The planning for the party was itself a small disaster for Shy.
It’s not that there’s actually any requirement for her to do anything, as Di is arranging the entire thing, from DJ to catering (and all of it apparently without a single dollar spent), but the constant reports that Di keeps passing on to her (usually using you as a messenger) clearly set the quiet girl’s nerves on edge.
After that, Rae immediately decided that since this was to be a fancy party, they’d all need proper clothes, so Shy also frequently found herself being made to try on dress after dress in Rae’s shop.
From there, everyone else quickly fell to Rae’s particular demands. Even Danni wasn’t able to escape. On one of the small girl’s random visits up to Shy’s house, Rae took her by arm, despite all protests, and set about making notes.
Danni, perhaps as some kind of obscure revenge, dragged Tara into it (though the latter really didn’t seem to have much reason to complain), and AJ found out from her sister, which Rae apparently took as a challenge. Suddenly, Rae became a very busy woman, though she seemed to take this as more of a personal challenge than a burden.
From the look in her eye, you can tell that you’ve only managed to escape so far because she’s been preoccupied with the ladies.
Shy is, naturally, completely unprepared for the level of attention she’s suddenly receiving, and you can see that it’s starting to make her a bit frazzled. On top of that, you notice that a few amenities have suddenly disappeared from the house, and realize that Shy’s money troubles might have been a bit more pressing than she’d indicated.
You try to think of something - anything - you can do, but even though graduation approaches, you're still barely more than a starving student yourself.
When there’s about a week left, Shy looks like she’s just about ready to wither away as Di continues to update Shy on every particular facet of the event, and Rae absolutely insists that she needs to check ‘one more thing.’
Even working with the animals didn’t seem to raise her spirits the way it always does, and right about the time one of the dogs gives you a worried look (you swear), so come to a conclusion. Despite Rae’s protests that she absolutely must see Shy again, you look her in the eye and tell her that Shy’s fallen quite ill, and probably won’t be able to see anyone for a few days.
Naturally, Rae’s determination turns to concern at this, so she initially wants to go in and see if she can help Shy herself. Only when you point out that if she got sick as well, she might not be able to finish the dresses does Rae reluctantly turn back to her workshop.
You sigh. You’re not really a big fan of lying to people, especially when it comes to doing so on behalf of someone else without asking their permission, but when you turn back to the living room, you see Shy sitting on the couch looking just a bit shell-shocked, and you know it was necessary. Shy would rather have died than say no to Rae.
‘Shy,’ You say, gently, and she blinks, as if only now realizing someone else was there.
‘I hope you don’t mind, but I told Rae you were sick, and I’ll pass that on to Di as well, so you can have a little bit of peace and quiet for a bit.’
Her eyes go wide, and she starts to deny it, just as you knew she would, ‘‘Oh no, they’ll be so upset, you can’t do that.I’ll go tell them I’m fine, I-‘
You cut her off.
‘Shy, they’ll be fine. Rae’s a perfectionist, the dress is already fine, I’m sure, and half of Di’s messages are some kind of obscure riddle that I’m pretty sure is inappropriate.Trust me, she’s got everything in hand. You, however, are wearing a bit thin, if you don’t mind my saying so.’
She looks up at you with those big, azure eyes and then lets out a sigh.
‘Thank you. I was just… so worried that I’d let them down.’
You wrap your arms around her shoulders and settle your chin on her head. You can feel the tension in her small frame relax.
‘I think they’re worried about letting you down, Shy.’
‘They could never let me down, they’re so amazing. I’d love whatever they did.’
You smile, she would.
‘Well, I think that’s exactly what they’d say about you. Besides, it’s just a party, it’s not like you could ever do anything to let them down. All you have to do is show up in Rae’s dress.’
‘But what if I-‘ She starts, but you cut her off, pulling back and looking her straight in the face with a mock serious expression.
‘Don’t worry about all the what-ifs. It’s unnecessary stress, and you’re sick, after all. You need to focus on getting healthy.’
‘Ok, I can try.’ She smiles at you.
‘Alright, then I’m going to head back to my apartment. It wouldn’t do for me to get sick too.’
‘You don’t have to go yet.’ She starts, and then pauses, ‘If you go, who’ll help me when I’m sick?’
She gives you a look of contrived helplessness and you laugh.
‘I just don’t want to stress you out either, Shy. You may not be real sick, but I still think you need some real rest.’
‘You don’t cause stress,’ She says, smiling again.
You can’t fight her arguments and that smile, so you throw your hands up in mock surrender.
‘Fine, Shy, you win, I’ll hang around for a little longer at least. Just so you’re not left alone and helpless while you’re ill.’
‘Yay!’ She says. The exclamation isn’t exactly loud, but still positive.
You make a meal for her out of what you can find in the kitchen. You’re not much of a cook, especially compared to Shy, but a simple pasta stir-fry is within your capabilities, as well as healthy and delicious. Shy, of course, is happy just for the effort and declares that she absolutely loves the meal.
You do the dishes, and feed the multitude of pets that seem to have now accepted you as one of their own. Even Danni’s turtle slowly makes his way over to eat some vegetables. Angel, of course, still gets only pellets and lettuce.
Shy sits on the chair in the main room, where the rest of the pets gather for her affection. She looks a bit startled to not have to do the work, but also appreciative. You should really do more of that, you think.
Finally, you make your way over to the couch and sit down. Shy joins you a few minutes later, and many of the animals follow.
‘I’m already feeling a lot more relaxed.’ She says, ‘Thank you.’
‘It’s amazing what a good meal from someone else will do.’ You agree.
She curls up beside you, and turns on something that turns out to be an old black and white television. It only gets three or four channels, and Shy settles on an infomercial selling assertiveness training tapes, but falls asleep within a few minutes anyway.
You stay there for a bit, letting the sleeping girl be. When she’s asleep, her face always shows that natural beauty, the one that the stress of life wore away when awake. It makes you hope even more that Danni can win the race and get Shy the charity prize, just to see her like this all the time.
After a little while, the sun goes down, and Shy continues to sleep softly on your shoulder. You pick her up, just as you did after the night out a few weeks before, put her in bed and pull the covers over her. She smiles and snuggles into them.
You meet Danni on the way out, and explain the situation to her, just as you did with Rae. Danni grunts at that, then smirks at you.
‘So what are you still doing here then?’
‘Someone had to make her dinner, Rae’s too busy, AJ’s got the three troublemakers, and no one knows when you’re going to show up. Or if you can cook, for that matter.’
‘Hey!’ She says, punching you on the arm. ‘Of course I can’t cook! I just meant that it seemed like you didn’t have any trouble taking care of Shy before. I seem to recall hearing that you were here overnight the other week anyway.’
You roll your eyes. This again.
‘The rabbit stole my keys!’ You exclaim, hoping that finally it won’t sound stupid. You’re wrong, of course.
Danni just nods, though, to your surprise.
‘Yeah, the little git does that sometimes. Though it does seem to happen more when Shy’s been alone too much.’
‘Wait, what?’ you exclaim, ‘you’re telling me you can back be me up on this?’
‘Oh yeah, sure. Angel’s stolen my keys a couple times. Course, I still want to see Shy squirm, so I might just keep it to myself.’ She grins.
‘Fine, don’t help me,’ you grumble, ‘but you’ll have to wait to see Shy squirm another day, she really needs to have some R and R before this party, or she’s just going to fall apart.’
Danni nods.
‘Yeah, I thought that might happen. I haven’t seen her be the focus of so much attention since the sixth grade, I figured she’d probably need a breather. Oh well. I’ll come up next week.’
‘Probably a good plan.’ You agree, ‘Wait, what happened in the sixth grade?’
Danni’s answer is a vicious grin.
‘Puberty. Almost overnight, Shy went up to a-‘
‘That’s enough of that, I think.’ You cut her off, and she gives a mirthful laugh.
‘Yeah, you’re right, it’s less fun when Shy can’t hear me.' She puts on her motorcycle helmet. 'Let’s head back into town. You wanna race?’
Danni doesn’t listen for an answer, but rushes off to her bike. She’s off and gone before you can even get your rusty car onto the road.
Shy keeps up the charade for a few more days, and just as you said, Rae manages to get her dress done, while Di’s riddle becomes even more suggestive.
Still, to help Shy out a bit, you cook a few more times, most of which aren’t disasters, and help with the farm as a cover for Shy’s supposed invalidity.
Finally, it’s only one day until Di’s gala, and Shy looks like she’s almost back to normal, at least as long as she doesn’t think about the party.
You try and reassure her as much as possible, but her hands start to shake whenever you even mention the next day. Finally, you turn to her.
‘Shy, you remember what I promised when we went out the first time with Danni and Rae, and we met Tara? How if it was so bad, I’d take you home?’
‘Yes...’ She says in a very small voice.
‘Remember how we didn’t need to? You met Tara and AJ, and you had a good time. Everything was great. ’
She doesn’t say anything for a moment. She takes a deep breath.
‘Ok. I can do this. Everything will be ok.’ She gives you a wan smile, ‘And if it isn’t, you’ll take me back, you promise?’
‘I promise.’