A/N: Please check out the revised Chapter 1 before continuing. Thanks for reading!

"Zoe, please?"

"No."

"But you said you'd go to the dance and you said you would dress up!"

"I am NOT wearing that!"

"It's the most covered up I could manage without making you look like a nun!"

"NO!"

I sighed in my chair as I fixed the wrinkles in my skirt. I was happy with the outfit Delia chose for me, even if it was more midriff than I was used to showing. Delia insisted that just this once, I be a little wild. Also, the two piece matched my ring, which I knew Delia was looking out for. Annabelle stood next to me, her floor-length floral print gown was very pretty, the folds of the skirt designed to look like petals. Delia was wearing a knee-length plum colored dress that scrunched up on one side of the skirt and was off shoulder, which perfectly displayed the shining blue green half-butterfly that decorated her shoulder. The tattoos, at closer look, were definitely more-interesting to say the least. The one I'd chosen closely resembled a sun, zigzagging rays and triangles stretched out from the spiral in the middle. Annabelle's was a pair of crisscrossed crescent moons, Zoe's a geometric circle. Delia's tattoo was more a pair of ovals on the opposite sides of a curved line, but she insisted it was a half-butterfly.

The rest of us had yet to apply our tattoos. Delia was far too excited to wait, then mentioned hearing the voices of the fashion gods talking about change. I snorted, Delia swore the fashion gods were real, and had been since kindergarten.

"Zoe, you made a promise! At least try it on."

Zoe snatched the dress away from Delia and stormed into the dressing room. The last time Zoe had worn a dress was when we were seven, and she had not been happy about it. A couple of mud puddles later, the dress was in the trash.

"Baileeeeeeey!" Delia pranced over to me. "Ready to get inked up?"

I shrugged. "Might as well. You ready, Annabelle?"

She nodded silently, pulling out her barrette and sweeping her hair to the side. She'd decided to put her tattoo in a place that wasn't noticeable, at the nape of her neck. Delia said mine should go over my lower back, right above my skirt, and Zoe had chosen the top of her foot.

Annabelle and I mock toasted with our tattoos and I stood up for Delia to position the tattoo on me. I steadied myself against the wall, feeling silly for a moment as Delia tried to find a good spot.

"Here we go, and perfect!"

When the tattoo touched my skin, it burned intensely and I screamed out in pain. My entire body felt like it was on fire and as the colors of the room swirled into one mass of deep blue green, I heard the voices.

To fight, to live

We two of three bestow this gift,

To see, to feel

To stand upon the ancient Seal,

To know, to feed

To change, l'Sidhe

From Earth she comes

From air she breaths

From water, her prison beneath the seas

Fire Burn, desire bleed

As we will, so mote it be*

The burning raged, and my knees buckled. I couldn't take the pain anymore, and I passed out.

I was dancing with Kane, my orange and red skirt twirling around my legs elegantly. I'd never been much of a dancer, but here we were, swaying in each other's arms. He gazed down upon me like I was his whole world, and I smiled up at him.

"Your hair looks like the stars."

"Like the stars?"

He twisted a strand of my hair around his finger, and my not-blonde not-brown hair shined a bright silver. I lay my head on his shoulder as we continued to sway in each other's arms. This moment was perfect, one I'd dreamed of since second grade. Kane Lawson and Bailey Morgan.

"You're the brightest star of all." He whispered in my ear, a lilting accent that was deeply familiar and utterly foreign sending shivers down my spine.

And then he was gone.

"-ailey?! Bailey, wake up!"

"Oh God, look at her back!"

"Is there something in the tattoos that she could be allergic to?"

"Unless she developed an allergy in the past few years, no. Most fake tattoos are made from-"

"Ughhhh."

I groaned as I tried to open my eyes. I felt myself being sat up against the wall. When my vision cleared, I was staring into the worried faces of my friends.

"Bailey, what happened to you? You were fine a minute ago, but the second I put the tattoo on you, you screamed and passed out!"

"It-burned me. D-don't put on the tattoos! I don't know what all of that was but it burned when you put it on me."

Delia looked at Annabelle worriedly, pushing aside her light brown hair.

"Yours looks completely fine. Zoe's too. What about mine?"

Annabelle and Zoe both inspected her shoulder, and Zoe spoke up. "Other than yours being a little more glittery than ours, you're good Queenie."

Delia turned back to Annabelle. "Are you sure she's not allergic? She's the only one with that redness around it."

Annabelle leaned down next to me, and I inched away from the wall, limbs heavy like I'd run a marathon. She gently prodded at my back, then hissed in pain.

"That's so strange. The area around her tattoo is extremely warm, hotter than if she was running a fever."

I shuddered. This day had gone from normal to straight up strange. "Let's just get our clothes and go home." I half-whisper.

"I agree with Bailey. I'm seconds away from shredding this thing." I'd been so busy freaking out over the tattoo thing that I hadn't even noticed Zoe now wearing the little black dress. Delia Cameron had done it again.

"Don't. It looks so pretty on you." I tease.

Zoe scrunched her face up. "Well, at least you're back to normal. Come on, I want out of dress."

"You won't have to wear it again until Monday." Delia nudged Zoe's arm. "You'll survive."

"Yeah, yeah. Less talking, more changing."

When we left Escape, I tried to hold my head high. Okay, I had a weird temporary tattoo that burned the crap out of me when I applied it, but none of my other friends had the same issue. We all had cute outfits for the dance, so there was one thing to be happy about. My mom had already told me before school that dinner and dessert would be spaghetti and chocolate cookies, and all of us could be excited about that, especially Zoe.

I was okay. Everything was okay. Just a weird little mishap at the mall.

Yeah. Right.

*Excerpt from Tattoo, CH 2 Page 24