Darling Charming: Finally Extraordinary

19. Broke Rich Girl in Search of Money

I sat on my bed listening to the dial tone again and again as I waited for my dad to notice his daughter was calling and stop letting the answering machine take my calls. It's really hard to arrange a trip to Arendelle when your rich dad with access to all your money won't pick up his damn phone.

The answering message told me yet again that I'd reached King Charming and to leave a message for him to respond to at his earliest convenience. It was a lie, anyway. His assistants answered the majority of his calls, even the ones to his personal mirrorphone. I fought the urge to toss my own phone at the wall. This was so totally inconvenient. 

"Still trying to reach your dad?" Bella asked, reentering our room from the closet with a big gold suitcase in hand. She laid the case on her bed and unzipped it, then headed to her dresser to begin searching for belongings to fill the case.

I tried his work phone again. "Can't take four people to Arendelle without money."

"The rest of us aren't broke, you know."

Rosabella made a very valid point because I was truly not the greatest at recognizing that just because I'm the richest doesn't make everyone else broke in comparison. But I wouldn't admit that to her.

"Right... right, you're right... but Annie is still my dad's responsibility currently and... you know what? Never mind. I probably shouldn't tell him. He'd only try to stop us." I slammed the end call button on my mirrorphone and threw it down on the blankets. "Daring has access to his account. I'll just ask him to loan me some money until after the trip."

"About that... Are you sure this is even the greatest idea to begin with?" Bella paced around our dorm room, gesturing to nothing in particular with her hands. "We're amateurs, we don't know anything about Annie's sister, and we don't even know what we're up against!"

I opened my mouth to defend the plan I was still piecing together, but Bella continued, cutting me off.

"And!" She shoved a finger in my face, "the only one with any sort of fight training is you! What if there's someone that wants to hurt Annie's sister, or her parents, or Annie, or us? There's nothing the rest of us could do!"

I rolled off my bed and dropped to the ground. I fished a hand under my bed, where I hid my sword locked safe with a combination only me and my brothers knew.  "You're forgetting that we have quite the combined skill set."

Bella narrowed her eyes at me.

I entered the code and popped the lock off the box, observing the gorgeous jeweled sword that was my prized possession. "I might be the only one here sword-trained but Ailie is one of the best archers in all the lands. You bring the smarts, and Annie will provide us with everything we need to know about Arendelle and her sister."

"And Luke?"

"Uhhhh.... Luke can look pretty in the back."

Bella frowned, but there was the slightest of blushes on her cheeks.

Satisfied with my explanation, I took my leave from the conversation and headed into the closet to retrieve my own luggage.

Bella must have remembered something she hadn't used in her argument moments ago, because she followed me into the closet. "It doesn't seem like the Queen of Arendelle has told her daughter too much. Annie doesn't know a single thing about her story."