"You're going to make us late!" Rose screamed at the top of her lungs as she stood at the foot of the stairs that lead up to the second floor of the esteemed Charleston's guest house.
Lily rolled her eyes immediately in response without much thought into how the effect was lost without Rose present in her room. "When am I ever on time!?" She shouted back eventually in question as she ran from the warm comforts of the steamed up bathroom to her adjacent peach colored bedroom. The muted sound of her frantic rush through outfit after outfit reaching its way downstairs. "It's not like the others are read either!"
As Lily spoke Rose stomped her left two inch wedge sandal clad foot against the cherry hardwood flooring at the house's entryway. "They don't take forever and a day to get ready!" She snapped back before taking what was meant to be a deep, calming breath.
Mint took that golden lull of silence as a sign that he should step out of his first floor bedroom to let out a growl in imitation of a grizzly bear; an act he was growing increasingly well practiced at. The noise of which caused his sister to jump a few feet in the air, at least that's how he would tell the tale later on. "Yelling at her only encourages her to move slower," he noted in a matter of fact tone as he raised his right hand up to scratch at his four day old stubble.
Rose merely shrugged her shoulders at such nonsense as her rapid heartbeat came down to rest at its normal pace once more. A gesture that was perfectly mocked by Iris as she stood silently behind Rose. An action that caused Mint to explode into a fit of laughter. "Ugh! You two are terrible!" Rose grumbled loudly as she stomped off towards the kitchen, pushing her way past the immaculately dressed Iris without pause.
"Us, terrible? I wouldn't go so far as to say that," Iris noted aloud with a shrug of her slender, rounded shoulders. "We're more like your average, every day sort of siblings."
"Which is exactly why we're so terrible," Mint began with a grin. "We're not those creepy angelic sort that she dreams about," he finished up with a short lived chuckle.
"I wonder if she bothers to factor in that fantasy families all come with bland personalities." Iris mused mostly to herself.
"Bland? Whose bland now?" Lily inquired as she finally bounded noisily down the curved staircase looking ready to go. "Couldn't be me," she added unnecessarily since a simple glance in her direction would label her as a colorful woman - at least so far as her clothing was concerned.
"Oh, just Rose's fantasy family," Iris replied nonchalantly as she strode towards the kitchen's entryway. "Come on Ms. Bland, you're putting us off schedule with your huffing and puffing more than our Rainbow Queen."
"Ugh, I'm coming," Rose snapped as she set an empty glass into the kitchen's stainless steel sink.
Meanwhile Mint stumbled back into his room to grab his suit jacket, grumbling the whole time. "Why do we have to show up together?"
"Because as Charleston children we are to set an example for our peers and society as a whole by displaying a face of unity and blah blah blah." Lily replied in near perfect imitation of their mother, the proud and not to be crossed Daisy Charleston. At least that was the persona their mother had adopted after the four of them were born.
"Right, because us continuously showing up late to our own family held affairs in a great example for our guests." Mint mumbled to himself as he idly fidgeted with his khaki dress suit. An outfit he was all too familiar with, which was an unfortunate situation if you asked him about it.
"I blame that on being the product of a reformed hippie," Lily said jokingly, making air quotation marks as she said the word reformed.
"Regardless of the reason for our united front and tardiness we need to get a move on things to keep it all fashionable," Iris announced as she strolled back into view, daring lime green heels clicking away against the floor. Followed by a now quiet Rose who had her arms crossed over her chest.
Grumbling in unison Lily and Mint took their well seasoned positions behind their fearless leader. The line a well established way of walking and presenting themselves to the public thanks to countless hours of practice. Only recently was there a change in formation due to Iris's recent surpassing of Mint in height; an occurrence that their mother was quite pleased to see. Iris was, after all, the best at putting on a show for the masses.
"All hail the amazon," Mint mumbled as Iris took a hold of the brushed nickle door handle, twisting it to open their front door. All four of them silently marched on to the sunlit wrap around porch presently being used as a presentation platform, speaking podium and all. Each of their faces instantly lighting up with smiles as they stepped outside; the politician's mask as their father liked to say after a few too many bourbons on the rocks. An almost worrisome habit if not for the ease at which he denied ever using it himself and the willingness of the masses to believe him.
"Ah, yes, here they are now. My darling children," Mrs. Charleston announced as she gestured towards them with a gracious wave of her hand. "Now that they're here I think that it is about time this carnival fundraiser started, how about y'all?" She yelled out over the crowd with a smile plastered on her polished face.
Announcement made, Daisy waved off the crowd of high society members before swiftly turning to focus her intense attention on her darling children. Pointing at each of them in turn she gestured them over as she fixated the group with a look that spoke volumes for how she felt. For her children it was also a look that they were all too familiar with that meant they were in deep, deep trouble.
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