Lance sees a makeover offer at a costume shop that he couldn't pass up. Unfortunately, he didn't have the money to pay for it, but the store owner was willing to make a deal.

Sammie shook her head and said "Let me finish. She didn't have a name then, but now she goes by Lily."

"This is me!?!?!" Lily exclaimed shockingly.

"Yes my friend, that is the young Lily I knew existed."

"Why don't I remember this," Lily asked Sammie, but really she was also asking herself.

"I don't …" Sammie answered before being interrupted by her Mommie.

“Princesses, we have just enough time to get food in both of your stomachs before we have to leave for the costume party,” Mrs. Berger spoke.

Sitting down, Lily waited patiently for the promised food. The first thing that came was Mrs. Berger tucking a towel inside the front of her dress. Looking towards Sammie, she also got the same treatment covering the front of her dress with a towel. Once that was done a small bowl of soup was placed in front of her.

While they were eating Sammie continued the subject from earlier. She said, "Mommie stopped having to babysit you and I found a new friend in Holly."

The pink princess nodded because she didn't know what to say.

"I also was in the boys are yucky phrase. Mostly because of me, we slowly drifted apart."

When the conversation died and the soup was eaten, the two princesses were ushered out to the car sans towels. Sammie commented once they both were in the backseat, “Sitting against this bum pad feels weird.”

“That is what you are wearing,” Lily commented. Of course, she hadn’t a clue what a bum pad was, other than what caused Sammie’s skirt to stand out.

They were dropped off in front of the Lloyd Event Center, and after getting instructions that Mrs. Berger would be back to pick them up in two hours, they headed inside to the party.

A lady at a table right inside greeted them, “Hello Ladies, what is your troop?”

“5783, Mrs. Kane’s,” Cinderella answered.

Going to a pile, she asked for their first names. That caused Lily to be nervous because she wasn’t in the troop yet.

Cinderella still was doing the talking for the two of them, “I am Sammie, and she is Lily.”

“Excellent, here you go clip these to your costumes, and you can head in,” the lady told them.

Lily looked at hers and it said Lily Gilbert. That puzzled her but she soon realized that Aunty knew that saying her real last name would out her. She figured a last name was required.

Speaking of Aunty they found her just inside the door watching the snack table. She addressed them, “Looking good Sammie, and I knew you would look good in that dress Lily.”

They both blushed and said thanks, before Aunty continued, “I enjoyed making that costume Lily. Anyway, I believe I saw the rest of the troop over there.”

They found the rest of the Juniors troop in the directed direction. Walking up to them, Anna as Dorothy greeted them, “If you two didn’t have name tags, we wouldn’t be able to tell it was you. You might even win the costume contest, Lily.”

Lily’s shyness surfaced, and she said while looking at the stage, “There is no way I am walking across that stage in front of all these people, Anna. I am not joining the contest.”

Tina, dressed as Red Riding Hood, told the group, “Too late Lily, you've already been entered into the contest. All of us have.”

Lily thought Marlene’s costume looked very familiar, she was wearing the mouse costume Sammie wore Tuesday. “Nice costume Marlene,” she told her.

Marlene answered, “Thank you, I saw someone wearing it Tuesday, and I liked it. I found it back on the rack yesterday. Unfortunately, I can’t reproduce the face paint the girl was wearing.”

“You know that was me wearing it Tuesday right Marlene?” Sammie asked.

Marlene exclaimed, “No way! Who did your face paint?”

“My best friend did,” Sammie answered.

That statement caused Lily to blush up red, and ten sets of eyes to turn to stare at Aurora. Amanda, dressed as a witch, mentioned, “Marlene hasn’t stopped talking about the face paint job since she got here.”

Vicky, dressed as a pumpkin, asked, "How long have you been face painting, Lily?"

"Umm, Tuesday."

Most of them had a shocked look on their faces, with Marlene a bit more shocked. Sammie however was the most shocked, because she realized that hers was the first.

Marlene questioned, "How many faces have you done?"

"Five - Sammie, three kids, and an older teenager or younger twenties," Lily told the girls.

They had a dance floor going but these ten-year-olds were content just to hang around and chat.

Soon a loudspeaker blasted, “OK Girls it is time for the costume contest, the judges have been milling around and secretly judging you. If I call your name, head up to the stage. In alphabetical order” … A bunch of names were listed … “Samantha Berger” … still more names … “Lily Gilbert” … and then more names.

Sammie grabbed her best friend’s hand and dragged her to the stage. Lily looked and there were eleven girls of various ages standing among her on the stage.

“In the Daisy category, we have Emily Rogers as runner-up,” a lady standing behind a podium announced before she was directed to Aunty to accept a trophy and then directed down the stairs.

Lily just watched as the Daisies and Brownies got their prizes. Finally, there were four remaining.

“Last but not least, in the Junior category we have Linda Miller as runner-up,” the lady said then paused.

“Heather Rose has won third place,” the lady said.

Lily did the math, which meant she was competing against her best friend for first place. Sammie grabbed her hand.

“Samantha Berger has won second place,” the lady announced.

And then she was alone, blushing up a storm that all eyes were on her.

Finally, the lady announced, “That just leaves Lily Gilbert for first place.”

Walking to her Aunty she accepted a trophy and an envelope. After descending the stairs she waited for her Aunty next to Sammie.

“Aunty, did you have a hand in this?”

Aunty told both girls, “Other than creating both of your costumes, I didn’t have a hand. We were not allowed to judge the age group we lead. Plus since you’re my niece I probably wouldn’t be able to judge your age group anyway.”

They had hardly gotten back to their friends when the loudspeaker went off again, “That concludes this year's Halloween party, hopefully, your parents are waiting outside.”

The two princesses followed the horde towards the front doors. Lily had to hold up her skirts to prevent them from being stepped on. Which was hard, since she was also holding a trophy and an envelope she hadn’t had a chance to open yet.

Sammie said once she was finally able to see the line of cars, “I don’t see my Mommie’s car.”

“I however see my Mommie’s car!” Lily exclaimed, pointing at the familiar car.

The two girls walked up to the car, and each got into the back seat. The pink princess asked, “Why are you here, Mommie? I thought Mrs. Berger was going to get us.”

Mommie turned and said, “I love you too Princess.”

“You know I didn’t mean it like that, Mommie. Can you explain it while you are driving, I rather not have people being able to put two plus two together to get four,” the pink princess replied.

Following the demand from the backseat, she started driving and explained since Heather Berger fed you two for lunch, Mommie was feeding them dinner.

After that story was done, Mommie asked about the trophies and envelopes.

“From the costume contest, I got second place,” Sammie explained.

Mommie asked, “What place did you get Princess?”

“First place,” the girl answered while blushing beat red.

What was in the envelopes was asked, which got rewarded with two shrugs. They were encouraged to open them. Sammie opened hers and discovered a fifty-dollar gift card to the large online store that had anything she could ever want. Lily opened hers to discover a one-hundred-dollar gift card to the same online store.

As they were ushered into the house, Lily told her Mommie, “Apparently my last name is Gilbert.”

“Yes, Hanna said she was going to do that. It is better your real last name isn’t known right now,” Mommie said.

After a light early dinner, the two friends were each handed a glow stick to wear around their necks. They also got personalized fabric pumpkins to put their candy in. They jokingly said "Trick 'r Treat" to Lily’s Daddie as they headed out of the house. That stunt got rewarded with candy in both of their pumpkins.

As they headed to Sammie’s house, Sammie commented, "I know Mommie didn't order these pumpkins."

"Why did you say that?"

"It says Sammie. If Mommie ordered these it would say Samantha."

"Oh?"

"Haven't you noticed that Mommie only calls me Samantha? Daddie on the other hand calls me Sam, Sammie, and Samantha depending on the favor of the day. Trick or Treat"

"Trick or Treat"

Sammie’s Mommie responded while dropping candy in the buckets, "Two beautiful princesses, here you go."

They continued around their neighborhood going house to house to get candy. A few neighbors recognized Sammie and when they asked who Aurora was they only got "Lily" in reply.

"There aren't many porch lights on anymore, and our pumpkins have a lot of candy in them, Bestie," Lily said. She continued with, "We should head home."

Sammie agreed and the two princesses turned to walk the three blocks they were away from home. Once there the two girls sat on the Vanderbilt's front porch swing. This didn't go unnoticed from inside the house because the porch light was dimly turned on. They just discussed random stuff while swinging.

"Girls it is getting late and Sammie really should be heading home," party pooper Mommie told them.

Lily said, "Guess I will see you tomorrow."

"No you won’t, we are going to be at Grandma's house all day," Sammie mentioned.

"Darn."

"Earth to Lily. If I am gone, that means your hairstylist is gone. That means this beautiful hair stays at least until Monday," Sammie said while touching Lily’s hair.

Lily just looked at her friend with a blank shocked look on her face.

"Lily is going to church tomorrow," Sammie snickered. She continued sans the snicker, "And unless you want to get up bright and early, your brother will have long hair in school on Monday."

"Fiddlesticks!" Lily exclaimed with a huge blush on her face.

Sammie hugged her friend who was frozen in place before heading home across the grass.

Author's Notes:Comments and questions are always welcomed.

Surprise Offer 2 is planned and is halfway done. Knowing my track record I am not going to give a promise date. I have been writing it off and on switching back and forth with Katie Ann. A short story that follows a side character is also planned. Call it a side quest. But I haven't started that.

-- Thanks Becky