A Bizarre Thing Called Love

I was beginning to feel like I had this whole ball thing under control. Then, Lily had to go and spoil it. I was in town with Sir Lawrence, Astra, and the Blue Jay (Sir Lawrence is right, she is extremely irritating). The steps decided to sleep in today so we left in the early morning to get some final shopping done. We were walking around town and because of the early hour little shops are open. I suggested that we go meet up with Lily, being that I have not seen her since meeting the Hoodlum gang, and everyone agreed. So, that is how we all end up crapped into the top floor of the post office in her apartment.

"I will go get her for you," Mrs. Bell said after leading my entourage and I to the kitchen. She eyed me suspiciously but did not say anything else. As soon as she left Sir Lawrence jumped out of my hand and sat on the counter, making himself at home.

"Behave yourselves," I told them. Sir Lawrence nodded, Astra fidgeted with her golden ringlets, and the bird whispered something in her ear which made her laugh. I sighed. "Listen, this is not exactly normal, actually it is a little bizarre. So just let me do all the talking." They still ignore me. "Okay," I asked, losing patience.

"Of course," Astra replied sweetly. I rolled my eyes and leaned back on the counter, crossing my arms. A few moments later Lily entered. She had on a long multicolor dress and her blond hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail.

"Good morning," she said, giving me a hug. About to say something, she caught sight of Astra, and the Blue jay. She scrunched up her nose, confounded. "My mother mentioned something about you bringing friends," she said questioningly.

"Yes, this is Astra, my cousin."

"Your cousin?" She did not believe me. It is pretty obvious that Astra is … unique, even for Faylinn. The girl glowed, everything about her was radiant. She looked like she was 12 but conducted herself like someone beyond her years. It was unsettling.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Lily Bell," Astra practically sung. Lily looked at me like I had brought her an alien, which I had. I just smiled and hoped she would not ask any questions. Sir Lawrence stood and cleared his throat, wanting to be introduced.

"Hello," he said timidly. Lily jumped back startled and stared at me.

"Um, I will explain." She nodded. "Why don't we go get breakfast?" I asked. She nodded again.

"Fabulous idea," Astra intermited, leading the way out of the kitchen. Lily and I bring up the rear.

"What in the world is going on?" she whispered to me. I ignored her and continued walking. Going over the story in my head, I am beginning to realize that I might sound insane, but I have to tell someone.

******

"A star?" Lily asked for the third time, thinking that I was soon going to say this whole thing was a joke.

"Yes," I replied.

"The preferred name is Stellas," Astra interrupted. Lily looked at her, and the star went back to buttering her scone.

"I know it sounds crazy, but..."

"How are you going to do this?" Lily asked, cutting me off. She was speaking to Astra now. I guessed she had gotten over the initial shock of the story and was now interested in the details.

"Magic," Astra replied nonchalantly. "I have just enough to make the prince notice her."

"Notice me? I thought you could make him fall in love with me?"

"Not exactly." She bit her lip. "He will be extremely interested in you though."

"Wait, it is up to me to make this prince fall in love with me. I cannot possibly do that Astra."

"Of course you can. You have as good of a chance as anyone."

"Well no," Lily said. "The Queen is hosting a tea party for all the girls that really have any potential to be his wife." With that Lily teasingly stared me down, and I glared back.

"Yes, I heard my step-mother talking about that," I replied quietly.

"And you did not tell me," Astra said. "It's a problem."

"What do you mean a problem? I thought we had this whole thing in the bag."

"No, I told you, I cannot make him fall in love with you. No magic is strong enough to produce those kinds of feelings."

"Why can't you just put a spell on him or something."

"It is not that easy. If he already has a potential bride in mind the spell will not work as well."

"Astra, this is never going to work. Did you think that everyone had a chance to be the Crown Prince's wife?" I banged my hands on the table. Sir Lawrence looked up and grinned.

"Have hope. You will capture the Prince's heart," he said. I sighed loudly.

"Well, I am not exactly knowledgeable on the concept of human marriage. I just know we have to get you into this tea party. If he sees you then, maybe," Astra said, trailing off. "I think it will work, it has to."

"It is the day before the ball," Lily told her. "My aunt is the Queen's secretary, maybe she can help us."

"How?" I asked. My confidence was now totally diminished. I could not do this. I had never meet Prince Chadwick and now I had to make him fall in love with me. I slumped back in my seat, it was not possible. Astra and Lily continued speaking and I listened to the conversation wearily. By the end of breakfast it seemed that they had formulated a plan that I knew nothing about but seemed to revolve around completely me. We paid and left, joining the crowds that filled the streets of Faylinn on the beautiful day.

"Where are we off to?" I asked them.

"You need a dress for the tea party," Astra answered. I sighed, more dress shopping. They day continued on in relative boredom. The only thing that kept me from killing something, preferably Astra, Lily, or Blue Jay, was Sir Lawrence. He entertained me upon entering and exiting numerous dress shops with no luck of finding anything. By noon the only thing we had bought was a silver handbag for my ball gown. It was later then I had wished to be out and my step-mother was going to murder me for leaving without her permission. I wished Lily goodbye, and Astra, Blue Jay, and Sir Lawrence followed suit. She walked us to the River of Dreams, and there we parted ways.

"She is positively delightful," Astra said grinning. I nodded, preoccupied with my own thoughts. I could not help but to feel a little discarded. Lily had hardly spoken to me all day. She and Astra got along well, which I guess was a good thing but, wait no, I could not feel jealous of some star. I rolled my eyes frustrated with myself, with this whole situation. Why did I have to do this? I wished I had never made that wish. I glared at Astra, who was happily skipping with Sir Lawrence as the Blue Jay flew beside them. She looked so carefree. I snorted and she smiled at me.

We had been walking for awhile when I had an odd feeling that I was being watched. I turned my head and saw nothing behind us. "What is it?" Astra asked, turning to look back.

"Nothing." We continued walking and then I felt it again. I turned around to see a shadow disappear into the trees. "Someone is following us," I whispered to Astra.

"What do you mean?" she asked worriedly, looking about.

"Just continue walking." She followed my lead.

"No worries my lady," Sir Lawrence said with assurance. "I will protect you." Astra smiled. We walked fifty paces when I felt it again. I ignored the sensation and continued walking. We were about a half an hour from the manor. I quickened my pace and the others followed close behind me. Suddenly I turned around and stared straight at our stalker. It was Cly. I breathed in relived.

"Why are you following me?" I screamed. He looked down, startled and then ran over to me.

"Chris sent me," he replied panting. "Chris Hood, I am part of his gang."

"I remember you Cly," I said. He smiled.

"Yah, he told me you lived 'bout a quarter of an hour from my home. You see I live on Lady Deliria's manor, my mum's her housemaid. I was just leaving the city when I saw you."

"Then why didn't you come up to me right away."

He smiled slyly. "I thought I'd have bit of fun. You looked frightened." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, he wanted me to give you this." He then handed me a crumpled piece of paper. As I unrolled it he said hello to Astra who looked disgusted by the boy's filth. Sir Lawrence was of course pleased to make his acquaintance, and they compared swords. Cly's was a pocket knife and Sir Lawrence's was the size of a toothpick, but both men were proud to show off their pieces. I read over the paper. Chris had scribbled a horrible note, but its context made me giddy.

******

Dear Isabella, how are you? Well, I was wondering if you might possibly be interested in... Actually disregard this.

Dear Isabella,

I've been meaning to run into you. To see you. And I was wondering if you might, well if you would like to, maybe have dinner with me. Tonight. If the answer is yes said Cly back with it written just so I can be sure he is not lying. Meet me outside of Leo's Bakery before sunset. And if the answer is no you will hear from me again. I can be very persistent.

Sincerely,

Chris Hood, leader of the Hoodlums

******

I finally looked up after reading the letter several times to see that Astra did not look very happy with me. "Do you have paper?" I asked Cly, interrupting his conversation with Sir Lawrence.

"No," he answered. "Have you read it?"

"Yes, but I need to pen a reply."

"Oh, Chris did not send me with any paper," he grumbled. "He knows I don't have any."

"It is okay. Please just tell him that I said yes. But you must make sure he knows that you are not teasing him."

"Okay." He smiled. "Goodbye Isabella. It was a pleasure to meet you Astra." With that he took her hand. I laughed and she looked like she could have killed me. "'Bye Sir," he said to Sir Lawrence, who bowed. He smirked and ran away from us.

"I am utterly repulsed," Astra said, wiping her hand on her dress. She shook her head as if to rid herself of some invisible stench. "I did not know it was possible for a human to have that much dirt on them."

"Astra, he is a nice boy." I smiled at her, my bad mood forgotten. "Let's get home, my step-mother is going to butcher me." We began walking again, this time faster and arrived at the manor in what seemed like no time. Astra was going on about how awful Cly smelled, and how gross he teeth were. I could not help but to laugh.

At the edge of the manor Ben was working on the broken fence. He waved to me and gave a puzzled expression when he saw my group. I smiled and realized that he was another person I was going to have to explain this whole mess to. I could not think of that right now.

"Wait out here," I told Astra, leaving her near the edge of the garden. Blue Jay and Sir Lawrence wisely choose to stay behind with her. They did not want to feel the wrath of my step-mother. She was not waiting for me behind the kitchen door, no, instead she decided that it would be fun to make me feel a bit eased and then pounce on me.

"Where have you been step-daughter?" she asked, slipping into the kitchen. Her voice was its normal horridness, which meant the spell was not kicking in, which was a good thing, right? I think Astra had said it only kicked in when she was going to do something awful to me, but I could not be sure. I took a deep breath before turning around to face her.

"I went to town," I answered.

"Why? And what is that you are holding dear?" I was carrying the handbag we had bought. I should have left it with Astra. "Let me see." She laid her hand out, expecting me to hand it over. I do not know why but I resolved that I was not going to give it to her, at least not willingly. I pulled my hand away quickly, flinging the package into the fireplace. She smacked my arm, "You despicable girl." She continued on saying a whole list of vile things about me. I watched, helpless, as her rage mounted. "You will pick it up and hand it to me, or else." She finally uttered threateningly. Her eyebrows flickered up, which was a sign that I was going to be in serious trouble. Now, this would be a good time for the Crown Prince to come knocking on my door but I am getting ahead of myself.

She was so furious that it seemed she was growing taller until she towered heads above me. I was hoping, praying rather, that the spell would kick in. I was counting down the seconds until my step-mother's voice turned hollow. It never changed. What had I done?

Yahh! Another chapter, and one that I am happy with. This is going finally going where I want it to go. :) Like always if you have any suggestions, comments, constructive criticism, leave me a review or PM! I usually check my email after I post a chapter a little to often. Hope you liked this chapter and I am on spring break now so I'll probably be posting again soon. Much Love, ~IrisLily~

P.S. - Do you know what Sir Lawrence is hiding? And any ideas on how Bella's and Chris's date should go?