(Untitled)

[smallestopener]

Ingress is busy in the play room. She's used every single wooden block on the shelves to create a large, intricate town, complete with buildings, houses, and roads

Comments

[kitchen_maid]

Ingress gets promptly caught up in a hug.

"Hello, Ingress, darling."

[smallestopener]

The hug turns into a longer squeeze. "I'm glad you came to see me!"

[kitchen_maid]

"We haven't had a chance for a good and proper visit for a while, Princess Ingress," says Amy. "And I thought we should fix that.

"How have you been?"

[smallestopener]

"Really good. I met a boy named David, and he might come to school here. And I met another boy named Hektor, and he's from a long time ago but he's eight, so he's my age. Oh, and I helped a little girl named Jordan, but she hasn't come back again, and I hope she does. And I'm having a slumber party for my birthday and Door said I could stay up as late as I wanted."

[kitchen_maid]

"You have been very busy, Ingress," says Amy. "I'm glad you met, and helped, new people.

"So how late are you planning to stay up for your slumber party?"

[smallestopener]

"I'm going to stay up all night long!"

She'll keel over at midnight.

"Can you come? You can bring Susan!"

[kitchen_maid]

"Of course I'll come. Susan and I shall be delighted to attend."

Amy will hope Ingress keels over at midnight, because Amy will never manage to stay up all night long.

[smallestopener]

"We're going to have treats and ghost stories and makeup. It's going to be so so so much fun."

[kitchen_maid]

"Marvelous. I'll bring things to dress up in, if you like."

Ingress has plenty, of course, but it never hurts to raid a queen's closet.

[smallestopener]

"Ooh, yes, please. Mary's going to come, and I'm going to ask Jordan and Sunny and 'Dora and you and Lilly and some other girls, too. I have friends who are boys, but they can't come to a slumber party. It's all girls. But we might have cake for them and a little party."

[kitchen_maid]

"I think that sounds like a good compromise. Then you still get to have your slumber party, but everyone gets to celebrate your birthday properly."

Amy settles in the floor and straightens a precariously leaning tower of blocks.

"Would you like to know a secret, Ingress?"

[smallestopener]

"Sure!"

She sits down beside Amy and trots one of the Companions over the block road.

[kitchen_maid]

"Almost no one but you and me and Perry knows this. Susan is going to be a big sister by the end of the summer."

[smallestopener]

"She is?" Ingress' eyes go to Amy's tummy. "Really?"

[kitchen_maid]

"She is," Amy comfirms, solemnly.

There's not much to see yet, as far as Amy's tummy goes. And fashions in Ambergeldar this year are loose and high-waisted. (Possibly because the Queen will be having her second child not quite 18 months after her first. But possibly not.)

"She'll probably need you help figuring out how to be a big sister, I think."

[smallestopener]

"I can help her with that. No problem."