Venera wasn't used to the lab being this packed. People came and went all the time, but recently things had slowed down. Nearly everyone was relaxing on the bean bags, littered around the floor. Sabrina, Venera’s adopted sister, was laying on the black stone floor and laughing at the boys training in the fitness corner. It was rare for them to be there at the same time, if it wasn’t planned.
The only person who was missing from the lab, Micha, arrived. He called the 9 others to the meeting table in the center of the room immediately. Everyone was there in a flash, as information from the palace was always very important. Micha, who is the queen’s nephew, was always in the know of anything happening at the palace. He knew how to use his connections to the royal family well, and pull the necessary strings to learn what he needed.
He informed the 10, who had settled into their chairs, that the prince had chosen his 11 girls. It was all a part of an Anglonian tradition. Some time after every prince's 18th birthday, the king and his advisors pick 11 girls from the kingdom. The prince proceeds to choose one of them after 3 weeks, in which he gets to know the girls. It was an arranged marriage with extra steps and choices.
Micha wanted to use the mayhem around the whole ordeal to gather more information about the chips. He mentioned that they were going to announce the girls that were going in an hour on Channel 3. Murmurs around the table started. The 10 were considering how they could use the transport of the girls to infiltrate the palace.
There was no information on when the girls would be transported to the palace. The suspicion was that they would be taken immediately.
Dan cleared his throat and shut down the idea being discussed. "We aren't going to play dirty like the King. We aren't sending our own chips into the palace."
At the mention of the chips Luca, Venera's brother, immediately reached for his ankle. He wasn't used to his chip replica yet. He was still scared of getting caught with it. The 10 were able to finally take his chip weeks prior. The rest of the 10 had had theirs either deactivated or spoofed for years now. Luca was the first that got his chip removed, due to his declining health.
Venera stood up once Micha dismissed them and made her way to Dan. He was pondering over something else on the other side of the table, and when she leaned on his chair, he snapped out of it. He turned his head and locks of dirt brown hair whipped Venera's face. They walked over to his station to get away from the others, who were continuing to question Micha.
"Are we going to your place for the announcement, or do you want to stay here and watch it with the rest?" he asked Venera. She wanted to go home so they both rushed to clean up their stations.
Sharing a lab with 9 other people required everyone to look after the place. Venera’s station was the most well kept, her experiments were always organized. It was important for their success, she was developing medicines after all. Every bottle, jar, and ampoule, labeled and arranged into its box. Then the boxes went on lshelves over her desk.
Venera had to screw the lids on all the ingredient containers and put most of them in her refrigerator. She closed her laptop and put back the box she had been working on before the announcement. She wiped down her black desk and took the trash bag with her on the way out. Dan was waiting for her at the door and they both dove into the metal tube that got them to the balcony underneath. The rest of the building was uninhabitable, a perfect building for a hideout. The two jumped over the parapet and down into the alleyway. Venera, upon her landing, threw her trash into the container on the side of the building and the two made their way to the street.
Once they stepped into Venera’s apartment, Dan immediately jumped on the couch and was about to knock over one of Venera's plants.
"Watch it!" hissed Venera as she made her way across the room and threw him the TV remote.
“It’s brown anyway, what will some dirt change?” he snickered as he was setting up the TV. Venera ignored him and went over to pop some popcorn.
The show was starting as the microwave beeped. Venera rushed over with the popcorn to see the show hosts, Molly Millions and Derek Debermann, starting their segment on the prince. They were wearing inflatable crowns which looked ridiculous! A slideshow of pictures of the prince was playing on the screen as well. Molly’s crown kept slipping off due to her pink wig and Derek kept teasing her about it. She wasn't princess material, he concluded.
The hosts moved on to shooting facts through the TV screen about the prince and his likes and dislikes. They mentioned his favorite color is blue and Dan smirked.
"I told you, I didn't lie to you when you dyed your hair blue," he laughed and wrapped a strand of Venera’s hair on his finger.
Venera smiled but pulled her hair back. This kind of banter is why the two were such good friends. It allowed them to be brutally honest with each other, but also make each other do crazy things. Both Venera and Dan had changed their hair color recently. Dan's hair was dyed brown because Venera convinced him, brown would suit his eyes. She had to get him back, after he had convinced her she needed to dye hers blue, because it is the prince's favorite color.
"Here we have a picture of Prince Felix. He recently had laser eye surgery to get rid of his glasses," Molly noted. Before and after pictures of the prince popped up on the screen.
"Now his striking green eyes can certainly pop, am I right Molly?" Derek threw back.
"They do indeed suit his auburn hair. He looks handsome now." Molly noted.
"Did they really just say that or was I imagining it? Why is this so cringy?!" Venera exclaimed. Both, Venera and Dan, burst out laughing. They both considered this the trashiest of TV entertainment - royal family gossip, but they still enjoyed laughing at it.
After talking about the prince, they moved on to what qualities a princess should have. Dan quickly took Venera’s notebook from the coffee table in front of them and started writing them down. There was a poll in a magazine last week about it and the hosts were trying to guess what the audience had voted for.
"A princess should be educated!" Molly called out.
"A princess should be, um... beautiful!" called out Derek.
A princess should be...
Humble
Polite
Caring
Respectful
Independent
"Hey, V, you tick all but one, you know?" noted Dan.
"Oh, yeah? Which one am I missing?" Venera asked sheepishly.
"Girl, you haven't been humble a day in your life!" and just like that, the two were back to rolling on the floor laughing.
"Shush, they are starting the announcement, I want to test my hypothesis." Venera cut off and focused on the show.
Venera's hypothesis was simple: she wanted to know if the girls were a random sample and if the prince had a type. She wanted to study what was similar between them.
They started drawing names out of the big glass ball on the stage and reading the names of the girls. Every name was followed by a slideshow with pictures of the girl announced. The hosts took turns in reading out information about each one.
The first 5 girls were all blonde and daughters of high ranking officials in the country. Venera was smelling a correct theory, when it all crashed down with girl number 6. She had black hair and was the daughter of one of the king's advisors.
Venera was still pondering on the previous girl when blue hair flashed on the TV.
"Venera Vorobyova, from Bizou."
Pictures of Venera with different hair colors were being shown on national tv. Dan was just as shocked and kept looking between the Venera in the room and the Venera on the TV.
"She graduated from one of the most prestigious schools in the country, ASBSOS, last year. She majored in international relations and history. She is currently a translator here in the capital. She is most known for translating the hit new Russian tv series, Kitchen, here on Channel 3. Her hobbies include gardening and learning languages." Molly Millions announced.
Time froze for Venera. The look in her eyes was getting more and more concerned.
She then looked at Dan and the same look of confusion was all over his face.
