"Aaah," said Bolita as she counted her grievances into a pillow.
Marie gazed straight ahead from the room's back corner, stone-like and stoic as usual, her face practically a replica of an Easter Island head. Bolita muffled an external scream into her very luxurious bed sheets for the seventh time that day before rolling up into a burrito to properly contemplate the standards of her existence. At the moment, they were not quite up to par.
Two days after the engagement ball, after they all had enough time to decompress from the frivolities and fluff of high society, the duke summoned Bolita to his office for another grueling hour of stony silence. While it turned out he was more than satisfied with the way she had begun to ingratiate herself with the princess, he felt that her performance regarding her new fiance was less than adequate.
Favored or unfavored, according to Duke Schmancy, royalty was royalty and it always paid to have friends in high places. With that and her most recent bouts of ineptitude in mind, Duke Schmancy had so thoughtfully charted out a step-by-step plan, complete with a presentation and flowchart on how Bolita was to win the hearts of the nobility and cement her place within the cream of the upper crust.
"As you must know by now, you have been enrolled in The Academy this year," he'd begun, facing the window overlooking the fancy Schmancy gardens. "And as always, you will be representing the Schmancy household, so I expect nothing but the best of results. Seeing how wonderfully you failed at the most recent engagement ball to brush up with anyone other than the princess--"
At this, Bolita winced internally. Like most, she was not fond of mingling with disagreeable people whether they were a prince or a high-ranking blonde noble lady.
"--who, I should not need to remind you, is the direct opposition of Prince Spamlet. You must do better at The Academy and associate with the other key players in the Royal faction lest we lose influence within the party."
This was news to Bolita. While she had the vaguest of ideas that some sort of office politics were in play, she was not aware that there were other figures in the royal faction worth paying attention to. Bolita mentally filed away that information for later in case it might prove useful, like the fact enzymes could be analogized to scissors if DNA were likened to a paper chain when discussing mitosis was useful in her biology tests, and continued listening.
"As such--"
Bolita noted that the duke seemed to be awfully fond of using phrases that began with 'as'. He had already said the word three times and they had only just begun conversing.
"--I have decided that we will be hosting several informational tea parties for the remainder of the month before you are off to The Academy so that you may, if you will, refresh your knowledge of the inner workings of the various noble factions and gain further favor with the other noble ladies."
He pulled a slide with a watercolor ballroom and the word "FAILURE" stretched across it in blood red off an easel to reveal a slide with stick figure ladies sitting at what was very likely a table. If it wasn't a table, it was definitely an oval with four lines attached to it.
When he was sure Bolita had committed the graphic, detailed, exquisite illustration to memory, he moved aside the slide to display the next one, a cubist rendition of Auricularis, recognizable only by her pink hair, that was covered with a black X. The duke cast a scornful gaze upon the image before resuming his presentation.
"Of course, I also expect you to continue gathering information on the latest movements of the higher ranking noble families, and without interacting with them, information on the royal family. By them, I mean specifically the princess. If you get too close to her you may lose favor with His Highness, something I am sure you were already aware of?" At this, he squinted at Bolita and raised an imperious eyebrow.
"And on the subject of your recent engagement, I have also arranged a meeting between you and your fiance in a few days, but before that, in a couple of hours, you shall be meeting with the Lady of the To'matoes and the Lady of the L'ettuces."
Bolita did a quick spit take, though she hadn't drank anything recently, while the duke turned his back to her so he could have a main character moment staring out the window. Spamlet included, it seemed as if her entire entourage was basically the parts of a sandwich.
"Before you leave to prepare," the duke turned around. "I must also remind you that you will be partaking in the ability awakening event during The Academy's opening ceremony. You must get an ability worthy of the Schmancy name. Do not disgrace this family."
The image accompanying this was a pencil sketch of Bolita, arms stretched out to her side, with flames at her feet and lightning bolts behind her. Looking at it , it was pretty obvious to Bolita why the former lady wasn't the most favored in high society.
With that, the duke sat down at his desk and gestured to a butler to bring over a fat stack of paperwork.
"You are dismissed," he said without looking up.
Bolita left before the maids had even started to pack up the presentation boards for the manually controlled slide show.
And now there she was, flopped like an overcooked pasta noodle on her admittedly luxurious mattress. There was work to do and Bolita was not a fan of exerting energy.
"Hnnrgh," Bolita said.
"My Lady, you must get dressed to meet with Lady To'mato and Lady L'ettuce. They will be here in a few hours," said Marie from her corner.
Bolita straightened a ringlet and dodged the recoil, something she had become quite adept at.
"My Lady, you must get dressed to greet Lady To'mato and Lady L'ettuce, they will be here soon," Marie repeated. "You also have not yet chosen the refreshments and prepared the sitting room."
Bolita rolled over so she was face up, like a sunny-side-up egg.
"Aaaa," Bolita said again.
Then she got up.
"Okay," Bolita sighed. "Lead the way."
Although Bolita was supposed to prepare the refreshments and choose the sitting room, for the most part, she really only got changed and dawdled around while Marie did the picking and prepping.
"Let's see…floral teas are in season, but hyacinth would be too high for their position," Marie mumbled as she dragged Bolita over to a sitting room with seafoam green wallpaper and an oakwood table. "How about pea flower tea in the fine china teacups, decal decorated not hand-painted, with the white paisley tablecloth?"
"That works."
Then in what was a relatively slow blink of the eye, Bolita was seated in one of the plush velvet armchairs, sipping at a cup of tea and waiting for Alfred to escort her guests in.
"My Lady," Alfred announced from behind the door just as Bolita set her teacup down on a nearby saucer.
"You may enter," Bolita replied.
"Lady To'mato and Lady L'ettuce," Alfred gestured to the ladies, bowed, and exited.
Lo and behold, before her were the two blonde ladies she just could not stop running into.