Through the Crowd - Espresseleine Story

Glitters

I opened the front door to my beautifully decorated house and there was a short cookie standing directly in front of it. She wore pink clothes with gold and white accents, and her hair was decorated with berries, so you can only imagine what kingdom she could be representing.

She held out a letter, so of course, I took it and thanked her. I guess she wasn't much of a talker if she didn't want to converse with the great honorable handsome strong Madeleine Cookie (me), because she was completely silent. Oh well, not every cookie on Earthbread has to like me. It would be nice though.

Oh, yeah, I'm pretty sure it is also her job to not talk and only deliver letters, so that could be part of it.

Anyways, I closed the door and took the letter inside to read it. I get a lot of visitors inviting me to stuff, adoring fans asking for my autograph, and actually this weird cookie who kind of follows me around sometimes, so this letter was really just one in many.

The letter was pink as well, and it was sealed by a wax seal with a Hollyberrian symbol on it. I opened it up, and it read something about being invited to a masquerade ball, and a dress code, and dance partners. oh, and that it started at 9:00pm and ended at 2:00am, which I wasn't really excited for because I'm not much of a night owl, but that's what to expect from a Hollyberrian ball. I don't really remember much else. I do remember being really excited though, which is weird because I only go to maybe 1/12th of all the royal events I'm invited to, and usually it's because they're really important. This time I guess I just wanted to go for some reason.

Oh, and in my defense of not attending all the events I'm invited to, I get invited to a lot of events, but of course everyone would want me there. If I went to every single one of them, I would basically be out and about every night, and I really prefer to have a sleep schedule. (Unlike one cookie I know, who will remain nameless for the time being.)

I called Latte Cookie, just because I felt like she might have been invited too I guess, and I told her about the ball and how excited I was for it for some reason. She said she also got an invitation and was excited too, and that she was definitely going to attend.

I am friends with lots of cookies across Crispia, but I consider Latte a closer friend of mine, so I was glad to hear she would be there.

I asked her if she knew anyone else attending, and she said she didn't. Then we talked about some other stuff, but I don't really remember exactly what. At this point I was sitting on my pristine white couch in my incredibly large living room, which is decorated with a lot of gold accents.

Actually, surprisingly, I once invited Espresso over and he showed up (which is a bit unbelievable, because he doesn't like me that much), and he gave a backhanded compliment about my living room. I think it was something like: "It would be better if it wasn't so monotonous." At the very least, that implies he liked it a little bit.

It sounds rude, but really any compliment from Espresso to me is a pretty big win. I think out of every cookie I know, he's complimented me the absolute least ever.

Oh yeah, we were telling each other stories of when we went to school. Latte Cookie the Parfaedia Institute and me the Republic's Paladin Training. We talked for another little while until Latte said someone else was calling her. She sounded a bit rushed, but I guess she kind of always is.

So we hung up and I sort of relaxed for just a few minutes when Latte called me again and said that Espresso got an invitation and he would only go to the ball if she could figure out a way to get him an outfit because he thought it was kind of a waste of time, so of course I volunteered to get him something because he's a very close friend of mine, even if he doesn't think so yet.