I woke up to the light and tinkling music that came from my five-thousand dollar alarm clock. It was the day after Thanksgiving which meant that all the channels would be playing Christmas Carols even though the holiday was still over a month away. God, not even two minutes into the holiday season and I was already looking forward to December twenty-seventh. That had to be some kind of record.

Groaning, I slammed my fist on the off button and rolled over to the other side of my bed. Really, I didn't get why my father insisted I got up at eight in the morning when there wasn't even school! Would it really kill him to allow his eighteen-year-old son to sleep in just once? I wasn't even in college, yet!

Sure enough, like always, Macey-my personal maid-came barging in my room shortly after, my door slamming shut behind her. She was the only female who my father allowed to be alone in my room with me for reasons I didn't quite get. The last thing I was interested in was getting in trouble with some girl, especially while the chances of taking over my father's company were next to none. And besides, it wasn't like he would be able to know considering he didn't live with me and was rarely ever there anyway.

"Come on!" she cried, clapping her hands together once. "It's time to get up!"

I grunted softly and peeked an eye open to look at my clock. Yup. 8:05. Right on time. As usual. Maybe that was why she was the only one allowed in my room alone. Macey would rather die than do anything she deemed "unprofessional" with me.

Sighing, I sat up and after the blinking the sleep out of my eyes, I finally got a good look at my maid. Macey had curly brown hair that fell to her mid back and sharp brown eyes. She was one of those overly-hyper cheerleader girls that always got up at six no matter what, despite being a teenager herself. And I had to suffer for it.

She smiled when she'd seen that I was fully awake. "Good." she nodded her head, before turning back towards the door. "I expect you downstairs in ten minutes for breakfast."

Of course she did. Because why in the hell would I be able to take my sweet time when there was absolutely nothing to do? That would just be plain stupid.

She left briskly, the door slamming shut behind her again. I shook my head before reaching for the clothes that she must have laid on the foot of my bed before waking me up. I somehow managed to get dressed, fix my hair, brush my teeth, and make it down to the living room, where my friend, Raphael and about a dozen servants were waiting for me, in ten minutes. Because "impossible" didn't exist in the Clarke dictionary.

"Took you long enough." Raphael smirked, picking up his fork as I sat down.

He always came over to my house for breakfast, seeing as his cook-Shantelle-always put odd stuff in her food, then smacked you with a towel if you didn't eat every last bite. That was part of the reason why I had only gone to visit him once, the other part being that with the huge painting of his family tree taking up most of the wall in his living room freaked me out. I could only trace my family back as far as my father and his siblings, I barely even remembered my mother, much less her entire side of the family. It seemed Rafe could name all of his ancestors back to the cavemen.

Anyway, not it almost seemed like he was over at my place more than his own, despite the fact that we weren't that close. Oh sure, I called him my best friend and most of the help thought we were siblings, but that didn't mean we were really close. I didn't even know his last name for Pete's sake! For the most part we were just friends for the sake of having someone to be friends with so that we wouldn't have to worry about people getting on our backs all the time for being alone.

"How can you be up so early?" I asked as I sat down across from him and laid my napkin in my lap.

"I run on the right schedule." Raphael took a bite of his eggs and swallowed before continuing. "Plus, there's something I would like to ask of you."

I blinked. Raphael never asked for help with anything. He was the type of person who would rather fail by himself than pass with any kind of help.

"What is it?" I asked, curiosity trickling into my voice, despite my best attempts to make myself seem impassive.

Raphael smiled, obviously pleased with himself for being able to peak my interest. "I have this cousin. Next week her parents are going away for a few months to take care of her father's sister who's in the last stage of her pregnancy. So she's coming to stay with me. Unfortunately-" he took a sip ofhis coffee as if he was trying to make me snap from my curiosity. "-Unfortunately, I am having some friends over for a few weeks, and I don't think she would appreciate sleeping in the same house as boys, so..."

"You want her to stay with me." I raised an eyebrow as I finished the sentence. It was a bit odd that he would come to me to take her-seeing as I was a boy, too, after all.

He nodded.

I thought about it for a second, even though I already knew what the answer was going to be, chewing my food while I did. "Is it your poor cousin?" I eventually asked.

"She isn't poor," Raphael's voice dropped an octave as he grew defensive. "And yes, she-"

"No."

Raphael blinked and stared at me. "What?"

"No."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"I refuse to have any poor-" I caught myself before he could butt in. "-Any commoner set one filthy foot in my house." well, that and the thought of having one of his many family members in my house genuinely terrified me. The last thing I needed was for her to go around talking about how she may not have a lot of money but she had the picture perfect family with both parents still happily married and maybe an older brother and younger sister. Raphael didn't even have to say anything about them and I could already imagine they were the types of people who sent out Christmas cards just so they could boast about how happy they all were. Yeah, no thanks.

"But you let the servants in." he pointed out.

Shit, he had me there. But there was no way I was going to allow him to talk me into this. "They're different."

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Rane! It's only for a few weeks!"

"No."

"You'll hardly even notice she's here!"

Did this guy not know when to give up? God, the one time he came to me for help and it had to be for this. Anything else and I would've been more than willing to lend a hand, but this... this was just way too much. There was no way in hell I could allow someone like her to live with me for God only knew how long.

"No."

Raphael leaned forward and made his eyes go wide as if he were about to beg. Oh hell. He never begged. "Please, Rane."

I sighed, and sat back in my chair, crossing my arms as I did so. My food was quickly growing cold, although that was okay. I hadn't been hungry anyway to begin with. "Tell me, then. Why does she have to stay but her younger sister doesn't? It doesn't make sense to send one teenage girl to live with me but stick the other one in the same predicament you had hoped to avoid with the other one."

Raphael's dirty brown eyebrows drew together in confusion. "What are you talking about? She doesn't have a sister."

"What?" my shoulders drooped ever so slightly from the shock. "But didn't you say she had a younger sister and an older brother?"

"Uh... she has a younger brother." Raphael shook his head. "I don't have any family members that have a younger sister and an older brother. At least, no female cousins."

"Oh..." boy, did I feel dumb, now. But that didn't change anything and I voiced my beliefs, which caused the same conversation to happen again.

"Master Rane." Macey cut in before we could get too far into the argument. I had to keep from jumping as I had completely forgotten she was even there. "If I may-" she whispered something in my ear.

A smile broke out across my face. I turned back to Raphael and nodded. "Alright, she can stay."

2: Misty

3: Rane

I crossed my legs and dropped my head in my hands. What the hell had Macey talked me into? Taking a commoner into my house and treating her as if she were my complete equal? Was I even capable of that?

When was the last time I had even communicated with someone of her status-or lack there of? Or maybe a better question was; had I ever communicated with someone like her? At least, willingly when I had nothing to gain from it. Well, even though that wasn't necessarily true with her, either. So long as she accepted the agreement, at least.

And where would she want to sleep? Didn't commoners have some kind of thing against comfortable beds? Oh hell, there was so much studying I was going to have to do to make sure that she-a lowly girl who's entire house was probably worth less than the pants I had on-was comfortable here.

I didn't spend much time dwelling on the thought. After a sparse minute and a half, I flipped out my cellphone specifically for friends and dialed in the familiar number. There were only two numbers in that particular phone, as I didn't have time to socialize with anyone outside of my family or clients, so I found it easier just to memorize the two of them rather than scroll through his contacts.

"Rane, I'm in the same house." Macey's agitated voice came from the other end, when she'd answered after two rings. "You could just get off your ass and come find me."

"I don't have the time." I flipped out one of my other phones and began scrolling through the contacts on that one which was much longer. "I've decided that since it was your idea to have that commoner girl stay with us-"

"Technically it was Raphael's idea." Macey cut me off, not sounding any less upset.

I glared over at the phone even though I knew she couldn't see me through it. "But you're the one who talked me into it. Anyway, I've decided that it's your job to get everything ready for her, then."

I wasn't sure, but I swore I could hear her grumble; "I already figured it was my job." but what she actually said to me was, "Don't tell me you're afraid of a little seventeen-year-old girl."

"Don't be ridiculous," I found the number I was looking for and set the phone down on the arm next to my chair. I had stupidly thought that this conversation would be short and simple, allowing me to get to other business, even though I should have known that with Macey nothing was ever short or simple.

"You know she's not a dog." Macey finally didn't sound angry anymore, instead she seemed amused which was almost if not as worse. "She won't die if you feed her human food."

I glowered at the wall across the room and ground my teeth. The last thing I needed was to lash out at my best worker and have her leave. Even though I would never say it to her face, I really didn't know what I would do if Macey suddenly decided to quit.

"Please just get everything set up for her so I don't have to think about it." I growled.

"Your wish is my command, sir." I could almost hear her rolling her eyes. "Is there anything else you need while I have you?"

"Yes, actually." I was almost afraid to say this, knowing all it would do was start another argument, but I had to get it done. "I want you to do a background check on this girl."

"What?" Macey gasped.

"I have to make sure she can be trusted." I leaned back in the chair and stared up at the ceiling. "I can't risk something happening."

"Are you kidding me?" Macey hissed. "She's Raphael's cousin! Can't you just trust him?!"

"Mmm..." I shook my head. "No."

"You're horrible."

I sighed. "Just get those files for me. As thorough as you possible can."

"No. I refuse to. It's a violation of her privacy, and therefor, her rights."

"I don't care about her rights!" I hissed. "I care about knowing everything about everyone who's in my house!"

"Well, then you can do it yourself. Now, if you don't mind, I have a room to pick out."

Macey hung up before I got the chance to say something else. I frowned and lowered the phone so I could glare at it as if all my problems were somehow its fault. For a second I thought about calling her back, but had no doubt she'd just ignore me as she usually did when she got mad.

I tossed the phone on the table in front of me and proceeded to call with the other one. The person I was now calling didn't pick up nearly as fast as Macey had. But that was no surprise, the two of them were as different as night and day, which was why it was so surprising that they got along as well as they did.

"Why, Raney-poo!" an overly cheery voice squealed from the other side of the phone. "You never call me!"

I winced at how high her voice was, before smiling slightly. Really, she never changed. "Hi, Regina. I needed to talk to you about something."

Regina was my father's older sister, and had always been super hyper and cheery for as long as I remembered. A stark contrast to my father who I didn't think I had seen smile even once in my entire life. Despite how much of a show I put on to make people think that my aunt annoyed the hell out of me, the truth was I actually liked her more than my own father. Sure, she was hyper and overbearing at times, but she was the one who had brought me to the doctor's when I was sick and put band-aids on my scraped knees back before I had the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. How could I not love her?

"I hope it isn't about your birthday party next week!" her voice hinted that she had no suspicions that it was about that. "Because everything has just been finalized!"

I winced at that. Perfect. Now I was going to have to pull some strings to get this going. "Actually..."

"Rane..." suddenly Regina's chirpiness was gone, replaced by a menacing snarl. "I told you and told you that the deadline for making changes to your party was noon today."

"Well, yes," I rubbed the back of my head, terrified in only the way Regina could make me feel. "But between now and then, there have been some... changes. I need you to make enough for one extra person."

"Oh, is that all?" her cheer was back in a flash. "Rane, you know I always make sure we have enough for those on the list and then some! Having one more person won't matter at all!"

Oh, well that was good. For a second there, I'd been afraid I'd have to deal with her wrath and when she was angry, Regina was a force even my father couldn't reckon with.

"But why do you need an extra person?" Regina suddenly asked. "Don't tell me my Raney-poo finally has a girlfriend!"

"No," I answered quickly, trying hard to keep my cool.

"Kids, guess what!" I heard Regina calling out, more faintly now. "Rane has a girlfriend now!"

"Regina, please." I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose in agitation. "She isn't my girlfriend."

"But she is a girl?" apparently, that hadn't been the best thing to say from the way I could tell she was smirking. "Which means there is a chance?"

"Waney has a girlfriend?" I heard Regina's youngest, Mary-Weather ask. "Is she nice?"

"I'm sure she is, dear."

"She isn't my girlfriend." I groaned. For Pete's sake, I hadn't even met the girl yet!

"So, tell me about her." Regina chuckled as if I hadn't said anything. Which in her mind was probably true. She had a knack for only hearing things she wanted to hear.

"It doesn't matter, because we're not-"

"What's her name?" Regina cut me off. "What does she look like?" she gasped. "Oh! What does she like?! Does she like to shop?! Because Mary-Weather and I-"

"Actually, Regina, I have to get going." I cut her off before she started asking really embarrassing questions. "Work and stuff."

Regina sighed. "Raney-poo, you work way too much. You're not even out of high school, yet! The only work you should be doing is things involving your new girlfriend!"

"But she isn't-" I sighed and shook my head. "Thank you for your concern, Regina. But I really have to get going. Goodbye."

"Bye-bye Raney!" Mary-Weather called out.

I hung up my phone before Regina got the chance to say something else. It more than likely would've been another question about the commoner who was coming to live with me, and the last thing I needed was to have to explain the fact that I didn't even know my apparent girlfriend's name.

Although as I thought about it, this could actually come in handy for me. Now that Regina was completely convinced that the two of us were going out, my goal might actually be easier to meet. Now all I had to do was wait for the girl and get her to agree to the plan.

I sat back in the chair and smiled at nothing in particular.

For once it seemed everything was going my way.

4: Misty

5: Rane

I paced the entry way as I waited for the girl to show up. She was over twenty minutes late and I was beginning to grow very irritated. Who the hell did she think she was? If someone was nice enough to allow you to stay with them, you could at least have enough common curtousy to show up on time. I swore, by the time I finished with her, she would be arriving at places five minutes early at the very least.

"Master Rane," Macey said from the top of the staircase where she'd been watching me. "Wipe that glare off your face. You won't get what you want if you look like you want to kill her."

We were the only two people in the house, as I'd given everyone else the day off so I could speak tot he girl in private without fear of being over heard. The less people who actually knew about the plan, the better as far as I was concerned.

"I do want to kill her." I grumbled. "I swear, by the time I'm done with her, she'll be showing up at places ten minutes early and then counting down the seconds before making her presence known so it seems she arrived right on the dot."

Macey sighed and began to descend the steps toward me. "The chances of her watch being exact with yours down to the second is pretty low."

"It doesn't matter." I hissed, clenching my hands into fists.

"Master Rane, might I point out that all she has to do is allow her parents to leave and then run right back to her house." Macey stopped at the bottom of the stairs and gave me a harsh glare. "If she doesn't like it, there's really nothing keeping her here aside from a flimsy promise. So, under the circumstances I hate to say it, but you need her more than she needs you. Please try and keep that in mind before you do anything brash."

I clenched my teeth, but then straightened my face out so that I hopefully didn't look as ready to murder someone as I felt. Macey was right. I needed her to help me, and I wouldn't get that if she thought I was pissed. The last thing I needed was her running home before I could even tell her about my own situation and why I allowed her to stay.

A knock came from the door, just as I finished massaging all the tension away from my cheeks. Macey raced down the corridor and opened it to reveal a nervous looking girl. She had blonde hair that just barely passed her shoulders-accompanied by bangs that fell right above her eyebrows-with blue eyes. And I could smell the cheap shampoo in her hair. Man, from the looks of it this girl was a complete and utter mess! I hoped she would be able to pull off what I had in store for her.

"Are you Rane Clarke?" she asked, offering Macey a shy smile as she did so. I nodded. Her smile widened just a bit and she thrust out a calloused hand with chipped, uneven nails. Absolutely horrid. "Hi, my name's Misty Sharp."

I stared down at the hand in disgust. Did she actually expect me to touch it? "Take your shoes off and give them to Macey-" I gestured to the brunette, turning around sharply. "-before you enter the house."

"Um, okay." Misty said, obviously confused by my actions. She probably wasn't used to people refusing to shake her hand because commoners were just disgusting enough to be willing to touch anything. She would soon learn that things worked differently in my world.

A few moments later, she was right behind me, now bareoot. She was towing two large suitcases behind her with a camouflage backpack hooked to one. I almost stopped and suggested we wait for Macey to finish so that she could help, but then realized there was no way I'd put my maid through the embarrassement of having to touch such dirty things.

"Come," I said, motioning for her to follow me without really looking at her. "I'll show you to your room."

Misty followed me without a word and I felt my eye twitch. I hated silences, plus I needed her to like me and talking always seemed like the quickest way for that goal to be met.

"I trust you had a safe trip." I mentally smacked myself for saying something so corny, but it was the best I could come up with.

"Um," Misty sounded shocked by my voice, as if she were surprised I had lowered myself to actually speak with someone like her. "Yeah, I did." her answer was confused, like she was wondering why I would ask like she had taken a five hour plane ride instead of a ten minute car trip.

"Good," I motioned to a door, already having decided that I wasn't going to explain myself. "This will be your room." I said, stopping by it and opening it up.

It was a simple room, the smallest in the house. It merely held a queen sized bed with a bedside lamp, a dresser, a desk, and a plasma screen t.v. To tell the truth, the room was so small and meaningless I hadn't even known it was here until Macey suggested it yesterday. Apparently to Misty, though, it was amazing.

She gawked at it, her eyes so huge they looked as if they were about to pop out of her head. Her hands went limp in amazement, causing the two suitcases to fall to the floor with loud thumps. I grimaced and turned away quickly, lest I accidentally let something out that I would regret.

"And this over here," I said, moving to to the door that sat right next to the television, pretending not to notice her amazement. "Is your bathroom."

Once again, it was nothing much. Just a toilet, shower and separate jacuzzi, but-yet again-she was thourouly amazed. Jeez, how did those commoners live? My bathroom alone had all this plus an actual bath, a stand to store food on, a floating desk for paperwork and a second door which led to my walk in closet.

"You're kidding." she murmured, turning to face me.

I blinked, completely confused. "Excuse me?"

"I can't stay in a room like this!" she gasped, looking around. "It's way too nice!"

Nice? This? It was as simple as I got! "I'm afraid it's the smallest room in the house."

Misty turned to me, eyes wide, before shaking her head and moving one of her suitcases to the middle of the room. I felt my eye twitch, was it possible for this girl to get any more rude? I worked my butt off to give her a nice room that suited her tastes, and she shakes her head?

"Um," I was brought ou of my thoughts as she spoke. She was staring down at her now open suitcase and wringing her hands nervously. "I'm sorry. I'm not meaning to be rude, it's just... I feel so out of my element here." she bit her lip for a brief second, then looked up at me. "I really do appreciate the room. Thank you."

The annoyance I felt should've died down at that, but for some reason-call it stress, stubborness, whatever-it went up instead. My hands clenched into fists as I worked hard not to glare down at her. I wanted to hit her so bad, but I still needed her. If I couldn't get her to help me then...

"Feh." I snorted, turning away from her and towards the door. "Just be to dinner on time. I don't know how normal it is for your people to arrive late, but we're always punctual."

And with that I left, slamming the door behind me. I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a disgruntled sigh. This was going to be the longest month of my life.

Clapping came from down the hall. I turned to see Macey standing there with a sarcastic smile on her face. Dammit, what was with girls trying to piss me off today?

"Good job." she chuckled humorlessly. "That'll get her to helpyou for sure."

I glared over at her. "Don't you have something to clean?"

Macey shook her head before walking over to me. "You made an ass of yourself back there. How are you going to make up for it?"

"What do you mean?" I gasped. "So she doesn't appreciate the room I worked my ass off to suit her tastes and suddenly I come off as the bad guy!"

Macey raised an eyebrow at me, as if to say "You worked your ass off to find it?"

I shook my head. "Whatever, whatever. You know what I mean."

She sighed, before shrugging. "Us commoners have a... simpler way of thinking."

I groaned before walking off. "Whatever. Make sure she bathes before dinner. I'll probably get sick if I have to look at that dirt on her face while I eat."

"You don't really mean that." Macey said behind me as if she knew I didn't but I didn't know.

I stopped and turned around to face her. "Of course I do. Dirt is disgusting. It shows bad hygiene."

"It shows that she knows what it means to be a kid." Macey shot back before smliing and putting her hands on her hips. "You know, I think you might learn a thing or two from that girl."

I snorted. "What could I ever learn from a commoner like her?"

"You'd be surprised."

6: Misty

7: Rane

Macey glared at me from across the table as I stirred my coffee. I pretended not to notice her for the first several minutes, but I could only do so for so long before sighing.

"Alright," I glanced up at her, "What is it?"

"This is a bad idea, Master Rane." she hissed, moving her arms from her hips to crossed in front of her.

"What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow. "It was your idea."

The moment the last word left my mouth I regretted saying it. My maid's eyes widened in complete anger and for the briefest of seconds I was almost afraid she was going to try and murder me. "I said to pretend she was your girlfriend. Not to change her so she suited your tastes better."

"It's not my tastes I'm worrying about." I sat back and crossed my arms. "It's my father's. She can be herself around me all she wants. It isn't going to make me like her."

"You are a despicable human being." Macey hissed.

I shrugged before standing up without even taking a single sip of my drink. "Now if you don't mind, I have some things to get ready for her first lesson."

"I really don't approve of this!" Macey called after me as I left the room but I paid no mind.

Misty glared at me from across the table, her torso struggling to break free of the binds that held her in. It was an hour later, and she had just gotten home from school. It was perfect that it just happened to be a Friday which meant that we could stay up as late as we wanted and we'd have the next two days that could be solely dedicated to her training.

"Why the hell am I tied up?" Misty hissed, as she reached behind her to try and untie the rope.

"To teach you not to slouch while at a table." I smirked and took a seat directly across from her. "You sit and eat like a monkey."

The blonde growled before thrusting her entire body forward in an attempt to stretch the rope to it's breaking point. "That still doesn't explain why my feet are tied like this."

Her ankles had been crossed and tied to the right chair leg tightly. I doubted she could be comfortable, but hardly felt guilty about it. She was the one who agreed to my terms, so this was what she was just going to have to live with.

"You are now seated as a proper lady should sit."

"They're supposed to be tied to chairs?" Misty cried semi-sarcistically. "well, good thing I was born into a sane family! If I were moved into this kind, I would've surely killed myself by now!"

"Stop exaggerating. Proper young ladies do not exaggerate."

"Well then, what do they do?" Misty yelped as she attempted to kick her feet away from the leg. "Let me guess, stay silent and not speak unless spoken to."

"Precisely." I smirked over at her. Misty growled and darkened her glare. "Now eat."

I would love to!" she cried, tears almost streaming down her face. "But along with every other weird thing at this table, I have no food on my plate!"

"That's because you just don't know how to properly eat. If the servants saw you eating like a pig, they'd know it was a lie. Until you can eat like a proper lady, you will not be getting any food."

Misty groaned, before picking up her fork and sticking out her pinky in mock humor before dipping it into the left side of the plate. She closed her mouth and made a show of sipping delicately from it.

"Oh haha." I rolled my eyes. "You're so funny that I almost forgot to laugh."

"Do you even know how to laugh?" she mumbled, repeating the motion.

"You do know that's a fork, right?" I asked, leaning forward just to rub it in that I could. "You don't sip anything from it."

She shot me a dark glare, before twirling it in her hand and attempting to scrape up the plate. If she was trying to get on my nerves by ruining a plate, it was in vain. It was only worth fifty dollars, so it wasn't like it was even all that nice.

"I don't get it. Why do I have to learn how to eat? Wouldn't it be more useful to teach me how to dance?" she glanced up at me as she asked this.

I rolled my eyes again. The more time I spent with her, the more convinced I was that commoners were stupid airhead. "You can avoid dancing at a party. You can't avoid eating. After you learn how to eat properly, I'll teach you how to dance."

Misty sighed, before picking up her spoon.

12345

Exactly why do I have to wear this thing?" Misty asked as she twirled around in the floor length dress.

It wasn't much, just enough to get her use to the feel of a real ball gown. Of course, her dress at the party wouldn't be floor length-I was just hoiong that it'd be easier for her to dance if she learned in a floor length dress, as was Saturday's training session.

"I've already told you." I muttered as I moved to turn on the music. "It's to get you used to wearing dresses. You never know what you might wear at the next event."

"How many balls can there be in a month?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "During Christmastime? A lot. And they aren't balls, they're parties."

"No, parties are where people get drunk and have sex in the closet." Misty placed her hands on her hips and gave me a pointed look. "Trust me, I would know."

Did she really just implied that she had gone to parties like that? "The discription of a party is a gathering of two or more people, paraphrased of course. And please don't voice your beliefs to any of my family." I sighed.

Misty sighed, before pulling up her dress so she could see her feet. "Fine."

I started the music and moved back over to her, taking her into my arms. My right hand snaked around her, resting firmly on the small of her back, causing her to tense up ever so slightly.

"Now, put your left hand on my shoulder." Misty sighed, but did so. I took her right hand in my left and began to lead her throughout the song, muttering directions the entire time.

She stepped on my feet a lot at first, but after the first ten or twenty minutes, she was beginning to get the hang of it. I was having trouble deciding whether she had some kind of practice or if she was just a quick study. Both kind of impressed me, but neither made me happy.

I decided to start distracting her to see how well she did then. Because only a food would expect there to be no distractions at a party.

"Now, is this so bad?" I smirked.

Misty nodded as she glanced down at her feet. "It's awful. And it's so hard."

"Stop looking at your feet." I barked, feeling my eyebrow tick in annoyance.

The blonde sighed, before looking back up into my eyes. "I don't even get why I have to learn how to dance. You said that dancing can be avoided at parties."

"Yeah, maybe one or two, but there's no way you can avoid dancing through all of them."

Misty sighed, before closing her eyes, and seeming to get back into the music. "How the hell do you people not have heart attacks before you learn to walk?"

12345

"HayHay, you have to get me out of here!" I listened to Misty hiss over the phoneline later that night.

It wasn't that I was necessarily listening in on her. Okay, so that was exactly what I was doing. But it wasn't my fault she was stupid enough to believe that just because her bathroom phone wasn't connected to the rest in the house, her bedroom phone wasn't, either. So in a way, it was really her fault for being a stupid commoner.

"Not this again," her friend sighed back. "Misty, we went through this all this morning. I'm not going to help you sneak out."

"But I hate it here sooo much!" Misty whined. I could almost imagine her pouting into the phone as if her friend could see her.

My hands clenched into fists as I ground my teeth together. Oh, so she hated it here? Well, it wasn't like I was too fond of it, either. This girl was sent straight from hell. How Raphael could stand being related to her was beyond me.

"Eh-hem."

I whirled around at the sound of someone clearing her throat. Macey was standing behind me with her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised in annoyance. I groaned and hung up.

Later that night, I disconnected both of her phones.

Sunday morning, I stared down at Misty's unconscious form and felt my eye twitch. Even when she slept, you could tell she was a commoner. She was spwawled out along the entire bed, arms dangling over the sides, and her legs crossed as if she were meditating. It did not look comfortable at all. But even so, she was snoring softly as if she couldn't be more content in the world.

"How do you we suggest we teach her not to sleep like that?" I asked Macey who was standing next to me.

The maid shrugged, "I suppose you could give her some incentive. Make her want to sleep like a lady."

"And how do I do that?"

"Move her over into your room." I raised my eyebrows over at my maid, more shocked than anything at her suggestion. Her, throw her new apparent, innocent best friend into the claws of me, the big bad wolf? "Her type of girl doesn't like sleeping in the same bed as a guy if they're not married. Move her into your room until she learns to sleep properly, and she'll want to learn." she narrowed her eyes over at me. "But if you touch her, I will kill you."

"Hmmm..." I paid no attention to her threat which was made meaningless by my complete disinterest in touching the disgusting girl. I stared down at her for a second, before nodding. "That could work. Get Alphonse and have him move her."

12345

"No freaking way." Misty hissed, on Monday, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "This totally crosses the line. I am not gonna give up an entire afternoon with my friends just to learn another thing I already know how to do!"

"You obviously don't know how if your grammar is that ad." I pointed out, before rolling my eyes. "'Gonna?' Really? You call that being able to speak?"

"I think I speak perfectly good." Misty stuck her tongue out at me, her arms still crossed.

"Well."

"What?"

"It isn't 'perfectly good,' it's 'perfectly well.' You have just proven my point."

Misty sighed, before slumping down in her chair and resting her head in her hand. She'd gotten better posture at the dinner table, but obviously we'd have to work on it while she was relaxing. It would be horrible if the thing that ruined us was her resting after spending a long time dancing.

"Fine..." she groaned, shaking her head. "Go on."

"From now on, you are never allowed to say words such as 'gonna.'" I instructed. "Instead, it will be 'going to.' You catching on?"

"Hmmm..." Misty thought about it for a second, before nodding. The obvious grin on her face proved that she was just messing with me. "I think so. So, I can't say 'gotta' but instead 'got to.' Right?"

I nodded, "Right." then I rubbed my hands together and sighed. "Okay, now we have to move on to conversation."

Misty raised an eyebrow. "There's more than just good grammar?"

"Of course!" I turned to her. "You have to know what to talk about, otherwise people will see through the farce."

"They'll see through it, anyway." Misty rolled her eyes. "With everything I have to remember, I'm bound to mess up once or twice."

"Once or twice is better than every time."

Misty sighed. "Can't we cover this tomorrow? I'm worn out for the day."

"No."

Misty shook her head. "Sorry, but that wasn't an answer."

And with that, she got up and ran out of the room.

12345

"Well," I sighed the next day. "Since you ran out on our training yesterday, we're going to have to do the conversations today."

Misty smirked, before clapping her hands together and bowing like we were in Japan. "Hai, Sensei."

"Okay," I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to ask how she knew even that much Japanese. It was too much to hope that she had taken it as a hobby, which would give me something positive to say about her. "First of all, you mustn't speak about yourself unless asked a question."

"Boooring!" Misty sighed. "I'm done here."

And with that, she ran out again.

12345

"I will kill you if you run out again." I hissed at her the next day, as I locked the door, making sure there was no way she could get out.

Misty sighed, before shaking her head. "I wasn't going to waste an entire afternoon learning how to socialize."

I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a heavy breath. "The party is the day after tomorrow and you still have a ton of things to work on."

"That's not my problem." Misty shrugged, before shooting me a questioning look. "I already know how to dance, talk, and eat. What more could there possible be?"

"Today we will be talking about posture while not at a table." I told her as I took her hands and pulled her up from the chair she was sitting in. "When you are standing, you must have your back straight, neck up, and hands clasped together at your crotch." I grabbed her hands and folded them where they should be.

"Excuse me?" she cried, yanking her hands back. "Just where do you think you're putting those things?"

"A proper lady should be properly modest." I glared at her. "This is not one of those moments."

Misty sighed, before folding her hands together where they should be. "There, how's this?"

I circled around her, studying her form. She immediately fixed the slight slouch in her back when I put a soft hand on the small of it, and her chin went up too high when I tapped it with the back of my hand. Then it bobbed back down itnot he perfect place.

"Perfect."I I smiled, before sitting her down. "And now we shall cover hwo you sit when you're relaxing." Misty nodded, so I continued. "Now, I want you to relax." she immediately slouched low in the chair. I shook my head, before grabbing her ear and pulling her up harshly.

"Ow!" the blonde cried, "Stop it! That hurts!"

"A proper lady doesn't slouch even when relaxing." I told her, letting go of her ear.

"Well, you could just tell met hat instead of ripping my ear off!" sh ehissed, rubbing her now red lobe.

"Sit up straight." I told her, paying no heed to how much pain she claimed to be in. She should already know that a proper lady didn't complain about such a thing.

Misty glared at me before arching her back to make her breasts look bigger. It was an obvious attempt to make me forget about what I was trying to teach her, and it didn't do any good. If she was going to try and seduce someone, she should probably start with somebody who had some kind of interest in her in that way. I sighed, before flicking her in the head.

"Nice try. Now come on. Focus."

Sighing, she straightened up perfectly. I nodded. "Now, cross your right leg over left, and rest both hands on your knees." she did so. "Good, we've finally found something you can do without trouble."

Her eyes lit up. "does this mean I can go now?"

I sighed, before nodding. "Yeah, I suppose you can."

"Yay!" Misty jumped up happily, grabbed the key from my hand and ran out of the room.

12345

My eye twitched. Misty was over fifty minutes late for Thursday training and getting home from school and it was just now occurring to me that she was ditching. That damn girl.

8: Misty

"Don't you think you should be getting back?" Hay-Lin asked as she twirled a hanger around her finger. "Rane is probably getting worried."

I was spending the night over at her house in an attempt to avoid Rane's constant training. There was only so much I could handle before I broke, and unfortunately the only person who seemed to understand was another boy who's father was a drunk. So there was no way Alexander would be able to see how I would be safer at his house than at Rane's.

But even so, just being able to get away from that Hell on Earth for even just one night was a blessing as far as I was concerned. Oh, sure, I'd have to go back tomorrow for the party, but with all of his family hanging around, what were the chances he'd actually risk making a scene to bitch me out?

"Nah." I shook my head. "He already knows I'm here."

Well, okay, so that was a blatant lie. I hadn't actually told anyone I was staying here, but if Rane was as smart as he claimed he was, then he probably could figure it out after having listened in on one of our conversations earlier in the week. Plus, I had no doubt he had someone following me 24/7 to make sure I wasn't going to do anything that would jeopardize his future.

Hay-Lin rolled her eyes. "Why do I have my doubts?"

I raised an eyebrow, before whipping out my phone and dialing his number. "You wanna call and see?" I regretted the words almost the second they left my mouth. If she really did end up calling him it would more than likely end badly for me.

Luckily though, she shook her head and pushed the phone away. "I'll meet him when the time is right. I can't go scaring him off with my awesomeness before he has the chance to realize he's in love with you."

My jaw cocked to the side as I shot her a glare. "We've only known each other for a week. There is no way he's in love with me."

She waved her hand dismissively, "Time is but a number."

"That's not the saying."

"Whatever."

I pursed my lips in annoyance before an evil smile spread across my face as an idea for payback struck me. "Okay," I slid off the beanbag chair and sauntered over to the window. It was still light out, as school had only gotten over a little under an hour ago so it wasn't too late to go out.

"What do you say we call up Alexander and Raphael to come over?" I worked to keep my voice nonchalant, even as I could feel anger radiating off of her just from the mention of my cousin's name.

The blonde snorted, snatching up a chip from the bowl that had sat between us. "Like hell. I won't talk to him until he apologizes."

Raphael had had a crush on her for a long time, now. Sometime last year, I couldn't really remember when, he'd worked up the courage totell her, but she thought he had just been playing with her. Even now, the dense girl still refused to believe the poor boy.

"He has nothing to apologize for." I shot back. "You're the one who's too dense to realize it."

"Of course he has something to apologize for!" she counteracted, shoving the chip in her mouth and reaching for another one. "It's been over a year, now. How long does he plan to keep this charade up!"

Yupp, typical dumb-as-a-doorknob Hay-Lin. Most people would've realized after this long that it wasn't a joke, but not her. Obviously not her. I swore, she could keep a boat the size of Canada afloat with just her density alone.

I sighed, before shaking my head. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"Actually, meditation helps me sleep at night."

I glared over at her, not wanting to play any stupid games she had in mind. "Fine, whatever floats your boat."

"Density floats my-wait, since when do I even have a boat?!"

Sighing, I shook my head and flopped back on her bed. She really was lucky that we had been friends ever since we were children otherwise I probably would've walked out the door a long time ago. There was only so much a girl could take, after all. "Your elevator doesn't go all the way to the top, does it?"

"I don't have an elevator, either."

"Then you should go out and buy one."

There was silence for a second, as if Hay-Lin didn't know how to respond. Then sudddenly, her face was looming over me with an evil smirk of her own gracing her features. "Or maybe you could have your new boyfriend buy me one. After all, there isn't anything he wouldn't do for you."

I couldn't hold back a sigh.

12345

"Are you going back to Rane's house, today?" Alexander asked the next day.

School had just ended and the three of us were walking out the door. I felt refreshed for the first time since Rane had started training me, because for the first time since then, I had actually gotten a full night's sleep. I couldn't before because I couldn't sleep knowing I was trapped in not only the same room, but the same bed, as him all night.

"I kinda have to." I laughed to hide my dread over seeing the red haired boy again. "We have plans for tonight and I have to be ready for it."

"That sucks." Alexander blanched. "What do you have to do?"

I smiled mischievously over at him. "It's a secret." because, yeah, like I was going to tell him that these "plans" were actually going to some fancy cocktail party for his birthday in which I'd have to have stupid conversations about the weather and shit. That would certainly go over well.

By then we'd reached the front doors where a huge ruckus was going on. It seemed like every student was crowded right outside and it took us forever to push the doors open.

"What's going on?" Alexander asked, looking around.

"Hm?" a girl with brown hair named Nikki whom we had known since middle school turned around to face us. "Oh, hi guys!" she pointed up to the front. "There's this freaking big limo up there!"

"Seriously?" Hay-Lin gasped as she stood on her tippy-toes to try and see over the crowd. "Who's it for?"

Nikki shrugged. "Nobody knows. The chauffeur refuses to tell. He says the only way we'll find out is if we see her or him get in. That's why everyone is still here instead of walking away from lack of interest."

That made sense. There were only four things that could keep students at school longer than they had to. Clubs, a dance, the opportunity for free food, and a mysterious rich person. Other than that, most couldn't wait to escape those doors, especially on a Friday.

"Aw man!" Hay-Lin whined. "I can't see anything!"

She jumped up in the air a few times before grinning evily at Alexander who was too preocupied trying to see, himself to notice. The next thing I knew, she was hopping on his back, causing him to snap forward.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Just what the helld o you think you're doing?!"

"Trying to give myself a boost so I can see!" Hay-Lin stretched and put a hand over her eyes to block out the sun, but due to him hunching over she probably couldn't see much more than she had before.

"Why do you have to use me?"

"Because I'd hurt Misty if I tried jumping on her."

"Oh, and you're not hurting me?"

"Guys!" I laughed, pulling Hay-Lin off the black haired boy. "I really do have to go."

Hay-Lin sighed, but complied. "Fine, but let's get towards the front. I wanna get a good look at this limo." of course she did.

I rolled my eyes, chuckling. "Okay, fine. Alexander, lead the way." I shoved him ahead. Poor guy, always getting bullied by us girls. His self-esteem must have been really low at that point.

Heh heh heh.

Alexander sighed, before grabbing a hold of my hand while muttering, "I wonder why the other guys haven't started to beat the shit out of me yet."

After a few minutes of weaving and shoving-mostly by Alexander, as Hay-Lin and I were hardly capable of doing such a thing to so many people-we finally broke through to the front. There, sat the biggest limo that I had ever seen. It was sleek and white with tinted windows and a red carpet leading from the back door.

All around it was a rope, keeping students from getting to close. Damn, whoever had this thing come pick them up was seriously full of themselves. Even more so than Rane, and that was saying a lot.

At the front was a chauffer who looked to be maybe two or three years older than me with blonde hair that hung over his bright green eyes which was covered by one of those insanely stupid-yet, somehow insanely hot-hats that they always wore in the movies. He had that whole "I'm a proffessional but I know all you girls still want me and I love it" aura to him.

And I knew him. Dammit. This was not happening. This was not happening. This was not happening. This was not happening.

I dived behind Alexander, attempting to hide myself, but was too late. He noticed me.

"Miss Misty!" he smiled, waving over at us. "Master Rane has sent me to come get you!" yeah, I had figured that much out.

"Misty?" Hay-Lin turned to face me. "Is he talking to you?"

Unfortunately. "Oh, why?" I muttered to myself. "Why did he have to send a freaking limo?" I sighed, before straightening up. I might as well leave then, while I still had some sort of pride. "Yeah, he's talking to me."

I then bowed my head so that I wouldn't have to meet the eye of any of my peers and stepped forward onto the red carpet. "Hey, Tobey." I murmured, not looking up to make eye contact with him or anyone else. "Is this punishment?"

Tobey smirked and nodded, as he opened the door for me. "Master Rane was really pissed at you yesterday for skipping."

"Well, he still didn't have to punish me to this extent." I groaned, putting my hand to my head. "I won't be able to come back on Monday after this."

"Don't complain to me." Tobey chuckled. "Master Rane was the one who told me to. I'm just following orders."

I rolled my eyes as I got into the limo. "Whatever."

12345

I stood in front of my floor length mirror and did a twirl. I was wearing a floor length black dress with a white strip going down the front. My hair had beeen tied up into a bun with chunks curling down to my shoulders and white pumps graced my feet,causing me to be a few inches taller. Since I was already tall to begin with, I hoped that I would still be shorter than Rane. It would just be awkward if I wasn't.

"How long until he gets back?" I asked, turning to face Macey who was lying out my nightgown for the night.

"Not until shortly before the party." she answered.

I rolled my eyes. "He yells at me to hurry and then goes off? He's the biggest hypocrite of the century!"

Macey chuckled. "It doesn't take men as long to get ready as girls. That's true for both the rich and poor."

I chuckled myself, before sighing and looking at my reflection again. Okay, so I knew we weren't really going out, but I was still nervous to meet his family. Even if I may only have to deal with them a few times, I still wasn't too fond of making a fool of myself in front of them.

"How strict is his family?" I whispered, glancing at the brown haired maid in the corner of the mirror.

"Not very much at all." Macey smiled. "Master Rane just over exaggerates when it comes to them."

"Uh huh." I nodded, before wringing my gloved hands nervously. "And um... how many people does he have in his family?"

Macey put her hands on my shoulders before resting her head on one as well. She smiled at our refection. "Don't worry. You'll do fine."

I sighed, before nodding. "I know."

Alponse threw open the door, sweating and panting hard. I'd recently learned that the two of them let their facades down when they were with me, due to how comfortable I made them feel. They'd apologize for it profusely, but I liked it. It put me at ease, knowing that they trusted me that much.

"Master Rane is here, and he's demanding to see her." he nodded toward me.

"Oh!" Macey cried, clapping her hands toget and shoving me toward the door. "Hurry and go! We can't keep the Master waiting!"

I rolled my eyes before complying. Rane was probably pissed enough at me already. There was no need to make his anger grow anymore.

I ran to the top of the staircase where I could see him standing at the bottom looking well and pissed as usual.

"Hello Rane." I said in the most professional voice I could muster. I stood with my back straight and looked down at him with cool detachment.

The red and white haired boy glanced up at me and his mouth dropped. Yes, it actually dropped. I'd never seen anything like that except for in my anime.

"Misty." he breathed, rubbing his eyes. "Is that really you?"

I let a sly smirk cross my face before I gave him a huge thumbs up and winked. "I clean up good, don't I Red?"

"Yeah, that's you alright." he looked less than pleased by my actions. "The guests will be arriving soon so please wipe that stupid grin off your face."

I pouted. "That hurts, man. That really hurts."

Rane rolled his eyes, before holding out his hand to me as the doorbell run, signaling our first guest had arrived. I ran down the stairs, nearly tipping five times on the way. I knew I couldn't do that once people could see me but, hey, I could do it now!

Alphonse and Macey followed us to the door before opening it. On the other side stood a man with black hair that was swept back in brown eyes. His face was set in what seemed like a permanent scowl and if he'd had red hair, he'd look like an older version of Rane. Ah, so this must've been the dreaded father. Or his father's twin brother, but considering I'd never heard about him I was going to go with the former.

"Father." Rane mumbled politely, confirming my suspicion. "So nice of you to show up."

"I couldn't miss the chance to see your new... partner." his father answered in a cold voice, before turning to me and smiling. "Hello, I'm Rane's father, David."

I did a mini curtsey before holding out my hand. "Misty Sharp. Nice to meet you."

David took my hand in a firm grasp and shook it. "Like wise, Miss Sharp. I hope my son hasn't caused you much trouble."

I smiled sweetly. "Nothing I can't handle."

"That's good to hear."

"Hey, bro." a voice came from behind David. "Move out of the way. I want to get a good look at the girl we've all heard about so much as well."

David sighed before moving out of the way to reveal a girl with wavy black hair and blue eyes. Attached to each hand was a child, one boy and one girl.

"Hello." she smiled over at me. "My name is Regina. I'm Rane's aunt, and David's older sister."

I smiled. "Please to meet you."

I felt a tugging at the bottom of my dress. Looking down, I saw the little girl, who looked to be about five and had the same eyes as Regina. "Excuse me, pretty lady." she smiled up at me. "But what's your name?"

I couldn't help but smile down at her. She was just too cute! "Misty. Misty Sharp."

"Whoa!" a boy appeared from behind Regina. "That's cool! His name is Rane, and yours is Misty! They're both types of precipitation!"

"Misty, Rane." the other boy giggled. "That's funny."

I wandered around the party, talking to Regina. She was a pretty fun girl-unlike her nephew and brother who both were emanating cold auras. The dozens of children also there seemed to take a liking to me as well. They followed me around asking questions and for kisses on the cheek. The boy sure did have a large family.

That was when I felt it. That uncomfortable feeling that I knew all too well.

I excused myself from Regina to go and fetch Rane. I found him talking to one of his cousins that I didn't remember the name of. Grabbing his elbow, I excused him and pulled him over to a secluded area.

"I have a problem." I whispered.

He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"My aunt flow has come for a visit."

9: Rane

I raised an eyebrow down at Misty who was looking up at me with wide eyes. Despite being clearly in a panic about this aunt who was apparently visiting, she had me utterly and totally confused as to what she meant. Aunt Flow? Who was that, and what should it matter if she was visiting Misty? She could go see her after all the guests had left.

"Y-Ya' know." Misty shook me a bit, grabbing fistfuls of my jacket, her voice was slightly panicked as she realized that I had no idea what she was talking about. "I'm surfing the crimson wave?"

Surfing the crimson wave? What the hell did that mean? The girl was surely going insane... there was no body of water anywhere near here, especially none that were red.

Misty groaned, and rolled her eyes before glancing around. "My period started, and I don't have pads."

And that was how I ended up at the Wal-Mart that was five minutes away from my house, dressed in my best clothes-buying tampons and pads. When I should be at a party, entertaining my family, not standing in line with an embarrassing amount of people staring at me. Not that I could blame them, though. I looked more out of place than a black cat in a flock of geese.

The girl behind glanced down at my basket which was full of various assortments of tampons, pads, tide sticks, Tylenol and everything else Misty had asked me to get and chuckled. I felt my face turn red as she briefly studied the merchandice. I hadn't known what kind of feminine hygeine stuff Misty had wanted so I'd decided to buy a little bit of everything.

"She's got you whipped real good?" she asked, smiling up at me.

I shifted uncomfortably, before glancing away. "I have no clue what you mean."

The girl shook her head, still smiling, before pointing down at the basket. "I've been married for almost ten years, and my husband still refuses to go out and buy me pads." her smile grew brighter. "You're a real diamond in the rough."

"Uh-huh." I turned away, and blushed. Damn. It seemed like the guy in front of me had an endless supply of food he was buying. Couldn't he go any faster? It was damn well embarrassing standing here with all these items!

"How old are you?" the woman asked.

"Um, eighteen."

She chuckled, making her black hair bob slightly. "Even more surprising. Though, I do have a question-why are you buying so much?"

"Um…" I shifted, still uncomfortable. "I didn't know what kind she needed, so I decided to buy a little bit of everything."

The woman smiled, again. "She must really have you whipped." she chuckled. "Most men when they go out, just grab the first thing they see without even thinking."

"Really?" I looked down at my basket, confused and a bit worried. "Is it weird that I didn't?"

The woman shook her head. "Not weird, good. If you ask me, real men don't make the girl buy their products. Real men buy tampons." then she shook her head, again. "If I ever see that girl, I'll have to remind her to never let you go."

"Mhm." by then, it was finally my turn, so I pushed the basket up to the cashier. She scanned all the items before bagging them, and handing them to me, a smile gracing her face as well. Dammit, did everyone think an eighteen-year-old boy buying tampons was cute?

"She's really got you reeled in, huh?" she asked, as I took my receipt.

I felt my face turn red, before turning and quickly making my exit. Would people stop saying that? We weren't even going out!

I snuck in through the back door that led into the kitchen. On the far side was a set of stairs for the staff which led to the upstairs where Misty should've been waiting in my bathroom.

Carefully-hoping no one from the party could hear me-I tiptoed up the stairs. They were a lot more squeaky than I knew possible, especially in my house. Why hadn't Macey told me? It would've done me a lot of good, especially now, to have gotten them fixed.

As expected, Misty was sitting on the toilet, when I reached the bathroom. She squealed and grabbed the bags out of my hands, before starting to dig through them. As she did so, I let myself out, really not wanting to watch her change.

She emerged a few minutes later, looking as fresh as a daisy.

"Thank you." she smiled, suddenly looking very cute.

I blushed, before looking away. Dammit, what was with me? This was Misty-she wasn't cute! What that woman and that cashier said must've really gotten to me!

"Yeah, well, just don't make me do it again," I grumbled, embarrassed.

She chuckled and raised a hand to her mouth lightly as she did so. "Although you really didn't have to buy so much. I think I have enough now to last me unitl May."

"Whatever." I shoved my hands in my pockets and made a point to avoid meeting her eyes. "Now, let's get down there before someone notices we're missing."

"Oh, yeah, about that…." Misty chuckled nervously, as we made our way out of them room. "I kinda told Regina about it."

"What?" I cried-I couldn't help it. The thought of someone in my family knowing what I had just done was purely mortifying! And Regina, on top of that! She was already making wedding plans for the two of us! If she got any more excited, she would be naming our kids for us!

"I'm sorry!" Misty apologized. "I just thought it would be easier to hide if we had someone else to cover for us!"

I sighed, before shaking my head. "Fine, whatever. As long as no one else knows."

"Yeah," Misty giggled, "I think I would die if anyone else knew I was on my period."

We rounded the corner to see the entire party waiting at the stairs, each person smiling mischievously up at us. Well, except for my father who was leaning on the far wall by the door, arms crossed, and his usual aura emanating around him.

"Um… hi?" I said, a bit nervously, and a bit confused. How had they figured out we were up there? And why were they all smiling so creepily?

"Rane…." my cousin, Rose giggled, "You're soo sweet! I mean, buying Misty tampons and pads? And going to Wal-Mart? I never thought you were so in love!"

"Huh?" Misty and I cried, at the same time, both of us stepping back. How the hell had they found out?

"Sorry." Regina smiled, guiltily. "It was just such a cute story I couldn't keep it to myself!"

I rubbed the bridge between my nose, feeling the tick in my eye coming back. Of course Regina would go and tell everyone, that was just the sort of thing she would do. The damn woman had no sense of privacy and now everyone in my family would look down on me for shopping at Wal-Mart of all places!

I glared down at my aunt, before the crowd separated me and Misty. The rest of the party was filled with people patting me on the back saying "You poor sucker. She's got you, real good." then yelling over to Misty, "You'd better keep a good hold on, him! He's going to be a catch with all the ladies, now!"

It was definitely not how I had planned my birthday to go.

10: Misty

"Hey, Macey?"

"Hm…?"

"Has Rane and his father always been so… hostile towards each other?"

It was the next day and Macey and I were talking while she dusted the room. I had been wondering that for a long time now, seeing as I really hadn't known anyone who actually hated any of their parents. Well, aside from Hay-Lin, but her father had completely abandoned her family which obviously Rane's father hadn't, so something was obviously up.

Macey nodded, before turning back to the statue she was currently working on. "For as long as I've been here."

"And how long has that been?" I took a sip of my tea.

"Well, I've only worked here for a few years, but I've known the master ever since I was very little." Macey lowered the duster and turned to face me.

"Ah…" I stared down at my cup, my eyes drooping. So my suspicion had been right. Well, no wonder he was an old shrew. Then, an idea crossed my head. "Macey, tell him to meet me downstairs in a half hour."

Macey turned to me, confused. "Why?"

I smiled, "I have a little… debt to him I have to pay."

Rane met me right next to the door, exactly thirty minutes later. I had to keep myself from sighing, even though I had to admit that I accepted that from him. After all, it was him who had yelled at me for being late my first day here.

"Well, where are we going?" he asked, giving me a suspicious glare.

I smiled up at him, before handing him his coat that was so fancy it almost looked girly. "Christmas is only two weeks away and I still have no presents bought. Plus, I never gave you a birthday present, so I owe you."

Rane rolled his eyes, "You don't need me to buy presents, and I don't want one."

"No." I shook my head, "I feel awful for not getting you one. Besides, it would look weird if we didn't get Christmas presents for each other."

He raised a red eyebrow down at me-he knew that I wasn't telling the entire truth. I hoped the ability to see through a lie didn't run in the family-that Regina really made me keep on my toes.

Sighing, I opened pulled my arms through my coat, "Fine…." I groaned, "There is another reason to this." I held out my hand, palm upwards for him. "Give me your wallet."

"What the hell?" Rane cried, stepping back, "Why?"

"Just give it to me!"

"I paid you for last night! Two hundred dollars! You have money!"

I rolled my eyes, "I know! Just give me your wallet!"

Rane sighed, before taking a thick black billfold out of his back pocket. He reluctantly handed it to me, then grabbed a hold of my shirt to keep me from running off with his money.

Rolling my eyes, I opened up his billfold to reveal at least twenty one hundred dollar bills. I quickly counted them then glanced up at him, eyes wide.

"Seven thousand dollars?" I cried, waving the wallet in his face, "I told you just to grab a bit of money!"

"I did!" Rane shot back. "And I didn't even bring any debit cards, either!"

"Seven thousand dollars is not just a bit!" I sighed, before glancing back down at the money, and a thought crossed my mind. I could buy a hell of a lot of anime with seven thousand dollars….

I shook my head, before handing the wallet back to him. "You're only allowed to spend a thousand while we're out.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Rane asked, as I grabbed his hand, and pulled him out the door.

"I already told you." I smiled, "We're going to go buy Christmas presents."

"And where will we be getting them at?"

"The mall. It's the best place to get presents." by then we were at the car. I had had Tobey pick the smallest limo that stood out the least. It was still fairly big but it would have to do for now. I pushed Rane into the car before continuing. "Besides, I wanna give you a little taste on what it really means to be a commoner."

Rane rolled his eyes. "I believe I got enough of that, yesterday."

I rolled my eyes at that as Tobey started the car. "Going to Wal-Mart for five minutes doesn't count. Now, just shut up, because this is going to happen whether you like it or not."

Thankfully, he did as he was told. I didn't think I would be able to keep myself from blowing it if he continued to argue with me.

Truthfully, I wasn't being completely honest with him. It was true that I was taking him out for everything I told him it was for, but there was another reason on top of all that. From what I had heard, he hadn't had a normal Christmas (or any, if my suspition was correct, which I was on a streak so I supposed it was safe to assume I was) since well… maybe ever. So, since I couldn't spend Christmas with my family, I was going to replicate it as best I could. That way, it should've benefited us both.

I just hoped that everything worked out the way I planned.

"What's this!" Rane stared up at the tree, his eyes wide.

I giggled-Rane might have seen a ton of money in his life, but he sure as hell had never seen a fake Christmas tree. Did he even know what a Christmas tree was? Oh, this could end up being more work than I had anticipated.

"It's called a Charity Tree." I told him, picking off one of them many snowmen. "Each one of these has a child on them whose family can't afford to get them presents."

"And…?" Rane asked, taking the snowman from me.

"So, you take one, read what the child wants, buy it for them, then put the present in that box over there." I pointed to a box that had a security guard next it. "Then it gets sent to the child."

Rane turned to me, a stubborn pleading look on his face. I smiled, he wanted to buy something for the child, but he was too stubborn to say so.

"Read it." I said.

He opened up the snowman and read out loud: "Cornelia Hart. 5-years-old, and she wants a teddy bear."

I nodded, before grabbing his arm, and pulling him towards a toy store. "We'll go get her a teddy bear, and then finish our shopping."

"Misty!" I turned to see Rane running up to me with a box in his hands. "What are these?"

I glanced down at the box before chuckling. "Those are Christmas Crackers, Rane." a part of me wanted to make fun of him for his childlike behavior but it seemed like a fragial mood he was in and wasn't one I wanted to ruin. So I held my tongue and pretended to be almost as excited as he was.

"What do they do?" Rane stared at them, eyes wide.

"Hm…? Oh, here." I grabbed them from him before quickly buying them and pulling him out of the store.

"Okay," I said, opening them up and taking one out. "Now you grab a hold of one end." he did so, and I grabbed the other. "Now, pull."

Rane flinched and a ton of people looked over at us as the cracker broke in half. The prizes fell to the floor with a ton of thuds.

"Here." I picked them up, and handed them to him. "These are the prizes that are inside."

Rane glanced at them, curiously, before unfolding the paper crown and placing it on my head.

"There." he smiled, "Now you really look like a princess."

I smiled up at him, hardly confused by his sudden change in mood. He was like a little kid, getting overly excited by the magic Christmastime always seemed to bring.

It made me wonder though, how often he had wished for a nice Christmas like this when he was a kid. Afterall, I had assumed it would take a lot more than just a simple shopping trip to break him. This wasn't even the funnest part about Christmas-actually, he would never be able to experience the funnest part. Being a young child and waking up first thing Christmas morning and running upstairs to find all the cookies you'd put out the night before gone and presents under the tree. That really depressed me.

"C'mon." I grabbed his hand, fighting such thoughts from my mind. "We still have more places to hit before it gets dark."

"Go on." I urged, rubbing my cold hands together. Damn, I really should've worn gloves. "Pick whichever one you want."

"But, they're all so huge." Rane gaped up at them. "Are you sure they'll fit in the living room?"

"Of course." I laughed, "Don't worry. You have a huge living room, Rane. They'll fit there no problem."

"Okay, I want this one." he grabbed a Christmas tree that was almost nine feet tall.

I winced, before nodding. I had promised he could pick any tree he wanted. It was 8:00, and I was beginning to get tired from all the Christmas shopping. But, Rane was having fun and that was what really mattered.

I guessed I shouldn't have been too surprised he picked the biggest one of the lot, either. It seemed that boy couldn't do anything half-way. A six-footer just wouldn't cut it for him, apparently. I just hoped he'd have fun trying to get the star on top because I sure as hell wasn't going to be doing that.

"Fine…" I smiled, before turning to the helper dude, and nodding. He motioned for two other men to help him bring the tree over to the shaker thing that they used to shake off all of the excess pine needles.

That was my favorite part, and I could help but smile and laugh as I watched the needles fall off.

I was too busy watching to notice that Rane had been staring at me the whole time.

11: Rane

"Rane?" Misty asked that night.

"Hm…?"

We were laying in bed in our usual positions. She was on the edge of the bed with her back to me and a pillow in between her legs. I imagined that's how she always fell asleep-hugging a pillow, that is-but it could just be because she didn't trust me. Not that I blamed her, though. This probably was a little unnecessary but-hey! It was working!

"Um… I was just wondering," I felt Misty squirm, "How exactly did your mother die?"

My eyes grew wide at that, and I took a huge intake of breath which sounded like a gasp. Misty must've heard.

"I'm sorry!" she cried, quickly retaliating. "I was out of line asking that! You don't have to tell me! I'm sorry!"

I glanced over at her, her body was tense around the pillow. She probably thought I would get mad or something, but I shook my head, before sighing.

"No, that's okay." I whispered, looking up at the ceiling. To be honest, I really didn’t want to talk about it, but with everything I had forced her through, I supposed I owed her at least this much. "My mother died in a fire.

"She was sick. She'd been sick ever since I was born-hardly ever leaving the house. Anyway, my father was out and all the servants had the day off because it was the day before Christmas and…" I sighed. "And, I guess there must've been a gas leak or something because the whole house just burst into flames.

"My mother died protecting me. She'd thrown her electric cooling pad over me and then covered me with her body. By the time the fire department got there, it was too late." I lightly touched the scar on my shoulder from where I'd gotten burnt before my mother had gotten to me. My eyes drooped a bit at the memory.

"My father," I continued dropping my hand, "Always blamed me for my mother's death. He said that it was all my fault-that if I hadn't been such a spineless fool, she wouldn't have died. I suppose that's why he's always been so cold to me."

There was a silence between us for a while. I was beginning to wonder if Misty had gotten bored listening to my story and had fallen asleep, but then-

"When I was little," she whispered, after a few minutes, "My mother used to tell me the story of Romeo and Juliet. Of course, she'd change the ending to make it happy since I was so young but…"

"How does the story end?" I asked, confused. I had heard of the play, but had never read it. In fact, I wasn't even sure what it was about.

Misty turned her head slightly in my direction, just enough so I could see the disbelief in her eyes. "You're eighteen and you don't know the story of Romeo and Juliet?" she asked, incredulous.

I shrugged, "I had better things to do than read a book."

The blonde sighed, before turning back on her side, away from me. "It's about two families who hate each other. The daughter of one family-Juliet-and the son of the other-Romeo-fall in love. Of course, their love was doomed at the start. And, in the end, they both end up dieing."

"What?" I sat up slightly, looking at her eyes wide. She couldn't be serious! "Are you joking?"

Misty shook her head, "No, in an attempt to get their families to make up, Juliet takes Cantarella which gives someone the illusion of death for four or so hours. Romeo finds her 'dead' and in a moment of heartbreak, takes poison. Juliet wakes up to find Romeo dead and takes a knife and stabs it through her heart."

"Well, that's an awful ending!" I scoffed, lying back down. "Who would want to read that?"

"The ending may be awful, but it serves a good point." Misty sighed, "Their families would do anything to have them back again-even become friends. So, it almost makes you wonder why they couldn't do that before their children had to die."

"I suppose." I whispered, staring at the back of her head. Absentmindedly I began to play with one of her two braids. I don't think Misty noticed.

"And then it also makes me wonder…" Misty continued, "About us."

I dropped the braid in confusion "Hm?" had I heard her right?

Sighing, Misty turned to face me. I couldn't really see her face but I knew she was looking at me. "I mean, it makes me wonder if we were to fall in love-or even become friends-would we be doomed from the start? You being rich and me… not. I mean, wouldn't your father disapprove or something?"

I shook my head. "I dunno."

Misty smiled sadly, before reaching out to touch my face. A blush crossed my cheeks as she did so and I was thankful for the darkness-hoping it covered most of the redness.

"Your mother's death wasn't your fault." she whispered.

I smiled, sadly back. "I know."

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"Oh!" Misty cried, sitting up at the table two days later. "Really?"

I had just informed her that Regina was throwing a Christmas ball that night and-since that day was the last day before Christmas vacation-Misty and I could stay as long as we wanted to.

I nodded, smiling. "You seem excited."

"Sure I am!" Misty laughed, "It'll be my first high class party where my 'boyfriend' doesn't have to run out to buy me pads!"

I forced a smile onto my face-for some reason, I didn't like it when she put the quotation marks around the word "boyfriend." It bugged me, and even worse, I couldn't figure out just why it bugged me.

"That'll still be the topic of the night, though." I smiled.

Misty groaned, shaking her head, "Still. It'll be so fun!" then she pursed her lips, and glared, "You're hiding something from me, aren't you?"

I shook my head, the damn girl knew me to much. "We can't have you running off like last time."

"I didn't run off during the party!" she cried.

"Never the less, we cannot have it happen again. I'm going to be tagging along with you to school."

"You can't!" Misty cried, standing up. "My school won't let you!"

I smiled over at her, "They seem to let you do a lot of things so long as you're not endangering anybody and you donate five-hundred dollars for every hour you're there."

Misty stared at me, wide eyed, but Macey walked up behind her and added, "Yeah, and when your uncle is the principal."

"Dammit, Macey!" I cried, "I was just beginning to get her to understand how much power money really has."

Misty and Macey both rolled their eyes at that.

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I sulked in the back of the room as Misty typed hastily on that stupid little computer she had brought with her. She sat at the front of the classroom, just one row back from the teacher’s desk. From this angle, it was easy to tell that she wasn’t actually paying 100% attention to whatever it was he was lecturing about (making it hard for me to figure out how she was actually getting a B in this class), instead furiously emailing one of her friends.

I went to move for her when the bell rang, but she seemed to have forgotten about me, simply jumping up and swinging her shoulder bag, that had a big picture of some blonde haired anime pirate guy on it, over her shoulder. Yanking up her computer and her backpack, she darted for the door without so much as a look thrown over her shoulder.

Evidently, she had managed to forget all about me in that fifty-five minutes. A part of me was slightly annoyed with this knowledge, but a bigger part smirked at this. This meant I could follow her throughout the halls and see what she normally did without being tense at my presence.

She met up with a boy with shaggy black hair and bright green eyes. Thanks to the crowded and loud hallway, I couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but it must’ve been something interesting as more than once she laughed and nudged him hard. A slight pang of hurt broke in my chest as I realized she had never done that with me before, even though a part of me screamed “Well, duh. She hasn’t even known you for two weeks, plus she can’t stand you!” It didn’t help.

Luckily, she didn’t stay long with him, instead waving a cheerful goodbye as she entered another classroom. I silently followed.