Eleven

I MADE A SIGN FOR THE BOYS AND THEY BEGAN playing the special version of the melody I prepared with them. Substituting the drum, which we don't have here (yet! If it depends on me), for the piano. Feeling it, I closed my eyes and began singing the lyrics.

❁

"There I was again tonight. Forcing laughter, faking smiles. Same old tired, lonely place. Walls of insincerity. Shifting eyes and vacancy. Vanishing when I saw your face. All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you.

Your eyes whispered, "Have we met?" Across the room, your silhouette. Starts to make its way to me. The playful conversation starts. Counter all your quick remarks. Like passing notes in secrecy.

And it was enchanting to meet you. All I can say is, I was enchanted to meet you.

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. I was enchanted to meet you.

The lingering question kept me up. 2 AM, who do you love? I wonder until I'm wide awake. And now I'm pacing back and forth. Wishing you were at my door. I'd open up and you would say, "Hey."

It was enchanting to meet you. All I know is, I was enchanted to meet you.

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. That this night is flawless, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. I was enchanted to meet you.

This is me praying that; This was the very first page. Not where the story line ends. My thoughts will echo your name, until I see you again. These are words I held back, as I was leaving too soon. I was enchanted to meet you.

Please, don't be in love with someone else. Please, don't have somebody waiting on you. Please, don't be in love with someone else. Please, don't have somebody waiting on you.

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. That this night is flawless, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. I was enchanted to meet you.

Please, don't be in love with someone else. Please, don't have somebody waiting on you."

❁

When I finished and my eyes opened again, my eyes went straight to him and he was still with his attention on me. Then everyone else began clapping their hands and I turned my attention to them.

Taylor Swift would be proud of me. And, of course, they would like it. The Goddess wrote it, after all.

"Oh my God, Lady Hope, you have the voice of an angel," Viscountess Pietra exclaimed. "Why didn't you show us such a talent sooner?"

I felt my cheeks hot, "I was preparing it all for it to be a surprise on my birthday! Was it good?"

"It was enchanting!" Baron Luka exclaimed. "Enchanting!"

"I hope you will teach us how to sign it and play it, Lady Hope! That would be amazing. To play your songs on our next balls!" It was Viscount Le Bauman who said it this time.

A nod. "I'll gladly do that. However, as my time is kind of limited, you can contact the boys here," I pointed to them, "because as they personally learned it from me, they will be able to reproduce it just fine!" As the nobles' attention shifted to them, Marianne brought me more two glasses of the northern champagne and I drank it all to refresh myself. "Now," I began and they all focused on me again. "I'll change the order I had planned first a little bit. We'll play Love in the Dark. I hope you all enjoy this one as well!"

Just like that, I played all the five songs I had first planned, successfully. Being amazing students, the boys reproduced it perfectly just as I thought them. And as I finished singing the last part of the lyrics of To Die For, Marianne brought me one more glass of champagne. And by now, I was already feeling very free and excited, thanks to the drink.

But not enough to be drunk.

"That's it," I said just for them to know that this was the last song, as they seemed to be waiting for more. "How was it? Overall, I mean."

"Spectacular!" Lady Marie DuBlanc, the youngest daughter of Countess Liana DuBlanc, who's a year younger than me, and one of the most popular noble Ladies here in the south, said, clapping her hands. "I loved them all, Lady Bissonnette, but my ultimate favorites were Enchanted and Love in the Dark. It touched my heart!" Well, that's better than I expected.

"Mine was definitely the last one To Die For!" Her brother, Matthew DuBlanc, who's four years older than me, said smiling. "You have a beautiful voice, Lady Hope. And your piano skills are there of a master!"

"You flatter me, Lord Matthew DuBlanc. And I'm glad you both enjoyed it!" I bowed lightly.

But then, as expected, the trash came in the middle. Leopold, my half-brother, came closer with a vicious grin on, "Ha, you aren't the only ones surprised with my dear sister's skills and songwriting talents. None of us knew about it!"

I rolled my eyes, "Only the people that matter to me knew about, Leopold," I said, sternly. "If you don't even know what's my favorite color, how would you know my skills in songwriting, singing, or in piano? It's not something a boy like you would understand, to begin with!" I said calmly, while he got pissed about it.

"What is it that you mean by that? Why wouldn't I understand?"

"Probably because you are a bastard!" I said and smiled at him, hearing some people giggle around us.

"You little…" But he was cut in the middle by Kaio, who came to where we were like thunder and put himself in the middle. Pretending to be a good and protective brother, which is the last thing in the world that he is.

"Leo, let me deal with this," he muttered loud enough for me to hear, but I didn't bait an eye at it. "Then, sister," he turned to me. "Did you only practice these five songs with these boys?" Whatever is it that he's planning, it won't work.

"As I said before, yes. Why?"

"Than to prove that it was you and not them who wrote those songs, and learned how to play them," excuse me? "Why don't you sing and play another one that they don't know of? Just to make sure!"

I scoffed, "Make sure of what? If you knew me, you would know I wrote songs since I was a child. I have nothing to prove. If you don't want to believe it, it's not my problem. I'm very aware of my skills and talents, and I'm confident enough about them to the point where your bastardly doubt doesn't affect me!"

Some people gasped at that, and Kaio clenched his jaw, trying to control his emotions in front of everyone. Trying not to show how rotten he actually is.

"Unless," I turned to the nobles who complimented the songs without doubting me. "You loved my songs so much that you want one more. However, the boys don't know how to play it yet, so you won't be able to play it in the balls until I teach them how to play it!"