DISCLAIMER: If I owned Final Fantasy IX it'd be recreated for the PS3 with voice acting AND have a sequel by now.

The time finally came. Eva fitted me for a beautiful white dress with green designs on it. She put my hair in a bun and I get to wear high heels! And right now I'm staring into the mirror shocked that I could look as pretty as this. I'm absolutely awed. Although I hope Eva doesn't find anything suspicious about all the problems we came across while getting me ready.

The first thing she did was my hair and she noticed my split ends and asked how long it's been like that. I obviously couldn't say it's been like that for my whole life so I told her I didn't know in the most princessy way possible: I was not aware. So she had to cut a little of my hair. Then she put it in a bun and I gotta say, it's nice to have my hair out of my face for once. Then she helped me put the dress on and it was a little big for me. So she asked me if there was anything wrong with me. I just said no but she seemed really mad because she had to make it smaller and it took her a long time to do it. I wish I could've done it myself so it wouldn't have took a long time but I couldn't. She also said that since it's my birthday I don't have to wear a corset. Thank goodness. Not only would the corset not help my too-thin figure, I don't wanna wear one either. Then she gave me the high heels and those were a little too big too but I decided not to tell her because I already put her through enough.

"Are you ready, Your Highness?" Eva asks me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yes. Thank you."

I follow Eva to the balcony, trying to balance in the high heels and lifting my dress up to walk better. You know, I've always wondered why royalty and Nobles lift their dresses like that. I always thought they were showing off their fancy dresses by waving it in our faces or showing off how mature and refined they are. But maybe that has a little to do with it too.

We finally get to the balcony and Queen Brahne greets me happily with a warm smile.

"Oh, darling! You look simply wonderful!" She then runs over to me and hugs me.

I smile too. "Thank you, Mother."

Eva then leaves and now I'm alone with the queen.

"I'm sure the play will be magnificent!" she says.

I just nod and walk over to the end of the balcony and look around. There are so many people! And they're all Nobles! I can't believe all these people came just to see a play and celebrate Garnet's birthday! And the theater ship... It's huge! How much room is in there? I can see the stage and above that I see the orchestra playing. There's obviously a lot more to the ship. But what more can there be? The queen interrupts my thoughts and says to sit down because the play is about to begin. So I take my seat on the Princess' throne. It's soft and velvety. I sit up straight and wait. I think I'll have a good time tonight.

...

What is there to do? Nothing! And that is why I have not done a single thing! If I do not do anything I think Madame Eclair will not notice at all. She is too evil to notice anything of importance. I walk over to the opening and put the closed sign back outside. No one will come. Everyone will be at the play... I really wish I could go. But would that girl sneak out to go see it? Probably not. I know we are supposed to be acting like each other but I am not her. I grab that girl's cloak, and run out. I'm sure Madame Eclair will not notice.

There is no one out. I imagine they're either at the play or in their homes. It doesn't take long to get to the castle. Wait, how am I going to get in? Then I remember that the peasants watch things on the rooftops. I walk even more until I find any signs of people on roofs. That doesn't take long either. People are still climbing up. I find a place on the building to take my first step up. Once I do I notice that this building is very lopsided and old. It has a lot of lumps that could be used as footholds. Even though I have never climbed anything, this is suprisingly easy. All of a sudden I slip and let out a slight curse under my breath. I am now hanging only by my arms. I've heard that it is useless to look down so I don't. But I need help!

"Hey!" I hear someone call.

I look up and there is a young boy calling to me. Possibly thirteen or fourteen.

"Here!" he calls again. And then he reaches his left hand out to me while holding on to some part of the building. I find a comfortable position to hold on with my left hand and reach out my right hand to him. Almost right away he grips it. He starts to pull me up only to slip himself.

"Ahh!" I blurt out.

Then someone else starts pulling on the boy and I get pulled up automatically. And before I know it, I'm sitting on the roof. I look over at the boy who is sitting to my right. I notice he is kind of short and has red hair.

"Thank you," I say kindly. He blushes and looks away, muttering something. I feel a tap on my shoulder and look to my left. The other person that helped is a very huge man who I notice is bald and has a red goatee.

"That's my son," he says. "He's always tryin' to be the hero. Hey, have you ever climbed up on the roof before?"

"No..." I answer honestly and the man starts laughing.

"Well, it was kinda obvious, but hey, there's a first time for everything, right? By the way, I'm Sam. And my son over there is Peter."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Garnet." I widen my eyes and look down. Oh no! I told who I am! This is not good! I should've made up some other name... I look up at Sam and he is scratching his goatee.

"Hmm... You have the same name as the Princess, don't you?"

He... he doesn't recognize me? Oh. Of course. It is almost pitch black outside and I am a bit dirty. And the cloak hood is hiding most of my features. So I decide to play along. "Yeah."

"Isn't that something?" he asks rhetorically.

I decide to drop the subject and I start to look around and it looks amazing. There are a lot of people and I hope I do not fall... But the view is fantastic! Even though a similar celebration happens every year for my birhtday the view never ceases to amaze me. I see the royal seats and smile. I hope she has a wonderful time.

...

The play is really good. But if it were up to me, the royal seats would be in the front row. I think I'd enjoy it more if they were. But I won't complain 'cause these seats are so comfy! I recognized everyone I saw earlier and they don't look like much but they are great actors. Although it has been a while since that boy with red hair and skimpy clothing and that other boy with a tail have been on stage. It seems to me that their characters should be on more. Even if they aren't saying anything. It would make it more believeable, I think. I lean over to get my tea and notice strange shadows out of the corner of my eye. I look over to the doors. They're being guarded by Steiner and some woman I don't know. They both look at me expectantly and I smile to them so they won't get all worried. And that's when I see the shadows again. They're at the bottom of the door. Feet. There's someone there on the other side! I tell the queen I have to go relieve myself and then I get up and tell the same thing to the guards and they let me out.

...

What is she doing? Why is she leaving? She couldn't be relieving herself, could she? She has to stay and watch the whole thing! How strange. I hope everything is okay.

...

I close the door behind me and slowly step forward.

"Who's there?" I stage-whisper. "I know there is someone here. Stop hiding."

I look around slowly with a stern face, expecting someone to come out of hiding. But that's not exactly what I get. All of a sudden, someone grabs me from behind and twists my arms back so tight they feel like they might pop out. Before I could shout he covers my mouth. I look behind me and it's a guard for the castle! I try to scream but then he moves his hand and someone covers my nose and mouth with a cloth that has a strange smell to it and I can feel myself blacking out. I look up and see the blonde boy with the tail looking at me. And almost right away I lost energy everything faded away.

Author's Note: To celebrate school finally being over-here's chapter 5! :D YAY! (By the way, at the end there, it's not cloroform or however you spell it. I don't really know what form sleeping weed is so I just made it like a liquid.) ...Can I rant for a sec? Cuz this ALWAYS happens to me! Whenever I start writing a story (like this one for example) I always get ideas for ANOTHER story and I can't stop thinking about them. -_- Expect a lot of crap from me this summer lol. :) And I apologize for the wait. I was also studying for finals and decided not to do anything until school was over, although I started this chapter a few days before school was over. (By the way, my Language Arts grade isn't over 100 anymore. My teacher made a mistake... But it's still the highest in my period. :P) School FINALLY ended on the 9th and I was too tired to do anything productive yesterday but I did work on this a little. I pretty much wrote everything so it was condensed and so I could add details later. Which is what I did today. If it seems a little suckish, sorry. I didn't really know how to put details in this one. So yeah, I'm not very proud of this one. But then again I'm probably just rushing to get past everything that happens before the good stuff happens. :/ Oh well, R&R&E (Read&Review&Enjoy) anyway! :D