Waking Up A Princess

Chapter Six

"Turn."

Ailey carefully pivoted in the strappy pearl heels that Margaret had laced her into. The teal dress she wore had been fitted perfectly to her body. The corset top hugged her chest and waist while the bottom gently fell to the floor. Pearls had been beaded into the corset here and there and a grouping of pearls caught the first layer of the skirt halfway down her thigh. It was simple, yet it made her fair skin and eyes pop. The yellow streaks that had framed her face had now been tamed to a white blonde and only stood out more thanks to the dress. "It's beautiful," she gasped.

Jessica, the woman her grandfather had hired to design the dress so quickly, nodded and clapped her hands together. "It's a beautiful dress for a lovely princess. The world will not be able to ignore such a stunningly beautiful young woman." 

Ailey felt her cheeks burn as she thanked the expert designer for her compliment and the wonderful dress. Jessica waved her off and instructed her to get out of the dress so she could make the final alterations. Ailey still had to have her hair and makeup done before tonight. She was also supposed to meet her grandfather for something. Today was already hectic and it wasn't even ten o'clock in the morning. Joy.

With another thanks to Jessica, Ailey tore through the halls of the palace, careful to doge any staff carrying out their various duties or preparing for the ball. She apologized for almost running into a startled maid with a tray of crystal goblets. That would have been catastrophic. 

Finally, she came in sight of the parlor in the royal wing of the palace. She stopped before the door and took a deep breath to steady herself. Once she was sure she was ready, she threw the doors open and walked in as calmly as she could. 

"Princess! We have so much work to do. We must hurry. Sit, sit ,sit. We must get you ready." Reece, according to all the tabloids, was the best hair dresser and stylist in all of Elmira. She had also been warned that he was very pushy and quite eccentric. Her grandfather had told her to not be afraid of telling him if she did not approve of any of his ideas. His exact words were, "It's your party, my girl. And isn't there an American song....It's you party and you can cry if you want to?" That had been enough send Ailey into a laughing fit for several minutes. She just couldn't picture her grandfather listening to that song for any reason. 

Reece immediately went to work, with the help of the several maids he had enlisted. After all Ailey had read and been told about him, she had expected a stubborn and rather rude man. Instead, she found a quite polite, if not scatter-brained, man in his mid twenties. He was dressed plainly for his profession in dark jeans and a simple v-neck. Still, he carried himself as someone of importance - something Ailey wasn't sure she would ever be able to do. And wasn't that in the princess job description? 

"-blonde, yes?" Reece asked curiously.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Ailey hadn't even noticed that he had spoken to her. 

"Tsk tsk, princess. If you choose not to listen to someone, you should be able to play it off. I was asking how you felt about adding more of this...white blonde to your hair?" Reece fingered the recently died strands that fell around her face.

"Oh," she mumbled as her cheeks burned. Reece had a point about listening to people. "I like my red hair." 

Reece nodded and went to mixing dye as if what Ailey had said made no difference. "Oh, yes. You must remain a redhead. It brings out your eyes quite well. I am simply going to dye the under half of your bangs a matching blonde. Do not worry, the rest of your hair will remain red. Do not  worry." Right, there was that pushy-ness she had been warned about. Still, a little more of the white blonde sounded okay with her.