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Chapter 7
Refinement
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The Luncheon was in full swing when Sixela finally arrived. Ah shoes! The grey haired woman glanced around, yep all seventeen of the girls were there including the prince.
She had been hoping to catch him at the start of the luncheon and monopolize as much of his attention as possible so that she was fresh on his mind at the ball but he was already surrounded by girls. Ariana and Violet were occupying him at the moment, and Sixella could already see Chloe eyeing them off, waiting for the perfect opportunity to slip into the conversation. Ok, Sixela could admit defeat. There was no way that any of those girls were going to relinquish him anytime soon.
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Sixela silently cursed her maids. They had measured her incorrectly for her dress that night and it was an awful fit. She looked like she was wearing a pink glittery garbage bag. They hadn't even finished measuring her properly when she had run out the door. She was just going to have to keep her fingers crossed and hope that somehow her dress came together and an opportunity to catch the prince alone presented itself.
She nodded at a few of the girls as she passed. Everyone had already settled into groups. Sixela decided to check out the food that was on offer and immediately regretted her decision. Prism was picking her way through the buffet scowling. You could practically trace her every move. There was a path of destruction behind her with spilt drinks staining the table clothes, items of food knocked over, thrown on the ground or half eaten with a bite taken out and put back.
"Aye, cinder alien," she mumbled around a mouth off food and gestured to the tables, "This don't look anything like food ta me. Wha' you think?"
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The girl picked up a small toasted croquet with smoked salmon and cream cheese and cringed at the way that the piece of fish wobbled. Sixela groaned inwardly and attempted a friendly smile, at least she hoped it was a smile and not a cringe.
"These people don' eat food," Prism stuck out her tongue in revolution and dropped it on the ground, completely disregarding it, "I want some dang tater tots."
Sixela nodded politely, shuddering as she watched the girl resume her war path.
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"Oi!" She called to a passing maid, "Can ya' get us some real food please. Ya' bloomin' starvin' us here!"
The maid ducked her head, holding her hand up to shield her face and hurried off shaking her head. Somehow, Sixela doubted that she'd be coming back anytime soon, tater tots or not. Sixela wasn't into castes or classes - she didn't really understand how individuals could be characterised like that anyway- but she had done extensive training in different social structures and expectations so that she wouldn't stand out as much once she arrived in Simtopia. Sixela was almost 100% certain that Prism was simply ignorant of the level of decorum required at an event like this.
"Ugh! Wha'eva." Prism rolled her eyes, looking down for a moment before she resumed her war path. "You know wha' I want?" Prism went on taking a bite out of a whole log of pâté' and practically gagging.
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Oh for plums sake even Sixela wasn't that stupid.
"I want some dang snakes." she coughed, "The extra big kind like them big up python things."
"You want to eat snakes?" Sixela asked. Snakes were not normally consumed by people groups outside of Africa or Southern America, or so she had been told on Sixam. Had she missed something in her training? The thought made her frown.
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"Nah, I wanna' look at them," Prism mocked, snorting at the alien "What are you? Plum? of course I wanna eat 'em."
"Um, maybe I can help," Ming placed a comforting hand on Sixela's arm, "I do believe that I saw some chips by the bowl over there," she offered point Prism in the direction of another table.
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Prism was gone in an instant.
"Thankyou!" Sixella breathed letting the tension she hadn't even realised that she had been holding in her body go.
"Don't worry about it," Ming shook her off. "Prism wasn't talking about real snakes by the way. She was talking about a kind of sweet that they make in the shape of a snake."
Oh, she thought, that made a lot more sense.
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Ariana wasn't ashamed about crashing the prince's conversation with Violet, so it wasn't really fair for her to get upset about Chloe crashing the conversation too. It didn't mean that she didn't frown though.
Ah, hello? A little space please!
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Ariana had managed to engage the prince in a number of conversations since their first meeting, which in her opinion had gone perfectly, he'd smiled, she'd laughed and he'd told her that he would like to see her again. If that wasn't perfect she didn't know what was. Still, the only chance she'd had to catch him again had been at breakfast and it was a fight to be heard, even when she did get the prince to pay attention. She needed to get him on his own.
A group of girls next to them erupted in gasps of horror and she glanced over annoyed, rolling her eyes as she watched that uncouth girl rant on about some farfetched story.
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Ugh! She definitely needed to get him on his own, away from the girls.
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"Prince Julius," she started with a sweet smile happily talking over Chloe's description of her hometown, "I wonder if I could interest you in a drink and steal you for a moment?"
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Violet and Chloe looked scandalised. Well Chloe looked offended and Violet looked jealous. It didn't matter, she hadn't made any friends with that move.
"Of course," the prince nodded, "I'll just be a minute," he said gesturing for her to grab them some drinks, while he finished up his conversation with Violet and Chloe
Ariana smiled triumphantly as she grabbed them two drinks: a glass of punch for herself and a glass of fizzy lemonade for the prince. She wasn't silly. She had watched the prince every meal time and he had always grabbed a glass of fizzy lemonade if it was on offer.
Ariana drifted off to the side of the gazebo holding the two drinks as she waited for the prince to join her. The sun was starting its decent towards the horizon and yellow light filtered through the thick leaves of the tree shading their sport from the sun.
"Sorry," the prince said jogging over and running his hand through his hair, "That took a little longer than expected. Ariana smiled warmly and handed him his drink.
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"Oh thanks!" he said, grabbing the drink from her and taking a hearty swig.
The prince seemed a less wired after a few moments of silence and he breathed deeply.
"I figured that you could use a break," she said conversationally.
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"Yeah," he nodded, taking another swig, "I really did." The girls were chattering away in the background and she could see the anxiousness in his eyes lessen. It must be hard trying to get around to all of them in a few short hours especially when they were all vying for his attention.
"No really. Thank you. It's nice to slip away for a moment. This was a great idea."
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"Well," Ariana said, "I had to get you all to myself somehow."
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