Brielle POV
We all made our way down the empty and eerie halls of Auradon Prep on our way to Audrey's room, Harry's protective and comforting arm wrapped around my waist the whole time. The way our footsteps echoed ever so slightly in the normally loud halls was intensely disturbing to me.
Everyone stayed pretty quiet during the walk, for comfort I leaned my head on Harry some as we walked to Audrey's room. I kept glancing up at him, I know he said he was starstruck by me which made my heart flutter, but I feel more starstruck by him at the moment. It might just be me, but watching him fight like that back there was breathtaking. He's just... he's stunning. I got quite entranced for a second, looking up at him with a loving gaze. He caught me in the act when he peered down at me before I could look away,
"What is it love?"
He asked once he realized I was staring at him. I could only giggle a little and smile like a complete idiot up at him,
"Nothing, just looking at your face"
I said with a giggle, Harry smiled and tilted his head some at me before leaning down and planting a soft kiss on the top of my head,
"Yer so cute~"
He quietly sang. I noticed Harriet and Uma eyeing me from the corner of my eye, but I didn't let it bother me. I got onto my tiptoes and planted a quick kiss on his jaw right as we got to Audrey's room. Mal went to open the door but of course, it was locked. Harry perked up and tossed his hook in his hand,
"Well don't mind if I do"
Harry said with a confident smirk, temporarily leaving my side and waltzing on up to the door and popping his hook into the lock and pressed his tear against the door to listen for the click. I watched him intently as I do, especially when he's all concentrated and such. After a few moments of concentration, Harry's lips upturned some and he took his hook back and turned the knob and opened the door to us all,
"Tada"
He proudly said, letting us all waltz into the room. I walked in last, allowing him to slide his arm all the way around my waist as I walked in and lightly tugged me into him, accompanying me as we walked on in,
"So, where's her diary?"
Mal asked once we all got in there, I went ahead and walked over to her bed, Harry now following me so close behind that he was brushing against me. I stood at the head of her bed and reached underneath her pillow and pulled out her diary and opened it in my hands,
"Tada"
I said myself once I pulled the diary out, making Harry chuckle a little bit. I flipped it to the most recent pages and began reading out loud to see her thoughts, but quickly I learned how Audrey really felt and stopped reading out loud. Specifically when she started talking about me and Harry. I turned the book away from his view and read in my head,
"And Brielle, ugh don't even get me started about Brielle! What does she see in Harry? Yeah, he's hot and good looking sure, but he's a PIRATE. A filthy pirate! He is the farthest away from a real prince that she could've possibly gotten and yet she fell for him? She refused to date when we were little, led Chad on for years and nothing. Within a few days of that pirate being here she's head over heels? I mean come on! A pirate over a prince? What sort of logic is that?
Besides, she's acting far too bold. Brielle is the Queen, she has to know to stay proper and to know her place, grandma always rambles on about how unprofessional she is. Grandma told me that Brielle normally talks more than Ben in council meetings and that the Queen should let the King speak first. How improper, if I were Ben's queen I would always let him have the spotlight, I at his side batting my lashes as grandma says.
Someone should really put Brielle in her place, and someone needs to knock some sense into Ben. Well, someone should knock sense into Brielle too, if I can have Ben then she gets to have Chad and he can get off my back. It would be perfect.
But no. Those two villain kids had to intervene, a pirate and a fae just here to ruin everything. You know how stupid Auradon probably looks to the rest of the world? Our King and Queen dating these silly little distractions from their real suitors, it's ridiculous. Brielle belongs with a prince, Ben belongs with a princess aka me, it's that simple!
They do look happy together, especially when I get a rare glimpse of Brielle and Harry just cause Mal is a little on the less affectionate side. But ugh, the amount of times I've seen them laughing and goofing off, not to mention when they do that thing where they close their eyes and just hold their faces really close together, it's sickening. And I want it."
I stopped reading and flipped to the most recent entry, I didn't want to read any more of that. What happened to her? She was quite supportive when Harry and I got together at first, did her grandma really force every opinion she had on Aud? If so, this is her fault, isn't it? Great, just great,
"What is it bonnie lass?"
Harry asked once I ignored the entry and went to a more recent one. I shook my head with a smile and looked up at him,
"Nothing but opinions, nothing to worry about"
I said simply. He did not need to see such negativity like that. I looked at the last page in her diary to see a sketch of herself wearing a tiara, on the page beside the sketch I saw the last entry,
"Dear Diary,
My life just went from mildly falling apart to completely falling apart within a day. Ben proposed to Mal today, I've never felt more crushed.
Grandma scolded me, said that my mother could keep a prince in her sleep and I've failed the family name. I can't keep a prince even while fully conscious... what a disgrace. Or is what mom did super rare? I mean I don't think I could keep a prince in my sleep, but what really hurts me was my grandma's words. Did she really see so little of me?
Ugh... I wish I had my old life back, it was so much better before all those damn VKs came over. I just want a happy ending...
I will get what I deserve, how I'm going to do that? Not terribly sure, but I don't deserve to be hurt like this, I deserve my title and I will take it if I must! First, I need to head to the museum, then maybe I'll hide out at Fairy Cottage. No one would look there, not even the master of schemes Brielle would think of that, she doesn't even know where it is.
So long good, hello evil..."
I read in my head, I truly began to feel sorry for poor Aud. I know she isn't truly like this, all the pressure has resulted in her blowing up and we're all experiencing it. I sighed and shut the diary,
"It mentions Fairy Cottage, the place where Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather hid her mom from your mom"
I said simply before putting the diary back without any other words, motioning to Mal as I did. I was a little bothered though, I'm quite bothered actually. I'm bothered by her words, her bitter tone and hatred. I sighed some as everyone looked at me for further direction, but I was too busy being bothered by the entries that seemed to personally attack me and Har,
"Hey, love are ya alright?"
Harry softly spoke after moving into my view and blocking me from everyone else. I stopped hiding the bits of disappointment in my eyes and whispered to him,
"I-I didn't realize she thought so... poorly of me"
I muttered, I mean... I've known Aud forever. I at least thought she respects me and likes me a little, apparently not. Harry furrowed his brow and went to go grab the diary himself. I quickly grabbed his wrist which made him look back at me. I could only shake my head a little, looking at him with sad eyes. What has been with today and.. hurting my feelings?
Harry looked at me with a bit of a tilted head for a second before doing the exact right thing, slowly bringing me into a hug. One where he had one hand gently on the back of my head, pressing my head onto his chest,
"After all of this, I promise ya I am going ta pamper the living daylights out of ye my bonnie lass, today has not been kind"
Harry softly whispered only loud enough for me to hear.
I really do love this man.
I smiled again and nodded into his chest, how is it that he can just make me feel so... wonderful and loved with a single sentence? I looked up at him and closed my eyes for a second and took a quick breather,
"So... not to burst anyone's bubble but what's the next move?"
Uma asked, I opened my eyes again and had to force myself away from Harry's comforting close grasp as much as I didn't want to to look at her. He kept his arms around my waist, I simply spaced myself away from him enough to be able to look at Uma,
"Well, I don't know where Fairy Cottage is, Ben does. So we need to find Ben essentially"
I stated, putting my strong and stern voice back on to mask my bits of sadness remaining in my tone. Harry tugged at me some to make me look back at him,
"And, it's not exactly a huge priority but... I would really like ta make sure the twins are alright back at Evie's, all the other kids too"
I lightly sighed with quite a bit of admiration, the love he has in his heart is so... intense in the best ways. I thought for a second before looking back to everyone in the room,
"So I know I said no splitting up earlier, but I think we should have one group go track down Ben with Dude and another group head to Evie's yeah? We're all capable individuals, we can all fend for ourselves so I'm sure splitting up won't kill us all now that we have a fight in"
I said with a light laugh. Mal walked over to me and put her hands on her hips,
"Alright, how are we splitting up?"
She asked, I think it's funny how she's asking me more and more questions it seems. It's a little out of the ordinary for her but I'm not complaining, she's listening to me. I opened my mouth to answer but someone else had other ideas,
"There is no way I'm willingly in a group with Mal"
Uma said with a sneer. Mal looked over to her with narrowed eyes,
"And I personally don't like that Jay fellow, wandering eyes that lad has"
Harriet snarled. I slowly watched as everyone began piping up with childlike opinions of each other and why they don't want to be in a group with someone, except Gil and Celia that is, they were chatting with Dude. Harry and I silently watched for a second as it unfolded,
"I'm not going with..."
"I can barely stand..."
"Don't even get me started about..."
I deeply sighed at the constant bickering before taking a deep breath and sharply whistling to get everyone to stop. Dude howled as soon as I was done and everyone went silent and looked at me. I slowly moved to the side so Harry would only have one arm around my waist and scanned at everyone in the room, ready to let some of my emotions go,
"You are all such children it's ridiculous, look at yourselves! Bickering back and forth like toddlers, I've seen babies with more maturity than some of you. Get a grip, get the stupid out of your brain, and because no one wants to agree I will be sorting everyone out myself and I don't care how whiney you might be about where I put you. You will survive, get over your ego, and stop being painfully immature!"
I said with a demanding raised voice. Everyone got far quieter with that one. I took a deep breath to recompose myself and smiled some. I looked up at Harry and put both of my hands on his shoulders and led him to one part of the room. Once I got him there I stopped and slipped my hands off his shoulders,
"Responsible adult one"
I announced, making Harry chuckle considerably as I had made him the "captain" of one of the groups,
"And responsible adult two"
I said, pointing at myself of course. I then began waltzing around everyone and tapping peoples shoulders, I tapped Harriet, Gil, Jay, Carlos, and CJ first,
"The people who I tapped the shoulders of, go over to Harry. The rest of you catty females are with me, congrats to those in the other group they aren't so damn problematic, not including you Celia you aren't including in this narrative"
She skipped on over to me with a snarky giggle while the girls I was left with looked at each other with a bit of disgust, those females being Uma and Mal. I heard Harriet and CJ cackle from behind me. I turned my head to see Harriet leaning an elbow on Harry's shoulder,
"You know, I was skeptical of her at first, but I'm really starting to like your little badass you managed to catch"
Harriet muttered to Harry, nonetheless, I heard it and it definitely made me smile as I'm sure that's the way Harriet compliments so I'll take it. I turned back around when I felt a smaller hand grab mine. I looked down some to see Celia wrapping my arm around her shoulders,
"Does that mean I'm your favorite out of the bunch?"
She said with a bit of a puppy eye sort of look. I chuckled and shrugged,
"You are being the most mature so for now, out of this group which I'm calling "the catty females" until you all earn a better name, you are my favorite"
She did a bit of a squeal and leaned into me which just made me laugh some. I looked back up to everyone else and got my game face back on,
"Alright! Everyone file on out. Harry, I would suggest checking the woods first"
I announced, Harry nodded to me and led his group out the door. I turned back to the catty females as Uma and Mal stared each other down, Evie trying her best to get them to stop. I scoffed at the, and quickly snapped in front of their faces to get them to look at me,
"You two really need to get over yourselves, by the way, the egos the two of you have are atrocious sometimes. Now hurry along, no time to waste and if you fall behind I'm not waiting for you to catch up!"
I shouted as I pivoted on my heels to walk out as well, Celia staying by my side like a right-hand man of sorts. Or should I say left hand since I'm left-handed? Oh you know what I mean.
We all filed out into the hallway where Harry was waiting for me to come out. Once everyone had come out of the room he shut the door behind us all and turned to me with the bit of dazzle in his eye again. He gently grasped my hands in his and leaned down to give me a good ol' fashioned kiss. I smiled into it and as soon as we pulled away he whispered ever so lightly,
"Please Brielle, stay safe alright?"
I was a little taken aback I won't lie, it's not often he uses my first name. I giggled some and nodded,
"Alright Harry, you stay safe too okay?"
He chuckled some and nodded back. It is a little strange, he only calls me by my name by itself when he's really serious about something. He is really adamant about my safety so it makes sense for him to simply be acting overprotective as he does. But it just... that doesn't sound right to me.
Something about the dazzle in his eyes getting just a little brighter when he said my name is what leads me to believe such.
A/N
Hiya! It is SUPER late for me right now, so I can't say much because I am about to fall asleep as I type this but I hope you enjoyed this chapter :D I'm so excited for winter break when I can write tons, not to mention I gotta start thinking about ideas for the next book don't I? It's a hard concept to grasp I won't lie XD
Sheesh I have no clue what I'm going to do for the next one, this book means so much to me and has done so well I have no idea how I'm supposed to top it XD If you have any Harry Hook based plot suggestions, feel free to drop em down in the comments cause my imagination has run out of energy XD
Remember to stay hydrated and to be kind to yourself today :D
-Brooke