A letter to the queen

Finally, we arrived at school. Due to the rain, Anna and I had been completely stuck in traffic since the tunnels on the inner ring got flooded again. It would have been a lot quicker to come to school on foot.

We walked toward the office at a quick pace, we would barely be in time.

When we opened the door of the office, I immediately noticed something peculiar. Fien seemed rather nervous and sat quietly next to Maura. Usually, she would be making a lot more noise, talking about the yuri.

Mia and Valerie walked over to me. I was fearing another of their rows, but Valerie said “We have sent the recordings of our work on the Fien and Maura case to you and Gazette. You have to decide what to do next.”

“Great work, girls! Seems like everything went as planned.” Anna answered.

What was this? What was happening? What was Anna doing behind my back?

“What is all this about? Why didn't you tell me anything?” I asked Anna.

“The both of them called me this morning on the way to your place, to talk about a message Maura sent.”

I nodded. But inside I was wondering how many of these operations were taking place without my knowledge. I felt my sense of control wavering again.

The doors opened and Ms. Lourdes and Maxima entered the room.

Maxima walked over and said, “Claire dear, Ms. Lourdes told me that she needs you to work for her this morning, and will need to work together with Eline and Elodie. After that, Anna asked me to put you into the idol group for the rest of the week. Since you are so high in demand, we will continue our lessons next week. I will leave you in Edith's care. She is an expert in her field. I'm sure you will learn a lot from her. I'll just tutor the two kids by myself today.”

“Mom! I'm not a kid anymore!” Maura complained.

“If you want me to think that, you will have to prove yourself.”

The three of them went off to an empty classroom to start their lesson. Maura sure hasn't got it easy with a mother like that.

I looked around to see Ms. Lourdes waiting for me. “Anna, you and the idol girls come too,” she said. Ms. Lourdes took us to the communication room, where Edith was expecting us.

“Welcome! We finally get to meet.”

Elodie and Gazette were already sitting in front of a computer typing away. It seems like they were already put to work.

“Can we do the letter first? I have other tasks to attend to.” Ms. Lourdes said.

“Sure thing. Girls, I need the two of you on this too.” Edith said. “Sorry, but you idols will have to wait a little while for your photoshoot.”

“Photoshoot?!” Elsa, Tina, Therese, and Eve seemed ecstatic. Really? As if the ball on the same day wasn't bad enough, we were doing a happy photo shoot before going to a cremation? I could only imagine one person in this room coming up with that schedule. I looked at Anna. She looked at me with glitter coming from her eyes. “Now that we have your outfits, we need to have some cute idol pictures to promote you girls!”

That confirmed my suspicions. She could really be so outrageous.

Ms. Lourdes clapped her hands and said “But first things first.”

We all went and sat down around a large table.

“After discussing things with Maxima and Edith here, I think it would be best for Elodie and Eline to write a letter to the queen, asking to allow Elodie and Eline to get married. But I would also like Claire and Anna to include a personal letter. Known people supporting the couple might help the case.”

I thought this was going to be another thing as writing that speech, but instead, Edith came to us, gave us all a printout, and said. “Write this down, will you.”

“W-wont the queen realize this was done by pros?” I asked cautiously.

“Would it not be better if your letter shows that you took some serious advice before writing to the queen out of nowhere?” Edith answered with a different question. Well if you put it like that. Still, it didn't sit well with me to just copy a dry letter like that.

So at the end of my letter, I wrote in pink “PS: Dear Queen, They advised me to write this letter like this, but it does not sit well with me. Please allow them to get married, I would be so sad to see a couple that fits so well together break up over something so stupid. They deserve to be happy. I remember when you became queen and said that you would make your people happy, so I hope you will help them because you are the only one who can.”

I quickly put it into the envelope, closed it, and gave it to Edith. She smiled and took the envelopes from everyone. “I will make sure the queen gets them.”

I felt like I had done something risky, and I hope it didn't ruin Elodie's and Gazette's chances. But it felt just way too stiff to make a plea in such an old-fashioned language. The queen was in her mid-twenties. I can't imagine someone so young and beautiful enjoying that kind of judiciary language.

Edith made a call on her smartphone, while Gazette and Elodie called us over.

They had prepared a corner of the room with blue panels and lighting.

“That way we can change the backgrounds easily to whatever we want,” Elodie said when she saw me looking at that terrible fluorescent blue color.

“You girls go change into your idol costumes.” I wanted to say that we did not bring them, but I noticed Anna was already opening a suitcase.

I felt a little embarrassed that there were no fitting rooms, “Come on girls, we are all girls here. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. It's not like you are getting naked.” Elsa said. She was taking that center role tremendously seriously. However, I was wearing rather embarrassing underwear with a cute teddy bear on it. I cursed myself for always being frugal and buying cheap stuff.

Anna noticed my doubts and said, “Is there something wrong.”

I didn't want everyone thinking I was a prude so I started changing.

As soon as I was in my underwear I heard laughter. “Those are amazingly cute, that is such gap moe!” I turned around expecting everyone to be laughing at me, but instead, they were laughing at Tina. She was wearing the exact same underwear as me.

I noticed Tina's embarrassment. I was looking in shock, and when Tina and my eyes met, I saw her embarrassment turn into resolve.

She walked over to me and grabbed me by the waist and said “Claire and I went shopping for them together. So we could wear the same thing.” She gave me a little wink, nudging me to play along.

Elsa looked really jealous of me. Anna looked a bit confused at the situation. Another troublesome situation.

“Aren't they just too cute?” I asked. Neither confirming nor denying what Tina said. Tina was right, this was the road to escaping this predicament.

“WHEN?!” Elsa was seething with anger. “When did the two of you go shopping?”

Wow, what an explosion. “You could have asked me to go,” Anna said to me.

“It must have been after Tina and I got together because she did not have those panties while she was still in the hospital.” Was she accusing Tina of cheating?

“You went through my panties while I was in the hospital?” Tina responded to that with a blush on her face.

Elsa started blushing too. “What are you saying, you idiot? I just went to pick up some stuff at your house, remember?” Tina's penny dropped.

This charade had gone on long enough, it was time to put an end to it. “Calm down Elsa.”

“Don't tell me to calm down!”

“These panties are cheap ones from the supermarket. We didn't go shopping together, Tina was just teasing you.”

I nudged Tina to get her to spill the beans. The joke had gone far enough.

Tina nodded. I could see relief coming over Elsa. Did she really think I would try to steal Tina away from her? Elsa noticed the look on my face and said. “I'm sorry, I overreacted. It's because of something my mom said. It's nothing really.” Tina gave her an understanding look.

I was curious what her mother could have said to make her react like that, but I guess it had nothing to do with me, so I would probably never find out.

Now I noticed Anna looking at me with a disapproving look on her face. “W-What?”

“I'm sorry but I can't let this pass. We are going lingerie shopping the first chance we get.”

I thought for a second she was joking. Miss pink cat pajamas had a problem with my teddy bear underwear? But one look in her eyes convinced me she was actually serious about this.

Mom had reprimanded me for buying the cheapest stuff too, I guess this time I wasn't getting out of it. I meekly nodded.

“Then it's a date,” Anna answered a bit cheeky. She had completely played me again. There really was no winning with that woman!

All the other girls were laughing.

“Now you can get something matching with Anna.” Eve joked.

“Yes, you matching panties with Tina is a bit weird.” Therese joked further.

“I got it, I got it, I got it!” I said. I hated being in the spotlight like this.

Elodie walked toward us and asked, “Girls, are you ready for the shoot?”