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Chapter Fourteen

Evelyn's POV

"Your birthday's coming up soon, Isla." The queen wipes her mouth with her napkin, turning to face the redhead. "Is there a particular theme you'd like for your birthday?"

"Hm?" Isla's mouth is filled with the pudding, but she swallows it down quickly. "Uh, no. I don't have anything in mind."

Queen Marissa looks around the table. "Any ideas?" Her eyes lock on mine. "Courtney?" I can hear the uneasiness in her voice when she says her daughter's name. She's the only one who knows it isn't really her.

"Um..." I rack my brain for ideas. Suddenly, I smile. "How about a masquerade ball?"

Isla grins. "Awesome! Can I invite Piper?"

The king laughs. "Of course, sweetheart. And you two may invite whoever you like as well."

Before I can say anything, the queen takes the words right out of my mouth. "May I suggest the young models from Emerald? I saw Courtney making conversation with one of them. She seems quite sweet as well."

"And Jordan," I add quickly. "If he can come, of course."

"Done and done." Isla holds a notebook, scribbling names with her fancy blue pen. "And I'll just start making invitations after dinner."

"I'll go upstairs and check for a dress," I state, leaving the table and racing up to Courtney's room. I grab my phone and dial her number, waiting for her to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey! Great news. Your mom invited you and the rest of Kappa Delta to Isla's masquerade ball birthday party thing."

"Really? How'd you convince my mom to agree to a masquerade ball? She hates them, says loads of bad things can happen."

"I guess she wants a chance to meet you. She hasn't seen you in two weeks."

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, what are you going to wear? You know, so I can recognize you."

"I don't know. Um, do you have, like, a set of clothes made especially for masquerade balls?" I joke, smirking.

"Yes, actually. To the left of my closet, at the back. I've got four, tell me which one you want to wear."

"Oh." I laugh and enter her closet that's the size of my dorm room back at Emerald. Heading for the back and looking through the clothes at the left, I find, just as she'd said, four sets of clothes. Scanning through them with my eyes, I find the one.

The dress is made of black lace, and it's already been adjusted to Courtney's figure, as the curves match her body shape. A pair of black heels are hung up with it, as well as an elaborate black and gold mask. "The black one is beautiful," I murmur, looking at it. "But black isn't my colour. Do you want me to keep it for you?"

"That'd be great. Thank you!" Courtney replies, and I smile.

"No problem, I'll have it sent to you. Now, which one do you think would suit me?"

I hear a long pause. "Hmm... How about the red one? I think it'd look amazing on you."

The red one happens to be right behind the black one. The mask is now red and black rather than black and gold, and the heels are red. "This one's gorgeous too. Thanks Courtney."

"No problem," she responds quietly, and it's now I notice she's been whispering this entire time.

"Courtney.. Where are you at the moment?" I ask slowly.

"In bed, it's like nine in the morning. Why?"

I grin teasingly. "Is Jordan next to you?"

There's a short pause before she answers. "Of course not."

"Then why are you whispering?"

"My throat hurts, that's all," she says matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, probably from screaming his name all night."

A long silence from Courtney's end.

"Courtney!"

"I'm sorry! We kissed and one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I was lying next to him, on the verge of falling asleep," she protests.

"Mmhmm. Well, I hope you had fun."

"I really did. Wait!" Courtney adds quickly, but I'm already laughing my head off. "That's not what I meant!"

"Sure thing. Well, I'm going to go. We wouldn't want to wake him up. See ya." I laugh and hang up, grabbing the red dress from the rack.

A/N

Heyy :) Um we kind of want to know if anybody is actually reading this or not before we continue publishing chapters, because it just seems like quite a few of these reads are ours (not intentionally).

So if you are reading this, please let us know with a vote or a comment or a message or anything <3

- Zalie :3