Chapter 14 – Nirvana
Willow had slept like a baby and was completely refreshed and ready to get up when Nerissa came to wake her up, the next morning. Especially since she knew she wasn't going to spend the whole morning working in her office: no, today was Tuesday, and she was ready to join the Selected in their weekly dance/posture lesson, and she hoped it would be as fun as the previous week.
After a hearty breakfast, she joined the group of selected who were heading to the ballroom.
"Are you joining us again, Highness?" Weston asked, matching his steps with hers.
"Yes, I'll be joining every Tuesday, unless an emergency comes up," she replied. "And it's actually fun."
"That, or you're just making fun of us," Archer said, walking past them.
Willow tilted her head left and right and chuckled. "Maybe that, too," she admitted. Weston chuckled, too, and they walked into the ballroom. More than half the Selected were already there, and she noticed the little tables from last time were still there, scattered throughout the southern part of the ballroom, opposite from the throne area.
"Good morning, Camilla!" she said, joining the dancer.
"Your Highness," she said, curtsying perfectly well. "Thank you for joining us, this morning."
"My pleasure," the princess said. "Please tell me they're going to learn to dance, today?"
"I'm hoping, yes," the young woman replied. "In the second part of the morning. Why?"
Willow shrugged but smirked. "I'm thinking Lolly and Annabeth could join us for that, if you need female dancers."
"Huh, that would actually be nice. I was going to ask for maids, but I'm guessing they have other things to do." She paused, counting. "Me, you, your sister, Annabeth, and Jaylen, that makes five ladies for twenty-eight men… not really even numbers, but I think we can work with that."
"Have them dance together," Willow said. "No?"
"Hmm, I'd rather not– they need to learn the man's leading steps. No use mixing them up with the lady's steps."
"True."
"Alright!" Camilla said, hearing that the Selected were getting a little restless. "Good morning, and I see that most of you are wearing formal suits. Thank you." She looked over the group. "This morning we will be learning how to have tea with the Princess."
Most of the Selected rolled their eyes, but Camilla's hard look quickly put them all back in line.
"You will all be practicing sitting and standing with your suits– can anyone tell me what you have to do with your suits, to sit and stand?" the teacher asked.
Domenico half raised his hand and Camilla Higgins let him speak. "You have to unbutton the jacket to sit, and button it back up when standing."
"Excellent," she said. "How many buttons?"
"Just one."
Camilla nodded and continued her lesson. "So, as I was saying, you'll be practicing the unbuttoning and buttoning of the jacket as you sit and stand, and then you'll be practicing drinking the tea in the right way."
"Pinky finger up?" Aidyn asked. Willow wasn't sure if he was being serious or not, but Camilla answered his question regardless.
"That's old-fashion etiquette from the 19th century. And unless you can actually do it – some people don't seem to have a very flexible pinky finger – then please don't do it." She went to show them, with Domenico's help since he seemed to know about the jacket, how to sit and stand, and how to hold the saucer and teacup when drinking. She then sent out the Selected to the small tables by groups of threes – they could sit with whomever they wanted – and made them all practice for fifteen minutes before seeing them all come by two to sit with Willow.
It took a good hour and a half to be done with all that, but by the end, Camilla Higgins was somewhat satisfied with them. "We'll be practicing that at random over the weeks so you don't lose your good habits learned this morning and last week," she said. "Try to remember what we're going over in these lessons during the week. Let's take a break and reconvene in fifteen minutes for our first ballroom dance lesson."
The Selected didn't have to be told twice. Half of them went to the toilet, the other half went to the terrace for some fresh air while others went for a smoke. Willow decided to text Annie and Lolly to see if they could come help out with the dance, and both accepted. She also asked Nerissa if she wanted to help out, as well, and she also accepted.
Fifteen minutes later, there were the male selected on one side, and all the other ladies on the other, standing with Willow and Camilla.
"Does anyone know how to Waltz?" Miss Higgins asked.
Several hands shot up, namely Mikey, Julian, Fredrik, Domenico, and Aidyn.
"All right. Ladies? Please pick a partner. We are going to show everyone what we're going for."
The girls let Willow pick her partner first, and she had a huge decision to make: Mikey or Julian? How many ballroom lessons had she done with Mikey when they were kids? And how many times had she danced with Julian in high school when they were dating? She really wanted to dance with both, but to not hurt anyone's feelings, she went with Aidyn.
Lolly went with Fredrik so she could get to know him a little, Annabeth chose Mikey of course, Jaylen went with Domenico, and Nerissa went with Julian so Camilla Higgins could watch and comment to the others as they danced.
"Wow," Aidyn said, grinning, as they started dancing. "I really thought you were going to pick your best friend."
Willow shook her head. "I already know how he dances," she said. "So, I wanted someone different."
"Well, I'm honored," he replied. In the background, Camilla was explaining to the others what the dancing couples were doing, but neither Willow nor Aidyn paid her any mind.
"How's the dress coming along?" she asked. "I can't wait to see it finished."
"It's coming along," he said. "I've been working on it all yesterday afternoon, and it's starting to resemble an actual dress." He giggled. "I've actually started cutting the pieces in the teal fabric!"
"Ooh! Nice!" Willow said. "When do you think you'll be done?"
Aidyn eyed her suspiciously, their steps smooth as they danced. "Why are you so eager? If I may ask…"
"You probably know there's the Rainha Premiere fashion Show next week, and my mother suggested that I come with some of the Selected in a group date." She paused. "You'll be one of the Selected, of course, and I would have wanted to wear it. To show off your skills."
"Really?" Aidyn said. "Wow, even I couldn't have managed to get myself a ticket to the Queen's Fashion show!"
Willow smiled. "I'm really excited to see the show," she said. "My mom has been working so hard on this collection."
"Uhm, Your Highness?" Camilla said, pulling Willow and Aidyn away from their conversation. "Can we have your attention again?"
"Oh! Yes, of course!" Willow said. "Sorry, we got a little carried away, here!"
The people in the room chuckled and Aidyn winked at her as they exchanged a glance. "It'll definitely be ready for next week," he assured her, whispering so no one would hear the end of their conversation.
After watching the first five couple show off their dancing skills, she asked the five guys who knew how to dance to coach five others at the ladies picked a new partner each from the ones who still needed to learn the steps. Willow decided to try with Callan. She knew it would be a challenge since he wouldn't see the steps, but she could guide him.
"Good Morning, Highness," Cal said. "I have to warn you, I'm a terrible dancer."
"That's alright," Willow said kindly. "We're here to learn. I'm not the best teacher in the world, but I'm sure that between Mikey and me" – Mikey had chosen Cal to coach – "we can figure something out."
Cal took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this, then."
"Right," Mikey said. "So first, you want to have a good starting position. Mina is right in front of you and you'll want to put your left hand on her, uh, waist." He grabbed Cal's hand and placed it on Willow. "Like this."
"Okay, and the other?"
"I'll take it in mine," Willow said, slipping her hand in his and positioning their arms. "And I'm also going to put my other arm on your shoulder, okay?"
Cal nodded. And then Mikey went on to tell him about the steps – "One-two-three, one-two-three." – and how he was mirroring Willow's movements. It was hard and he kept stepping on her toes, but after a whole hour – and while the others had changed partners multiple times already – Callan could actually somewhat do the steps without stepping on her toes.
"That's great, Cal!" Willow said when they finally stopped for lunch. "You really improved a lot in an hour!"
Cal shrugged. "On a scale from 1 to 10, I started at 0, and I'm probably a 3 right now."
"That's still an improvement, Buddy," Mikey said, squeezing his shoulder, "and I think you deserve a break and some food, eh?"
Cal chuckled deeply and nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice." He offered his arm to Willow. "Milady?"
"Of course," she said, looping her arm in his and guiding him outside to the lunch table.
/ / /
That afternoon, half an hour after lunch, Willow went down to the kitchen to meet with the Selected she had chosen for the group date. Henry, Pierce, Abeigh, and Connor were already waiting for her with aprons around their waists and chatting with one of the cooks.
"Oh, wow," she said, joining them. "I can't believe I'm the one who's late!"
"You're not late," Henry said, smiling. "We're just early."
"Yeah, a princess is never late," Abeigh piped in. "She always arrives precisely when she means to."
Willow rolled her eyes and snorted at that. "Isn't that statement about wizards?"
Abeigh shrugged and winked. "Same thing to me. You're probably as magical as them anyway." He wiggled his eyebrows at what he was implying, but Willow didn't quite catch the comparison. Maybe her mind wasn't as twisted as his.
Connor shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Please excuse him, Highness," he said. "He's been doing sex jokes from day one."
"Yeah, I noticed," Willow said coldly. "Listen," she continued, addressing the culprit. "If you so much as utter another one of your sex jokes or sex reference, you're out. From the date and from the Selection." She paused. "Understood?"
"Yes ma'am, sorry, ma'am," he replied, saluting.
"Okay! So, now that this is taken care of, why don't we start?"
The four young men all nodded, and Willow motioned to the cook to take it from there.
"Okay… Alright, so…" the cook started. "The princess wished for you four to partake in some kind of cooking competition. You will pair up and create the best three-dish meal with three ingredients you will be picking from this box. Anything you might need will be at your disposal in the kitchen, you only have to ask."
The boys looked at each other, and Willow watched as they paired up: Pierce and Henry against Abeigh and Connor. Each team drew three ingredients from a box, each going in turn for one ingredient.
Henry and Pierce picked Thyme, French fries, and clams. Willow burst out laughing at the combination and wondered what on earth they would be able to come up with. The other team picked crabs, cucumbers, and pesto, which seemed like a more likely combination in her humble opinion.
"What about you?" Pierce said. "Aren't you going to participate as well?"
"I'll be the judge at the end," Willow replied. "But if you need help along with the cooking, I'll gladly volunteer as tribute."
"Oh! So, the stakes are high!" Henry said, laughing. "What do the winners win?"
"A date?" Connor suggested.
"A kiss?" Abeigh said. "The first kiss of the Selection!"
"Abeigh, what did I say earlier…"
"Oops, sorry! But that wasn't sex-related!" he quickly said,
"You're right, but that was close. Be careful," Willow said. Abeigh zipped his mouth shut and threw the make-believe key away, and she wondered how long he would hold without talking.
"So, shall we begin?" the cook said. "You will present your meal at dinner time and will be eating with the Princess for dinner."
"Ooh, now that's interesting," Henry said. He and Pierce quickly put their heads together to plan their meal. Willow watched the two teams come up with ideas, and not ten minutes later, they were already at work. Willow chatted with them during the afternoon, giving a hand here and there as they needed it, but it seemed like Connor and Abeigh wanted to do this all on their own, while Henry and Pierce were glad to have the Princess to help them and just to chat. She noticed that they might be more interested in spending time with her than actually winning the cooking competition.
Several hours later, at dinner time, both teams had finished their cooking and they all headed outside, where Charlie had set up a round dining table for all five of them, and that's where Willow would taste the dishes and eat with them.
Henry and Pierce's first dish was an entrée of thyme bread toast that Henry had made and that was still warm with a clam mousse on top. "Okay, so apart from the clam mousse, obviously," Henry said, "the whole meal is vegan– Except the meat in the main dish that Pierce took care of…"
"Huh, interesting," Willow said before biting into the first dish. "Oh, Gosh!" she said. "That is so good!" she enjoyed every crumb of the toast with the mousse on top and Henry and Pierce beamed. Then, she tasted the other team's entrée, which was a tzatziki sauce with some breadsticks. It was good, but it wasn't Palace-good like the other dish.
The next dish was a filet-mignon with thin and perfectly done French fries that she herself had helped to chop, with little bundles of green beans held together with string. That was divine, and unless the other team's dessert was heavenly, she already knew who was going to win this little competition. The other team had made pasta with really creamy pesto and crab sauce, but she wasn't a huge fan of the mix… the only thing that saved their dish was that the pasta was Al Dente and not overcooked.
"I don't know if I'll have enough space in my belly to eat the dessert," she said. "But I'm willing to try."
The boys laughed good-heartedly with her. "You've been eating two meals at the same time," Henry said. "We'd completely understand if you'd want to keep the dessert for some other time."
Willow smiled. "Let's maybe take a break and come back to the dessert in a little while, okay?" she suggested, and everyone was on board with that. "What do you think of a little digestive walk around the gardens?"
"That would be very welcome," Pierce said. So the four boys walked with Willow, two on each side of her; team 1 and team 2.
"Do you guys cook often?" Willow asked. "Henry, I know you're a baker, but do you like cooking, too?"
"I do, but not as much as baking– I usually eat take out, at the end of the day."
"Yeah, I can imagine being in a kitchen all day long might do that to you," Connor said.
"I see," Willow said. "Pierce? I think you have a food TV show or something?"
"Yeah!" he replied, nodding. "It's smaller than my Survival Show, but I like to introduce people to Street-Food whenever I go to a country. And I've learned a lot over the years."
"Oh yeah, I watched some of those episodes," Abeigh said. "It was kinda interesting."
"I was more into the Survivor one," Henry admitted.
"Aw, thank guys!" Pierce said laughing. "But even if you hadn't watched them, I'd still like you guys."
Willow laughed. "That's a good thing, because I don't have lots of time to watch TV or movies. But I know my little brother follows every single episode of your Survival Show."
Pierce laughed, and it was a deep belly laugh. "Yeah, he told me. At length!"
The others laughed at that, and Willow also asked Abeigh and Connor if they liked cooking in their everyday life. Abeigh admitted that he still lived with his parents so that it was his mom who did all the cooking, but if she didn't, he'd just eat take-out. Connor said he ate mostly take-out, too, but that he liked to try something new from time to time…
After walking around the gardens for some time, they went back to the table and went on to the desserts. Henry and Pierce had made the juiciest blueberry muffins, and Willow thought she would die of bliss as the berries exploded on her tongue. She may have made a guttural noise as she ate the muffin, but no one mentioned it and she hoped no one had heard. The other team had made lemon sorbet, and as much as Willow loved ice cream, lemon anything was not her favorite.
"So…" Abeigh said. "Who's the winning team, tonight?"
"Pffft," Connor Dominic Adventis said. "They're professional cooks, we're not."
Willow took a deep breath and smiled. "Well, Gentlemen, first, I'd like to thank you for being such sports on this date. I was a little afraid you wouldn't like the activity, but you dived into it with abandon, and I really appreciate it!" She looked at both teams. "So for that, you each get points. Now, let's get down to the dishes." She sat back in her chair and chose her words carefully. "Both entrées were really good, but I have to admit that I have a preference for Henry's and Pierce's bread and clam mousse."
"Obviously," Abeigh said, rolling his eyes. "He's a baker, of course, you're going to like his bread."
"Shut up, man, let her speak," Connor said, elbowing him.
"Your Tzatziki sauce was really good!" she said. "Now, for the main dish, again, the filet-mignon and the fries and green beans were amazing." She looked at Abeigh and Connor. "Though the pasta was well done, I wasn't a huge fan of the crab-pesto mix. And of course, the muffin will always win over lemon anything– sorry," she said to the other team, "but I really don't like lemon…"
"That's fair," Connor said. "We've all got our tastes and preferences…"
Abeigh burst out laughing. "For once, I wasn't the one to make a sex-related joke!"
Connor shot Abeigh a dark look. "I didn't do one," he said through gritted teeth.
They stared at each other while Willow and the two others exchanged glances. "Okay, guys? I think that's enough," she said. "Abeigh, thanks for not saying anything crude during the date, and I beg you not to say anything anymore."
Abeigh rolled his eyes. "I'll just go write fanfiction. At least I'm free, there…"
Willow snorted and stood from her chair. "Right, anyway, thank you for your participation, it was really fun!"
"What are they gonna win, then?" Abeigh asked, his arms crossed over his chest, challenging the Princess.
"I don't know," Willow said. "What would you guys want?"
Henry and Pierce shrugged. "Honestly, spending the date cooking with you was really nice, and we're not– I'm not," Henry said, "going to ask for anything else." He looked at his teammate. "Pierce?"
"Yeah, same. Honestly, it was really fun! But I don't want to force you to do anything."
"You know what? Why don't I put a picture with the winners on my Instagram? I'm sure Jesse will want to talk to you about your win on the next Report." She took out her phone from her pocket and got ready to take a selfie with them. All three of them grinned and she posted the picture on her Instagram page, tagging them both on the post: " pierce_the_wildman and theharrybaker won the best dish in the group date cooking competition! Hmmm so good!" She also added some pictures she had taken during the afternoon and a whole bunch of hashtags to go with it.
After that, they all headed to the Men's Parlor, but Abeigh and Connor went directly upstairs...
Hi! thanks for reading and reviewing! let me know what you thought about the dance lesson and of the cooking date! which guy did you like best? and least? See you next week!