Hazel's POV

There's a knock at my door in the early morning, startling me into waking up. I struggle to get to the door, wrapping a purple robe around my body tightly. I open the door to reveal the face of the guard I met at the ball.

"Want to have some fun?" he asks, wiggling his eyebrows. "Because I know just how to do it."

"Won't we get in trouble? Besides, I don't think I'm supposed to be alone with a guard. Especially not after the events of last night."

We both shift uncomfortably. I don't know who it was. They escorted us all out quickly after the guard screamed his announcement.

"But you won't be alone. There will be other guards, and another Selected girl. So, that way, no one can get in trouble."

I still feel uneasy, but I dismiss it quickly. All my weeks in the Selection have been dull, other than the life threatening situations.

"Alright, I'm in."

"Good," Officer Valdez says, not sounding the least bit surprised. "Jason, come on in."

He shoves past me and sits on my bed. Another guard shows up. He's the opposite of Officer Valdez. Where he was thin and tan skinned, Jason is muscular and fair skinned. Piper is right behind him and she gives me a friendly smile. I return it before closing the door behind her.

"So, what are we going to do?" Piper asks, stealing the words from my lips.

"I'm glad that you asked, Beauty Queen. You know that grumpy guard that likes to pick on me? We're going to get back at him."

"Who, Officer Zhang?" Jason asks. "You want to prank him? You do realize that if we get caught, we'll be in trouble, right?"

"That's why we don't get caught," Officer Valdez says, rolling his eyes. "Duh."

"What are we doing?" I ask.

"You, Madam Levesque, will be the distraction."

My cheeks turn red and I look down so that no one will see my blush. "Why me?"

"Because you'll be good at it. And we need Piper for something else. So unless he secretly has a thing for good looking bad boys," he flexes nonexistent muscles, "then you're the only one who can do it."

I blush again, but nod.

"Good. You're going to give him this," he hands me a woven contraption, "and tell him that you can't solve it. So while he's busy trying to get his fingers out, Piper and I will come up from behind and dump all of this flour on him."

"That's your genius plan? I got out of bed early just to dump flour on someone?" Piper scoffs.

Officer Valdez slaps himself in the forehead. "So silly of me. I forgot to mention that Piper would be dumping water on him beforehand, so that the flour would stick really well. Jason, you'll be guarding the hallway to make sure no one comes down to witness it."

"Wow, Leo, and I thought that replacing my Jell-O with shaving cream was a bad prank," Jason laughs. "Come on, man, that's not a good one."

"That's the brilliance of it! It's such a stupid prank, no one would suspect me. Everyone knows that I'm a genius."

"You're the only one who thinks that, Valdez," Piper chimes in. "But I'll still do it. I didn't get up for nothing."

"That's the spirit."

"What is this?" I ask, starting to play with the woven contraption Officer Valdez had handed me.

He takes it back from me. "That handy little gag gift is called Chinese Handcuffs. Watch. You stick your fingers in either end of it and they're stuck. The trick is to not pull them out, but slowly ease your way out."

I take it back and try it out. What he said was true, my fingers don't escape whenever I still feel guilty for trying to prank someone I hardly even know, but I don't want to ruin their fun and plan.

"Is everyone ready?" Jason asks. "I brought the flour. The cook apparently doesn't mind people taking an entire bag of it."

Officer Valdez laughs. "What you're trying to say is that the cook doesn't mind blonde models taking a bag of flour. If I tried, I'd be kicked out real fast."

"What?" Jason asks, looking genuinely confused. Everyone else laughs, and it feels good.

"Let's go, everyone," Officer Valdez commands. "Now before there's a lot of traffic in the hallways. "I don't want there to be many witnesses."

We all leave my room, the Chinese handcuffs secure in my hands. Piper picks up a bucket of water that was located outside of my door. Officer Valdez tries to pick up the large bag of flour, but he can't manage to lift it up more than a few inches. Without a word, Jason picks up the bag and slings it over his shoulder.

"Alright, Officer Zhang is stationed by the largest window. Hazel, just go there, bat your eyes, and ask him to solve the Chinese Handcuffs. Got that?" Officer Valdez asks.

"Yes, Officer Valdez."

He laughs. "Don't call me that. My name is Leo. Or Bad Boy Supreme, whatever you prefer to call me. Anyways, let's get this show on the road."

We head down the hall silently. I'm shivering in just my robe and nightgown. I stop in my tracks. "I think we forgot something."

Leo looks around. "What? What did I do wrong?"

"I'm only wearing a nightgown, genius."

"Oh. Right. You should probably, er, go back to change into an actual dress. Just don't take too long, please. This mission needs to happen in the morning."

"Leo, lay off of her. She'll be real quick, won't you?" Piper says.

"Of course, it won't take too long."

I turn around and jog back to my room. Five minutes later, I'm wearing a golden dress that's adorned with flowers. I didn't put on shoes in the event that we'll be running.

"Let's go," says Leo, avoiding my eyes. Before I can have time trying to figure that out, we're moving again.

I soon find that we're creeping a long hallway adorned with several large glass windows. Leo points to a lone figure standing at the end of the hall, his back facing towards us.

"That's him," Leo whispers into my ear. "Go up there and charm the knickers off of him."

I take a deep breath before walking at a casual speed towards the large shadow. Why is Leo so confident in my abilities to charm him? Piper is much prettier than I am, and anyone can carry a bucket of water.

"Hello," I call out cheerfully. "I seem to have gotten lost. Could you point me on my way?"

Officer Zhang turns around and I almost stop. From the back, he looks tall and intimating. But from the front, he looks somewhat grumpy, yet also friendly.

"Yes, miss, uh..." he trails off.

"Hazel Levesque," I introduce myself.

"Of course I'll help you, Miss Hazel," he bows politely in my direction.

I insert my fingers into the Chinese Handcuffs. "Before we go, can you help me with this?" I hold up my finger to show him. "I don't understand these Chinese handcuffs."

"Chinese?" His nose wrinkles. "Why are they called Chinese handcuffs?"

"I don't know," I reply truthfully. "Do you want to try them out?"

He takes them off of my finger and stuffs his large fingers into the openings. "I'm part Chinese. These aren't."

I fight the urge to laugh. "I received them from a friend, and I thought that I'd try them out. It's not working very well, though."

Officer Zhang's eyebrows knit in concentration. Again, I stifle my laughter. "I can't get my fingers out. How do you do it?"

"I don't know," I answer innocently. Behind him, Leo and Piper are moving up silently. I whip my gaze back to the young officer, who still has both fingers trapped in the woven trick. Trying to look innocent, I take a few steps backwards. Piper tips the bucket of water and it splashes Officer Zhang.

Leo appears immediately, covering Officer Zhang in flour. They both turn the other way and run. I make sounds of protest, trying to sound indignant.

"Are you alright, miss?" he asks, apparently not noticing that he's the one covered with flour and water.

"Yes, I'm fine. But what about you? You're the one covered with... junk."

"I'll be fine. Do you still need help to find your way back, miss?"

I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak. He hands the Chinese handcuffs back to me and turns to leave. He leaves me standing in the hallway, surrounded by water, flour, and guilt.

A/N
Wattpad is deciding to glitch on me, so if there's two sentences after "He leaves me standing in the hallway, surrounded by water, flour, and guilt." just ignore them. I'm not sure what's happening.