Yay! Chapter 6! That was pretty fast update, especially, since this is a DOUBLE update! That's right, two chapters today, and the second one is nice and long! Anyway! Go read! Enjoy!
Chapter 6
With the thought of the Report tomorrow, Starlight settled onto her bed. She had almost forgotten about Kiki until the small girl woke up, blinked, and rushed into the bathroom. Well, someone's gotta go! She thought smiling to herself as a strange thought occurred to her. She loved to read fiction, but the problem was, whenever someone when on an adventure, the author almost always forgot or neglected to add in the parts where someone really had to go.
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. "Come in!" she called, fully expecting to see Jonathan. Jack poked his head around the door.
"Hey, you busy?"
"Uh, not right now, why?"
"Oh, Elsa just wanted me to tell you to get better." He said. Elsa was his wife, an extremely beautiful young lady, just out of her teens.
"Thanks, oh! Can you get Izzy for me? I want to ask her something."
"Sure, can I take a message?"
"Uh, tell her I want to get the footage of the ASAP stuff. It's important."
"Sure thing, I'm on it!" He left and opened the door to a surprised Jonathan, his hand raised to knock. "Oh, hi! She's over there." Jack pointed to the bed, and slipped past the boy.
"Hey, come on in. Sorry I can't get up but you know," she gestured rudely to her foot.
"Yeah, I noticed." He smiled, sitting on the bed. "So what have you been doing?"
"Uh… talking with Mom and Dad, watching the Selected Show. Loved the ASAP idea! And... oh yeah, been very grouchy and cooped up!"
"Sounds like fun."
"Says you!"
"Well, what do you want to do, since you can leave this room?"
"Uh… I don't know, you pick! My foot can't handle the strain of thinking!"
"Riiiight… then. How about we…" he broke off, trying to guess what she wanted to do.
"No seriously, I really don't care what we do, so long as it's something!"
"Okay, well we could play a game…?"
"Sounds good, what game?"
"Um… I spy?" he laughed, when she smiled.
"Not much to spy in here. Although, if you're talking about my version of I spy then…"
"Which would be?"
"You try to get from one end of the room to the other without me seeing you."
"But that's impossible! There's like nothing in here to hide behind!"
"Actually there is, if you turn the lights off."
"Okay…" he flipped off the lights and the room went dark. "It's pitch black in here! I can't see anything!"
"Let your eyes get used to the dark, use the shadows to hide in." She responded.
Jonathan closed his eyes waiting for the room to get lighter. When he opened them, he found that he could see vague outlines of the existing pieces of furniture. They cast deep shadows across the room, and he was able to make out a path through the room.
"You ready yet?"
"Yup, I see a path, although I have no idea if I'll be able to use it." He warned, and dropped down to the floor which was perfectly clean. He army crawled into the first shadow and stopped waiting for the right moment to cross the gap. That moment came when the heavy curtains that were pulled over the windows fluttered in the breeze from outside. The sudden blinding light, caused the princess to blink the spots out of her eyes.
Jonathan used the flickering light to move into the next shadow. He was halfway across the room and could see the whites of Starlight's eyes shooting back and forth across the room. He realized that she had no idea where he was. Grinning to himself, he slithered forward when her eyes swept past him and onto the other side of the room. As she looked back in his direction, he froze holding his breath. He knew that any sudden movement would give away his position. Her eyes continued their sweep and he got ready to spring the final gap between himself and the opposite wall.
"I see you," she said. He continued to not move and didn't respond. She couldn't see him, her eyes kept up the sweeping motion. He touched the wall and slowly stood up, moving to the curtains.
He threw them wide and said, "I win!" Starlight put her hands up in defeat, and also to block to sudden light.
"You certainly did, you obviously know how to move silently and unseen."
"Yup, it helps when I have to get Tyler back for sneaking up on me." He laughed, coming over to the bed. "I would say your turn, but not with that ankle."
"Yeah, shut up! No encouraging me!" she scolded, looking longingly outside. "I'm allowed to go out if someone carries me, because apparently I can't be trusted with crutches and no way am I using a wheel chair!"
"Where do you want to go?" he asked.
"Outside. Are you afraid of jumping off of things?"
"No why?"
"Well, I have a quick way of getting out, but it involves jumping off my balcony onto a landing pan. No problem if someone is down there to catch me."
"Right, catch you. Consider it done." He helped her over to the railing and she swung her legs up and over.
"Yup, it's still there, I always check, just in case. It's actually really soft."
"Great!" without a further remark, he jumped off and landed squarely in the middle. "Cool, it actually is soft!" he called up to her.
"Right! I'm coming down!" He nodded and held out his arms. She jumped, executing a perfect flip and landed in his embrace. "That way," she pointed to their left.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see. I have the perfect place for the Selected Show, no one will bother you there." They followed the path to a dead end.
"Now what?" Jonathan asked, looking confused. Starlight glanced around for a certain patch of flowers. He put her down gently and stood back as she pushed aside some hanging vines, revealing a hole in the hedge. She gestured to it, and they walked inside. They were under a roof of flowers with the late afternoon sun filtering through the leaves. "Wow!" Jonathan looked around and saw a large white stone bench in the center.
"What do you think? Perfect background for the show?"
"Definitely! This is perfect! How do you find these places?"
"When you live here, you kinda have to find places to hide and be alone in." she explained. "This is one of the many places I go. You guys can use it if you want."
"Thanks. Do you often need to be alone?"
She started at him and he realized it was a personal question. "Not really, but I like to go somewhere and think about stuff. Or plan stuff, depending on the mood." She smiled, sitting on the bench. "So what have you guys for the next show?"
"Well, we didn't actually plan that far. I think we're just going to wing it as we go along."
"Cool, I've got some idea's if you want."
"Like?"
"More stuff about me, what kinds of stuff I'm interested in, including guys, and who I think is in the running."
"That's exactly what we need! The report usually only mentions the country wide stuff, not the selection stuff."
"So you're actually thinking about releasing this to the public?"
"Oh... well, we… I actually don't know. I mean, we've talked about it, but not seriously. It's just a fun thing to do I guess."
"The public would love! And I fully support it!"
"Yeah, but do your parents? Some of the stuff we have on here is kind of personal. We'd need to get their approval first."
"No problem! Dad's cool, and I bet Mom would love this! They didn't have anyone cool enough in their selection to think of something like this." She laughed, noticed the expression on Jonathan's face change from Oh-the-dreaded-parents to shit-they're-the-king-and-queen!
"Right, so.." he was interrupted by a chilly breeze. "Hey, I guess summer is ending."
"Yeah, it's almost October!"
"But it's not even September yet!"
"So? It's in two days! I can say it's almost October if I want to!"
"Whatever. It's starlight to get dark. I think you should get back before you get in trouble." She glared at him, but let him pick her up. As he left the New selected Show headquarters, his footsteps settled into a steady rhythm. Starlight relaxed in his arms and they went back to her balcony. "How are you going to get back up?"
She ignored him and called, "Kiki! Anna! Jo! Somebody!" Kiki poked her head over the side, letting the rope ladder fall to the ground. She pushed a button, after the princess had stepped onto it, and an automatic line, reeled the ladder back up. "Thanks, Jon!" she called down to him. "You want to come up?"
"Nah, I'll take the stairs this time. You need to get some rest." He waved and disappeared around the corner. Starlight, helped by Kiki, made it to the bed before she collapsed.
"You shouldn't have gone outside." The young maid said, flipping off the lights. "You could've got in trouble!"
"Trouble is my middle name!" replied the exhausted princess. It actually could have been, considering that Starlight had smacked both her parents when she was born. America had said she was a bundle full of trouble and Maxon had suggested naming her that. It was a close call really, or so the story went. Obviously she didn't remember it.
"Did anyone notice I was gone?"
"Izzy stopped by but she said you were just having fun and it wasn't fair that you couldn't play today."
"Right, thanks. I think I'm going to skip dinner today."
"But you didn't have any lunch!"
"I had brunch, that's enough. Besides, I don't think I can keep my eyes open anymore."
"Okay, you go to sleep." Kiki said, pulling the curtains closed. The little girl glanced at Starlight and left the room. Like her mother, the princess didn't like people in her room when she was sleeping. As soon as she had left the room, Starlight sat up, pushed back the blankets and hopped to her dresser. She pulled a lever on the back and a hidden door swung open revealing an entrance to the secret passageways. The door swung shut behind her and she fumbled for the light switch. She swiped at it, and once the narrow hallway was lit up, she moved to a section of wall marked with the letter Z. She pulled another lever, causing the door to open.
"Starlight, I was wondering when you'd get here," said Izzy. Her sister was sitting on her bed, waiting for her.
"Yeah well, I had to get rid of Kiki first. So, ASAP. Interesting isn't it."
"You said it! So why you here? I got the tapes for you."
"Thanks, do you think you can get them ready for the Report tomorrow?"
"You want to play them don't you? Have you talked to the boys about it?"
"Um…"
"That would be a no. So, are you sending anyone home yet?"
"Um… well, besides the ASAP, I haven't really talked to anyone else yet."
"Oh, well, looks like you're going to be busy tomorrow."
"Not with this ankle. When would be a good time to talk to Gravil do you think?"
"Um, after breakfast. That gives him time to make the adjustments to the Report and stuff," Izzy said. "Are you going to talk to Mom and Dad about it first?"
"Well… yeah, I mean, I would kinda get in trouble if I didn't, as well as the boys. And I think we should cut out the bits of the other boys doing… well, stuff they wouldn't want the public to see."
"Good idea and seeing as I'm in it, I'd also get in trouble." Izzy grabbed the video CD she had nicked from Damon. "Here, it's got everything from outtakes to bloopers as well as the final stuff. The bloopers reel is hilarious! You have to include it!"
"I was counting on it. Thanks. I can't wait to see the look on their faces!"
"Me neither, so… who do you like the best?"
"Oh we're on this topic now are we? Fine, Tyler is cool. Damon's kinda like my little brother, Nathan is funny but we don't really have anything in common, he's a cool friend though. Cody is really nice, and I think I imagine him with Kiki more than anything else."
"Kiki?"
"Yeah, wouldn't they be cute together?"
"Yeah actually, what about Jonathan?"
"Um… well… I don't know. He's definitely pretty awesome, but it's kind of awkward because he has to keep taking care of me."
"You know," Izzy reflected. "Lots of girls would fall over themselves for a guy like that."
"Yeah…" Starlight turned a faint shade of pink on her next sentence. "Jonathan is pretty ripped. I mean, he kinda has to be seeing as he's an actor, but still!"
Izzy laughed, "Your poor girly hormones finally seeing the light eh?"
"Shut up! I think other guys are hot!"
"Yeah, but you never fangirl over them."
"I'm not fangirling over Jonathan either! I just said he was hot!"
"You keep telling yourself that, Star. You keep telling yourself that." Izzy had taken on a wise expression.
"Shut up. Thanks for the tape, don't tell anyone I was here, and see you tomorrow," said the embarrassed, but level headed crown princess.
"Bye."
Ooooh! Awesome stuff! Yes, now go read chapter seven my pretties! I can't remember who said this, but thanks to whoever it was that said i should do the Selected show on the Report without the boys knowing! Great idea!
