Queen Lydia

Chapter Two: Stacey

William grabbed me by the arm and asked me to show him how to get to my room. When we got to my door, I opened it and he shoved me in, telling me to put shoes on.

I did sort of what I was asked, and grabbed a pair of tennis shoes sitting by my door on my way out.

William was waiting outside my door when I emerged. He looked me over carefully before nodding. "How do we get to the exit?" he asked.

"Follow me," I said walking down the hallway, and toward the shadows to the left. "Where are we even gonna go?"

"Aren't you going to put your shoes on?" he asked, completely ignoring my question.

"Nope," I said and kept walking. "Are you going to tell me where we are going?"

He sighed audibly, "Yes. But why do you have to spoil the surprise...?"

I stared at him until he told me that he was going to take me to a quiet restaurant where we could talk in private. And because according to him, he couldn't stand being cooped in my palace. which made no sense considering we were going to another, smaller, building...

We walked down the hall and at the gate, leading to the outside, there was no one. I might have to change that with the oncoming mob...

Once we were outside the palace walls, I realized how much I actually missed the outdoors. It was late spring time, and though we were still on palace grounds, it felt different. I took in my surroundings. The grass was a vibrant green, and there were dandelions peeking out all over.

William was still following me, and since it wasn't super cold out I stopped for a moment to bend over and remove the stifling socks; I had always preferred nothing over socks and shoes.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you put the shoes on instead of taking the socks off?" he asked watching me as I took them off and stuffed them in my pants pocket. He just looked at me and rolled his eyes.

So, for added effect, I took and tossed the tennis shoes I had grabbed, back toward the palace.

"You're just going to-" he sighed holding the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "Nevermind. Let's g-" he was interrupted by someone barging out of the palace.

"Lydia!" They shouted. "Hold up!"

William and I turned to see Ciera Lipper, my long time friend, running up to keep pace with us. "I saw.. you guys.. leave.." she said out of breath. "Where.. are.. you going?"

William and I looked at each other. She might have been my friend, but even he could tell she had something to tell us. "What is it?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked, obviously trying to put off what she really wanted to say, which meant that she had really, really bad news and she was just putting off telling me. "What? Why can't I just come walk with you guys?" She asked batting her blue eyes at us.

"We never said you couldn't come with us. We just want to know what you're hiding," William said glancing at me as though he wanted back up.

"Ciera," I started, "I've known you forever. I should hope that i know when you're hiding something..."

She lowered her eyes, shuffling her feet. "You're right. I-you- got a call, and I don't know how you're going to react to it. Even after all these years, I can only narrow it down to two ways you'll react, and both give me anxiety..."

I wasn't sure how I felt about this. She had put enough thought into this to know that I could react in a multitude of ways, which meant there was a serious problem and I most likely did not want to know who had called, or why. Finally I mumbled out:"I know I'm going to regret asking... But who was it that called?"