Preparations for my mother’s surprise welcome-home ball are well under way. Father and Nefera and I have been working overtime telling our servants what to do to ensure that everything will be absolutely perfect. I can’t believe she’ll already be here tomorrow. I wish we could have the ball on her first night home (what a way to be welcomed to the Boo World!), but Father suggested we wait until the weekend so more people can attend. He also said we should give her some time to adjust to her new surroundings. That makes sense, but I hate waiting.

It has been monstrously difficult working with my sister on plans for the event. She and I have very different tastes. I am sure my choices are the right ones, yet I have to fight with Nefera over every single little detail. We’ve been disagreeing about everything—the band, the food, the colors of the custom-sewn drapes in the ballroom, the shape of the ice cubes that will be served with drinks… you name it, we’ve discussed and disagreed about it!

Deuce keeps telling me none of this is very important in the grand scheme of things—that it’s not the details of a party that are going to matter to Mother, it’s the time she’ll finally get to spend with us. But he’s wrong. The party will totally matter. I’m not saying that material things and events are the only things that are important, but parties are essential! An elaborate welcome-home celebration is the perfect way to show Mother just how much we’ve missed her while she’s been gone.

I’m sure Mother’s standards for a royal ball will be even higher than either mine or Nefera’s, so it’s been pretty stressful preparing everything. This has to be the most special, most golden party in the history of parties!

There is one other thing I’ve been worrying about these past few days.…

I almost don’t even want to admit it, but here goes.…

It is somewhat possible that my memories of Mother are a bit fuzzy. Of course, it’s impossible to believe that I could be wrong about something, but it’s been a really long time since Mother and I were together, and a lot has happened in the years she’s been away.

I have a pretty clear recollection of many little moments with her, like when she would let me try on her jewels, but I’m not entirely sure all the details of my memories are totally accurate. I’ve heard that your mind remembers the things you want to remember but forgets the other stuff. It has been years since we’ve seen her, so what if I’m misremembering something important?

Or what if… like Draculaura said… what if she’s changed? I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Cleo