Another Fairytale Story [REWRITTEN]

11

Six months had passed since the Isle kids arrived, six months since the coronation of King Ben, and six months since Bella and Evie began dating. They didn't become girlfriends the day after the coronation, the two were so distracted being with each other that they forgot to make it official. It wasn't until October 8th that they realized and finally made it official.

Despite having been dating for six months, they hadn't gone public nor had they come out to anyone besides their small circle of friends which was the vk's, Ben and Doug. Bella was blessed to have a beautiful genius as a girlfriend but she felt that going public would hurt them, she didn't want Evie to have to deal with any of the backlash they'd receive from the media. Evie agreed, especially because she was making a name for herself in the fashion world! After the coronation, people fell in love with her work and were trying to book her for all their upcoming events.

They weren't the only ones who decided to keep their relationship private, Ben and Carlos had also decided it was best if they too kept it all between themselves. Mal volunteered to help by being Ben's beard, officially now, which meant they had also been dating for six months... Bella tried not to be a negative Nancy about it but she couldn't see how this wouldn't blow up in their faces.

Since the pair decided to continue their fake relationship, Audrey switched schools after winter break. It wasn't only their relationship that took a toll on her, after someone leaked the fact that Ben never even broke up with her the media used it to embarrass her. They praised Ben for it, of course, they did, they said he did what men were born to do and that he shouldn't be expected to be tied down to one girl forever. Ben never figured out how someone found that out, nor did he try to reach out to Audrey to apologize, this made Bella hit him repeatedly with the rolled-up magazine that first broke the story.

Her parents used this incident with her brother to continue to push the debutante ball and social etiquette classes on her. Part of this included making her write sincere apologies to Chad for hitting him, and Queen Leah for insulting her. She refused to do so as she saw it as a proper lesson in 'actions have consequences' but she reluctantly did when they threatened to send her to a foreign boarding school. Somehow her father had managed to convince her mom to agree on this method and it worked unfortunately, Bella couldn't act out of line or else she would have to say goodbye to Evie. Part of her felt like they were bluffing but she couldn't be sure so for now, she just had to make sure to stay on her parents' good side- well her father's at least.

Their father had asked Ben to join them for brunch, Ben decided to drag Bella along because she was his 'right-hand woman', so she was currently at the castle having brunch with her family. They were discussing and complimenting Ben on having done an excellent job at strengthening their relations with other countries. She was anxious to leave, don't get her wrong she was proud of her brother too but it was Friday and they had a half day at school which meant she had the rest of the day to be with Evie rather than having to be in classes.

"Now, before we all depart, I wanted to quickly mention the cotillion which is this Saturday. Bella as it seems you don't have a date yet, your mother and I were just wondering if we needed to arrange something." Bella looked at her parents as if they had their heads screwed on backward, in what world was she going to discuss dates to a stupid dance with them? Her mom was looking at her as if she was waiting for her to admit she had a secret boyfriend.

"Whichever of the many male friends you have you decide to bring will hopefully also be your escort to the ball?"

"What's that supposed to mean? "Many male friends" why did you say it like that?" She wouldn't put it past him to imply that she was a scarlet woman!