I totally understand if you just decide to skip this and read the chapter. This update was way later than I planned it would be. So I hope you enjoy it, even though it is a bit short. (SPOILER ALERT: This will start with fluff but will not end that way.) Enjoy!
(King George III POV)
"I cannot believe this!" I yelled banging my fist on my desk.
The man in front of me jumped back, hiding his eyes behind his slightly overgrown curly chestnut hair.
I frowned as I felt a twinge of guilt.
"I know it's not your fault Sammy it's just—" I sighed rubbing my left hand down my face as my other was still clenched tightly in a fist on the desk.
"I wanted, no, we needed to go to Ohio today! Now because of this stupid hurricane Olympia we can't board the plane we booked 18 days ago!"
Samuel relaxed a little but left his head down.
"I'm sorry sir. There was no way around it. With these winds…"
He was interrupted as a branch hit the windows behind my desk causing us both to jump.
I sighed deeply and took out my laptop. I looked up to see Seabury still standing in front of my desk, stiff as a military private. "You can sit down you know." He looked startled but scrambled to get a seat.
I chuckled at how nervous he still was around me. I mean, we've been friends for over 3 years now yet he still treats me like I'm royalty and his only a servant. Technically, I am from royal lineage or something, but still.
I shook myself trying to focus and tried to get my mind off of my problems by reading the news on my laptop. My interest was drawn to an article about me. It was done by someone named Alexander Hamilton. Yes, I've heard of him. He was supposedly a NY Times prodigy journalist. I bet he wrote some amazing article describing myself as a brilliant candidate for president. I started to read the first few paragraphs hoping for something to calm my nerves.
George King III, almost everyone has heard of the name. Whether by his presidential campaign or his life as a celebrity in one of the most popular reality TV shows, The Royals. He is well known for his television charm and charisma. However, as a presidential candidate, he is well known for his bigotry and white supremacy beliefs. He is well known for his offending racist comments and his discrimination against many of the immigrants in the nation. I can relate to them as I am one myself. We need a president who can be for all the people, not just a part of the population that has money to spare.
"EXCUSE ME?!"
Seabury practically fell over at my sudden outburst. "S-sorry sir, but um what are you talking about? Did I do something? If so, I'm terribly sorry! It's the chair, isn't it? It's too close, I knew it was. I'll just move over to the door if you'd like—"
"No, Seabury you're fine." I called him by his last name in an effort to calm him. He usually is more jumpy and shy when I call him Sammy for some reason.
Once he sat back down, I slowly relaxed back in my chair, placing my hands over my eyes.
"Ugh, I need an Aspirin." I groaned.
I heard something being placed in front of me and opened my eyes to see Seabury had placed a pill bottle on my desk along with a water bottle from my mini fridge.
"Thanks, Sammy," I said before taking two with a swig of water.
"Of course, sir," he replied with a small smile.
After I swallowed, I looked out the window behind me to see the winds picking up.
The autumn leaves were thrown out of their neat piles to fly recklessly in the wind. The rain came down hard causing a mist to cover the ground.
To be honest, I don't think I would actually risk flying today myself. I want to be president, not dead.
"Sir?"
I turned to face my soon to be Vice President.
"Yes?" I replied turning away from the window fully to give him my complete attention.
"Well," he started now with a light blush consuming his face. "We should probably go to a hurricane shelter. That way you can stay safe and seem like a caring presidential candidate."
I frowned as I thought about the idea.
"No…I'll wait until the eye of the storm or something. When it's calmer, I'll check on the poor, middle class, and such. Maybe kiss a few babies and offer them toilet paper or something because of the storm."
He shrugged but didn't object to the idea. "Yes, sir." He replied with a small nod as he typed a reminder on his iPhone.
Once he was done, Seabury looked up to the window, eyeing the bad weather with caution. "Uh, sir? Maybe we should go back to your mansion." I followed his gaze to see the trees practically being ripped apart by the harsh wind. "Yeah, you're probably right. Don't want to get hit by a fallen tree limb." I said with a lighter tone at the end to brighten the mood.
Suddenly, I heard a loud crack and turned around to see a large tree branch, from one of the trees planted around the building for a natural appeal, falling towards me.
I paled and was frozen in fear as it seemed to fall in slow motion towards my stiff body. My only thought as I waited to be hit was, "Crap I Jinxed it."
I felt arms wrapped around me and the next thing I know I'm on the floor with a smaller body on top of me.
It takes me exactly 5 seconds to realize 5 important things.
1. I really hate jinxes.
2. A tree limb could have killed me.
3. Seabury saved me.
4. Now he is on top of me. And he's really close.
5. He has nice eyes.
A second later, Seabury blushes profusely and quickly scrambled off of me. Before I could stand up, he began apologizing at rapid speed.
"Are you alright?! I'm so sorry! I only meant to— I was just trying to help! I swear nothing else! I never meant to— I mean, I wouldn't even dare think— At least um… Not without your consent! Wait no, I meant—"
"Sa— Ehem, Seabury it's okay. You can relax. I know it was an accident." I said placing a, what I hoped was comforting, hand on his shoulder.
I felt the tension leave his shoulders and sighed in relief, although he was still blushing and refused to look at me.
"Also, uh, thanks for saving me," I said with my voice sounding less confident than usual.
He must have noticed since he finally faced me with a small smile.
"Of course sir. Now, I think we should go."
I nodded in agreement as we walked out of my office to my elevator door.
We took the elevator to the ground floor. It was, as expected, incredibly awkward after the whole fall-on-top-of-each-other scene.
Once we got out of that horrid compartment, I started over to the doorman telling him I was done for the night and he could go home. He started saying a bunch of thank yous because of the storm and his family or something, I wasn't really listening to his petty problems.
After he finished, or more like when I decided he should finish, I walked out to my limo. Sammy went over to the other side and got in as well.
"Where to sir?" my driver (I think his name was Steve or something?) asked looking at us in his rearview mirror.
"My mansion of course. And be quick about it, I don't want to be out in this storm any longer than need be."
He nodded and started to drive off probably surpassing the speed limit, but what do I care. I want to be at home watching Mean Girls as soon as possible.
(Angelica POV)
The door opened to my office and I looked up to see my little sister walk in.
"Pegster! It's been so long. How's the new job?"
I got up to embrace her, careful of the wet umbrella she was holding.
I hugged her tight and caught a whiff of her usual sugar cookie perfume.
When I pulled back, I saw her pout although she couldn't hide the smile that was pulling at her mouth.
"Angie! I told you how much I hate that nickname!"
I smirked in amusement. "And I've told you how much I hate being called Angie, yet here we are."
She wrinkled her nose but couldn't help a smile.
We walked over to my desk, me taking a seat behind it while she sat in front.
"So how's the new job?" I started conversationally as I sipped what was left of my afternoon coffee.
She sprung up in her seat as her eyes took on a look of excitement. "Oh, Angelica it's amazing! The kids are so sweet! They're not at all rude, and always follow instructions. I can't understand why people always complain about this job. I find it amazing! And I can help others too!"
I smiled as she went on a spiel about the classes she taught. I could tell she really liked her job.
"I honestly could never do it. I would probably kill someone less than an hour after the first bell rung." I said with a shrug. "I'm not good with kids, as you well know."
She chuckled as I referred to our childhood. I often got annoyed with the younger kids at school, and the older ones. Well, basically with almost everyone at school in general.
"You were always so strict. You were supposed to be the fun one!" Peggy whined, referring to how we would sneak out to the mall sometimes when I was supposed to be babysitting. She would go shopping for clothes with Eliza while I would usually start arguing with some of the idiots that would hit on me.
I smirked, "I wouldn't be talking if I were you miss 'Daddy said not to go downtown'." She pouted at my teasing. Sticking her bottom lip out with hurt puppy dog eyes.
"You weren't very outgoing back then."
She gasped in fake offense. "How dare you?! I'll have you know I was very outgoing!"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, just not when sneaking out the house on school nights." I laughed as she relented with her arms crossed.
"Anyway, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be home, grading kindergarten art projects or something?" I asked. She seemed to suddenly remember something important as she shot out of her chair.
"That's right! I came over here to pick you up! There's a hurricane going on out there!" she said grabbing her forgotten umbrella.
"What?! When did this happen?" I asked confused and slightly panicked.
Peggy looked back at me in shock. "How did you not know?! It's been on the news for a week and it's horrible out there! I came here to take you home." She said moving to grab my hand and pull me to the other side of the desk.
I was still in shock trying to process the fact that there was a raging hurricane outside and I didn't even notice.
We rushed down out of my office and down the stairs. After leaving my office for the first time in 4 hours, I realized just how empty the place was. Usually, the law office is constantly busy, but currently, I couldn't see a single person in the lengthy halls. I can't believe I was so wrapped up in my work that I didn't realize…
When we got outside, I saw just how bad it was.
When I first got to work it was sunny and peaceful outside, now it looked like it was a second away from the apocalypse.
The sky was so dark it looked like it was night. The storm clouds clashed causing deafening chaos as the rain came down as knives, cold and unforgiving. I was immediately hit with a strong wind that seemed to grab at my clothes and hair yelling at me to go back inside to safety.
The storm drains began to overflow from the onslaught of water coming from the sky. And that was just the weather-caused destruction.
People were running a mess. The store windows nearby shattered as a man jumped for a useless TV.
Another guy starts fighting him for the TV seeming oblivious to the other five in the window display.
A woman runs with her crying baby trying to desperately get to shelter.
I move to help them but Peggy tugs on my arm.
I turn back to look at her in confusion when:
Snap!
I turned to see a telephone pole coming down towards us.
Peggy's quick thinking saved me as she pulled me out of the way.
The force of the pull made us fall down only three feet away from the telephone pole.
I was staring at it in shock trying to recover from my life and death experience when Peggy was already on her feet trying to tug me away.
"Come on Ang! We have to move before the frayed telephone and electrical lines start to spark a fire or something!" she said somehow keeping her voice assertive rather than frantic.
As we ran through the streets to her car, I was amazed by her ability to stay calm at a time like this.
"Pegs, how are you so calm?! I'm practically freaking out!"
She smiled at me while we both got into her minivan.
"Volunteering with the fire department in high school paid off," she said as she started the car and drove off onto the amazingly empty road, excluding a few frantic, running pedestrians. Apparently, everyone was too busy running around to actually think about driving to a safe place.
Well, that's the human race for you.
I had just heard the click of my seatbelt as Peggy floored the gas and the car zoomed off up the hill. She seemed to have a laser focus on the road only breaking to beep at any jaywalkers, which basically occurred every few minutes.
"Angelica, look up the highest point in New York City on your iPhone. We need to get as high above sea level as possible."
I nodded, unable to form a complete sentence due to the stress of the situation.
Just as I turned on my phone, Peggy made a sharp turn. I yelped as I tried to grab onto my seat to stay balanced.
When I turned around, I saw a tree lying on the right lane of the road we were previously driving in.
As soon as my phone was on, it immediately started beeping loudly, the bright red screen displaying the words:
HURRICANE WARNING! CATEGORY 3!
I paled and turned to Peggy trying to keep my suddenly frantic breathing under control.
"It's a Category three Hurricane…"
Her eyes flickered showing her true concern before returning to the calm assertive persona as she turned left. "We can worry about that later. First, we need to find a place for shelter."
We passed a few skyscrapers before I started to feel like I was tilting back. We were gaining higher ground.
A few skyscrapers flew past my window before I could clearly see the Hudson River.
I was used to seeing it shine in the sunlight when I first moved here and toured the city of Manhattan. Then it had sparkles and shimmered, a perfect image of beauty and peace. Now it seemed angry at the world and filled with pent-up tension as the usual ripples turned into bigger and bigger waves. The waves crashed against the land, seemingly trying to break it away bit by bit until it could join the other river and find peace and serenity in this urban city.
The waves reached higher and higher… before receding.
Thank god. We're safe. Well, hopefully for at least a moment.
Then I saw something in the distance. It seemed to be a large cargo boat at first, but then I realized with a great shock that it was the water. It was forming the largest wave I've ever seen.
Then the city sirens started to blare.
My mouth dropped open as my mind busied itself trying to comprehend what was happening.
Then my phone started blaring again with a cursed red screen broadcasting the words:
STORM SURGE ALERT!
"Holy sh—"
Peggy swerved and I screamed as we almost crashed into the side rail protecting us from crashing into the water.
I reached wildly for something to grab, my hand taking hold of the side of my seat as we go back to the road. I sighed in relief trying to calm my rapidly beating heart as I laid my forehead against my passenger seat window.
"Oh my god."
I turned around to face Peggy, she was as pale as a sheet as she focused on the road even more. I started to ask what was wrong, well other than this entire situation, when I heard something.
It was a soft churning, but it was gradually getting louder. It sounded far off behind us.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and gasped in horror.
The wave that I saw in the distance only a minute ago was now much closer and seemed to be only minutes away from crashing through skyscrapers behind us as it flooded the streets of New York.
If I thought my breathing was frantic before, now I was straight up hyperventilating.
"No, no, no, no, no! Turn! Get us off the road! We need to get out of here now!"
Peggy ignored my exclamations, laser-focused on the road as more and more pedestrians gathered in confusion and fear.
Someone must have finally noticed the wave because a shrill scream was heard.
I saw a young girl screaming as she pointed to the wave, shaking in terror.
The others turned to see what made her scream before having terrified reactions themselves. The people of Manhattan blindly ran to get as far away from the wave as possible.
So this is what it feels like to be in a disaster movie.
As if on cue, the water finally hit the streets flooding the buildings around us. Some of the weaker ones even began to topple down.
"Dear Lord…"
The buildings acted as dominoes as the smaller ones knocked into the taller skyscrapers. The tense atmosphere was filled with screams of terror, glass breaking, and cement being crushed.
I heard the loud eerie sound of steel slowly bending and looked up to see a building leaning towards the car.
"Peggy!" She glanced in her rearview mirror and slammed on the gas as she turned onto a more deserted road. The building crashed down sending up a cloud of dust from the cement, barely missing our car.
I tried to calm my breathing as we sped down the narrow road.
I held onto my seatbelt as we accelerated. At first, we were barely going 50 mph. Now we were nearing 70 mph.
I turned around to see that water was a lot closer and moving toward us fast.
Oh god no. Please! I'm not ready to die yet! And my family! Peggy can't die! And Eliza has Philip! Oh, please let us all make it out of this. Please!
I prayed as hard as I could, hoping that somehow against all odds that we would find our way out of this storm.
Wait! Eliza!
"Peggy! Have you contacted Eliza!?" I asked now, slightly apprehensive but still desperately wanting to hear about my other younger sister's fate.
For the first time since we went out into this storm, she looked completely terrified.
"Shit! I totally forgot to call her again! I called her twice, but it went straight to voicemail. She was staying late at the school today!"
I scrambled for my phone and hit her contact picture. The phone rang and rang but there was no answer. I started to leave a message. "Liza! Are you alright?! God, I'm so stupid for not checking on you earlier! Please tell me you got to safety! Call me as soon as you can! I lov—"
"Holy shit, Angelica brace yourself!"
I turned around and my scream was muffled as the wave crashed into our car.
So... don't kill me. Please just tell me what you think! Hopefully, I can publish the next update soon. Maybe even sometime this weekend. Bye...
~PJOandHP4life
