Run, Girl (If You Can)

The basic gameplay of Pretty Pretty Princess was both simple and humiliating (if you happened to be male). Using a spinner, players moved around a circular board trying to land on squares that would allow them to collect jewelry.

The players could choose to be pink, purple, blue, or green. To win, one had to collect a pair of earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring in their color plus the only crown. There was also a black ring that automatically made a player lose at the end of the game even if they had all the other jewelry pieces. The goal was to collect everything but the black ring to win.

Violet went with purple, as she always did when purple game pieces were available, because ages ago Kaleb had said she should because of her name. It was habit now. Noah chose blue and Nathan went with green because it was less embarrassing than pink.

Though it was obvious that he would rather be doing anything but play this game, Nathan ended up winning and becoming the Pretty Pretty Princess. He let his composure slip for a minute to brag about winning and that was when Noah managed to sneakily snap a picture that Violet would hold over her brother's head for years to come.

Feeling that her revenge was complete, she let Nathan choose what video games they would play until he glanced at the clock and realized their parents would be home.

He stretched as he stood to leave. "Well, it's been fun lovebirds but I feel like less of a third wheel around Mom and Dad. Which I never thought I would say. Ever."

Violet rolled her eyes. Their parents were a million times mushier than she and Noah were, okay? Nathan knew it too. He probably felt at least a tiny bit guilty about intruding and wanted to get out of their hair, which she appreciated.

She gave him a hug before he left, feeling more goodwill toward him than she did earlier. He may be a tease but he wasn't actually her least favorite brother. They were a lot closer than most siblings who had that large of an age gap.

Once Nathan left, Noah grinned at her. "I will gladly play any and all little girls' games to get blackmail material on Nate. Usually he's the one messing with people."

That summed up her brother pretty well. Kaleb was excellent at teasing as well but Nathan had a slight edge up. The two of them spent a lot of time striving to annoy the other into compliance over the years. When that happened, Violet and Oliver tended to watch them with a mixture of amus.e.m.e.nt and disdain.

She was glad that something good had come out of this disaster of an evening. At least Noah didn't seem upset. He was such a good person.

Violet sighed heavily and leaned against his shoulder. "I'm sorry about tonight. I meant to do something nice to show you how much I appreciate everything you do but Nate sort of ruined it."

He twisted his head to kiss the top of hers. "Don't worry about it, Vi. I had fun. And it means a lot to me that you put so much effort into cooking and baking considering you almost never do it for yourself."

This much was true. She and Noah had a longstanding tradition of going out to eat at least once a week and she had mooched off of her mother's cooking the whole time she was living at home. It was impossible to be completely inept in the kitchen after helping other people cook most of her life but she had never prepared anything like this on her own before.

Since moving out, Keeley frequently brought over containers of leftovers to ensure her daughter wasn't starving. If Violet wasn't eating those, she was typically making simple meals out of a box mix.

She had been enjoying being able to be on a less strict diet but if she expected to rejoin the company in the next 6-7 months she would have to get used to eating like a dancer again. It wasn't that she had gained much weight since being out of commission since she was still exercising regularly but dancers have to eat differently because of the way they overexerted their muscles.

Violet would have to go back to her tragically limited diet as soon as she moved over to working with the dance rehabilitation specialist. With the way things were going now, she still had a couple months to go. So she had a little more time to eat like a normal human being.

While she still could, she really should practice cooking more. She would need those skills someday even if she was getting by okay right now without them. As a mother she would be expected to feed her children three meals a day.

The thought made her feel a bit strange. She was nearly twenty-six years old; a lot of people her age had children. Her mother had given birth to her and Kaleb when she was the same age Violet was now.

But to have children she would need to be married. To Noah. Who she was still getting used to kissing.

He had always been great with kids, as proven by how much his karate students loved him, so she knew he would be a good father. Thinking about this was too weird! Whenever she imagined her mythical, far-off future family in the past it was never with Noah!

Violet had decided to spend her life with him but thinking of him as a potential husband and father of her children was a different matter. Though she had to admit that any child of Noah's would probably be adorable. He had been a super cute kid.

Her cheeks heated and she was glad he couldn't see her face from the angle they were sitting. Admitting what she was thinking about couldn't end anything but awkwardly.

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