The Glass Ballerina Who Danced On Knives

A Little Vacation

The cold air hits my face like a knife, but the rest of my body is protected by a quilted, ten thousand dollar ski suit. Stepping on to the snow, my boots let out a crunchy cry. The air is still slicing into my face, so I rush to the black sedan that's waiting for us. To be completely honest I haven't been to my chalet at all since we always stay at granddads lodge.

The chalet was actually a present from Conastine after he married Zara in an effort to have me "warm up" to him. It didn't work. The groundskeeper seems to have kept the property in extraordinarily good condition. The chalet is enormous, with a groundskeepers cottage in the distance, and there's an outdoor pool. Why, I have no clue. Everything was furnished and decorated by someone Alisa hired and everything has been dusted in light of our stay.

The sedan driver who is apparently also the groundskeeper brings our bags to our rooms. The rooms are large and rather minimalistic. Dark, unvarnished wood, crisp white sheets, charcoal upholstery, muted metals, and off white candles. No sooner have I taken off my puffer than my door was brought down by Iqra and Adrina.

"What the fück?"

"We're going to the bank tomorrow." Iqra states matter of factly.

"And...?"

"You need to look like someone dealing with ten fricking billion dollars."

I look at them, aghast. "Rude. Are you saying I don't dress well?"

Adrina looks me in the eye, "Trinity Hawthorne has style. Heidi Krell, well... we've only seen her in a ski suit. Trinity also has a multimillion dollar closet, Heidi has whatever Alisa gave her.
"Nobody except the bank managers can know who you really are."

I open my mouth to say something but Iqra shoves a Ferrero Rocher in my mouth as she strolls past me and opens up the enormous steamed glass and cherry wood door leading into my walk in closet, which is about the size of an average bathroom.

"Let's see what Alisa gave Heidi."

Alisa has given Heidi a closet full of Chanel and Givenchy. Heidi's style seems to be an elegant, minimalistic fusion, mixed with statement designer pieces, like the fur rimmed, cinched waisted black coat, and 5 carat sapphire ring (it's fake, but a very good one). Iqra finds a makeup case and lots of shoes. I stand on the white, seamless plush in a pair of black leggings and black turtleneck.

"I'm feeling silver." remarks Adrina, "It'll go better with the cooler environment, and has the added benefit of completely altering your skin tone, as different colours can change the perspective of people."

"Agreed," nodded Iqra, thumbing through the velvet lined jewellery box, until she holds up a sleek silver chain that's made up of little segments that connect together, a silver chain with an inset of a floral silver and diamond design, a pair of classic hoop earrings, and the 5 carat sapphire ring. "I feel like it's a little too much though."

"I like the mix, but I'd prefer fewer pieces." I offer.

Iqra puts back the floral necklace and hoops, then pulls out medium size diamond and sapphire studs, "Much better, and it's not really something you'd usually wear, which is good."

"Now, onto clothing, I've found a pencil skirt and turtleneck, as well as winter tights and some boots." Adrina awkwardly tries to hold up all the hangers and boots.

"It's absolutely perfect."
"Thanks," Adrina beams ",I have some white wraps for your nails, but you should still wear your signature crimson lipstick..."

After another half hour of outfit tweaking, Adrina gives five packets of instant ramen to Iqra, who cooks them all in a huge pot while I take a shower. We sit in front of the 100" flat screen in one of the living rooms with three sets of disposable chopsticks, the giant pot of noodles, and sweatpants.

"Ugggggh, we have to go back to our normal lives in a few days." Iqra groans as we're trash talking about some cheesy match-making show on my Netflix account.

"Guys this is getting so boring," comments Adrina "can't we do something fun, like hacking into the FBI database or something?"

"'Like hacking into the FBI database or something?'" mocks Iqra. "Yeah, ok, sure, let's do that! That's definitely a normal sleepover activity."

"Wait, wait, wait." I stop their bickering ",can we change it to the CIA? We might be able to get some information on some people."

"By people," Adrina pushed up her glasses as she opens her laptop, "who exactly do you mean?"

"Avery's family, my brothers fathers, and my uncle Toby."

"So," Iqra laments, "pretty much the usual, except for the bit about Avery. Why? The media has dug up everything they can find."

"The media," I say, running my fingers through my temporary ebony locks ,"Can't hack into government- security databases."

An hour later, after working our way through the fire walls and passcodes, our search is rendered a failure.

Hawthorne's don't fail.

I keep pushing, until I find something I didn't know yet.

There's nothing I don't know.

I shift my focus to people on The List.

There's absolutely nothing here I don't know. I find a chill creeping up my spine. Why do I know so much? Why did granddad tell me so much?
I have so many questions, even though I know everything.
A.N.: I'm so sorry for not updating regularly, school just started and it's been CRAZY lol.  Also, I got The Brothers Hawthorne, and... let's just say I can rly see Trinity in it.  And, if you don't follow me, I'll put the GBWDOK survey here (if it doesn't work, I'll it in the comments) : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdSLT7McH7ESGz-9Hc6xVrkOKazQJ9DYEc80Ps64mfXBZF88g/viewform