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Chico Hot Springs, where she'd vacationed with her mother.

    Cleaning up took a long time, but at last she was mudfree. She felt like a different person, especially after she
dressed in the stupid clothes the mud man had loaned her.
Just as she'd suspected, she looked like a fool. She thought
of the beautiful girl with the pink and gold hoopskirt and
the perfect golden hair, the one who would be kissing Sean
the golden knight. Keelie looked down at the frayed pink
ribbons on her purple bodice. She peeked over her shoulder. The red handprints on her bottom all but glowed on
the yellow skirt. The blouse was dingy, but clean. At least
her skin was free of crusty mud. She should have packed
an extra outfit.
    She attempted to finger comb some of the tangles out
of her hair. Her detangling spray was in her luggage, along
with her salon shampoo, conditioner, straightening iron,
and gel. Curls and ringlets had popped out all over her
head from the moisture in the air. She threaded a strand
of her brown hair through her fingers. Except for the owl
lady, nobody at this festival had short hair, which was fine.
She didn't want to fit into this place, anyway.
    Keelie touched her cheek where her father had kissed
her. That had been weird. She hadn't even tried to move
away. The whole day had been twisted. Sometimes she
wanted to run away, to return to civilization, and other
times she wanted to be the little girl in his arms. It must
have been a reaction to the stress of her mother's death and
the move.

    Maybe what she needed was to keep busy, to keep
moving so that she didn't have time to think too much.
Thinking led to thoughts of her mom, and how much her
life had changed, and then the tears would start again.
    She glanced out the multipaned window that faced
the jousting field. The rain had stopped, and jousters were
practicing in the lengthening shadows of the field below.
Now that the Faire was closed, she decided to check out
the after-hours action, although really she just wanted to
see if Sean was there without Princess Perfect-Hair Elia.
    She looked down at her feet. No shoes, but if she
stepped on patches of grass, then her feet would stay clean,
or at least free of mud. After all, the jousting field was
practically next door. She ran back to the bathroom, where
she'd left her dirty clothes on the floor. Her capris were a
disaster, but she wasn't going to do laundry until later. She
rummaged in the pocket for the rose quartz and tucked it
in her bra. Luckily, the top was baggy enough that no one
would see the weird lump.
    A quick search of the tiny kitchen area showed that
there wasn't much to eat, but she found a canister full of
oatmeal cookies. Perfect. She shoved one in her mouth and
carried two more, then slammed the door behind her and
picked her way down the wooden stairs, bare toes tingling.
Yellow pine from Georgia.
    Hopping down the hill from one green grass patch to
the next was more difficult than she'd anticipated. When
she got to a spot where the next patch was four feet away,
Keelie regretted giving up ballet. She jumped and landed
squarely in the middle of a puddle. No mud, thankfully.

    The jousting field was labeled by the sign next to the
grandstand that had earlier been full of tourists. Mundanes,
in the local lingo. All around her, armor clanged, horses and
riders called to each other, and harnesses jingled. She wondered which way the Shire was. Her map of the site, soggy
like all of her belongings, was deep in her purse back at the
apartment. The workers' campground probably wasn't on it.
    Two armored knights, helmets removed, stomped past,
as muddy as Keelie had been earlier. They didn't seem to
mind. One waved to her as they passed. She started to lift
her hand to return the wave, but they had gone on.
    Two clumps of grass grew between her and the rough
wooden barrier at the edge of the field. A giant horse was
tied to one of the posts. It turned