The Princess visibly sneered. "How charming," she drawled. She brushed past me and headed to the last carriage in the line-up, and the horse driver dude helped her up. I approached the same carriage after her, the horse man held out his white gloved hand to help me up as well.

"Thank you," I said, turning to look at his face to find a pair of cold green eyes meeting mine. It was Dylan, aka Ethan the gardener's questionable twin brother.

"You're welcome," he began. "Skank," he hissed under his breath. I ripped my hand out of his and my lip snarled.

"Get over yourself," I spat.

"Excuse me!" Princess Calista whined. I scowled as I climbed in sans help from stupid Dylan.

"What?" I asked, my voice void of friendliness.

"Why are you bothering talking to that dirty servant? It's beneath the Queen Maiden." She rose that haughty eyebrow that she had mastered so well.

Would it look bad if I strangled her? Okay, yeah, probably. First I get confirmation from Isaac that hip hip hooray everybody hates me! Then Prince Coleman decides to do a cute lil' 180 and decides he wants nothing to do with me, and then he gets replaced by friggin' Calista—aka the dictionary definition for brat, and NOW horrible Dylan calls me a skank and then Calista gets mad at me for it.

Just when I opened my mouth the tell Calista to, well, "F" off, suddenly something struck me. In her own twisted Princess Calista-y way, she wasn't insulting me. She was insulting Dylan. I looked down from the carriage to see Dylan's face flushed and annoyed. A smile formed on my lips.

"You are quite right, Princess," I said. "Speaking to people like him is beneath me." Dylan looked up at me with a terrible face, and I glared right back at him as a small smile formed on my face. He scowled and clambered into the driver's seat and grabbed the reigns.

"Oh, driver!" Princess Calista said.

Dylan turned around. "Yes, Princess?"     

"If it had been my mother who heard you call the Queen Maiden a skank, she'd probably have your head. Well, not literally but it'd be your job for sure. Lucky for you I am benevolent."

Dylan's eyes widened. "Um..." He couldn't seem to think of words to say.

Dang. Didn't think I'd ever say this, but Princess Calista was kind of...cool?

"Stop gawking at me!" she squawked. "Place your stupid peasant eyes in front of you!" 

Hmm. Dylan sucked and all, but maybe I spoke too soon.

Finally, the King and Queen's carriage took off, followed by Prince Coleman's carriage, and then ours started to move. Princess Calista drew her hand upwards to shade her eyes from the sun and squirmed in her emerald dress.

"This stupid headband is useless," she scowled, looking out over the side of the carriage. Her eyes then slid to me. "I have no idea what possessed Prince Nikolas to get this for me. He dislikes me as much as I dislike him. I swear it's the only thing we seem to agree on."

"So...your parents are pushing for you to marry him?" I asked awkwardly. I was glad that my back was to Prince Coleman's carriage, otherwise I would probably be looking at him and not even bothering to talk to Calista.

She rolled her eyes. "Mama is, especially. Papa is backing her up on it, though I don't think he is as invested in this stupid relationship. He's got other things to worry about, I suppose, than making his daughter miserable."

I didn't really know what to say. "Well," I started. "If it makes you feel any better, Prince Nikolas isn't all bad."

She shook her head and looked out to the side of the carriage again. We were passing by numerous trees on the blocked off road on our way to the parade. "That's what Mama always says. 'He's going to be King one day, Calista. Wouldn't you like to be queen?' 'He's smart, Calista!' Tch. As I care that much about been a queen."

I looked down at my lap. What was I supposed to say? "So, what languages do you speak?" I asked, changing the conversation a bit. "You said you speak Russian?"

"Yes, I do. I speak English, of course, Russian and French."

"Wow, really!?" I said. "That's incredible! You speak three languages!"

Princess Calista looked at me, looking genuinely surprised. "Well, it's not that big of a deal.  You know, Coleman could speak more languages than me at my age."

"So?" I said. "Who cares what he did! He's also a massive player. I mean, you are like, tri-lingual. I mean, I'm just...I don't know, lingual?"

A little chuckle escaped her, and I noticed a little pink blush on her cheeks. "Well, I, I don't know," she murmured. "It isn't that impressive."

"It really is, though!" I assured her. She looked at me carefully with her large emerald eyes.

"Well—" she seemed stunned. "Thank you."

At that point, I heard the distant sound of a crowd. I turned around in my seat to see that we were approaching the main city area.

"We're almost there," Princess Calista told me. "And your job is to just smile and wave."