Chapter 16.

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"Sheldon is getting really good, though, Edgar. That kid is amazing." Maximilian said as we walked into the palace.

Sheldon was an eleven year old biker, and I had to admit, even at my standards he was great.

"Undoubtedly, Max. He is fricking talented. I will definitely mention him to Mason tonight." Edgar leaned his chin on my head as he spoke and I laughed because I could feel it every time he spoke.

"Who's Mas –"

"There you are!" The three of us looked up at the Queen surprised. "Maximilian, what are you eating?" she grabbed what was left of the hamburger her son had bought on our way home leaving Maximilian dumbfound for a second as she gave it to Arthur muttering something about getting rid of the 'disgusting thing'.

"Mother –" Maximilian groaned.

I felt Edgar chuckle before he stopped as she glared at him.

"Where have the three of you been?! You know we still have to do the final fittings for Saturday today. And do not even get me started on Jessica! We have to make you a dress!" she said.

"Make me – what? I... I'll just buy one after school tomorrow." I said. I felt Edgar shake his head against mine as the queen stared at me dumbfound before both her and the guy beside her began laughing.

"Oh, she is precious, Elsa."

"I know. Jessica, honey, no family of mine will wear something from a store." She grimaced, "Now, this is Gregory, he will be taking your measurements and making you the most beautiful dress."

I looked at Maximilian helplessly as Gregory grabbed my hand and began talking as he pulled me from Edgar. Both brothers gave me an identical guilty face with a tight-smile as they shrugged.

Gregory dragged me to a room that was filled with material and I found myself frowning to myself again. I really needed to explore the palace soon... but it was so big.

"You have lovely skin. I suggest we go with gold because it is timeless. Purple would be good too, but then it is too royal for the occasion. I would have said yellow, but that would make you look terrible. Gold it is." What the heck?

He kept speaking as he pulled a measuring tape all over me while calling out measurements to his assistant, who I will honestly admit that I had not noticed until she spoke because I was so confused.

"I do not think a long dress would be that great right now. How do your legs look?" he stopped for a second and looked down at me.

"Um... normal?" I asked slowly.

He chuckled. "Right. I will just make it and your final fitting will be tomorrow night." He said.

"Okay... thank you." I said slowly.

"Kaitlynn!" I looked behind me as the door opened and Gregory called out to her, "She will be doing your hair and makeup." He smiled.

I gave the woman an awkward smile while she seemed to stare at my face as she asked Gregory questions about the dress.

When they were done, they pretty much shoved me out of the room saying they needed to get to work. I sighed as I walked through the hall. I walked upstairs and frowned at the door to Adrian's room down the hall. I really did not want to be at his engagement party. Firstly because I had only worn dresses three times in my life, I really didn't like them because they were quite an inconvenience and also because... well, it was his engagement. I rolled my eyes at myself.

Focus, Aria.

-----

"Wait; tell me again why we have to be there?" Shayne raised his eyebrow at Maximilian who groaned in response before dropping his head onto the table. We were at our normal lunch table, but our little group was discussing within itself, as were the rest of the groups that made up the massive group of Maximilian's popular crowd.

"Because Max is our friend and we can't let him suffer alone." Thandi said as she kissed Shayne before giving him a look that told me she wasn't really happy with the way he was acting towards the situation. He gave a guilty smile before he looked down mumbling an 'Alright, we'll go.'

"You guys act like it is my fault they act like that." Maximilian frowned to himself as he drank some of his water.

I gave a laugh and everyone looked at me, "I don't understand why you guys are acting like this, it's just an engagement party." I said.

Maximilian snorted in a very unmannerly way. Something that I, until that point, could never have imagined someone of his status doing.

"Well, I for one will love to go with you, Baby." I saw Maximilian's friends roll their eyes as Candice's arms snaked around his neck breaking up our tiny group meeting as her friends joined us. Maximilian, however, smiled looking genuinely happy as she kissed his jaw.

Gabriel cleared his throat, "Get a room." He coughed. Maximilian chuckled and Candice glared at Gabriel receiving a tight smile back from him.

"Who are you going with?" Candice smirked at Gabriel.

"This one." I laughed as he nudged my shoulder with his own.

Candice looked at me giving me no expression before she laughed hugging Maximilian again. I turned back to my food shrugging off her weird reaction to me.

I began eating my food while I spoke to Thandi, Jade and Maximilian's three best friends, occasionally exchanging a few words with one of his other friends at the table or around us.

I was thumb-wrestling with Gabriel because Jaime and Shayne had said something that made him ignore everyone at the table, but he got bored being so quiet so he took my hand and we began thumb-wrestling. Almost every match ended in one of us complaining that the other cheated.

"Ha! Got you!" Gabriel yelled.

"You lifted your hand over mine again!" I said.

"Stop being a whiny loser, Jessica." He frowned.

"You keep cheating!" I smacked his head.

"Don't do that!" I cried out as he grabbed my wrist and proceeded to shove me off my chair. I quickly grabbed his wrist and tugged him so he fell onto the floor next to me.

"Gabe! Get away from her!" I smirked as Gabriel frowned when Maximilian grabbed my arms to help me up.

"She started it." He frowned as he got up and sat down while I did the same.

I rolled my eyes before I smiled and held my hand out to him. He chuckled as he took it and we began thumb-wrestling again. We laughed hearing our friends groan.

----

"So, we will do the final fitting for your dress after dinner, alright Jessica?" The queen spoke.

"Sounds good." I nodded.

"Can I see it?" Our eyes moved to Gabriel who was sleeping over, along with everyone else.

"Why?" Adrian raised his eyebrows.

"Going with her, I have to know what colour it is..." He said.

"You are going with her?" Adrian asked from beside me. His eyes shifted from Gabriel to me and back.

"Yes." Gabriel smiled. Adrian returned his smile.

I looked down returning to my food. He didn't sound too happy asking that... It was probably just me. Damn it. What the hell was wrong with me? I felt my breath catch in my throat as I remembered the kiss.

"Don't worry, Gabe. Gregory will fix up you up after her." The queen said.

"What –? I mean, excuse me?" Gabriel asked looking a little surprised and a tad afraid. I wanted to laugh but I decided it would be too mean.

"Not much, just some touch-ups." The queen shrugged smiling.

"But I can touch myself up." I looked up hearing Maximilian stifle a laugh as Shayne snorted choking on his food, but the other guys didn't bother trying to hide as they chuckled. Even Adrian looked amused. I furrowed my brows, "No – I – I mean –"

"Let it go." I heard Maximilian whisper beneath his breath as he chuckled. He was between Gabriel and I. I let out a breath as I stuck a potato in my mouth.

"So... You two are dating or something?" I swallowed the barely chewed potato at Adrian's question and ended up having to grab my glass of juice to get it down while Maximilian asked if I was alright as he patted my back gently. I nodded to him.

"Us? No." Gabriel laughed.

"There's no way." Shayne laughed.

"None." I said before I hiccupped. Damn it.

"Absolutely none." Maximilian agreed.

We laughed as Adrian chuckled.

"That absolute?" He asked.

"More... unnatural. She's like our sister." Jaime said. We laughed again as I agreed. "You're quite protective, aren't you?" he added looking at Adrian.

"No... Not really... I was just... asking questions. Was that the bell?" as he said it the doorbell seemed to ring.

"Oh! That must be Emily's party! Come, boys." The queen spoke getting up.

"But we're eating." Edgar frowned. "Just let Arthur handle her."

"Edgar, she – they are our guests and I ask that for your brother's sake you will behave – all three of you. At least just until they leave."

"For our brother's sake?" Edgar rolled his eyes, "Of course, Mother." He gave a fake smile to his mother but dropped his napkin.

"Guys, stop it. Come." Adrian said shooting his brothers a look.

The princes stood up and walked out followed by their father, to greet the family I guess. "Jessica, remember, go see Gregory when you are done eating." The queen said.

"I will, your Majesty." I said. She nodded smiling and walked out.

There was a little awkward silence before Jade broke it.

"Adrian's a weird one." She gave a giggle.

"I don't think he's weird... He's sexy." Everyone looked at Candice. "But Max is fun, and he's not a wimp." She smiled as she ate.

"Adrian isn't a wimp. You don't know him." Jaime said.

"And you know him?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"We know him enough to know that he's not a wimp." Shayne frowned at her.

"Um... Does anyone want to eat desert outside? The garden's really nice." I spoke up seeing that they were heading towards an argument.

"No thank you, I have to get my rest." Candice smiled putting her soviet down before getting up and walking out of the room.

"God, what does he see in her?!" Gabriel suddenly hissed.

"Whatever it is, she must have a lot of it because she has nothing else." Shayne said, "Uh, I'll see you tomorrow morning, I think I'm just going to take a shower and then go to bed." He kissed Thandi's cheek.

"Sounds good. I'll walk with you." Gabriel got up.

"No. You have a moment with Mr Gregory." Jade pointed her fork at him and he groaned. We laughed.

After the fitting, I walked into my room to found Jade, Thandi and Sasha – a girl from our English class who Jaime had asked to be his date – in my room. I stopped at the door as I saw all the clothes thrown everywhere. I was not exactly happy about that considering how much I hated my room being untidy. I was happy they had stayed out of my bags though, or there would be things a lot worse than clothing on the floor.

I frowned. "Hurricane?" I asked.

They just laughed.

"No, dummy! We're having a sleep over!" Jade said throwing a fluffy pink thing into the air. That definitely had not been in my room before they showed up...

"Right... So... why the mess?" I asked, "I mean... sleepover... sleep... right?"

They dropped what they were doing and looked at me shocked. Right, that remained me of the pizza thing... Damn... These were basics, right? Of normal people, yeah... I should have done more research.

It's too late for that, Aria. Just go with it...

"Or... we dress up?" I said slowly noting that Sasha was wearing what looked like some disco-era pants.

They screamed and I quickly shut my door hushing them.

I laughed as they threw things at me while Sasha put on music before we all began dressing really badly and dancing to random songs. It was almost two in the morning when everyone had fallen asleep and I was in bed awake with a bit of a tummy ache. What? The food was good, be it junk or not.

I can't say it wasn't fun; it was a lot of fun. It was new, and I liked it, just hanging out. My work was my life; I had never gotten a mission that was anything close to this one before. Everything else was so formal, so planned, and so... easy. This was fun... Not that the other missions weren't. I absolutely loved what I did... but the friendships I had now were amazing, I had never had anything like it before. I usually knew people for a couple of months maximum, and all I knew about them would be their names and how they were important to what we were doing, sometimes I wouldn't even know that. But with this mission, I knew useless things. Like what Jaime's favourite food was, what Jade's favourite colour was, I knew Gabriel was afraid of heights and I knew what Maximilian loved to do.

I let the smile I didn't know I had drop as I swallowed nervously, my eyes on the roof above me.

What was I doing? This was completely out of what I was here to do and completely against what I had been taught to do. I shut my eyes as I turned onto my side.

Was I too deep in to go back to the basics here?

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