Sleepover (9)

"I'm letting you go earlier than normal to prepare for your sleepover," Luke opened the door.

I grabbed the wall as I walked out of the time-space room, completely out of energy. After suffering under his family the previous weekend, the week quickly passed. Miserably passed.

I was surprised by Luke's efforts to show he didn't hate me. It was annoying and I preferred to go back to the times where he was colder towards me. What kind of books was he reading? I needed a bunch of wet wipes every morning and before I went to bed. I frantically searched for them inside the dorm room as his kisses dominated my neck and face.

When I finally discovered the book that he was referring to yesterday, the guidance was for newborns around six months of age to a year. I became ticked as it was written that kisses were a sign of affection and the areas recommended were the same ones that he used on me. I was really close to secretly burning that book as I went through the bookmarked sections.

However, I kept my anger inside, reminding myself my plan was working. Maybe working a little bit too well. Although I had to convince the Roselia family I was the most useless person on this planet, I wanted to be treated with a decent amount of respect as a fellow human being.

Anyways, I returned that horrible book back to him.

"I'm fourteen. Can you not read who this is targeted towards?" I was close to exploding.

"I would rather have you hate me than to use the things written in this book on me," I pointed to the bookmarked sections.

I mean- it was likely Luke didn't report everything I did every single minute of the day to his parents and grandparents. He could still think I was useless but throw those books away later.

"Who's the person who giggles and smiles each time?" Alex smirked.

"It's because this book targets all the ticklish areas!" I wanted to rip the pages out.

"Is this a new way you're trying to get your revenge on me?" I couldn't find another answer.

"You seemed to like them since you asked me to use them on you first," Luke recalled my failed attempt in imitating the techniques inside the shoujo manga.

"I apologized for it! Don't you remember? If you want to maintain good relations with me, you'll stop following this trashy book," I passed the book to him.

Earlier today, I was stunned when I found another garbage like book inside the living room. This one was worse than the former, recommended to use on babies that were two to six months old. Did he not learn his lesson from the previous day? My eyes widened as I flipped through the pages, finding it was nothing new. Was this where all the hugging came from? All those times I refused to listen to him, he switched to hold me in his arms before starting his lecture.

The written tips to confine babies inside a certain allocated space, the bans and placing alarms. The location where my bedroom was placed, I exploded as I threw the book on the ground, finding the explanation for the set bedtimes. Luke has always treated me like I was less than a toddler. I wondered how I never noticed, picking the book back up to threaten him to never use it on me again.

"I know you don't consider me as your equal, but isn't this too much?" I confronted him.

"We've been using this book since a year ago," Alex looked behind.

"I'm fourteen! Not two to six months old. This is worse than the trashy book you used on me yesterday," I shouted.

"I don't follow everything inside that book. I make adjustments to fit your age," Luke admitted.

"Yea right! How about yesterday's garbage? You followed everything to the dot!" I argued.

"I have been using yesterday's book for the past three years," Luke revealed.

My jaw nearly dropped as I found my words not getting through to them. They managed to increase my already skyrocket high hatred for them! How many more similar books did they carry with them? I started to go through my memories, my mouth nearly gaping to discover it started ever since the drowning incident when Rika was three. Luke was the same age when he began to read these books to use on her.

"You have been using these books since I was three," I tried to confirm with him.

"I regularly update the books based on your age," he didn't deny my claim.

"You're not my parents. We're the same age. Why don't you use these books on yourself?" I gave him the book.

"Who else would we be to you other than fulfilling a similar role?" Alex seemed confused.

"I don't need your excessive guidance anymore. Throw them out or return them to the library. Or use them on your own children later on," I suggested.

If Luke and his snobby family managed to scam a gullible enough person into his marriage to create more babies for the Roselia family.

"I'm holding myself back that I see you guys the same way. You're a child in my eyes too. Would you like it if I revealed all your faults?" I attempted to point out.

"Say them," Alex dared me.

I brightly smiled as I had received a lot of information from Joanna about them. However, most of the stuff was what I already knew, and she just confirmed the intel. I started to blurt out my perspective on them since kindergarten, making both of them go stiff. They were book smart and excellent in the subjects they received lessons on. These innocent and pure children who actually believed their families were wholesome and loving.

"Who's the child now?" I smirked.

"You're more lacking than me in these areas," I continued when they were silent.

"At least we're better than you. You're not even a child in our eyes," Alex quickly recovered.

His eyes glinted like he wanted to prove something, nearly twisting into confusion when I gave up and turned to walk away. To be honest, they were fortunate I was busy preparing for the sleepover to the point I didn't want to waste more time on them.

I planned many activities I have always wanted to do that I had read inside the usual manga and light novels. I enjoyed getting everything ready on my own, quickly changing into my nightgown before getting the door. My chest and shoulders lifted as I welcomed both Delia and Sienna who came using the same hover car.

"This place is grand," Sienna was impressed.

I wondered what they were talking about, this was one of the smaller mansions. Was it because it was well cleaned, the floors and walls sparkling from Luke ordering the servants this morning? But the decorations were average, using the normal paintings and sculptures lined against the wall. At most, the ornamental swords hung around the living room were considered to be fancy.

"We can wait for Shelly inside the waiting room," I suggested.

"How many rooms does this place have?" Delia studied her surroundings.

"Around a hundred at most. The ballrooms take a good portion of the space," I recalled.

"You have more than one ballroom?" Her eyes widened.

"We have around five, we're using two of them for this sleepover," I went over my plans.

"Is this where you're usually confined inside?" Sienna stared at the decorations.

"This is one of the smaller mansions. Luke usually chooses the medium sized ones," I opened the door for them.

Once they sat down on the couch, I ordered the servant to close the door for me. Placing a sound-barrier around my friends and I, cautiously confirming, "did you bring the bottles of soda with you?"

"I brought one thousand like you wanted," Delia nodded.

"What about the chocolate spoons?" I turned to Sienna.

"I bought ten thousand of them," she smiled.

"I have a base structure in one of the ballrooms ready and we can eat it for dinner once Shelly arrives," I had a risk in getting caught.

Maybe it wasn't the right thing to say. My friends looked nervous, not talking much until

Shelly arrived at the doorstep, letting us finally leave the waiting room. Unlike Delia and Sienna, Shelly was familiar with the usual layout of the Roselia family mansions. I opened the doors to a small empty ballroom with a tall figure in the middle occupying most of the space. It had taken me a long time to construct this sculpture even when I flew on the staff to help me. I had to order ten thousand cakes with every variety of cake as the building blocks and stacked them together.

I stopped when the sculpture nearly reached the chandelier. Today was the rare day Luke didn't set any limitations on the desserts, knowing my friends were coming over. Unexpectedly, Shelly dropped her marble like she was stunned, forgetting to close the door after her. When I gestured to enter further into the room, my friends were frozen. Did I accidentally overdo it, getting too excited about being the host?

"I have ladders with me to help eat this," I offered.

"It'll taste better if we eat them with the chocolate spoons and pour some soda on it," I explained.

"Luke doesn't know about this," Shelly knew.

"We have to eat it fast before he discovers it," I urged them.

"I'm taking a picture," Delia walked around the sculpture.

"We should take one together," Sienna controlled her camera.

After taking the photos, I climbed on the ladders to start pouring the sodas. These cakes were special, giving a sparkling effect from the newly added ingredient. I had purposely searched them up a few days beforehand. Sienna gasped to admire the scenery as it took her a few minutes to pull out the spoons. When Delia took a bite, she couldn't stop eating, "these aren't normal cakes. What did you order?"

"I ordered everything. It's the soda making them taste better," I took a spoon for myself.

"It's not the soda. These are different from the ones inside the café," Shelly agreed with Delia.

"I poured a special bottle on the outer layers to improve the taste," I hid the elixir from them.

"Whatever it is, it's the best dessert I ever had in my life. I think we can finish this," Sienna was motivated.

However, we couldn't finish them, more than half of the cakes remained. All of us were too full to take another bite. This was when the idea of a food fight popped into my head, grabbing a piece of cake to introduce them to the rules. Delia awkwardly smiled while looking at my hand, "won't Luke get mad if the ballroom gets messy?"

"We can make the servants clean the mess before they discover it," I shrugged.

"How many servants do you have inside this mansion?" Delia feared Luke.

"One hundred. One for each room," I smiled.

I threw a slice of cake towards Delia's face and her smile wobbled into playful anger. Her hand

grabbed a brick of cake, yelling at the others the next second, "what are you guys waiting for? we should start the fight!"

"I guess you have triple the number of servants inside my normal family mansions," Sienna ducked, almost convinced.

"Normally there's around three hundred tending the grounds," I aimed at Shelly's face.

That was a lie. I had no idea how many servants were truly inside this mansion but their faces eased, hoping the servants would clean everything in time.

"Are the servants waiting outside?" Sienna threw a brick.

"Probably?" I dodged to the side.

"Maybe you should let some of them in," Delia grinned.

That was a good idea. I stuck out my arm to stop the fight and walked towards the tablet to summon some servants. Only to have my hand lifted by Delia, suddenly serious, "if you use this function, you'll reveal everything."

"Seriously?" I turned to Shelly.

"You have to change the default settings," she joined us to help.

My eyes recorded her fingers swiftly tapping on the buttons, stopping in midair when the screen flashed denial to further access. Her shoulders went down, "it doesn't entirely work in your account."

"Oh," I sadly got up.

Of course my account had limitations. We were all going to get in trouble- I was- I didn't know. Before I could apologize, Sienna pulled up her sleeves, full of motivation, "let's start the cleaning."

"But- ."

"We can put the rest of the cakes we didn't touch inside our inventories and no one will know a thing," she smiled.

"And we can do something less messier later," Delia offered me her hand.

I stared at her hand, "you're not mad?"

"Let's not do the pillow fight you planned for later," she avoided my stare.

However, I had totally forgotten. A few hours ago, a cake fight wasn't enough for me. I wanted to combine it with a pillow fight, which is why the day before, I had punched and destroyed all the spare pillows to relieve my stress.

I felt guilty as my friends looked up, watching the feathers falling from the ceiling. A spell that was made to be activated halfway through the fight.

A couple of feathers munched into small pillows when it was close to our heads, soon shattering into feathers again when it reached the ground.

It was beautiful, yet horrifying. I was thankful both Luke and Alex were keeping their promise,

not interfering with the sleepover until I ran into them to manually grab a servant for more help.

My hopes shattered when Luke closed his book, eyeing, "why are there feathers and cake in your hair?"