Last Time

"I heard from one of my friends at Carter that she was the one caught fooling around with one of the refs before League last year. He was the one who was supposed to be covering the other side of the pool," Dijonay Jones, Penny's friend and an amazing backstroker, whispers, leaning in closer. "Her little affair with him almost disqualified him from being a ref ever again. Good for them that he only got two, three weeks of suspension because she's a good liar and got them off in court. Hussie."

My eyes widen, but not for obvious reasons. The gossip girl just gave me an idea.

"What are you smiling about?" Teague asks, pulling me closer to his side than I already am (which I only now notice that I'm snuggled pretty closely to).

"Nothing," I smirk, "I just found myself a way out of our little predicament."

Mina's POV

Teague gives me a blank stare, "You're trying to make my mother into a hoe."

"It's not like she's that far off I mean—ouch, what the hell, Mina!"

"Nix don't start with him," I scold, shaking some of the pain out of my hand. What are these Fae made of, titanium? "Just because we don't like his mother doesn't mean he doesn't have to. He just has to help us conspire against her."

"Your idea is all fine and dandy," Nina says with a sip of her Starbucks, "but from what I hear you don't have all the details worked out. If we're going to be going back to my mother for her final touch, we need to have this whole thing mapped out, backup routes and backup- backup routes, too."

"I know that we need to frame the queen of, as the prince oh so eloquently put it, being a hoe to invalidate her royal standing for at least two weeks, but I'm not the best at spreading false information so convincingly. That's more of Nan's thing or even Savannah White, but I don't want either one around a single quest."

"I understand the Savannah thing," Teague nods, "she's practically useless and I've seen her get in your way more than a few times, but why not Nan? I mean she is your best friend."

"It's just that I don't want her getting hurt," my eyes drop to the table, "you know, like last time."

"That was my fault and you know it," Teague tells me, a flicker of guilt flashing across his bright blue-ish gray eyes.

"And it doesn't matter anyway," Nina smirks, "because she's coming this way."

My head whips to where Nina is looking and the blood drains from my face. Nan with, much to my surprise, Ever right by her side strides across the mall's food court confidently, her blonde curls bouncing with every step.

"Well, well, well," Nan says, an eyebrow raised, "look what the cat dragged in. I thought you were supposed to be visiting your uncle right now, not shopping without me. It hurts bad enough that we haven't been hanging out with each other as much lately, but to be here, the mall, my haven, without me and to have lied about it? Well that's plain ol' rude."

I flinch, she's right.

"You know I've spent more time with Ever these past few days than with you in the past few weeks," Nan tells me, a light pout pulling at her pink lips.

"Wait what?" I blink, "how did you two end up talking in the first place?"

"We bumped into each other here and said I liked her Cobain shirt," Ever shrugs.

"When we were walking back to this new store called Your Place," Nan adds in. "She was telling me about she's living life basically on a prayer. Cool, hu?"

"How did we end up here," I groan, running my hands through my hair.

"While she's here we may as well fill her in, right?" Nina mischievously grins and the boys nod along with her, much to my horror. Traitors.

"And now we're keeping secrets," Nan huffs, "great."

"Fight me, fairy, fight meeee."

"Fairy?" Nan cuts Nina a glare, "I asked her to dress up as a fairy with me last year and she said no but now you, little miss varsity, come along and she's all gung ho about it."

"That's not it," I say, biting my lip. "She's kinda literally a fairy. Well my Fae fairy godmother to be exact. "

"Yeah, right," Nan rolls her eyes, "and Ever is a fun loving pixie who likes to play the harp."

"Actually I gave up the harp a few years back," Ever corrects, "but other than that you're pretty spot on."

"Say that you're being serious and it's not just some wacky story to throw me off, tell me all about how you met, why you're here, etc. etc." She sits down on the chair across from me and crosses her legs dramatically. Oh lord, how is this supposed to work out?

…

"So basically, Mina, you're the legacy of some curse that he," Nan points to Teague, "has been controlling for the past few generations and it's their" she points to Nina and Ever "job to make sure she" she points back to me "doesn't, like, die or anything. Mina met Nick, who is apparently Nix, a nixie," she smiles at the thought of his true form, "when she was going to ambush the dude she's snuggling right now—by the way I still ship it so stop scooting away from him now, MIna—without the consent of Jared, Teague's other half that is now together bound by the book Mina always carries around. I thought I saw someone that looked like him before but I thought I just saw him on, like a model magazine." Teague smirks and gives a nod of thanks to my best friend. "Any way few months later Teague is here trying to win over Mina and, by the looks of it, he's been doing a good job and now you guys are trying to overthrow dear mummy because she's feeling a bit salty about her baby being with a Grimm so she's started adding gas and hairspray to the flames. You guys are trying to get her disowned by the throne for a while so you can end the curse without having to, you know" she makes the slit-throat motion, "the queen but you can't figure out how to frame her. Missing anything?"

"No, you've got it all," Nina tells her.

"I'm going to need a little bit of proof from you guys," Nan says, inspecting her nails carelessly. There are a few moments of silence before a grin stretches across her face, "but count me in because this is going to be epic and I'm the master gossiper."

"So all is forgiven?" I do my best to imitate the puppy dog eyes Nan always uses on me.

"Not yet," she chuckles, "but on the bright side your pouty face is getting better. With enough practice you'll be able to get your boyfriend here to buy both of us a pony or whatever the Fae version of that is."

"If we can pull this off I'll get you a summer house overlooking whatever you want on my Plane and a unicorn," Teague tells her.

Nan's eyes light up, "For real? Well let's get going then! Meet me at my place in forty!"

Before I know it Nan is pulling me and Ever by the hand, chattering about a dozen different ideas she already has. Nan's bags are still on the floor where she left them, but I'm sure the boys and Nina will pick them up. If not? Well then someone has a free set of clothes.

…

"What are you looking for," Ever asks, absentmindedly playing with the fuzzy fringes of Nan's pink pillow.

"My book, the book," she calls from inside of her huge walk-in closet.

"What's in the book?" Nina asks from her place on the floor.

"All the plans I've hatched over the years," Nan answers. "I hid the book a few years ago, but I hid it so well that I can't find it!"

"Want the Fae touch to find it?" Nina offers, "otherwise this is going to take forever."

"Go for it, but I doubt you'll—okay, um, wow," Nan's mouth hands a bit in shock. With a flick of her wrist Nina sends all the books in the room lift into the air. They come flying from everywhere, even from nooks and crannies that I didn't know even existed. The room is quiet, until a faint knocking is heard. Nan's face lights up and she flies to her bookshelf. Pushing the heavy wood fixture with more strength than I thought she had, Nan reveals a little hidden compartment. Nan opens it and a black book with a Masterlock on it flies out.

"Here we go," Nan grins. "Here's my little black book of secrets!"

"You were hunting for twenty minutes for your childhood diary?" Teague rolls his eyes, "I feel so reassured."

"I wrote my feelings in here, yes, but only the ones about my mom's past relationships. In here lies all the ways I've sabotaged them without a single finger pointed in my direction." Nan dials in the code and tosses the book to Teague. Nix leans over his shoulder to read it, too, and the Nixie starts cracking up.

"Those are some harsh words for a thirteen year old," he chuckles, "who knew a sweetheart like Nan would have such a potty mouth?"

Nan blushes, and I'm pretty sure it isn't due to the mention of her past ways.

A cat like grin stretches across my—er—Teague? and you can hear the excitement in his voice, "these could work! You hired someone to test your mom's boyfriend's faithfulness and, even if they don't take the bait, they're still caught in the act one way of another. You're a freaking genius!"

"Thanks," she grins. "But the thing is, from what I understand, you can't take tech over to the Fae plane and it's not like we can have someone sketch it out or anything."

"We either need to have the king himself catch her in the act or some aristocratic Fae," Nix pipes up. "They're the only ones that could take her to the council and be taken seriously."

"I can make it happen," Teague says. "Just give me a week alone over there before you can come over. Knowing my parents, they'll follow the same routine of approaching me by the 6th day of me being back."

"All we need is someone for your mom to get caught in the act with." I look over to Teague with a small smirk tugging my lips, "no offense, sweetheart, but I can't think of anyone who'd volunteer to kiss your mother right now. She isn't the warm and cuddly type."

"There was that one person when I was eight—"

"Which was, like, forever ago," Ever quips with a smirk identical to mine pulled on her face.

Teague glares at her, playfully baring his teeth, "I forgot his name, but he was a gardener for the palace and he was madly in love with my mom. It was before the whole split thing and we all were, for the most part, happy. She would always compliment him on the flowers, he would compare her to her favorite one—which was downright nauseating looking back at it now—and they got close to kissing once before I came out of my hiding spot. Mom sent him to the other castle the next day to garden there. If I can find him, I don't think it'd be that hard to convince him to come back."

"If he was willing to be a trifling cheater once, I'm sure he'll be willing now," Nina shrugs. "That is, if he's alive."

"Oh he is," Teague snorts. "He sends flowers to mom every year on her birthday which is coming up in a few weeks. She has all of them saved in her own little room."

"We could tell him to hand-deliver the flowers to her!" Nan chirps, "And even if he's not willing to do anything, we can still catch them in a hug and have Teague testify that he saw them together when he was a kid, but didn't know what to make of it since he was little."

"If this doesn't work, we still need to have a few backups," Nix says. "Any ideas?"

There's a solid five minutes of silence until an idea hits me like lightening. "We can go undercover! All of us! Teague, you can get us some jobs, right? See if you can send some people on vacation and sub us in. Keep me, Ever and Nina away from places we can be really seen by royals since they might know us, see if you can have Nan to be your mom's hairdresser or something, and Nix can be your personal attendant. We can all be gathering information just in case the original plan doesn't work! Do you think you can manage that?"

"Your wish is my command, princess," Teague mockingly salutes.

"I'm not a princess," I roll my eyes.

"Not yet," Nina, Nan, and Teague chorus. What the hell is this? I can't have them all on the same wavelength, that'd be destructive.

"Looks like everyone is trying to replace the old queen with you, Mina," Ever snorts. "Well once upon a time you could've actually—"

"Shhhhhh," Teague says, reaching over to smother her with a pillow.

I blink a few times, "Wait what?"

"Don't worry about it," Nina waves me off, "that was once upon a dream."

I gave her a blank stare, "did you really just?" I roll my eyes, "I know you know that was Aurora's song from your mother."

"Ooooh yes, the ex," Nina smirks, turning to Teague. "Looks like she gets jealous because you're too freaking beautiful and everybody wants your—"

"Finish that sentence," I growl, "and I'm calling the Godmothers for a replacement."

Pre Author's Corner word count: 2365

Hey guys! Thanks for the comments/reviews, every time I get one I smile like the dork I am. If you guys like my writing, I post some Imagine!s on Tumblr (it's basically giving you a concept/situation and going from there in a short story of some sort) under my side 5sos blog Urlsrreallydifficulttocomeupwith and my main blog is Kristinthetruetribute. Follow and let me know in my ask box that you're one of my readers if you want.

Last time didn't have any questions for me to answer so here are this round's:

1. Have you listened to 5sos's She's Kinda Hot? I freaking love it.

2. Any Tumblr users here?

3. Anything you want to know? About me or the story (without mega spoilers or anything)? 'cause I'm running out of questions to ask here.

Hope you liked it!

Sorry for any and all typos

-K!