To play the Queen

Trixy led me into a small room next to the kitchen. It was some kind of office.

“Are you sure we should be here?” I asked.

“I asked Maxima for a room where we could talk in private.” she explained, “For a girl with your reputation, you seem quite a stickler for the rules,” she said with some disdain in her voice.

I did not know what I did to deserve that disdain. “What do you mean, my reputation? You should not take all that Yuri Jeanne D'Arc stuff too seriously. It just kinda blew up out of proportion by itself.”

“I'm not talking about that. I loved watching those cute videos you put out on the net until I saw those pictures.”

If it wasn't that I was wondering what she was talking about.

“Oh, you didn't know someone took them? Here.” She threw me an envelope full of pictures.

They were the way too suggestive pictures Elodie and Gazette had taken this morning under orders of Edith. They looked like I was actually doing some pretty racy stuff with four girls.

“H-How did you get those?”

Trixy got a smirk on her face. “Too late to feel sorry. I will show them to Anna too. She has a right to know what you are up to.”

The idea of that action made me giggle. “Go ahead. She knows. She was there.”

Trixy started to blush heavily at those words. “M-My sweet and innocent Annya was there? She's into this kind of play?”

Somewhere I wanted to let this misunderstanding continue and let it end up in Anna's camp for once, but I knew that if I let Anna deal with this, it would only snowball and come back at me ten times the size.

“I don't know who gave those to you, but those pictures are not what you think they are.”

“They seem pretty graphic and self-explanatory to me!” Trixy answered.

Before I could say anything more the door behind cracked and fell open and Anna, Gazette, and Elodie stumbled inside, fidgeting about blaming each other for getting caught.

“What is this? What's the meaning of this?” Trixy asked. “Annya! And you are the girls from the letter.”

“Elodie looked dejected and said, “We wanted to know why the Queen had whisked Claire away from the ball.”

“Q-Queen?! Trixy is the queen?”

“You call her Trixy?” Elodie and Gazette asked baffled.

“Well, Anna called her that.”

Trixy started laughing. “You just keep on calling me Trixy and you are allowed to always talk to me informally. Actually, make that is a demand from your queen. I love the way you talked to me so unreservedly. That was really refreshing. You seem to have really good friends. We'll see immediately if you were lying, or if someone was manipulating me against you.”

She then looked at Anna and said. “Maybe this interruption is more fate than unfortunate.”

Trixy picked up the pictures from the desk and showed them to the three invaders.

Anna started blushing heavily when she saw them. Anna, please. I need some help right now. Not you getting hot and bothered.

“Can I ask you where you got those?” Gazette asked Trixy.

“Why? Would this change what is on them?”

“I want to know too, we only took these pictures this morning,” Elodie said.

“You were right that these kinds of pictures were way too racy Claire.” Gazette then said. “The ones that came after will be way better for their purpose.”

Elodie started making comments about the lighting on the pictures and how they could do better next time. The both of them were already off in their own world, ignoring their surroundings, evaluating their work.

With the pictures clearly not having the effect she thought they would have, Trixy started to lose her patience. “Can somebody please explain to me what is going on here! I hate being the only one left in the dark.”

Anna guided her to a chair and the both of us started explaining to her the purpose of the photoshoot. That they were acted out to be used for a new idol formation that will have their debut this Saturday.

When Anna told her about how we changed the nature of the photoshoot on my request after these were taken, Trixy said

“Let me guess, the person who pushed you to do the racy pictures was Edith Thorial.”

“How did you know?” I asked. Awarding me the most obvious answer to that question. “Because she gave them to me, together with a note from Vital Lyst.”

While that message was sinking in I heard her say “I will get those two back for making a fool out of me. Nobody does this to the queen.”

“I think they hoped you would have taken those pictures to the press once you refused our plea and our letters went public,” Anna answered. “They did not count on you confronting Claire and me in person.”

“I think that is exactly what happened, nice intuition my dear daughter. It seems I will have to deal with Vital once more.” Kath said while entering the room. “But you should have known better than trying to listen at the door my dear daughter. You know this house has surveillance in every room, you could have just watched it with me from the living room.”

As if that revelation was completely normal, she walked toward the queen and said “I think it should be clear by now that you were fed lies. I hope you will decide to help them?”

Trixy looked like she was going to let out a tantrum and said “I'll be the judge of that. This is this and that is that. I will come to the school festival on Saturday to see this new idol group, and I'll make my decision then. It'll better be cute and wholesome! Hmph!”

She then walked out cursing Vital's name under her breath. It was clear someone was about to receive the queen's ire.

Gazette looked at me and said, “Seems like we will have to put everything on the idol performance this Saturday to please the Queen.”

I facepalmed. Like there wasn't enough pressure on me already, the queen's decision would now depend on our performance this Saturday, and the weakest link of that performance was... ME.

Elodie hugged me and said “You really got her to listen to you, Claire. I never would have thought our case stood a chance. I will put in my all!”

“So will we!” Elsa, Tina, Therese, Eve, Valerie, Mia, Maura, Fien, Thea, and Narcy entered the room excitedly. Had everyone been listening in on our “private conversation"? It wouldn't surprise me anymore if they told me it was projected on a cinematic screen in the ballroom at this point.

“To think we will perform for the queen for our debut!” Narcy said with sparkles in her eyes.

“That will surely bring out some attention to my collection,” Thea said. “I might need to make a few revisions.”

While everyone was talking excitedly, I wondered if I was the only one that felt the enormous pressure of what had just occurred. Then I noticed something that put a smile on my face. Fien and Maura were holding hands.

“Seems like the two of you have news for us,” I said.

“W-We are going out,” Maura said. The two of them turned red like a pair of tomatoes, but everyone was congratulating them, except Valerie and Mia.

They were clearly in a disagreement over this.

“What's wrong?” I asked them. “Isn't this happy news?”

“We filmed their confession for our Y-file.”

Well, that had become the standard procedure... “So?”

“I have been teaching Maura how to win Fien's heart,” Valerie said. “And I have been teaching Fien how to make Maura respect her over those Casanova tricks.”

“Okay...”

“We had a bet and can't decide who won. Did Fien become the top or did Maura become the top? It was all just so messy” Mia explained. “Fien was the one who kissed Maura first.” Mia went on. “But that part with the rings clearly made Maura the top,” Valerie answered immediately.

Since there was so much doubt, I guess they are a switch. But I wasn't about to point that out. After learning that everyone had been spying on me, I felt like getting a little revenge, and said “Well, to me they both win, and you both lost.”

“What do you mean?” The both of them shouted.

“They are together but the two of you failed to make any progress tonight.” Valerie and Mia started blushing. I could see the embarrassment that came with that realization. I stuck out my tongue and escaped the room before those two could catch me.

Outside, in the hallway, I heard a row coming from the kitchen. I thought I recognized that voice. I peaked inside and to my surprise, it was indeed Mari. I saw her in a fight with some other chef.

“I haven't ever had to work under such bad leadership ever, and this is the result of it. What were they thinking, putting a woman in charge of an haute-cuisine dinner like this..”

“You screwed that up on purpose! I want you out of here!” She retorted.

“Like hell, that you are a real chef. Nobody in his right mind would make you a chef. Seeing how you look, I can imagine how you convinced them to hire you, just like you tried to deceive me.”

Okay, that was about me. I was mad but at the same time, I was glad, because that comment justified me opening that door and entering the kitchen.