Matthew's POV

"Aunt Marlee, can we make dinner for the family tonight?" I ask.

"Ooh, and can we bake a cake?" Tess adds. "Lemon, specifically."

Aunt Marlee frowns but shrugs. "Okay, I guess." She's been appointed head of the royal kitchens since my mother became queen. "Everyone, the prince and the princess are making dinner tonight. Be back down here at eight when the meal is finished so we can wash the dishes."

Everyone takes off their aprons and sets down their utensils. We planned it to be four o'clock to make sure that we had time to mess up and to ensure that the cooks haven't started cooking yet. Luckily, they haven't.

The staff empties out of the kitchens, happy for their impromptu four-hour break. "Matthew, you know where to find the stuff," Aunt Marlee says. "Promise me you won't destroy anything?"

"Promise," we both say.

"Excellent. The cookbooks are in the cupboard if you want. Have fun!" Aunt Marlee disappears up the stairwell.

"Tess, do you know how to cook?" I ask her.

"Maybe? I'm good at following directions, though." She grabs an apron and hands me one. "I feel so professional."

"It's only a feeling," I tease. She lightly hits my arm with a wooden spoon. It didn't hurt, but I squeal "ow!" anyway. "Okay, directions: get flour, sugar, lemons, butter, milk, vanilla extract, and mint, because Michael liked it with milk."

"On it, sir," she says, saluting. I laugh and start cooking the pesto pasta with Chicken Marsala. "Love, how many cups of what?" she asks, coming back with everything in her arms. I quickly scrawl down the measurements while the water's boiling.

"There you go," I say, returning to my cooking. Dinner is going to be fantastic.

Thirty minutes later

"Pasta's done," I announce. "I'm going to start the chicken."

"Yeah, good for you," Tess mutters.

"Are you having trouble baking a cake?"

"What? No, it's already in the oven." I look at her and can't help but laugh. Her hands and her face are still white from the flour. She looks like a ghost.

She rolls her eyes and goes to wash her hands. "You meanie," she says, pouting.

"Were you making frosting yourself?"

"Yep, I remembered how. It tastes pretty good, if I do say so myself."

I go to the bowl where she was making frosting and swipe my finger in it. "Mm, yeah, that's really good," I say.

"Matthew!" She grabs the bowl away from me and says, "I love doing this."

"Baking?"

"No, just acting like a normal couple. If we were just regular people, do you think we'd be doing this?"

I start to cut the chicken breasts into halves. "Probably not all the time. I'm assuming it would get tiring after a while. You'd probably be at work, doing some fancy medical stuff, and I'd maybe be a literature professor."

"Mm, a professor," she says coyly. "Sounds sexy."

"Go back to baking, woman."


Tess's POV

So dinner last night was a blast. People liked the cake, and it tasted okay. To be honest, I think they were just saying that to make me feel better, and I think they remembered it was Michael's favorite.

We're at the Novartis headquarters now, which is still in Angeles. Doctors in white medical labs run to and fro and I admire them so much for being able to use their intelligence for the better. Here at the research division, people sit in front of computers, looking up things. They found an anticancer agent back in 2014. It fills me with tears to know that these people saved thousands, maybe millions, of lives. Three months from my internship here fills my mind. I'm praying to God that that dream is a memory and not an imagination.

I had a dream last night where we went to a hospital for Matthew. The line was long and my patience was short, so I started cutting people, but I kept getting farther away from the building. I feel as if Life is telling me that I'm only farther away from meeting my goals. Stupid Life.

"Your highness," a tall doctor says, walking out of the testing room. They told me to wait outside as they checked their database for any cure of cardiomyopathy.

"Did you have anything, doctor? How is Matthew?" I'm anxious yet eager for the doctor's answer.

"The prince is doing fine, your highness. We're taking samples right now. As for the cure, I am afraid that we don't have any progress as of late. We've been looking for a cure since the queen's father passed away of cardiomyopathy, but we've made some small advances toward an actual cure."

"What would be the cure?"

"This cure isn't like your average vaccination. The pacemaker is doing a lot of help, but I heard that he fainted after a game of football. We recommend he not do any extraneous movements that might cause his arrhythmia to, so to speak, activate. The cure would probably something we'd have to attach to his heart."

"Is there any alternative?" I ask.

The doctor blinks, hesitating. "Er, yes, but it's risky and it hasn't been done since pre-Illéa."

"What is it?"

"A heart transplant."

A gasp escapes me. "Heart transplant?" I've never even heard of such a thing.

"Yes. We've taken some look into it, but we haven't really tried it. The procedure would be complicated, and even then, he'd have an average of fifteen years left in his life."

"Fifteen?" I ask, shocked. That's not enough time. There's never enough time.

"The prince would live well into his thirties with the heart transplant. We would need a donor as well, a working heart from a recently-deceased person."

"I suppose that's not the biggest problem, is it? Finding a donor, I mean."

He shakes his head. "No, not even that. The procedure itself would be very difficult, but not impossible. It has been done before."

"But, as you said, surgery would just be an alternative, correct?"

"If there is no sign for any possible cure, then no, it wouldn't be an alternative. That would ultimately be our cure."

I don't respond for a while. A very risky procedure with an uncertain outcome doesn't sit well in my stomach. "I'll give you some time to think about that, your highness," the doctor says, turning around.

"Wait!" I say before he enters the room. "I didn't catch your name."

He smiles. "Jeremiah Masterson."

The name clicks in my head. "Do you, by any chance, know Natalie Luca? She was a candidate from the king's Selection."

"Yes, actually. Natalie is my wife."

I smile. "Small world."

"Yes, it is."


So throughout my stories, you find out what I did to most of the Elite.

America: Queen
Celeste: Bitchy model who helped with the Caste Placement Tests
Elise: ... I don't think I've put her in the story YET, but I'm open to any suggestions!
Kriss: Married to Aspen Leger (I would have had him marry Lucy but I wrote the first chapters of "The Fire" before The One was released.)
Marlee: Works at the royal kitchens as head chef; married to Carter, who works at the stables; godmother to America's children
Natalie: Married to a doctor who helped her out of her mental instability when Natalie's sister died.

I don't have any specific ages for them, but assume that they are in their thirties.

Question of the day: Who knows what Soundcloud is? Oh, and it's so funny how many of your favorite ice cream flavors were cookies and cream.

Thanks for the reviews!

LittleMissTori- Aww you're crying? And yes, I was trying to pull a TFiOS. Sue me? Disclaimer? Idk. Thank you so much!

LovableL101- I'm so happy you still think this is going well! Thanks so much!

agb1700- OMG The Bachelorette was cray. I didn't cry, though. TV shows and movies have to be really good to make me cry (e.g. TFiOS) Thank you so much for pointing out that thing! I updated it to birthday btw. Lurve ya!

Guest- You want a miscarriage? Dayyum :P I'll take that into consideration :) Your review was actually full of great ideas. Thank you!

bubble4life- 1. Dude, I love lists, this made me squeal; 2. He'll find out soon enough; 3. That's a weird coincidence :P ; 4. Avi is a badass name and I looove Kevin; 5. That's a really good song to do an acapella version; 6. THEY'RE DATING?!; 7. Awww you flatter me :D Thank you so much!

ChatterboxChipmunk- Mm mango green tea sounds yummers. Wait, they AREN'T dating? I'm confused. Thank you so much! And give me a heads up on your new username :)

Please-and-Thankyou's- Yay! I'm glad you like it! Thank you!

fantasybookgirl- Mmm cookie dough is my faaaave. That or mint ice cream. They actually hold really special places in my heart...and my stomach :) Thank you so much!

KhrystineR- Yay! New reviewer! And happy belated birthday! I totally read your mind on that :P Awww this review...I can't get over how sweet this is :) Thank you so much!

ilona18- Heehe I have a hard time sometimes separating Tess and myself. Ice cream is da bomb diggity :) Thank you!

PokemonLuver151- Thanks so much!

winterprincess- Cookies and cream lol. Girl, boy, or dead? To live, or not to live. That is the question :P Thank you so much!

HikariTheNormaller- Mmm my stories are giving you THOSE kinds of dreams :P Jk jk. Awww you are soooo nice! Thank you soo much! I update because I get reviews! The more reviews I get the more motivated I am :P Thank you so much!

WinteryRose- I actually really appreciated the advice. And in response to the Tess being the solution to every problem thing, I wasn't planning on her finding the cure anyway. I promise you. I'd reveal what I intended, but that would be a spoiler and I feel like it's going to be that issue where you won't believe me and I only changed the plot because you told me about it. I'm not that person. Thank you, though.

SelectionLoverForever- Thank you sooo much! That means the world to me!

Love ya!- AcademicGirl