DivineSaturn
Parties were difficult affairs for Minerva. Crowded rooms, emotions running high, and a surplus of bright colors and loud noises usually sent her scurrying into the nearest bolt-hole. She avoided parties when she could, and when her attendance was required, she either hid from the festivities or was reduced to a nervous wreck.
So when it came to throwing parties for herself, she kept it simple. Classical music, played at a low volume, so as not to interfere with conversation. A tent made of sheets pitched in the middle of the room as the only decoration. A menu consisting of grilled cheese sandwiches, cut into triangles, and freshly-blended smoothies, in bottles to avoid spillage. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and fourteen candles, including the one for good luck.
And a guest list of one. As much as it hurt not to be able to celebrate her special day with all her friends at once, it was better than risking freezing up at her own party. And when it came down to it, choosing who to invite for her actual birthday was easy.
"What about Dusky Twilight?" she asked, holding up a bottle of nail polish. "Or Midnight Madness? I like the sparkles in the other one, though." Slumber parties called for makeovers, or so Minerva had heard, and Mystery was already a pro with those. This would be so much fun!
"Most definitely Dusky Twilight!" With that, the girl ran her fingers through her bangs that were vividly colored after such a time of day. There was clearly some sort of bias, but Mystery was not ashamed to admit such a thing.
Holding out another bottle of nail polish, the girl idly dwelt upon the subject of nail polish names.
"There should be a nail polish named for me! Or... nicknamed for me!" Shaking the bottle slightly between her fingers, she stated "'Mystery Twilight' has a nice ring to it, right? OR... How about 'Beautimous* Mystery?!'" With a huge grin, she set down the bottle of polish and grabbed a few cotton balls and tossed a couple at Mimi.
DivineSaturn
When Mystery first suggested naming a nail polish after her, Minerva couldn't help but giggle. It was such a Mystery thing to do. She couldn't imagine what such a color would look like, but it would probably be fun and unexpected, just like her friend.
Suddenly, Minerva wanted to see what that nail polish would look like. And maybe it was possible, with some help. "I'll be right back!" she announced suddenly, getting up and dusting grilled cheese crumbs off her tulle skirt. "Give me five minutes, okay?"
Just under five minutes later, she returned with a pair of washed out spice bottles and a pair of labels. Back in her room, she grabbed a purple sparkly gel pen and wrote on one of the labels. Then, nodding at her work, she put the label on the bottle and held it out: Beautimous * Mystery.
"Let's do it! We can mix whatever colors we have, and make our own original ones. What do you think?"
Though her eyes were wide as Mimi left the tent, Mystery nodded her head, taking the moment to snatch a few bites of her own grilled cheese while her friend was away. She was licking crumbs off her lips as Mimi returned with what was shortly to be called Beautimous* Mystery.
"That's fabracular*!!!!" Almost instantly she was already clinging to her friend, hugging her tightly for several seconds before she seemed to melt off of her.
In a fluid manner, she was already sorting through the nail polishes.
"This one is sparkdazzly*!" That bottle got put to the left.
"Not this one, too dullible*!" That bottle got put to the right.
She carried on like this for a while until there was a distinct batch of nail polish to the left, all having their own intriguing colors and charm to them.
DivineSaturn
Of course Mystery liked the idea. Minerva never really doubted that she would. But seeing her get so excited made her even more excited in turn, and she started combing through bottles, trying to choose colors for her own creation, and offering some feedback on her friend's selections.
"Ooh, I think those two would look great all mixed up!"
"Yeah, that one's kinda boring."
"What about the one on the end? The silvery one?"
Meanwhile she set aside a few of bottles in shades of pink and purple and blue, and one that was clear with gold sparkles. All colors she liked, but the trick would be to mix them in a way that looked good. It was a tricky task, and Minerva found herself watching Mystery for inspiration.
Considering her friend's words, the silvery haired girl did a loop back to a previously uninspiring bottle of silver and added it to her collection on the left.
Unfortunately, her own multi-colored eyes seemed to have too much appreciation for color and her choice in polishes was only brought down to about 7 bottles.
It might have been unlady-like, but Mystery's mouth stretched out flat as she considered her polishes again.
"Meeeeeemeeeeeeeee..." she whined a bit as she shoved her bottles together and towards her friend. "I need heeeeelp!!!"
DivineSaturn
Minerva was in the middle of choosing between two similar-yet-different shades of blue, but dutifully set them aside when Mystery asked for help.
"Let's see... well, I like what you've picked out!" Some of their choices were similar, which wasn't too surprising, since they liked many of the same colors. Some were completely different. Few looked like they would blend well. But what, she wondered, really captured the essence of Mystery? Was such a feat possible for a single polish?
She looked at the bottles again, finally pointing to a deep rich purple. "Start there, I think, but dazzle it up?" It was easier to think about a color that suited Mystery than to think about one for herself. "If we mix too many colors it won't look good. But we can also do designs, like in a nail salon!" This project was getting bigger and better every minute!
Important questions had to be asked: "Do you have rhinestones?"
Clearly it had nothing to do with the sticker gemstones upon her face or anything.
Tugging the bottle of rich purple closer to herself, she then skeptically looked at the other bottles she had. The problem with creativity was that sometimes it was hard to reel it in. Too many potential possibilities would curl up in her mind and make it difficult to shun for another idea.
Eventually, it seemed as if she managed to narrow down the color combinations. Much like before, the girl had put her decisions into clustered groups. One group had the silver polish Mimi had selected and a gold one that had less glitter to it than some of the others, but was intensely rich in color. And the second group had a magenta with chunky clear sparkles mixed in.
"Oh... and stickers? Do you have stickers too?"
DivineSaturn
"I thiiiink so." But Minerva wasn't sure. Her Nana had all sorts of sparklies in her sewing room, but most of them were big and chunky, meant to be sewn onto costumes or ballgowns. If Mystery wanted to use them, the ones she was thinking of would be much too heavy to be of any use.
It was a good idea, though, so Minerva put her choices down and got up again. "One sec, okay? Oh, and there's probably stickers in my desk drawer." Then she was off, running down the hall in her toe shoe slipper socks, until she reached her grandmother's studio.
She returned much faster this time, with a small ziploc baggie full of tiny white gems. "Nana said we could use these! They don't have holes in them, so she can't sew them on. She only had the one color, but... hm. I've probably got glitter somewhere. Did you find any stickers you like?"
Reorganization happened while her friend was gone. One moment the metallic colors were together, the next the gold and the magenta were next to each other and the silver was to the other side.
"Oh, those are nice!! Quite classishical*!"
With that, the girl shoved the purple, the magenta chunk, and the vivid gold nail polishes together. "Do you think these will blend, or do you think these will just swirl, but not mix?" Simple blending was too boring, if she was lucky the colors wouldn't cooperate in a manner that would simply just swirl, not blend into a muddy color.
Mystery couldn't help but slip her fingers into the ziploc with the gems and run her fingers through them.
DivineSaturn
The pared down pile looked good. Really good. It would probably look better still by the time Mystery was done. But that was a good question she had, and Minerva sat on her heels, catching her breath, while she thought about it.
"If you put it in the bottle, it'll probably all mix together. I think that'll look nice too, but if you want a swirl look, maybe mix them right on your nails? Or on a palette, like with watercolors?" There were still paper plates in the room that had once contained grilled cheese triangles. Minerva carried them over to the small trash can under her desk and carefully tipped off all the crumbs before offering one to Mystery. "You could use this. And I have paintbrushes too, so we don't have to mess up the ones in the bottles." Making new colors was fun, but she didn't want to lose all the old ones in the process.
It was almost tempting to go with the colors Mystery had chosen, but Minerva wanted to see how her own creation would turn out. Looking back at her selected colors, she held two similar shades of blue out. "Which one do you like better?" They were both pretty, with potential to be her base shade, but narrowing it down from there was proving tricky.
Mystery was grinning from ear to ear as Mimi managed to create a workspace for her. "You spoil me!" Wrapping an arm around her friend's opposite shoulder, the silvery haired girl pulled her in and kissed her cheek with a cute little smeck sound.
Having expressed her gratitude in an appropriate manner, the girl pulled her former grilled-cheese plate up close before taking a look at the two blue bottles.
When nothing came immediately, she snatched up both bottles and put them both up to her eyes, one to the left eye and one to the right eye.
"Tricksy tricksy!" she murmured before she set down one bottle.
"This one... it's a bit darker... I kinda like that!"
DivineSaturn
In response to Mystery's smooch, Minerva just giggled. Clearing up a paper plate wasn't spoiling anybody, and they both knew it, but sometimes it was the little things that meant the most to people. Like not having to choose a base shade for her new signature color.
"I think you're right," Minerva chirped, setting the other bottle aside. Then, very carefully, she opened the dark blue and poured about a third of the contents into her empty spice jar. Even though swirls would probably look really cool, she wanted something she could use again when the mood struck her. And she could still embellish her nails on top of the polish.
As she worked, she found herself talking about something that had been on her mind all day. "So what's it like being thirteen, anyway? Is anything different?" Mystery, being a few months older, probably knew something she didn't. Yet.
This was a serious question, so it demanded Mystery's full attention. Full attention meant she made a duck-face.
"Hmmm... that is an excellent question!"
Her lips pouted out more for a bigger ducky-beak.
"There is 'teen' in the number that is my age now! Mom says that means I am a teenager now... I know TV tends to paint teenagers as horrendublar* things, but... I don't really feel different!"
Mom hadn't made her feel as if becoming a teenager was a bad thing though, and that was the most important thing of all! "If I figure anything out, you will be the first person to know, I promise that, Mimi!"
With that, the girl popped open one of her bottles of polish and tilted it into her work space. The purple pooled up thickly on the plate.
DivineSaturn
Really? After months of being thirteen, Mystery still didn't know the secret? That was surprising. And a bit disappointing, not that she'd ever hold it against her friend for taking a little longer with such a tricky puzzle. But it made Minerva feel just a bit more lost, and a bit more anxious about what the future would bring.
"Mama said being a teenager was awful," she admitted, adding a few drops of a sparkly purple to her concoction. "It's hard to look forward to something like that. But nothing bad's happened to me, at least, not yet. And if nothing bad's happened to you either, then maybe everything will be okay after all." She crossed her fingers for a moment, then uncrossed them so she could take another bottle of polish.
Even if they were teenagers now, Minerva hoped they didn't have to grow up all at once. She liked hanging out and mixing nail polish and camping inside. If growing up meant losing things like that, she was fine staying a kid a while longer.
Magenta blobs were soon enough dripped into the purple and the girl was soon enough attempting to swirl the puddles of color via moving her plate back and forth. The results were not inspiring to say the least.
"Do you have a toothpick I can use?" Based upon the puzzled expression upon her face, the toothpick was clearly not going to be used on her teeth.
"I dunno... maybe we are just doing teenage-dom the right way? Maybe everyone else is doing it wrong!" She flashed Mimi a big smile to reassure her that they'd be able to get through this crazy thing called teenagers together!
DivineSaturn
Toothpicks were not in Minerva's craft kit, but surely they could figure something out. She reached across Mystery, rummaged in a cup full of bits and bobs for sewing, and pulled out a safety pin. "Will this work?" she asked, handing it over. "Just be careful not to poke yourself!"
The thought that there was a right way to teenage was comforting. If such a way existed, surely clever and creative girls like her and Mystery could find it. "If we work together, we'll figure it out, no problem!" She flashed a thumbs up, then returned to her work, adding some prismatic sparkly polish to her mix.
She did feel better, for the most part. Confident that the next few years didn't have to be awful. So why was there still a nagging worry at the back of her mind?
Mystery's lip twisted a bit before she was nibbling upon it faintly. "Mmmm... I don't think it will... unless you don't mind it getting lots of color on it?" Toothpicks were disposable, while safety pins were not nearly as disposable.
Still puzzling a way how to mix her polish, the silvery-haired girl dripped a bit of her gold into the mixture, and once more attempted to mix the colors lightly by shifting her plate in different directions and angles.
It might have been a bit late for this sort of after thought, but eventually she asked "Do you think I should have dripped the colors on my fingernails first, then tried to smooth it out in weird swirlies?" She held out her plate so Mimi could see the current partial-results.
DivineSaturn
"Go for it! We can always use nail polish remover if we need to. Or maybe we can use it for something special, with all the colors!" There were lots of possibilities. And even if there weren't, one safety pin was a fair price to pay for fabulous nails.
Finished with adding colors for the moment, Minerva took a thin paintbrush and began stirring the contents of the jar. "I think if you swirl it with the safety pin, and then get it on the brush, it'll still look nice. But even if you mix it up, it should still be pretty... right?" If not, her polish was in serious trouble. It was already starting to look kind of questionable. "Does this look too dark to you?" The glitter broke it up a little, but she wasn't going for the goth look.
Side-glancing the safety pin, as if trying to will it to not accidentally poke her, the girl set up to work after her friend's reassurance. Rather than just messily mix up the colors to the point of no return, Mystery did her work in an outward spiral sort of pattern.
She did not look disappointed with the results. The thick chunky sparkles were definitely helping this look like art rather than one cohesive color.
With a quick look to her friend's work, she offered "Maybe add a bit more of that one?" With a quick gesture to a lighter colored bottle, Mystery then insisted "Mimi, you gotta brush me now, baby! Please, you are my only hope!"
DivineSaturn
It was tough, mixing colors. Minerva wanted a deep color, but not one that was almost black. Hand shaking a little, she dribbled in a thin stream of the lighter shade, then began to mix again. She was so intent on her work that it took a moment for Mystery's plea to sink in.
"Me?" she squeaked, eyes wide as polish dripped off her brush, onto her paper plate. "But what if I mess it up? I'm not sure what you're going for- I don't want to ruin everything!" She was having trouble with her own work as it was!
Mystery giggled at Mimi's worries, not nearly as worried about it. "It isn't as fun to do your own nails at a party! You'll be fine, Mimi!"
With that, she wiggled her fingers in front of her before settling them down upon the edge of the table in front of her friend. "Have at it!"
DivineSaturn
"I guess, but..." Even though she was still worried about messing up, Minerva could see Mystery's point. "Okay- but only if you do mine when yours dry!"
With that settled, she took a clean paintbrush and dabbed it on the plate, then dabbed it on Mystery's thumbnail. The result was a sort of dappled look that Minerva wasn't sure she liked, so she rolled the brush around a bit on the nail. That just made things worse. Biting her lip, she dipped the brush in paint and tried dabbing again. "What do you think?"
Where as Mimi was fretting, Mystery seemed absolutely oblivious. However when she was asked to give her opinion, the girl took her hand back (making sure Mimi was okay with it) and held it up in a different light.
At the new angle, it seemed to sparkle in a way she wasn't expecting. The colors swirled in gorgeous ways that seemed surreal.
"This is PERFECALUTION*!!!" With a giddy squeal, she gave the hand back to Mimi! "Keep going, I like where this is going!!!"
DivineSaturn
Minerva was expecting some sort of consolation. She was not expecting squealing, and she automatically reeled back, though she recovered quickly. "Really? Okay, let's do this!" With considerably more vigor, she started on the next nail, dabbing the brush so all of the colors were visible. She went slowly, to keep from making mistakes, and as she worked, her mind began to wander again.
"Hey, Mystery-" She caught herself before voicing her lingering anxiety. That wasn't going to help either of them, and it would put a damper on everything. So instead, she looked up from her work and smiled. "I'm really glad you're here tonight!"
As for the future? It would have to wait- at least until their nails were dry.
With a genuine smile and a sincere tone to match, Mystery easily replied "I wouldn't miss it for the world, Mimi!!"
