Terranovus

Chapter III - Terranovus

A full twenty-four hours had passed since that disaster and we hadn't heard a word from Jack.  We sent him messages, tried calling him and visited him and his family's apartment but heard nothing from him.  To be honest, the abusive and threatening messages Tommy had sent him probably had something to do with the silence but we didn't really care that much.

Eventually a mate of Simon's told us he saw Jack playing cards down at Jamie's place so at least we knew the Toffs hadn't arrested him.  We agreed we'd leave him alone for a bit to grow some balls and apologise to us.

The next morning my legs were so stiff I thought I had grown wooden legs overnight.  My muscles ached so badly I didn't know how I was going to make it to dad's annual work ball that night.  Thankfully after a warm shower, some soft stretches and a day relaxing playing online games with Tommy and Simon as was able to walk without hobbling.

The day passed quickly and before I knew it, it was nearly 5pm and I was standing in front of the mirror looking at my outfit and shaking my head in disbelief.  I hated dresses.  I hated them with all my fury.  They were tight, itchy, made my hips look huge and the thought of nothing but knickers protecting my yuha from the air frightened me.

The dress my mum had found for me was sort of nice ... I suppose?  With scarce supplies and materials, beautiful items like dresses were expensive and hard to come by.  Fortunately my mum was good friends with a seamstress so my dress wasn't ugly.  It was navy blue and made of some sort of floaty fabric that felt light and girly and it had lace detailing across the shoulders.  It fitted nicely around my waist and flared out a little bit at the bottom just below my knees.  Mum had found some silver heels to match the dress but I lied and told her they didn't fit so I could wear my comfortable leather sandals instead.

I was squirming and pulling faces at the mirror when mum walked in wearing a simple but elegant dark purple gown that fell to the floor.

"Oh, you look so beautiful!" she exclaimed.  She had her hands clasped together and her eyes were beginning to glisten with tears of happiness.

"Mum, do I really have to wear I dress?" I moaned.

"Shush!" she said.  "You look lovely!"

I sighed and stared at myself in the mirror once again.  Lovely?  Ugh, give me pants any day.  Thank goodness Simon and Tommy's parents didn't work for the Army, I could never never wear a dress in front of them without being ridiculed.

"Can I put my hair in a bun?" I asked mum hopefully.

"Definitely not," she laughed, "instead, I thought you could wear this."  She opened her clasped fist to reveal a beautiful silver hair clip adorned with floral spirals.

"Where did you get that from?" I asked.  Something so pretty and unique had to be worth a small fortune.

"It belonged to my great-great-great god-knows-what grandmother.  I had completely forgotten about it until a few days ago when I was spring cleaning."  

I smiled and admired the clip – it was beautiful.  I turned around to let my mum pull my hair up into an elegant half-up-half-down do.  Once she fitted the clip, she clasped my shoulders and looked at me in the mirror.

"You look beautiful," she said.  I blushed a little and smiled back.

"Thanks Mum," I said.  At that moment my Dad appeared in the doorway wearing a tux.  He immediately looked at us together and grinned ear to ear.

"Now aren't you the prettiest ladies the world has ever seen," he said.

"Dad!" I protested, cringing. Mum however smiled and leaned into Dad for a kiss.  "Gross," I mumbled.