Although they were tired from lugging around the golf-clubs all day, Ben and Jay still managed to make themselves look presentable for dinner. Mal looked especially formal with her purple business-like dress with a 'splash' of blue to give it more color. Evie had to be the most fashionable with her knee-length dress that was the same color as her new royal blue hair, who also had a simple gold tiara resting on her head.
To dispel the awkward tension in the air, Evie and Jay gave Carlos his gifts from them when they had finished eating. The newest member of the Rose family couldn't have been happier about receiving a new collar and leash for Dude—from Jay—and the new leather jacket with a matching sweater for Dude from Evie. As for Audrey's gift . . .
Carlos's jaw dropped at seeing what was inside the plain white envelope. "No way!" he exclaimed in excitement. "Bad Apple tickets and backstage passes?! I've been trying for months to get these!"
"And Bad Apple is . . . ?" Ben trailed off, hoping to get an answer.
"A band that had formed at Dragon Hall when it was still an operating school," Mal informed. "Carlos's cousin, Diego de Vil, created the band and it became famous after they graduated."
"They're my favorite band!" Carlos added with an extremely large smile. "I've been wanting to see their concert forever, but they're always sold out and tickets are so expensive! How did you manage to get these, Audrey?"
"Worked extra shifts without you knowing," Audrey revealed, shrugging nonchalantly. "First, I was just buying the tickets, but I had to call the show organizers about you bringing Dude to the concert. They directed me to the band's manager, and when I mentioned your name, Diego got on the line. We talked for a few minutes and he arranged to send the passes as a gift from him."
Pausing for just a moment, Audrey's smile turned just a little mischievous while also teasing. "You know . . ." Audrey began as her smile grew. "There are two tickets. I'm sure if you ask, Jane will go with you as a date."
Carlos raised a curious eyebrow. "Are you trying to meddle?"
"No, I'm just encouraging you to man up, so you'll ask her out already," Audrey teased. "Jane's birthday is around the time that the concert takes place. She'll most likely say 'yes' if you say the concert is your birthday gift to her. You better ask her now while she has a break."
With a slight grumble of appreciation, Carlos momentarily excused himself as he made his way over to Jane, sitting next to her on the piano bench while she was looking through her sheet music. Within a handful of seconds, Jane practically squealed her answer, as the Bad Apples were one of her favorite bands as well.
During their conversation, Jane suddenly perked up at remembering something. Riffling through her papers at her piano, she gave Carlos a music sheet for the song planned for the Talent Show.
" 'You and Me'?" Carlos read once he returned to the dinner table. Flipping through the sheets to read the lyrics, he questioned, "Have you started practicing yet?"
"We were waiting to hear from you first," Evie claimed with a small shrug. "We couldn't figure out who would sing what part without you. Besides, someone has to create the choreography, and it wasn't going to be any of us."
"I definitely see some potential here." Scanning through the pages once more, Carlos acknowledged, "I think for this song, all of us will need a dance partner. Mal and Ben will be partners and leads, obviously. Evie, you can have Doug be your dance partner while Jay and I try to find someone. Maybe Lonnie and Jane would join us since they are some of the better dancers in school, next to us Dragon Hall kids."
"Why don't we discuss it later?" Philip suggested as a knowing smile graced his lips. "After all, it's time for your birthday dessert."
As if on cue, Mal 'magically' appeared from the kitchen area, holding a bone-shaped, black-and-white color cake with candles in the center. Carlos excitedly jumped out of his seats at seeing the dessert. "Is that—!"
"Your favorite cake," Mal confirmed, smiling at his reaction. "My 'famous' checker-board cake with chocolate peanut-butter cup filling and butter-cream frosting. I thought you'd enjoy some of my baking for your birthday after years without it."
"Heck ya!" Carlos shouted, giving Mal a side hug so he wouldn't bump into the cake. "This is the best birthday ever!"
But, of course, all good things have to come an end eventually.
After nearly all the dinner guests finished eating their slice of the homemade cake, some 'uninvited' guests made their way to the table. "Well, well," a woman's voice greeted. "I'm surprised we didn't receive an invitation to this . . . occasion."
Nearly half the table tensed at hearing the unexpected visitor, though most were worried about a certain person. Underneath the table, Ben reached out to Mal, squeezing her hand in reassurance that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. Tension eased from her shoulders, but Mal still kept her guard up, just in case it.
"We didn't think you were interested," Aurora commented with a frown gracing her delicate, beautiful face. "Neither one of you seemed too keen on celebrating our son's birthday this morning. If you truly changed your perspective, then please, be our guest. Otherwise, you are unwelcomed."
Raising a challenging eyebrow at her daughter, Leah boldly took a seat at the table, across from an internally stressful Mal. Stefan pulled a chair up to the table, settling himself across from Ben. "You know, Mr. Adams, I hadn't realized you were Maurice's grandson," he offhandedly mentioned. "Now we can have conversations concerning your future."
Ben snarled his nose in confusion. "My . . . future? Why?"
"My father-in-law and I are board of directors at the University of Auradon," Philip informed with a careless shrug. "There's a Tourney program at U of A for freshman, but I didn't mention it before because you mentioned not—"
"Wanting to get your hopes up?" Leah arrogantly assumed. "Don't worry. Between my son-in-law and husband, they pull some weight at the school. You know, it's never too soon to be thinking about your future, especially since U of A has such an excellent scholarship program."
"For now, I just want to think about spending the summer with my girlfriend," Ben retorted as he stood from the table, pulling Mal up with him as he did so. "In fact, we are late for our date, so, if you'll excuse us. . ."
A few minutes later when they changed into appropriate swim-suits—Ben in royal blue swim trunks and Mal in a purple one-piece with black swim shorts—the two made their way to the vacant swimming pool, which seemed to glow from the light of the moon and the stars. Ben waded into the water first before he helped his girlfriend in.
Well . . . more like tried.
As Ben reached out to the side of the pool, Mal took a few steps back before she burst forward, jumping into the water and completely soaking Ben with a giant splash! When she came up from under the water, she laughed at her boyfriend's shocked expression.
"Uma taught me how to swim after you went back to caddying," Mal informed with a teasing smile. "I wanted to surprise you, so you didn't spend an entire date trying to teach me. Did it work? Did I surprise you?"
"Absolutely," he admitted with a small, sheepish smile. However, his smile slowly turned mischievous as he took his time to announce, "But not as surprising as this!"
At his exclamation, Ben splashed his girlfriend with a giant wave of water. Within a split second, the couple found themselves in the middle of a massive water fight! Water splashed everywhere, soaking the couple even more than they already were.
Once they found themselves exhausted due to their fun, they swam to the side of the pool to rest a few moments. Together, they floated in the semi-shallow water as they gazed up at the stars, enjoying the beautiful night and each other's presence.
"You know . . ." Ben began, adverting his gaze to the gorgeous girl next to him. "Right now, with you . . . it's finally starting to feel like summer, but . . . also like a fairy tale come true."
Mal giggled softly at the comparison. "Yeah," she agreed with a loving smile. "I know exactly what you mean." Resting a hand on her beloved's cheek, she cooed ever so sweetly, "I love you, my king."
Leaning forward for a kiss, completely transfixed by his beloved's beauty, Ben mumbled, "And I love you, my—"
"Well, well," interrupted a gruff voice with a tsk in his tone. "How unfortunate, the water bugs are back."
Ben and Mal whirled around just as a flashlight's beam were directed at them. As though they were in trouble, they hurriedly climbed out of the pool to speak to the man properly, grabbing towels to wrap around their shivering bodies.
"Mr. Rose, this was my idea," Ben claimed in a vain attempt to keep his girlfriend from being blamed. "I was the one that suggested the date to her. I asked Aurora to use the pool after hours."
"I heard you received permission for yourself, but I heard nothing about approval for Miss Fae." Stefan vehemently glared at Mal in contempt. "First the golf-course jaunt, and now this. This is your second strike. Don't get a third!"
The next morning, Ben arrived nearly half an hour late to work, having over-slept that morning. His parents weren't home since they left the night before for a three-day cruise, so Ben had to call around for a last-minute ride, something he was supposed to find yesterday. All the friends he worked with were already almost to the country club. Luckily, Mal made a suggestion—
Which resulted in a car ride with his girlfriend's father.
Surprisingly, the conversation between the two was quite pleasant. Hades told of the adventures him and his brothers went on across the world, before his youngest brother decided to create their family business. Ben was completely in awe at hearing such incredible tales, but Hades had only begun a long list he could have shared. So the storytelling could be continued, Hades offered to drive him and Mal for the duration of his parents' trip and even after they returned until the summer ended.
Although the teenager cheered up with the information, Ben still turned into a bundle of worried nerves when he ran through the resort to get to the kitchen as quick as he could.
Grabbing his waiter's jacket, Ben hurriedly buttoned it up just as Stefan appeared before him.
"I'm so sorry I'm late, Mr. Rose," Ben quickly apologized as he finished fixing his uniform. "I have no good excuse for it. And as for the pool thing last night, you can't blame Mal. I'm the one resp—"
"I'm promoting you."
Blinking in uncertainty, Ben couldn't help questioning, "Excuse me?"
Stefan cracked a tiny smile, as though that would squash any doubt he had. "There is an opening as junior golf instructor. Salaried job, no clocking in, five hundred dollars per week. You start immediately."
Too stunned to speak, Ben reluctantly followed the country club manager out of the kitchen, who listed off his new duties as they walked. Within a few minutes, they arrived at a door with a sign that read: MEN'S LOCKER ROOM—MEMBERS ONLY. Inside seemed pretty nice, but Ben didn't really care at the moment as he had a more pressing concern.
"Sir, I don't think I'm qualified," Ben protested earnestly. "I never played golf before. I don't know the rules or even how to play."
Stefan sighed exasperatedly. "All you have to do is show the children which end of the club to hold, tee up a ball, then move out of the way. Although I have yet to inform my daughter, I have extended membership privileges to you for the summer. You have full use of club facilities. So be prudent, and"—he gestured to a locker with Ben's name on it—"congratulations."
Ben gazed at the locker for a moment longer before he eyes the manager suspiciously. "Out of everyone that works here, why me? I can think of a few employees that are much more deserving than me."
Stefan Rose raised one eyebrow. "Young man, the future is a big place. I want you to see the benefits of working at this establishment and the many connections my wife and I have that can grant you a bright future, all thanks to us."
Ben absentmindedly nodded to please the older gentleman, but he couldn't think that he had some sort of alternative motive—
As every tyrant king did.
About four days later, the workday had finally ended when most of the employees changed out of their uniform into their workout gear. With the club talent show taking place in just a few more days, those workers, that wanted too, spend at least an hour after their scheduled hours to practice the dance part of the number. Right now, it was just the matter of finalizing performers' positions to make sure no one would bump into each other when they would split off in pairs or come together as a big group. But, sadly, there had been some setbacks—
Considering Ben hasn't been able to attend every session.
With his new and sudden promotion, Ben's schedule hasn't allowed him much time to rehearse with his friends and classmates. He remembered his parts in the song, but couldn't quite get the dance. When they would have a few spare minutes before the drive to work, Ben and Mal would practice certain steps to help with his memory.
But as of now, Ben begrudgingly waited outside at the back of the kitchen for his ride to arrive. Stefan and Leah had arranged for him to participate in a scrimmage with U of A's Tourney team, so he could become familiar with the people he would 'potentially' be playing with when he graduates. Ben wanted to say he wanted to say he wasn't interested in the match, but 'somebody' had agreed for him.
Sneaking up behind Ben, his beloved wrapped an arm around his waist as she laid her head on his shoulder in a way to comfort him. "You're exhausted," Mal bluntly informed. "There's no way you'll be able to do your best. You should try to cancel so you can rest."
"I can't cancel," Ben insisted with a reluctant sigh. "Dad's making me go, remember? He's going to be watching with Philip and the college coaches. This scrimmage is just another punishment since he found out I'm doing the talent show. If I don't do my best today, he'll force me to practice for the rest of the summer during my free time. We will never have any free time together."
"With the exception of work," Mal teased to brighten up her boyfriend's attitude.
"I hate my job," Ben suddenly admitted, on the verge of a full-on rant. "Sure, the pay is good, but I have no idea what I'm doing, and it feels like I'm babysitting a bunch of spoiled kids. I hardly get to see you or our friends and every decision I want to make is being made for me. Did you hear Leah suggested Audrey and I do a duet for the talent show?"
"Carlos told us at lunch," Mal claimed, her tone suggesting her annoyance. "He said Audrey told off their grandmother for mentioning the idea when Leah knew Audrey's full performance rehearsal is tomorrow. Audrey is excited to finally perform on her own and claimed she would quit if her only option was a forced duet."
"I want to quit," Ben confessed all too easily. "I'm not going to because I don't want you to face the repercussion, and everyone has already put so much effort and hard work into the show. I just can't see why I'm being given the special treatment. Why me?"
"Think about it," Mal instructed. After giving her boyfriend a moment to do so, she explained, "This started when he discovered your grandfather is Maurice. He knows your grandfather has some sort of money since he is a retired professor and now makes a living as a successful artist; Audrey must have mentioned Maurice's donations to the school's drama department as well. Stefan and Leah are 'bribing' you with all these luxuries so you can tell your grandfather about their family's 'generosity' so . . ."
Ben glumly nodded in understand. "So he'll consider buying the resort."
