Unlike her classmates, Avery doesn't really care about boys, romance and fashion. Her phone contains fewer contacts than there are pens in her pencil case. Her classmates don't seem to care about her excistance, and at home it's basically the same s...
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Avery stroked the soft fabric of the white dress draped over the bed. It felt almost like velvet, or satin.... Smooth but so soft to the fingertips. 'I don't understand what all this is for anyway, Lyria.' The white rose petals were almost the size of a pillow, embroidered together with glistening spider thread.
'Just wait,' the fairy said and handed her a pair of white shoes. 'Go on. Go ahead and try them on.'
Avery smiled and disappeared behind the folded-out room-divider. The dress fit like a glove and the shoes felt as soft as the dress. She had never worn anything so beautiful before. 'It's beautiful,' she said and emerged from behind the room-devider. Lyria, however, was nowhere to be seen. There was a leaf in the middle of the room, though, with charcoal writing on it. Avery bent down and picked it up. 'When the moon reaches its highest: the beach,' she read aloud and frowned. What was this?
She looked around to see if she saw Lyria somewhere, that she might be making tea somewhere, but she was all alone in Tinkerbel's cottage. Night had already fallen and it would not be long before the moon would show its light. So should she wait? Had the queen organised something important for her to attend? This did not strike her as the time for a feast, but perhaps some other important event. Or maybe it had to do with the bond between Avery and Lyria.
When the silvery light in the sky shone brightest, she left the cottage. At the beach, however, it was dead quiet and not a living soul was in sight. A path of luminous purple flowers led her the way. They were beautiful! As Avery got closer, she saw that they were fireflies, doing their best to hide under the purple flowers. Avery lifted one of the flowers and giggled when the firefly looked up in surprise and quickly pulled his flower back down. He looked as if he had been caught. He stuck his luminous bum out from under the flower and flashed his light in the direction of the path. 'Okay, okay,' she muttered with a smile, 'I'll to follow the path.'
She strolled along the beach, her feet in the cool, soft sand and her shoes in her hand. She realised for a moment how much she had missed the beach. She used to go there sometimes with her parents, but she certainly hadn't been to a beach in a decade. The murmur of the waves was almost hypnotic.
Further ahead was light. The path had led her straight there. She saw palm trees filled with fireflies, dancing through the dark night like living stars. Dancing around Peter, who was standing on a rug in the middle of all those lights.
'Peter, what is this?' she asked, laughing. She could not take her eyes off the lights. Like a hypnotic dance, they floated through the air.
Peter cleared his throat and she looked at him. He smiled, but seemed to look at her with difficulty. 'You look beautiful,' he said suddenly and averted his gaze. A shock went through her and for a moment she did not know what to do. When he looked at her again - probably waiting for a reaction - she smiled. 'Thank you.'
His gaze stayed with her and he took her hand. Avery felt the warmth of his fingers. It slid right through her hand, her arm and further into her body until his single touch set her ablaze from the inside out.
