An Almost Lan

Chapter 10

A/N: AU and OOC, just a reminder.

Thank you for your votes and comments, they really encourage me!

Thanks to @CALActorsTypist on Twitter for editing this.

Lunch time at the Cloud Recesses Academy was generally an uneventful affair. Everybody was silently eating because it was one of the four thousand plus rules the academy enforced. The students that had already finished their lunch were almost whispering, trying to maintain the Lan family's version of decorum which made the place look more similar to a monastic convent than to a high school, but at this point everyone was used to it.

Some would argue that it was anti-natural to ask for perfect behavior from teenagers and it in fact was, but for the children of the elite that attended the academy it was a small price to pay in exchange for the best education money could buy.

She was eating alone this time. Her closest friends were either sick at home or on a skiing trip with their family, which really sucked, but then again it was not a big deal. It was not like she was going to die from eating lunch alone one day. Besides, alone was a relative concept. They were chatting on the phone the whole time, a steady flow of images of the Swiss Alps flooding her phone.

Between bites, she kept herself busy inspecting the state of her manicure. Making a mental note to make an appointment to her preferred nail salon for the next weekend she was having an intense inner debate about nail polish colors, and of course everybody and their mother knew that the wrong shade would mess up a manicure beyond salvation, so to say she was completely absorbed in her thoughts was an understatement.

A sudden uproar brought her out of her concentration, making her look around to locate the source of such a rare occurrence. It was easy to spot the cause. Although they always ate lunch together, the Lan bunch seldom entered the cafeteria at once. It was what anybody would describe as a grand entrance.

Jiang Yanli walked flanked by her four brothers, like the social queen of Cloud Recesses she was. As she was watching them all enter and even if she was a girl very much aware of her standing in society and her own value, Zhang Fei Fei couldn't avoid feeling a pang of envy in her gut.

Some people really did seem to have it all. Jiang Yanli was one of those. She was beautiful, not in a stunning-take-your-breath-away manner, but in a calming way that would put your soul at peace and would make you gravitate towards her. She was also an heiress in her own right, the oldest child of the late Jiang Fengmian, and after her mother's marriage to the Lan patriarch she was now also related to the Lan family.

It was a known fact that Jiang Yanli was the hand that rocks the cradle in terms of her brothers' behaviour on many levels. She could make Lan Zhan be a little more social, Wei Ying be well-behaved when needed, Jiang Cheng be calm and even friendly and Lan Huan be an authoritarian sometimes. She would just have to ask nicely and her wish would be granted by any of her brothers.

The Jiang heiress' social standing within Cloud Recesses was also firmly cemented on the hordes of admirers her brothers had. There were actual fan clubs vying for her attention, in search of a little favor from her like an opportune introduction to one of her brothers, or putting a good word in for one of the debutantes whose dream was to dance with one of them or trying to secure their attendance to one's birthday's party. The constant flow of invitations and gifts bestowed upon Jiang Yanli could be overwhelming...for a lesser person. She handled it with grace and wisdom accepting the bare minimum of them and only if they can actually benefit one of her brothers.

The fact that they, her brothers, were not only handsome, but brilliant in their own way made it even more difficult for Jiang Yanli to get some peace. The four of them were excellent students and outstanding sportsmen. Lan Huan and Lan Zhan were fencers, meant to make the national team in their age group any moment now. Jiang Cheng was an accomplished archer and Wei Ying was actually a horse rider and a hell of a jumper.