willow tree .... klance

1: lance pov.

          “Lance!”

Lance groaned, not wanting to get out of his comfy bed. He was tired and quite frankly didn’t want to be annoyed by… His sister. She’s the last person he wanted to see.

Veronica bolted up the stairs and waved an envelope in his face with his name on it.

Lance McClain.

“Open it, I wanna know what it’s for..” Veronica threw herself onto Lance’s bed, giving him the envelope. Lance opened it carefully, not recognizing the handwriting on the front. His eyes widened, reading the header.

“You've been cordially invited to the Royal family's annual ball.” Lance read out loud, an obvious shock on his face. He continued reading in his head, reading the last three sentences out loud. “Dress code is formal. The ball will take place at the Royal Castle on Friday, August 16th. Please arrive at 8:30 pm sharp.”

Lance looked at Veronica and then back at the letter. “Me?”

“Well, duh. It has your name on it.” Veronica scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Lance looked back at the letter, it having very few words written for a letter. It seemed handwritten, but not by the king or queen.

Lance looked panicked, sitting up fully. He swung his legs off the bed, getting up.

“Four days..” He sighed.

“Ay cheer up, Lancey Lance. You’ll be fine. I highly doubt it will be as extravagant as people here say it is.” Veronica said, getting up as well to ruffle Lance’s hair.

“Have you ever been invited to anything like this?” Lance asked, feeling worried that he would make a bad impression for the entire McClain family, remembering what Mum had told him. No other family member with their last name had been invited to such a regal event. He needed to make a good impression unless he wanted to bring shame to their family and their whole bloodline.

Lance sighed again, looking in his closet for something to wear.

“I haven't, no.” She commented, sighing inwardly. She didn’t understand why Lance was so upset or nervous. It was just a royal event. It’s not like he would be surrounded by a bunch of royals and people in gorgeous dresses and suits and be asked “Oh, what kingdom do you rule over?” Or “Oh, I've never seen you around before,” or any other offhand comments those rich snooty people would make about Lance.

Surely, she was sarcastic. That was exactly what was going to happen.

Lance was olive-toned and had freckles everywhere. He tanned in the summer, and his eyes were a nice solid green. The opposite of the royals who were pale, didn’t tan, and never had any blemishes on their skin, and honestly, she was sure that the royals probably never went outside either. Had they invited Lance just to laugh at him? Ugh, Veronica would surely have to hit someone if they ever put one of their veiny fingers on Lance. 

Lance sat back down on his bed, burying his head in his hands. He sighed, overall pretty upset. They had invited him to a royal ball, and Lance didn’t even know how to dance, let alone act all proper for the royal family. He was a farm boy. Nothing more, nothing less. He went to high school, yes, but he’d just come straight home to work with his dad.

All of the ‘dirty jobs’ seemed to fall on him. Marco and Luis, his older brothers, had both gone to university and could only help out during the summer. His older sisters, Veronica and Rachel, worked on the farm too but usually helped care for the animals and less of what Lance did. He grew up working in their family business and didn’t know any other way. How was he supposed to act in front of royalty again? 

Lance crawled back into bed and groaned. Veronica took the hint and left the room, leaving Lance alone.