Iris Falls

Grin and bear it

After battling her bed head for a good ten minutes Iris managed a decent bun, she hid the lack of proper morning care with ornate barrettes that her parents had given her in an attempt to rectify for their long absences and drinking habits.
Anything too fancy would be a bother and her parents would scold her if she dressed to casually, instead of "act your age" they said "dress your status." She sighed and scanned the racks in her walk-in closet for something she could wear without feeling like a ditzy rich girl from reality tv.
There.
A crushed velvet strapless dress caught her eye, the light gray fabric shimmering with lilac undertones, it came to knee height and hugged her body before flaring at the waist, a deep purple ribbon laced down the back in a criss-cross pattern and ended in a large bow. She grabbed the dress off the rack before grabbing a pair of matching dark purple sandal style high heels. She  dressed quickly in the closet, managing to zip the hidden zipper on her dress by her self.
I've got five minutes to put on some makeup and accessories and my heels before all hell breaks loose.
Iris managed to find a pair of lilac earrings and a matching necklace along with a purple jewel crusted cuff and some light gray bangles.
She was grateful to all the speed makeup jobs that she had to do before performances now as she managed to cover the bags under her eyes and a few spots of stubborn acne on her forehead before applying eyeliner and mascara and light pink lipgloss as a final touch she added a shimmery lilac shadow on her lids. She glanced at the clock.
Two minutes, good, I can run faster without the heels on carpet, I'll put them on before I go in.
She paused to look herself over in the mirror before leaving her room, grabbing her heels, and heading for the third floor.
She ran quietly down the hallway, stopping just outside of the east parlor's door, after strapping her heels on she took a deep breath, straightened her spine and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Her father's voice muffled by the door.
Iris hesitated before grasping both door handles and flinging them open as he walked in.
Crap, a little to dramatic, oh well I'll laugh about it later.

"Iris! Darling! Come sit with us we have something to talk to you about." My mother patted the lounge next to her.
Perfect daughter skill activated.
My heels tapped on the hardwood floor as I walked over to the cluster of couches and fancy furniture where my parents sat.
It no longer surprised me how put together my parents looked after a hangover, there was no hint of the heavy drinking that had taken place the night before.

"Good morning, I hope you enjoyed yourselves last night." She watched as both her parents winced before schooling their expressions.
Did I say perfect daughter? I meant sarcastic little shit with manners.

"Yes, well," her father shifted in his seat before glancing at her mother. "Enough about that, come, sit." Iris complied sitting gracefully next to her mother, crossing her ankles and becoming the picture of decorum with her hands folded in her lap and her back straight.

"What did you want to discuss with me?"

"Your father and I are planning a trip, unfortunately due to your education you can not attend with us." Her mother reached over and placed a comforting hand on her wrist.

Is that it? No biggie, I get the house to my self for a few days, great!

"We will be gone for a month, but that's not all, we wanted to discuss something else with you while we have you here." Iris mentally cringed at her mothers words. She remained poised as her mother looked pointedly at her father.

"Ah! Yes! Iris, we were planning to have a party and we were wondering if we could show you off a little to our guests." My parents smiled at me encouragingly.

"Show me off?" My composure slipped slightly but I don't think they noticed.

I knew it, an arranged marriage. Are those even legal these days?

"Yes dear, we want you to dance for our guests!" My mother bounced slightly in excitement while my father nodded his approval.

OH THANK GOD!

"You will dance for us won't you? I would be such a shame if you didn't."

"Who's coming to the party?" I was stunned that they had finally chosen to recognize my passion but there had to be a reason for the sudden interest.

"The head master of a very prestigious dance school and his family, we mean to make a deal with the man but we want to show him our support for the dancing arts before we propose. Would you do that for us darling?" My father leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "We'll get you anything you want, costume, shoes, live music, stage, lighting, we'll even up your trust fund if the deal goes as planned."
I felt my heart sink as they spoke, it was an appeal, they had never seen me dance, and the first time they did it was for money, she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up.

At least it's not an arranged marriage for another deal.

"I'll do it, is there a theme you would like me to incorporate?" I shoved my disappointment away, why had expected anything more from them than another way to get money?

"Preferably something passionate, something moving for our guests, I'm sure you can manage darling, Miss Envern tells us your a genius dancer!" My mother said as she patted my shoulder.

Like you'd even know, and here I was thinking you guys actually cared about me outside of your wallets.

"You may go now, your father and I have an outing with another one of our clients, the party is in two months so get on that dance -uh making stuff!" My mother waved me out of the room as I stood and walked towards the door.

"It's called choreography mother dearest." I snarled under my breath as shoved the door open and walked into the hallway. "But I doubt you'd even care if you knew unless you made money off of it."