Lol. Thanks, guys.

Chapter 2

"Choco…" Anna chewed, moaning in her sleep.

Ring!

"More—" Her eyes closed, she turned to her side, pulling the blanket over her head.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Anna lazily pushed the blanket off, yawning, "…the hell…" She was in a violet, satin nightgown. The thin fabric hugged her breasts, toned abdomen and thighs at the right curves, exposing her flawless legs. She reached over the heavy, wooden bed desk, blindly fumbling among the five cell phones.

Ring! Ring! Ring—

"Joan, I don't do lunch," she grumbled a warning.

"Jesus Christ, it's already ten! I've been calling you like a thousand times! You're supposed to pick up that cousin of yours at the airport this morning!"

Anna's eyes shot opened, her body stiffened. Cousin? Airport?

"Get up now!" Joan barked.

"Help!" Anna leapt off the bed, tripping herself all the way across the hefty bedroom to the marble-floored bathroom. With the phone still pressed to one ear, she began to brush her teeth. But horror flashed across her face as she studied her reflection in the mirror. She was practically looking at the reddish bird nest that was her hair. A mice could run into it, die, and she would never find it. Getting dressed up would probably take a while.

"Well, I figured that this would happen, so I sent Kris there this morning. Brilliant plan, really," Joan said proudly.

Anna bit her toothbrush. Kris? God, how awkward this must be for him?

Despite Joan being her best friend, Anna had chosen to keep her intimate relationship with her childhood friend, Kristoff Bjorkman, a secret. She had grown tired of social circles, friends, families, and most of all, the presses, all trying to pry into her love life. And, they all seemed to celebrate every time she broke up. Kristoff was a valuable friend to her, Joan's alter ego to Anna, so she was being very protective of him.

"You sent Kris to pick up my future fiancée?" Anna mumbled, white foam dripping from her mouth down to her chin. She was still rather dumbfounded by what was happening. Today just got worse by the minute.

"Why not? He always gets the job done. He got to the airport around seven, but called me half an hour ago, and said that he hadn't found her yet. ARA 503 landed on time, but now is ten already." Joan's tone suddenly darkened. "I bet she was caught carrying cocaine and—"

"I really hope that she's not that stupid. There's no way Margaret would let me marry a drug dealer." Anna bent over the sink and spat out the creamy substance. She straightened up with a renewed look of determination in her eyes. Right, I have to find her, or else mom will murder me!

Kristoff had been hanging around the baggage claim area for three hours now, drowning himself with iced coffee, one cup after another, fruitlessly holding the sign with Anna's cousin's name, 'Bella Pedrosa'. He was bored to tears, and many phone calls to his girlfriend hadn't been answered. Surely, Anna was still asleep. What he wanted to talk to her about wasn't the failure to find the cousin, but the fact that he had just heard about Anna's engagement this morning. For God's sake, he had been Anna's friend since seven years old, and it was only the past year that Anna finally laid her eyes upon him. Just when his true love finally had Anna, this had to happen by the order of Margaret Wilhelmsen.

Ring!

He pulled out his phone from the pocket of his leather jacket. He didn't have to look who was calling since he had a special ringtone for his sweetheart. "Good morning, princess."

"Have you found her yet!? Please, say 'yes!'" Anna squealed.

Frowning, he knew that Anna was forced into this affair, but to hear how desperate she was to please her mother was just a big 'no' to him. "Nobody responded to my sign. Maybe your mother got the wrong flight."

"Margaret is never wrong. Anyway, I'm driving! I'll be there in thirty!"

Her hair was pulled back into a chignon, copper gleaming under strong sun. A pair of sunglasses on, Anna looked positively radiant in a black, sleeveless, knee-length dress. With a pair of black, ankle strap, high heels, she strode through the crowded curbside and entered the baggage claim area.

"Kris!" Anna waved gleefully when she spotted Kristoff, rushing towards him. She had garnered countless ogles already, but welcomed the attention. She was beautiful and famous, and she dressed to kill. It wasn't, by any chance, her attempt to leave an impression on her future fiancée, but she just wanted to look good at all occasions.

Kristoff was standing by an empty baggage belt. His big arms hugged across his chest, he gave her a curt nod. "Where have you been? It's already half past noon."

"I got off the wrong exit. Exits. Sorry," Anna winced.

Kristoff just rolled his eyes. He knew how easily she got lost on the road.

Anna looked up at the monitor and gasped. "Shit, she's gone like—like five hours ago! I'm never going to find her!" ARA 503 had long gone from the monitor, and the empty baggage belt suddenly seemed life threatening. It appeared like a gigantic serpent robot that would wake from its sleep and attack her at any given second now. "I'm doomed. What am I gonna do now?" She sank down along the metallic edge of the belt, rubbing her temples. Her phone and purse pooled over her lap.

Seeing how down Anna looked, Kristoff lifted the sign up again for any passenger to see. "She'll turn up. She will. Does she have your phone number, or maybe your mother's?" But they both knew that if Margaret found out about her niece missing, it would probably be the death of Anna.

Just when Anna was about to burst into tears, a group of people began to flock around her. She looked up to see the excited gleam in their eyes. They were gasping, whispering, and giggling with one another. She glared at them behind her sunglasses. This had to be the worst time to meet and greet her fans.

"Isn't that—"

"Could be."

"Really?"

"Sure, it's her."

"Anna Wilhelmsen? Oh, my God, it's really her!"

Soon, they were holding up their phones and taking selfie shots with a distraught Anna on the empty belt in the background. Anna inwardly groaned; it had to be the saddest selfie moment she had ever been in.

"Maybe I should just call mom's secretary." Anna surrendered, and picked up her phone. 374 missed calls from Joan. Loyal friend, I love you. 52 missed calls from Kris. Loyal-boyfriend-in-the-closet, I love you, too. 2 missed calls from mother. Holy shit. We'll talk about that later. Anna grimaced, but then something else caught her attention. 1 missed call from unknown? She studied the strange numbers she couldn't recognize. She frowned at it. It could be just an ordinary false call, or… Or…

Anna had no choice but to take the chance. She called the number.

Ring. Ring.

Anna waited.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

Anna scowled. Maybe they just made a wrong call. She almost pressed the 'cancel' button, but a voice slipping through the receiver stopped her.

"Hello?" It was a young woman's voice, so small and thin that Anna almost lost it amidst the loudness around her.

Anna instantly held the phone to her ear again. "Hello? You called this number earlier this morning."

A silence. "Anna?"

Green eyes widened. "R—right, this is Anna speaking. Who is this?"

"Your mother gave me this number. I'm sorry if I called too early."

The woman sounded nothing like Anna had imagined. She had expected a normally loud, confident and energetic Ernolynthian native. But the woman's voice was instead melodious and soothing, with mild accent that Anna founded cute. The woman sounded way too calm after five hours of wait, but Anna was just too delighted to care. She mutedly jumped around in joy.

Kristoff moved a bit closer to Anna, while cautious of their distance. "It's her?"

Anna nodded furiously, grinning until her face hurt. She was saved from Margaret's murder! "Where are you now, Bella? Are you still in Arendelle? Oh, I hope you haven't left! Arendelle is such a great place! We can be intimidating at times, but we're really nice people. And we've got many tourist attractions! We got museums, the oldest art galleries, the second largest national park up north—"

"I'm still at the airport." The response came soft.

"Thank God!" Anna pumped her fist in the air.

"But my name is Elizabeth Pereira. Are you sure we're looking for each other?" The woman suddenly sounded doubtful.

"Yes! Yes! Pereira. Whatever. Your mother is a Vandenburg, yeah?" Anna beamed. But a long moment of silence almost killed her hope, and she stopped. Her shoulders dropped. Her heart sank. "Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yes, she was… a Vandenburg."

"GREAT! Where are you now? I'm at gate 98!" Anna rushed out the doors to the swarming curbside, not waiting for Kristoff.

"I'm at 14. I'm sorry. I've wandered the past hours."

Anna caught the guilt in the woman's voice. "No. No. No, it isn't you. I'm to be blamed for this," she admitted as she hurried down the pavement. High heels slowed her down a great deal. As she got closer and closer to gate 14, many ideas kept her mind wondering endlessly. She expected to meet a young woman with healthily tanned skin and striking curves of a full body. Perhaps, a pair of dark eyes with thick, curly hair of rich-honey color like a barbaric princess from the deep jungle. Perhaps, a pair of muscular, shapely legs, and a pair of strong, slender arms, equipped with a malicious spear in her grip as she marched through West Manadelsa.

Even though Anna was still determined to botch this marriage plan, she couldn't help but grow curious of this mysterious woman. Whatever importance this woman held, it was enough to make Margaret sacrifice at least two years of her own daughter's freedom for. But what counterattacks Anna had in mind, the most important thing right now was to find the woman and take her home to Margaret in one piece.

Anna zoomed past hundreds of passengers, pushing away loaded and emptied carts alike. Only one call during the past five hours? Anna pondered. She would have made a thousand calls if no one had shown to pick her up. What would have happened if she hadn't checked her phone—this phone in particular? She could only thank her luck that Margaret chose this number to be the contact number.

Out of breath, Anna eventually reached gate 14. Her face was red. Her throat was burning. It was summer, and she was sweating like a pig from running. "I—I'm at 14 now. Where are you?" Anna breathed. Given the vicious heat, she almost dropped her hands to her knees after the sprint on high heels.

"I'm at… at 78…" came the ragged whisper.

Anna stopped dead in her tracks, nearly collapsing to the floor. They had been running to the opposite sides, unknowingly crossing each other. However, Anna wasn't quite sure why she was smiling. She should scream at the woman's tactless move. She should sulk that it was only minutes away to prevent this woman from ever becoming real. She should be thrashing violently on the floor as her freedom was so close to be taken away. But her heart was beating differently. It was a new kind of energy. Eagerness. Almost a cruel curiosity, a suicidal challenge against her mother.

Anna paced around a little, giving herself a few moments to regain her bearings. She looked up at the clear, blue sky beyond the extended shade of the building. "You know what… Don't move."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't move. I'll find you." There was no response from the other end of the line as Anna rushed back.

24… 52… 78…!

Anna skidded to a halt. Her legs were shaken, her ankles aching. She turned around, wheezing. The passengers were moving about, dizzying her vision. This wasn't how she had envisioned it to be. At least not with her hair sticking out in unwanted directions, her chignon loosened from the exertion, her back dampened—soaked. Beads of perspiration streamed down her forehead as though she had just stepped out of a sauna-gone-murderous. People started to gawk at her, but she knew that it was likely due to her looking utterly ridiculous at the moment.

Holding the phone up to her ear, Anna turned around, feverishly searching the area. "78. I'm… at 78 now. Where… where are you? What do you look like?"

"Anna?"

"I'm still here." Anna briefly shut her eyes in exhaustion. Her chest heaving fast, she needed more air in her lungs. Her knees weakened, she lingered in front of the gate, winded. "Yeah, I'm right in front of—"

"Anna."

Anna opened her mouth but suddenly paused. The voice sounded so close to her, and she was certain that it didn't come from the phone. Her phone-hand slowly dropped to her side, and she took a deep, long breath in before turning around. Then, she was faced with a taller, slim figure, and it was everything that completely opposed her idea of a Pereira.

There was not a rebellious trace on the perfectly carved face. There was not a single scar or a menacing tattoo expected on the skin of an underworld thug. The pair of full, pink lips remained still for a long moment before it broke into a tender smile. Pink had flushed on the dampened cheeks, the delicate skin as pale as snow. Anna found no conclusion of what was presented before her until the stranger meekly pulled the pair of dark shades off. Then, everything Anna had ever known was turned upside down. Under the stare from the blue eyes that were bluer than the East Ocean itself, if Anna's world had been in colors before, now it was in full HD.

Elsa timidly pulled the impoverished-looking, gray scarf off her head, letting it pool around her thin shoulders, revealing not a thick, honey-colored hair, but silky, platinum blonde tresses. Amusingly, it looked as though she wasn't even half Vandenburg, but a pure one. If Margret had appeared ruthless, cold and eagle-like with her Vandenburg features, the young Pereira gave an entirely different essence to the Vandenburg with her sentimental appeal of genteel qualities instead.

The hypnotic stare effectively chained Anna to the spot. Then, blue eyes narrowed, and Anna found her breath hitched. There was uncertainty in Elsa's shy smile as she lightly bit her bottom lip.

"Hello, Anna." The voice sounded even sweeter than it did on the phone.

The greeting finally came, and Anna couldn't handle it even when she didn't think anything could threaten her now. She never believed in that mythical you-had-me-at-hello bullshit, but things weren't looking in her favor at the moment.

I'm so screwed.