Welcome to the Queendom

Chapter Fourteen

"Chelsea!" Nikki whined. "Come on, the limo's waiting for us outside!"
"I'm coming!" I replied hotly as I stuffed my feet into my black Chucks. I ran my hands over the skirt of my dress a few times as I stood and swung my bedroom door open. Nikki was waiting there with her arms folded across her chest, an annoyed expression taking over her features.
"It's 3:20," she stated. "We have 40 minutes to get to Eden's Palace-"
"I don't know why you're bugging," I said as I slipped by and fixed the diamond encrusted headband on my head. "It only takes like 10, 11 minutes to get there."
"That's what I said," Brie chimed in from the couch as she tried to weave a string of pearls through the braid that Nikki had done down her back. "But she didn't want to listen to me."
I shook my head as I went over to help.
"Sorry," Nikki said, taking a few calming breaths. "It's just that I get like this before our parties. It's a habit of mine."
"Well I forgive you," I said. "Just calm down though. Now let's get into this limo before Nikki has a heart attack."
The girls and I had to sit away from each other in order to prevent our skirts from cramming together.
"First we're going to get something light into our stomachs because we haven't eaten anything all day," Nikki started to say and that's when my hand flew to my stomach. I didn't notice how hungry I was until she said something. I was so busy on figuring out what I was gonna say to Dean if I finally rip him away from AJ-if he even went with AJ-that my mind had no room to tell me that I was hungry. "Then we're going to do the photo shoot, but it's nothing major. Just a few pictures here and there and by the time we finish it should be 5 or at least close to it. We're gonna make a grand entrance."
Nikki's cheeks were tinged an excited pink as she thought through the game plan. I was starting to get excited myself.
We finally pulled into the semi-circle driveway in front of the entrance. The entryway was circular with ground to ceiling glass windows and white frames weaving through them. The white awning was supported by matching pillars with sphere-like lights hanging from it.
As the chauffeur helped us out of the limo, I could see that the inside was bustling with life. I hope they weren't still trying to set up. Nikki would die. We walked inside and was met with two cases of stairs, connected together by a balcony at the top with a mural I couldn't make out at the moment behind it. A chandelier the size of a car hung from the ceiling and two arc doorways were imprinted in the gray brick underneath the balcony. The awning, that held three medium sized lights, that the balcony made was held up by two white marble pillars.
"This place is amazing," Nikki breathed, the whites of her eyes expanding.
"Definitely," Brie seconded.
"You guys never saw this?" I asked.
"We saw the pictures," Nikki began to explain, "but that's nothing like the real thing."
I nodded in agreement, before taking in the scenery again. We emerged through the doorways into a wide corridor with multiple tables full of appetizer-like food on one side and brown leather living room chairs on the other.
"The hotel part of this place is on the other side by the water," Brie said.
"Why didn't we stay here?" I asked. We were on our way to the huge brown curtain on the end of the hallway.
"A lot of people were complaining about the rooms," Nikki admitted. "No one at work wanted to stay here." Both Brie and Nikki pulled back each side of the curtain and we emerged into a grand marble ballroom. The floor was white marble while the bottom of the walls were black and the top matched the floor. There were four pillars with the two colors combined, holding up each corner of the room. I couldn't imagine anyone complaining about the rooms when the scenery of this side of the building was this grand.
"Hello." Everyone turned to the direction of the voice. A man in a tuxedo with short spiky hair who looked to be just a little older than I walked up to us with a clipboard. "Are you the girls who rented this ballroom for the night. Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace?"
The twins nodded their heads. "That's us," Nikki said excitedly.
"Would you like to take the pictures now?" he asked.

"We have a little surprise for you too," Brie said a little while later while we were in a room behind the balcony, waiting for our entrance.
"What's that?" I asked.
"You'll see," Nikki said. "You're so impatient."
"I'm just asking a question," I defended.
"An unnecessary question. You know we're not gonna tell you," Brie said.
"True," I agreed before I looked around the room. On the far side of the wall was a wide window with the pale yellow curtains pulled back to let in the last of the sunset before I completely vanished and a cushioned window sill for sitting. There was a cream colored tablecloth covered table with no seats but a medium sized gold edged plate that once held appetizers for us to eat. Nikki was hungrier than the rest of us. I took a seat on the sill and ran my hands over my skirt.
"What did John say to you when you gave him the tie that matches your dress?" Brie said to Nikki, trying to start up a conversation.
Nikki shook her head, laughing. "He asked if I could turn it off," she replied.
I snorted. "Your dress is bright," I stated. "Couldn't you have picked a darker blue?"
"There's nothing wrong with the one I picked out!" Nikki snapped defensively, grabbing the skirt of her dress. "It's fine."
"We were just playing, Nicole. You don't have to get so defensive," Brie said.
I shook my head as a knock sounded at the door. "Come in," I said then as the same man we greeted in the ballroom emerged inside.
"Your guests are here," he declared. "Would you like to make your entrance now or wait a little bit longer?"
"We could do it now," Nikki replied quickly.
"Yeah, don't ask for our consent," I said sarcastically as I stood.
Nikki stood in the doorway, but luckily the floor of the balcony obscured the vision for the guests below. Brie went and stood behind her followed by me. Trumpets blared from below and a booming voice tickled my ears. "Ladies and gentlemen please help me welcome the lovely ladies of tonight's court. Nicole and Brianna Garcia-Colace and Chelsea Renee!" The trumpets blared again.
"Try not to scream when you get down there," Brie whispered to me before the man ushered us out.
I frowned at her as Nikki led the line down the left side staircase. Our co-workers smiled up at us but the first pair of eyes I knew I wouldn't see on a regular basis grew wide and I drew my hand to my mouth.