"Mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth." -Marissa Meyer

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Chapter One: Stick Together


AEKINE

I woke up the morning of the trip, too early for the time I'd slept the night before. My leadership instructor had me up SO late, even though he knew we had to leave early the next day. If I don't have AT LEAST 8.5 hours of sleep, then I may as well kiss my confidence, organization, and brainpower goodbye. Last night, I had to go through a bunch of documents my dad, Emperor Kaito, had received to search for loopholes and make sure that they were good to sign. It wasn't REALLY up to me, who'd trust a fifteen year old with THAT, my dad and his advisers did this kind of decision-making.

I was running on barely 6 hours of sleep and needed to change into my "podship clothes", finish homework for the next week since I was missing a bunch of classes, and Dad, Mom, and I needed to make an official declaration of leaving, even though these travel plans were widely known, which meant I needed to be dressed up. I wasn't surprised when Empress Selene showed up in my quarters, carrying a large package, followed by two maids, carrying smaller ones.

"Aekine, you know you have to remain on-schedule here. You were supposed to run down and pick up your dress from the seamstress ten minutes ago!" Mom scolded as she strolled in. As much as she hated the dresses and the glamour, being Empress meant that you needed to be impeccable no matter what. She'd found that she prefered gowns that flowed just above the ankle, that allowed her free movement, if worn with the proper flats.

"Sorry mom," I said, sleepily looking up.

"Show me you're sorry by actually doing what I've told you."

I sighed and moved to my large closet, where the maids had hung the large and smaller packages. I peeled off my pajamas, the least fanciest things I was allowed to wear in the palace, a soft pink top made of silk with white drawstring shorts. I opened the large package first. A red strapless dress with a flowy skirt and a bejeweled belt cinched in at the waist. The smaller packages contained jewlery and shoes to match the belt.

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The declaration of leaving the Commonwealth went smoothly and I was allowed promptly to go back to my room, change into my travel clothes, and grab my homework and portscreen.

The ride to the Republic would be almost three hours long, hopefully that'll be enough time to do homework…


GENESIS

We were the first to arrive at the island, being that we lived closest to it. According to Mom, the next people to arrive would be Ze'ev and Scarlet.

Bummer. I wasn't really fond of Raelyn, their daughter closest to my age. She seemed so brown-nosey last time we met, two years ago. She couldn't come on the last trip since she got really sick and we were headed to a ski-resort.

Luckily, there were plenty of nice guys here and they'd be shirtless. The perks of being at a beach! This trip, however, I wasn't really looking for any long or short-term connections with anyone. I was looking forward to getting Gemini out of the house, and away from a portscreen, maybe even find her a guy.

Currently, Mikah, our younger brother was running around, Dad was trying to control him, Mom was checking out something on her port, Gemini was looking around. I walked over to her.

"Hey Gemini!" I said, trying to be bright, obviously she was a little worried.

"What do you want Genesis?"

"For you to be excited! We're missing school, there's so many hot guys here, we both have a chance to relax, and there's a beach!"

"I guess I'm just a bit worried," her voice trailed off, "You know, all of these girls, they're special, more special than me."

I raised my eyebrows. "Gem, if you're worried about you being outshone by these girls, then I don't know what to tell you. If anything I should be worried about that!"

"Seriously? You've got a personality that shines brighter than diamonds, they'll all be attracted to you like everyone at school is," she said, glaring, "I'll just be your sister, like always."

"And what about your talents, you can glamour, but you're resistant to manipulation, and you know your way around technology better than any other fourteen year old I know!" I said, mad that she never really recognized her own talents, and was always so insecure. I pulled her into a big hug and said, "We're a team, no matter what, if those girls are special alone, then we're extraordinary together."

"Thanks, Gen, that really does mean a lot." Gemini said, hugging me back.

"That's what twins are for."

The moment was broken when Mom dragged us over to meet Raelyn and Janica, and say hello to Ze'ev and Scarlet.


GEMINI

Finally, after saying hello to our parents' old friends and their children, we all changed into our more summery clothes. Mom wouldn't let us change before all of the fellow vacationers arrived. Genesis looked amazing, as always, in her short, navy, floral tank top and white denim shorts. I didn't really like pants and shorts very much, loose dresses and skirts were more in my domain. Which could wear, almost constantly, in Tampa-region, where we lived. So I just wore a long halter sundress. Raelyn wore a chambray romper, Elvira wore something like Genesis's, and Aekine wore some sort of kimono over some thin pants and a plain white shirt.

They were all beautiful girls, in their own ways. Which was great for my confidence!

We all headed to lunch together, after changing. Genesis and I stuck together, while Aekine and Elvira struck up some sort of conversation, though I couldn't imagine what that'd be about. Aekine was royalty, for star's sake, and Elvira was just a regular girl, with famous parents. Raelyn was quiet, and kept scuffing the dirt with her sandals.

"Hey," Genesis hissed, "Check out that guy." she pointed towards the beach where a tall, dark-skinned boy was playing around with a younger girl of maybe ten, probably his little sister.

"Perfect for you, Gen." I said, shrugging. I wasn't here for guys, I was here to relax.

"Gemini, I'm probably going to flirt with some of them but, I don't want any relationships like last time…" her voice trailed, and she shuddered, "That was quite strange,"

I stuck out my hand and concentrated, something I did when I was bored or annoyed.

"Gem, you're doing that thing where you glamour fire into your hand."

"Whatever." I changed up the manipulation to make it look like my hand was a cloud creating a lightning storm. It was illegal for someone over the age of sixteen to use or have the ability to do bioelectrical manipulation, but I was too young for the surgery to be entirely safe.

Just as Genesis started gawking at my hand, now a mini tornado whipping up dust we passed a large building, covered in mirrors. I took one look at my empty hand and the manipulation fell apart, like always. Mom always said that mirrors held up the utmost form of honesty, she said that that was what broke Queen Levana.
We entered the restaurant, where a long buffet of delicious looking (and smelling) food awaited us. My mouth began watering before we even got into the line.


Hello Readers!

If you don't feel like reading all of this that's okay, but I'd like to tell you guys a bit about myself and this story.

A quick intro to myself. My name is Lexie Pines and I'm from the Bay Area in California. I'm in the ninth grade at school and I enjoy watching YouTube (I LOOOOVE NIGAHIGA), playing volleyball, and reading. My favorite book series are The Lunar Chronicles (duh), Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I have one other Lunar Chronicles story, but it is just a one-shot really. I also have a story based on Miraculous Ladybug, one of my favorite shows. I have a Harry Potter story, as well, but I don't know if I want to continue that, since I haven't gotten much support or reviews, unlike this story.

Which brings me to my next point. THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THE WONDERFUL REVIEWS! And please continue to leave more! I know the first few chapters will be quite boring, but I really want to build up the characters and plot before I get into the action (I'm expecting the action will start around the end of the next chapter or the beginning to middle of Chapter three).

Finally, please cut me some slack if I don't post as often as I'd like to (one to two chapters per week). I'll try to stay updated, but my school is really kicking up, and I'm in a lot of extracurriculars and clubs. I'm not going to give excuses, because this story is my responsibility to update and give my readers good things to read. Thank you for understanding.

I LOVE ALL OF YOU SOOOOO MUCH! - Lexie