Hey everyone. Sorry for the holdup. I just sort of wrote half of this chapter, and then I ran out of ideas. I was planning on finishing it this weekend, and then I got a private message from z dream. I want to thank you, z dream, for the boost of energy you provided and the amazing ideas you gave me, and if I hadn't already started this chapter before you sent it to me, I definitely would have used some of them. Who knows? Maybe I still will. :D

So overall, I hope the characters are IC and interesting, and I hope you enjoy the chapter... :)

Dan's POV

Lunch was rather awkward.

I suppose you could've said it was because a famous fashion designer was sitting at our table. You could've said it was because she was also one of my former worst enemies. You could have even said it was because Jamie was glaring knife-and-daggers at her. But no.

The real reason it was awkward was because we had the terrifying prospect of Natalie staying with us for a week looming over our heads.

I watched her carefully. She simply sat, poking her food with her fork, not bothering to hide the look of disgust that was on her face. Finally she just set down the utensil altogether.

Nellie did, too.

"Natalie, look. I don't think you can stay here," she said, trying but not quite managing to pull off an apologetic expression.

Natalie smiled sweetly (that is, the kind of sweet that is way too sweet to actually be real). "Of course I can," she replied, as if we were saying she couldn't stay because she was too busy. "It will be a lot of sacrifice on my part, but I'll manage."

"Now," she continued matter-of-factly, "Where will I be sleeping?"

Nellie raised an eyebrow. "Natalie, I meant that right now isn't the most convenient time for you to stay."

Now it was Natalie's turn to raise an eyebrow. "I just thought that Tammy here wanted help on her designs," she said, mock innocently. I don't think it was supposed to sound mocking, but to me it did.

"And you have to stay a whole week with us for that?" I asked skeptically.

"Well, of course I will be going to meetings and a few more of my shows, which you are all invited to, by the way," she flashed a stunning smile at Tammy, who seemed ready to burst from excitement, "but this will allow me to spend much more of my time reviewing the designs, which I thought would suit her quite well. Besides…" she trailed off, looking down carefully at her hands as if surveying her nails.

"Besides, what?" I asked her.

She looked up with a start, as if she'd forgotten that she hadn't finished the sentence. I could sense the smallest bit of discomfort starting to show in the creases of her eyebrows.

"Besides… I need new living arrangements," she said slightly more quietly. "I was, er, rather ambushed at my previous hotel, and here is really the last place any of my fans will look, so…well, it's really a win-win for everybody, isn't it?" She nodded her head once, as if she'd just finished explaining a difficult concept and successfully made us understand it.

Now, at least, everything made sense. To me, the fact that Natalie was willing to stay with us just to help Tammy with her designs seemed a bit too fat-fetched. The truth was that Natalie was just staying with us so that her fans wouldn't mob her.

"Now, where will I be sleeping?" she repeated.

I shook my head. She really didn't get it.

"We don't want you to stay," I said slowly. "It's not that we can't, it's not that you can't, it's that we don't want you to."

Natalie just stared at me. At first I thought I'd gotten through to her, but finally she spoke, beginning with a short, elegant sigh.

"I really think it's you that doesn't understand the situation."

I frowned. "It's our house. You can't force us to let you stay."

Natalie looked at me sympathetically as if I was just some irritating child that kept arguing for no reason.

"Do you like paparazzi?" she suddenly asked.

The question threw me off-guard. "What?"

"No, I don't suppose you would. Well, imagine this scenario. I announce to the media that you're close friends of mine. In fact, you inspired many of my designs. I even spread the little rumor that I'm staying with you. Maybe it will even turn out that I'm dating you." She winked at me as I took on an expression that was a mixture of horror and disgust. "Honestly, you won't get a break for weeks. Months, even. Every time you leave the house there will always be someone waiting to take your picture or ambush you."

She paused, looking at us pleasantly as if she'd just made a suggestion as to what we were going to do that afternoon. Honestly, threatening to tell people that we were dating was enough of a threat for me, but she carried on.

"Or, what about this scenario? I charge you for harassing me at my hotel. Perhaps even breaking and entering into my room. Maybe even kidnapping me. The possibilities are endless."

"But we didn't!" Tammy suddenly piped up, looking worried. Apparently, she'd never seen this side of Natalie.

"Well, of course you didn't, darling," Natalie smiled at her reassuringly. "But who do you think they'll believe, hmm?"

Tammy looked down at her plate.

I didn't know what to say. Natalie obviously had had plenty of practice in blackmailing people. And she did make a very convincing point.

Natalie smiled. "So," she said once again, "where will I be sleeping?"

Nellie glanced down at the table, back up at Natalie, and finally emitted a dejected sigh.

"The guest room is open."

Of course, by that time, the guy who'd driven Natalie here had left, conveniently depositing all her suitcases in our living room. And that could only mean one thing - Nellie, Tammy, Jamie, and I were on bellboy duty.

Well actually, Jamie had somehow managed to disappear by that time, so it was really just the three of us, with Natalie tailing behind us and telling us to be careful ( "Do you know how expensive that suitcase was?" "I have valuables in there!") after which she quickly changed course and began to rant about how small the guest room was ("Is this my closet?" "Well, I suppose I'll manage…somehow.")

After setting down the last suitcase, I was ready to pull a Jamie and escape as quickly as I could. However, Fate was not feeling friendly that day.

"Oh, and Dan, I need you to hang this up," Natalie said. I turned around slowly, only to find her brandishing a small, rectangular mirror. I stared at her in disbelief.

"You brought a mirror? Who are you - Mary Poppins?" I glanced at the mirror hanging on the wall. "And there's already one here," I said, pointing to it.

Natalie sniffed. "It's not acceptable. It's dirty, and its hung in the wrong place."

You get the idea of how the rest of the hour went.

Finally (finally) I was done with everything Natalie had wanted me to do. By that time she and Tammy had finished sorting out her wardrobe (only part of it, for that matter, because apparently the closet we'd provided was "much too small"). Natalie was poring over a book that was laid on her bed, and I decided to take my chance. Slowly, I inched my way toward the door, and then made a none-too-concealed bolt for it. I soon found myself safe in the living room, where Jamie was sitting on the couch, arms crossed and, it seemed, staring at nothing in particular.

"I thought you were in your room," I said.

She shrugged. "Why bother? The queen was being settled in, wasn't she?" Apparently, lunch hadn't changed her opinion of Natalie.

I shrugged and sat down next to her. "Not like we have a choice." Jamie just rolled her eyes at that.

I cleared my throat. There was something I'd been meaning to ask her, and I didn't know if I'd get another chance with Natalie here.

"Look, umm, Jamie. There's, uhh, well, there's this thing. It's like, you know, umm…" I trailed off. The question was a bit awkward, and I could feel my cheeks getting red. Jamie stared at me skeptically. I sighed.

"There's this rock concert that me and my friends want to go to but you have to be with someone 18 or older to get in and Nellie said no and I was wondering if…maybe… you could -"

"Wait," Jamie interrupted my rambling. "You're asking me to…"

"I'm asking you to go to the concert with me. Will you, Jamie? Please?" I slightly cringed as I said that. Great. I sounded like a five-year-old begging for candy.

Jamie just stared at me with raised eyebrows for a few seconds. I felt my face fall slightly, and she laughed. "I'll go with you, I'll go with you," she said. I felt myself grin. "Don't worry. You're gonna have a lot of fun," I told her. She smiled

"Yeah, well, as long as -"

"Where's the bathroom?" I almost jumped when I turned around to see Natalie in the doorway. She was glaring at me and her lips were pursed. Her hands were firmly on her hips. "I assume one of you knows," she said in a tight, shrill voice. "Or are you too Goth to tell me?" she threw at Jamie.

"Down the hall and to the right," I said, staring at her.

"Hmmph," she said, and with a toss of her silky black hair she was gone.

I blinked. "What's her problem?" I asked.

Jamie just glared at the place where Natalie had been standing, and then began slowly clapping. "Long live the queen," she sarcastically remarked.

A frustrated shriek echoed in the house, and a clattering was heard, along with the sound of Natalie shouting something.

"Yeah," I said. "Long live the queen."

Natalie's POV

I don't know if they were trying to be extremely thick or it just came naturally to them, but they obviously didn't understand the situation.

"So, where will I be sleeping?" I said for the second time. It annoyed me that I had to repeat myself.

Dan glared at me. His green eyes almost matched my gaze in ferocity. "We don't want you to stay," he finally said. "It's not that we can't, it's not that you can't, it's that we don't want you to."

I let such a thought run through my head, and I almost laughed at the idea. Did he really think I was a novice at getting people to do what I wanted? Endless possibilities for blackmailing sailed through my head. I chose the first one I could think of.

"Do you like paparazzi?" I asked, to my audience's confusion. "No, I don't suppose you would. Well, imagine this scenario…" I rattled off how I could make their lives completely miserable for months. "Maybe it will even turn out I'm dating you," I put in, winking at Dan. I had said it to annoy him, so why did I feel a bit hurt when an expression of horror crossed his face? I shook it off and continued, adding in the threat that I might press charges for harassment as a last-minute touch.

As I finished my speech I took a deep breath and looked contentedly at the distress I had created. Jamie was looking at me with disgust, Dan was staring at his plate. Tammy was gaping at me in shock, and Nellie finally provided an answer for the question I had been asking.

"The guestroom is open," she said. I smiled. As I said, I didn't like to repeat myself.

"Be careful with that!" I probably said it a thousand times as my luggage was being carried to my "room" - hardly an acceptable word for it. It was tiny, and what was even more horrendous was the size of the closet. I couldn't believe I'd had to blackmail to get something like that.

"Be careful," I said again. It seemed these people had no sense of how to treat valuables, though this was not too surprising. "Here?" Tammy balanced a piece of luggage above my bed. She seemed to have forgiven me after I had complimented her shirt. I nodded. "Help me organize my closet," I told her. She nearly squealed with delight.

"Oh, and Dan, I need you to hang this up for me." I held up a mirror. After making several snide remarks (Mary Poppins? Really? Is it because I'm British?) he actually got to work. Meanwhile Tammy and I began on my wardrobe.

"Hang this with my shirt," I ordered. "It's what I'm going to wear to my next fashion show."

"It's beautiful-"

"No, no. Put that right there. And don't fold that up, it'll get wrinkles."

"That's a really cute shirt-"

"Do you think this dress is too gaudy?"

"No, it's gorgeous-"

"Yes, I thought so, too, but my fashion consultant said it was too gaudy. I think it's ironic that a world-renowned fashion designer would have a fashion consultant, don't you?"

Tammy only nodded eagerly.

Finally, all of the clothes we could squeeze into my small closet were sorted, and I began to look over a Boston guidebook I had found at the airport. Dan was gone by that time, and Tammy was the only one left. I flipped the pages nonchalantly, waiting for her to leave.

But she only sat down on the corner of my bed. "So, were you and Dan, like, close friends?"

I tensed up, and when I looked up at Tammy, I had a tight smile plastered to my face. "Well, I wouldn't say close…"

"Acquaintances?" she asked. I didn't answer.

"Is he a lot like you remember him?"

I thought back to the immature, irritating boy I had remembered him as, and then to the confident, irritating, some might call handsome (definitely not me, but, you know, some) teenager that he was now. Tammy broke into my thoughts.

"So, what did you two do together?"

"Travel," I absentmindedly said, then glanced up sharply. "I mean, I traveled to, uhh, visit him in family reunions."

Tammy just shrugged. "How are you related? I mean, you don't look like each other."

"Very distant cousins," I said hurriedly. "Look, Tammy, would you excuse me? I'll be right back." In truth I was afraid I would slip up and say something else that I might not be able to explain so easily.

I hurried out of the room, and passing what I assumed was the living room, I heard Jamie and Dan talking.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But I suppose it was so rooted in my nature that I couldn't help stopping beside the door and listening quietly.

"I'm asking you to go to the concert with me. Will you, Jamie? Please?" I felt my mouth fall open. Dan was asking Jamie out? And begging, too? How was this possible? He, as an average teenage boy, should be drooling at my feet, and he was interested in Jamie, that poorly-dressed misfit, while I was here? How could I have not noticed that earlier?

I heard Jamie laughing and agreeing to go. Anger surged through me - it wasn't for a reason I could put into words (I certainly wasn't jealous), but for some reason this whole affair infuriated me.

"Don't worry. You're gonna have a lot of fun," I heard Dan tell Jamie. That was the last straw. I burst into the room, and for a second I was at a loss for words. But my anger quickly kicked in.

"Where's the bathroom?" I asked sharply, glaring at the both of them. I didn't care that I looked livid, or that I was acting rather unreasonably. When neither of them answered, my response was no less haughty.

"I assume one of you knows," I said. "Or are you too Goth to tell me?" I flicked my gaze at Jamie.

"Down the hall and to the right," Dan answered emotionlessly. I swept my hair over my shoulder and strode out of the room, still feeling wrathful.

What did I care that they were going on a date? What did I care if Dan liked Jamie? It didn't matter to me. Not in the slightest.

"He thinks Jamie is better than me, does he?" I muttered angrily. "Right. And I'm the Queen of England."

I hope you liked it, and don't forget to review! Feedback is always welcome. :D