Wish Apon A Star

Annabelle - The Start

Isa gave up completely once we got to the festivals' grounds, and just dismissively waved us off, as she headed off herself with Madeline. Lily immediately took off to go win everybody's money, and James followed suit (except he would probably lose all his money). Zoe, Star, and I made a beeline to the games portion, where there were booths set up with a bunch of rigged games that I loved to lose. Zoe, somehow, was ridiculously good at them, and Star and I watched as she won time after time, before we pointed out things she should try to win next.

When the show finally started, we finally quieted down. I had a feeling Leo would not be happy if he had to deal with a complaint about us. I hadn't seen him or Nicole for hours, though, so maybe he wouldn't have to deal with it if we couldn't find him. I knew he was definitely here (it'd been Nicole who'd wanted to come, after all), but I figured he'd be even more annoyed if we tracked him down to diffuse a fight.

I'd never used my magic for something like this, but as I watched the witches and wizards work, I almost wished I knew how. Of course, I could have learned, and maybe I would have, back under my mother's care–not with her knowledge, but I might have. Here, however, I was needed for more practical things, not just tricks. And while I probably devoted far too much of my time to tricks, they were usually things that could help me out in a fight. Not just pretty lights.

We caught back up with everyone else as we headed towards the exit (except Leo and Nicole) and immediately began exchanging stories and sweets. James provided a dramatic reenactment of how Lily had won all of some poor guy's money, plus the peppermints and caramels he'd had in his pocket. "I was going to just tell him to call it quits," she said, "but he kept going on and on about how I wouldn't win, because I was a 'little girl'. Even as he was losing." She shrugged. "I just hope he regrets it now."

"You should have seen the look on his face," James said, delighted. "He's probably still moping about it, as we speak. He's going to go home and tell his wife some totally made up story, just 'cause he doesn't want to admit that he lost that badly. He's going to be thinking about it the rest of his life–I'm sure of it."

Lily just smiled, clearly pretty pleased with herself.

Just then, I spotted Leo and Nicole as they walked out of the festival grounds together. I nudged James, pointed them out, and he gave me a nod. "On three," he said. "One. Two. Three!"

We both bolted toward them, James nearly tackled Leo, while I did the same to Nicole. "Hi, James," Leo said. "Nice to see you, too."

Everyone else caught up, and soon we were surrounded again by chatter. Madeline was apparently fascinated by the festival–it was the first real glimpse she'd gotten of an Itariese tradition (one that was actually real), so it made sense that she was excited. Everyone else buzzed about things they'd won or some chaotic story they had, told with plenty of theatrics.

I skipped as we headed back to the inn. Tonight was the first night in a while that everyone hadn't thought about the chaos happening everywhere else, and had fun. While I was always down for forgetting actual responsibilities, some people (Nicole) were always thinking about something–whether that be whatever was happening in the world or whatever depressing stuff had happened in their own lives. For once, I wasn't alone in just having fun, and I liked that.

...

Leo sat at the table with a typewriter in front of him, as we worked on the first story we were going to try and print. Owen had agreed to help us, and had suggested we start small–there was no use in getting everybody worked up too quickly, because we'd be crushed immediately. We needed to slowly gain enough support to actually have this revolt do its job. Unfortunately, that was harder than it seemed. We needed something that the right people would see and pay attention to, but wouldn't bring too much attention. It was a delicate balance.

Nicole got up. "I'm going to get a bagel. Does anybody else want anything?"

"A bah-gull." James snickered. "You're going to get a bah-gull?"

"What?" She stared at him blankly.

"Your accent," he explained. "It comes through when you say bagel. Or should I say..." He smirked. "Bah-gull."

Nicole frowned. "Does it?" She started to whisper, "bagel, bagel, bagel," to herself, which made James start laughing.

"Leave her alone," Leo said. He shrugged. "I think it's cute."

Nicole rolled her eyes and sat back down beside him. "Your opinion doesn't matter, though. Can you really hear it?"

"No," Leo said. "Only on a word or two, and then it's hardly noticeable. Really, it's fine. Don't listen to James–he's being a pain."

"Would you like a bah-gull?" James asked, then snickered quietly to himself for a minute. "With butter? Or maybe you prefer cream cheese on your bah-gull."

"James. Enough," Leo said. He nodded to the typewriter in front of him. "We need to finish this, and you're not helping. Owen expects it by tonight. This is important, James. There's no room for error here, because that could mean we end up dead." His voice had a hard edge to it, one I'd never expected from someone like Leo–who always seemed to be happy and positive.

James just nodded stiffly and dropped it, but I noticed he sat up a bit straighter, too. I felt myself doing the same. I wanted Leo's approval, which seemed almost ridicolous, because he was only a few months older than me. But he seemed to have that effect on people–even when I intentionally tried to get him mad at me, just to see what would happen. What happened was that he didn't get mad, he just looked incredibly dissapointed in me, which was worse, even if it proved there was no way he was actually seventeen.

We worked on the article almost all day. By the time Owen arrived at the inn to collect it, we had a pretty solid piece down. It didn't even outright say we wanted to commit treason, but it heavily implied that people should take a closer look at the world around them, and see if this was really what they wanted for Itari. Owen read it quickly before he left, and nodded in approval.

"This is good to start," he said. "Keep working, though. Hopefully, we can start publishing more of these. There's been even more whispers of unrest at the tavern this week. People are starting to question all of this–and that's good for us. With any luck, this should help tip the balence even more in our favour."

"Good," James said. He'd somehow gotten his hands on some cookies, and his mouth was full of them. Nicole raised her eyebrows at him.

"With a few more of these," Owen said, "we can start working on putting Madeline on the throne. It's going to take time, though. All of this will." 

Word Count: 1,230