Sorry it's been so long since an update everyone. Hopefully, you will all enjoy the read and thank you for those are still sticking with this story and leaving me amazing feedback.

"I think you got it, Sofia. Now, let's try it one more time on that apple over there," Cedric said, pointing to an apple on the table next to the door.

"Okay, Telistio above," Sofia said confidently just when Amber came barging in. "Oh, Sofia I hope I'm not interrupting you-" but before she could finish the teleportation spell hit her.

Sofia and Cedric gasped as Amber disappeared.

"Oh, no!" Sofia yelped, worried she made her sister disappear forever, when she heard a piercing screech come from above her and Cedric and just as she looked slightly up Amber fell directly on top of Cedric.

Cedric groaned as Amber huffed while trying to get off of Cedric's back. She glared at her sister. "Sofia, you are the one that's supposed to be on top of Cedric. Not me!"

"The feelings are mutual," Cedric said bitterly, trying to get himself up off the ground.

Sofia blushed at Amber's comment. "I'm sorry, Amber, but you walked right in front of my teleportation spell. At least I know it's good enough to work on people now though," she added, giving a cheeky smile.

Amber rolled her eyes, dusted off her dress. "Whatever. Now, why I came in here is to tell you that we have to plan for the annual Royal Ball that's happening next week. We just got word that Enchancia will be hosting it and it just has to be perfect."

Sofia smiled at her sister and asked, "And that couldn't have waited another thirty minutes when my lesson would be over?"

"Well…no. I am happy to see that you guys still have your clothes on though. I was worried with the gown I put you in that I would be walking in on a rather indecent scene to be viewed by anyone else other than the couple, well, you know, doing THAT," she stated bluntly.

Cedric and Sofia blushed a deep red but said nothing to her comment.

"Anyway, I will hear all about that later. In the meantime, I must steal my sister away from you, Cedric. You can see her tomorrow. Bye, bye." She then turned to Sofia, "I will give you a minute to say your goodbyes to your lover. I will be waiting downstairs so make it quick." She walked out and down the stairs.

Sofia gave cedric a sweet smile, walked up to him and put her hand gently on his cheek. She stared into his eyes and he said, "I will see you tomorrow, alright?"

She gave him a quick peck on the lips, "Of course. Oh, and can you work a spell real quick to change my clothes into my normal dress?"

Cedric raised an eyebrow and asked, "I taught you that spell a long time ago. It's such a simple spell, how could you have forgotten it?"

Sofia laughed nervously. "Well, uh, you see, I kind of don't remember a handful of your lessons, because I got side tracked by…you."

Cedric just stood there unsure if he should feel flattered or scold the girl for not listening but he decided it was best to just take it as a compliment. With that, he waved his wand changing her into her usual attire.

"Thanks, Cedric!" she exclaimed as she twirled a few times in one of her everyday dresses.

Cedric admired her as she spun. She stopped and gave Cedric a quick peck on the lips. Then she giggled and walked out the door heading down the stairs.

She faintly heard her royal sorcerer call down to her, "Don't be late." She gave an even bigger smile as she approached Amber who was examining her nails while holding her fan neatly upright.

"Ready?" Amber asked as she swiftly put her fan away in her pocket the seamstress designed in the dresses.

"Ready."

"Good, cause I have a ton of things we must accomplish before this extravagant event."

Sofia just kept on smiling. She couldn't be happier she thought. Unfortunately every bright day has its few gloomy clouds.

Amber strolled around with her sister talking about color pallets and where she should hang what in the ballroom. Sofia just conjured up a notepad and pencil and wrote down all she said. She knew most people would think Amber was taking advantage of her but she knew better that this was just the way she could help Amber. Also, this was going to be one of her future duties as main chancellor to future queen Amber. Sofia was so lost in trying to write down notes that she bumped into her sister who suddenly stopped in the middle of the dance floor.

She looked up from her notepad and asked her sister, "Why did you stop?"

Amber beamed at her. "Can't you picture it now? Me and you elegantly walk down the stairs and once we get to the bottom, we get a fresh pick at whichever prince we want for a first dance."

Amber started to twirl aimlessly as Sofia lowered her notepad and gave a sad smile.

Right, I can't pick Cedric for my first dance, Sofia thought, feeling her joy dwindle away.

Amber stopped spinning to notice Sofia's sad demeanor. "Sofia, what's wrong?" she said quickly, hurrying over to her sister.

Sofia said solemnly, "I don't want my first dance to be with a prince. I want Cedric. To have him glide me across the dance floor without a care in the world. It would be marvelous."

"Sofia, cheer up. Don't worry, we'll figure out something. Just give me a minute to think."

"Come on, Amber. You know I can't just announce to everyone I want Cedric to be my dance partner. Even I know there is a strong class difference that never allows workers and royals to intertwine together."

"That's it!"

Sofia looked at her sister confused. "What's it?"

Amber grabbed her sister's shoulder. "That's it. We can throw the social ladder out the window. It will definitely be the ball of the century that no one will forget."

"I'm still not following," Sofia said, confused.

"Just come with me. We need to also grab James for this to work," she said, grabbing Sofia's wrist and pulling her off to James' room. On the way, they saw Baileywick and Amber asked if they could have their parents join them in the meeting room. He agreed happily and they continued on to James' room.

Once there, Amber banged on James' door. "James, come out here. Sofia and I need your help!"

James opened the door. "Yeesh, you don't have to bang so loud. I was only looking over some books."

"Well, you never know with you. Now, come with us. I have an idea for the ball that will make us all happy," Amber said as she started to head off to the meeting room.

"You know what she's talking about, Sof?" James asked.

Sofia just shrugged and they both hurried off to catch up to Amber.

"Amber, you want to let us in on what your plan is for this ball?" Sofia said as they reached the meeting door.

"You'll see. Just back up whatever I say. Trust me when I say it will make both of you ecstatic."

"Okay," James and Sofia said in unison and walked into the room behind Amber.

Their parents smiled at them, already sitting in their assigned chairs.

The teens gave their respected bow to their parents.

Amber, not waiting for pleasantries, announced to her parents, "I just had a marvelous idea for the ball but I must make sure everyone is okay with it and when I mean everyone, I precisely mean you, Mom and Dad."

Their parents smiled as per usual considering this wasn't the first time Amber adjourned everyone to the meeting room to announce her amazing ideas.

"What is it, Amber?" Meranda asked.

"Well, you all know how I like to go big and make our Royal Balls the best and most talked about, so I came up with an idea that will definitely be talked about for ages."

"And that would be?" Roland asked.

"Okay, so I'm going to break the social boundaries of classes. The royal ball won't just be Royals but commoners and servants alike. We will invite a select number of commoners, maybe through a lottery system and then all our wonderful servants, cooks, and high status people working in your castle, Daddy, will be invited. And before you ask who would take care of serving the ball guests, we could hire local commoners who business is catering. That way we are also helping out the people in our kingdom while throwing the best ball in history."

"I think that's a wonderful idea, honey," Mrianda said, quite pleased and impressed with her eldest daughter.

"Now, hold on a second. Are you sure this is the proper way of doing things? This could cause backlash with certain kingdoms that oppose the breaking of social barriers," Roland explained.

"Daddy, this is our ball. Like every other country, we are allowed to do what we want. If they feel uncomfortable with the point of it, they don't have to attend. Besides, many of the bigger nations are actually very proactive in the movement of ridding social boundaries."

"I guess it wouldn't be all that bad," Roland said, still chewing on the idea Amber brought up.

"Yes, it will be great, and to make it even better James, Sofia, and I will be having our first dance with one person from each social class. I will, of course, be picking my first dance with a prince. James can have his first dance with a commoner, like maybe Ruby."

James' face lit up at the mention that he could dance with his long time crush Ruby and not some princess.

"And, of course, Sofia can dance with her long time mentor Cedric." Sofia broke out in a huge smile and if she wasn't in front of her parents, she would have cried in joy that her dream of dancing with Cedric at a ball was finally going to come true.

"Now, wait a second, Amber. I know you want to break boundaries but I don't think it's right for you to pick who your siblings will be dancing with," Roland said sternly.

"Oh, but I didn't, Daddy. They are both totally fine with who I said they would be dancing with. Right, guys?" Amber started looking over towards James and Sofia.

"I'm cool with it, Dad. I'm actually looking forward to it," James announced, pleased with his sister's idea.

"I'm also very happy with the idea. I think the concept of the ball is amazing, and I would be honored to dance with Cedric as he did a lot to help me with my magic," Sofia voiced looking at her parents. She noticed a small smirk on her mother's face that made her a little on edge. Did mom find out about me and Cedric dating? No she couldn't have, no one has been around. Sofia thought.

She couldn't dwell on it anymore as her dad said, "Well, I guess if they're okay with it and it would be a nice change of pace."

"Of course, it would be, Daddy. It will make everyone happy and maybe even bring more joy and excitement to the kingdom. We'll have to figure out the lottery system. Maybe two people from each town along with one guest they may want to bring?"

"I'm sure a drawing should suffice for the town's people," Roland said, thinking over an exact way it could work.

"Well, maybe I can meet up with you later, Daddy, to discuss more on how to go about it. I'm sure Baileywick would have a few ways to come up with it," Amber said, looking over at Baileywick, who was waiting near her father in case he needed something.

"There are a few ways I know of that may work," Baileywick added, figuring that was his que to talk.

"Great. Oh, I just thought of an amazing idea for the invitations. Once the winner is picked, we could have Cedric put an enchantment on the invitation to make it even more spectacular. We must talk to him about it." She started to turn to leave but quickly turned back around to give a proper thanks to her parents. She then mentioned she'll meet with them in a bit to finish final logistics. With that done she waved to James and Sofia to follow, which they did.

Once they were far enough away from the meeting room, Sofia gave Amber a big hug. "Oh, thank you, Amber, for coming up with a great idea!"

"It's nothing really. I mean, I totally understand wanting your first dance to be with your boyfriend. I personally can't wait to have a dance with-"

She couldn't finish her statement as Sofia angrily yelled, "Amber!"

"What?" Amber asked, confused and Sofia pointed to a wide eyed James. Amber racked her brain trying to figure out what was wrong when it hit her. She gasped and hurriedly said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Sofia! I didn't mean to tell James about you dating Cedric! It just kind of slipped out."

Sofia facepalmed as Amber just realized she had now confirmed with it a doubt that Sofia was dating Cedric.

"James, you must not say anything about this. You got it?" Amber said, sternly pointing her finger at James.

James just smiled, "Hey, relax, I'm not going to say anything to anyone."

"Really?" Sofia asked, feeling more relieved by the second.

"Yeah, besides I'm glad you got together with him. I know you have been pining over him for years, so that's great to hear."

"Wait, how did you know I loved him?"

"Come on, Sof, I'm your big brother. Of course, I see how you look up at him with hearts in your eyes. It's not that hard to tell."

"It is?! Oh, God, who else knows. We just got together yesterday. What if people start asking questions? Cedric was already on edge with Amber knowing but if more people know. What if they try and pull us away? What if they lock Cedric up and accuse him of putting a spell on me like Amber did? What if-"

James halted Sofia's small panic attack by grabbing her shoulders and saying, "Sofia, calm down. Breathe. No one else knows. The only reason I know you love him is because I'm with you all the time and when you're with him."

Sofia, hearing her brother's words, slowed her breathing. "So, no one else knows I'm in love with him?"

"Not that I can tell. The only one who I suspect probably also knows you have a crush on him is mom, but that's mom for you."

"You don't think she knows we are dating?" Sofia asked unsure.

"I don't think so, she just probably thinks you have a crush on him."

"Oh, thank God!" Sofia exclaimed.

"Well, now that that's handled. Let's go see your man so I can talk to him about invitations," Amber said.

"Yeah, then I can give him my blessing," James joked.

Sofia grimaced thinking about Cedric's reaction when realizing another person knows. As they walked, Sofia asked, "Hey, James, why are you okay with me dating Cedric? I mean, when Amber found out she basically had a heart attack."

James laughed at how dramatic Amber must have been. "Why wouldn't I be okay with you guys dating. I don't know another person that's not family who would easily give up their own life for you in an instant. Also, it's an open secret with everyone in the castle that Cedric would do anything you asked of him. Why do you think most of us go through you when we need a favor of him?"

Sofia abruptly stops moving as James finishes speaking. Both siblings turn to her wondering what's up?

"You all use me to get Cedric to do stuff for you," Sofia growled.

James laughed sheepishly while rubbing the back of his neck. "Well you see, um, Cedric he's not the easiest to talk to or ask stuff of and usually it's hard to get him to say yes. However, he'll never turn you down so it's just, uh, easier to go through you."

Sofia was now fuming at her brother's reasoning. "How dare you and everyone else use Cedric and I like that?! Do you guys all have no shame?"

Amber replied, "I would never use you to get to Cedric. It's much easier to tell him directly since he can't really refuse me anyway. Why would I ever need to go through you?"

"She's right, Sofia. Amber and Dad are probably the only two who don't go through you. Well, and Baileywick."

"I can't believe there's only three people in this entire castle that don't do that to me and Cedric. All those tasks I asked on behalf of other people and coaxed Cedric into doing were because no one had the gall to ask him themself? That's just horrendous," Sofia cried out, stomping her foot in anger.

"Look Sof, I'm sorry. I really am. I promise I will never do that to you guys again. Knight's honor. I swear."

Sofia glared at her brother. "You better not and I promise to never be so gullible to let people use me and Cedric again. If anyone wants something from Cedric they can go directly to him and you can relay that message to the whole castle." Sofia felt a little better after her declaration, moved past her brother, and continued to Cedric's tower. The twins followed behind her, figuring it's best to let her simmer down before they talk again.

Once at the tower, Sofia felt much calmer and knocked at the door. Not a second went by as she heard a vial break. "Poseidon's pumpkins," she heard a man yell on the other side of the door. Sofia winced knowing it was her fault as they all waited a few more seconds. The door flew open and an angry, ash-covered Cedric stood in front of them. He opened his mouth to yell at the person who dared interrupt him but it died on his tongue when he saw his princess giving him worried eyes.

"Sofia, I didn't-"

"Cedric, are you okay?" she asked, pulling out a handkerchief she had in her dress pocket. She then started to wipe the ash off his face as he blushed at her gesture. His eyes drifted past her noticing the two twins looking bemused at the couple in front of them, making Cedric quickly pull away from Sofia.

"Sofia, what are y-you...uh...umm..."

Sofia, understanding his worry, said, "It's okay. May we come in?"

He nodded and stepped back to let them all in. Once in, he closed the door and turned to say something when James gave him a happy pat on his shoulder. Cedric looked at him clearly confused at his gesture.

"I'm so happy for you two! If anyone should be with Sofia, it's you. "

Cedric's eyes widened as he looked between the adolescents.

Sofia, knowing he wanted an answer, sighed. "You see, Amber accidentally let it slip to James that we were now courting."

Cedric gave a forced laugh and bore holes into an Amber's face. She fidgeted under his gaze. Though never been one to fear Cedric, she now felt a surge of anxiety at the look he gave her. Not liking his menacing glare ,she averted her eyes to the floor.

"Don't worry, Cedric, I'm not loose-lipped like my sister. I won't say a word to anyone. I also give you my blessing. Not that you need mine but just wanted to let you know I fully support you, too."

Cedric gave a small smile at that and nodded his head in acknowledgement. He turned back to Sofia, noticing she was moving, bouncing a little in excitement.

"Okay, what's got you so happy?" Cedric asked with a raised brow.

Sofia's smile exploded as she practically jumped into giving him a hug. He caught her tightly and blushed red from the onlookers. Sofia further snuggled into his chest making his temperature rise and eyes go wide.

"Uh, Sofia, could you, uh...uh..."

Sofia, picking up on Cedric's discomfort, quickly pulled away and gave a small bow in apology.

"Sorry, Cedric, I'm just so happy! You see, Amber made it so you could be my first dance at the upcoming ball!" Sofia practically screamed in excitement.

Cedric stood still, not sure how to process that news.

"Consider it my apology for spilling your secret. I also couldn't handle seeing my sister so depressed. She really does love you."

Cedric gave a genuine smile and turned to Sofia saying, "As do I love her."

Sofia bit her lip and clasped her hands behind her back to keep from pouncing on Cedric again. Sofia thought everything was starting to look up. I get to dance with MY sorcerer and no one would question it. Though I still worry about the new foreigners that were introduced to our school from lands much further away. I am actually shocked they joined considering the commute time but I guess you do what you must for the kingdom you live in. That right there alone made her heart sink. What if the kingdom disapproves of Cedric. But then again, they approved of her mother and if you go by social status, Cedric is of higher status. They will be fine with him, right?

She was brought out of her thoughts as she heard Cedric groan in irritation. She saw him nodding his head unenthusiastically as Amber listed off all the things she wanted for the invitations. Sofia smiled at the scene in front of her and thought everything would work out.

So what did you guys think? Sorry, no real lemon goodness in this chapter. I will definitely try to add some next chapter. Any constructive feedback and ideas would be much appreciated. Not exactly sure on where this story is going, but I will definitely continue it. Again, though, ideas would be most helpful. Have a great night/day and thanks for reading.