Wynd, Skye and One White Mouse

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Icon	Xanadu story universe

Prologue

"Sometimes I hate my life," Wynd muttered to herself before taking another slurp of soda. This was supposed to have been a cool weekend, but she kept getting thwarted at every turn, mostly by her mom. Her dad wasn't so bad, if you caught him watching TV or fiddling with the computer, he'd say uh-huh to most anything. Mom was another matter entirely, and she seemed extra intent on fun-killing in the last few days. First she was saddled with her two younger siblings and their goofy Halloween costumes. Skye was ten, which made her almost tolerable, Jamie, however, was seven and just breathing made him a pain in the butt. Second, she had to beg and plead to keep her costume from being vetoed. It showed hardly any skin, but it was very form-fitting. At least she managed to win that one. This was Orlando and not Tehran afterall.

Her original plan had been to arrive Friday morning, spend the night in the hotel with some of her girlfriends, then come home Saturday night. That meant skipping school Friday, so that was out. She wouldn't be caught dead dragging the uncool young ones in to meet her friends anyway.

She had been quite proud of her costume, and had even thought about entering it in a contest. She wore white tights and leotard, shiny gray shoes and gloves to represent hooves, a white horse-tail and angel-wings, and the best part, a horse-head, covered in white faux fur, she had bought from a catalog. She thought she made a fantastic pegasus. It wasn't until she wandered around the Convention Center for a while that morning, however, that she realized how out-classed she was. This was not the year for elegant minimalism. The money that Eric Winters had pored into the Con and the contests meant that people had come from all over the nation and had pulled out all stops. When she saw an equine with complicated digigrade stilts, she knew she was done.

Finally, to place a sucky crown on a very sucky day, she found out Duncan had been grounded. She had practiced swishing her horsetail coquettishly all week just for his benefit. Now he wasn't even going to be there. That's why she was forlornly sipping cola at the food court of the Xanadu Convention Center.

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Jamie nibbled a french fry then smiled at his eldest sister, revealing the chicken nuggets he had stored in his cheeks for later. If this was intended to bring Wynd out of her blue funk, it didn't work.

"Eww gross!" she gagged, and almost spilled her drink down her front. She tried to kick him under the table.

"Stop it you two!" Nothing seemed to perturb Skye, who was probably most like her mom. She had just given up on her red 'Ariel' wig and was stuffing it into her sister's bag. "I'm going to be my own mermaid today," she announced. She didn't put up a fight when her mom had vetoed her first costume choice by declaring "No sea shells unless you're wearing something under them." Skye decided that that would be just plain silly, so she opted to forget the shells and wear her pink 'Hello Kitty' tank top to go with her narrow, cylindical, mermaid tail skirt.

Jamie decided to show his other sister his stores. It was a wasted effort, nothing could penetrate Skye's serenity. He had decided to come as Stewart Little. He wore white flannel footie pajamas, white gloves with pink pads, a whiskered mouse-nose and ears. All was finished with a red Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses.