Kori crinkled her nose, amused by the reference. “I believe you’re mixing up your Disney princesses,” she teased, knowing full well that he wasn’t. “I’m not Belle.” She smoothed her skit down absently, wishing for a moment that she’d kept her hair down to stave off some of the cold around her ears and neck. “I should have guessed it was Em and Elisa,” she said, flicking her eyes to the girls. “It’s cute that you match, you should get Vienna to take a photo of the three of you.” She had thought she’d seen Leah’s friend around taking pictures earlier.
“You don’t look stupid,” she assured him with a shake of her head. “It’s actually really ingenious, and probably something I should have done with a few of the costume requests.” But she hadn’t had too many articles of clothing to repurpose, so most of the requests had been made from scratch. A feat she was still impressed over, given that she’d finished everything with a day to spare. “But I don’t have any way to tease you for being Robin Hood,” she admitted with a faux-sadness that was all for Toby’s benefit and not at all real.
She smiled at the compliment. “It was all Rae,” she said. “She did my hair and helped with the make up.” She could have asked Bea to help her with her make up probably, but she hadn’t wanted to inconvenience the woman. “And I’m happy I didn’t do the Bunny though, I would have froze to death in a costume like that.” And been more miserable than it would have been worth.
There had been some serious thought to changing her mind, but she’d kept that to herself, since she knew if she said something to Rae her friend probably would have said something that would have tipped the scales into going the riskier route.
“This is fun,” she said as she naturally watched the people around them for a beat. “Feels like a good way to celebrate things, you know. Lighthearted.” A good way to forget for a little while that they didn’t live in a world where costume parties were normal anymore.