It"s party time - part 2

"Szívből üdvözlök itt minden testvért"

from Dance of the Vampires by Jim Steinman & Michael Kunze, Krolock welcomes his guests to his ball

So we thought Dolly would love to hear what the party was like. But who was to tell and what to tell? Everybody had something personal to share. And we agreed she'd be happiest if everybody told her own story about the ball. But so many guest would be a bit to much, especially when everybody is excited to tell about what happened and and talks at the same time.  So we decided that we all post about it and she can read everything. The boys weren't interested in writing so it's just the ladies, but each and every girl will write a post about the ball. As for the order, we threw some pieces of paper with numbers on them in a bag and everybody drew one. We thought we may need them again so we kept them. And all of us listed the party, evening activity that she thinks perfect. We are gathering ideas. ;)
 This little intro will be posted before everybodys post about the ball, so feel free to skip it if you've already read it and know what's going on. We wrote this one together, all of us who are going to tell about the dance.
2. Daphne Belle - a grill-party in the garden with friends.
Take it with a pinch of salt - there is a portion of sarcasm in it here and there. ;) A good example that we are not exactly like our movie counterparts. :)

The ball was great fun but so was planning and organizing it. The idea came from Dolly and she couldn't come, poor girl. You'd think we are or at least are modelled after princesses and special people and can dance like we can sing. Yes, singing is as natural to us as walking. As none of us could dance, we were given a dancing lesson and Valancy just brought the news that Dolly won’t come just before it was to start. This of course had to be discussed quite loud. Judging by the look on his face, Vester heard that, too. He wasn’t too enthusiastic to start with and getting such “great” news didn’t do anything to improve it.

I think he planned to ask Dolly to help demonstrate how it is done. It is sure a joy to teach a hoard of girls elegant moves. He managed pretty well alone but didn't smile although we girls weren't... ehm, very good at dancing. It must have been a funny sight. Kuei-Lan almost automatically reached for my arm whenever I was about to fall, at the same time she kept looking at her neighbours, Susanne and Valancy. Sue could walk well enough by now but this was a real challenge for her feet. Well, if dolls with feet from the start have difficulties, what do you expect from a mermaid?

Well, kind of, her feet were tied together by that fin imitating piece so no wonder she needed help. I wondered how Kuei-Lan managed to look out for both her and me. Well she herself kept tripping over her skirt, just like I did (And mine is shorter than hers) I felt as graceful as a seasick camel walking around. Our dance teacher was patient nevertheless and didn't let his annoyance show. Neither when he was teaching, nor at the ball. He took a turn with each one of us. Must have been fun, judging by the amount of footprints on his boots. No wonder poor Prince Charming was still quite unhappy. He wanted his princess :)(Dolly:What is that supposed to mean, Daphne!?)  

Aurenna and Valancy did pretty well, they learned the steps quickly and had a natural talent for dancing. They both dance as a princess should. (I have to admit, I regretted a bit that I turned down his offer to teach me a few weeks ago - but our goal was to force him to ask Dolly. It did not help but that's another story.) But he encouraged all of us with telling that we just needed a little practice. Well, with patience, even a parrot can be taught to speak and even a doll can be taught to dance. And if Vester is anything, he's patient. 
He turned us all into decent dancers until it was time for the last preparations. (He spent the whole morning and a decent portion of the afternoon with us) The dancefloor was made up of beautiful blue pieces of carpet. We borrowed the big table from the Minis to use as a bench, so those who wanted to rest and Sorghoktani had a place to sit down. It had to be placed out of the way but still so that the doctor could watch us. I thought she could at least have fun seeing our funny movements. But it worked out better than I thought, at least for me.

The music adds so much to it, it's easier to do the steps correctly. The unfortunate thing was that I knew absolutely nothing about my parter, Charles,  as he was deboxed just a day before the party. I had no idea what to say. So it was mostly polite conversation about the weather and such. I told him that there is a nice garden with lots of trees and other interesting things to explore.
'Well, uhm, unfortunately, I'm uhm... not really good at climbing trees.'
Great, Daphne, I told myself, just the thing for him.
'But we can do anything we like' I said, hoping to save the situation.
He forced a smile.

'I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle.'
It took me a while to realise why he was behaving so odd but after a while it became clear to me that he probably hurt himself somehow and had considerable pain in one of his arms. He reluctantly admitted it but didn't want to ruin the ball. So I pretended to be tired and whispered to him that he should go to the girl sitting on the other side of the dancefloor. He didn't really understand why I wanted that but he obeyed.  I watched the others and took part in some of the girl group dances while he was gone. When he came back later on, he seemed much happier.
Margaret, unknowingly, created another spectacle. She only dared to dance with Vester since she knew that she simply couldn't move without stepping on her partners feet. But that wasn't a problem for Vester. Somehow he always knew, when she was about to step on his feet and kept them beautifully out of her way. Now, that was a sight. Well, he's an expert.

I'm worried a bit, thought, brother or not brother, she seems to like him a bit too much. A broken heart is just what she needs now, missing her big sister and all. I wonder if I could take the role of a big sister?
Later I saw her sitting in a dark corner by herself and she didn't look too happy. I wanted to go and sit with her after my turn with partner was over but by that time Vester took care of her and danced another round with her. And she was so much better, with a cheerful smile on her face.
So it was actually a happy evening for everybody. We were all exhaustedI'm looking forward to the next one.

A splendid plan - Kiki tells a Dolly story

"I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering splendid"

from Disney's Aladdin

"A party?" Meritre was surprised.
"With dancing and decorations and music and all."
"But you are a dozen girls and there are only two guys, how did you think it will work?"

"They'll hand out numbers to the girls." said Daphne humorously.
Dolly looked away probably so she wouldn't laugh out loud. Looking away she looked as if she was uninterested but the party was her idea in the first place.

I was standing at my usual spot, a little further away, listening to this new idea.
"Why, there are three, if only you would let out Aladdin and Eric." she threw in.
"So Vester still doesn't count? But he's pretty much the only one in the group who can dance."
"Okay, let's say four. That's enough, isn't it?"
"Three girls for each one of them."

 "I won't dance so you need not count me." said Sorghoktani. " Besides, I don't have anything to wear."
"Oh, that doesn't matter, we're all going in our usual clothes." Valancy replied cheerfully.
"My leg wouldn't let me dance anyway."
"But we need our dolldoctor. What if someone twists an ankle while dancing?"
Sorghoktani smiled but said nothing.
"Hold on, I didn't say anything about agreeing to a big, noisy party, very likely messing up the whole house. Why do you want a ball anyway?"
"Because it would be something new and fun for us."
"It would be so wonderful to spend such a nice evening with everybody beeing there."
"And we won't make a mess and everything will be cleaned up." Daphne promised.

Meritre seemed to think it over. Dolly had to look away once more because Meritre made such a funny face. Then she smiled. I'm sure she thought that a party is a great opportunity for matchmaking. But Dolly can't stand if she's forced to something. Like those matchmaking schemes. I afraid I messed already too much and instead of helping, I made things worse. Maybe I should take my own advice and just... let it go?
"Well... if you can organise it, you can have your party next Saturday. You'll have all the bedrooms for yourself. And a computer or CD player or something, for music. You just go on and do whatever you want done. Let me know if you need any help."
And so we started planning and preparing. The exact place had to be chosen, seats had to be set up for those who were not dancing, the playlist had to be made and so much more. We were all very excited. We decided against decoration since it would only add to the mess and we had lots of other, more important things to attend to.
"You can't dance with that cape" Dolly told me.

"No. But I didn't plan to dance anyway."
"You should put on the new outfit that came recently."
"But of course, pink trousers are just the thing for a ball. Seriuosly, Dollly, no, I won't."
"Pah, I wasn't talking about that, you know that. Just wait till you see the dress." She danced out of the room to put on that pretty blue dress.

"Tadaaam, sis!"
I was holding the blouse and the trousers that came together with the dress.
"Very pretty, you should go to the dance wearing that."
"No, no, no, it's for you!"She looked at the clothes I was holding, almost like as if she was frozen. "You're not wearing those to the ball, are you?"

I laughed.
"No, of course not. I'm just bringing them to Hannah. She's to modell this outfit. Pink and purple are her colors."

She was looking as if she didn't really believe what I told her. I could see she was thinking hard, she was still holding up one arm like when she presented the dress. She told me everything she could think of to persuade me to take the dress.
I think I know someone who would agree with me that Dolly should wear that blue dress to the dance. ;)

Note by Dolly:
All my attempts to persuade Kiki to try any of the clothes on herself were in vain. She kept telling me that there were too many girls even without her. Well, she was actually right. And we were busy preparing and having fun. We all agreed that it was a good thing to take over ideas from other dolls we happen to meet in the great blogging world.


Note by Meritre: My dolls were busy reading the blog Likeness of life and as soon they saw that the dolls there had dances, they wanted to do the same. Because it was fun and interesting things happened during dances.

The dancing queen - a Dolly story

"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen"

Song: Dancing Queen by ABBA. I guess it could be called a song from the musical Mamma Mia as well.

It took a whole week untill I was allowed to get out of bed and return to the others. Dollfluenza is infective (for dolls only, not for humans, although Kiki did not care for it and visited me every day - as she is the snow queen and all she hardly ever gets those illnesses) so I was put in another room for safety. A last check, a last cup of tea, some biscuits and I was allowed to go back. Meritre had to be off to somewhere but she offered to take me back to our room before leaving. I declined kindly but firmly this offer, it's much safer to sneak back than to be brought back and everyone notices you're there and stares at you as if you came from a different world. You may have noticed that I'm not keen on attracting attention. :)
The door was open just a bit so I could slip in unnoticed. I looked around cautiously.

Noone to be seen. Great! It's not far to the desk and the other girls must be all up there.

Now, to sneak along the bed and climb up the desk... but I did not get to do it. I literally froze, when a vaguely familiar voice called out to me. I would have preferred to run away but I was impolite long enough. "Uhmm, hi!" was all I could get out of my mouth.

"Good morning, m'lady, I was hoping to see you today." Mylady? Me? What? He didn't talk like that last time. Well, at least he did the starting the conversation part.
"I was wondering if m'lady had a little time to practice the valtz?" Why me? I didn't want to but I didn't have the heart to simply say no. That often leads to trouble according to my experience. Kiki had already said once that I'm just too tender-hearted. She said that's mostly a good thing but I should be careful. Now I know why. It must have been written all over my face that I was unwilling because Vester sighed.
"I asked the other ladies out of their boxes but..."
"Oh, great," I smiled "Daphne would be a perfect choice, with her ballgown and all. She dances in her movie as well."

"She said she's a very clumsy dancer and hated it."
My relief was gone.
"She apologized about a thousand times." he added.
I swalloved. Right, I have forgotten that, although it was one of the first things she told us when she was let out of her box. I had to find another girl for him.
"Aaaand Kuei-Lan?" I offered.

"She was positively scared stiff of me." he replied. "Just bowed and disappeared." He was not really happy about that and I could understand. Who likes to be the monster of a dollfamily? Or worse, not even belonging to the dollfamily.
"Hannah?" I suggested.

"She said I should go and ask you and that she wouldn't steal someone elses partner."
By this time I realized my friends still had their thoughts on the two of us and I didn't like it.
"Pocahontas?" She is always very obliging.

"She has a bad leg. She has trouble walking, not to menion running. Factory defect." Oh yes, that's right, I forgot. That's why she often stands at the window and stares out, she would love to go out there but with her limp it's just not safe.
"But sure Valancy would agree?" 

He shook his head.
"But she assured me you would be delighted to oblige me, m'lady which I can't really believe."
"Sue?" She was my last chance.

"She was practicing walking. Since she is a mermaid, she has difficulties with walking. Having that fishtail for most of her life didn't really help."
I could hardly blame any of the girls but I still felt like I was let down.
"Than it has to be me" I sighted "and by the time I get back, there will be pink hearts all over the shelf." Huh? How did that slip out? I didn't mean to say that!
"So that's it" he frowned "Your friend have strange ideas." I just nodded.
He seemed to ponder over something, than he spoke again.
"I guess it's not easy with so many girls around and only me and Edward Eugen..." It sounded ad if he was talking to himself.
"But why you and me?" he asked.
"Probably because you were staring at me the whole time Meritre was deboxing you." I offered.

Remember that?

"Where else was I expected to look for guidance if the only doll in sight? And that only doll happened to be you." I never thought about that but it was indeed true, since Meritre did the deboxing and taking photos in another room. She said the light was better there. I detected no difference.
"But they already watched... the dancing class, at least part of it. That was enough for them."
"I can imagine that." He sounded bitter.
He didn't mention the Holiday Frozen sisters but from what Kiki (she simply doesn't dance) told me, those two share my opinion of  Hans and his villanious ways. And of course I saw him up there talking to them, something he had never done before. He was really desperate if he was willing to try that.
"All right, I'll do it. But only now and then and we have to find a place where the others can't see us."
"Beeing secretive might make things worse."
" We have to make them understand that we are simply... friends."
"Simply... friends."
"Yes, only friends and nothing more."

And I thought he will make things worse with... talking. Too bad, girls, I grinned, it's nothing of that sort. Just friendship. And I was upset about that? I could have hit myself. He only needed a friend. At least now all's well. At least I think so.

PS by Kiki: Now they are one step forward. Dolly keeps saying she doesn't trust him a bit but this is a case where actions speak louder than words ;)