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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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As Bree ran after Conner to catch up with him, she realized that she was a much different person now. She didn't know how to explain it, she was just happier now. She didn't put on her poker face anymore and she didn't hide her emotions. ^Why was she acting like this?^

"So where are we off to next?" Bree asked Conner with bright eyes.

"We're going to the Lumiere des Etoiles casino," he replied.

"Where is that?"

"Somewhere in Monte Carlo, I guess," he said.

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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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The duo walked to the train station in comfortable silence. Bree was thinking about their adventure, and while thinking her thoughts landed on Conner. Well, she was technically thinking about him the entire time, she just told herself that she was thinking about the adventure so she would stop smiling. Yes, she smiled when she thought of Conner. ^Why not?^

^He was like one of the coolest people on earth. He had a nice disposition, he was in contact with the fairytale world, and he was part fairy. Like how much cooler can you get?^

^He also made Bree happy. In some weird way, Bree realized that during her short time on this adventure with Conner, she was just happy. She was happy about everything. He just gave out happy vibes. Okay, that kinda sounded weird, but you get the point.^

Conner and Bree made it to the train station a little before six o'clock that morning. They hadn't slept all night, but neither of their faces showed that. They were both running on adrenaline and determination.

Bree hadn't stopped smiling yet(she was still thinking about Conner and the lion). "I'm friends with a lion statue, I'm friends with a lion statue," she sang to herself over and over again.

They both gawked at a large map over the ticketing counters and tried to make sense of all the colorful lines showing which trains traveled where.

"Doesn't look like anything travels directly to Monte Carlo," Conner said. "We'll have to stop in Paris where the thick blue line ends and then get on the thin dotted orange line."

"Your knowledge of travel terminology is very impressive," Bree joked.

They stood in a zigzagged line to the ticket counter with the other early-morning travelers. The ticketing agent had frizzy red hair and huge bags under her eyes. She drank coffee from an enormous mug like it was water.

"Next?" she said.

Conner and Bree approached her. "Two tickets to Paris, please," Bree said, apparently Conner was going to let her handle all this stuff.

The agent looked at them as if they had asked her to borrow her car. "Do you have a guardian accompanying you? Or an unaccompanied-minor form signed by your parents?" she asked.

Bre and Conner froze. Bree had totally forgotten that being a fourteen-year-old traveling the country wasn't allowed.

"We...we..," Bree began but came up with nothing came to her as an excuse. ^Maybe Conner could pull another Buckinghamshirevilleton.^

Conner seemed to panic and whipped his head around while Bree was thinking of a crazy way to get them to Monte Carlo.

"We're traveling with our grandmother," Conner said. What?

"We are?" Bree asked. Conner gestured over to an old woman in a wheelchair. She was a very elderly woman with her hair teased up into a large pouf with a full face of makeup on. She somberly sat in her wheelchair, looking down at the floor.

"I mean, we are," Bree continued. "Stupid me, make it three tickets to Paris," she said back at the ticket agent.

"That's your grandmother?" the agent asked.

"Yes, that's Granny Pearl," Conner said. Huh? "She doesn't speak a lick of English, so she asked us to buy the tickets." Conner energetically waved at the old woman. "Just one more minute Gran!" he shouted at her.

Pearl, as they had christened her, waved back at them. She also seemed to be a little senile, so that worked in their favor.

The ticketing agent shrugged and checked the ticket options. "The only ticket availability for three on the next train is in the first-class compartment," she said.

"Great, how much?" Conner asked.

"Two hundred pounds each," the ticketing agent said.

Conner gulped, he obviously didn't want to spend more of his parent's money than he had to. "Boy, that's a lot of weight, ha-ha," he said. "We'll take it. Good thing Granny Pearl gave us a lot of money."

He exchanged the money for tickets and walked quickly away from the ticketing counter and towards Pearl. Bree followed his lead and glanced over her shoulder, the ticketing lady was watching them suspiciously from over her coffee mug.

"She's still watching us; what do we do?" Bree whispered to Conner.

"Grab the old lady and get on the train, I guess," he whispered back.

"We can't kidnap an old woman!"

"What other choice do we have?"

Bree's heart was racing- she was about to commit the biggest crime of her life. Possibly, she might commit something worse in the future(Like using fake ID's to sneak Red, Jack, and Goldilocks into the airport? That might be worse.). Bree and Conner leaned down to the old woman and quietly spoke to her.

"Hello there, would you mind doing us a favor?" Conner asked her.

Pearl just smiled blankly- Conner had guessed right, she didn't speak a lick of English.

*Okay, so as a few other authors of fanfiction like this have done, we have made it that Bree can fluently speak German, so that doesn't go well with this part. Since I have done this, I am just going to summarize this talking bit to this. Pearl doesn't speak at all, and so they just take her on the train with them, not even asking her anything else. So, we just guess that she can't speak English for the minute and that she can speak German, but we only add that part when she says that she's being kidnapped. I'm sorry for the setback, it's just that if Bree could speak German fluently in the original books then it would have been a completely different story. So, to summarize, she can speak German, but she only speaks it when she wants to, and then she reveals that she can speak English at the end.
So, sorry for that bit, I totally forgot about this part when I wrote that Bree could speak German fluently. Okay, back to the story, they are on the train after Pearl revealed that she could speak German, but she doesn't anymore.*

The train speed gradually increased speed, and soon they were zooming through the English countryside on their way to Paris. Conner found a map in their compartment and stared at it for a moment.

"So once we reach Paris we'll switch trains and head to Monte Carlo," Conner said.

Pearl looked at them and said, "Ich liebe Monte Carlo!"

"I guess she likes Monte Carlo," Bree translated. *Okay, so let me clarify, Pearl actually said 'I love Monte Carlo', so I don't know why Chris Colfer had Bree 'translate' it to 'I like Monte Carlo' unless he was just emphasizing the point that she didn't really speak German. Just clarifying for those who care!*

"Okay," Conner said cautiously, and then continued with the plan. "Then, once we reach Monte Carlo we'll try to find the Lumiere des Etoiles and see if my chip means something to anyone there," he said.

Pearl turned to them again only to say, "Ich liebe das Lumiere des Etoiles!" ^Apparently she was a big fan of the casino as well.^

"Why are we going to a casino when we should be trying to find a bank?" Bree asked.

"Mother Goose said the poker chip would come in handy," he explained. "When she gave it to me she said that if I was ever in Monte Carlo I should take it to the roulette table in the northwest corner and bet it on the black. It made no sense at the time, but now I think we'll find something there(that wasn't there before! (like love?) yes, like love) that will help us. I've got a good feeling about this."

The train went dark as it swooped under the English Channel and the next time they saw light they were in the French countryside. France was only a couple of hours from England, but once the train began decelerating into Paris they felt they had entered a completely different world. Paris made Bree feel like she was living in a painting. (Did you guys know that Paris is one of the most romantic parts of France, sorry, just had to add that in. For my sake of shipping Conner and Bree.) Every building was beautifully detailed like it had been hand sculpted. Many were tall and narrow with iron railings at each of the windows. Soon they arrived at the Paris train station, Gare du Nord.

Conner and Bree helped Pearl off the train and pushed her through the crowded station.

"We need to exchange our pounds for euros," Bree told Conner. "We won't be able to buy tickets to Monte Carlo until we do."

They found a currency-exchange station and traded in all the pounds they had left. They proceeded to the ticketing counter to purchase tickets for the next train to Monte Carlo and once again pretended that Pearl was their grandmother to avoid any suspicion.

"Would you like first-class or economy compartment, monsieur?" the lady at the counter asked.

"Economy is fine if it's available," Conner said.

"Don't go cheap on me now, Bailey," Bree said.

"Fine, first-class, please," Conner griped, "I'm so gonna be grounded when I get home."

Within the hour, Conner, Bree, and Granny Pearl were aboard another train enjoying another first-class cabin.

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~~~~~ (*****^-^*****) ~~~~~

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TLOSGEEK2OUT!!!