Competing for His Heart

Chapter 11: "You Idiot! Get Off the Floor!"

Olivia's POV

"Well, ladies, looks like the boys won't be back for a few hours", Cassie announced as she helped us put the rest of the dishes away.

"What should we do with our day? I really wish they'd gotten us those files before they left." Katie said, leading us out of the kitchen.

"Wait..." Cassie said, suddenly stopping, "Who says we have to wait for them?"

I looked over at Cassie, seeing that the wheels were turning in her head.

"Levi said that Mom is at tea, and Dad's going golfing with the boys, right?"

"...I DO know where Mom keeps the keys to the study..." Katie trailed off, with a glint in her eye.

"And there are three of us, so one of us can go inside and grab the files, while the other two stay outside and keep watch!" Cassie squealed.

"Okay, let's go grab the keys!" Katie said.

"Wait...so we're going to...steal the files?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes! If Mom notices their gone, we'll just have Levi tell her that he grabbed them early. She wanted him to look them over anyways! He could say he wanted to go over them with Blake before everything kicked off tonight!" Cassie said nonchalantly. Is this girl some kind of evil mastermind?

"Katie, where does your mom keep the keys?" I asked.

"In her bedside drawer, come on, the master bedroom is this way." Katie led us through a labyrinth of hallways until we came to a grand, oak door. It was beautiful. In the wood, intricately carved designs interlocked with one another.

Katie pulled on the handle, and we walked inside.

The master bedroom was about as grand as I'd expected it to be. In the middle, a huge canopy bed stood, draped in expensive silks. Everywhere I turned, antiques lined the walls. 

Cassie and Katie walked to the right side of the bed, and grabbed the keys out of their mother's bedside table. As we turned to leave, something caught my eye- it was a small polaroid picture tucked into a framed mirror. I didn't get to look at it in depth, but something about it looked extremely familiar to me. There were two teenage girls in the picture, one a few years older than the other. They were standing side by side with their arms slung around each other with huge smiles on their faces.

As we snuck the files back to Cassie's room, I couldn't shake the image of that polaroid out of my head.

"Hey, so as we were leaving your parents bedroom, I saw a small polaroid picture tucked into a mirror...what was that?"

"Oh that old thing? That's been there since we were little. It's Mom's. She never talks about it, and we've asked her multiple times. We don't know what it is!" Cassie explained.

"Hmm, It just stuck out to me, I guess."

"Probably because it looks so out of place!" Katie giggled, "Everything else in that room is thousands of dollars, and that old polaroid is so beat up, it will fall apart right before your eyes if you look at it for too long!"

We all laughed as we turned the corner, walking towards the study. 

All of a sudden, Cassie dropped down into a crouch and started sneaking around singing the Mission Impossible theme song.

"Cassie! Will you get up! You're going to draw more attention!" I whisper-yelled, trying to hold in my giggles.

"You idiot! Get off the floor!" Katie swatted a hand at her sister, but Cassie was just out of reach.

"Will you two stop being so LAME! Get down here and sing your part!" Cassie whispered, shooting a look back at us.

So, we complied. Looking like complete nerds, we crawled and sang, darting down hallways, and holding up fake finger guns while we glanced around corners. 

It was all fun and games until we got to the study and the door was...open?

"Lady Dolores! What are you doing in here?" Katie asked sweetly.

"Oh! Hello young ladies! Olivia, are you going to start preparing for tonight?" Lady Dolores asked, "The Competition is in a mere 24 hours."

"Yes, you're right, I should go and get a head start!" I said, trying to keep her attention, as Cassie snuck into the small room off the side of the study where the important filing cabinets were held.

"Lady Dolores, what are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be helping the rest of the girls get settled into their rooms at the hotel?" Katie asked. She's good.

"Actually, your mother asked me if I wouldn't mind coming in here and straightening the place up a bit! Your father always leaves it a mess!" For the first time, Lady Dolores sounded...nervous? Almost like she was trying to cover up what she was actually doing. 

Before any of us had time to respond, Lady Dolores stood up, straightened her pantsuit, and excused herself. As she quickly left, Katie and I gave each other a strange look.

We walked over to the large desk where she'd left some files. They looked to be the files from Levi's father's competition! I threw the first file open to be met with a striking photo of a young Lady Dolores. She looked....pretty much how you'd expect her too. A little too put together, a little too uptight, and a little too...rigid?

"Girls, what are you looking at? I got the files! Let's go!" Cassie announced, walking back into the room with arms full of important looking files.

We grabbed some out of her hands and started the long walk back to Cassie's room, laughing under our breath about Lady Dolores going through the old files.

When we arrived to Cassie's room, she threw us all a White Claw from the fridge as we plopped down on her bed. I don't know how my liver is going to make it through this summer if I keep hanging around Cass.

"Alrighty then," Cassie started, "Let's see who your competition is."