"Well then it's settled, see you guys on Saturday." said Ollie with a bright smile plastered all over his happy face.
"So you aren't coming here again?" asked Matt as it sounded as if Ollie didn't have plans of coming to see them until they saw him on Saturday.
"Well unfortunately yes, it's not that I won't be coming here, but I'm going to be so busy so I don't think I will be able to slip out and come see you guys... no scrap that, I won't be able to come see you guys." said Ollie as he smiled.
"That's sad... how come you are much busier than usual all of a sudden?" asked Annie with a frown, she knew that Ollie was particularly busy everyday, but that still did not stop him from making out time to come and say hello to them, even if it was only for five minutes.
So for him to be definite that he would be unable to hang out with them like he always did, it made Annie feel a bit worried... was there something serious going on that they were not aware of or what?
"It's not that I'm much busier, but since I am going to take a week off from all official duties to spend time with you guys then that means I need to take care of everything I need to do before then so we are not disturbed." said Ollie as he explained casually.
"Oh I see." said Annie as that made sense.
"Yes, so I am going to be swamped with meetings, reports, more meetings, you name it." said Ollien
"That sounds stressful dude." said Matt as he frowned and Ollie looked at him.
"Oh it is, but it's going to be very worth it to get a week off and do something I want to do for a change." said Ollie as he smiled, it was not like he hated working and being given tasks to prove his responsibility as crown prince, he loved doing that, he loved showing his parents, and especially his father how capable he was.
The only problem was that he was so good at showing how capable he was that his father had precisely made sure he had a hand in everything that pertained the realm, from reading official documents, to signing off on important matters and sitting through boring meetings, he did it all.
Before he didn't mind being so busy, but that was before he actually had friends that were true and that he wanted to hang out with, now he wanted to have some time to at least hang out with his friends like people his age did.
"It's so nice of you to do that just to spend time with us." said Annie as she smiled and Ollie smiled at her.
"But I can't help but feel sad that you are overworking yourself just because of us... Isn't there anyway we can help?" asked Annie.
"You don't have to feel sad, I'm not overworking myself." said Ollie as he chuckled.
"Actually the sooner I get all this work over with, the better, and thanks for being so nice Annie, but you unfortunately can't help with this, it's official High Council work." said Ollie as he smiled.
"Aww well, good luck and don't work too hard, after all we will understand if you're busy." said Annie as she smiled.
"Oh no way, no way, if we're spending a week with you, you better clear up your schedule and make sure you are available to teach me how to convey!" said Maddie as she spoke up aggressively and everyone turned turned to look at her.
"Maddie are you being serious right now?" asked Matt in disbelief.
"Yes I am, the blondie better get all his work over and done with because if you don't keep your promise I'm going to leave and not stay in that annoying castle of yours." said Maddie as Annie sighed and shook her head, Maddie could be so inconsiderate sometimes.
"Maddie seriously?" asked Annie as she looked at Maddie, she was definitely not pleased now.
"Yes seriously!" replied Maddie as Ollie just laughed.
"It's fine guys, Maddie's right, if I'm inviting you over then I definitely need to be there." said Ollie as he smiled and stood up.
"So if you would excuse me, let me get back to work, I have to make a quick trip to the Agricola Realm." said Ollie with a smile.
"Alright see you Ollie, be safe." said Annie as she smiled and Ollie smiled at her.
"Thanks Annie, good luck with studying, you will be fine." said Ollie as he smiled and Annie smiled at him.
"See you dude." said Ollie as he gave Matt a fist pump.
"See you." replied Matt as he smiled.
"Bye Maddie." said Ollie as he turned to look at Maddie who ignored him and scoffed to which Ollie only chuckled before the doors of the library opened on their own accord and he left as the doors closed behind him.
"Maddie, you have to be nicer to Ollie, you are so inconsiderate with him." said Annie.
"That's not my problem Annie, he can take it." said Maddie as she pouted and Annie frowned.
"You're so annoying sometimes Maddie, you know that." said Annie as Maddie just smiled in reply.
...
Annie yawned as she removed the unnecessary pillows from her bed, she was tired. Today was a lot, especially with all the studying, she was exhausted, there was so much knowledge that she had to retain in such a short period of time and it just added even more to her stress.
"Annie, have you seen my towel? The one that I use to dry my hair?" called Maddie from inside the bathroom as Annie yawned.
"No... I think it's... oh my mom did the laundry today, she should know where it is." said Annie as Maddie walked out of the bathroom, her hair damp as she was cleaning her face with her towel.
"Oh okay." said Maddie as she threw her towel on her bed but it landed on the floor, but she could not care less as she left their room.
Annie sighed and shook her head, sometimes Maddie could be so dirty, and sometimes she could be the cleanest one out of the both of them.
Annie walked to Maddie's bed and picked up the towel, walked into the bathroom and hung Maddie's towel before coming out and about to get into bed when she could not help but notice the huge books on the dressing table.
Annie narrowed her eyes, those books were certainly not there when she had gone into the bathroom. She was sure that they had just appeared.
Annie walked to the dressing table as she saw that these were Maddie's books, she was surprised that Maddie didn't throw them away or burn them since she was so adamant on not studying.
Annie picked up the books as she sighed... why did Maddie have to be so stubborn? She didn't want her to fail miserably with her not putting in any effort. No matter how harsh she was trying to be, deep down she didn't want to go anywhere without her best friend.
It was then that it hit her. Annie suddenly had an idea. She was going to at least try to forcefully influence Maddie to study, and what better way to do that than to continuously remind her dear best friend.
Annie walked to Maddie's bed that was nicely made, she lifted the pillows as they floated in the air and then she placed the two books on the bed as the pillows covered them. The pillows looked very natural, not in any way as if there were books under it.
Annie smiled to herself proudly, maybe, just maybe a bit of the knowledge in the books would enter Maddie's head while she was sleeping on them.
Annie got into bed as in the same moment Maddie returned and this time with her hair wrapped in her towel.
"You found it?" asked Annie as Maddie nodded.
"Mhmm, and also your mom told me that she wants to talk to you." said Maddie.
"Is it that urgent?" asked Annie.
"Well not really, but she did say that she would prefer to see you if you hadn't fallen asleep yet." said Maddie as Annie got out of bed.
"Well okay, thank you for telling me." said Annie as Maddie smiled at her and she smiled.
"No problem." said Maddie as Annie left.
Maddie unwrapped the towel on her head as she dried her hair thoroughly with the towel before throwing it into the bathroom, she was tired to say the least.
Maddie got into bed and as soon as she laid her head on the several pillows on her bed, she was certain that something was not right.
For one, why did her pillow that was usually very soft and warm suddenly feel hard and unmoving as she laid her head there.
"What in the world?" asked Maddie to herself in confusion as she removed the pillows from her bed and was shocked to see two annoying huge books on hiding nicely underneath them.
Maddie was seriously shocked and confused for a moment, she had so many questions: what were this books doing here and why? Who put them there; and then an explanation hit her, and that explanation could only be one word.
"Annie."
Maddie snickered as she shook her head. Annie was truly something else, this was amusing to say the least.
Maddie could clearly see that Annie had not let go of this 'not studying' thing; and even though they weren't technically angry at each other anymore, Annie still was not going to her do whatever she wanted.
Maddie couldn't lie, Annie surely was creative with the way she decided to place this annoying book under her pillows.
Maddie scoffed again, as if sleeping with this book under her pillow would make her want to read it. Annie would have to try harder than that. There was no way that she would budge, she was dead serious about not studying and she would do just that.
Maddie lightly tapped her fingers on the book, making a drumming sound. Annie got her good, but she was not going to stand for this, she needed to get back at Annie and teach her a lesson; just so she would know that she couldn't just mess with her and get away scot-free.
While Maddie was thinking of what to do to get back at Annie. Then it suddenly hit her and she smiled mischievously.
Without wasting any time she placed her palm on the book and hit it twice as the book suddenly disappeared.
Maddie chuckled as she happily got into bed and proceeded to get some rest, she needed her beauty sleep after all; and to be honest, she would prefer that she had already dozed off before Annie returned.
"Two can play at that game Annie." said Maddie as she closed her eyes with a smile and drifted off into sleep.
...
Annie sighed as she finally got away from her mom, she thought that she would never be able to escape. Her mom was just asking her so many questions about Artrovan and how she was ready and how studying was going, Annie didn't mind that, it was just that she was too tired to answer all those questions.
Luckily her dad could see that she was exhausted so he convinced her mom to let her go and Annie could not have been any more grateful.
Annie yawned as she walked out of her parent's room and made her way down the hall to her own room.
She turned to the corner when she blinked and in the moment her eyes were closed she felt something really heavy drop on her head with a thud as she let out a low shriek in a mix of pain and fear and she stopped walking.
"Annie what happened?" asked Matt in a worried tone as he rushed towards Annie, he happened to be on his way from the kitchen when he heard Annie's footsteps and then her heard her shriek, he didn't even think twice he rushed to help her.
"I don't know." said Annie as she opened her eyes and rubbed her head that was hurting.
"Are you okay?" asked Matt as he looked at her up and down, searching for any injuries.
"Did you hit your head?" he asked as Annie looked at him and shook her head.
"More like something hit my head." said Annie in confusion as she looked around, how could something hit her head just like that?
"Was it this?" asked Matt as his eyes scanned around and found a book that landed behind Annie as he picked it up.
Annie looked at the book as her eyes went wide. It looked so familiar and that was because it was familiar. That was Maddie's book what was it doing here?
"Yes, that has to be it!" said Annie.
"It's looks like Maddie's book." said Matt with a frown as he recognized the book almost immediately.
"Mhmmm, but what is it doing here? Why did it suddenly appear out of nowhere and hit me on the head?" asked Annie as she was still rubbing her head, it still hurt. The book was fairly heavy and huge, she could have seriously gotten hurt.
While Annie and Matt were still trying to figure out what happened, it suddenly hit Annie like a bolt of lighting.
"Maddie!" she gasped as Matt looked at her.
"What about Maddie?" asked Matt.
"Maddie did this... she's the one who made this stupid book fall on my head." said Annie as Matt narrowed his eyes in uncertainty, he wasn't sure about that. Maddie could be many things but he didn't think that she would deliberately try to harm her friend like this.
"Are you sure? I don't think Maddie would do this, why would she?" asked Matt as he could already see that Annie was certain Maddie was responsible for this.
"Oh yes I'm sure—Maddie did this and I know why!" said Annie as she frowned and was still rubbing her poor sore head.
"I saw her books on the dressing table and I just wanted to get her to take me seriously so I put them under her pillow." said Annie as Matt grimaced, he could already see this little thing blowing out of proportion.
"I just did it as a way to annoy her, I never thought that she would try to hurt me like this, I mean for crying out loud this book is seriously heavy—Was she trying to chop my head off or what?!" asked Annie as she was annoyed more than anything else.
She never thought that Maddie would go as far as trying to hurt her just because of some stupid argument.
"Relax Annie, I don't think she tried to hurt you on purpose, maybe she thought that it would be a nice joke to have the book fall on you." said Matt as he didn't want an even bigger fight, it would be best if he found some way to calm down Annie before she went to face Maddie.
"Then why aim for my head?" asked Annie as Matt couldn't answer that question.
"You know how Maddie can be Annie, she was just playing around, she wanted to get back at you." said Matt as Annie looked at him.
"Well this isn't a nice way to get back at me, and this isn't playing around, that really hurt you know." said Annie as her tone was filled with sadness and pain at the last part of her sentence, her lips formed into a faint pout of irritation.
Matt sighed, he could see that she was in pain, and he really felt sorry for her, but he also knew that Maddie obviously didn't count on the book hurting Annie as much as it had. Matt was tired, when these two decided to have an altercation he was always caught in the middle.
"I know, I know." he replied as he placed his hand on Annie's head and gave it a little rub as he muttered a spell under his breath.
"Does that feel better now?" asked Matt as he removed his hand from her head and she nodded. She was in so much pain that she had forgotten that she could have just cast a healing spell.
"Thanks Matt." said Annie as she smiled, it was times likes these that she wondered what she would do without him always being here to help her and look out for her.
"You don't need to thank me, now about this thing with Maddie...Should I tell you the truth?" asked Matt as Annie nodded.
"Well let's see, to be fair, you started it first by putting the books under her pillow, there was no need for that." said Matt as Annie frowned, not liking what he said at all, even though it was the truth.
"But that still doesn't mean it's fair for Maddie to get back at you like this, but remember you started it first, so I say just leave things as they are and don't try to get back at Maddie okay?" asked Matt as Annie pursed her lips.
"Annie...." he called as Annie looked at him.
"Alright fine, I won't try to get back at her." said Annie reluctantly as Matt smiled in relief, he had grown up with so many siblings that he could already foresee how this would end. It would end up escalating into something bigger than just a petty argument.
"Good, now go get some sleep, we have to wake up early and practice some potion making for the admissions test." said Matt as he smiled, reminding Annie of what was truly important.
"Alright, goodnight." said Annie as she smiled at him.
"Goodnight." he replied as he smiled and Annie left, walking swiftly with purpose to her room, she was ready to face Maddie.
"Maddie you think that you are really smooth right?!!" asked Annie in frustration as she entered into their room and the first thing she did was to confront Maddie.
She walked to Maddie's bed, but frowned when she saw her fast asleep as she scoffed. There Maddie was, looking so innocent and peaceful while she was asleep, as if she couldn't even hurt a fly. Meanwhile it was the exact opposite when she was awake.
"Alright, you think that you can escape, just wait until tomorrow, we'll see how you will try to avoid me then." said Annie as she angrily got into bed and aggressively covered herself with the blanket.