Chapter 21
Poor Michelle was in a lot of trouble, she and Emily had arrived at the queen's office. Their hair was messed up, they were all red and sweety and their dresses were covered in food.
"This is all your fault!" whispered Emily crossly.
"Mine? You poured punch on me!" whispered Michelle defensively.
"I was provoked because somebody threw cupcakes all over my dress!" snapped Emily though with a bit of stammer in her voice trying to defend herself.
Dinette walked past the girls and sat down at her desk.
"Manners can be quite subjective in the royal life, can't they?" asked Dinette calmly.
"Yes, your highness" both Michelle and Emily said respectfully.
"Wrong!" snapped Dinette.
Michelle and Emily both flinched a bit, they knew Dinette was like princess Diana, but she had a strong side to her personality too. But if anyone else had been there, they probably never had seen her this angry before.
"That behavior out there in the ballroom was really unfitting to an aristocrat!" reprimanded Dinette. "I may have been born an eight, but I've had to learn the behavior a princess has! And another thing being in the lower castes we do not waste food, as if your poor it can be very hard to come by, so we have to make do!"
"I'm sorry your highness," said Emily in a bratty voice. "But Michelle here is the one who started it, she threw cupcakes on me!"
"I was sticking up for myself!" cried Michelle. "She makes fun of me at school!"
"I just wanted a cupcake!" cried Emily trying to sound innocent.
Dinette crocked her eyebrow at Emily and the look on her face telling them both that they had said enough.
Before they could say anything else, the doors burst open. Tiffany, Suzanne and Harper came racing in.
"What are you doing here?" asked Emily in surprise.
"Saving you from royal punishment" explained Harper.
"Michelle is the one who started it your highness," cried Tiffany trying to catch her breath. "She wouldn't let us have cupcakes and was bossing us around!"
Dinette looked at the quartet with suspicious looks.
"I've heard enough," she declared. "Emily as punishment for your behavior, you and your friends will be cleaning up the mess in the ballroom."
"What?!" cried Emily. "But I don't do cleaning."
"You're a four, not everybody has servants to do your jobs," said Dinette firmly. "When I was an eight, I would make a living out of doing odd jobs. So, you need to learn to do labour."
"I won't do it!" snapped Emily stomping her right foot on the ground. "Get your servants to do it. You can't tell us what to do!"
Dinette stood up.
"I am Dinette Daenerys Schreave!" she thundered. "The queen of Illea, my order is law! And if you don't, I will have you four stripped of your castes and down to eights, then maybe you can see what we eights go through everyday."
The four girls looked nervous.
"No, no your majesty!" cried Emily nervously.
"Certainty not." added Harper.
With that the four ran off.
Michelle smiled in amusement.
Dinette ushered Michelle to sit down.
"You won't be punished Michelle," she said in a motherly voice. "I understand you were sticking up for yourself."
"Yeah, Emily, Tiffany and I go back as sixth go back as sixth grade," sighed Michelle. "The quartet just loves to poke at the lower castes."
"I know how you feel," said Dinette. "It was very shocking when I got into the selection. But all the other girls in the selection were very kind and nice to me. Except for Juliana Canilla of Paloma. She was a two. She was a model who was very vain and not easy to please."
"What happened to her?" asked Michelle.
"Juliana and I were chosen as the final two," explained Dinette. She chuckled. "She looked like she was gonna explode when Taylor picked me. She ranted that I couldn't be a queen as I was an eight and that eights shouldn't be queen. Taylor threatened to have her canned if she didn't stop. She went very quiet. Sometimes I think that Taylor picked her for one of the finals so he could embarrass her on live tv."
Michelle couldn't help but giggle.
Dinette's attendants came in.
"I'd like you to meet my attendants lady Michelle," said Dinette. "This is lady Jeanne," she guided her hand to the lady with the fishtail braids. "And this is lady Starr" she guided her hand to the lady with brunette hair.
"Your Starr Kennison and Jeanne Filliagi!" exclaimed Michelle. "A book I read about Illea's history said that you two were Dinette's best friends in the selection."
Jeanne and Starr nodded.
"We were quite surprised when after Dinette was chosen as the future queen, she chose us to be her attendants" said Jeanne.
"We technically have royal status too" humored Starr.
"It was nice to meet you all" said Michelle getting up.
A little while later, James was walking with Michelle down the hall. They were both looking down at the ground.
"I'm sorry your party didn't go so well," said James. "I mean first time you really get to celebrate and a conflict with Emily ruins it."
"It's okay James, you tried." Said Michelle. "It was nice to have a real birthday party anyway."
They looked into the ballroom. The quartet were on their knees on the floor scrubbing the floor. An old woman dressed in maids' clothes was there.
"Keep going girls!" ordered the old maid firmly.
"But I'm tired!" whined Emily. The other girls didn't complain, they sort of didn't mind working on the floor.
"You're a four, act like a four!" snapped the maid. "You're not a spoiled two!"
That made Emily furious.
"If I were a princess, you'd think twice about talking to me like that!" she snapped.
"Well you're not!" snapped the maid.
"How dare you!" snapped Emily. "If I were a princess, you'd be fired right now!"
James and Michelle chuckled at the sight.
"If it were up to me," sighed James. "She'd be on the first flight back to Belcourt. But she is employed count Neilson, so there really isn't choice."
"Too bad" replied Michelle.
Just then Chloe walked up.
"Don't worry about Jemima," said Chloe.
It didn't take Michelle long to realize that Jemima was the maid that was in the ballroom supervising Emily.
"Jemima's the head maid," explained Chloe. "She may sound harsh at times, but she does have a heart of gold. She doesn't like laziness. She's gonna be retiring soon."
She then noticed Michelle's dress was all messed up.
"Come back to your room," she said. "Maci and Alexis can help you clean up and changed."
"Thanks" said Michelle.
Author's note; Wow, Dinette certainly put Emily in her place, didn't she? At least Michelle is out of trouble. Anyway that's chapter 21 done.
