Chapter 12

The next few days went by in a haze, a haze of waiting, wondering, and anxious nail biting. Literally, in three days my nails were all but gone. My grandmothers wouldn't be too happy about that.

Arica and I hardly said two words for the rest of the week. A few 'yes mam's here and there, but other then that not much. I found myself at night thinking about things. Things like that man that came to the door and asked for Karter, why there was all of a sudden so much excitement around him, and the night he was taken. I hoped that I would never see any of those men again, especially that woman, Bella. I wouldn't find out until later how pointless that was.

You know what I just thought? You're probably fed up with me ruining things for you like this. Well, if that's indeed how you're feeling, I have something to tell you.

Deal with it.

Now where was I? Oh yes, hazy days and depressing thoughts.

So as the length of the time till the ball got shorter, so did my nights, my nails, and Arica's rap sheet for trouble. She was being remarkably well behaved, because we couldn't risk any bad behavior. You never know what the Ogress is going to pull.

After that week, possibly the longest of my life, it was the day before the ball. The level of excitement in the house had been going up steadily as the ball got nearer, and by that night Cindy was positively squealing everything she said. It was like being trapped in a room with a tortured puppy.

"Hey, you." Ella said that night as I scrubbed the dinging room floor. She had been getting worse with the taunts and things of that nature for a while. One of her favorite things to do was try and make me jealous of her because she was going to the ball and I wasn't. It got rather annoying really.

"Don't you think the prince will dance with me?" She asked, sashaying across the room. I rolled my eyes. She didn't have enough rhythm to charm a snake. But I didn't tell her that.

"I'm sure he will." I said. What I didn't say was that he would probably dance with everyone.

"Aren't you upset you can't come?" She said, digging for a reaction.

"Not particularly." I said. "Besides, how do you know I'm not coming?" She just laughed and walked away. I couldn't care less.

That night had to be the longest ever. Arica and I hardly talked, and I hardly got any sleep. When I did finally fall asleep, I had horrible nightmares. Thankfully, I was unable to recall any details when I woke, just a general feeling of terror.

I must have been around six in the morning, but there were sounds of hurried footsteps and shouting coming from upstairs. I groaned and turned to look at Arica. Her face was pale.

"It's today." She whispered. I nodded. Before day's end, we were going to be dressed up by two old ladies, get shuffled into a room filled with excitable girls, find a friend, escape with our lives, (hopefully) and get back here, into this room, without being noticed. A challenging feat.

As Arica and I came to the main floor, the doorbell rang. I rushed to get it.

"Hello, Danielle!" The old woman at the door said as she scooped me into a bone-crunching hug.

"Grandma Fay!" I said, my voice muffled because she was pushing my face against her body. This had been the worst part of her visits when I was little to.

Grandma Fay was an, um, portly woman, who tended to be rather frivolous and silly at times. But she was caring, an made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world.

"Um, Dannie…" Arica's voice sounded urgent, and I tried to turn to see what she was warning me against, but the answer came in the form of the very snotty voice belonging to Mrs. Victoria Ogress.

"Um, hello." She said, "May I ask why you are clinging to the help as if she was pulling you out of a ditch?"

"I'm her grandmother, Victoria." Grandma Fay said, letting me go, "May I ask why you just referred to my granddaughter as 'the help?'"

"Oh!" The expression on Victoria's face was priceless. "Oh that's just a family joke, isn't it, er…"

"Danielle." I said, tying not to sound annoyed. I don't think it worked very well.

"Yes! Just a joke, you see." She grabbed me and pulled me to her side, as if to be 'motherly'. I tried not to gag from her perfume.

"Of course it was!" My grandma said. She didn't sound too convinced, but she decided to leave it.

"So," Victoria said warily, "why are you here?" It was obviously hard for her to be friendly, but my grandma smiled.

"Oh, I thought I'd just drop by to visit my favorite granddaughter." She said, winking at me.

"Oh." Victoria looked confused for a moment, then regained her composer and gave my grandmother a sickeningly bright smile. "Well, how wonderful!" She said. "I'll arrange a guest room to be made up for you immediately." She invited my grandma into the sitting room, and scowled when I followed, but couldn't exactly do anything about it. I was enjoying this.

Arica followed me, and when I sat on one of the dark red velvet couches, I waved her over. She sat next to me, despite the truly horrible look the Ogress gave her.

"What are you doing, girl?" Victoria practically snarled. "Don't you have some work to do somewhere?"

"Now now," Grandma Fay said, "is this your friend Danielle?" I nodded. "Then I'm sure we can make an exception, just for tonight." While talking, Grandma Fay kept her eyes trained on Victoria, as if daring her to argue. The Ogress said nothing, just smiled tightly and sat as far away as she could.

I wondered what would happen now, but just then the doorbell rang again. "Now who could that be?" Victoria wondered. The sound of voices from the doorway, then a kitchen girl with dirt on her nose came into the room and curtsied to Victoria.

"There's someone at the door, mam." She said.

"Straighten up girl!" Victoria said, a bit too harshly for my liking.

The girl stood and saw me and Arica sitting there. She gave us a curious look, then returned her eyes her mistress. "She is asking for Danielle. Should I tell her that she is unavailable?"

Victoria raised her eyebrows. "Well dear," She said to me, "you seen to be very popular today." Then she turned to the kitchen girl. "You may show her in." She said with a dismissive hand motion. The girl nodded and hurried off.

Then there was a shriek from upstairs. Someone pounded down the stairs, and burst into the sitting room, sobbing. At first I didn't recognize her, because she wore no face paint, she wore a housecoat instead of a dress, and her brown hair was falling around her shoulders. It took me a moment, but I recognized her as Ella.

"Mother!" She shouted, "All our servants are incompetent! I need a new girl, by today!"

That was when the kitchen girl cam into the room with my Grandma Agatha.

"Oh," she said, "should I not have come?"

"Grandma!" I said, jumping up to hug her.

"Hello, darling!" She said, hugging me back and apparently forgetting the crying girl in the corner, who had been joined by a girl of about fourteen, trying to get her to calm down so she could brush her hair. Ella ignored the poor girl.

Grandma Agatha was thinner then Grandma Fay, and was more sensible, but she still kept up with fashion and other things like that, even though she was what Ella would call 'to old to be social.'

"What is going on here?" She demanded, "Why is that, that wench hugging a guest?"

"Ella!" Victoria said, "Apologize to your stepsister!"

I wished I could remember Ella's expression for the rest of my life. It took all the will power I had not to crack up, she looked so surprised and dumbfounded. I kept my eyes off of Arica, because I knew that I couldn't stop myself from laughing if we looked at each other.

"Well." Ella said, "I'll just be going." She turned and flounced back to her room, closely followed by the girl.

"I'll go to," Victoria said, "I must make sure that proper rooms are being made up for the both of you, and calm down my daughter. I shall see you, ah, ladies later."

As Victoria turned and left, Arica sighed. "So," she said, "you two are Danie's grandmothers?"

"Yes." They said together.

"You two are the one's that are going to help us get ready for the ball tonight?"

"Yes." They said.

"Well then," I said, "We should probably get started."

And with that, the most hectic day ever began.