Chapter 36 Chelle's POV

I woke up with my usual fuzzy headedness. Then I went through my usual where am I? What time is it? What day is it? Then I felt a surge of adrenaline as I realised it was Saturday. My goodness it had been a long week, but now it was the day I had been waiting for.

In some respects I had a much better week than any since the big reveal. I was surrounded by people trying to be friendly. I was popular again. This time though, I could sense how artificial and superficial it all was. I almost preferred my isolated truth. Still, I pretended with the best of them while longing for the week to end and Saturday to arrive.

I jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. I had plenty of time and knew I was going to be ready far too early, but I couldn't help myself, I had this eager energy surging through me. Soph had told me not to shave as we would be going to the spa after we had finished shopping and that would include a waxing. My hair was really quite dark and showed up terribly on my legs, so I had had a course of laser treatments some time ago. I still had some hair show up occasionally, but it was hardly noticeable.

So a day of shopping with my only real friend, then spa treatments and then dinner in a posh restaurant. Sleeping the night at Laura Kind's house. I knew it was Eve's house as well, but I imagined she was off doing rock star stuff, so I probably wasn't going to meet her. Spend the day with my friend, who I was hoping would become my girlfriend, and a massive celebrity, followed by watching a movie, with Soph cuddled in my arms and sleeping another night. It felt like someone had bundled all my Christmasses and birthdays for the next ten years into one amazing weekend.

In the shower with the hot water pounding me and my hands all covered in soap, I couldn't help imagining kissing Soph and her hands touching me. That girl turned me on something fierce. We had been sitting across from each other with me staring into her gorgeous eyes, her face all alight with light and life when I had to stop myself from leaning forwards to kiss those juicy lips. Now, I could pretend that I had had that courage. Tonight or maybe tomorrow night I was going to screw my courage to that sticking place as I think Shakespeare said, and take my chance. It had to be spontaneous, but I just knew it was going to be perfect. I was getting quite excited just thinking about it. I spent a little longer than I usually did in the shower and came out a little more flushed than I did going in.

I did wonder what it was going to be like spending time with a major Hollywood star. Both times that I had interacted with her, my major impression was of an angry protective mother bear type attitude. Today should be quite different. I knew I had to treat her as if she was nothing special, just Soph's mum. It was going to be hard, but for the day to go well, I needed to chill out and just have fun.

I had met some pretty important people through mum and dad's social functions. Mainly politicians and business people, nothing of Laura's fame. They acted like I should know who they were and treat them like royalty. Laura, who was a much bigger celebrity, seemed to act with more confidence and grace. It was like she didn't need people to recognise her or praise her, and yet, almost because of that attitude she stood out as someone who was obviously important and worthy.

I took my time and tried to get my makeup and hair as perfect as possible. I even asked my mum for help to make sure I had done a good job and pick out the right clothes. It was nice to be able to spend time with mum, not arguing or having another lecture on how much easier my life would be if I would put men back on the menu. She had even admitted that she found both women and men attractive and if I was the same I should chose a man. Ever since I had been forced to come out of the closet and tell her that I preferred women, she had been saying that she loved me and accepted me for who I was, while at the same time setting up dates with sons of people that she or dad knew. Her explanation was that it gave me the opportunity to make sure I knew what I wanted. All it had done was keep us in conflict. I don't think anyone wants to be different and I knew how much easier my life would be if I fancied men, but I just didn't. I had already spent enough time agonising over it that it really wasn't in debate any more. I had been forced to accept that it was just the way it was.

Before agreeing to me staying over with Soph, mum had asked me whether Soph was a friend who was a girl or a girlfriend. I answered honestly that Soph was a friend. The fact that I wanted that to change and that Soph had admitted that she was lesbian, I kept to myself. I don't think mum had come to terms with my reality yet and I could see more disagreements in our near future. If this weekend went as well as I hoped, I would refuse any more attempts from my mother to get me to date others. I was eighteen now and didn't feel I needed her permission for anything in my life. I just wanted the relationship that we had before I came out, back.

After breakfast and a quick repair job on my makeup I needed to distract myself while I waited. I went to my music room and tried to capture my excitement with a song. I have written a few songs, but I have never been in a band, so only wrote the songs with guitar accompaniment and although I was happy with my experiments, I could tell that they needed more than what they currently were. Even if they probably weren't commercial, they were fun and helped distract me while I was waiting. I did keep checking the time, so I wasn't fully focussed.

Ten minutes before they were due to arrive I couldn't contain myself anymore and ended up waiting by the front door, looking out the side panels to see the car coming. I noticed I was bouncing on my heels in excitement and tried to calm myself down and when I saw a limo coming up the drive I shouted bye to mum and stepped outside with my suitcase. Dad as usual was working somewhere, probably in the house and hates being disturbed.

After coming to a careful stop besides me, the limo driver rushed round to let me in and then took my suitcase to place it in the boot. It was a stretched limo so there was plenty of room inside, even with Laura and Soph waiting for me.

“Shouldn't I get out and meet your mother?” Laura asked.

“You can if you like, but it might be best if you didn't. I told her that Soph's mum was picking us up and I know you are keeping that on the down low at the moment.” My mum hadn't come to the door. I suspected she was being a little disrespectful deliberately since she was always around when she had organised a date for me. Which also meant she probably didn't buy the friend rather than girlfriend answer. Oh well.

With a bit of a frown that only lasted a second and was then hidden by her usual smile, Laura asked the driver to take us to the mall. Stretched limos are common enough that they don't always contain celebrities. Still, the driver took us into an underground car park and dropped us off near a less frequented entrance. Laura put on a very dark brown wig and glasses that made it difficult to recognise her and we started our shopping expedition. Waiting for us by the entrance was another lady that Laura introduced as Daphne, a fashion consultant.

Daphne asked Laura the aim of this mission, which was number one, find a red carpet gown for both Laura and Soph and number two, shop until we dropped. We would have lunch when one of us felt hungry and visit the spa at four pm. Laura asked me to keep close to Soph, especially if there were any men who approached too close and, if need be, lead her to the ladies and calm her down.

Thus began one of the best days of my life. I used the suggestion to get close to Soph and side hug her when I could. She was such a little thing and would look up at me with these huge eyes so full of gratitude that my heart melted. Laura was fun and much more relaxed than when I had last met her. She had so many interesting stories that we could have been constantly entertained by her, but she didn't hog the conversation and allowed us all to feel comfortable. Daphne was a font of knowledge on the fashion front. I am not always the easiest to fit, with my tall slim frame, but Daphne seemed to instinctively know what would look good on me and helped me enormously finding clothes that I loved. I offered to pay and had brought my purse and handbag, but Laura refused, insisting that since they had invited me, this was on her.

There were a few times that we had to manoeuvre ourselves so that Soph would feel more secure and I glared at a few boys that seemed to be taking an unhealthy interest in my girl. During lunch we found a corner where Soph could sit with us around her. Overall, her anxiety remained under control and didn't detract from the wonderful day. It did really annoy me to think that she should have been able to go to school if it wasn't for idiots deliberately trying to provoke her. It was frustrating since there was nothing that could be legally done to stop them.

The perfect gowns were found, then we had to find others that were almost as nice to go out in that evening. When it was time for the spa we had achieved all that we wanted. We said goodbye to Daphne and started our pampering. Rather than waxing we had laser treatments, then some kind of moisturising wrap, followed by massage and ended with hair, nails and makeup. We then dressed in the gowns we had chosen for today. Now Laura's wig came off and she somehow altered her posture and seemed to bring this instant change from mum next door to movie star. As we left the spa we were surrounded by four female bodyguards who guided us back to the waiting limo. Laura was now recognisable and we stopped a few times for her to sign autographs.