Peridot's Pov

"Isn't this a little excessive?" I asked, glancing around the decorated foyer. Yellen scoffed.

"It's my sweet sixteen and Mom's finally letting me throw a party. A real high school party! This weekend has to be perfect!"

"I don't understand why you're going through all the trouble for a party this weekend, your birthday isn't until next Wednesday." I reasoned. Yellen threw a spool of yellow ribbon at me.

For her sixteenth birthday, Yellen had convinced Mother to let her throw a party. At our residence. Personally, I didn't think many people would attend a party at the house of their Headmistress, or that Yellen's admittedly pleasant party decorations made for the ideal setting for a teenager's party,  I was excited to help anyway.

"Who's even coming?" I asked, cutting a length of ribbon.

"Uh, my friends?"

"Who, the ones who don't talk to you anymore?" I took a spool of ribbon to the head this time. "Ow!" Yellen didn't pay attention to my cries of pain.

"You act like I only have friends at Crystal Prep! Are you forgetting that I went to Roscoe Academy for ten years? I have way more friends than you know." I frowned. She was right, she really did have lots of friends that I didn't know.

"Well, that's not my fault! It's not like all of your friends from middle school go to Crystal Prep. Or that I went to Roscoe Academy." I sighed a bit and looked back down at the ribbon. After a moment, Yellen came and sat beside me.

"Are you okay?" I sook my head.

"No. You know all of my friends-"

"Both of your friends," Yellen corrected with a sly grin.

"Yeah." I put the ribbon down. "It's just, I don't know most of your friends. You never invited me to play with you and because I went to a different school I..." I trailed off and turned to look her in the eye. "Why didn't I go to Roscoe Academy too? Is it because I'm adopted?" Yellen looked at me for a moment, then snorted.

"Really, Peridot? Is that what you think?" She snickered, leaving me even more confused.

"Yes?" I chewed on my cheek a little and turned away.

"I mean... nobody ever really told me why..." Yellen stopped snickering.

"Peridot, that's obviously not why you didn't go. You didn't go because you didn't meet their standards." I lifted my head back up.

"What?" Yellen took the spool of ribbon from my hands.

"Listen, you may be advanced now, but when Mom applied for us to go to preschool, there were just too many kids who had already met their standards more than you did. It's a very small class and you just didn't meet the requirements as well as the rest of us. That's the only reason you didn't go." She smiled at me. "Besides, who ever heard of a school that didn't accept students just for being adopted? Mom went to Roscoe Academy and she was adopted." Suddenly, I felt like a huge idiot.

"Oh. I guess that makes a lot more sense than my theory." Yellen laughed again. "But if I went to public school... why didn't you?" Yellen sighed.

"That was White's idea. When Mom found out that only I got accepted she wanted both of us to go to public school. But when she told White she got pissed." I blinked.

"Why?"

"She was mad that Mom had a chance to send me to the school they went to but didn't want to. She practically forced Mom into sending me because he wanted me to go to school with her." I shuddered.

"You don't mean... her?" Yellen nodded. The 'her' in question was our cousin, the most terrifying person I'd ever met. Not bone-chilling in the way our aunt was when she made eye contact with you, but terrifying in the sense that she was practically robotic. Se practically never moved unless our aunt told her to, and she rarely spoke. Suddenly, a terrifying thought crossed my mind. "Oh my stars, they're not coming, are they?" Yellen gulped and nodded.

"When Mom told her about the party, she insisted." I gulped and reached for the glass of water I had sitting on the table.

"Will we have to talk to her?" Yellen scoffed.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but hopefully she, Mom, and Blue will get into another argument in Mom's office." I nodded.

"Oh! I forgot that Blue would be there." Yellen looked at me.

"Duh, she comes to all our birthdays. I just hope she doesn't start crying about how grown up I am." I chuckled.

"Yeah, whenever she cries, it's like everybody cries. It's weird. But at least we'll be able to see Malachite!" Yellen grinned.

"Yeah! I can't believe that she and Centi are already a year old pretty much!" I couldn't either. Just a few days prior, Centi had taken her first steps. But before I could make any further comment, Mother entered with Centi in her arms. "Speak of the devil!" Yellen smiled.

"How are you doing on the decorating?" Mother asked, setting Centi down.

"Well, we've got most of the streamers up already. I think we've agreed to hold off on balloons for now though." Yellen beamed. Mother nodded.

"Yes, I think they can wait until tomorrow, so they don't deflate early."

"Did you get the cake?" Yellen asked.

"Yes, it's in the refrigerator in its box. Don't touch it until it's time to." Yellen nodded.

"You know, I think I might actually be excited for this." I grinned. Yellen suddenly looked as though she'd remembered something.

"Hey Peridot," She said, turning to face me. "Is it okay that I invited Pearl? I don't want to cause any trouble, but I guess she's kind of my friend so..." I shook my head.

"Of course it's fine. Honestly, I think I'd feel strange if you didn't. Besides, your guest list is your choice." I thought for a moment. "Unless you invited that gremlin and her clod friends." Yellen blinked.

"I hope you're not talking about Aquamarine and the twins because I actually did invite them." I could have sworn I was going to pass out on the spot.

"Are you kidding me? She's the epitome of evil!" Mother looked at me with a blank expression.

"Peridot, she's nine."

"And so what does that change? Yellen was a nightmare at nine!"

"Hey!" We continued to squabble for a moment but were stopped when Mother's cell phone rang.

"It's White," She said, looking at her screen. "I'll be back." She disappeared into her office, leaving Yellen and I to stare after her.

"I'm worried," Yellen whispered. I sighed.

"Me too."

(A/N) I'm alive! I haven't been updating because I don't have internet at home right now, but I'm on vacation and the house I'm staying at has wifi!

Random question of the day: Which name works better for White Pearl: Wisteria, Winifred, or Willa (Short for Wilhemina)? Or you can suggest some other old-fashioned girls names that start with W!