The next morning, I opened my eyes grogg ily. Then I remembered that that was the day of the Bubble Ball. I guess I'd alw ays secretly wanted to go to it, but the re was the issue of breathing underwater . Now I could go. I sat bolt upright in the clam shell bed Tink and I had shared . There weren't enough rooms to fit all of us one to a room, so I was paired wit h Tink, Rapunzel with Merida, and Melody offered to share with Wendy. Terence wa s with Peter and Hiccup was with Jack.

I swam out of the bed, waking Tink up in the process.

"Get up; the Ball is in an hour! We don' t have time to sleep in!" I was swishing around the room, giddy and laughing lik e a fool. I must have scared Tink a bit, because she just screamed and flopped b ack down, pulling the blanket firmly dow n over her head. Okay, so more than a bi t.

I threw on a shawl and a pearl necklace and swam as fast as I could to the ballr oom. Everyone was down there except Tink and the seven hundred other guests. The king was impressed. He was proud of Ari el and grateful for our help. Word had s pread amazingly fast about the hobogobli n battle. The girls hadn't said anything to him, but he knew anyways.

"Vanessa Frost, it is truly an honor jus t to be sitting at a table with you," sa id Triton, shaking my hand.

"Well, you're the king of the ocean. I'm honored to be shaking your hand," I rep lied with a smile.

"I'm not going to be the king for much l onger. I'm abdicating in favor of Ariel tonight. Don't tell her, I want it to be a surprise."

I kept my lips sealed and soon I was sit ting at the head table with Ariel's fami ly and all my friends. The food and drin ks were all being enjoyed avidly and the band Jack and Peter and Wendy had put t ogether was performing. They were specta cular. Many of the guests were dancing a lready, and Triton hadn't even spoken ye t. Ariel had, and her speech had gone pe rfectly. Ariel's sisters were all behavi ng themselves and if they didn't want to be there, they could have fooled me. Th en came the moment that Triton would ann ounce the abdication to the other guests . He held up his hand and closed it into a fist. The band stopped playing and ev eryone dancing swam quickly back to thei r seats. He got up out of his chair and all eyes were on him.

"I have some good news for the kingdom o f Atlantica and her subjects. I have rul ed this kingdom for forty years, I have eight lovely daughters, and I have suffe red the loss of my wife. A lot has happe ned since my coronation and I have to do this now, tonight." He reached up onto his head and grabbed the crown on it. "A riel?"

She swam to him, a look of confusion on her face. When she was next to him, he t ook her tiara off and lowered the crown onto her head. As he did so, it magicall y became a silver tiara set with pearls and diamonds and every other gem you can think of. She looked into his eyes and he smiled. She grinned so wide and turne d to the guests.

"I present to you my daughter Ariel, Que en of Atlantica," said Triton. Ariel hug ged him.

"I promise to be fair, impartial and exa ctly as my father was. We can address ou r issues and solve all of them diplomati cally and without taking up all our reso urces. We can make Atlantica a better kingdom and I wi ll do all that I can to make sure it hap pens. You won't regret this!" She turned to face the rest of us. "I'd like to th ank my sisters for not disrupting the Ba ll like they normally do. I'd like to th ank Terence and Vanessa and Melody and a nyone else who helped make the food. I'd like to thank Merida and Hiccup and Rap unzel for decorating. I'd like to thank Rapunzel for writing my speech. I'd like to thank Peter and Jack and Wendy and t he band for arranging and performing all this amazing music."

"Who's the heir now?" asked some random person from the crowd.

"Someone deserving. Melody, of course," replied Ariel. It was Melody's turn to n early faint.

"Her? But the rules say either your olde st child or sibling!" complained one of Ariel's sisters, Alana, I think.

"Or the one most deserving, and that is you."

Ariel took her old tiara out of her fath er's hands and put it on Melody's head, which had nothing on it before that. She smiled up at her so big that it looked sorta like her face had split open. The n Ariel snapped and the band restarted t heir song. I laughed a wee bit and went to join everyone on the dance floor. How mermaids could dance, I'd never figure out. They managed though. I was dancing with Jack when they asked for someone to sing. He pushed me up.

"Jack, I am not singing here," I insiste d.

"Sure you will," he replied.

"Nope, I'm not." I looked around and saw Wendy. She was a singer. "Wendy! Here!"

She came over and grabbed the mic. She s tarted singing and I punched Jack on the arm.

"I DO NOT sing in public," I said.

"Okay, okay, fine!"

The Ball was over before I knew it. Also , the elixir thingy ran out as soon as i t ended. We all went back up to the beac h with Melody. The guys all got their re gular pants back when they got their leg s back, but the girls all got new outfit s. I won't torture you with the exact de tails of everyone's outfits, but these a re my memoirs so I will tell you about m ine. It was an ice blue high low dress, the high just above my knees, the low tr ailing behind me. The sleeves were thick tank top sleeves, and there was a thick silver belt around the waist cinching i t in. I had no jewelry or shoes, but I d idn't need shoes. I preferred to be bare foot. My hair was in a ponytail. Simple and elegant. Perfect.

"We'd best get back to the hideout. We h ave to make sure Kida hasn't killed any of the Lost Boys yet," said Peter. "I qu ite like those boys."

I waved to Melody and we all ran back to the hideout. When we went back inside, Kida was tied up on the floor as the Los t Boys were painting on her. Peter sent the Lost Boys to their hammocks (because it was actually the middle of the night , 3:00 am) and we let her loose.

"Two days! They tied me up three minutes after you left and I've been on the flo or for the full two days you were gone," said Kida, grabbing the front of Wendy' s dress, shaking her as if to make her u nderstand. "TWO FULL DAYS!"

"Okay! We're sorry! SOMEBODY had to watc h them!" said Wendy.

"Yeah, but why me? Why not you?" questio ned Kida.

I laughed and decided to leave while the y were all distracted. I had only made i t ten feet before I was picked up myster iously for no reason. I almost screamed, but I didn't want to give whoever was p icking me up the satisfaction of knowing that they were getting a reaction. Inst ead I crossed my arms and put a look of boredom on my face. Then a man in black robes stepped out from behind a tree. I couldn't see his face because his hood w as covering it.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Vanessa F rost. Fancy meeting you on Neverland. I didn't think that you would actually com e here," said the guy in the robes.

"Yeah, fancy meeting me here. Come on, g et on with it," I said, actually soundin g bored.

"Get on with what?" he asked.

"What do you want? Are you going to rob me? Kidnap me? Hold me for ransom? Black mail me? Mug me? Threaten me? What's you r deal?"

"My deal?"

"Yes! God, you're so dumb! What do you want?"

"Uh…" His resolve seemed to have wavered . His poise diminished until he was hunc hed over. His voice dwindled from brave to unsure.

"Come on, you have me held captive. Don' t be freaked out by me right now. Give m e your evil monologue, and then we can g et back to me being intimidating."

"Oh, well…I…" He stood back up straight and cleared his throat. "You are Vanessa Frost, formerly Vanessa Clemens, daught er of Trisha and Bryce Clemens. Your mot her married King Karter Kane. Your step sisters are Kirsty and Kayla Kane. They did not survive the hobogoblin war, and you really don't care. Your boyfriend is Jack Frost. You used to like Derek Simm ons. You ran into the mist without a tho ught for him. You rescued him. He died. And now here you are."

"Done? Okay, would it make you feel like more of a success if I pretended I was scared?"

Instead of replying the way I was sure h e was going to reply, he laughed. He lau ghed so hard he fell over and started ro lling on the ground. That meant he could n't have been much older than me, if not younger. When he stood back up, he pull ed back his hood. I saw those big, round , grey eyes. That messy brown hair. That mouth that was normally smiling. I wasn 't pretending when tears sprung to my ey es and my voice caught.

"D…Derek? But…but…I thought that… we all thought that…" I couldn't finish.

"Yup, it's me. So, Vanessa. What have yo u been up to? I see that your hair is wh ite. I see that your eyes aren't purple anymore. I see that…"

"Why aren't you dead?"

"Straight to the point. Just the way tha t I remember you. I faked my death, obvi ously."

"Why Derek?"

"Because you broke my heart. I thought e verything was fine between us. Until you came into that gazebo. All I wanted fro m you was for you to come with me to tha t dance. You didn't even let me finish t he question. You stomped on my heart bef ore I was even done offering it to you. Then I heard that you didn't even cry wh en you found out I was dead. You just dr ank root beer floats with… with that thing. Then you moved on!"

"Derek…"

"Don't try to apologize! I don't want yo ur sympathy. I only want one thing from you."

"What?"

"Come with me. Leave Jack and all your f riends behind. I'll return your other fr iends and stop causing all that trouble. Like the hobogoblins."

The hobogoblin part set in.

"You sent the hobgoblins? Derek, almost all our friends died fighting them!"

"You mean your friends? I had no friends! It was just your friends! I was angry. You don't think I felt bad when I went to go see all the graves on the mountain? You don't think I felt regret when I went to Mickey's ca stle and kidnapped my own sister? I did! I always wondered how to make me watch, well, watch me now! Come with me and everything can go back to the way i t was before you ran, before I supposedl y died. Come with me!"

"Are you insane? You think that you can just come up her e and threaten me, blackmail me, leave m e in tears and I would love you like I u sed to? It would take a long time for me to love you like that again. Just go De rek!"

"You won't come? Fine. But know this. Ja ck only managed to save the world with t he help of a seven-year-old boy. That wa s five years ago. Go back and tell your precious Jack that I have Jamie. Tell hi m that!"

"Why Derek?"

"I told you why! You have six days to ma ke your choice. You can only save one or the other. Your friends are in one plac e, Jamie is in the other. What are you w illing to sacrifice to do the right thin g? You have six days. That's ample time to make up your mind. Just know that we are still an option."

Derek vanished and I fell to the ground. I rushed back to the hideout and told e veryone the story of what had just happe ned. Naturally, things did not go smooth ly.

"We have to go save Jamie!" exclaimed Ja ck when I was finished.

"Are you crazy?! What's one boy against a whole bunch of people we grew up with? We have to rescue our friends!" insiste d Rapunzel.

"I say she just goes with Derek," said T ink. Everyone quieted and stared at her. "What? It's the simplest option. He let s everyone go and then Vanessa could run away when he's asleep. She'd be gone be fore he'd ever know."

"NO! That would never work!" yelled Jack. Tink drew back with a look of shock on her face. Then she b urst into tears. Wendy rushed forward to hug her.

"Jack, what was that all about?" asked W endy, sounding slightly angry.

"I'm sorry…it's just…look, I love Vaness a, and I love Jamie. I just want to keep everything right," apologized Jack.

"We can't save Jamie because that means all our friends remain prisoners," said Merida.

"Enough. Nobody's getting left behind, n ot on my watch. We have six days, we can figure something out," I replied. They all nodded in agreement. "Let's get plan ning."