The Pearl In The Atlantic

Chapter 2

I was swimming through the corridors of the palace when my Aunt came and swam up to me with a look of utter annoyance, I gulped realizing this was about what happened a few nights ago when I disappeared. She floated in front of me with a condescending stare and her arms folded, I averted her eyes until she said in a voice as cold as ice "Where were you?" Funny how she didn't talk to me about when I got back from my little trip, but I sighed and said simply "I was out." She only scoffed and repeated "Where. Were. You?" I didn't answer because the thing is, I can handle Aunt on a daily basis but she isn't a force to be reckoned with when she's mad.

After a few minutes I answered truthfully and with a straight face "I went out and past the canyon borders", her face changed from stern to complete surprise, but it was quickly washed away with disdain "Are you out of your mind!? Do you know how dangerous it is to go past there!? So that's what happened to your tail isn't it? You were reckless and careless, you should be ashamed of your actions." I yelled back "You might expect me to be ashamed but I'm not. The other side is beautiful and full of amazing life, why would anyone want to stay away from it? Sure, there's humans but that's about-" I was then immediately cut off by my Aunt "Humans!? Jaiden Bermuda, you will under no circumstance go back to those canyons. Ever!" Her shouts echoed off the empty halls. There were a couple moments of silence, maybe in her eyes to let the words register, before Aunt took a deep breath and said in a calm yet stern voice "Now, go put something appropriate on, Prince Peter will be joining us for dinner to make up for your absence." I only nodded and quietly walked back to my room to get ready for tonight's event.

Nightfall came and I was standing next to my Aunt waiting by the door for our guests to arrive, and after literally 30 minutes of just standing in front of a door, the guests were here. One of our servants opened up the door and came in the whole Anderson's family making me silently wonder, how important was this dinner supposed to be? It's just a meal. We both greeted the family, sat down at the table and waited for the food to be served. As we were waiting I couldn't but continue to look out the window, because I sort of promised that I'd take Brooklyn to the reef to show it to her and also to try and remove the damaged coral and try to, intentionally, replace the coral with new ones in the town. I was off into space and I didn't hear my Aunt repeatedly call for my attention, the prince, who was sitting next to me, coughed which apparently got my attention for some reason. I looked back to the table and saw my Aunt silently glaring at me and I said quickly "I'm sorry, what were you saying? I must've spaced out", the prince, for whom was the one asking for my attention, said it was alright and asked again "What do you usually do as a hobby?" "Reading, but I also like being outside and enjoying the fresh breeze most of the time", he only nodded in return and went to talk with my Aunt, but a small part of me sensed that he was judging me.

Our food arrived which gave me the perfect excuse on not talking to anybody, because it's considered ruse to eat with food in your mouth. That statement just seems dumb because I do it all the time with Brooklyn and neither of us care. The dinner was coming to a close and my Aunt said something that made me nearly choke on my food "Yes, and Jaiden will gladly take Prince Peter's hand in marriage" I stared wide eyed at while screaming the word 'what' in my head. I turned to Prince Peter, who was, at least, shocked at this idea as well. I yelled back in bewilderment "Excuse me, but I didn't agree to this! You didn't even come to me for the matter!" Aunt was about to say something but I beat her to it. "I will not marry him, end of discussion. Now, if you'll excuse me I'll be heading up to my room, have a good night Anderson family", and I swam out of the dining hall and quickly went up to my room where Brooklyn was waiting for me. She then said "Judging by your expression it didn't go well did it?" I only shook my head and said while getting ready "Aunt, being uninformative to me, said I was to have the prince's hand in marriage without my consent and didn't even bother to come tell me about the news, but of course, I ended the dinner there telling her 'no' then coming up here." Brooklyn gasped and said "Unbelievable." I only nodded in agreement and came out of the closet and was met with a low whistle from Brooklyn "Damn girl, who knew you could rock a criminal look", I only smiled in return and said "The last person you'd expect to be a criminal is a princess." Brooklyn laughed and I gestured her towards the window.