Cresswell: The Lunar Chronicles

Chapter Forty Five

The palace at the commonwealth was stunning; beautifully decorated for the holidays with red and gold ribbons, wreaths, garlands, and trees. Cress couldn't keep her mouth shut. Every time they walked into a new room or down a new corridor, her mouth would drop in surprise again. She said a silent prayer of thanks that she was given the same room as the last time. It was presumptuous, but it felt like hers.

Carswell had parked the Rampion in the palace's outdoor garage, but Cress brought most of her personal things and clothes with her. It would be easier than running back and forth everyday. Plus there was something fun about getting to unpack her improved wardrobe in the luxuriousness of the palace.

Both Kai and Cinder were pretty much MIA the first week back in the Commonwealth. Evidently there was a Christmas Eve ball which would be when their engagement was officially announced. Cress was surprised the press hadn't caught wind of it, but since the Rampion Crew were the only nine people who knew about it, she supposed it made sense.

Iko joined them all again eight days after their arrival and much to Cress's excitement, she made it mandatory for all the girls to go out with her and find gowns for the ball. She knew where to find all the good discount shops.

"Scarlet you know there are other colors besides red, right?" Iko asked as Scarlet fingered with a red satin number.

Scarlet laughed.

"Green or blue. Cinder, you can wear red. Winter you can wear anything you literally don't have a bad color, and Cress find something gold or purple."

Cress nodded, moving down the isle of hanging dresses. Behind her, she could hear Iko and Cinder arguing.

"Iko I'm not wearing red."

"Yes you are, it's one of the colors of the Commonwealth."

"Yeah, I know but—"

"Levana even wore red."

"Another good reason not to."

"It's the color of the Commonwealth! What will people think if the wicked witch wore red and you don't? People at least like you."

Cinder groaned and Cress swallowed a laugh, continuing to browse the rows of dresses. Not that she minded shopping in a normal store, but she was a little curious as to why they weren't in some fancy expensive store being waited on by clerks. The answer came to her before she even finished formulating the question.

Cinder. Cress couldn't imagine how Iko managed to drag her to a dress store, dragging her to a fancy expensive waited-on store would have been impossible for anyone, even Iko.

Winter was the first to find a dress, though it wasn't entirely fair because she looked like a goddess in everything she tried on.

Cinder finally found a dress that was both beautiful and comfortable.

Scarlet kept deviating back towards the red toned dresses, only to be pushed away by Iko who shoved her towards the blues and greens.

"Cress, I think I found yours." Scarlet grinned.

Cress looked up, walking around the row of shoes she was looking over. Scarlet was holding up a beautiful champagne gold dress that was much shorter than the floor length numbers everyone else had picked out.

"Oh that's totally Cress," Iko agreed, nodding. She snapped her fingers and pointed at her. "Now find some shoes. Heels preferably, if you're gonna show off your legs you need heels."

Cress nodded, taking the cress from Scarlet and slinging it over her arm. She glanced back over the rest of the shoes in her isle before moving on to the next. She glanced around, making sure Iko wasn't anywhere in sight, before snapping a quick photo of a few different heels she liked and sent them to Carswell.