Hi, everyone. Sorry for the long delay, but I was pretty busy with all the work and school that I didn't have time. Now, I do have time and here's the new chapter. Enjoy!
The Meeting
After a whole day of searching for the little missing puppy, Jennifer and Russell were both returning back to their bedroom talking along the way. "Where could he be?" she wondered sadly. "Don't worry, Jennifer. I'm sure he'll turn up sooner or later." He patted her shoulder softly and gently making her smile at him in return. They walked past Olivia and Susan, who were playing their dolls near the stairway, and Amanda was sewing their dolls' clothes for them. They entered the hallway where they found Martha organizing the dishes on the wired shelves with one of her rags. They arrived in front of the door and opened the door wide open surprised of who was there.
Diana was sitting on Jennifer's bed juggling her sewn mermaid doll in her hands staring at it in a dream state. She threw it into her other hand while fingering its scaly fish tail with some interest. She gave it a small smile looking at the doll thinking that it's real. They stood there quietly until Diana snapped out of her thoughts and looked up to see the staring duo. She quickly pocketed her doll in her dress pocket and stood up smoothing her dress. "I knew I find you here, Russell." She said walking up to the confused boy. She gave a sharp glare at the little princess before she gave a smile to the boy. "Here, take it." She held a red-laced pink stationary out to him. He looked at it before he took it from her hand and held at his side. "Now, if you excuse me, I got something to attend to." She flashed a quick smile before she waltzed out of the door and into the hallway leaving them to stare where she left.
Jennifer walked to her bed and smoothed the sheets softly while Russell went to his bed and sat on it looking at the letter interested. He slowly opened it and read the message with a curious expression on his face. After she smoothed the sheets, she walked over and sat beside him while he continued to read the letter. "What does it say?" she asked him nicely. "It says I'm invited to attend an Aristocrat's Club meeting up in the attic tonight. Signed by Diana the Duchess. It also says that you are supposed to escort me." He answered still reading the letter. "I see." She saw Diana's curvy handwriting dipped in red ink with a red rose logo on the bottom. They heard the grandfather clock ring 7 times signaling that it's 7 o'clock. She looked at him and said, "It's time for the meeting."
They were both walking upstairs to the attic listening to the creaks of the old wooden staircase. They took the left door and continued until they stopped in front of the door with the big box attached to it. They saw a poster hung from the door saying in red crayon, 'Aristocrats' Club Meeting,' "We're here." She whispered to him before she knocked on the door three times. The door opened slowly with a creak showing darkness welcoming them into its grasp. She walked inside with him trailing behind following the two lines of lit candles on a red carpet. They walked along the carpet until they saw everyone sitting on the boxes with the Joshua the Teddy Bear and the Rose Princess doll sitting on the chairs up at the top.
They slowly hushed their whispers as they came up closer to them. Diana rose up from her position on the top left box with Eleanor, who rose from the top right, and Meg, who rose from the bottom position. "Welcome to our Aristocrats' Club. We have glad to see you tonight." Meg announced opening her book and reading from her precious notebook. She glanced at the new boy at the door with Jennifer and continued to say, " We have a new guest that would love to join our beloved club. Duchess Diana will explain the rest to our visitor. Diana." She turned her head to the tall redhead, who was staring at Russell smirking.
Diana lifted her head from drooping and climbed down the boxes slowly and steadily. She set upon the carpet and walked towards them with a small smirk on her face. She shoved Jennifer as she passed and stood before the anxious boy who was shaking in his boots. She curtsied lifting her dress to reveal her long pale legs with white gauze on one of them. She dropped her dress letting it flutter around her legs smirking at Russell with her smiles.
"Welcome Russell to our Aristocrats' Club. We here at the club, we have rules we follow from the guidance of our beautiful Red Rose Princess. There are ranks we classify ourselves: the Royalty class and the Lower class. Currently, I am the Duchess, Eleanor is the Countess, and Meg is the Baroness and we are in the Royalty class while Jennifer is Miserable and Amanda is the Beggar and they are in the Lower class." She glanced at the little princess with a sneer while Amanda's body shook scared from the Diana's glare. "The Princes have only one class and that's the Knights class. When you are a member of our club, you'll join the Knights class with Xavier, Thomas, and Nicholas."
"Now, we play a game that the Rose Princess gave us to follow. It's called the Gift of the Month. Every month, we put up a poster on the door out there and it'll say what is the gift of the month. This is the gift that the Rose Princess wants and you have to follow it or we'll kill you. You can't cheat, swap presents, or do anything that isn't allowed or you'll be punished." Diana explained with a wicked grin plastered all over her face. She turned to Eleanor, who stood there cold and unemotional, and asked with a sickly sweet voice, "Eleanor, please bring the rose."
The cold princess nodded before she picked a red rose from a vase nearby, stepped down the boxes, and handed it to Diana. She took it and glanced at the poor boy with a small grin. "Russell, please step up for the initiation." She asked holding out the rose with one hand. Russell nodded and took a last glance at Jennifer before he began to slowly walk towards Diana.
As he began to walk, the kids around Diana started to clap their hands and chanted rhythmically, "Rus-sell, Rus-sell, Rus-sell." They continued chanting making him feel nervous and sweaty watching Diana smile more and more at each step. When he got there, he was standing in front of her as they were both the same height and Diana began to announce, "Now is the time for the initiation, Russell. Take the rose." She held the rose out more waiting for him to hold the rose as he looked at it carefully. He slowly reached and held the rose as Diana covered her hands over his and forcefully pushed his hands closer to the thorny stem. He winced from the pain as blood began to seep from the small scratches while the rose dropped to the floor softly.
Diana was still smiling as Russell stared at his bloodstained hands with the kids stood in the background watching the scene silently. "You are now a member of the Red Crayon Aristocrats Club. You shall be called Sir Russell, knight of the Red Crayon royalty. Nicholas." The sloppy prince stood up and walked up behind Diana. "What is it?" he asked lazily. "You shall explain the code of chivalry to Sir Russell after the meeting. Then, you'll introduce him to the other knights." "Yeah, okay." He slowly walked back to his seat and slumped next to Thomas and Xavier. Meg cleared her throat and announced loudly, "Now, if there isn't any other business, this meeting has been adjourned."
The other children left the room leaving Russell, Jennifer, Diana, Nicholas, Meg, and Eleanor alone in the meeting room. Meg and Eleanor got off the boxes and stood beside Diana as Nicholas stood behind them. "Diana, can I go yet?" he whined to the strong-willed princess. She glanced at him and smiled saying, "Yes, you may. Take Russell along and show him the ropes." "Right." He nodded before he went up to Russell and said, "Come on. Let's get out of here." He dragged a resisting Russell away from the room and led him around the house.
Jennifer felt some cold stares chilling down her spine as she turned to see Diana and Eleanor glaring at her and Meg looked usually amused. "Listen here, Jennifer. You mustn't be so close to Russell at all costs." Diana threatened the little princess seriously. "Stay away from him." Eleanor spoke coldly after Diana. "Why? He's my friend." Jennifer asked confused at their behavior. "I'm sorry, Jennifer. We can't tell you now why we ask you this, but we'll reveal it to everyone at the next meeting." Meg said holding her notebook closely to her chest. "Like I said, Jennifer. You should stay away from Russell." Diana reminded her pointing her finger at her. She dropped it down and walked away with Eleanor and Meg following her behind leaving the little princess to think.
She stood there for a moment before she took off from the room and ran downstairs and found Wendy wearing her usual attire with a hat waiting for her at the end. "Wendy?" she said walking down the stairs with Wendy watching with a smile. "What are you doing here?" "I was waiting for you. How did it go at the meeting?" she asked curiously. "It went well. Russell got in the club, they just had his initiation done." She replied feeling a little bad. "I see. Where's Russell? Isn't he with you?" Wendy looked to see that Russell wasn't with her. "He's with Nicolas. Nicolas is showing him around and teaching him about the Knights class." "Really?" "Yes." Wendy noticed how down Jennifer is and asked cheerfully, "Jennifer, do you want to play with me?" "Really?" Jennifer looked at her surprised. "Yes, come on!" Wendy took her hand and led Jennifer giggling towards the playroom ready to play some games.
Later that night, Jennifer was sitting on her bed in her light blue and white nightgown looking at the bed across from her and thought to herself until she heard a crack from the door and saw Russell peeking in. "Jennifer?" he questioned looking at her. "Russell? Isn't Nicholas with you?" "No, he left saying he's too tired to show me around and went to bed." He answered walking inside and closing the door behind him. "What did you think of the meeting?" she asked curious to see what he says. "Creepy. I felt that Diana loved to feel my hands when I held the rose." He replied while Jennifer giggled a little. "Where have you been? I tried to look for you, but couldn't find you." "I was with Wendy. She asked me to play with her until you were done with Nicholas. We played in the playroom." She replied swinging her legs playfully smiling at the memory. He nodded with a smile before he went to the drawer that stood in the corner with her looking somewhere else.
He changed into his pajamas and sat on his bed as he asked, "So, when does the 'Gift of the Month' game start?" "It starts this month. It only comes once a month, which I'm grateful for." She said smiling at him. They sat there in silence before Russell yawned loudly and said later, "I'm so tired. We should get to bed." "You're right. Good night, Russell." She said before she slipped into bed and went right to sleep. "Good night, Jennifer." He said slipping into bed and went to sleep going through a series of familiar memories. Jennifer was still awake under the covers looking worried as she whispered softly, "Brown, please come back. I miss you."
TBC
That's the chapter. What did you think of it? The next chapter is coming up soon.