Return to the Sea

Forte was leading the orchestra and he glanced to see Cherry as she came down. He gulped a bit, then turned back to the men he was conducting and tried to stay focused, but he seemed very nervous now as she shook a  tiny bit.

"Flick, why don't you go mingle with the other children?" Cherry said to her daughter as she sat at a table with just the two of them, the other seat for Forte.

"Maman, they might hurt me..." Felicity said softly.

"Be social, it's good for you, I was always told that." Cherry nudged her daughter a bit. "Go... Go make some friends until Melody comes down with Ariel and Eric."

Felicity sighed a bit, then went to do as her mother said. She came to the kids from before and looked very nervous around them. "Umm...   Bonjour... I am Felicity."

"Oh, yes, the blood sucking commoner girl." the blonde girl chuckled.

Felicity blinked. "Excuse moi?"

"Oh, nothing... You don't look like you could hurt a fly anyway..." the boy in green snorted.

"Umm... Anyway, I am Felicity, who are you?" Felicity asked, trying her best  to be social with these kids, even if they were putting her down easily without even getting to know her.

"Well, I'm Octavia," the girl said, then pointed to the boy in green, then to the boy in blue. "This is Ignatius and Reginald."

"Interesting names." Felicity had a friendly small smile.

"Of course they are, they're better than yours." Reginald scoffed.

Felicity had to admit that stung a little, she felt her stomach turn in slight pain of being hit like that. Words hurt a lot better than physical abuse. The music had stopped and everyone turned to see Ariel and Eric coming down the stairs.

Grimsby stood at the top to welcome the birthday girl to her party. "May I present her royal highness... Princess Melody."

The others clapped for the girl as she was coming down the stairs slowly in her pink dress, the best and proper way she could. Octavia, Ignatius, and Reginald however didn't appear to be clapping. A slightly older blonde boy came up to Melody.

"Um, hi, would you like to dance?" the boy asked, bowing respectively to her.

Melody looked a bit nervous. She looked to her parents and Ariel was encouraging her to go on and do it. Melody agreed, took his hand, and went to the center of the ballroom with the boy to dance with him. Felicity was happy for her as Forte played a ballroom song to fit the mood, smiling gently at the young possible lovers.

Melody and the boy were circling each other as the other guests were standing back to let them dance. Eric and Ariel smiled, this looked like it was going to go just fine. Forte made the music swell as he saw it working out well and better than anyone could expect. The blonde boy suddenly   cringed after grabbing Melody and found that Sebastian had been pinching his finger. Sebastian flew in the air and then fell back against the punch bowl, splashing and making a mess.

"All right, we're finally gonna see some action!" Cherry became lively and clapped.

"Oh, poor crabe..." Felicity looked worried for Sebastian.

Forte stopped the music. Sebastian was falling now as Chef Louis was coming with Melody's birthday cake. Melody and Felicity covered themselves and some cake splattered on them, which seemed to delight Octavia, Ignatius, and Reginald. Felicity and Melody then went to see the poor   crustacean.

"That's it," Sebastian muttered, then blew out Melody's candle on his head. "I'm booking  meeself a cruise!"

"I'm so sorry..." Melody cooed.