A Beauty and The Beast

Chapter 6: Fancy Seeing You Here

"Oh, sweetie," My mom smiles as she sees me walking down the stairs.

"Good?" I ask shyly, gripping the tulle on the dress with my freshly painted dark red finger nails.

"You look beautiful," She grins and grabs her camera off the kitchen counter, "I need pictures," she clicks it on and starts snapping photos.

"Are you sure?" I ask still nervous about it, "I feel really dark," I look down at the deep black fabric that surrounds me.

"No, not at all!" Mom assures me and fiddles with my hair. I push her hand away, "Mom, these took me forever," I whine a little and she laughs. My dirty blonde hair is curled in old Hollywood waves and slicked down. My eyes are done with a silverish sparkly eyeshadow, mascara, and a small black wing and my lips are a painted with deep red. I'm wearing some silver dangly earrings that belong to my mom and a necklace with a tiny silver ball dangling down from the center.

"Thank you," I smile and hug my mom. She grabs my hand and leads me outside, snapping a few more pictures of me standing in front of the garden before giving me a tight squeeze and kissing my cheek.

"You look stunning, Jane," she is beaming, "I wish I didn't have that important surgery meeting tonight, so I could come with you."

"It's okay, Mom," I assure her, "really, it's not even that big of a deal."

"Oh hush, this is a huge deal!" She exclaims, "Win or loose, you're amazing and I'm proud of you," Mom gives me one last hug and hands me my small black clutch purse.

"Thank you," I can't help but grin, "but it's probably going to be loose."

"Child, you tempt me to hit you," Mom jokes with a stern look and we both laugh. "Oh!" She brings a hand to her mouth, "I almost forgot, I have something for you," She rushes back inside and I check my purse to make sure I have what I need, basically just my phone and the invitation. After a couple minutes of waiting she finally returns and rushes down the front steps with something in her hand that I can't tell what it is until she drapes it around my shoulders. It's a soft sheer black shawl with small gems sewn into the edges.

"Wow, this is yours?" I ask, gently running my fingers over the fabric.

"Yes it is," Mom jokingly flips her hair over he shoulder, "your mother is very stylish you know," She fiddles with my dress one last time before turning me around and shoving me. "Now go! You don't want to be late."

"Thank you Mom!" I call over my shoulder, carefully stepping across the stone walkway. For a moment I wonder if I should take my car, but I decide to walk yet again. Parking in town on a Saturday night would be a huge pain and I'm terrified of accidentally hitting someone's car, so I definitely don't want to stress myself out more then I already am in the first place. The prospect of going to a huge social event by myself has been haunting me all week, not to mention the fact I only had five days to find a suitable dress. I suppose I could have invited Ryan, but I know he would just make fun of me being there for an academic reason, let alone my essay on the history of magic, so I didn't want to deal with that.

The walk to the hall where the ceremony is isn't far, maybe a quarter mile, but my feet are still sore when I get there. I lift my dress a little and look down at my black pumps, cursing the devil shoes. For a minute I consider turning around and going home, but I know my mom would be annoyed and Ms. James would be wondering where I was, so I keep walking. I look around at the busy town bustling around me, locals and tourists alike swarm the streets. I see the door to the celebration hall and take in the fancy glass doors rimmed with intricate gold designs. I check my clutch once more to make sure I have the invitation with me before stepping through the open doors and into a lavish hallway. There's a couple people mingling and two suited men at the doors taking invitations. Nervously I walk towards them and they both smile.