Hello there! I am so, so sorry for the delayed updates, but school projects have been killing me! And I watched TFiOS so I took a few days to, like, not…be…depressed? BUT IT WAS AMAZING. Now I'm reading Looking For Alaska. To the people that have read it: is it good? Also, I reached my goal of favs in ONE chappie, so I'm bringing it up to...54? Yup!

prnamber3909: ? Okay then…

missmya16: Here you go!

Zara: Thanks! That's really nice to know!

Enjoy!

"Lady America? Would you like to accompany me?"

I'm not an expert on flirting, but I'm pretty sure he's asking me on a date. I only hesitate a half a second before rushing to reply.

"Yes!" I say, maybe a bit too loudly, eagerly, because everyone is staring at me with an amused expression. I cough. "I mean, of course, Your Majesty."

Kriss lets out a tiny giggle, and I look back at her, thankful that she isn't glaring at me in jealousy anymore. No, now she just nudges me forward encouragingly.

When I look at Celeste, however, I still expect her to give me a dirty look for some reason, but her expression just says 'Eh, we all know he doesn't love me.' And then she gives me a sisterly smile, not at all bothered by the fact.

I shrug at the girls before turning to Maxon.

Once we round the corner, I stop and say, "Shall we?" Maxon arches his eyebrows and smiles amusedly.

"We shall," he replies in an exaggerated British accent that I, for some reason, find incredibly handsome. Giggling, I keep walking, dragging Maxon with his sleeve informally.

Suddenly, I stop, causing Maxon to bump into me. However, I barely pay attention to him, my mind on something else.

"Maxon? Where exactly do you plan to go?" I ask, laughing a little at my stupidity. Maxon chuckles into my ear, and leads me ahead, still on the route I was taking.

"You were going the right way, Mer," he says, leading me by my arm. However, I stop at his last word. Mer, Mer, Mer. Aspen used to call me that. But can I allow Maxon, someone that I have supposedly known for months, call me that?

Sensing my hesitation, he says, "No? Okay, I thought I would just try it out. I guess not." And he prepares to keep walking, a look of defeat on his face.

"No!" I exclaim, grabbing his wrist, though he's not going anywhere. I feel bad for some reason. Aspen is the only person who ever called me that, and it just fits his voice. But we're not together anymore. In a way, we both ended it; him before the Selection, and me when he confronted me in my room that night. It's just a nickname, but it was also Aspen's for me.

"I-I'll think about it," I say before anything else comes out of my mouth. "I mean, give me some time to think about the nickname. It's just…my ex used to call me that." Maxon nods, thankfully understanding my dilemma, and patiently giving me time to think. However, guilt weighs me down; even though I don't remember him, it's obvious that he care about me, and I don't want to lead him on while lying to him. It's the only way, though.

We keep moving, traveling through what seems like thousands of hallways in this massive palace, until we arrive at the front gates. Maxon pushes it open with an exaggerated flourish. Laughing at his antics, I walk outside.

It's the gardens.

It's almost like a missing puzzle piece has come flying back into its place in my mind. I look back at the towering doors, suddenly recognizing them. I've seen them a thousand times, but until I could actually see the gardens, I didn't know where we are.

But, I only forgot Maxon, right? Or is it something more?

"How do you know I love the gardens?" I exclaim, the weird amnesia case forgotten, at least temporarily.

"You don't remember this, but we used to have almost all of our dates here," he reminisces, his voice laced with sadness. I flinch, this only reminding me of our lost relationship, and the pain I've undoubtedly caused, though I don't mean to.

Then a thought occurs to me: I forgot about Maxon, right? So since this garden was so closely tied to Maxon, could it be why I forgot it? But then, I got my knowledge of it back. Could that mean I'm regaining my memory? I hope so.

I walk up to a wooden bench, grazing my fingertips along the back. I can recall wisps of memories, all floating around in my head. A gentle touch, faraway laughter, maybe a few kisses? Then again, maybe that's what my mind has been all of these past few days. Just a whirlwind of unattainable memories. Hm.

I move to sit down on the bench, and Maxon joins me almost immediately.

"So," I begin, fiddling with the hem of my dress. Maxon chuckles.

"So," he mimics, his tone telling me that he's teasing me. I swat his arm gently, blushing uncomfortably.

"Shut up," I mutter. Maxon scoffs.

"Excuse me? I am hurt!" he says dramatically, slapping his hand to his chest, right where his heart should be. He did it a bit too hard, maybe, because he immediately clutches his chest, kneeling over in pain. His still playful expression, however, tells me that he's really not in that much pain.

"Oh, please! You and I both know you're faking it," I tease.

"Miss Singer, I assure you I'm not," he exclaims, happily playing along. Then, I suddenly punch his hard chest with almost all of my strength.

"What was that for?" he complains, rubbing his chest.

"Can you honestly tell me that that punch hurt you?" I say, staring him deep in the eye.

"Yes, it hurt," he says, pausing for effect, "about as much as a feather." I almost believe him and am about to apologize, until I hear the last part of the sentence, and I proceed to whack him again, knowing it won't hurt.

He chuckles at my actions, but then scoots closer to me, a bit tentatively, and wraps his arms around my back. Only hesitating for a second, I melt into his arms, leaning against him.

After a few moments of silence, he asks, "Can I kiss you?" I shift to face him.

"Do you really have to ask?" I say, a small smile gracing my face.

And so he kisses me.

"No! The décor should all be pink and red!" Kriss argues, pushing a strand of loose hair behind her ear. Celeste sighs.

"Ugh! That's too overused, though! It's boring."

"Well, what else looks like Valentine's Day?" Kriss retorts, frustrated.

We'd actually met up in Celeste's room, soon after my date with Maxon, to discuss the upcoming Ball. Evidently, it's not going so well.

We don't even manage to get past the décor theme- the simplest part- before we start arguing about it. Kriss thinks it should be a traditional Valentine's Day pink and red color scheme, but Celeste wants to change it up. Meanwhile, Elise and I just sit back, occasionally trying to interrupt and force them to work together, but in vain.

"I don't know!" Celeste exclaims, almost shouting. "But pink and red's been done too many times!"

"Well, what else is there? Black? No. Purple? Maybe, but no. Green? Definitely not." Kriss rants angrily.

Finally, Elise seems to have had enough, and she stands up.

"Be quiet!" she shouts. Kriss and Celeste immediately freeze, none of us used to her raising her voice.

I quickly stand up to.

"Okay, obviously, we can't agree on anything," I start. "But Celeste, Kriss has a point; Valentine's Day seems to only fit a couple, select colors. I think we can stick to pink and red, but, I don't know, have something completely different, though still entertaining, for the guests? And Celeste, since you didn't like the color scheme, I'll let you decide what the completely different thing is." Celeste seems to be about to argue, but eventually decides that it's her best bet.

"Fine."

We go back to planning, Kriss, Elise and I chatting away. However, Celeste moves to the far end of the chairs. At first, I think it's because she's still mad at her loss, but then I see that she's deep in thought, thinking about the task I gave her.

It only takes a little while for us to finish basic planning, seeing that Celeste's job is the hardest. But as we prepare to gather our things, Celeste jumps up.

"I got it!"

So yah! This wasn't edited, so if it sucked...sorry? Anyway, I have like 10 more days of school and I'm kinda sad actually... Bye

-Cindy:)