THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER22

"Yeah, mom. We'll be there after school."

"Do you know if Ben is staying the weekend?"

I readjusted the purse hanging on my bare shoulder and answered, "I don't think so, maybe you should call him."

"Hey, Princess!" I heard someone yell from down the hall. Sighing as my mom continued talking, I spotted Jay heading my way from down the hall.

"Mom, class is about to start, I'll see you tonight, love you"

"Love you too, sweetie. I'll see you later." She then hung up.

I stuffed my phone into my purse as Jay approached me. "Hey, new kid." I greeted as he leaned back on the wall across from me.

"Addison, right?" He asked.

I nodded, as the teacher walked between us, "You two have 30 seconds. Wrap it up!"

"Did you want something, Jay? And I actually like to be called Addy."

He shook his head, a smirk forming on his face before walking into the classroom.

I lifted my hand, moving hair from my face before following suit.

I sat down in my seat next to my good friend Magnolia who was talking to Caspian on FaceTime.

"Hey, Water Boy!" I greeted, pushing my face into the camera view.

"Hey Ads!"

"Phones away, ladies." The teacher said as the bell rang.

Sighing, Magnolia ended the call with the half mermaid.

I fished a blue ink pen out of my green purse before asking Maggy, "When are you gonna tell him?"

She ran a hand over her face, before answering, "Well I was gonna do it then, but you-"

"With Chad Charming sitting behind you snoring?" I tsk'ed, "Mags, that's not exactly romantic."

"Okay, I lied, I don't know when."

"You should ask him to coronation, before one of the other girls do it."

-;-

With the end of the day rolling around, I was sitting on the bleachers, basking in the sunlight and watching the Tourney team, waiting for Ben to finish up so we could go to the castle.

Mariah stopped by me on her way to cheer practice, her ginger ponytail blowing with the slight breeze, "Why did you quit cheer again?"

"Audrey is everywhere, especially since she started dating my brother and joined my decorating committee."

"Sometimes you act really selfish and self absorbed and I wonder if you really are Belle's daughter." She joked as she fixed the laces on her shoes.

"Maybe it's the Beast part of me." I laughed as Audrey started yelling at her to get to the group. "You're coming up on Saturday, right?"

"I have that thing with Aziz and his mom, sorry." She shrugged, before waving bye and jogging over to Audrey who was already reprimanding the rest of the girls on the squad.

I pulled out my phone and started going through orders for the coronation after party, this thing had to be absolutely perfect, even if it is 2 weeks away.

After going through emails and looking at layout plans for the ballroom, I heard coach blow his whistle and yell, "You! Get over here!"

Peering over the rim of my blue sunglasses, I watched Jay as he jogged over Coach Jenkins and started talking to him and Carlos, the rest of the team crowded around them. Everything seemed to be going well as I watched Coach smiling as he patted Jay on the shoulder.

I put my phone down and decided to watch practice.

I watched as Jay flipped and swiftly dodged around the other players, occasionally hitting Chad Charming noticeably harder than the other guys on defense.

Soon enough, Tourney practice ended and Ben ran over to the cheer girls and started talking to Audrey, who looked really annoyed. I stood up and walked down the bleachers, stretching my legs and waiting for my twin.

"Hey, beautiful." I heard from behind me, peering over my shoulder, I seen Jay walking behind the bleachers.

"Jay, hey. What's up?" I greeted, walking over to him.

"Finishing up with tourney, were you watching try-outs?"

"Yeah, you did great. You're really, um, athletic." I cringed, holding myself back from face-palming.

Jay smirked, looking me up and down, "Listen, I have to go, I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, yeah." I felt my cheeks heat up, before he winked and walked away.

Sighing, I turned back around and seen Ben standing there, talking to Chad.

"See? I don't know why you guys are trying to buddy up to them, they're evil." Chad stated matter-of-factly.

I rolled my eyes, walking up to them, "Really Chad? Still on about them being true evil? They're not that bad." I changed the subject, "Benny, are you ready to go?"

"I just need to shower, you can start without me."

I let out a deep breath as Ben walked by, heading to the locker rooms. "I don't want to hear any more out of you about the VKs, like it or not, they're here now." I told Chad before walking to my Vespa.

-;-

It was after dinner and we were sitting in the family room, the fire glowing and classical music humming through the speakers.

"So, about the after party at the school," I started, looking through the groupchat with the rest of the decoration committee (minus Audrey and Ben), "I was wondering if you could speak to Fairy Godmother about letting me use the courtyard for that."

"Why can't you just use the ballroom like we're already planning?" My dad asked, perking up from the couch.

"It's not big enough for what I have planned."

"Well, what do you have planned?" My mom inquired.

"Ben? Can you cover your ears or something this is supposed to be a-" I looked up and seen him laying across the couch, sleeping. "I wanted fireworks and we can't have those indoors, for obvious reasons."

"Nonsense, you don't need fireworks." Dad argued.

"Yes, I do. this is not a ball, it's not a birthday party, it's coronation. Ben's coronation. I want to go all out for the after party since you wont let me plan out the actual affair."

"Because you'd want fireworks." He mumbled.

I groaned and stood up, ready to head up to my room. "Whatever, I'll just have to do it myself."

"Addison!" He called for me as I ran up the curved staircase. "Addison, get back down here!"

I got to my room and turned on the light before shutting the door hard.

I plopped down onto the bed and continued to go through Pinterest, getting ideas, until my phone chimed signalling a text

DECOR COMMITTEE
audrey has been removed
jane has been removed

Kai: So what did your parents say, Adds?

Lia: yeah, what's up?

Addy: Yeah, earlier talks were confirmed, my dad is still lame.

Lia: it's a no then?

Addy: ofc, he said 'why cant you just use the ballroom'? like
? then he mocked my fireworks idea

The typing icon for Symphony came up, as I heard a knock on the door.

"If it's dad, you can't come in." I pulled my legs up onto the bed and read the text that just came in.

Symmy: i'm gonna fight your dad

I giggled as my mom walked in carrying a couple of saucers, the smell of hot chocolate filling the air.

I set my phone down beside me as my mom sat down by my feet and handed me a saucer.

"Thanks." I smiled up at her, blowing on the liquid.

"What's wrong, honey?"

"Nothing, I think I'm just stressing out too much."

"Well, it's a good thing that you came up here to hang out for the weekend."

I sighed, "Yeah, it's just I have the Family Day thing, then the Coronation after party, then I'll only have three weeks to finalize and order everything for the Halloween Party, then we have to start on everything for the Christmas thing."

"Why are you doing decoration committee again?"

"I got bored of cheer and just sitting around sipping tea with the other princesses. I needed something to do." I took a small drink of my hot chocolate.

My mom rubbed my leg, giving me a sympathetic smile. "Your dad didn't mean to hurt your feelings over the comment he made, but I talked to him and told him that I will talk to Fairy Godmother about your brother's coronation."

"Thanks, Mom." I smiled.

"Now, let's move on from that, what's going on at school? Anything? How's it going the kids from the Isle? What are you thinking about your coronation dress?"

"The kids from the Isle seem to be doing good so far, I mean it's only been a day, so I guess only time can tell." I also set my cup down onto the saucer. "As for my dress, I want glitter. Or sequins. Lots of them."