointing at a large tray of what seemed like very tasty but rather peculiar buns. They were deep purple with a glittery blue glaze on top of them. They sure didn't look like normal buns. "They're Uranian. From the personal chef of master Sky. They're very hard to get you know. But we have a steady supply" she said smugly finally taking a sip of her tea. "Go on. Have one"

"O…Ok…" Lila mumbled and used her hand to grab one of the buns and proceeded to take a rather large bite out of it, something that resulted in some of the icing staying on her lips causing her to lick it. That thing was indeed delicious. It has a strange taste, something between brown sugar and licorice, or a mix of the two. Now see, that's something that Lila wouldn't normally do, her family had taught her good table manners, but she was so hungry she barely had any time to think about it. Sophia was shocked and appalled.

"Your manners child! For the love of God!" she exclaimed failing to see the obvious pun in her words. Lila blinked confused and blushed but it only took her seconds to realise what she had done wrong. She blushed looking down pretty much feeling ashamed and… a little guilty? Yes guilty because she knew Sophia was going to blame this on her human parents and she really didn't want them being bashed by the likes of that woman.

"Forgive me… You're right. I apologise" she said again bowing her head a little. She did apologize a lot now didn't she? That was something she didn't particularly enjoyed either.

"Oh dear… I'm afraid I will have to do this one myself" the old woman sighed frustrated and proceeded to give Lila a full on lesson on table manners. At first the girl thought of protesting and actually trying to prove to her that she did know her way around the table, but soon she understood it was better that she didn't. For divine dining differed vastly from that of humans. The senior goddess of course showed her the basics on how to place her hands, use her forks, knives and spoons hot to hold the cups, things Lila already knew about. However there as a significant difference on how food was handled that Lila would have never gotten. The "settling" of the tea, was nothing compared to how she had to handle the actual foods, like cutting pastries, or spreading jam on them in a particular direction or peeling some fruits. "Peeling" was a euphemism given how some of them (like some strange green and yellow Mercurian fruits resembling apples but tasting disturbingly like bananas) just needed to be pressed on a particular spot and they went on and peeled themselves or their peel would disappear into thin air in a split second.

Lila of course would have enjoyed all this strange experience much more given how incredibly tasty most of the foods were, if it wasn't for Sophia's condescending preaching. However, her stomach was full and she had seen some serious –although she was sure, minor- magic.

"Well now… We still have a long way to go but no more time, at least for now. Flare is waiting for you in the vestiaries. Let's not maker her wait itoo/i shall we?" she said with that judgmental tone of hers. Lila couldn't have been happier this whole thing was over. This morning had convinced her once and for all that interaction with Sophia was NOT one of her favorite things. Definitely not. If she could, she'd run away from that huge dining room right away. However, she took the time to take one last sip from her strange, yet delicious tea and wipe her lips clean with her napkin before she lifted herself from the chair and gave Sophia a small bow.

"With your permission… grandmother" she said and waited for the old woman's nod to start strolling out of there. As soon as she was out of the large room however, she stopped and looked around puzzled. "Ah no… I forgot to ask her where the vestiaries are… Aw man…" she mumbled really baffled that she had to go back in there and face Sophia's condescension again, but a small poofing noise and a light breeze next to her stop it. She turned around to see a familiar face and smiled.

"Solar!" she exclaimed happy that there was someone she actually iliked/i that she could ask for directions. "I…"

"I know. " he said smiling an amused and serene smile. "I'll take you to Flare. Follow me."

…..