A More Formal Tea: The Preliminaries

TheCuriousSeed

If you'd never read the tale of the Icy Tea Party, this tale comes after.

~Lavender was invited to a formal tea party as with her fellow Gardener Xenops. Lavender had been to only one tea party, the Icy one that the sisters Silver and Pearl held, and that one didn't say "dresses mandatory". Lavender hated wearing anything too dressy, especially if it didn't feel at least like a pair of trousers or shorts. She also preferred green to pink, but at least it didn't require her to dress per her talent, right?

~Lavender looked in her closet and found a teal coat, a sea green blouse, a tillandsia skort that was chartreuse at the shorts and dark forest green at the skirt, along with a pair of Tinkerbell shoes that matched her coat. She was also considering a green zigzag sweater with her plaid green skort and bejewelled green shoes. Oh, and her glasses were a must because she needed them to see! Her last consideration was a one-sleeve in green with a skort and shoes to match, all green. She was good to go, especially since she had nothing pink in her closet, only one purple, four blue and the rest green.

~Perfect, Lavender thought. Now to see which combo of the three to don.

~After careful consideration, Lavender donned her one-shoulder, tillandsia and bejewelled shoes. Time to get ready for the tea party.

~"Uh, Lavender," said Daylily, donning an orange gown. "We have to dress per our talent tonight."

~Lavender wasn't too keen on that since she had nothing pink. Maybe the tillandsia was good enough since it was almost like a Gardener outfit?

~"Aww, how come I wasn't invited?" asked Foxglove as she flew by. "I just love a good tea party and I even have a cute yellow and orange outfit for said party!"

~"Only twenty were invited," explained Xenops, wearing a pink gown with pink leaves. "Two per talent: two each Garden, Animal (one had to be a Scout), Tinker, Water (one a Scout), Fast-Flight (one each Warm and Winter), Sewing, Music, Performing and four Culinary, one each Tea, Soup, Baking and Dish Readiness."

~Lavender knew when different dishes were ready, so she could fill that spot too in case the Dish Readiness talent didn't show.

~"No Light Talents?" asked Foxglove.

~"They have too much work helping with the setup for the other events coming soon," explained Daylily.

~"So, who's the other Water Talent?"

~"I'm not telling you the guest list even if I did know it! Anyway, fly with you later!" Daylily then took Lavender by the arm. "In the meantime, you need to find something a little more tea-worthy and befitting your talent."

~Once Lavender finally found a pink outfit she liked, she decided it was perfect: it felt like trousers, but came with classy gloves and shoes. Daylily's gown was still perfect as was since Scouts weren't required to wear strictly brown, especially those belonging to other talents too. Heidi had on a lovely blue gown with a touch of yellow while Jessie had on a cool sea green gown, Elva wore a gown coated in butterflies tht was yellow and brown and Hickory wore a navy butterfly gown with hints of greyish lavender with a butterfly clip to match. Hickory was invited in the other Water Talent's stead since that one was called away. As for Ginkgo, she wore a gentian purple gown that covered her feet and had only white at the collar. Fauna, the other Fast-Flyer, had on a maroon and Tyrian purple gown, Melody wore a Wonderlandiful dress, Strawberry had on icy globe earrings, a butterfly clip and a wintry top with riverine gown, all gentian and wysteria, Saffron donned a sparkly sky blue summer dress, Magnolia had on a tillandsia top, feathery skirt and green ribbon in her hair and Heather wore a red pleated gown since Performers didn't have to conform to just one colour. Lenora was the understudy invite for another Performer, so she wore a lighter blue tea gown than her cerulean skin. Everyone that was invited was shopping today and there was one there that wasn't.

~"Foxglove?" asked Xenops.

~"I'm the understudy for the other Sewing Talent," said Foxglove.

~"But you can't sew."

~"Couldn't sew; I learnt to sew three weeks ago."

~"I thought I was the understudy?" asked Pandora, another Sewing Talent, this one in a brown gown and adventure cap.

~Onyx, Gardenia and Kyra also got their gowns ready, but where was the Dish Readiness invitee?

~"Sorry I'm late," said Emily Lovelifield, a Dish Readiness talent with brown hair, green skin and mauve eyes. "Oh, I didn't know Lavender was invited."

~"Well, she is," said Foxglove. "And as it turns out, I'm now a proxy invite. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail."

~"That makes sense. Anyway, the party is tonight at Holly's. See you there."

~Once the gowns were purchased, it was time for the next step.

~But as soon as Lavender tried on her new gown, which fit perfectly, her plants  needed her, so Lavender went to work in her new gown! She busily tilled away the weeds that were choking her plants, aerated the soil and fed her plants some healthy plant food. She was so busy with her plants that...

~"Lavender!" exclaimed Xenops. "Your new gown!"

~Lavender looked at her new gown and tried to remove the dirt, but only got a little off.

~"Augh, and that was your only pink one!"

~Fortunately Lavender had a backup plan: the green gown she would've worn before.

~"All the pink and red gowns have sold out! There's no time to wait for a new one!"

~But Lavender wasn't as concerned because she took off her dirty pink gown, put on her green one and felt more like herself. Foxglove, however, wasn't having it either.

~"Please tell me you at least have a red gown?" she asked Lavender.

~Lavender pulled out her only other pink-gloved gown, an indigo one with boots.

~"That'll have to do, Lavender," said Xenops. "But please don't get that one dirty too."

~With the gown situation under control, time to get to the next step.

~"Tea parties this formal require proper manners," said Xenops. "We have the right attire, but fortunately the Belief Talents know how to act at a formal tea party as do Foxglove and I."

~"We know you can't speak that fast, but at least try to keep your gestures polite, please?" asked Foxglove as she called for a few Service talents to serve the tea. They served Xenops first since she was the eldest of the three, then Foxglove, then Lavender. "The first thing to remember is how to drink your tea. On the Mainland, I'm told in most areas you should sip as quietly as possible. Also, if your cup has a handle, use said handle, otherwise, both handles if the cup is too large to fit in one comfortably for added stability."

~But the cups had no handles and fit perfectly in one of Lavender's hands. Xenops and Foxglove had much smaller hands, but only Foxglove's hands were too small to hold the cup comfortably in just one hand. Foxglove then explained things such as how to entend a pinky, how to sit and how to enjoy hot or cold tea. there were too many rules for Lavender to comprehend just for the tea!

~This is very odd, thought Lavender as she slurped her hot tea a little too loudly. Human customs are so strange. Why so much to learn in so little time? Why so many rules? Why such a strict attire, all to enjoy tea? Lavender then blew on her tea to cool it a little and tried to sip, but this time she slurped even louder. Lavender liked her tea warm, maybe a bit hot, but this tea was too hot for her to sip quietly. On the second cup, which was even hotter, Lavender blew on her tea and tried to sip, but she couldn't even slurp it, instead quickly dropping her tea, breaking her teacup, spilling said tea on the ground, the tablecloth and herself!

~This is not going to end well, thought Foxglove, face-palming as Lavender cried out from the hot tea.

~Would Lavender still have a workable gown for tonight, if she was still invited?

What'll happen next? Keep it tuned here!