That morning was spent in a flurry of preparations. As soon as Rose awoke, she went to the kitchen and began to make the dessert, munching on various bagels and handfuls of cereal for breakfast in between. That finished, Rose proceeded to do her usual Saturday cleaning chores, which her mother strangely insisted must be done. About noon, Rose began to curl her two of her sister's hair while the rest donned their ball gowns. Hair curling finished, Rose put on her gold 'Cinderella' gown, brushed on her makeup, selected some jewelry and rushed out the door.
This year her mother was the official photographer, and as Rose's father had gone earlier to fix the lighting and backdrop, the girls rode with their mother to the ball. They were also going early, so the other two girls and Rose could have their hair done and so Rose could assist with doing the hair. They arrived, parking next to a car with a license plate from MI. Rose briefly wondered who could be here from MI, but shrugged it off as someone's relative who happened to be visiting.
The girls secured their purses and dishes, wondering why their mother insisted on them all walking in together. Yaviel had not heard this instruction and had gone in ahead, resulting in frustrated sighs from Mother and questions from Rose that went unanswered. Yet they did not suspect a thing.
As they walked in, Rose and her sisters were greeted by friends who were there doing hair and having their hair done.
"Oh, where is Kathleen?" friend Sarah, inquired.
"Ummm, right there," Rose said, slightly puzzled as Kathleen walked in behind her.
"Oh, I'll take your coats!" another friend offered, grabbing Yaviel's coat. Rose thought this a little odd, and went to hang up her own coat. She had nearly reached the coat rack when seemingly out of no where, a vision of her dear friend Vicki stepped out and said "Hi guys!"
Rose stopped and stared. What on earth? That wasn't Vicki... Vicki lived up in MI... that was Vicki! Then Vicki's sister Hannah stepped smiling from the Lady's 'Power Room'. Half dropping, half throwing her purse and coat (and in the process breaking her fan) Rose shrieked Vicki's name and threw herself on her friend, as Yaviel and Kathleen yelled and threw themselves at Hannah.
For several minutes, all Rose could do was just hug her friend and cry and stammer out "How?" You're" "Vicki!" Eventually the story of Hannah and Vicki's miraculous appearance came out. Two weeks prior to the ball, Claire - the main hairdresser for the ball - had been wishing for a helper who really knew how to do hair. Someone like... Vicki.
"Well, why not invite her to the ball?" was Claire's mother's reply. So off an e-mail was sent, and a reply came back saying that the girls and their dad would be happy to come down for the ball. At that point, some brilliant angel had the wonderful idea of having the visit be a surprise for Rose, Kathleen and Yaviel.
And indeed, a surprise it was. For hours the initial surprise, Rose continued to look over at her friends, still marveling at how this all came about. Yaviel periodically giggled while she had her hair done. It was all too wonderful to be true!
Rose also had the pleasure of surprising someone that night. Several months ago, Rose realized how much her friends Vicki and Jo March had in common and decided that even if they couldn't meet in real life, they should at least get to know each other via e-mail and promptly ordered them to become pen pals. (She was successful).
Jo came in a while later and went over to give Rose a hug as she was holding a container of bobby pins for Vicki. Jo semi-glanced at Vicki on her way over, but it was not until Jo was in the middle of starting to give Rose a hug when she stopped, did a double take, and said "Wait... you're Vicki!" And so at last, the two were able to meet.
The rest of the night was a glorious blur of dancing and bliss. Rose danced nearly every dance, enjoying especially the dances with her father. This was Rose's first time dancing in her first pair of high heels, and she was very pleased to discover that she could indeed dance polkas, the Cotton Eyed Joe and just dance safely with heels three inches high. Vicki, Hannah, Rose, Yaviel, Kathleen, Mystica, His Little Butterfly and Jo all took a 'forum family' photo.
At one point that night, "Love Story meets Viva la Vida" was played and the girls stood in the middle of the dance floor, singing along at the tops of their lungs and making up dance moves to the rest of the song. Later, Rose and her fellow seventeen-year-olsd took their annual group photo shoot.
At last, the clock struck nine thirty - or something like that - and the ball drew to a close. The final dance was played and heads bowed for the final prayer. Then the hall burst out again in noise as everyone participated in taking down the decorations and cleaning up the room. Little by little, farewells were given and the families departed.
For Rose, Yaviel, Kathleen, Vicki and Hannah though, the party still went on. When they arrived at the house, the girls were promptly given a tour of the house - the bedrooms, the upstairs, the finished basement and...
"You guys have a BAR!" Hannah couldn't believe her eyes. "Oh man, I need pictures of this!"
Once the excitement of discovering the bar had died down, the girls played around with the video effects on Hannah's FBI laptop and eventually fell asleep.
As Rose lay on the floor, trying to ignore Yaviel, who was talking to herself, she thanked God for the wonderful blessings she had been given that day. It hadn't started out so well, her knees and ankles had hurt before she even got to the dance and she had been feeling a little down because she didn't think she looked that good at all. The dress looked weird... her face looked blotchy... her hair looked blah... the typical nonsensical woes of any teenage girl, silly but potentially harmful to a good evening. Yet she had been saved by the love of her parents and her friends. She fell asleep happy, and thankful and she could have danced all night.
