The Lavender Butterfly

Chapter 5

Lying in bed the next morning, I was awakened by rummaging and Stella’s muffled voice from the next room. I looked over at Meredith, who was also awakened by the noise coming from next door. I looked over at the clock – it was still only 5:13 in the morning, and the sun hadn’t even come up yet. Meredith rolled over and mumbled to me. “Just go back to sleep, we can get a little bit more rest while they are getting ready.” I rested my head back on my pillow and before I could even close my eyes, I heard pounding on our door. Meredith lazily slinked out of bed, wiped her eyes and opened the door. A panicked Stella bolted into the room. “You haven’t seen Chloe’s makeup bag anywhere, have you?” I sat up in bed and stretched. “I guess I’m up now,” I thought to myself. Stella frantically scanned the room. Meredith walked over to her bag, rummaged through her clothes and found Chloe’s small makeup bag. Meredith handed it over to Stella. “I’m sorry, I remember after we checked in yesterday that it fell out of Chloe’s backpack. I picked it up and put it in my bag. It was so chaotic yesterday I completely forgot to give it to you,” Meredith said. “Oh, thank God!” Stella replied. “I thought the world was coming to an end there! I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have her makeup. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said as she dashed out of the room. Meredith gave me a wry look and said “Well, I don’t think we’re going back to bed now, right? “Nope.” I replied. Meredith and I decided to head down and grab some breakfast. I grabbed some bacon and eggs and a cup of coffee, and I sat down at the table. As I started to dig in, Evan walked into the room and sleepily walked over to the buffet and poured himself a bowl of cereal before he joined us at our table. “Mom and Chloe are going to be down in a few minutes, they’re just finishing up Chloe’s makeup.” Meredith looked over at Evan and asked, “Are you looking forward to watching your sister perform today?” Even looked at her, annoyed, and said nothing. To be completely honest, I kind of shared the same sentiment. I wasn’t really privy to the idea of competitive dance, but I truly wanted to be there for Chloe. However, sitting around watching a bunch of dances while waiting for her performance wasn’t exactly my idea of a vacation, but I’m sure I’d be able to soldier through. After all, after watching her two performances for the day, Meredith and I would have the next couple days to ourselves.