Finally, the night of the party arrived. I trudged through my room, trying to pull my pantyhose up my leg. After I achieved that goal, I slipped on my dress. The dress that I wore was a creamy white with little white roses on the puffy short sleaves. Josh came walking into my room just as I finished zipping up the back. "Are you ready?" He asked.  "Almost. Niella just has to fix my hair." I said. Niella was our family maid. Well, she wasn't really our maid. She was more like a helper around the house. We gave her the job so she could feed her family. I thought she was great! She would always play with me and help me with my homework. Just then, she came walking through the door. "Hey Josh. Are going to watch me do Esther's hair?" She said. "No, I'll leave."And with that, he left the room. Niella put my hair up in a beautifull bun, with tiny cream roses lining the bun. There were tiny ringlets hanging down over my face, which made me look incredibly similar to my mother. It was beautiful.
Josh and I held hands as we prepared to walk out in front of the curtain. We all stood behind the large curtain, which hid us from the public in the ball room. The announcer spoke to the people saying, "Good evening ladies and gentlement. I hope you are all having a wonderful time so far. I would now like to introduce you to the hosts of this elaborate event. King Max and Queen Tess." The entire room filled with claps as mom and dad walked out from behind the curtain. "And their children." He said, and then Josh, Kenton and I walked out. I was holding Jodie, who was starting to get excited when she saw all the people looking at her. "And now, the guest of honor. General Michael and his wife, Princess Isabel." The crowd clapped even louder as they came walking out. "And their children." The announcer said, and Angie and Jeanie came out, holding hands. Angie gave a big wave, but Jeanie just hid behind her big sister. Those two were completely opposites. Angie was completely like her mother; bold, beautiful, and confident. Jeanie, on the other hand, was nothing like either of her parents. She was incredibly shy and didn't talk much.
All evening, Josha and I walked around, receiving compliments from everyone about how well we looked. At around 10 pm, we went upstairs, because we were too bored with the crowd. "Could you put Jodie to sleep, Josh? Thankyou." Mom asked Josh as she gave Jodie to him. "Yes, mom." He said, although he didn't really have a choice. I got in my bed almost right away. But, I couldn't sleep. So, I went into Joshua's room. "Hey. What do you want?" Josh asked when he saw me walking in. "I can't sleep. Can I sleep with you?" I asked as timidly as I could. "Sure. We haven't  together for a long time." Josh said as he lifted up his blanket to let me in. We snuggled close together to keep warm.
The next day, we all got up extra early to say good by to Uncle Michael. As we stood around him outside, Aunt Isabel said to us, "Um, Michael and I have something to tell you. I'm pregnant." Her eyes filled up with tears. We were all shocked by the news. Dad gave his sister a hug. Mom congradulated them both. I went up to Aunt Isabel and gave her a hug. "I'm really happy for you. I hope it's a boy. I don't have any boy cousins yet."  "Thank you, Esther. I hope so too." She said to me. We all said goodbye to Uncle Michael and he hopped on the ship. Within a couple of minutes, he was out of sight. I could see the pain that was in Aunt Isabel's eyes as she waved good by to him. She knew she would have to have her baby without her husband, and that scared her. "Don't worry, Izzy. We'll be here if you need anything." Dad said to her. "Yeah. And you can even stay at our place if you don't want to be alone with the kids. I'm sure we'd have a lot of fun together." Mom added. "Yeah, I think I might do that. I mean, pregnancy only lasts a month. And it's going to be hard taking care of the girls with a new born in the house." Aunt Isabel said.
 
Aunt Isabel moved into our house a week after Uncle Michael left. We had plenty of room for them, since our house was full of guest rooms. Angie and Jeanie stayed in the room across from mine, together. Aunt Isabel stayed a little ways down the hall, not too far from her girls. Now, it had been three weeks since Uncle Michael had left. Dad talked to him everyday, discussing strategies on how deal with Kore. The army had attacked Kore's planet, Davir, by total surprise. Kore's army was not ready for the attack and many of his men were overtaken. Things were looking up. In the evenings, I often found Aunt Isabel in her room talking to Uncle Michael's hologram. Angie and Jeanie talked to him sometimes, but not that much. They felt weird talking to a hologram, so they stayed away from him. I felt bad for them.
One day, when Angie, Josh, and I were playing down by the river, we heard mom calling us to come. Her voice sounded frantic, so we ran to the house. Mom grabbed my hand and ran with me inside. "Come on kids. We have get to the ship as fast as possible." Mom said with panic in her voice. "But mom! Why?" Josh asked as he ran behind us. "I'll explain later. Right now, just stay close to me." Mom responded. We got into the ship where Aunt Isabel sat with Jeanie on her lap. " Come here Angie, girl. It's okay, there's nothing to be afraid of." She tried to calm Angie down. Everything was happening to fast that I didn't even notice that we had lifted off. Mom sat across from Aunt Isabel, holding Jodie in her arms. Kenton sat to her right side, whimpering.  I sat down next to mom. "Mommy, where are we going?" I asked mom. "We going to the mountains. We have to hide for a while. Don't be afraid, you're perfectly fine." She said as she stroked my curls. I could see the fear in her eyes. I looked at Aunt Isabel and her eyes were red. I started crying, not knowing what to think. Josh grabbed my hand and hugged me. He always calmed me down when he hugged me. It was so comforting.
We landed on a very narrow strip of land that was on the cliff of a mountain. We climbed out and ran towards the side of the mountain cliff. Dad stood infront of the wall and waved his hand over the rock. "Okay, now you can go through." He said. I hesitated but then started walking, following Aunt Isabel. We walked right through the rock as if there was nothing blocking our way. I couldn't believe it! How could we walk through a mountain? I looked back to see dad smiling at us, knowing we would be safe here. I waved at him, motioning him to come towards me. He didn't move. Mom talked to him. "Make sure nothing happens to you. Come back as soon as you can." She had tears in her eyes as she held his cheeks in the palms of her hands. "Don't worry, love. I'll keep my guard up all the time. I love you." Dad kissed mom and held her close, kissing her, comforting her. I looked towards Josh to see that he had tears rolling down his cheeks. He never cried. He was watching them, feeling their pain. I ran towards dad and he caught me and picked me up. "Daddy, don't leave me! You promised you wouldn't!" I pleaded with him. "I'm sorry, baby. I'm going to have to go away for a while. I'm so sorry I had to break my promise, but this is for your safety. I'll be back soon. I love you Esther." He said as he wiped the tears from my cheeks. He gave me a kiss on the forehead and set me down. Josh came up to him and gave him a big hug. "You're the man of the house now, kiddo. Make sure you take good care of the girls until I get back okay? I love you son." Dad spoke to Josh, his voice cracking. Josh looked into his face, "I will. I love you." Then dad turned to Aunt Isabel and gave her a long hug. "I can't wait till you have the baby. I love you, Isabel."  "I love you, Max. Say hi to Michael for me, will you?" She said. "Yes. Good bye." Dad walked toward the ship. I couldn't believe he was leaving me. "Daddy, no! Don't leave! Daddy! Daddy! No!" I cried, holding my arms out to him, waiting for him to reach out and hold me. He turned around and blew me a kiss and mouthed 'I love you'. With that, he hopped onto the ship and flew away. I watched in disbelief, not wanting to believe what just happend. "Come, Esther. Let's go inside." Mom said. Josh took my hand and we walked inside the cave.
Inside the cave it looked like a normal house. We entered into the lobby where we took off our shoes. As we walked through the doors, we entered into a large room. On the right was the dining room and to the left was the kitchen. Up ahead lay the living room. There were doors on both the left and right of the living room. Those doors led into bedrooms bathrooms. There were five bedrooms and three bathrooms.
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