Niall POV

I  was left with a permanent grin on my face, reaching up to my eyes; last night was the most amazing night of my life. I was lucky enough to have Gracey warm up to me so fast. I got to know so much about her. It just felt . . . right.

    Gracey and I stayed up until around 3 AM when Gracey finally drifted off to sleep. I carried her off to her room bridal style — which is very tricky when you're on top of a 5 story building.

    I was only able to get only 4 hours of sleep. When you're in the Royal Family, you even have to wake up early on weekends. We don't even have any duties, it's just our free time and family days. And thank goodness we have them.

    I groaned when I walked into the dining room — Melody was joining us this morning. I avoided her glare as I quietly sat down in my seat. We all sat in silence for a moment. I was surprised Melody wasn't snitching on me like she always does.

    Melody was the one to finally break the silence. I tensed up in my seat, trying to think of an excuse just in case she was about to tattle. "So . . . what do you think of this Gracey girl? I don't think I'm very keen on her,"

What does Melody have against Gracey? I don't think it's possible to not like her. Then again, Melody doesn't like anyone; she'll be an angel at first and turn into the devil once she finds the slightest imperfection. I can't even count the number of times I've gotten in trouble with her.

    "I think she's a wonderful girl, very sweet," Kaitlyn chided. Kaitlyn was the kind that loved everyone. She's the sweetest and everyone loves her dearly. She's a true queen at heart.

    "Yeah! Gracey's really fun to play with!" Christian agreed.

    Adrian then chimed in, "And she reads us bedtime stories and plays with us!" He beamed.

    "Well, that's just the problem. I always find the three getting up to something they shouldn't. The girl rarely disciplines the boys!" Melody argued.

    My father joined the discussion, unfortunately joining Melody's side. "I agree with Melody, I think the boys need someone strict to discipline them. They can be rowdy boys and that's not good for two princes. We don't want the world thinking 'The Royal Family doesn't know how to discipline their children'!"

    Dad used to be a very fun person until my Ma died. Her death took a toll on him and he fell into a hole of depression. Kaitlyn was able to help him out of this 'hole', but he never gained his old self back. He's a lot more serious, now that he's royal.

    I'm lucky enough to say I'm not like my dad.

    "I disagree, Bobby," Kaitlyn began, "I think the boys need a role model, someone they can look up to. They're not going to look up to a strict old goblin, are they? They'll look up to someone who's a friend to them. And Gracey is just that." She seemed to be hinting at Melody's attitude. I couldn't help but let out a giggle.

    "Well, what about you, Niall?" Melody urged me to join in, and everyone's eyes moved toward me.

"I think she's the most stunning, kind, bright, intriguing girl I've ever met," I was tempted to blurt out. I quickly shoved those thoughts out of the way — who needs all this lovey-dovey stuff anyway? "I think she's quite lovely," I spoke softly, however, blush crept up on my face, giving me away.

I heard Christian giggling. Adrian joined in, and I caught a smirk on everyone's face.

"What?"

"Ooooh, you like her!" Christian teased, causing the whole table to erupt into laughter.

"What? No! What made you think that?" I objected, feeling my face grow hot, causing everyone to laugh even harder.

"Oh c'mon Ni, don't deny it," Greg put a hand on my shoulder.

"I don't like her! Leave me alone!" I shoved his hand off my shoulder and slouched down in my seat.

I just wanted to hide under a rock and never come out.

"Well, the annual Christmas Ball is coming up, you might want to think of who to invite," Kaitlyn winked, causing me to roll my eyes in response.

What kind of a spell did Gracey put on me?

~~~

    Gracey

    Alas, the weekend. The time when I can waste away all my time by reading all the books I've already read, and sleep in until the afternoon.

    I thought back to the night before. It was the most magical night of my life. I couldn't keep myself from squealing and jumping up and down.

    I remember, years ago, sitting in my bed all day, daydreaming of moments like this. I can't believe it's become a reality.

    I checked the time on my phone — how was it already 1:00 PM? I slowly crawled out of my bed but ended up falling out of it instead. I layed on the floor and stared at the ceiling, too lazy to get my butt off the ground.

    The sudden realization of yesterday hit me like a truck. I had told him so much about myself, but I don't even remember half of what I was telling him.

    Did I tell him about Vic?

    I slammed my head against the floor out of frustration. Gracey, just because you have a crush on Niall doesn't mean you get to let your guard down and tell him everything about yourself!

    The door to my room burst open and I flew a mile into the air.

    "What is a hobo doing in my best friend's bedroom?"

    I looked over to the door to see a girl with short, curly, chocolate-brown hair. The girl who's been with me through thick and thin. "REEJA!" I beamed and tackled her to the ground.

    "SURPRISE!" She shouted.

    "I missed you more than you could ever imagine,"

    "Nope. I missed you more. No argument."

    "Hmm, I think that's impossible. I missed you m—"

    "You both miss each other equally. How about that?" Melody walked in. "Now get off your butts and help me put up the Christmas decorations. And Gracey put on something presentable. You look like a homeless person."

    "Told you," Reeja teased.

    "Oh shut up," I laughed.

    We both let out a gasp as we made it to the first floor. In the center of the room, in between the two spiraling staircases, was the most enormous Christmas tree you could ever imagine.

    "You two will be helping me put up the ornaments on this tree. Everyone else has got the rest of the decorations covered."

    "Isn't it only halfway through November?" Reeja pointed out.

    "You clearly aren't accustomed to Royal life." Melody spat.

    "Well duh," Reeja muttered under her breath, just loud enough for only me to hear.

    While Melody's back was turned, I gave her the finger reserved just for her. Reeja burst out laughing — I had to cover her mouth to stop her from giving me away.

    I heard a familiar Irish accent close by. "Melody, may I help decorate the tree?"

    "Oh my goodness. He is so hot. I don't understand how you haven't died yet—" Reeja burst out. I smacked her arm and gave her a threatening glare. "Ouch, jeez woman." She smacked me back.

    "I don't think so, young man, don't you remember the last time you decorated the tree? When you slipped down the stairs and dropped every box of ornaments we owned?"

    "Hey, you don't have to announce that in front of these beautiful young ladies, that's embarrassing!" He gave us both a wink, causing my face to turn bright red. Reeja laughed even harder, almost falling to the floor.

    "If I let you help with the ornaments, would you leave me alone?" Melody agreed.

    "No promises," Niall smirked and ran over to us. "Now, I don't think I've met you before, beautiful, what's your name?" He directed the question to Reeja.

    "Niall, this is Sreeja. Sreeja, this is Niall." I chimed in.

    "But you can call me Reeja," She giggled.

    We started decorating the tree. Reeja and I were chatterboxes, while Niall stayed quiet the whole time, tentatively listening.

    "How long are you going to stay?" I asked, hoping it would be a long time.

    "Only about a week," She smiled sadly. "I'd like to stay longer though, but Melody said I could only stay a week."

    "That's lame. We have a Christmas Ball coming up and I'm sure you could come, why not stay until then?" Niall spoke up.

    "Well—"

    "Melody," Niall interrupted, "Why not let Reeja stay longer?"

    "Well, I guess she could, but if she and Gracey cause too much havoc, I'm going to need her to leave." Melody sighed.

    Reeja and I squealed, "Thank you so much!"

    Niall

    It was quite fun to get to see the goofy side of Gracey. She showed a little bit of it in our adventure yesterday but being with Reeja, I got to see a lot more of it. That was part of the reason I was so willing to convince Melody to let her stay longer.

    After wrestling with my thoughts for a few hours, I had decided to ask Gracey to the Christmas Ball. There was just some part of me that needed her. She was a feeling I couldn't put down.

    I just needed to find a good opportunity to ask her.

    I looked over and caught Reeja looking at me. She nodded her head towards Gracey, and I gave her a nod.

    "Hey Melody, can you show me where the bathroom is?" She gave me one last smirk before she and Melody headed off. 

    I walked over next to Gracey and we worked in silence for a moment. I could feel the words I wanted to say get choked back in my throat.

    After clearing my throat quite a few times, I was finally able to find my voice. "Uh, Gracey?" I started, feeling my face grow hot. "You know, a Christmas Ball is coming up, I was just wondering if you maybe wanted to. . . um . . . be my date?"

    She looked up at me with surprised eyes, blush creeping up her face. "I — I would love to!" She beamed, the light in her eyes returning.

    I grinned as big as I possibly could. The nervousness had left my system, leaving me with so much joy.

    "Oh, and Niall?" She started, "About last night, I didn't say anything about a person named Vic, did I?"

    I shook my head, though I was curious as to who she was talking about.

    "Okay, just wondering," She quickly went back to work.

    Before I could question her, Reeja came running back to Gracey.

    Who on earth is Vic?

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a/n

I mean- Christmas is in 4 days. I can't NOT put in a Christmas special! 😂 It doesn't help that I just watched some royal Christmas movies on Netflix 😂 (A Princess Switch and A Christmas Prince are really good ones!)

I just watched This is Us for the 29385739457 time and now I'm having a 1D breakdown ✌️
LIKE- WHY COULDN'T I HAVE BEEN A FAN WHILE THEY WERE TOGETHER UGHSUFHKADJHF
and writing about Niall didn't help with that-

and sorry if the writing in this wasn't that great, i'm tired and it's wintah.

now peace out imma spend my whole wallet on 1D Etsy merch ✌️

p.s my loyal readers, if you'd like a character named after you, (either in this book or my next,) reply to this, and comment your name/the name you'd like to be called 😌😌

I LOVE YOU ALL! THANK YOU FOR 930 READS!! YALL ARE THE BESTEST! I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH!