A/N. Hello, my fellow uh…people. Right, I've decided to have a go at a wee bit of fluffiness. I'm not generally very good at that kind of thing, so just bear with me OK? So kind of you. Anyway, shall we get on with this afore mentioned fluffiness? Just so you know, I'm not sure if it will pop up in the first chapter or not…
Disclaimer: If I owned any of this stuff, do you honestly think I would be posting things here? No. I wouldn't. I'd be selling it to publishers and earning mega bucks. So basically, that means I don't any of the characters/places in this story.
Chapter 1.
Keladry of Mindelan walked into her small room in the pages quarters and looked around. It had been nice, having a rest, doing nothing, and spending time with her family over the summer holidays, but she was glad to be back. She dropped her bag on the floor and flopped onto the bed. She lay there staring at the ceiling for a while, until her thoughts were interrupted by chirping. Apparently her sparrows hadn't forgotten her. She got up and went to greet them. After she had patted each of them and greeted them by name, she went to the cupboard, retrieved their dishes and started the routine that would continue until the next summer holidays.
She was interrupted in her conversation with the small birds by a dry voice from the door.
"Still talking to animals? I thought we might have beaten that habit out of you by now." Kel looked up into the twinkling green eyes of her best friend, Nealan of Queenscove and smiled.
"I was wondering how long it would be until you turned up. And no, you didn't beat it out of my. If anything, you made it worse." Neal sighed and tried to look woeful.
"Just when we were hoping that you might have turned sane too…" Kel snorted in an unladylike fashion.
"You look after your non-existent sanity and I'll look after mine."
"You just insulted your self."
"It was intentional." It was Neal's turn to snort.
Their conversation was interrupted by the loud arrival of a short boy with curly brown hair. He rocketed into the room, and promptly tripped over Kels bag, which was still residing in pride of place in the centre of the floor. Neal raised a sardonic eyebrow at the heap on the floor, which was attempting to untangle itself.
"Talk about how to make an entrance Owen." Owen of Jesslaw had by this time managed to get back onto his feet and turned a brilliant shade of red on hearing Neal's remark.
"I was just…I was just…" Owen looked uncertain and stopped talking.
"Oh just ignore him Owen. I would have thought you might have got that idea figured by now." Kel brushed Owen off and smiled at him.
"Was there anything in particular, or did you just come to say hello?" Owen, who was never at a loss for long, smiled back.
"Well, I just heard you two talking and thought I'd come say hello too. You know Kel, you really do look like a girl now. I mean, you did last year too, but…" Here he was interrupted by Neal's loud groan. Kel shot him a reproachful look. Owen soon resumed his dialogue.
"So anyway, I'm going to go and wash before dinner. See you!" And with that he bounced out of the room.
Neal gave Kel that raised eyebrow that meant he was either going to say something joking or…or anything else really.
"What was with the dirty look just now? You didn't like him gawping at you did you?" Kel looked slightly amazed.
"He wasn't gawping. And why do you care anyway? You're not jealous, are you?" Neal flushed slightly, but then his face took on a saintly expression.
"Jealous? Me? I would never be guilty of such a thing." His face resumed its normal expression. "Now, I'm going to go and wash for dinner too. See you later."
Kel shut the door behind her friend and shook her head. In her opinion, Neal would be much better suited to life as a player. She went to the small bathroom adjoining her room and washed, before putting on her customary gown for dinner. She checked her appearance in the mirror and made a mental note never to let her mother talk her into buying anything involving peach or pink ever again. After a final check, she headed down to dinner.
When Kel reached the hall, most people were already there. Lord Wyldon, aka 'the stump', however, was not. She breathed a small sigh of relief. At least she wouldn't be reprimanded for tardiness. She spotted her group of friends at their customary table and headed over to join them. To her surprise, she found Cleon sitting with them. That was strange, he was suppose to be sitting in the squires half of the mess hall now. She shrugged it off and sat down between Neal and the big red head.
Cleon was busy talking to Owen and didn't notice her at first, so Kel turned to Neal.
"What's Cleon doing back here?"
"Apparently he's got 'special permission to sit with us when he feels like it." Kel nodded and stared vacantly at the door for a time. Her train of thought was, however, interrupted when Cleon realised that he was no longer sitting next to an empty chair.
"Ah! The light of my life hath returned unto me!" Kel was used to the flowery speech he used with her and laughed.
"That's a bit of an upgrade to what I was last year." Cleon attempted to look soulful and ended up looking like a complete prick.
"Ah…last year…last year I had realised my full capacity as a poet." Kel and Neal raised their eyebrows in unison. This made Cleon laugh and he abandoned the whole soulful idea to embrace Kel roughly.
The entrance of the stump and the King interrupted their conversation. Apparently he would be making his customary speech again. And undoubtedly it would much the same as all the previous years. Her prediction was correct to the letter. They went up to get their meal, stood to listen to Wyldon pray, murmured 'so mote it be' at the end of the prayer, ate their dinner while chatting to their friends and then cleared away. The Kings speech was predictably boring, filled with things about duty, honour, how expected them all to do well, etc etc. They were allowed to leave the hall after the head honchos had departed and headed back to their respective wings.
Kel got separated from her small group in the throng around the door. Someone inadvertently bumped into her and murmured 'sorry. Kel replied that it was all right with out looking to see who it was. She would have thought no more of it, had she not sensed his eyes still on her. She looked up to see who was watching her so closely and found her self looking up into the gorgeous grey eyes of Joren of Stone Mountain. She frowned slightly. Since when had Joren ever apologised to her for anything? He smiled at her and walked off. Kel realised that she had reached the door and was staring after Joren like a complete feather brain. She shook her head and headed off to her room.
Later, as she lay in bed, Kel considered things. Neal was even more handsome than the last time she had seen him. He was less gangly, more graceful, and somehow seemed to have grown taller again. She had fancied Neal for well over six months, but hadn't said anything to anyone. After all, what kind of person fell in love with their best friend? And then there was Cleon and the look he had given her when he had at last noticed her. What had that meant? Did it mean anything? And what about Joren? There had definitely been something in that look. And he was being nice to her. What was with that? Joren was never nice to anyone. Not even his friends. As she thought back to the incident at the door, Kel realised that she had never noticed how charming Joren's smile was.
Kel drifted off to sleep with these confusing thoughts running around her head. She was unaware that, four doors down, Owen was lying awake, thinking similar things about her and trying to figure out a way to get her to notice him as something other than a friend.
A/N. Well. Not exactly fluffy, but I think we might get there, don't you? Anyway, all reviews welcome, but some are more welcome than others. Sorry, we're studying Animal Farm at school. But yeah. Feel free to review.
