#Hobby_Hacking

“You did, calling football the s word is a serious offense. You’re lucky to know me or you’d have been thrown in jail,” he laughs along with her, the conversation now bordering on absurd. “Thank you Marredith, it’s much appreciated,“ he tells her in a solemn tone once he’s stopped laughing enough to speak but soon enough, he starts laughing again so much and so hard that tears run down his cheeks. His uncontrollable laughter is in part due to their comical conversation but also the tiredness from the nine hours flight, even though he spent most of it sleeping, and the jet-lag catching up to him. “I’ll be by your side the entire time, Mar. You have nothing to worry about, it’ll go well.” He too puts sheets on the floor along with all the pillows he can find in the room. “I’d say, approximately a large amount,” how is he supposed to know this. 

“You can’t say?” His tone was not at all combative. He understood and he couldn’t exactly blame Mars. Those ‘gifts’ from D weren’t for nothing, but Seth didn’t want to talk about it either. He just hoped the one other thing she had to do before wasn’t too bad. “D’s been in contact, but I haven’t gotten anything from them directly in a while.” Seth shrugged. He wasn’t giving up on Ezra, but he couldn’t help but feel a little defeated at the moment. “Maybe.”

“Of cou—” He freezes mid-sentence, the second question earning a shocked gasp and incredulous look. “I have failed you as an uncle, Marredith, I’m so sorry,” is he being overdramatic? maybe, just a tad. “Football is the s word Mar and football should never be referred to as the s word, ever, it’s sacrilegious.” he shakes his head as though genuinely disappointed in her for not knowing football is soccer but in truth, he finds some humor in her cluelessness. “Your manners aren’t terrible, no worries,” he assures her. “First, there’s bowing or curtsey to the monarchs as greeting. It’s not a rule per se, you aren’t obligated to, but it’s good manners to. Second, using the right greetings. On presentation to the Queen and King, the correct address is Your Majesty and subsequently Ma'am and Sir. There’s a few more but it’s enough for now, I don’t want to overwhelm you.” As soon as he gets an answer to his query, he’s opening all the drawers in the room for spare linen to create the fort in the hallway to connect their bedrooms. “Let’s do it.”

She kept her expression still, studying the other girl’s expression. It seemed straightforward enough. She didn’t think it likely that Mars came asking about this with any ulterior motive, but at the same time, the question confuses her slightly. “Was I unclear about anything? I’d say you were the one giving mixed signals.”

His suggestion is meant as a joke but he shouldn’t be surprised Marredith takes it seriously. “Absolutely,” he answers with a laugh. “I’ll buy one for myself too, it’ll be fun. We could play football in them like in those videos on YouTube, you know the ones.” Alek has an inkling this will end more disastrously than if his best friend roams the halls of the Palace without being in a giant bubble but a lot more fun for the both of them. To her next question, he shakes his head negatively. “Manners, definitely not but there are a few rules that everyone have to follow, myself included, in the presence of my parents. Things will be a lot more relaxed because we’re at home than let’s say if you met them under official circumstances but there’s still a certain level of respect to maintain at all times.” He opens the door to the bedroom she’s staying in during the stay and ushers her inside. “Have I ever told you, I love your mind? Because I do, very much so. Do you want to do that now or later?” 

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about that, Mars. You didn’t drag me into anything.” If anything, he’s already been dragged into whatever madness was plaguing his friends. “Has D asked you to do anything else?” He tried not to look too disappointed when she asked her question. “No. I haven’t heard anything on my end either. He’s really shut me out.”

“It’s a Palace Mar, what do you think? But don’t worry, we’ll find a bubble to put you in, so you don’t break anything,” he returns the smile and gives her hand a reassuring squeeze when she steps out of the car. Alek still feels a bit guilty for springing all of this on her at the last minute and unfortunately, he is far from done. “There are a few do’s and don’ts that I need to tell you about before we meet my parents but they’re abroad for another two days so it gives you some time to digest all of this.” He steers her inside his home and navigates the halls with ease, keeping her hand in his until they reach his wing of the Palace. “This is your room,” he points to the closed door to his right, “and mine is down the hallway.”

Since school started, Araminta’s been avoiding Marredith Xiu even if she would never admit it out loud. She didn’t know what happened. She thought she’d gained an upper hand on her, but the next thing she knew, she was waking up on the other girl’s lap. She realized she must have blacked out, but she couldn’t wrap her head around why Mars would stay to take care of her after everything she’s done to the girl. She’d left in a rush. It was embarrassing. But now Mars was right in front of her, and Araminta didn’t want to give out hints that anything was wrong. She crossed her arms as she looked at the girl. “What about?”

Ezra knew Marredith didn’t have much of a choice, and that she would have never done something awful like spreading someone’s personal photos if she wasn’t forced to, and he couldn’t blame her for wanting to protect Alek and Wesley. What bothered him most about the situation was the fact that Seth had his pictures all this time, and didn’t say a word to him about it. “Well, he didn’t,” the boy retorted, rolling his eyes. Admittedly, he had made it a point to block Seth on every social media account they had, so that might have something to do with it as well. “He’s just trying to be the ‘nice guy’ as always, Mars,” Ezra sighed deeply. “It’s exhausting, to be honest. I don’t want someone to pretend to be into me out of pity.” 

mars needed to speak with araminta. she couldn’t get their kiss out of her head and she figured it was cause she needed to know why it happened. originally, she figured it was out of spite but now she wasn’t so sure. she always assumed the worst when dealing with the windsors and she hated that about herself. maybe she wanted proof that she was wrong so she a part of her would know that not all windsors were bad, or maybe she wanted to know she was right so she wouldn’t feel bad about her judgement. either way, she needed some sort of explanation. it was break and she was on her way to the usual spot she hung out when she managed to see araminta exiting her class. it was the perfect opportunity since she wasn’t with her friends, and mars walked over. once she was close enough, she asked, ❝ can we talk? ❞

He was silent for a moment. All he could do was stare, blink a few times—he definitely did not see this coming, nor did he know how to react. He still hadn’t gotten around to talking to Ezra about it. Hell, he and Ezra still weren’t talking and it felt like an eternity since they last did. “I… don’t know what to say,” he admitted. “I don’t know if you should be apologizing, not to me anyway—have you told Ezra?”

She stared at her with half-lidded eyes. Things may have been slightly hazy both from the alcohol in her system as well as her pent up frustration, but she could have sworn that the other girl leaned closer. The corners of her lips curled up in a smirk. “Pathetic, Mars. You want more?” she teased, staggering forward slightly, though perhaps she’d overestimated how much in control she was, arms reaching for the other girl before all went black.