The next day.
"Do you really think that this is a good idea?" asked Maddie as she looked at Annie and Matt, they were currently on their way to Stella's office after breakfast and it was clear to see that Maddie was not too thrilled about their visit to her office.
"I mean who knows? Maybe Aunt Stella is busy at the moment and she isn't in her office? We can go and check later, it's even too early to be bothering her with something as unimportant as this" said Maddie as Annie looked at her and she did not look pleased at all.
"Oh come on Maddie, of course it's a good idea, it's not too early and Mira told us that Aunt Stella is in her office, and you are wrong, this is not something unimportant, it concerns our future" said Annie as she spoke to Maddie clearly, she didn't like how she was trying to make them dawdle on this decision.
"Annie's right Maddie, besides, didn't you already agree to this yesterday? Why are you trying to back out now?" asked Matt as he looked at Maddie.
"Well you can't say that I didn't try" said Maddie as Annie scoffed.
"Well stop trying because it's definitely not going to work, we are doing this whether you like it or not" said Annie in a very serious determined tone that Maddie never thought she would ever hear her use just because of this.
"Oh so you are literally forcing me now?" asked Maddie in disbelief.
"Yes I am forcing you, and don't call it that, I'm not forcing you, technically you agreed yesterday, and you are getting cold feet today, but since you already agreed it means that you want to do it, so let me take the liberty of pushing you into making sure you do do it" said Annie as Maddie could not believe what she was hearing right now as Matt laughed.
"Matt are you hearing this? Annie's gone nuts, she's way too invested in this whole Artrovan thing, gosh, what happened to the sweet care about other people's feelings and opinion's Annie?" asked Maddie.
"She's right here, it's just that you take her for granted way too many times, but not this time, we are going to Artrovan and that is final!!" said Annie with no room left for refusal.
She was already excited about going to Artrovan and she would not let Maddie's indecisiveness ruin it for them, and she said them because they were a team, she honestly would not want to go if Maddie didn't come with them.
So even if it meant literally forcing Maddie to come along with her and Matt, then she would definitely do it no questions asked, besides, Annie knew that regardless of whatever Maddie was saying now, she would totally regret not going with them later, and she was sure that Maddie would enjoy Artrovan as much as she would.
"Oh gosh, you've been spending too much time with me, you are now selfish" said Maddie dramatically as Matt scoffed in amusement and shook his head.
"It's not being selfish in this sense, and yes, you have been a very good influence, you never let people walk over you, especially when you especially when you have already put your mind to doing something, and I will do the same" said Annie as Maddie looked at her scowl on her face.
Internally she was so proud of Annie for finally being selfish for once and taking control of something she wanted to do... if only it wasn't at the expense of her own feelings.
"I feel so proud of you, because I never thought I would hear those words from you, if only we were talking about something else and not this stupid thing" said Maddie with a frown as the door ahead of them opened on its own accord as they walked through into another hall.
"Maddie, let it rest already, Annie's right, you clearly agreed yesterday, there's no point trying to derail the plans we made" said Matt as Maddie scoffed and pouted, she was annoyed.
"Of course, Annie's always right" said Maddie as she smiled sarcastically at Matt and he returned her smile with a happy one which made her scoff.
"Alright fine, fine, but let the record show that when the two of you dragged me into this I put up a fight to make sure I didn't have to go... just remember this when we are suffering in Artrovarn or whatever the heck the name of that school is" said Maddie.
"It's Artrovan and you know it Maddie, and it's a very nice school" said Annie.
"Oh you let all of Aunt's Stella great words of how nice and dandy and precious the school is, at this point it might as well be heaven" said Maddie with a scoff as Annie frowned and shook her head.
"You are allowed to say whatever you want, but you're still going, now be quiet and don't say anything if you have nothing good to say while we talk to Aunt Stella, is that clear?" asked Annie seriously as she turned to face Maddie right in front of the door to Stella's office.
"Yes Miss bossy, unfair, selfish Annie" said Maddie in a high pitched tone as if she were a child.
"Nice choice of words, but it's not going to work" said Annie as she smiled at her before proceeding to knock on the door and the door opened by itself as they walked in.
"Good morning Aunt Stella" said Annie, Maddie and Matt in a chorus as they entered into Stella's office only to see her standing and staring out of her window which was odd and a rare sight to behold since Stella was either usually at her desk working, or sitting down drinking tea.
"Good morning dears, how are you?" asked Stella as she turned around happily to face them.
"Good" replied Annie and Matt as Maddie muttered the word bad, but no one seemed to care, of maybe Aunt Stella didn't hear her, regardless it was clear to see that Stella was in a very good mood today, which once again was very rare, considering that there was always something that made her upset in the mornings.
"That's nice to hear dears, so what brings you here this fine morning?" asked Stella as she smiled and Annie looked at Maddie who looked like she could not care less, so she turned her attention to Matt who gave her a subtle nod of his head, urging her to go on.
After all, she was the one who was most excited about this, and it made him happy to see her this excited about something, of course he wanted her to take the lead.
"Well Aunt Stella, sorry if we are bothering you, but we wanted to talk to you" said Annie.
"No, no dear, you are not bothering me at all, you never bother me, so what do you want to talk to me about?" asked Stella as she smiled and walked closer to them as Annie smile.
"Aunt Stella, we wanted to talk to you about what you told us yesterday, and I want to tell you that we have come to a conclusion" said Annie as Stella's countenance became brighter instantly.
"Yes..." she said with a tone of expectancy and hope that if not for the fact that Maddie felt annoyed right now, she would have laughed out loud, she had never seen Stella so excited about something so simple like this.
"And we have agreed to go to Artrovan" said Annie as she could not have imagined the kind of reaction Stella would have to what she said.
"Yesssssssss, this is the best news I could ever hear, this just made my day!!" said Stella as Annie was sure that if Stella could, she would have jumped for joy, the way she squealed in delight startled them more than anything.
"This is wonderful, wonderful news!!" said Stella as she proceeded to give each of them a hug as if this was the best news she had heard in her entire life.
"You don't know how happy I am to hear this, this is the best news I have heard in a long while, I am so glad" said Stella as she smiled and Annie could not help but smile.
"We can see that..." said Maddie as she tried her best not to sound depressed, but it was not wrong to say that Stella's reaction was too over the top, gosh, they had only agreed to go to Artrovan, they weren't even there yet.
"Oh my dear, you made me so happy..." said Stella in glee as she stopped and she thought.
"Wait, are you sure that this is your decision? I don't mean to pressure you, and I never meant to pressure you into making a decision, are you sure that this is what you really want to do? And that goes for all three of you" said Stella as she realized that once again, she had been too happy with her reaction.
Annie could not help but giggle at Stella's reaction it was cute and nice seeing her like this, just excited over little things like this, she had never seen her like that before, and it was warming to know that Stella could relax for once and act like her true self instead of being forced to be so serious all the time.
"Aunt Stella I am very sure, we are very sure you didn't pressure us at all" said Annie as she smiled and the strained look of worry on Stella's face disappeared being replaced with a very soft smile.
"Oh good, I'm sorry dear, it's just that I don't want to seem pushy and overbearing, I want this decision to be yours purely and not just because I want you to do it" said Stella as her tone was soft, as a mother speaking with her little children.
"Trust me Aunt Stella, you aren't being pushy or overbearing, we certainly want to go to Artrovan, we all do, even though some of us might be pretending at the moment" said Matt with a smile as be subtly glanced at Maddie who was already looking at him as she stuck her tongue out at him and scoffed before looking away.
"That's good, very good" said Stella as she smiled in relief, it was no lie that she had a huge passion for Artrovan and she guessed that she wanted to share her love for the academy with them, she had never had anyone to share her interests with.
And to be honest right now, she just felt so happy that they had considered her options and taken the one that she would have preferred them to take.
But of course Stella also noticed how detached and uninterested Maddie was behaving, and that did worry her, but it did not necessarily bother her that much. This was Maddie they were talking about, she was detached and uninterested four days out of seven days a week.
Besides another reason why Stella wasn't worried was because Maddie was never the kind of person to let anyone force her into anything, if she was still here and not saying anything it meant that she agreed, she might have not been happy with the decision, but she agreed, and that was all that mattered.
"Oh my, I was so excited by the news that I didn't even let you sit down, let's sit" said Stella as she chuckled at herself when she realized that they were still standing and both Annie and Matt chuckled as they sat down and Maddie sat down and said nothing.
"I know that I have said this many times now, but I am glad that you have decided to go to Artrovan" said Stella as she smiled and sat down on the couch.
"Now I could go on and on about how nice the academy is, the different faculties and departments, but the bottom line is it's a good school, a very good school, and I am sure that it is the perfect place to finish your studies" said Stella as she smiled.
"I think so too Aunt Stella, I mean even though we have never been there, but the way you speak about Artrovan, it makes me very glad to be going there" said Annie as she smiled.
"Awww you saying that makes me so happy dear, really" said Stella as she smiled.
"And I can see that Matt you feel the same?" asked Stella as she looked at Matt who smiled and nodded.
"Well when I told my mom what you suggested she reacted the same way as you did, she definitely knows Artrovan well" said Matt as he smiled and Stella laughed.
"Of course Lucinda does, actually when she was about eleven she wanted to go to Artrovan, it was her first choice for a school but like I said, it is very difficult to gain admission into Artrovan so she ended up going to Somphire, which is not a bad school, but in comparison it doesn't hold a candle to Artrovan" said Stella as she smiled and Matt nodded.
"And what about you Maddie dear? Are you excited about Artrovan as well?" asked Stella as she looked at Maddie.
"Well to be honestly It's a meh for me, but I am not dumb enough not to know the importance of completing my education and even though I initially didn't want to do it, I know how important it is, and I don't care where I go as long as I complete it and get it over with" said Maddie.
"And since these two are already head over heels in love with Artro-whatever, I have to tag along because they need me" said Maddie as Annie scoffed, yeah right, they needed her for sure, more like Maddie would miss them to death and they would miss her to death as well, so it was just better for them to stick together as they had before.
Stella smiled, understanding the underlying meaning in Maddie's words, she could be so sweet when she wanted to be.
"I know how you feel Maddie, trust me, I've been there, but I am glad that you are going to Artrovan as well" said Stella as she smiled.
"Now on to serious things, are there any questions or concerns you have?" asked Stella.
"Actually I do, so now that we have decided to go to Artrovan what happens next?" asked Matt.
"Good question Matt, well the next step is to take the Artrovan admission's test" said Stella.
"Is it hard?" asked Annie.
"Well... I wouldn't say that it is that hard or difficult, the admissions test has a thirty five percent passing rate" said Stella.
"Thirty five??!!" asked Annie, Matt and Maddie together in a shocked chorus.
"Yes thirty five" replied Stella as she nodded and she heard Maddie chuckle.
"Well good luck, I knew this was a lost cause" said Maddie in amusement, if this wasn't a sign that they should not go to Artrovan then them all failing miserably on the admissions test would be a very blatant sign that she was right.
"Oh please relax, it is not that bad" said Stella.
"Not that bad??! You said that there is a thirty five percent passing rate, what happened to the other sixty five percent? Did they all sleep on the test day and not show up or are their brains all locked?" asked Maddie as Annie and Matt had to agree with her, that very, very low passing rate was alarming and too glaring to overlook.
"I know it seems that way, but I am telling you not to worry because the test will not be that hard, especially for you three, trust me, I know what I am saying, I would not be this confident in your capabilities without reason" said Stella as she smiled.
"Thank you for your trust in our capabilities Aunt Stella, it means a lot, but I don't know, I wouldn't want us to just fail miserably" said Annie in worry.
"I understand your worry dear, and it is very logical" said Stella as she smiled.
"Isn't there anything we can use to study for the test because I agree with Annie, I wouldn't want to go write a test when I know that I am bound to fail" said Matt.
"I assure you that the sheer experience the three of you have is more than enough to pass the test" said Stella as the way she was so calm and sure that they would pass made them even more worried, the statistics were too terrible for them not to be scared.
"But of course no good student writes a test without studying for it first, you are completely right Matt, there are materials that you can use to study for the test and you do not have to worry I will get them for you" said Stella as Annie sighed in relief, that was much more better, she did not think she would be able to pass such a hard admissions test without studying.
"That's a relief" said Matt as Annie nodded and Maddie frowned, she already knew that there was no way she would be studying for any useless admissions test.
"Yes it is, but like I said, there is nothing for you to worry about" said Stella as she smiled.
"There is a friend I have she works as the admissions officer for Artrovan and she will be able to help us" said Stella as she smiled.
"Are you sure Aunt Stella, because I don't think that's a good idea" said Annie as she frowned.
"Oh of course it is a good idea, what makes you think otherwise?" asked Stella.
"Umm I just don't want to cut corners Aunt Stella, even though it might be difficult, I don't think asking for help because you know someone is right" said Annie as Matt agreed with her and Maddie said nothing, even though she agreed too.
"Oh I totally agree with you dear, that is completely out of the question, no one is cutting any corners, not on my watch" said Stella firmly, if there was anything she hated; it was being corrupt and being a cheat, it never got anyone anywhere and even if it did, there would always be that voice at the back of your mind telling you that you did not get to where you were based off merit.
"I only mentioned her because she can help me make arrangements so that you can write the test either here in the Palace or privately at the designated centre" said Stella.