Fyora's Day Off

      All of the faeries in Faerieland look forward to many different events. Things like Fyora Day, Jhudora Day, Illusen Day, and The Faerie Festival are popular days that faeries spend all year looking forward to. However, there is a lesser known day that faeries also spend each year looking forward to, Fyora’s annual day off.

      Once a year, in the middle of the summer, Queen Fyora takes a day off. All of the faeries in Faerieland spend months counting down until this day for a very special reason. Every year in the beginning of July, Fyora holds a contest between all of the young faeries. The contest differs from year to year, it always focuses on something new. Past contests have focused on anything and everything, such as good deeds, writing, drawing, running, cooking, makeovers, and charity fund raisers. Even though the contests are so different, the prize remains the same each year. The winner of whatever contest Fyora decides to hold gets to act as Fyora for a day while the queen takes her annual day off.

      Once again it was the beginning of July and faeries gathered around Fyora’s castle waiting for the announcement about Fyora’s day off.

      “I wonder what the contest will be this year?” Said Shelly, a young air faerie.

      “I hope it has to do with baking,” replied Missy, another air faerie.

      Shelly and Missy were best friends who participated in the contest every year. It was Shelly’s lifelong dream to win the contest one year, Queen Fyora was her idol and she wanted nothing more than the chance to be her for a day.

      “Attention Faeries!” Said a voice over a speaker. “It is that time of year again, Fyora is preparing for her annual day off and one of you lucky faerie’s will get to be her for the day. After much deliberation, Queen Fyora has decided that this year’s contest will be called Fyora’s Twin. All participants will have one week to come up with an outfit that makes them look like Queen Fyora. Next week as this time, everyone will meet here wearing their Fyora outfit, and whoever the queen feels looks most like her will win. Good luck to all! See everyone next week.”

      “Becoming Fyora’s twin! This contest was made for me.” Exclaimed Shelly.

      “This is your year girly!” Replied Missy.

      “I know!” Said Shelly, “I better go and start thinking about my outfit.”

      Shelly left the town square feeling overjoyed, if anyone could make themselves look like Fyora’s twin, it was her. Maybe this was her year!

      Over the next week Shelly was exceptionally busy. She went to every clothing store possible looking for the perfect dress fit for Queen Fyora, but came back empty handed. After two days of searching she decided it would be better to make her own dress. She bought a gorgeous, purple, silky fabric along with two lighter purple fabrics that sparkled when the light hit them.

      Shelly had never really sewn before, but she had a vision in her head of what she wanted her gown to look like and she was set on making that vision come to life. After two long days of work, Shelly had finally finished making her gown. It was gorgeous, prettier than anything she had ever laid eyes on. Shelly hated to say it out loud, but she thought her gown was even prettier than Queen Fyora’s dress she normally wore.

      Finding the perfect Fyora shoes was less challenging then finding a dress. Shelly had gone to a dance a few months ago and bought purple high heels to wear. The shoes were an identical color to the dress she had made. They just needed one little dash of enhancement and they would be perfect. Shelly found purple glitter that was the exact shade of one of the light fabrics in her dress, so she dipped her shoes in clear liquid glue and rolled them in the glitter.

      After the glue dried, Shelly took a step back to admire her shoes. They were perfect, theysparkled in the light and would look amazing with the dress she had made. She was so excited with how her outfit for the contest was coming together.

      There was just one last thing Shelly needed to complete her look, new hair! Queen Fyora had such gorgeous hair. Shelly had violet hair dye left over from an old Halloween costume and decided to use it over her blonde hair to try and imitate Fyora’s lovely shade of purple. The hair color turned out similar to Fyora’s, but a few shades darker, Shelly hoped it was good enough to win the contest.

      Shelly was so happy with how her entire outfit had turned out, that she went to bed before sunset the night before the contest. After-all, she wanted to wake up well rested so she looked her best in her Fyora costume.

      Finally the day was here, the day where everyone went down to the town square in their best Queen Fyora outfit to see who got to be Fyora for a day. Shelly was up at sunrise getting ready, she was so excited.

      Shelly put on her entire outfit and looked into the mirror. “Wow!” She said aloud to no one in particular. “I look just like Queen Fyora, this is amazing!”

      “Who are you talking to?” Asked a voice from behind her.

      Shelly turned around to see Missy standing in the doorway dressed as a rocker version of Fyora. Missy always was a bit edgy.

      “WOW!” Said Missy, taking a good look at her friend. “You look exactly like Queen Fyora, if you two were to stand side by said I wouldn’t be able to tell who was who. Your outfit is amazing and that dress is dazzling."

      “Thank you Missy!” Replied Shelly. “I worked really hard on my outfit, now let’s get down to the town square for judging.”

      The girls got to the town square and they couldn’t believe how many people were there. Fyora lookalikes were everywhere! There had to be at least two hundred faeries dressed up.

      “Attention everyone!” Said a voice over the loud speaker. “Would everyone participating please line up. This is how things are going to work, judges are going to go down the line of everyone dressed up and eliminate anyone who they do not think looks enough like Fyora. If a judge tells you that you are eliminated please go sit down. The judges will keep eliminating people until there are only five people left. Good luck to everyone.”

      Missy and Shelly got in a line of Fyora’s and watched as one by one the judges made people sit down.

      “Nice dress!” Said one of the judges to Shelly at the same moment that another judge told Missy to sit down.

      This process felt like it was taking forever, Shelly was so nervous she was staring at a cloud in the sky and not really paying attention to her surroundings. When Shelly finally worked up the nerve to look around, she noticed there were only 4 other girls left standing.

      “Okay everyone,” the voice said, coming back over the loud speaker. “The finalists have been narrowed down to the top five. If you are still standing, please make your way to the main stage for final judging.”

      Shelly took a deep breath and made her way to the stage, she couldn’t believe she was in the top five, and for an outfit that she had made herself!

      Just then Queen Fyora walked out on to the stage. “Wow!” She said, “Your costumes are amazing. This is going to be a hard decision.”

      Fyora looked over each costume trying to decide which one she liked the best. After forty-five minutes of Deliberation, Fyora made her way to the microphone. “This was a very tough decision.” She said, “all of these girls did an amazing job, but one costume stands out from the rest of them. Looking at the beautiful faeries standing before me, there is one that just seems to have more of a glow than everyone else. Shelly the air faerie, your dress is breathtaking and you make a prettier me than I do. With that being said I would like to congratulate you Shelly, you get to be me for a day!”

      The crowd erupted into a sea of cheers! Shelly was in shock, she couldn’t believe what she had just heard, she had won! She gets to be Fyora for a day, this was a dream come true! Shelly smiled and gave Fyora a hug, she had never been happier than she was in this very moment. Shelly’s biggest dream had come true. This was the best day ever.

      The End.