"Did you hear?! The royal family is hosting a ball!" her older sister shrieked in her face. "i'm not sure i can hear anymore," Mary said teasingly, "anyways what do i care, we're probably not invited anyway." at this Martha rolled her eyes. "no you dummy the entire village is invited!" "what's all the ruckus?" Bel (short for Belinda) asked. "The royal family is hosting a ball!" Martha shrieked again, this time louder. The middle Cambell (Marori, 16) suddenly felt left out. She wasn't early as happy as her two other siblings about this ball. Suddenly remembering her encounter with the fancy boy in the woods she asked, "hey, what does the prince look like?" "ooh does someone have a crush?" Bel teased making kissy faces. "you're one to talk future Mrs. Kingwell" Martha said sticking out her tongue at the youngest (14) Cambell. "can you shut up, Mrs. Lewis" their brother said brushing his hair out of his eyes. "no ones answering my question" Mary intercepted irritated. "Sorry, Tall ginger haired lanky boy with blue eyes" Martha said. "Just my luck" Mary said. "what d'you mean?" Will (short for William) asked his twin sister. "I ran into him today. in the forest" she replied. "What?!" Martha yelled. "tell me everything!" Bel said equally as excited. "he asked for directions out of the woods. Nothing to exciting." Mary concluded. The four siblings ate dinner without their parents and went to bed before they got home.
In the upcoming week to the ball a boatload of dress orders came in and Marori was swamped. In between helping Bel make her own dress and snipping flowers for boys who are asking their respected women to the dance she had no time to go out in the forest. Will had a hard enough time convincing their father to let him go so the girls didn't want to push it. for the little time in between dinner and bed Mary had gotten the money to Will so he could get a tux. He had asked where it was from and she had said it was her birthday money, but didn't have the time to make the tux so she couldn't even if she wanted to. By the time the ball rolled around she had everyone's dress completed and had gotten a horse and carriage at her mothers command.
While Mary was working the week of the dance Cory and his three friends were taking ball room dancing lessons. "this sucks" Judah said drawing out the "U". "I know, but we need to know how to dance." Cory said sighing heavily. "why did you even want to have this ball anyway?" Dylan asked. "i bet it's because of the girl in the woods." Graham teased. "no. It's some sort of compromise. If i could have this ball with everyone invited and not find someone i liked then i'd marry Princess Bella" he explained. "what's so bad about her?" Judah asked. "There's nothing wrong with her specifically, but i think i'd rather not marry her because she seems arrogant, no scratch that she is arrogant." He tried to explain. "Ah there it is the truth" Dylan said with sarcastic hand gestures. "Is this about the girl in the woods?" Graham asked curiously. "no it's not." Cory finished as their dance instructor called them over again.
Mary paced nervously around the kitchen as she waited for the carriage to arrive. Martha and Bel were talking eagerly about who they were to dance with while William watched Mary. He desperately wanted her to stop, but didn't want to disturb her. As if on que the carriage arrived and their mother whisked them away into the carriage before bustling in herself. She recited all the manners the children were to display at the ball to clear their names, and prove that they were as noble as the rest. Part of Mrs. Cambell probably just wanted to shove her children's success into her sister's face. All four kids rolled their eyes before being helped out of the carriage. The palace, much to it's credit ,was huge. It had beautiful golden banisters and clear blue water. It was everything they could've hoped for. The four looked at each other nervously as they spotted their red haired Aunt coming toward them (hoping to walk with them inside). "My dear sister Drizella!" She cried out finally reaching their mom, her sons in tow. "My! my! my! the girls look lovely!" she said pleasently. William rolled his eyes at this, but tried to conceal it in a fake smile. "shall we walk in?" their aunt asked before chatting away into their mothers ears. Her two boys (Percival and Lucas, both 17) tried striking up conversation as they fell behind the moms. Thankfully they thought the rivalry was as stupid as they did so there wasn't much fighting. The family was guided to the farther back of the line seeing as they weren't nobles. After them the people kept getting farther down the chain of who's worse. When it was finally their turn the attendants announced them "The Cambell clan" to which Mary and William almost rolled their eyes at before catching themselves and putting on fake smiles. Percy and Lucas seemed to fight for dominance, probably thought that the woman would find it attractive. Poor helpless boys.
"Wow" was the first thing Cory said the entire night. "Ah one of the Cambell's catch your eye?" Dylan questioned. "Yeah" he said fixating his eye on a struggling Mary. "Which one" Judah asked suddenly intrigued in the conversation. "The one with the short y/h/c hair." He said as Mary and William slipped into the crowd. "good. Cause i'm aiming to dance with the blonde one" Judah said smirking. As the last of the families were introduced the four boys from the balcony swooped down the steps looking for someone interesting. Dylan decided to sit alone in the far corner of the room, Judah decided to look for 'the blonde one', Graham was being asked to dance relentlessly to which he declined them all, and Cory was looking for the beautiful y/h/c Cambell girl who was no where to be found.
William slipped through the crowd unnoticed as his sisters sat waiting to dance (all except Mary who had disappeared). He eventually found The Honorable Graham Verchere (Count's son) desperately trying to escape the hoard of girls trying to dance with him. Chuckling William slipped through them all, much to the relief of Graham, and dragged him off into a hallway. "thanks," Graham said once they were in the clear. William shrugged about to walk off. "How did you do that?" Graham asked. "When you have three sister's it's easy escaping woman unnoticed" he said smiling. "Well in that case would you like- um- would you like to take a walk?" Graham asked. "sure" came the swift reply.
Dylan hummed a cheery tune as a flustered girl emerged from the crowd. He recognized the short haired girl from earlier pushing her forward before disappearing back into the crowd. The flustered girl sent him a quick smile before leaning against the wall next to him. "That your sister?" he asked startling her. "Um yeah..." she replied trailing off. "you want to dance? it gets pretty boring watching everyone else dance." he asked. She smiled brightly before nodding and the two walked to the dance floor. Within two minutes he'd already stepped on her foot about three times. "You know, for someone who claims to be taking lessons you really suck" she said smiling. "hey you didn't tell me your name" he said defensivly. "yes, because knowing my name would make you stop stepping on my feet." she said sarcastically. "maybe it would" "doubt it" "well, you obviously know who I am, so who are you?" she pursed her lips before letting go and falling away into the crowd behind her. When he was sure he couldn't find her Dylan went back up to the balcony wondering why she wouldn't even tell him who she was.
"so we meet again" Cory said to the girl he had been searching for. She turned around startled by the voice who was talking to her. The boy she was talking to quickly left so Cory had her full attention. "seems like it"
They stared awkwardly at each other before Cory cleared his throat extending his hand out to her. "Would you like to dance?" He asked in the utmost princely fashion. She nodded hesitantly before being pulled to the dance floor. The two danced as gracefully as one might when they were nervous, it was clear that Cory had been paying attention during ballroom dance classes. On the inner circle of the crowd around Cory and Marori Martha stood satisfied at what was happening. "Cute, isn't it?" a voice asked suddenly appearing at her side. "What? oh yeah. I always knew she had it in her." Martha said affectionately. "Are you her mother?" The stranger asked, she hadn't even looked at him. "Oh heavens, no. I'm her older sister"
Looking over at the boy she saw none other than Judah Lewis. Fighting down a gasp she kept her composure.
A/n:
How'd you like it? I know it's kind of messy and all over the place, but it's here.
Part two will focus more on Bel's point of view.
