Steal the Stars [REWRITING]

Nicole - Not Okay

"I hate this," Annabelle whined. Papers were spread out in front of her, so far out of the original stacks they'd been presented to her that it was doubtful they'd ever find their way back. We'd barely been working an hour, but Annabelle and James were already starting to get antsy.

"This sucks," James agreed. He had cookie crumbs all over the paper he was supposed to be studying. I sighed and grabbed a napkin to wipe them off.

"But it's necessary," Leo insisted. He'd been trying to convince both of them that for the past hour, with little success. What he did get was a lot of eyerolls, and a lot of complaining. Annabelle had even pretended to sob on the table in front of her at one point, and if James kept leaning back like that, sulking, he was going to fall over backwards. I reached out to straighten his chair. "This is going to mess up our plans a bit more than we originally thought."

"Why?" James asked. Cookie crumbs spewed across the table, and Annabelle shrieked and ducked. Leo sighed.

"Because," he said, his patience slowly wearing thin. "There will be guards not only with the queen–double the usual amount–but also throughout the ballroom."

"And why is this bad?" James asked, still confused.

I pushed a scrap of newspaper across the table to him. "Because of that."

'That' was a notice in this morning's paper, announcing that extra security would be added to this year's Festival of Nightfall ball. The 'extra security' would take the form of guards roaming the ballroom, as well as the rest of the palace, who could demand to see papers at any time. In addition to this, we'd found out that patrolling schedules had been completely changed, probably in an attempt to throw off anyone trying to break into the palace. Which would be us.

And it didn't even end there.

The queen had issued a public announcement (also in that morning's paper) that she was feeling unwell, and may not even attend the first night of the ball. Of course, it had also said that she was being 'well taken care of' and 'hoped to be feeling well enough to attend' and other messages telling the rest of the nation not to panic. Which, while it would not be a major consequence for anyone else if she couldn't come (just odd, and disappointing), it would completely throw us off.

Even the idea of it already had Leo and I nervous.

"Well," Annabelle said, leaning back from where she'd been reading over James' shoulder. "That's...certainly something."

"'Certainly something,'" James mocked.

"Am I wrong?"

"Okay, stop," Leo said. "We just need to figure out what we're going to do."

"Cry," Annabelle suggested.

"No," Leo said. "We are calm, rational people, and we will think about this calmly and rationally."

"I think you've gotten us confused with someone else."

"I agree. Us? Calm? Rational? They don't even belong in the same sentence in my opinion."

"Usually, I would say your opinion is worth nothing, but I am unfortunately forced to agree. Also, people. Who are you calling a person? And who says I experience thoughts?"

"I think he meant the rest of us, Annie, but you've got a point about the people thing–"

"Enough," Leo said, cutting them off. "You two, stay here and memorise the new guard changes. Please don't burn this hotel down. Nicole, I'm headed to the palace to try and scope it out. Will you come with?"