Page 110 of Finding Us

“Jade, I can’t treat guests that way,” she says quietly. She goes over to Sean and Harper. “Welcome. Let me give you the tour and then we can all have some iced tea on the patio.”

Grace is so old-fashioned. She’s really into manners and etiquette and being a good host, things that nobody seems to care about anymore.

We have our tea on the patio and then start setting up for the party. Garret and I tie pink and white balloons around the gazebo and cover the long foldout table that Grace had with a fairy-themed tablecloth that Harper found. Sean goes in the kitchen and puts the finishing touches on the cake. He decorated it with butterflies and flowers and put little plastic fairies on top.

Harper takes a small round table from the patio and uses it to set out all her glittery lotion, nail polish, and hair accessories. She calls it her “fairy transformation station.” She makes me try it out, painting my nails in a light green glittery color, coating my eyelids in sparkly green eyeshadow, spreading glitter lotion on my face and arms, and putting pastel-colored ribbons in my hair. I look ridiculous but I’m hoping it will cheer up Lilly.

Garret laughs when he sees me. “I like the fairy look on you. It’s very, um, colorful. And to think just last year you only wore black and white.”

I kiddingly punch him. “I’m doing this for your sister, okay?”

“That’s very sweet of you.” He leans down and kisses me. “And she’s your sister, too, now.”

When he steps back I see glitter on his cheek and nose that must’ve rubbed off my face when he kissed me. I don’t tell him. He should have to be glittery, too.

Pearce and Lilly arrive at 3. She talks nonstop about the rides and the characters and the food she ate. She seems happier now, but like Pearce said, she’ll be sad again when she gets back home, stuck all alone in her room and missing her brother.

When we take her out back she jumps up and down with excitement. Pearce informs us that fairies are her new favorite thing, so that worked out well.

While Harper transforms Lilly into a fairy, the rest of us sit and talk in the gazebo.

“How was the park?” Garret asks his dad.

“Exhausting. I don’t remember being that tired when we took you there as a kid.”

“We went to Disneyland?”

“Disneyworld. The one in Florida. You were only 4. Anyway, I was a lot younger then. Now it’s harder to walk all day like that. And then Lilly got tired and I had to carry her.”

“Did you go on any of the rides with her?” I ask him, assuming he didn’t. I’m sure he made Brian, the security guy, go instead.

“I went on almost all of them with her. And unfortunately I got sick.”

Garret laughs. “Sick as in you threw up?”

Pearce nods. “Yes.”

“You never throw up.”

“Not since college.”

“What ride made you sick?” Sean asks him. “Was it one of the roller coasters? Those ones that go upside down?”

“No.” Pearce hesitates. “It was the—never mind.”

Garret’s smiling. “You have to tell us, Dad. I’m dying to know.”

“It was those—” He lowers his voice and says, “It was those damn teacups.”

We all burst out laughing.

Pearce tries to explain. “They just kept spinning and spinning. I didn’t think the ride was ever going to stop.”

“You should’ve got a picture of that,” Garret says. “I can’t even imagine you sitting in one of those teacups.”

“Daddy, look!” Lilly runs into the gazebo wearing her fairy costume, complete with wings. Her skin sparkles from the glitter lotion and she has on the same green nail polish as me. “I’m a fairy!”

“I see that.” Pearce sets her on his lap.

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