𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸ℯ'𝓈 𝒞𝒽ℴ𝒾𝒸ℯ

Chapter |22| Underneath The Stars

The door swung open and Xander strolled in with heavy bags under his eyes and messy disheveled hair. I'm guessing someone had a long night.

"I heard about what happened yesterday and I'm sorry I didn't come to see you. I had a talk with Ivy's and Sienna's advisors. They assure me that what happened won't happen again and they're going to talk to them both. Prince Hardin also had a talk with the two and you should be expecting an apology soon."

An apology and loose promise not to do it again, in exchange for humiliating me and almost killing me? Wow, sounds fair.

"Great, I look forward to it." I muttered sarcastically, running a hand through my hair. He sighed and walked around placing a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry. Truly. You could have been killed because of them so that's why I've made sure that security is upped on this floor and more cameras are placed around the grounds. Just don't be around them alone. Make sure you always have someone." I nodded and gave him a small smile, one he tried to return but failed to.

"Come on, let's get going." I gave Flo a little hug and laughed as she whispered kick their asses in my ear.

We made our way down to the great hall, where today's competition would be taking place. There were two long oak tables in either side of a podium standing in the middle. Five microphones were placed on the two tables although, three on the left and two on the right, as well as a bunch of cameras and lights set up in- front.

Flicker was standing over in the corner with the other girls and I nervously made my way over. I made sure to stand next to Rory, who offered a small smile and her concerns about me yesterday.

Apparently news of the incident got around fast and she was threatening to help
me cut Sienna and Ivy's hair off whilst they slept, which I politely declined.

Note to self, never piss of Rory.

I also noticed how she was cleverly avoiding the topic of her date until Ivy decided to ask her bluntly in-front if everyone. Apparently it was a nice lovely date and they were both comfortable with each other.

Comfortable? What the hell is that meant to mean? Comfortable as friends, comfortable eating with each other, comfortable naked?

Today was going to be a knowledge quiz. I for one was glad it was something simple and straight forward for once but Sienna looked panicked. Guessing history wasn't her strong point.

I took my seat on the right, next to Astrid, whilst the other three sat on the next table.

The music played, and the producer held his fingers up counting down from five. "Three, two, one." He mouthed and then pointed at Flicker, who immediately perked up. I don't know how this woman does her job.

"Welcome Dahlia, to the second month of the coming-of-age competition! For today's intellectual competition we want to see if our girls aren't just all a bunch of pretty faces. Today the girls will compete against each other in a knowledge quiz all about our beautiful kingdom. A point will be scored for the person who presses their buzzer quickest and answers the question correctly. If they get the answer wrong however, they lose a point, even if they have zero. Let's just hope you don't go into minuses ladies, and I want to say welcome back to Miss Arabella, who unfortunately couldn't be with us on Friday due to her health but she's now back and better than ever." The camera moved to focus on me and I flashed it a huge smile with a small wave.

"Let's start the quiz. Okay so ladies, who was the founder of Dahlia?" Buzz.

"Gustavo Lewis." Rory answered, before I could even place my hand on the buzzer.