Immediately, I knew what I had to do.

Barely a moment after the car had stopped moving, I flung open the door and jumped out, wincing a bit as the frigid winter's air slammed into me.

Fixing a manic smile on my face, I shouted, "Mr Brickleberry! It's so nice to see you!"

It was totally worth seeing him grow bug-eyed when he saw my face.

Unfortunately for him, any possibility of him quickly walking away like he hadn't heard me dissipated when his wife noticed me as well.

Her pale lined face wrinkled even more as she furrowed her brow. "James, do you know him?"

Mr Prickleberry's expression soured and for a few moments, he didn't reply. His wife had to repeat her question again before he finally said, "Yes, I do. He's a student at the school."

"One of the model ones, if I do say so myself." Not giving him a chance to reply to that, I added, "You and your husband both look great tonight, Madam."

That wasn't a lie, by the way. Whatever my issues with Mr Prickleberry , I wouldn't lie that the bright red slim-fitted suit he wore didn't look good. After all, it was something that his complexion could complement anytime he got mad.

The mayor was dressed in all red as well, but instead of a suit, she wore a large coat and pair of baggy pants. She also had a red floppy hat covering her dark red hair.

She gave me a small smile. "With manners like this, I can see why you would be considered a model student."

That moment is an example of a time when Prickleberry's facial color began to match with that of his suit.

"Well he came from a good family," I heard Max chuckle as he stepped beside me.

Out of all of us, Max dressed the most casual. Nothing more than a dark large sweater, gloves, boots, and pants.

"Maximilian." The mayor extended her hand to Max, who shook it. "It's a pleasure to see you again. Though I must say, I'm surprised you chose to attend this dinner."

"Well I wanted to let Angelo have a taste of it."

"Hmm, I see." The mayor's dark brown eyes turned to me. "So, I take it this is the Smith boy?"

I bristled as I heard those words.

I forced the smile to remain on my face as I said, "That I am. Though I much rather prepare to go by Angelo."

"Fair enough, but don't expect everyone to call you by the name you desire. Some of these people aren't what you'd call...reasonable. It's best to just humor them."

An image of Lucas' face flashed in my mind. "Believe me, I know."

"Well, that's good. Just watch how you speak to people and you should be fine. Oh, and try to stick close to Maximilian. Best not to let the vultures try to prey on you when you're alone."

A smirk cracked my facade. "Honestly, I'm surprised you're speaking about the other members this way."

She scoffed. "Don't be. Pardon my language, but we all secretly bitch about each other behind our backs, some more than others. Just because someone wouldn't take a gun on shoot you in public doesn't mean they wouldn't plot your death in private. Even your guardian here isn't exempt from that."

My head turned quickly to Max's direction. "Really?"

Max shrugged. "I never claimed to be a saint. But that's a story for another day."

"He's right, we should be getting inside right now. The dinner is scheduled to start in about five minutes."

Despite the fact I wanted to prod Max on the issue more , I looked back at the mayor and nodded. "Sure."

She looked behind her and nodded at the five men in dark suits that stood around her car. Instantly, they surrounded every angle of us, keeping us shielded as we walked to the building's entrance.

From the corner of my eye I glanced at Tony, who was walking beside Max with his arms in his suit pockets. That certainly didn't do much to alleviate the uneasiness I felt about our state of security.
. . .

The room the dinner was to be held in was different from the one I'd been in the last time I was at La Palais. It was a bit bigger, and instead of rows of circular tables, there was just a long rectangular table set in the middle of the room. The windows were covered by massive gold-lined crimson curtains.

The room was quite warm, and was heavily permeated by the scents coming from the abundance of trays seated on the white tablecloth covering the table. Soft music drifted from the corner of the room, where a man sat playing the piano.

Mayor Prickleberry had left us soon after we'd walked into the room, with Mr Prickleberry not too far behind her. I managed to throw him one last smirk before he turned away from me.

The room was already crowded with other members by the time we got in, who were all either seated at the table or standing near it talking. Actually, that's not exactly right, seeing as the amount of society members that were present were much less than those at the last meeting. Instead, it was their security that flooded the room, all marking themselves out by their dark suits and shades they wore.

I looked beside me when I heard a creaking noise coming from that direction. It turned out to be courtesy of Tony, who had pulled out a pair of shades from a case and put them on.

Before I could speak, Max said, "All security are required to wear them, in order to distinguish them from normal members."

"I see."

"Well, we should go wish my mother happy holidays."

I took my eyes off the proceedings and looked at him, groaning, "Is that really necessary?"

He chuckled. "Yes. Don't let Annie confuse you, my mother is really not that bad. She doesn't bite."

"Max, I've met my dear Aunt before."

"Well, she doesn't bite much. Either ways, we're a lot better off going to her than if she came to us. Then you'd really hear her bark."

"Fine," I sighed. "Let's go."

It took some time for us to reach her, because not only did we have to navigate through the maze of people, but we also had to communicate with the ones who happened to notice us. At least, Max did. I found out that all I had to do was stand there and politely smile as each person asked if I was 'the Smith boy'.

Come to think of it, I'm impressed with myself. It's a miracle that I managed to restrain myself from punching at least one of them.

Anyways, by the time we had reached the far end of the table where Miss Hanako sat dressed in a full-length grey dress, I was actually relieved to speak to her.

Until she opened her mouth, of course.

Max lowered himself and hugged her. "Happy holidays, mother."

She patted his back. "Same to you, Maximilian."

After they released each other, her dark eyes fixed on me. "Oh, so you came."

I mentally reminded myself severally that at least she hadn't called me 'The Smith Boy'.

Forcing a smile onto my face, I replied, "Happy holidays, Mrs Hanako."

"It's Miss, I'm not married anymore. Also, I don't celebrate," she said, turning to Max before she'd even finished. It was a small, almost unnoticeable change, but I can almost swear that her eyes softened. "I must say, I'm surprised you showed up for one of these."

"I'm only doing it because Annie asked me to take Angelo."

"And then she didn't even show up herself," Miss Hanako scoffed. "Then again, I'd expect nothing less from her."

I snapped, "She has stomach pains, you-"

The pain from the sharp jab I felt connect with my side interrupted my flow. Hissing, I glared at Tony, but didn't say anything else.

Meanwhile, Miss Hanako scoffed. "Probably from all the junk she enjoys eating."

My fingernails bit harder into my palm as I struggled to hold my tongue.

"Mother, we all practically ate the same food this holiday."

"Well clearly she ate more than everyone else , even more than this one here." She nodded at me, making me watch to punch her in the face even more (I promise, I usually don't have these kind of violent thoughts towards old ladies).

Fortunately, she turned her attention to Tony. "Tony."

"Madam."

"I hope you're keeping my kids out of trouble, not following them into it like you did when you were younger."

He gave a shaky chortle. "Not at all, madam. I mean, I am keeping them out of trouble, not following them into it."

Miss Hanako rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything.

I took advantage of the brief moment of silence. "Max, shouldn't we be going to meet other people?"

"Oh please, just say you want an excuse to go away from me! I highly doubt you of all people know that many people here."

Max spoke up. "I'm sure Angelo didn't mean it that way."

"Oh really? Well then, it's a good thing that the seats beside me are still free. You can all sit here when it's time for dinner."

I hissed, "No tha-"

"No problem, mother. I'm sure we'd all be more than happy too."

"Judging by the way the boy is looking at you, I highly doubt that."

She was right about that. Because at that very moment, I was trying to burn a hole into Max's head with the intensity of my glare.

If you think that there is no possible way that situation could have gotten any worse for me, think again. Because it was right when the tension seemed to be reaching its height that I heard, "Maximilian! I'm so glad you could make it!"

Without even looking, I knew that voice belonged to Lucas.
. . .

This was originally the first part of the chapter, but I decided to make it it's own chapter because the original one became too long. Let me know your thoughts on it though!

Oh yeah, and the second part would be posted within a day, so stay tuned!

Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed this chapter!

Till next time!