The stars and the moon

Chapter 2

///Prepared: expectant, organized, or equipped; ready///

"Ma'am, it's time to get up. The designers are here to begin their work on you."

"What time is it?" I asked, my body refusing to react.

"It's currently half past two.

When my brain processed what time it was, my body jolted up from the warm cocoon known as my bed and I went into a frenzy.

"What do you mean?!" My morning voice squeaked.

"Well, ma'am, you did stay up very late again last night." Sebastian was right. For the past three days I've been going to sleep at 5 in the morning due to piles of paperwork that had been collecting over the weeks. I suppose my body became exhausted and I slept in.

I was slightly upset at Sebastian for not waking me up but at the same time I knew that he did it because he cared for me.

Suddenly, a knock was heard at the door and a middle aged man with pink hair walked into the room holding a white bottle in one of his hands. "Good morning darling, we need to start now or you'll be late." it took me some time to realize what I would be late for, but then I remembered that today was the day of the gala. "I need you to exfoliate your face with this product while you shower so that your makeup can be applied smoothly." He said, handing me the white bottle.

"Okay." I said, finally starting to compose myself.

I shuffled my feet toward the bathroom and turned on the warm water to the shower. I removed my loose clothing and waked into the warm stream of small water droplets. I did as he said and exfoliated my face. Then I lathered my body in vanilla scented body wash, and shaved everywhere, including my arms. I let my hair run under the water because I had already washed it yesterday and the hair stylists said they wanted it damp.

Right as I was about to turn the water off, the pink-haired man barged in and in a booming voice announced that he found the body scrub that he wanted me to use.

"Why do I need it?"

"Arden," he sighed. "You need to use this to make your skin look brighter and softer."

"Okay...?" I answered back almost as a question.

"Great, now hurry up darling. We're running out of time." I heard the door slam behind him, and loud rumbling outside the bathroom.

After I finally finished scrubbing down my body, I turned off the water and grabbed the white towel on top of the toilet seat, wrapping it tightly around my body.

When I walked out, a small chair was placed in the middle of my room along with three black bags filled with, what I assumed, to be makeup.

I love doing my own makeup but for important events, I usually hired someone professional to do it. I classified important events as something where more than 75 important people were going to arrive. This event was definitely important by my standards.

He first started off by moisturizing my face with a peach scented cream that left my skin looking really bright. He then applied the primer that I preferred and swiftly sponged foundation onto my face with incredible sleight of hand, making sure to blend down to my neck.

As I was talking with a someone on the phone, he brought a crayon-like object up to my face.

"What is that?" I mouthed to him. He brought the object up to my eyes and allowed me to observe it. Almost instantly I realized that it was a contour stick and nothing else, soothing my worries

After I hung up, he claimed that for this look, the most important features were going to be my eyes and my highlight. Meaning that he graciously piled highlight onto the tops of my cheekbones, my nose, and my lower forehead. After some time of applying the highlight, I began to feel anxious and twitchy because it seemed like he was applying too much. When he saw me making creases in my face from worry he told to relax and that he was done. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned around and faced forward again.

He finished off with somewhat smokey eyes, a moderate wing, a beautiful lip color, and a pop of blush that brought me back to life. He brought a large handheld mirror towards me and told me not to turn it around until he said so. I did it anyway because no person that  I pay was allowed to tell me what to do.

He pouted a bit and said "That's not fair. You were supposed to wait until I said so." At that moment, I was wrapped in shock. I looked like me but with my features more enhanced and dramatic. My highlight was the definition of perfection. Not to mention that my lips and blush matched surprisingly well, bringing the whole look together.

"Thank you." I said while still looking in the mirror. "It looks very good."

"You're welcome darling. Now it's time for the hair stylists to do their magic on you." He said, walking towards the door and opening it to inform the hair stylist that I was ready. He picked up his three bags without any effort and blew me a kiss as he walked out.

Two people walked in this time and they seemed to be brother and sister. They were very quiet and only talked to me when they needed me to turn my head or hold still. They worked on my hair for what felt like forever, pulling, tugging, molding my hair into what they thought would appropriately go with my face shape and dress. In total, the hairstyle took two hours to complete, and it looked beautiful. I had curls hanging elegantly around my face, a small blue flower on the side, and it looked almost like if it were a very messy bun.

I thanked them and asked them if they could apply a little bit more hairspray before they left. The girl responded back with a yes and reached across for the bottle. She sprayed a light amount around my whole head, focusing mostly on the back. When she said she was done, I quickly explained the paying process to them, having only an hour left to put on my dress. They said thank you and walked out the door with all of their equipment, managing to barely making any noise at all.

"Sebastian! Can you get Lily for me please?" Lily was my best friend and I had known her for as long as I could remember. We went through everything together, including breakups, bad grades, and even once in college we dated for 6 months. After those six months though, she realized that she was just going through a rebellious phase and wasn't really a lesbian, but through that experience I learned that I was not totally straight.

"Yes, ma'am." Sebastian said, walking away. Lily walked in with one other girl, and with all of our effort we managed to get my dress on in a record time of 20 minutes.

Now that I had my makeup applied, hair styled, and dress on, I was almost ready. The last couple of things that I had to accomplish consisted of: moisturizing my arms, brushing my teeth, putting on my tall black heels, and preparing my bag. Moisturizing my arms and preparing my clutch took the longest time, each task taking 10 minutes. Brushing my teeth and putting on my heels took a total of five minutes.

When I was done with all of the tasks, I asked Sebastian to tell the driver that I was ready. By the time that I walked out of the house, the driver was waiting and ready to go. Before I closed the door, I made sure that I had my ticket safely tucked into my clutch along with my phone and lipstick, to reapply throughout the night. I hugged Lily goodbye, and made sure to politely thank both Lily and the girl for helping me.

I stepped into the open car door and said "Please take the long way."

"Miss. Arden, if we go the long way, you'll arrive ten minutes late."

"That's the point. Arriving fashionably late is better than arriving early." I snapped back.

"Yes ma'am." He replied, not attempting eye contact.

Tonight my goal is to walk out of the gala with at least three new defined partners, and briefly schedule some meetings. I was prepared and ready to ready to speak calculated thoughts. Tonight was my night and no one was going to take that away from me.