Ever After . . .

Chapter 2

~Kriss~

I'm sitting in the Women's Room with my daughter Alison looking through magazines. Tomorrow is Maxon and my seventeenth anniversary, and I want to do something special. So Alison and I are looking for anything that we can all enjoy as a family.

I flip through pages until I come across a page. In big bold letters that say, 'Biggest Dance Competition Nationals in Illea! Come see the competition for yourself! Angeles Theater! May twenty-first through the twenty-second!'

"Alison, why don't we check this out?" I ask handing the magazine to her.

She reads it over. Then shakes her head. Then she hands me her magazine and says, "Why don't we do this too."

I read the page. 'Revival of a classic ballet. Swan Lake is being put on for the first time in almost a hundred years. See it at the Angeles Theater. May tenth through the fifteenth.'

I hand the magazine back to Alison and say, "That sounds perfect. We'll go to the ballet tomorrow, and then when the competition starts, we'll go to that."

Alison smiles up at me. Alison is only fifteen, but she acts so much older. She has dirty blonde curly hair, and chocolate brown eyes. She looks a lot like her father. Alison also has two older brothers. Nathan and Ben which are twins. They're sixteen, and look like me, with their dark brown straight hair.

I look at the clock. 4:45.  "We better get ready for dinner," I say to Alison as I stand up. Alison stands up with me. We walk to the Princess Suite, where Alison and I have been planning Maxon and my anniversary in secret.

As soon as we walk in, Alison goes to the closet to pick out one of my older dresses to wear, and she puts it on. I get two pieces of paper and write ballet on one, and dance competition on the other, and I pin them to the wall with our other ideas.

I go and change for dinner. Together my daughter and I walk down to dinner together.

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That night Maxon keeps asking what Alison and I are planning for tomorrow, and I keep telling him that it's a secret.

We fall asleep holding each other.