(no subject)

[behindmothersback]

I have learned so much in this place, Father. I go to school now and have a job and do all kinds of things that real girls do. But there's still so much to do and tonight I hope to have another experience that I've heard so much about. I've watched movies and read books and nearly all of them talk about slumber parties as if they're the quintessential coming of age experience.

I want to have these experiences, things I never would have done had Mother succeeded.

So tonight I've planned a night with my friends, and invited them to invite a few of theirs. I have cookies and ice cream and pizza and games and scary movies to watch and I truly hope that everyone enjoys themselves. There are pillows and sleeping bags all over our living room and I have to thank you for allowing me to overrun the apartment like this.

I do hope we all have fun.

Comments

[arrowette]

Honestly, Cissie couldn't remember the last time she'd been on a sleepover so it was really cool to be invited to one now.

She'd put her hair up in a ponytail and changed into red and yellow stripped pajamas and now she was sitting in front of the nail polish collection, trying to decide what color she wanted.

"I can't decide," she said out loud. "Someone pick for me."

[makeithome]

Gwen doesn't really know all of the girls Eleanor's invited, but she's looking at that as a good thing. It means a chance to get to know some other people, and if Eleanor likes them, they're probably pretty cool to hang out with. She's friendly with her classmates, but she's not always so great at following up off campus.

"Let me see," she says, scooting over next to Cissie to look through the colors collected there. "Sparkles or no sparkles?"

[arrowette]

"That is a good question," Cissie answered as she surveyed the bottles. "I hadn't even thought about the sparkles or no sparkles thing! I'm thinking sparkles, though. I mean, it's a slumber party, right? If you don't get a little wild and crazy with the nail polish than it's not a real one, right?"

[makeithome]

"I wouldn't know," admits Gwen, laughing. "I haven't been to a whole lot of them, actually. But you are so right." As she talks, she starts to move the bottles around, isolating the glitter polishes from the rest to make it easier to narrow down the selection. "These are so pretty, oh my god."

[arrowette]

"Me neither," Cissie admitted. The one real sleepover she'd had was the Young Justice parent-teacher night and they hadn't even been supposed to have one. Whatever the typical sleepover was supposed to be like, she was pretty sure it didn't involve Superboy flying around the place shouting about how he was Peter Pan.

"But I mean, all the movies say there should be nail polish going on and oh - I like this magenta color! What do you think?"

[makeithome]

"Ooh, yeah," Gwen says, grinning as she looks at it. "That's so pretty, definitely that." Back home, she'd had a ton of different colors, stored neatly in boxes in her room, but she'd mostly stuck to very simple glossy colors, sedate creams and navy, flattering and mature. She'd wanted to look professional in the lab, not to spend hours coordinating her nails to her outfit when she could be working. These days, it's harder to resist things like this, the warm, glittering magenta hue a great match for Cissie's coloring.

[arrowette]

"How about a deal?" Cissie suggested as she picked up the bottle and started to shake it. "If you want to pick a color, I'll paint your nails and then you can do mine?"

She grinned cutely, hoping she could convince Gwen. "I mean, I don't know about you, but I always make a mess trying to paint my own nails."

[makeithome]

"Oh, god, I know, right?" Gwen laughs, rueful, and begins rooting through the colors to pick one. "It gets everywhere. When I do my right hand, anyway; I'm okay with my left, because I'm using my dominant hand, but the other..." She's got steady hands, but she's far from ambidextrous. Biting her lip, she almost chooses a navy blue, but forces herself to veer away. It's a girls night. She should pick something more fun. Lifting up a shimmery aqua polish, she leans back. "I think this one."

[arrowette]

"Ooh, I like that color," Cissie said approvingly as she reached out for it.

"And yes, that's exactly what happens to me. Nail polish everywhere but on my actual nails and the whole place looks like a disaster area. I can hit targets with my bow but not paint my nails. Go figure, huh?"

[makeithome]

"You can shoot a bow?" Gwen asks. "Like archery?" She's seen other people do it — granted, mostly in movies — but somehow she never thought of it as something people do. It's definitely a far cry from her own skill set, which makes it all the more impressive to her.

[arrowette]

"Exactly like that," Cissie grinned. "I've been doing it for - just about as long as I can remember. It's not exactly cool or anything, I know, but I enjoy it."

[thecautionarywhale]

"Can we do stripes? There's this thing you do with tape that makes stripes. Stripes would be cool." She smiles at Cissie, pulling up a pink and an aqua.

[arrowette]

"We can definitely do stripes," Cissie grinned at Juno. "Or, well, by 'we', I mean you because I have no idea how."

[thecautionarywhale]

"I have no idea either, but we can figure it out." Juno figures it can't be that hard. Bits of tape and layers of polish, has to be easy. "I've seen Leah do it. It can't be that hard, right?"

[arrowette]

"I'm sure it can't be," Cissie agreed. "And hey, if we have to go through a few bottles and paper towels then it just means we're doing it right."

[thecautionarywhale]

"Or we could get kicked out for destroying the carpet. Either way, I figure we're pretty good." Honestly, Juno doesn't think that they'll get to that point. At least she hopes they won't. "So... How's things with Chris?"

[arrowette]

"Good," Cissie answered, unable to help the smitten little grin. "Really good. He's such a great guy and it's - it's so great to be with him."

[thecautionarywhale]

"Told you so," Juno retorts with pleasure, motioning for Cissie to hold a hand out to her. She starts with what looks like a base coat, familiar enough with this end of the process. "He's pretty cool. You're not half bad either."

[arrowette]

"Yeah yeah yeah," Cissie said, maturely sticking out her tongue as she gave Juno her hand. "But no, you did say so and I'm glad you did, even if it, you know, took me awhile to get my butt together."

[thecautionarywhale]

Juno grins as she starts, being as careful as she can. That doesn't mean she's great at this, but it's not like it really matters. It's just a party type of thing. "Life would be so much easier if everyone just did what I told them to in the first place."

[arrowette]

Cissie tried to keep from snorting, mostly because she didn't want to make Juno screw up on account of her moving her hands.

"I'll, uh, keep that in mind but I make no promises."

[thecautionarywhale]

"See, this is exactly the issue," she says, jabbing the nailbrush into the air in exasperation. Juno sighs, then laughs. "Yeah. It would actually be a pretty crazy place if everyone did that."

[arrowette]

"Oh totally," Cissie teased. "But okay, I will admit that it might be a pretty interesting place too and I will totally remember this if you ever achieve world domination or something."

[thecautionarywhale]

"If I achieve world domination I'll make you... My majordomo. What is a majordomo, you may ask? Honestly I have no idea. It just sounds good." The base coat done, Juno pulls out the tape to make stripes over it. "Hey, you play any instruments?"

[arrowette]

Cissie grinned at her. "It does have a nice ring to it. I could totally get behind being a major domo. Do I get a fancy uniform? Because I think being a majordomo totally calls for a fancy uniform."

"No instruments," she added as she watched Juno start making the stripes. "It's funny, though, I did everything else but that - dance, voice, gymnastics. I don't think Mom thought instrument playing would get me anywhere."

At least in the superhero gig but that was neither here nor there right now.