AN: I know this isn't a very funny chapter but it's needed in the story line.

"I can't believe we have to go back to school." Edmund complained as he packed his suitcase. It was the end of the holidays and time for school to start up again. "King's don't need to learn to write essays. I can write proclamations, that's just as good."

"Why don't you just tell that to you teacher, Ed?" Susan teased as she rolled a pair of nylons and packed them.

"Ha ha very funny." Edmund grumped. Then he looked into Susan's suitcase. "Gosh, Su, how many nylons did you pack?"

"Shut up." Susan frowned at him.

"We should ask Mum and Dad to let us go to a mixed school like Eustace so we could all be together." Lucy said sadly.

Susan's expression looked like Lucy had just suggested they all go to school in the nude. "Ew!" She muttered under her breath.

Peter walked in carrying a very large carpet bag. "Who's is this?" He asked.

"Oh, that's mine." Susan said causally, taking it from him.

"What's in it?"

"Make up."

Edmund opened the bag and looked in. "Are you joining the circus?"

Susan grunted and snatched the bag away from her younger brother.

Peter started packing his school books. "They're going to kill us with school work this year."

"I don't care much about this year." Susan sighed. "So long as I'm popular and don't get left out of the good parties."

"Since when do you care about parties?" Peter asked, genuinely interested. Susan had been a bit of a loner at school since they'd come back from Narnia the first time. He wondered what triggered the change.

"No one will like me if I don't go anywhere." Susan explained.

"No one will like you if you look like you fell face first in a bowl of melted candy." Edmund corrected, eyeing the make-up bag again.

"Whatever." Susan fluffed her hair and zipped the final bag shut. "See you in the car." She blew them air kisses and left the room.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "What's wrong with her?"

"It's not the Caspian Blues again is it?" Edmund asked.

Peter shook his head. "I don't know. She's been acting really weird lately. She used to be very reclusive, now she's..."

"Utterly repulsive?" Edmund offered.

Lucy grabbed her favorite stuffed animal and put in her bag. Aslan forbid if Susan saw her pack that. She would've said she was being childish.

"Something has to be done about her." Peter agreed.

"Don't worry." Edmund said smugly, as he pulled three envelopes out of his jacket pocket.

"What are those?" Peter asked.

"Weren't you wondering what Edmund was up to with the socks and the dirt and the power tools all this time?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah..."

"Tell him Ed!" Lucy jumped up and down with excitement.

"I'm going to throw an old fashion Narnian ball as soon as the next holidays start!" Edmund cried happily. "And we're all invited and Eustace is coming too!"

"Huh?' Peter's forehead crinkled. That sounded nice, but what in the world did it have to do with power tools and marble?

"He built an exact replica of our old Cair Paravel ball room!" Lucy blurted out. "And he got clothes that look almost Narnian from a costume shop!"

"Lucy!" Edmund glared at her. That was going to be a surprise.

"Sorry." Lucy pouted. "I just couldn't keep it in anymore."

"It's okay." Edmund gave her an understanding smile.

"You built what now?" Peter blinked in confusion.

"I dug the cave I built it in and everything." Edmund said proudly.

"But why did you steal everyone's socks?" Peter wanted to know.

"Mine got covered in dirt and bug poo from a cave in or two." Edmund shrugged as though it was no big deal.

"You are one of a kind, Ed." Peter laughed.

"Susan, will love it." Lucy added happily. "She always loved going to balls." She beamed at Edmund. "Can we give her an invite now? Can we? Can we?"

"Go on, Lu." Edmund said. "You can go down stairs and give it to her if you want."

Lucy ran down the stairs happily with the invitation. Susan was in the kitchen on the phone.

"Susan!" Lucy waved the envelope in the air. "Look!"

"Hold on a minute, Jane." Susan sighed into the phone. "Sister's trying to tell me something" She turned to Lucy and barked, "What?"

Lucy was still too excited to be phased by her sister's angry way of speaking to her. "Look, we're going to a party next holidays!"

Susan's expression changed. "Why didn't you say so, dear?" She looked at the paper in Lucy's hand with more interest now. "Who's party?"

"Edmund's." Lucy was fairly bubbling over with excitement now. Wait until Susan heard this. "We're going to have a..." she lowered her voice. "...Narnian style ball!"

Susan's face fell and she turned up her nose like she'd smelled a bad odor. "Oh, is that it?"

Lucy's own face fell now. "But Edmund dug a..."

Susan shook her head. She went back to her phone conversation. "Really?" She said into the phone. "No, I don't have any plans for next holidays what do you have in mind?"

Lucy bit her lip and tried not to cry as she walked slowly back up the stairs. Susan didn't care. How could she not care?

"Lucy, what's wrong?" Peter asked when he saw her face.

Lucy gulped down a lump in her throat. "Susan's not coming to the ball."

"What?" Edmund called angrily from another room. He ran into the hall way. "She's not? Why?"

Lucy shrugged her shoulders sadly. "I don't know."

"I'm sorry she's not going." Peter said kindly.

"Oh she's going." Edmund snapped. "I did not spend all this time digging and getting sued by our neighbors for any guest not to show." He stormed down the stairs.

"Susan!" he barked as she chatted on the phone. She completely ignored him and went on talking.

Finally, Edmund grabbed the phone out of her hand and slammed it down "Susan!"

"Edmund!" She cried. "Why'd you do that?"

"Why'd you tell Lucy you weren't going to my ball?" Edmund demanded crossly. "I worked my butt off planning this thing."

"It's s stupid idea Ed." Susan tossed her head in a cocky way then she smiled happily and added, "And I promised Jane and Laura I'd spend next holidays with them. Their elder sisters get invited to so many places that they just can't go to all the events and they send Jane and Laura in their places...and they said...get this...that I can come too if I want."

"But this is really important to me Su." Edmund insisted.

"Sorry, Ed." Susan shrugged. "Maybe next time."

Edmund huffed and stormed back up the stair muttering curses under his breath. "She's not coming." He told his siblings.

Later, their parents dropped them off at the subway station and kissed them goodbye.

"Edmund, could you be a dear and get me a magazine from the stands?" Susan asked him.

"Get it yourself." Edmund muttered as he walked away.

"What's his problem?" Susan asked Peter.

Peter shook his head, "Same as mine." he went after Edmund, "Hey Ed, wait up."

"Lucy?" Susan asked softly.

"I'm really disappointed in you." Lucy sighed as she ran off after her brothers.

Susan was left alone. Why were they being so mean to her? It was one little party. Why did it matter so much? She went to get the magazine herself.

"Phyllis?" A voice said.

"Oh my!" Susan gasped. It couldn't be! He looked so different!

"The doctor says I don't have to wear glasses anymore, isn't that great?" He beamed at her.

"Yeah..." Susan stammered still in shock. "That's...really...great."

The boy looked down at one of her bags. "Something fell." He pointed. He reached down and grabbed it. It was the invitation to Edmund's Ball. "A ball huh?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going." Susan told him.

"Why not?" The boy asked. "It sounds like fun."

"No it really doesn't." She snapped as she took the paper from him and shoved it back in her bag.

"What's Narnian mean anyway?" He asked indifferent to the annoyed look forming on her face. "Does it stand for something?"

It stands for leave me alone. Susan thought to herself. But all she said out loud was, "I gotta go. See you round." And she took off as fast as her legs would carry her.

Edmund, Peter, And Lucy didn't talk to her the whole subway ride. Even when it was time for Edmund and Peter to go to another station to get to their own school they were distant with her.

They tearfully hugged Lucy goodbye and told her how much they loved her.

All they said to Susan was a quick, "Bye."

"Peter, wait!" Susan called after her eldest brother. Surely he couldn't stay mad at her like the others. Surely he was more mature than that.

"I'm going to be late." He told her as he kept on walking away.

Maybe she could get Lucy to talk to her. "Lucy, Please talk to me?"

"Why don't you talk to one of you friends?" Lucy sulked. "You only talk to me when they're not around."

"That's not true." Susan said.

"Is so true." Lucy insisted trying not to cry.

"Are you still mad about me not going to Edmund's whatever-it-was?" Susan asked.

Lucy nodded.

"If I promise to go will you stop being mad at me?" Susan offered.

Lucy's face lit up. "Really? You'll go?"

"Yes." Susan agreed.

"Promise?" Lucy asked.

"Promise." But it was a promise that Susan did not intend to keep.

AN: Just so you know, this is not the last chapter it's only the second to last. But I still need to know what you thought, so click that review button and tell me.