I was pissed. Royally pissed off, totally POed – whatever you wanted to call it, I was pissed, I was mad.

What did that man have against me? Sure, the first time I knocked into him it was a complete accident, but he gave me a look like I was happy to get a second glance from him – and then he stalked off. Yeah, yeah, I know, he said sorry, but an 'are you alright? Oh my, I must get you some medical attention!' would've won him a lot more points. Those points, however, were slowly being subtracted. So after knocking into me he looks seriously pissed to see me again at the castle thing. He argued with Jane and then this girl, Margherite, over taking me to the castle and then about taking me away from the castle. I felt as if I was some type of nuisance that no one wanted, a little pest brother who would follow older siblings around.

Margherite had suddenly stopped walking and then started to stare me down. "If you have any common sense you'll be able to get back." She paused and shoved her nose in the air, as if she'd been holding her breath the whole time. Once again she glared before turning on her heel and muttering something barely audible that I didn't catch.

"Wonderful," I glanced back at Margherite who seemed to be enjoying my obvious dislike for her.

"And tell Alec I didn't do anything to you," she barely even raised her voice as I walked away, though I could tell that there was uncertainty in her normally cocky tone, as if... was she afraid of Alec? Oh, that would've been wonderful, but I had no idea if it could possibly be true or not.

I would've rolled my eyes but I felt her eyes glaring holes in the back of my head, so I moved on seamlessly, not daring to look back. It was almost as if I knew where I was going, where and when.

When was the word that rang in my mind. When was lunch? I knew that I was supposed to meet Natalina at three or two or something but this time change made me nauseous – I needed food.

"Ugh," I grunted with terrible timing. I was just about out of the whole Volterra castle thing when I saw two incredibly buff men standing at what looked like a guard station. I heard a few words of Italian thrown around until they started to speak English. I'm sure that my confused expression showed them just how much Italian I knew.

"Excuse me, ma'am," one said. And holy hell almighty it was as if I had gained thirty years when he said 'ma'am'. "If you came in with Jane's party then I'm afraid that you cannot leave without her permission." He had a superior look to him as he said that – and, of course, the other one seemed to be moving toward me faster that I could even imagine. Without even looking twice I decided that the one speaking was the smart one, the one with the plan. The one that was walking (or what looked like sprinting) toward me was probably the brawn behind the brain. Both of them looked extremely intelligent, though… I guess they defied the stereotype.

I looked at him with a look that I was sure was complete unlike myself – I pretended like I was confident and defiant – two things that I could never be without forcing myself to be. "I was with Jane's party but," he looked at me like he was sure I didn't have a good enough excuse. The one beside him, the brawn, wiped his mouth as I spoke. "Alec told me that I should leave." I wanted to add in the part about him telling me to go to the dance or whatever tonight – just to rub it in his face. I didn't even know if he would mind, but as soon as I thought of it he gave me a look of complete anger. "Oh and, uhm…" Immediately I felt insignificant and confused under his gaze before shaking my head. "Er… well… hm, I was going to say… uhm…" I hadn't noticed the guards before – and I felt so confused as soon as he started to look at me. "Margherite took me here and told me that I'd… I wouldn't have any problems from here." I could feel my face loosening up into a dull, dumb look until the brawn nudged the brain.

"Alec'll be pissed. Just leave her alone, we'll ask Margherite in a moment." I could hardly even hear what he was talking about, my head felt so muddled and I was so… What was he saying?

"Sorry, ma'am, you can go now."

"Q-quite alright," was all I could seem to manage.

Then it all stopped. It seemed as if the earmuffs had been taken off and I could actually think and that I could actually see and interpret everything. The brawn gestured toward the entrance of the historical district where it seemed like the exit of Volterra castle was. I glanced around for a moment and then stepped out, not really sure of what to do. I remembered something about Natalina telling me something about the time and lunch; after all, I was hungry. I didn't exactly remember what she said but I decided that it would be best to wait where she had dropped me off… wherever that was.

After I searched through the crowd for a bit I found Natalina sitting on a stone bench – texting, of course. I had managed to keep away from using all my roaming for my friends, but it seemed like she just couldn't stay away from hers. "Natalina?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

She tore her eyes away from the screen for a moment before nodding and then shoving her phone in her pocket. "Sorry –" she started, but I cut her off with a smile.

"So you said that we'll get lunch? I'm starving." After those last odd scenes all I could think of was food – I couldn't even form a coherent thought without food in it. My head still felt a little jumbled, but I was sure that would go away in a bit when I actually ate. I knew that I was annoyed with the time difference but really, this was another thing that I could add to my list of 'change-when-I-eventually-rule-the-world'. I followed Natalina to the car while she discussed where we should eat. I finally caught a complete thought after a few minutes.

"Alright, so we have the places that rich tourists started after when they decided that they could cook real Italian cuisine – and then we have the real deal. So what are you thinking for today, Vienna?" Natalina pointed out a few different places before we settled on one that actually sounded good – a non-authentic, cute but cheesy Italian restaurant that served American things as well. I could tell that Natalina harbored an obvious dislike of the place for the latter reason, but as long as it had a kid's menu with hamburgers I'd be fine.

"Cheesy and cute and totally authentic." Natalina scoffed.

"As long as it has hamburgers, what do I need to care about authenticity?"

Most people noticed that I liked to eat hamburgers at restaurants, even if I was in a great place for Italian food – Italy. I didn't really care where I was, but my restaurant-favorite was a hamburger until I learned everything about the menu and the place. Natalina ordered me a hamburger in Italian – and much to my surprise, the waitress looked somewhat pleased, though Natalina didn't. While we waited we watched as tourists struggled to order from people who could obviously speak English – but were toying with their customers. More than once we had to keep ourselves from laughing at the customer's surprise that their waiter actually spoke impeccable English.

Once our food came I managed to keep Natalina on a topic that was so broad that she could prattle on while I thought. But during her babble all I could think about was Alec's invitation to that dance thing tonight – so I had to ask her about it. "Er, Natalina?" I asked, unintentionally seeming unsure. "I was told by a, er, personI met today that there's a dance tonight in the historical district." I watched as Natalina nodded, as if there was something else she was waiting for me to tell. "Oh, uhm, and can I go?"

"Vienna!" It seemed as if she was going to fly across the table at me in her joy. For some reason it looked as if she was overwhelmed with happiness, the reason, I did not know why. "So that means that someone asked you to the dance tonight, then!" So… that was what she was so happy about. "Aw, little Vienna! Your first full day here and you already have someone who wants to go to the dance with you! We must go home and get your clothes on and do your make up…"

I stared at her, my mouth slowly opening. Once again she talked to herself as I sat there, wondering over what that meant. Surely this Alec had meant that he wanted to talk to me later, right? I hadn't ever been the best judge of, well, anything, so I wouldn't know. However, instead of playing acting defensive I decided to fake it. "That means… oh, this is fabulous!" I paused for a moment and took a drink of my lemonade. "Yes, we have to go home nad fix me all up." Jesus, that was the easiest thing to do. I was certain that she was going to tell me that I couldn't go or that my grandma would flip her lid if I went. "But… one thing," I kept a sly grin from leaking onto my face. "Are you possibly going to be there?" I raised my eyebrows in such a manner that it looked like I was hoping that she wouldn't be the stalker-ish-babysitter-creepy-older-sister person.

"Oh, oh no!" She practically shrieked, waving her hands. "I wouldn't dream of doing that. In fact, I have a date to that dance myself, so I'm so happy that you'll be going as well. I'm thinking that we can stay our separate ways, right? You won't have to stay by me if you don't want to." Actually, it sounded like she didn't want to stay by me.

For some reason I couldn't help myself from thinking that it was actually quite frightening to be alone with Alec. With the way that Jane and Margherite and the Brain and the Brawn had acted earlier, I was sure that was a plausible explanation for my paranoia, but… I was a bit nervous. I knew for a fact that it wasn't anything close to what Natalina thought it was – this was not a date. This was a way for him to make up for what he'd done earlier, right? You know, the whole freaking me out thing? Maybe he wanted to apologize for what Jane had done – whatever she had done. Honestly, I couldn't care less – she seemed nice enough and I wasn't about to complain about someone who had given me something to do for a bit. I was a bit anxious, though, about what this whole dance thing was about.

At once I acted like I wasn't alright with that, just to bug her. "Oh, well… I don't know about that… Jocelyn might not approve…" I sent her a sideways glance and watched as a look of utter terror swept over her face.

"I am positive, I am sure that Jocelyn would've wanted you to go alone… you have a cell phone and so do I – you will definitely be able to reach me at any time." Natalina rushed to get all the words out. I found it hard to conceal my grin while she fumbled around.

"Natalina! I was just kidding!"

I finally allowed myself to grin while Natalina sighed in relief. "Thankfully! But Jocelyn had told me to take you to this dance thing anyways, so I guess that it'll be easier if you have someone to be with you the whole time, as opposed to me following you around." By now I was pretty much positive that she had a date of her own.

'Er, Natalina?"

"Yeah?"

"He's not really a date, though. I hardly even… I hardly know him. I'm a bit worried, though."

"I'll have my phone, don't worry."

"But what if –"

"Geeze, Vienna! Stop worrying! Not much can go wrong!"

I winced. I hated when people say that things can 'only get better' and other silly things. "Great," I muttered, turning my head away so she wouldn't notice me rolling my eyes. This would be interesting.

( A/N okay, so vienna names the one who starts talking 'the brain' since he seems to be the 'brain' behind all it. she names the one who stands sorta silently behind the brain the brawn since he looks a little more buff than the brain. oh, and the brain's powers are that he's able to make people be confused and forget things that happened up to a few hours ago – the brawn and the brain will play a part later in the story, just so you know. yaay!

and i'm SOOOOO sorry for the long wait/short chapter. i know, i know, i probably should've put more fluff in here... i just wrote this today because i realized that i hadn't done anything for almost a month! the next chapter will probably be up in the next few days. you have NO IDEA what i have planned for them... YAAAY. it'll be awesome, i swear. )