I opened the backdoor of a basic black Chevrolet Cruze for a disguised Prince Nikolas before heading into the driver's seat myself. I figured I was qualified to drive such a simple car myself and wouldn't require a special driver. Besides, I was itching to drive a car. It had been over a month since I'd driven, and I missed the freeing feeling of it.

I opened the front left door, and was met with an empty seat.

Aw crap. I thought. I looked across to car to see the steering wheel sitting across the car. The wheel was on the wrong side of the car. I hastily shut the door and scurried over to the other side of the vehicle.

"You are driving?" Prince Nikolas asked dubiously as I settled myself behind the steering wheel. I glanced back at him—he wore big dark sunglasses that hid his icy blue eyes and now brown-tinted eyebrows.

"Yes," I said. I almost added a snarky 'Why? Did you want to sit by me?' But I quickly remembered that he wasn't Prince Coleman, and that I didn't care to make such a comment towards him.

Prince Nikolas was quiet for a moment. "Okay," he finally said.

Oh ye of little faith, I thought, unappreciative of his lack of confidence in my driving skills. I'd been driving since I was 15 years old, and I was fairly good at it too. I could drive automatic and stick—I highly doubted that Prince Nikolas could say that.

I grinned as I jammed the key into the ignition and twisted it until the car came to life. I shifted the gear into drive and cruised out of the palace grounds. The Chevy Cruze was far more responsive than my clunker car I normally drove back home. While I was used to cranking the wheel to make my car turn, this vehicle needed only a little nudge in the right direction.

I peeled out of the castle grounds onto the road, and what should have been a smooth turn was fast and harsh jerked us to the side. "Sorry!" I started. "This car handles differently—"

But Prince Nikolas was not so concerned with my sharp turn. He was preoccupied with another worry.

"Cassie!" His voice held more emotion than I'd ever heard before—sheer panic. "You're driving on the wrong side of the road!" He yelped. My eyes widened as I saw in the distance a car headed straight toward me.

Any good American knows that she should drive on the right side of the road, but that was apparently not the case in Aregano. I'd been in a car before in this country, but instincts had taken me to the right side of the road.

"Oh my gosh!" I cried upon realizing my grave error.

Prince Nikolas shouted in panicked Russian as I took a hard left turn while frantically checking my mirrors and profusely apologizing. The car made a horrible scraping sound as we cruised over the median and our bodies were jostled. I didn't understand Russian, but I got the distinct impression that Prince Nikolas was praying in his native tongue as we skidded onto the other side of the road.

Prince Nikolas's knuckles were even whiter than normal as he gripped the handle on the ceiling. I heard a long honk from behind me, and I slammed the gas to speed up to catch up with the speed limit. The car jerked us forward, but our speed was quickly up to snuff.

I breathed heavily, my heart thudding out of control from the ordeal.

"We almost died," I whispered. I thought at that point that all was well now until Prince Nikolas cried, "You're veering off the left side of the road! Get in the center!"

"Sorry!" I said for the millionth time as I tried to center the car. "The orientation is way different from this side of the car!"

Prince Nikolas mumbled to himself almost the entire ride unless he was yelping in a panicked frenzy telling me what I was doing wrong. My phone's GPS finally announced that we had arrived to the parking garage nearest the festival, and I hastily parked and turned off the car.

Prince Nikolas let himself out before I even had the chance to open the door for him. As I exited the car, I noticed that he looked even paler than usual, which I hadn't really thought possible. He swiped the keys from my hand and said, "I am driving on the way back."

So maybe I hadn't been the best driver.

I smiled awkwardly and blushed. "Right." The whole thing was extremely embarrassing. I was sure that I must have looked like a raving lunatic to him.

Prince Nikolas didn't say another word, but merely stalked off toward the festival with me trailing behind him. When we entered the street, we were immediately swept up in the crowd of approximately 45 gazillion people. There were booths colored orange, red, and yellow with baubles or food or clothes, but most everything in sight was blocked by a person.

"It's so crowded!" I cried over the noise.

"Indeed," Prince Nikolas responded, wide eyed. The Prince cleared a path to get to the front of one booth, and I followed closely behind. The booth was made of red-painted wood and showcased dozens of beautiful and creative headbands places on shelves within the booth. There were crowns of leaves, intricate metal tiaras, cute mini pumpkins on a band, big fat bows, and more. I loved all the creative designs!

One that really caught my eyes intertwined (presumably fake) red leaves with gold metal branching into tendrils and even forming metal versions of the leaves. It was quite exquisite—I wondered how much it cost.

Suddenly I felt Prince Nikolas's face draw close to my cheek, and he whispered in my ear, "Which headband do you like the best?"