nice cozy spot on the couch beside Phoebe.
“I hope he had a good reason for dragging you out in to the middle of a hurricane!” Willow scowled at me. “He needs a lesson in common sense.”
“Well if you call asking me to the Ball and giving me a necklace a good reason, than I guess he did.” I grinned and heard Phoebe squeal beside me. She jumped across the couch and wrapped her arms around me.
“We get to go together! We have to find dresses! Oh my God, this is going to be so much fun! We can go shopping tomorrow if the hurricane’s gone, and I need to find some jewelry too-“
“Calm down Cinderella, you don’t even know if she said yes…” Carmen interrupted her.
They looked at me in anticipation.
“Well, duh.” I rolled my eyes and Phoebe squealed again, “But look what he gave me…Isn’t it the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen?” I pulled the necklace out of its velvet bag.
“Does he have any cute brothers?” Carmen’s face lit up.
“Stasia, that is so romantic,” Phoebe gushed, “I mean he gave you a necklace
“I’m seriously beginning to worry about you guys,” Willow sighed from the arm chair and looked up from her laptop with discord, “Being asked out in the middle of a hurricane is not romantic.
It’s totally reckless and irresponsible.”
“And totally hot,” added Carmen. “Let me see that necklace” She turned it over in her hand a couple times. “It looks old. Does it belong to somebody in his family?” she asked.
“I don’t know. All he said is that it belongs to me now.” I contemplated her question. It seemed ludicrous to think he’d given me something of that much value. I’d been seeing him for three years in my dreams, but we just officially met less than two weeks ago.
“I got it!” Willow bounced in her chair, pointing at her laptop screen. Before we could ask her what she was talking about, she bolted into her bedroom. She came back with a notebook and the piece of paper that had belonged to Nicolet, rolling it out flat on the coffee table.
“It’s written in an early form of the Greek language,” she explained to us, “so all I have to do is find a website to tell me exactly how early….” She began writing furiously, looking from the screen to her notebook and back again.
“Oh, good. One less thing for me to figure out.” Carmen pointed at all of us, “Start saving up your money, cause you’ll be paying for my meal at the nicest restaurant on the east coast.” She grinned and turned her attention back to the necklace. “What kind of stone is this?”
“It’s an aquamarine. He told me before that it stands for courage and….” My breath caught and I looked up, “...foresight.”
“Do you think he knows you might have….?” Phoebe blinked at me.
“I never told him. I mean, I just figured it out last night. How could he possibly know?”
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence?” Carmen suggested. “I mean we don’t know for sure you actually have foresight.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“That’s a really big coincidence, if you ask me,” Phoebe commented as she peeked over Willow’s shoulder. I leaned back on the couch, my mind reeling. Even if no one else believed me, I knew it was true. I knew I had seen into the future. Twice. Was it possible that Finn knew it too? He knew I could breathe underwater, so it wouldn’t be a long shot. How could he know so much about me? Who was he?
The next day as storm clouds gave way to partly cloudy skies, we decided it would be the perfect day for dress shopping, since classes had been cancelled again. Although the storm surge was prevented, the wind had still caused damage to trees and anything else not bolted down. While the maintenance crews cleaned up the campus, we took the ferry to the mainland. We piled into Carmen’s black Audi and headed to some boutiques Carmen knew of in Wilmington. I honestly didn’t know what I was looking for since I’d never been to a Ball. I’d never been to the prom either, but I had a feeling the Cimmerian Shade Ball would be absolutely nothing like the dances back at home.
Considering back in Atlanta, kids only stayed at the dances as long as their buzz lasted, which ended up being about thirty minutes. Then everyone left to go to the after party, which was the real event of the evening. The actual dance was more of pit stop and an excuse to get dressed up before the real fun began. Thanks to Laura Beth, I wasn’t usually invited to the after parties, so more often than not I didn’t bother going to the dance either. Why get all dressed up for nothing?
But this was completely different. This wasn’t some high school dance with punch and streamers. It was a Ball. This was an exclusive event that had been held for countless generations. I wanted to look beautiful. Most importantly, I wanted to
We had gone to several boutiques before we realized that unless we wanted a wedding dress or a bridesmaid dress, we’d have to look elsewhere. After we stopped at Panera Bread for lunch, we decided to go to a shop Carmen had heard about that offered a more eclectic selection of gowns. After driving to an outlying swampy area, we sat in Carmen’s car staring up at a daunting Victorian manor surrounded by live oak trees with Spanish moss draped on their branches and two sprawling cemeteries. The house itself had been neglected over the years and showed signs of wear. The paint was peeling off of the exterior and several black shutters hung from their hinges. The wraparound porch had warped in several places, giving it a wavy appearance.
“Are you sure about this Carmen?” Willow hesitated. Carmen shrugged her shoulders and looked out at the tombstones warily.
“I heard she’s off her rocker, but she makes rockin’ dresses,” she laughed at her own joke.
“I have a bad feeling some of her customers ended up with a permanent address in her cemeteries,” Phoebe scrunched up her nose.
“You guys are so dramatic,” I sighed, and opened the car door. “We’ve got her outnumbered four to one.” My stomach was a little queasy with nerves, but I tried hard not to let on.
“All I’m saying is that if she comes at me with scissors or a butcher knife, I’m out.” Phoebe put her hands up. As we walked down the winding sidewalk toward the house, I noticed a sign above the door that simply read “Seamstress”. It reminded me of an old western town with signs above the doors that just read ‘Blacksmith’ or ‘General Store’. The old weathered tombstones near the house added to the nostalgia. Before I could knock, the door swung open.
A demure woman in her early forties with long, straight black hair and large blue eyes stepped out of the door to greet us. She wore a dark red dress with a black lace overlay across the bodice, giving her a slightly medieval look. It hung on her thin figure and pooled down at her feet. Twenty or thirty bracelets hung on both of her arms and a large red stone hung from a long necklace. She was strikingly beautiful.
“Hello,” she gave us a warm smile. “May I help you girls with something today?”
“Um, we were hoping to look at some dresses?” Phoebe squeaked.
“Of course, of course.” She stepped aside and gestured for us to come in. “My name is Natasha. The dresses are upstairs, so feel free to go on up and take a look. I’ll join you shortly.” I followed her eyes to a wide antique staircase. Above it, a gothic looking chandelier with candles hung precariously. The interior of the house had been given more attention than the exterior, but I could tell nothing had been changed from the original house. Expansive wool rugs covered the hardwood floors, and faded black and white photographs watched us from the walls as we passed by. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we had just arrived in to a different era. We made our way up the creaking stairs as she disappeared into a room that I assumed was the kitchen.
“Would you girls like some tea?” she called from below. I could tell Phoebe was trying to decide if she was going to poison us or chop us up for a stew.
“Sure, that’d be great!” Willow called back. She shrugged when Phoebe gave her a harsh look.
“If we all croak, it’s your fault,” she said in a hushed voice.
