Divided (Book #1 in the Divided Series)

Chapter 8 - Part 2

When we finally left there, we were both taken down to the newly completed ballroom, and given a dance lesson. I got to see first hand how much Izzy liked Luke, and found it was quite a bit, since she didn't stop smiling the whole time, and neither did he. I spent the whole time trying not to stand on poor Jake's foot again, and sadly didn't succeed.

The ballroom was amazing, polished wooden floors, wallpaper that looked like people had spent hour after hour painting them with the tiny intricate details designed all over the walls. There were no big windows, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the room. There was even a chandelier painted on the ceiling, with normal lights in the places of the painted ones, which I thought was just brilliant.

When we finished dancing, I raced upstairs to the bedroom where the clothes all belonged, and grabbed my old clothes, and ran home, leaving Izzy at the door laughing, as I rushed into our downstairs bathroom to get changed.

The following weeks also passed in the same fashion, bringing us to the end of term. Izzy now knew her way around the school well enough that she told the school they could put her in different classes if they redid the time table, which they did.

We had a special photographer come and take pictures of us during the second week of the holidays, and we had to change clothes several times during the shoot, as we were told to call it, and they all had to be ones of smiling naturally, while we were styled and posed by the photographer's assistants, so he could get the best angles.

Our makeup was done a bit heavier for the shoot, since the camera reflected the lights of the flash, and we needed to not look all shiny when that happened, and we needed to make our eyes pop, and lips look amazing, and after that, I tuned out while they did it. I was too busy thinking about breakfast I had coming up with Isaac. He had finally asked me out, and was taking me out to breakfast at the shopping centre, followed by a few hours' rollerblading, and lunch. I couldn't wait.

Once the shoot was done, the guy that took all the photos, shook our hands, and wished us well, and said he'd see us in England. He was now to be our personal photographer, which I wasn't took happy about, but at least he didn't live here too. He was the one who had to be shipped out especially for the shoot, him and his team, and he was led off the place blindfolded, and in a darkly tinted car, so he couldn't see out. His things were taken from him and put into the boot of the car, so he couldn't take photos, even if he could see. This even included his phone. He was in a limo, so the divide was kept up between the front and the back seat, so he couldn't see out of the front window.

Izzy thought this was a bit much, and said as much to Steve, but I was firmly on Steve's side. I had no intention of that guy finding out where we lived. I later found out that the driver took a few long drives with him on the way to and from the airport, and the place he was staying, over an hour away from where we really were, not that he thought it was only an hour, he found it almost two hours. It was all part of not wanting anyone to find us. I thought it was bad enough that he knew what country we were in, and what major city we were near, since my suggestion of driving him to another airport was a tad unreasonable, since it was a long drive.

Once he was gone, I thought we wouldn't see the photos for a few months, but less than a week later, we received word from the palace that they were about to release that they had found two of their children, but only that, just our names, no location, and that they would be introduced over the Christmas celebrations.

When the news came through, I was horrified, and told Steve off. He said he got the news just before it was passed on to us, and he had no idea that the photos were going to be used for that, he thought it was just so that our parents could actually get a look at us, and see what their daughters looked like.

When I saw the article come out, published in nearly every magazine I saw when out with my friends, on the front cover, no less, I was almost crying every time I saw one of them. Kids brought them to school, and showed them around, trying to get any new info they could about these two new princesses.

Hazel, Lucy, Jake and Luke had started at the school, and became part of the group that walked home with us each night, and with us in the morning, since they were all living with their 'Uncle Steve'. We got away with knowing them before they came, by saying that Steve had asked us to come over and start getting to know them, so that they had some friends when they started school. It was a wonderful excuse to have them around us all day, no doubt the plan.

The twins were alright, and Jake and Luke had a good sense of humour. Jake was put in the year above us, and the other three said they were a set of identical twins, and a triplet fraternal brother. The school was almost besides themselves about telling us all apart, with two sets of identical twin girls, they had to make sure there was some way to keep us all straight.

I was getting sick of adding new people to my circle, and hoped that Steve had no one else to throw at us, I don't know if I could have coped. It was bad enough adding Izzy, but adding a few more? Why not? It near about drove me insane. Isaac grew close to Jake and Luke, and confided in me that Luke was getting ready to ask Izzy out. I thought that was a pretty bold move, since he knew her birthright, but saw no harm in it. It meant he could go everywhere with her.

Before Luke asked Izzy out, Jake asked Lucy out, which I was a bit surprised with, but I was even more surprised when she said yes. That had to keep it a secret at school, obviously, until someone caught them making out, and freaked, and they came up with the lie that Jake had been adopted, because their parents had been trying to have children for years, and hadn't, and then he got three younger siblings a year later, and he had stayed there.

That went down really well with everyone, and I just looked on, amused at the whole thing. Luke had asked Izzy out, and they were going well. Isaac and I hadn't gone out after that one breakfast, and I wasn't sure where we were heading. Izzy was too busy getting on with her own love life to worry about mine, and none of my siblings were very sympathetic about it. Chloe told me to ask Isaac myself, and Cleo, Isaac's younger sister, when she found out, since Chloe told her when they were studying together, told me to just 'man up and do it'. I glared at both of them, and stalked out of Chloe's room. I had enough things to worry about without dating someone who had no idea who I really was.