The Masquerade

Chapter 1 - The Announcement

"A ball?" I asked, agape.

"Yes, America, we're hosting a ball." My father, King Britain replied, sitting perfectly straight in his chair at the head of the table.

My brothers Canada, Australia, and New Zealand watched the situation in silence. They knew better than to get between me and the king when we were in an argument.

This morning, my father had called me and my brothers into the dining room for what was supposed to be an important announcement. Clearly, this announcement was not as important as I'd originally thought.

"But--" I made to complain, but my father cut me off.

"No buts. We are hosting this ball. It's been two years since we last had a ball." He replied.

"And for good reason!" I argued, but Britain's face sterned.

"Prince America. It will be fine. Nothing will happen." My father's expression had turned hard, and everyone knew there was no arguing with him on the matter. I gave a frustrated huff and sat in my chair, arms crossed.

"So long as you don't do anything unreasonable, everything will be fine." Britain said, clearly pleased I had stopped arguing with him. I didn't bother to dignify him with a response, and he continued, "You haven't even heard the best part yet!"

I rolled my eyes. Nothing King Britain could say would make me any more excited about the situation.

"It's going to be a masquerade!" my father's eyes twinkled like we hadn't been arguing less than five minutes before.

That piqued my interest a little, although I wasn't about to let my father know that.

"You boys are lucky, when I was your age, I'd desperately wanted to attend a masquerade, but the opportunity never arose." King Britain continued, "So now, I'm giving you the chance I always dreamed of!"

I snorted. Thanks for having us live out your childhood fantasy, Dad.

My father glared at me, but before he could say anything, his assistant, London, came in to drag him off for some royal work or whatever.

"Boys, you may leave. I've got work to attend to." Britain waved us off, and the four of us quickly left the room, closing the door behind us.

"Wow, Father was really intent on us having this ball." Australia said, looking back at the now-closed door we'd just come through.

"Yeah, it was a little out of nowhere." New Zealand agreed.

Australia and New Zealand were twins, and they were also the youngest of the four of us.

Canada, who I guess you could call the middle child, didn't say anything, he was too busy being excited for the ball. Two years ago, at the last ball we held, Canada had met a pretty lady and had fallen for her, and clearly he was romanticizing seeing her again.

I was the only one who wasn't excited. And clearly, it showed.

"Ame, why didn't you want to have a ball?" Australia asked.

"Uhh..." I scratched my head sheepishly, trying to come up with a reasonable answer. "I just... didn't want to have to meet a whole bunch of new people, that's all!"

Australia looked unimpressed. "You're a terrible liar."

"Ooh Aussie, I think I've figured it out!" New Zealand cut in. "It's because Ame doesn't want Father to keep trying to get him with the ladies."

I jokingly sighed and put my hands up. "Alright, alright, you've figured out my secret Kiwi! I don't want anyone messing around in my love life, trying to set me up!" I sighed again. "But it looks like that's gonna have to happen. Again."

Technically, it was the truth. Every princess Britain had tried to set me up with hadn't stuck. It wasn't that they weren't nice, or pretty, it's just that I didn't really care for them.

But it wasn't the whole truth either, as there was so much more to the story than I was willing to say.

So I just kept quiet.

Before long, Australia had to leave, saying he had to go take care of his Huntsman spider, Melbourne, and we let him go. We were all too terrified of Australia's spider to keep him from long.

Once, Australia asked Canada to feed Melbourne while he was out, and when Canada tried to, Melbourne jumped on him and scared the living crap out of him.

Canada doesn't like Australia's pets anymore.

When Australia left, New Zealand quickly followed suit, probably to watch Australia in case something happened to him. Even though New Zealand was technically younger than Australia, he was definitely the more responsible twin.

So that just left me and Canada walking down the hallway.

"So... um... what was all that about? With Father, I mean." Canada asked hesitantly, finally stopping his daydreams. "Was it about... y'know..."

"Yes, it was." I said, rather forcefully. I didn't like to be reminded of my mistakes. But then I softened a little. "But thanks for not talking about it in front of Aussie and Kiwi."

"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't like it. Plus then they'd be all curious and I knew you'd start panicking and make up some dumb lie." Canada smiled. "They're right, you know. You really are a terrible liar."

"Oh, I'm wounded! How could you say such a thing?" I put a hand on my chest in the most overdramatic fashion I could. I may be a terrible liar, but I was a fantastic actor.

Or at least, that's what I told myself anyway.

Me and Canada continued joking around as we walked, having a good time we hadn't had in a while because of all the princely things we were supposed to do. Not that I always did them. I found them boring.

Eventually, Canada realized he had something to do, and so he excused himself and left me alone with my thoughts.

I kept walking. The castle we lived in was huge, one of the biggest in the whole land. How we didn't get lost in here was a mystery to everyone, including us. But even still, we knew our way around, and so within minutes I'd made it to my favorite spot in the whole castle.

It was a garden a ways away from the main hall and ballroom. The garden itself wasn't big, but somehow my mother's assistant, Paris, managed to keep roses growing even in the winter months. The roses came in all sorts of colors, from the classic red, pink, and white, to even purple and blue. How she grew them I would never know, but I loved the flowers anyway.

And since I didn't have anything else to do, besides the work that I definitely wasn't going to do, I stayed in the garden just thinking.

What's going to go wrong at this masquerade?

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