Blood and Thunder

Chapter 3 - Holographic Rainbow Kittens

A knock woke Alexander from his daydream. He called out to whoever was at the door and told them to enter. The door opened and a long shadow appeared on Alexander's floor. He looked up and saw Wilbur holding out a suit and a pale blue dress.

"I don't think that dress is my size."
"Master Alexander, I thought I better bring up yours and your sister's best clothes. Both freshly washed and ironed." He handed Alexander the clothing and nodded, before shutting the door behind him.
"Suppose I better start getting ready then" he said to himself while looking at his clothes. He placed them on the bed and walked to the bathroom for a quick shower. Once he returned, he combed his damp hair down, if he combed it like this before it dried it would stay down instead of getting messy again. He thought that he should try and look his best, he wanted to please his parents.

He put his clothes on and looked at himself in the mirror. His long sleeved shirt fitted him perfectly but his trousers were a little bit too long. He folded the bottom of the legs up, he was sure no one would notice. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed, his best clothes were too formal just for a dinner guest. He didn't understand why he had to get dressed up.

He heard banging from across the hall. He tried to ignore it but the longer it went on, the harder it came to block it out.
He opened his door and listened. It was coming from Rosia's room. He knocked and waited to be called in. Finally he heard her gentle voice telling him to enter.

Her room was the same size as Alexander's, and it was set out in a similar way, except, instead of a bookcase she had a huge wooden dolls house that father had built her. She enjoyed making up all kinds of stories and adventures for her figures. Next to her bed was a small device, the same one that Alexander had, that projected images into the room. It was voice controlled and you could see anything from the constellations, to flowers, to hologram raindrops which made it look like it was raining in your room. You could also change the colour of anything just by asking it to. So for example it could rain holographic rainbow kittens in your room, if you really wanted it to. At the current moment it looked like it was raining pink and purple petals. It gave the room a magical feel.
As he expected, Wilbur was helping Rosia into her dress, while attempting to get her to stop moving around so much. Rosia hated having to be rushed to get dressed for a guest, she always had way too much energy in the evenings.
"Miss, it would be much easier to do up this dress if you stopped moving just for a moment. Then we will be done quicker and you can dance around after."
Alexander could see that Wilbur was attempting to lace up Rosie's dress. The dress was beautiful and Rosia loved it, but it was a nightmare to try and get on. The dress itself was a pale blue colour with pale blue lace sleeves. The back had blue ribbon which had to be laced up in a criss cross pattern. Once at the top the ribbon would then be put over the shoulders and a bow would be tied up around the front. However, it did require a steady hand, patience and the wearer to be still for a few moments. Currently, Wilbur only had 2 of them things and as patient as Wilbur was, Alexander was sure it wouldn't last forever.
"Please miss, every time you move I drop one end of the ribbon. We still have your hair to do after this."
Alexander walked into the room and knelt down to help Wilbur.
"Come on Rosia, it will only take a moment. If you let us do this, you can jump around all you want until dinner."
Rosia stopped, but only for a bit. After a minute she started to jump around again and the boys tried to keep hold of the ribbon. After attempting this for another few minutes they finally tied the bow at the front. They then took one half of Rosia's hair each, and attempted to plait it into pigtails. They secured the bottom with a thin hair band and then tied a pale blue ribbon over the band. Once finished they left Rosia jumping around in her room.
"Thank you master Alexander, I really do dislike having to lace that dress up. Shouldn't you finish getting ready sir? You need to be downstairs within the hour and your hair is still damp."
"I wonder if I could have your help with picking out the rest of my outfit please, if you have time, of course."
"I'm sure I can spare five minutes or so, sir."
Alexander led Wilbur into his room and reminded him that he didn't need to call him 'sir'. Alexander opened his wardrobe and looked at his clothes, trying to think of the perfect item to add to what he was already wearing.
"I want to wear something that doesn't make me look like a middle-aged man in a boy's body. Something that is still neat and tidy, but for someone my age."