Brighter Than the Stars

Annabelle - Paper and Ink

"Well, if you weren't so stupid we wouldn't be having this problem, would we?" I pulled the paper away from James and inspected it. "Ruin the next one, and I'll ruin your sheets with ink." James started to speak, and I cut him off. "It wasn't an accident, so don't you dare try to say it was. I saw you and Ollie messing around."

James had been working on recreating the signature for days–or he'd been supposed to. But this was the third time he'd mysteriously spilled ink all over one of his projects, and I was just a tiny bit impatient. He was so close–I couldn't even really tell the difference anymore, even if James and Leo insisted they were there. The only thing I drew, though, were patterns for clothes.

Maybe it said something that Leo could see it better than I could, while I had two working eyes.

"Okay–I'm actually working now. I swear." He straightened his posture, as if that would prove to me that he was working. When I didn't leave, he sighed and took out a fresh sheet of paper. "Really, I am. How about this: come back in an hour with lunch, and I'll have hopefully perfected it. I only need to get this last little swoop. Then, we can talk about what we want to say."

"Fair enough," I allowed. "If you start wasting time again, though, you won't get lunch."

"Annabelle! That's not fair."

I shrugged. "I'm kidding. Sort of."

An hour later, I came back with Leo (and his mom) who had made us sandwiches with the good bread. She set down James's plate, and started to head back off. "Tell me if you need anything more. The chips just came out of the oven recently, and there are more on the pan if you want them. I have to start making some cakes and things for the tea Madeline's hosting."

I'd nearly forgotten about that. Madeline had invited some of the nobility up for tea, mostly because everyone was gossiping like crazy. My parents and James's were unfortunately among them, and I'd decided this was a good opportunity to show them up. While I wanted to irritate my own parents, James's would be just as fun. They'd never liked me–apparently, I'd been a 'bad influence' on their son. If anything, I was a good influence on James.

"I've got the signature." James spoke with his mouth full, which further proved I was a good influence on him. "What do you guys want to say? Can we even say anything until we hear from Nicole, and figure out more of what's going on? When will we hear from her, anyway? I don't want to wait two weeks."

"She has her mirror," Leo said. "We should hear from her this week. We can't know exactly what to say, but we can start. We'll make edits if need be later."

"I vote we start, hey, fun story, I'm actually a terrible person and you should end all contact with me, immediately. Really, that just finishes the whole letter, and we can be done. Just make sure to insult him a few more times, so Annalisa really gets the point."

James snorted. "Honestly, can we? Not that I've ever met the guy, but–"

"Wait, you haven't?" I asked. "Really? I thought you had! He hates you, anyway, I'm guessing, so it's not like it really matters, but..."

"Who could hate me?" James asked, mock offended. "I'm pretty great."

"Sure." I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe we should start," Leo interjected. He picked up a piece of paper and a pen. "I'm thinking we just inquire after the last letter or document sent. If we keep it vague enough, she may just send them right to us, and that would be really helpful. Of course, she could be suspicious and report it to him."

"Please." I snorted. "Annalisa probably doesn't even know what the word suspicious means. Or, for that matter, inquire. You could hit her on the head with a rock and she'd just pick it up and very sweetly ask you if you misplaced it. You could send her a death threat, and she'd manage to mistake it for a love letter."

Leo passed the paper to James. "That's a bit extreme. Here–James, you can imitate the handwriting. Let's keep this brief, all right?"

We did. By the end of an hour or so, we'd managed to come up with, Annalisa, this note will be brief, but I need you to send me the last document I've sent your way. It's important. More soon, M.C.

Was it utter garbage? Maybe. At this point, though, I didn't even care. Leo had first suggested that we put 'forgive that this note is brief', but then James and I had reminded him that Nicole's dad had probably never used the word 'forgive' in his life.

"What a personality switch, from her dad to you," James muttered. "Anyway, I think this is good enough for now. And I want more chips, so I'm out."

"I have that tea soon, that I should probably go get ready for," I said. "James, how badly do you care about what I say to your mom?"

"Say whatever," he responded. "I don't care. Do your worst."

I grinned. "Gladly. It's going to be so much fun."

"Please try not to insult anyone too terribly," Leo begged. "Poor Madeline has enough to do without you stirring up more trouble. If you're both going to disappear on me, then I guess it's my job to put this mess away." He gestured to the table, which was covered in pens, paper, and ink (most of which would have to be scrubbed off).

"Then I am definitely out," I said. "Ta-ta and all that. Have fun!" James was already half-way to the door. Leo just sighed and started picking it all up. "At least my excuse was legitimate," I said, as I passed him on the way out. "You just want chips."

"Chips are important!" James argued.

"To what?"

"My stomach. Duh."

Word Count: 1,018