Eric woke up and made breakfast then did his usual chores. "I'm leaving!" Charlotte called as she handed him a new list of things to do. "I'm taking the boys to a festival for Princess Thalia they are having in the next town. She turns eighteen tomorrow.They will be throwing her a huge party too."

    She walks out the door with Harry and Thomas. She says she is going to honor the future queen, but Eric knew the real reason she was going to the festival. To see if the princess would fall for one of her boys.

    He wasn't sure why Charlotte would think she would love someone as awful and rude as them. Eric would sneak out to go to the festival, but he knew he would probably be caught and sentenced with more chores than ever.

    The best chance they would have to even talk to her would be tomorrow night at the ball. Eric started on his new list of chores and did them as quickly as possible. Charlotte wrote on the note with the chores that he would have to have all of them done by the time they got back from the festival.

Later that evening Eric had just finished his last chore when Charlotte, Thomas, and Harry walked in the door with huge grins on their faces.

They rush into the kitchen and hold up a sheet of paper in front of Eric. At first he thinks its more chores, but then he reads it. " You have been invited to Princess Thalia's birthday ball tomorrow night at 7:00pm." he reads aloud. "How did you get in?"

    Charlotte shrieks "They were passing them out to certain people at the festival. We were the first ones to get the invitation. This is the perfect chance for us to meet Princess Thalia."

    Eric could not believe that them, of all people, received an invitation to the ball. Thomas and Harry went to their room with Charlotte, who was saying that they had to have the perfect outfit to impress the princess.

    Eric went to his room and sat on his bed. They would be off, having fun at a ball, and he would be stuck here doing chores. Charlotte came into his room and old him that they ate at the festival and that he didn't need to cook them dinner.

    He wasn't very hungry so he ate an apple and went to bed. He could hear his step brothers in their room talking about the ball.

Charlotte was trying to sleep but they still talked loudly. He was surprised she didn't blame the noise on him.

When Eric woke up, the sun was just starting to rise. He quickly jumped out of bed and changed his clothes.