The Princess Turmoils

[Jodi]

"Mail call!" Jodi yelled through the dorm, hoping that everyone had heard her. "Get it now or it goes in the trash!"
Bill, bill, letter to Kara, bill, newsletter, letter to Bobby, HoM flyer, letter to me... Jodi stopped and dropped everything as she stared at the letter to herself.
In the top corner of the letter there was a golden seal and her name was written in a expensive looking green ink. Oh no, she thought. Not now, please not now.
But it was what she feared it was. It was the letter from her home country...
The letter that stated that she was to be wed.

[Max]

"Jod's, you're supposed to give us some time to get to the mail before you drop it." Max said as he leaned down to pick it all up. He couldn't help but notice the look on his friends face. "Wait, what's going on? Is something wrong?"

[Jodi]

Jodi slowly held the letter up to show the boy. Her face looked almost sick and her cheeks were already wet from tears. "It's my home...they want me back..." She said. She swallowed once.
"I have to get married."

[Max]

"M-married! As in, I do and for the rest of your life and all." Max said quickly. He searched his mind for any possible reason for this not to happen. "Jodi you can't do this! You can't get married. You just...can't..."

[Jodi]

"If I don't get married they'll take me away," Jodi said sadly. "They'll make me stay in the country, they'll make me rule it."

[Max]

So no matter what I do I'll lose her Max thought to himself. "No, this can't be happening. They can't make you go through with this."

[Jodi]

"Apparently you don't know my family..." Jodi said without thinking. "Wait, you don't..." she said after finally thinking. She then decided it was time to come clean and tell him everything.
"There isn't much to tell, Max," she said. "In my family the women were the supreme power and being married was considered a gift and curse. Only women on their last year of ruling could get married. As soon as you were you lost all legal ruling rights of the country, but if you aren't you are forced to rule."
Jodi stopped and took a breath. "And I really don't want to rule, Max."

[Max]

Max bit his lip and thought of what he could possibly say to the girl. There were no more comforting thoughts in his mind that he wasn't already using for himself. The only thing he could think was...
"Well, it looks like we're going to have to tell everyone."

[Jodi]

Jodi groaned once. "If you insist. I guess it wouldn't make much sense if I just left for a country and came back with a husband. Let's go find the others."

[Max]

Max watched as Jodi went off to try and hunt everyone down. He leaned against the wall and sighed. It hurt a lot more to hear her say the words come back with a husband. It was a lot worse when someone was actually saying it out loud.
"Wait up, Jod's." He said, trying to keep his voice cool. "I'll come with you."

At The Bean Scene
Max and Jodi walked into their favorite coffee house and could already see the dim outlines of their friends from the front few seats.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

[Jodi]

"I have to be," Jodi whispered back. "Hey everyone, guess what! We're getting ready to go on vacation to a foreign country and you're all invited. By the way, I'm getting married." Jodi slapped herself secretly on the wrist, that was so not the way she wanted this to come out.
Smooth Jodi, real smooth.

[Cori]

"YOURE WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Cori tried to imagine her friend as a blushing bride and shuddered.

[Jodi]

"My thoughts exactly," Jodi grumbled as she flopped into a chair at the table.

[Cori]

"So, where are we going exactly," Cori asked. "England, France, Italy?" She flashed a congragulative smile at Max, then noticed that he looked worried. "Right, someone snap a picture because I have no idea what's going on."

[Jodi]

"Let me explain, Cori," Jodi said. She had to stop herself after that. "Raise your hand if you never thought you'd hear me say that." Jodi gave everyone a second to raise their hands, which most people did.
"Okay, now I'll explain." The girl took a deep breath and prepared to let everyone know the story. "I am actually the runaway princess from a small British island *I don't know which* The island prides itself in the independence of its female rulers, which also means that it forbids marriage in its female rulers. I was the next in line for the thrown whenever the previous ruler was assassinated (and no, Cori, I wasn't related to her, this is sort of a process of guess and check on who will be crowned ruler.)" Jodi breathed again before starting up her next description.
"I ran away to avoid this destiny, hoping that they wouldn't find me, but since they have I have no choice but to be married to get out of it. Which means that we will all be going on a trip."