The morning of the ball…
Samantha sat in the beauty salon and smiled over at Olivia who was getting her hair done, also. Sam’s hairstylist had a thick accent in between the smacking of her gum. The woman did know what she was doing when it came to hair, and Sam was even impressed. “Honey, did you hear who’s comin’ in today?”
Sam shook her head. It was then that she realized that all the other stylists in the salon were running around like mad, trying to organize everything.
The stylist smacked her gum. “Princess Emaria! She’ll be here any minute, and you’ll get to see her!”
Sam looked at Olivia‘s wide eyes. She didn’t know why everyone made such a big deal. Emaria was just a normal girl who happened to live in the palace. She watched as the woman put the finishing touches on her hair and sprayed it. “You’re ’bout finished, honey and I reckon ya’ll can take a seat in the waitin’ room ‘til one of us are able to do your nails.”
Just as she and Olivia sat down in the waiting area, Princess Emaria arrived…along with eight other servants to escort her. Everyone in the place practically fell at the Princess’ feet, Ooohing and Aaahing. Sam rolled her eyes. She looked at her watch and realized she was going to be waiting for awhile to get her nails done.
Justin knocked on the door to his own apartment. He stood there for a minute, wondering why he hadn’t kept a spare key in case Ryan did something stupid like getting locked out. To his relief, Ryan opened the door, looking half awake. “Yo,” he said, shuffling to the couch sleepily as Justin closed the door behind them.
“Where’s Olivia?” he demanded. “Is she lost? I knew I should not have left her with a total stranger…”
“Justin. Relax. She’s with Sam getting ready for the ball tonight,” he said pulling a blanket over his head. “What are you doing here anyway? Aren‘t you supposed to be planning this thing?”
Justin sat down in a chair and ran his hand over his head, anxiously. “How are we going to do this, man?”
“Do what?” Ryan‘s voice was heard through the blanket.
“That little situation where we have to switch back and tell Sam and Emma that we’ve been lying to them without losing them forever,” Justin said, miserably.
Ryan pulled the blanket down. “Oh right, that.”
Justin sighed. “Please tell me you have a plan.”
“Don’t sweat it man. I’ve had Sam ignoring me for the last three days and still managed to get her back, so trust me, it won’t be as hard as you think.”
Justin laughed. “What did you do?”
“Why does everybody say that? Geez. I kissed her,” Ryan smiled triumphantly.
“That’s it?” Justin asked. “That’s as far as you two have gone?”
Ryan’s smile dropped. “What do you mean? Are you saying that you and Emma went further?”
Justin shook his head. “That’s nobody’s business…we just…nevermind.”
“Aw man, we’re in deeper than I thought,” Ryan said, sadly. “They‘re gonna hate us.”
Justin nodded, and hung his head.
“No I mean really hate us,” Ryan insisted.
Justin’s head sunk even lower.
“They’re going to stomp on us….and burn us alive,” Ryan said, with a passion.
“Okay! I get it! They’ll hate us. So what do we do to soften the blow?” he asked, getting up to pace the room.
“Olivia said that if they ignore us, we should be mean to them. It worked with Sam. Maybe it’ll work this time too,” Ryan suggested, hopefully.
Justin paced back and forth. “Nope, that only works once, and in the right setting. We need to come up with a good way to tell them the truth.”
“They can’t handle the truth!” Ryan yelled dramatically, quoting his favorite movie line with his hands in the air.
Justin stopped pacing to look at him. “You’re an idiot.”
Ryan laughed and put his hands down. “Okay, the truth….maybe we should tell them the truth after we switch.”
Justin kept pacing. “You think? Maybe if we weren’t telling them directly, it would give them time to cool down before they decided to hate us forever…”
“…or burn us alive.” Ryan added hopefully. Then he covered his eyes. “Dude, stop doing that! You’re making me dizzy.”
Justin sat down reluctantly. “Okay, so the plan is to spend one last romantic night with them, and make them feel special. Then we switch and tell them in the morning.”
Ryan nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
They heard a knock at the door. Both of their eyes shot up to look at it. Ryan covered up with the blanket. Justin opened the door to find William standing there.
“Mr. Timberlake, you’d better come back quickly. The royal family needs your assistance with the ball. Luckily, I covered for you this time,” he said.
“Alright. Thanks Will. Man, I owe you one,” Justin said, slapping him a high five. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
He closed the door, and Ryan peeked his head out from under the blanket. “Did you just call him Will?”
Emma waited patiently in the beauty salon’s nail room, while the employees rushed around to get the nail supplies ready. She glanced at an adorable young girl next to her. She smiled at them, politely and asked them, “I‘ve never met you before. What’s your name?”
“Olivia.”
“Olivia. That is a beautiful name. How old are you?“ Emma asked, and Olivia stared back at the princess in shock. She was much prettier than Olivia could remember seeing in pictures. She hadn’t expected the princess to be so friendly. Most princesses were either pretty or kind, never both. That only happened in fairy tales. But to Olivia Emma seemed to be a walking fairy tale and she couldn’t believe her own brother had been dating her.
“Eight,” she said, shyly.
Emma smiled. “I assume you’re getting ready for the masked ball tonight?”
Olivia nodded. “Yeah. You, too?”
“Yep,” Emma said, as a woman sat down to begin working on her nails. “I saw the palace this morning and it’s going to look wonderful tonight.”
Olivia finally gained some courage. “Are you going with Prince Ryan to the ball?”
Emma’s eyes lit up and she nodded. “I’m a little nervous. Do you think he’ll like my hair?” she asked, pointing to her fresh curls.
Olivia nodded confidently. “I know he’ll like it. He loves when girls have curly hair.”
“Oh, do you know him?” Emma asked, surprised.
“I’m a close friend,” Olivia said, as she soaked her tiny hands in water. “Don’t be nervous. I’m sure he’ll think you look beautiful.”
Emma smiled. “Well thank you, Olivia. You’re a sweetheart. Maybe I’ll see you at the ball, if I can recognize you behind your mask.”
Olivia smiled and nodded. “I’ll be the only one under four feet tall.”
