My lessons went by as per usual, and after our meals I was able to spend a bit more time with Anna. I entered during one of her lessons on etiquette, and could see that Anna was not interested in the lesson one bit. The teacher was trying not to chuckle as Anna made goofy faces to the birds outside the window. I smiled seeing how Anna would lighten up the mood for everyone. It was always hard for Anna to get in trouble. She was young after all, and did not have the responsibility that I did.
"Bye Hilda, thanks for the lesson" she ran out the door quickly, pulling me along as I saw for a brief moment the look of realization of being duped on the poor nannies face.
"Princess Anna" but I chuckled when we were out of earshot. Anna slowed down but was still jumping and giggling the whole time.
"You should take your lessons more seriously Anna" I spoke softly and avoided making it sound as if I was disappointed. I was a little bit, but nothing to make Anna upset over.
"Let's play" Anna said, ignoring my statement and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. She probably wanted to make another snowman; however, I decided to humor her. After all, she was my younger sister and often did not know better.
"Of course Anna. What would you like to play" I placed my hands on her shoulders to keep her from spraining an ankle from so much jumping. We did not have much time to play before bedtime, so it did not hurt to let her choose what we should play often. Besides, I was too old for playing.
"Let's play hide and seek! Hide and seek" she twirled, before calming down to wait for my answer, which was odd considering she never waits to see if I wanted to or not. I placed a hand on her hand, "all right Anna... I will count to thirty and you will hide" her eyes widened and her body slumped forward.
"Only thirty" she whined, and I nodded gently.
"Yes, after all we do not have that much time to play before bed" her reaction went from upset to cheerful in a matter of seconds. I supposed she understood the limited time we had...that or she had some trick up her sleeve.
"Ok, you close your eyes and count. I will hide." Another reason I did not want to count for so long was because I did not want Anna to hide somewhere too far. The last thing I needed was to search the whole castle. It was uncomfortable closing my eyes. It brought back that same obscure paranoia to wash over my feet as the ocean, slowly trying to build up over time. Nevertheless, I closed my eyes to see the darkness ahead of me as I listened to the direction of my sister running silly.
I began to count out loud, trying to avoid counting too fast, but mostly to avoid counting too slow. I felt alone, but I also felt as if I was not. Hopefully, Anna would not get into trouble while hiding. Then again, Anna never got in trouble, she was well liked enough to get away with a lot of things. I knew better though.
I opened my eyes on the final count, and already mentally prepared which parts of the castle to search for Anna. Where could she be? I did not check her room, because that would be the last place she would hide, and Anna liked to think creative. I tried three of the drawing rooms, the piano room, the violin room, and my bedroom so far. When I peeked through the crack inside my room, for a moment I thought something was out of place. I could not tell what it was at first, but the longer I stood there trying to inspect every single detail the more I realized that I was forgetting to look for Anna. After a while I decided that I could just come back to inspecting my room after finding my sister, lest she suffocates wherever she is hiding.
At first I thought I was going to have to check on Anna's bedroom before trying a few other rooms. Just in case this was a trick that I had mentioned earlier, but then I stopped.
I stared ahead into the hallway that me and Anna were in earlier this morning. She would not go in there, would she? I had told her not to go in the room beyond the wooden door, but this was Anna. My heart raced at the thought that Anna disobeyed my warnings to hide in that room. It was dark, big, and dangerous. She could have gotten hurt by trying to hide in there.
If she were in there I would have to go in there, and I hated going in there. It was unnerving, but I still began to approach the door slowly and cautiously, as if I was expecting to hear her giggles resonating from the other side.
My hand touched the surface of the handle before I jumped, " I win Elsa! I was hiding in my room" and spun to see my sister rushing up to me. I quickly drew away from the door, like a hand to a match, and sighed in relief. I was just overreacting, and return my gaze from Anna to the door for a second, " you ok Elsa?"
I continued to stare at the door a few seconds longer and turned back to my smiling sister, "Anna...do you ever have bad dreams?" She tilted her head curiously, never dropping her innocent smile. She did not need to answer, I could already see it in her expression.
"No, why" I shook away her curiosity for my random question, there was no reason for her to be worried anyway. She was too young to have nightmares.
"It does not matter...either way, it is time for bed," this time I got to drag Anna back to her room, listening patiently as she whined.
"Awww, but why" she stretched out her words as someone who did not know how to speak properly.
With a quick glance behind I calmly replied, "because Anna, if we do not go to bed now, before they catch us up still, we will be in trouble." I heard her scoff and contained myself not to sigh. Sometimes, I felt the urge to sigh, roll my eyes, and scoff like Anna would do, but often times I would have to hold myself back due to the fact that I was still the oldest.
With my words of wisdom, she kept quiet for the rest of the walk back to her room, and when I peeked behind me to see how she was doing I could see the expression of boredom sketched across her face. She would have been scolded if she went around looking like that...or maybe she would not.
I guided her to her front door, before she held tightly onto my hand, "can you tuck me in Elsa? Please" her eyes sparkled with pleas, and I knew I could not say no. I saw nothing wrong with tucking my little sister in bed every once in a while, I just hope I would not get caught for being up so late.
The large window allowed the moon to illuminate Anna's room, making it easy to avoid some of her dolls and clothes that laid scattered amongst the floor. It was a very pretty room, and pretty messy as well, by the looks of everything, but there was one thing that caught my eye. The lighting from the sky made it so easy to spot, that I could not believe that I had not noticed it earlier.
On the end table beside her bed was a silver and pink music box. The next thing I knew I yanked my hand away, causing her to gasp, "why do you have my music box," I kept myself from raising my voice through gritted teeth, staring down at Anna with a fierce expression.
"I-I," her eyes shook, trying to avoid looking away, but the more she tried to keep focus on me the more she looked as if she wanted to cry.
"Why did you take it? That was given to me on my first birthday" I took a step forward and instinctively she took one back and clung her hands to her chest.
"I-I am s-sorry E-elsa. I-I saw the music box in your drawer, a-and thought you wouldn't mind," she bit her lip and tried to avoid from letting her voice crack.
The moment I saw a few tears spill from the side of her eyes my muscles relaxed from the tension, and instantly I felt nothing but guilt.
"No...I am sorry Anna...I should not have snapped at you like that" I strolled over to the table where my box sat, ignoring seeing her wipe away the rest of the tears. The box was light, made of silver, and the floral details were colored in a few different shades of pink. I turned back to my sniffling sister before I presented the box to her. "Here..." I looked away from what I was doing.
"B-but Elsa..." she gasped and rubbed away a few more tears, "I thought-" but I interrupted her.
"It belongs on the table, not in my drawers. You can make better use of it. I am too old for this stuff anyway" my chest felt a bit heavy giving it away, but it was true on all accounts. First, a music box belonged in a place to be seen and heard, not in my drawer hidden away. Second, Anna takes care of gifts better than her own stuff, so I knew it would be safe. Finally, I was just too old for silly possessions.
I watched restlessly as she hesitated on deciding whether or not she should take the box. She looked at me a couple times, as if to see in my face a expression that may hint to her on not taking the box, but I did not give her that satisfaction. She wanted the box? She can have it.
After a moment or two, her hands slid over my own before I was sure that it would not fall, and she smiled, "thank you Elsa.." I raised a hand in defense.
"Do not thank me. Think of it as the first part of your birthday present for tomorrow," she beamed hearing that beautiful sentence come out. She really did not think I would forget her birthday, did she?
"I have another gift tomorrow," she asked holding the box closer to her chest, and trying not to jump up and down in case the box fell. I nodded with a smile, seeing how easy she can go from one emotion to another. It was not a proper thing for a lady to do, but Anna was...special I could say.
"Yes, but you cannot tell anyone about either of your presents ok" I placed a finger up to show that I meant it, only lowering it back down when she nodded happily.
"I promise Elsa. I won't tell a living soul" she carefully, to emphasize her gratefulness, made her way to place the music box back where it originally sat. "When can I get my gift tomorrow?"
"I will not tell until tomorrow, especially if you go to bed right now," she understood well enough and tucked herself in bed. Not once since this morning had she asked me to show off my powers, which made me feel kind of ...glad.
"Goodnight Elsa" she snuggled in her bed, peering out of the covers to make sure I was still there. I turned and headed towards the door looking back with a small smile.
"Goodnight Anna," with that I closed the door behind me. I was left alone in the hallway, and stood staring at her door for a few moments before turning to head back. I was tired and a sense of guilt overcame me. I got upset at poor Anna, and even made her cry. I was a horrible sister to do that. If our parents or the nannies had seen that, they would have been disappointed in me. After all, I did know better.
I wanted to drag myself back to my room, but if someone saw me walking in such a way they would think that I did not take my lessons seriously. So I had to make sure that my walk was still graceful, being tired as I was. I closed and leaned against the door in my room. The room only looked different because my music box was not there, and I still noticed it despite being in a drawer. I guess I was a bit materialistic.
The bed looked very inviting to crawl in, but I was nervous. I was always nervous about going to bed, because that was when my nightmares would plague me every time. They were always the same, but I could never get used to them. How could I? They were indeed frightening in my perspective. I could only hope that one day it would just slowly die into pleasantness. It would be nice to have one good dream.
I peered at my surroundings and then towards the beautiful night sky. I wondered what it was like to stay up all night? Would it be as tiring the whole night through as it was moments before going to sleep? Or would it pass as if we had just woken up with the sun?
Tomorrow was Anna's birthday so I did not want to find out. I wanted to make sure I would wake up, take my daily lessons, and celebrate Anna's birthday. I was also eager to give her my special gift that I made just for her, and this would not melt, because it was not made of ice.
With that much thought, it gave me strength to get up slowly and head for bed. Another reason to go to bed was because I am supposed to know better.
Wow 5 followers in one day! I am happy, but comments, and your thoughts makes me happier! Please read and review! All comments are welcomed! or if you don't want to comment, spread the story! I am sure someone might like these types of stories!