Several hours later, Nanny studied Allura proudly. "You look beautiful, my leetle dahling," she said with happy
tears in her eyes.
Allura stood there fuming. She could barely move. The dress had so much extra fabric it weighed about fifty
pounds. It covered everything from her chin to her toes, and in the warm spring weather it was like wearing a
full-body snowsuit. The fifteen-foot train that fanned out behind it weighed another twenty pounds. Allura's
long thick hair had been scraped back and twisted into a bun worthy of an elderly schoolmarm, tight enough to
give her a pounding headache.
"I look like a pink circus tent with a head sticking out!" she pouted sourly. Nanny ignored her. Beaming proudly,
she would have hugged Allura- but the dress had a hoop skirt so wide that she couldn't get close enough.
"Now you are veady for de hat," Nanny said, whipping out a tall, pink, cone-shaped object that matched the
gown perfectly in color and hideousness.
"That's IT!" Allura said, finally having had enough. "I am NOT wearing this corny pink getup, and I'm definitely
not putting that ridiculous... thing on my head!"
"But Preencess-"
"Nanny, no buts. If I must participate in this insanity, I'm going to do it right." She propelled Nanny to the door.
"You can wait for me outside," she insisted more gently.
When Nanny was gone she sighed with relief, and immediately rid herself of the Pepto-Bismol tinted atrocity
of a dress. Well, not quite immediately. It took her about ten minutes to find her way out of the parachute-like
hoop skirt. After that, she tugged her hair free of its severe coil, and ran her fingers through the shimmering waves.
Clad only in her lacy undergarments, Allura yanked open her closet door to reveal several acres worth of pink clothing.
She pressed a button inside the closet, and it swiveled around to expose the hidden back side of the closet, where
Allura secretly kept the rest of her wardrobe. There wasn't a single square inch of pink among them. These slinky,
stylish outfits were what she wore when she went out clubbing with Romelle. She hadn't been able to enjoy the
legendary Polluxian nightlife lately because Keith had extra guards posted outside the Castle to catch her the next
time she tried to sneak out. All that cash she'd spent on the fancy rappelling gear, and the lessons with that cute
instructor, and now it was all going to waste!
Allura gritted her teeth in irritation. Just because Keith wasn't having any fun didn't give him the right to spoil hers!
She'd never seen anyone who needed to get laid more than him in her entire life. Except herself. Allura didn't want
to die an untouched spinster in some battle in some barren desert on some dustball planet in the middle of nowhere.
The problem was that she couldn't find a single man worthy to be her first. Her standards were much higher than the
ones Nanny and Coran held for her. All they cared about was that she make a "proper" match. That meant she had to
marry someone on their list of approved royalty. All the various princes and nobles her guardians tried to pair her
off with were either too old, too dumb, or too stuffy for anyone under the age of 112. So she'd started searching
on her own- but all that had gotten her so far was a killer wardrobe and immediate entry plus complimentary drinks
in every posh nightclub she went to. Which was pretty cool, but it didn't solve her central problem.
The thing that depressed her most of all was that she'd never even been in love.
And now she had to waste a night she could be out looking for Mr. Right playing Mata Hari in a screwball plot
that would probably never work. Not only that, she also had to pretend to like the most obnoxious, albeit attractive,
male in the entire galaxy. It was so unfair. Then she smiled as she selected a sparkly, deep crimson minidress. She
turned and held it up to herself as she looked in the mirror. Keith and the others were about to get one hell of a
wake-up call.
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When Allura made her way downstairs a half-hour later, she looked like an entirely different person. Her long hair
was loose and tumbled around her head, shoulders, and back like a golden waterfall. The cranberry red dress was
strapless and backless, with a halter-style top held up by a fashionable, and fortunately very secure, knot at the back
of her neck. She wore a modest diamond pendant around the elegant column of her neck, and matching earrings.
The satin top fitted snugly enough to conform to her abundant curves but still managed to leave a few things to the
imagination. The skirt was a mutilayered masterpiece of silk in the same rich shade of burgundy, lightly dusted with
powder-fine specks of silver, which ended demurely at mid-thigh. Her shapely legs were accentuated by sheer
black stockings, and a glossy pair of black stiletto heels finished off the look.
Nanny took one look at Allura and fainted dead away, knocking herelf out when she crashed to the floor. Nobody
noticed. The boys just gaped at her like they'd never seen her before.
"You look gorgeous!" Lance exclaimed.
"Thanks, Lance," Allura replied.
Lance looked up from his mirror. "What?" He saw Allura and said, "Oh, and you look great too, Ally."
She chuckled and playfully mussed his perfectly groomed dark hair.
"Aw, now look what you've done!" Lance complained as he repaired the minor damage done to his hair.
Keith handed her a tiny silver pin. "This has a listening device in it. We'll be able to hear everything you say,
and we'll be following you the whole time to bail you out in case there's trouble. Don't worry, you'll be perfectly safe."
Allura grimaced. "That's what I was afraid of," she grumbled. To be any "safer" than I already am, I'd have to be
dead and buried, she added in sullen silence.
"What did you say?" Keith asked.
"Oh, nothing." Allura replied. She thought, I swear to God, if he says the word "team" one more time, I'll
kill him myself...
"OK then. Let's go team!" Keith said as he and the others went to their Lions.
Allura made a superhuman effort to quell her murderous tendencies and wondered if Keith really thought the four
Lions were going to be able to follow Lotor without him noticing. She hoped he wasn't that thickheaded, but she
was afraid he probably was.
Getting Lucky Chapter Three