Lizzy showed me the way to the sunny terrace where the luncheon was going to take place. As I walked down the hall men stopped to gawk in their usual way and women looked me up and down and walked a little straighter dragging their husbands behind them.
" Do they always do that?" Lizzy asked.
" Yeah, it doesn't vary much from land to sea." I said with a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
Just as I said this I heard shouts from down the hall and a brown haired boy came barreling my way and hid behind my dress skirts.
" Hide me!" he whimpered.
" Hayden! What on earth…" I said, just as a very red-faced cook came towards me with what looked to be tomato sauce down the front of his pristinely white shirt.
" It wasn't my fault! Really I didn't mean to knock it over it slipped and I…"he said out of breath.
" Sir?" I asked. " What is the meaning of this?"
"Zis lil' brat came running into me az I waz carrying a big zing of tomato zauce!" he said all of this with a heavy Italian accent. "Ah vhole dayz work iz ruined! Ruined I zay!"
" Hayden? What did you do that is making this man so angry?" I asked nicely.
" Well see I was playing tag with my friend and Gregorio came with the tomato sauce and I couldn't stop in time and it all spilled everywhere!" he said looking at me desperately.
"Well I'm sure we can work this out in a way that would be best for all of us," I said this looking at Gregorio.
Gregorio looked at me through narrowed eyes. " He vill have to vipe up z mezz." He said still looking directly at me.
" I'm sure that can be arranged." I said, " Right Hayden?"
" I guess," he said looking at me with those chocolate pudding eyes.
" Know what Hayden? I'm sure you can wait till after lunch to wipe it up and if you wait, I'll help you." I said with a wink.
" Really?" he said. Suddenly a little excited. " You would do that?"
" You bet I would for you kiddo!" I said with a smile.
" Speaking of lunch," said Lizzy. " We are almost certainly going to be late!"
So with that the crowd dispersed and we were back on our way to the terrace. Hayden followed a step behind me all the way there. When we finally reached the terrace, everyone was waiting for us so they could begin eating.
" Sorry we are so late." I said. " See we were on our way there when we met up with Hayden." I then told the whole story to the crowd of awaiting people.
When I had finished many were smiling, some were a little horrified, and one girl looked plain disgusted. This girl had blonde hair. Not just blonde hair, not a dish water sort of blonde, oh no this girl had platinum bleach blonde locks that clashed very horribly with her skin tone. She had gray eyes that reminded me of storm clouds and a hooknose with long nostrils. She was wearing a dress the color of pepto bismal. Usually I'm not one to judge but this girl looked like a b.i.t.c.h. That's right it was almost like she had bitch scrawled acrossed her forehead or something!
Just as I was headed towards the other direction she came up to me and stuck a long fingered hand at me and said in a fake cheerleader voice. " Hi! I'm Candace! But you can call me Candy!"
I cringed and looked at her "Skylar." I said as nice as possible ignoring the hand she offered and headed to a seat at the table. This was going to be one interesting lunch I thought.
Boy was I right! Candace sat right next to a very unhappy Devin who looked like he wanted to drown in his soup every time she started rambling on about some stupid subject like dress colors, and jeweled hair pins: take them or leave them? Just as I thought he was going to strangle himself with his napkin someone at the table asked me,
" Where are you from gorgeous?" Ohhh man this guy had really done it now! I was about to punch his lights out when,
Devin responded, " She is from the far away kingdom of Adobo."
I thought I was going to snort up my soup! Adobo! HAHAHA! Where the hell did he get that name from?
The same man that said the rude comment looked at me and said, "Is the weather nice this time of year?" Like he actually believed him! Wow! What a dipstick!
" Oh," I said with false enthusiasm, " it is just gorgeous!" He just nodded his head knowingly, like Adobo actually exists! Stupid man!
Another man piped up and asked, "Where is Adobo?" So this one was a wee bit smarter ehh? "I've never been there?" Not as smart as I thought apparently!
" Oh, it is an island off the coast of Brazil. White sand beaches, palm trees, all sorts of exotic things!" I said with the smallest hint of a smile.
Devin looked at me with a hint of laughter in his granite like gaze. " She has come for the birthday celebration in August for Hayden." Some people looked at him funny, and no wonder! It was only early June! "See," he continued. " The sailing gets far too ruff in the Atlantic in July and early August so she came a few months early." Damn he was good!
Everyone nodded knowingly to his comment and started to eat their soup once more. After a few more words were said people started to walk back to the castle until me Candace, Devin, and Hayden were left.
Hayden looked at me and said, "I'll meet you in the kitchen so we can start cleaning." And left.
Candace then got up and said, "Well dear, I'll see you when we go riding tomorrow afternoon." Then she threw a cold look at me and said, "Have fun cleaning up the tomato sauce!" and then she was gone, leaving Devin and I to fill the silence.
I grinned at Devin and said, " I'm going to have to go and help Hayden." And then I remembered, "Have fun riding with Candy." I put major emphasis on the last word.
He looked at me and said, " Oh, I was going to invite you too so you can get to know Candace better."
" Sure I'll go." I said. " If only to keep you from hanging yourself on a nearby tree!"
With that I was out the door, into the castle, changed, and on my way to help Hayden.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
I am really sorry about my last chapter! Some of the stuff that was suppose to be bold wasn't and my separation didn't work so it was all jumbled together. Again extremely sorry but please keep reading! Oh and I now have stuff on my homepage so you can learn more about the uber-fabulous ME! And there is a new summary since my other one got cut off!
NOW TO MY LOVELY REVIEWERS!
Trillian225: Sorry my first person, second person est. isn't very good!
Monkeys-and-bananas76: Oh yeah totally fooled, my heart stopped there for a moment…
Oc-crazy: Thank you my loyal reviewer! I'll try to update more often!
Druantia: Sorry you were confused! That's ok if you are going through an identity crisis! We love you anyway!
Lulia: Hey! Thank you for reviewing! I LOVE YOU! Hahahahahahaha! Thank you for the suggestions and I will definitely have lots of little dark secrets! The number thing I will also try!