The Glass Ballerina Who Danced On Knives

Karaoke

Trinity pov
After Avery came back from talking to my aunt she announced she was planning to get involved with the foundation. Oh god. She could have just as well said "I'm getting involved with Grayson". Things are going to get interesting. I totally ship by the way.

Once climbing up to my room I decided to set up partially now, and sort the food out after dinner. Grabbing a sleek remote off the coffee table, I press a few buttons and my 97" TV descends from the 16' ceiling, pausing at the perfect height in midair. Next, I tap the top of the coffee table twice, and the surface opens up to reveal a giant karaoke machine, with three mics and tons of flashing lights. Pressing a few more buttons pushes the machine up, so it sits at the same level as the rest of the table. Doing a quick time check, I realise that it's almost time for dinner, so I quickly check that my giant JBL speakers are connected to the machine and my other set of speakers is connected to the TV before running down for dinner.

During dinner I make polite conversation and listen to Avery's plan to go and read the Red Will tomorrow. Cool, I don't want to go, she should have some alone time with a certain brother *wink* *wink*. And I could use the time to go over the instructions.

After dinner, Xander heads into the kitchen (hopefully to make the pizza because we can't really just door dash it) and I dash upstairs.
Once there, I change into comfy black yoga pants and a cropped white hoodie, adding UGGs (outfit 13-no earmuffs) and check my mini fridges/cabinets and candy jars. I have enough (or as enough as I can have) ice cream and gelato, probably enough drinks, but definitely not enough candy or snacks. Time for a pantry raid. Sure, I could ask the maids to fetch them, but what's the fun in that?

Pulling my hood up and grabbing my Saint Laurent Shopping Bag (A.N.: this is a large leather bag from YSl, named "the shopping bag"), I check the time. Phew, still 8:47. I have enough time.

Sliding open a panel in my wall, I slip through and race down the hallway, spiral down stairs, and open another door. Dashing across the hallway, I open another passage and glide through until I reach another door. God, granddad really thought about everything.

Instead of a handle, there is a plaque on the wall, reading  "veni, vidi, viic". No, that's wrong, the last word should be vici: I conquered, making the full phrase "I came, I saw, I conquered" Reaching up, I pushed the "I" to the right, then twisted the letters so that it read "veni, vidi, vici". The door popped open a crack, just enough for me to slide my  manicured nails through and pull it towards me, widening the gap in the wall, so I could slip through.

Jackpot.

I was standing on the north side of a cavernous pantry. Wire racks and wide mesh baskets were arranged in aisles with plain black and white labels at the end of each aisle. Three large refrigerators and a deep freezer lined one wall and at the south end there was a set of large, black rubber lined doors.

Those must lead to the main kitchen. I thought. Best to stay away from the round windows.
Quickly scanning the basic labels I find "Snacks And Candy". I walk down the aisle, pausing at random and tucking various items in my bag including tons of assorted chips, cans of Pringles, a bag of Starbursts, a pack of Oreos, sour candy strips, Gummy bears, and more than should be allowed to fit in my bag. I know no one will mind that I took the snacks, but this whole sneaky thing is a lot of fun.

I slip back though the door and dart back to my room, sliding back through the panel in my wall.

Phew.

The time is 9:26, so I pull out some bowls and platters kept in a hidden cupboard and begin setting out the snacks and candy, as well as ice cream/gelato spoons. The actual cold treats, as well as the drinks will be kept in the mini fridges for now.

At 9:49 I finish my preparations and curled on the sofa with a blanket and my phone, mindlessly scrolling through Pinterest. After around ten minutes a text popped up from Xander reading: I await at the gates. Huh? Oh, I had locked the lift, so he couldn't get up. Whoops. Pressing my thumb against the lift button, I unlocked the lift. Not content with simply opening it, I hopped in and rode down.

When the door slid open, Xander stood there with a huge grin on his face, and two pizza boxes in his arms.

"Hello, my dearest sister", a pause for effect ", I come bearing gifts."

I giggled, "Made it your self, I presume?"
"As always."

We both laughed. "Come on up," I said, dropping the act ",I held up my end of the deal!"

Once up, Xander made himself comfortable on my couch with an extra large bowl of Doritos, and bag of peanut M&Ms somehow managing to also get a bottle of Coke from the fridge and open it-all in the span of around five seconds.

"Hey! Leave some for me!" I protest, grabbing a Dorito from the bowl.

"This," he remarked, licking his fingers ", is just a filler until we get to the real deal." He waggled his eyebrows, sorry eyebrow and nodded towards the pizza boxes.

The boxes are standard issue Hawthorne House boxes. Don't ask why we have custom pizza boxes, because this is probably the first time that they were used. They were made of plain brown cardboard, with the swirly Hawthorne "H" stamped in the center, and, in plain block letters, all caps, was "PIZZA" written underneath.

"Is one cheese, and one peperoni?" I asked.
Xan gave me a look. The do-you-really-think-I'm-that-stupid-and-don't-know your-sorry-mine-too-favourite-pizza-toppings? look. I sigh and open the boxes. The sigh turns inso a squeal of happiness, when I see that he did indeed make cheese and pepperoni.

I grabbed two plates and practically throw one at Xander.

"Wow, pre cut too? Thanks, stranger."

Xan laughs and takes a slice each of cheese and pepperoni, while literally drowning his bottle of coke. I head over to the mini fridge and take out another bottle for him and a Coke zero for me.
After bites of pizza had been taken, I decided to kick-start this karoke night.

"So, what song do you want to sing first?" I ask, balancing my plate in one hand and TV remote in the other.
"Let's start off with a classic," he takes a bite of pizza and chews thoughtfully, "Oooh, what about "You Belong With Me"?"(A.N.:bc ofc Xander is the biggest Swiftie to walk the earth)

I sigh and smile. "You are a die-hard Swiftie. I would have gone with "Love Story", personally."
"Noo, now I don't know which one to pick!" he exclaims in mock-distress, taking a fifth slice of pizza.

"It's fine, we can do "You Belong With Me" then "Love Story."

"Yessssssss!" He pumps his arm up and down in excitement.

We sing for approximately five minutes before I succumbed to a large box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, leaving Xander to belt out tunes for the next hour before he too collapses with a pint of rocky road ice cream.

"Are you even Hawthorne? We take karaoke seriously."

I'm exhausted and lowkey overwhelmed. "Can we maybe just watch a movie instead?"

Xander looks at me quizzically, "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine" I offer a half hearted smile.

Still frowning, Xander asks "Harry Potter movie marathon?"