Albie went back to browsing more games until he started to get hungry. There was a pizza joint at the end of town before heading into the rural areas where his neighborhood was, though he lived on the far end of the neighborhood closest to the castle.
“Hmm, should I make something at home? Or should I get some pizza to go?”
Suddenly he heard a loud sound on the sides of his head.
CHOMP!
“AAHH!”
“SCREEEEEEE!”
“AAAHH!”
Albie’s heart was back to racing as he heard two familiar voices laughing at him. He groaned and spun around to see Josie and Tara standing there, the red-haired shark and black-haired bat grinning wildly at him.
“Gotcha!” Tara poked him with a white claw.
“Yeah, we get you every time.” Josie laughed as her short red hair bangs flapped with her laugh.
“Yeah whatever, you two love to scare me.” Albie said.
“Vhere ya headed?” Tara asked brushing back her long spread out black hair.
“Well I was thinking of getting some-“
“PIZZA? So were we!” Josie licked her lips.
“Don’t vorry, you stick vith us, other royalty people vill leave you alone.” Tara assured.
“Yeah, besides we come here all the time, you’ll make people jealous by hanging out with us.” Josie said.
“I’d rather not make enemies like I did earlier.”
“Oh shit vhat did you fuck up this time?” Tara face-palmed.
“Hey come on, let's hear his story.” Josie said.
“AFTER VE GET THE PIE!” Tara shouted.
Eventually the three were sitting at a booth chowing down on a very large cheese pizza. Albie sat across from the girls who eyed him.
“Okay skull-face, talk!” Tara demanded with a mouth-full of pizza.
Albie told them of his experience with meeting Jazz in person.
“About time, now Jazz knows what you look like.” Josie clapped.
“But Max is such a grumpy cat, don’t let him get to you, I’ll fight him.” Tara said proudly.
“And lose.” Josie poked her head with a claw.
“Pfft, you know I’m tough!” Her wings sprung up.
“Yeah, sometimes.”
“VHAT? You vanna take this out back?”
Albie decided to defuse the argument when he saw Josie growl back.
“Okay you two enough, I just feel like this is a step in the right direction for us.” Albie said.
“What do you mean?” Josie asked.
“Well, I’m sure Jazz will talk to Queen Toxic about me and perhaps she’ll give me a chance.”
“It von’t be that easy, she’s pretty stuck-up in her own vays.” Tara said.
“Yeah, she has no idea you play with us online.” Josie whispered.
“Trust me dude, it’s better that vay.” Tara warned.
Albie didn’t mind that the two cared for his well-being, like they were older sisters to him. But he still had hope despite what they said.
“I…just want things to change, at least between us.”
“We know the feeling.” Josie said.
The three went quiet for a moment before Tara’s wings popped up again.
“Hey vhy are ve down, ve still got pizza to eat!”
“Yeah true, I’m still hungry.” Josie said.
“Let’s continue.” Albie agreed.
Afterward, the three walked past Albie’s house where the bat and shark parted ways with him, planning to get online that night. Albie watched with a sigh as the two phased right through the barrier before taking off to their houses. Albie went back into his room where he took a shower. With Jazz, she had headed to her room without speaking to her mom who was busy on the phone talking to the evil man downstairs about progress on Vibe-Wave.
She used one of the large security robots that was planted on the corners of the castle to rise up to her room. They had large heads with one big eye in the center and were able to fire beams from them to hurt any commoner who passed through the barrier.
The steel blue castle itself was massive, it had five floors including a massive attic and basement, countless windows, two slim blue and pink towers on top that fed the royal area it’s barrier and tons of security. Jazz used the security bots like an elevator if she didn’t feel like going through the front.
She was upset with her mom and Max for how they treated people like Albie. She wanted to spend time with him, she wanted to do what she wanted without supervision, she wanted to be free. She was so sick of it she wanted to scream, but she decided to take her frustration out through gaming online with the people who understood her more that night.
Meanwhile, Max had gone to talk to Queen Toxic who was in her throne room looking out the window. Max poked his head in seeing the queen’s back to his. He admired the fact that unlike most royalty, she actually dressed like one. Max had no romantic attraction to her, but he couldn’t deny she was pretty. He found himself staring at her beautiful pink dress and high heel boots, then she brushed her massive ponytail back with her long pink gloved claws.
“Excuse me your highness.” Max said bowing.
Queen Toxic turned to him before smiling.
“Hello Max, did Jazz get what she desired?” She spoke in a hopeful tone.
“Yes…but…”
“BUT?”
She immediately scowled making Max tremble. Toxic stormed towards him, her scowl growing bigger, she wasn’t a fan of the word “But” being added to anything that had to with her daughter.
“She wasn’t hurt my queen! She just ran into a commoner than she…apparently knows.” Max informed her.
Toxic’s eyes grew in shock before she gritted her sharp teeth.
“What’s their name?”
“I didn’t get his name, she wanted to talk to him privately and ordered me to stay away. It seems they’ve known each other for a while.”
“Hmph…I see.”
Her fists clenched tightly before she turned back to the window. The throne room was right under Jazz’s room and Toxic could see Albie’s house. Max joined her at the window and noticed the house as well. Albie’s bedroom light was lit up, the only one lit up.
“You think he lives there?” Max asked.
“I’ve always had my suspicions about that house, it’s the only commoner house close to the castle. I’m gonna keep an eye on that house.” She growled.
“Want me to stake it out tomorrow?”
She sighed.
“No, just see to it that Jazz doesn’t come in contact with him again. But, you can check to see who he is by listening to whatever game she plays online.”
“Sounded like Tara and Josie know the boy too.”
“Even better, now we wait until they start!”
“Yes my queen.”
Max left the room while Toxic continued to stare out the window.
“Whoever you are, I’ll find out.” She promised.
By dinner time, Jazz headed down to their large dining room where some of the chefs had just finished making a large dinner. It was Jazz’s favorite, plates of burgers, fries and tater tots covered the long table. Jazz began to salivate before quickly rubbing her mouth.
“I’m so hungry.” She said.
Queen Toxic and Max walked in preparing to eat as well, the cat also beginning to salivate.
“Oh my…why does the food have to look so good, and taste just as good as they look?” Max said.
“Calm down kitten, save some for the rest of us.” Toxic chuckled.
The three sat down before digging in, despite it being a pretty big room and table, no one else was there to eat with them. Often Tara and Josie came by, but not tonight. Jazz constantly looked further down the table trying to imagine her friends there, especially Albie. Her eating began to slow down and her mom and Max noticed.
“Something the matter dear? You seemed pretty distant from everyone here lately.” Toxic asked.
Max knew where this was going but kept quiet.
“Eh, I often forget how empty the table is sometimes.”
“The chefs usually eat later, and the other guards already finished.”
“I know…” Jazz trailed off taking another bite out of a burger.
Max eyed Jazz but worried she would turn to him about earlier, he quickly looked away when she did look his way, just missing a scowl. Max then noticed Toxic was looking at him too, having seen her daughter’s scowl.
“Did something happen?” Toxic asked him.
“Huh? Oh, I uh…”
“Besides scaring off a friend of mine!” Jazz interrupted.
“I thought he was going to harass you.” Max defended himself.
“Then you could’ve asked me who he was. Besides, I would’ve taken care of him myself if he tried anything without even lifting a hand.” Jazz argued.
“Only doing my job.” Max sighed.
Toxic sighed knowing just who they were talking about and remembering what Max had told her earlier.
“You met a commoner at the game store correct?”
“Yeah, he’s really nice.”
Jazz couldn’t let it slip that she had known Albie for a while year, then again, she was sure Tara or Josie would let it slip one day themselves. Or somehow Max and Toxic already knew how long she had been talking to him.
“Well…what’s his name?” Toxic asked.
She figured if she could get his name now, Max wouldn’t have to spy on her later.
“His name is Albie.”
“Albie…so that’s it…” Toxic thought.
“We were both getting the same game, but I grabbed the last copy first, I kinda felt bad.” Jazz said.
“He can wait for a new copy I’m sure.” Toxic scoffed.
“I guess…”
She also could not tell how she was going to let him borrow the game in a few days. Max sighed before smashing a handful of fries through his grill mouth trying to hide his embarrassment of the incident.
“I might have overdone it a bit.” Max admitted.
“Well maybe it takes a little force to remind commoners of their place.” Toxic said.
Jazz was not in the mood to argue, but she hated that word. They had just as many rights as royalty. It wasn’t fair at all to treat them any less, the only real difference was that commoners made less money.
“He told me he’s an author, that’s pretty cool! Perhaps that makes him close to royalty if he makes almost as much as us.”
“An author? Huh, we don’t have many of those around here.” Max said.
“Nevertheless, he doesn’t own as much as we do and he never will, our money keeps growing by the day thanks to Lucifer.”
“Things will change.” Jazz promised.
She just sighed out loud before they finished dinner, afterward Jazz went up to her room and got on her computer early. Before dinner Albie had texted his number back and even sent her a link to his latest book. Jazz had to disguise it as her alternate number to avoid the scanners and decided to look up the book and found it on a popular reading site.
“Chained? Sounds interesting, looks like a lot of reviews too, I wonder if more royalty ones read it…HUH?”
Jazz’s eyes grew when she saw the top reviewers, besides Tara and Josie, she spotted Lucifer’s name, and even the Grim Reaper herself.
“Whoa…so those two even know about his work? Okay, I got to read this…”
Jazz spent the next two hours glued to her computer screen still reading when an alarm on her phone made her jump. It was time for the online fun with her friends, she had planned to surprise Albie with her mini review despite not being finished yet.
While they played, Toxic ordered Max to spy on them to get more info. She followed Max to Jazz’s room while whispering.
“Do not give yourself away!” She commanded.
“Yes ma’am.”
“We need all the info we can get on Albie, I’ll be seeing if that house across the hills is connected in any way.”
Max nodded.
“Wow…I feel like a nosy father.”
Toxic turned back to him and stormed up to his face standing at the same height as him.
“I don’t want to hear that disgusting title again.” She scowled at him.
“Sorry.”
Toxic went back to the throne room to look out the window, sure enough, the upstairs window light was on.
“I knew it.” She hissed.
Max listened in hard for any clues, but after an hour, nothing. He started to get a little sleepy, but he could not fail Queen Toxic. Unfortunately, he acquired no new info and when he heard Jazz about to end her conversation with them, he snuck down to the throne room.
“Sorry your highness, they didn’t say anything new.”
Toxic sat in her throne with a smirk however.
“Not to worry Max, for I know where this Albie lives.”
“So it’s really that house?”
“Yep, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
“So…what are you gonna do?”
“Nothing for now, it seems Jazz is attached to him, I need to hear it from her.”
“She’ll be mad if you ruin their friendship.”
“I know, I don’t want to do that, we just need to be careful of him.”
“We can just go threaten him!”
“No, that would not go well for my reputation, people would find out I threatened a young commoner…huh, we don’t even know his age.”
“He looked around Jazz’s age so…in his 20s?”
“Interesting, well it’s not like me to get in the way of making a friend.”
Toxic sighed.
“I know Jazz thinks bad of me for being overprotective, but she’s my daughter, my only child, I can’t help but protect her. If this boy makes her happy, that’s fine, but…we’re staying divided, I’m not gonna trust a commoner.”
“Sounds about right, well…everyone is heading to bed, you coming too?”
“In a bit.”
“Am I excused?”
“Yes, goodnight.”
“Goodnight my queen.” He bowed.
After he left, Toxic looked back out the window.
“Just…who is he?”
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