Not Too Late to Apologise

Disney Castle was comfortably warm despite its size. The snow hadn't let up even as the sun sank and the land was plunged into pitch blackness. Kairi stood on the balcony consisting of old palace windows, looking down at the dance studio as the practising ballerinas finished their training for the day. The instructor gathered them in the middle of the room for a special announcement that Kairi had no interest in hearing so she turned and headed downstairs. On her way back to her room, she happened to cross the paths of the ballet students leaving the studio at a junction between halls. They all turned right on their way to the castle entrance but one little black mouse turned left, since she lived at the castle. She spotted Kairi standing right in front of her and waved. Kairi returned it with a smile.

"You're dance is looking amazing," Kairi complimented, clasping her hands in front of her. "You guys didn't even stop or make mistakes this time."

"I know, right?" Monica replied with a grin. "I just hope we can do that good at the real performance."

A few dancers glanced their way and Kairi noticed but this time they didn't giggle. Kairi fiddled with the tiara in her hand.

"Um, you don't mind being seen with me anymore, do you?" Kairi asked.

Monnie blushed. "Uh! Uh, no! I don't really mind you at all. That one time was just… what's that in your hand?"

Kairi smiled brightly, knowing Monnie's intention. The more time she spent at the castle the more she understood the nature of the high society in this world; it wasn't nearly as friendly as the community on the Destiny Islands. "Oh, this?" Kairi held up the tiara, pointing the gem at Monica.

"That's mine!" Monnie exclaimed, reaching for it instinctively but stopping just before she snatched it. "I lost it in the maze a few months ago in autumn."

"That's where I found it," Kairi said, handing the tiara back to its owner. "How did you manage to lose it?"

"There was a garden party as part of the harvest celebrations. Me and a bunch of other kids decided to play this game where we raced to see who could finish the maze first but I tripped and lost my tiara under all the leaves. I didn't even win after that. We tried to send Pluto in to find it but I think he got lost or distracted by a squirrel or something." Monnie put the elegant piece of jewellery on her head where it fit perfectly. It had probably been made especially for her.

Nimble, feathered fingers swiped the tiara from the princess' brow, followed by a dainty giggle. Monnie gasped and turned around, frowning when she caught the culprit standing right behind her with a perfect turn out. She grumbled, "Ernabella…"

"This is quite pretty," the swan girl tittered, spinning the golden headdress around her finger. "But it's a little plain. I would have thought a member of royalty would have a bit more ornamentation on their jewellery. Or is this just your 'everyday tiara'?"

"Give that back!" Monnie demanded, jumping up to grab the tiara but the difference in height made it easy for Ernabella to hold it out of her reach. "That's special! I only wear it at parties."

Ernabella scoffed at that. "You wear this drab old thing at parties? Ha! Hardly sophisticated. I expect more from someone of your standing."

The star ballerina attempted to put the tiara on her own brow but stopped when she realised something. "Golly! Look how big this is! I could wrap it around my neck twice." She slipped the tiara over her head and slid it up and down the length of her slender neck to prove her point. "Only you would need something so wide just to fit it over your crown."

Ernabella and a couple of the straggling ballet students laughed, making Monica's face go beet red. Her shoulders tensed and she looked down. Rustling cloth glided by. Kairi stomped right up to Ernabella, grabbed the tiara and swiftly lifted it over her head, clipping her under the chin of her beak with the golden hoop in the one motion. Ernabella huffed in indignation as others in her class chuckled at the exchange. The swan jumped up to steal it back but Kairi's substantial height advantage made that impossible. She harrumphed and crossed her arms in a huff.

"I suppose you're going to want me to pick on someone my own size?"

"Actually, I was going to say don't pick on people at all," Kairi retorted. "Seems like you're not just a pretty good dancer, you're a pretty good bully too."

"I wasn't bullying, I was just making an observation."

"It wasn't an observation that needed to be made, especially when you were just trying to make Monnie feel bad about it," the older girl reprimanded.

"I can't help it if she only feels bad about hearing the truth."

"You totally can! This tiara looks great on Monnie and it doesn't matter how big it is. I can think of a few disadvantages to having a small head."

Ernabella put a hand over her crown, as if the mere idea that it was possible to be teased for having a diminutive skull was scathing. "I'm sure you could try," she bit back. "Although I don't expect anything from the mouth of an Amazon Princess wannabe to have any wit to it."

Kairi suddenly felt her temper climb at a dramatic rate far too abnormal for her, usually. She clenched her teeth and bit back a burning impulse to actually wrap the tiara twice around Ernabella's neck while the swan girl smugly smirked as she waited for the redhead's response. Kairi's fists clenched up but when a sudden gust blew through her and chilled her heart she stopped. Her fists loosened as she took a few deep breaths to calm herself, wondering why she'd just felt so strongly about something so petty. The gust also troubled her because it meant that another Unversed was on the way but who knew where or when it was going to show up.

"Get fired up! Show that bitchy feather-brain who's boss!" a little voice in her head vindictively commanded yet oddly enough it didn't sound like her voice; it was like it came from somewhere else.

Overcoming the temptation, Kairi just turned on her heel and handed the tiara back to Monica. "Come on, Monnie, we don't have to stand around here and listen to her."

She sauntered down the hall with her head held high, much to Ernabella's chagrin. Monnie smiled and followed suit, catching up with Kairi's head start quickly.

"Thanks for sticking up for me," she said sincerely.

"No problem. I hate seeing people hurting my friends, even if it's just with words," Kairi replied with a grin.

Monnie looked down at the tiara in her hands, feeling more guilty than glad about what Kairi had done for her. "I'm sorry about what I said to you last week."

Kairi blinked, looking down at the little mouse in bemusement before realising that she was alluding to the same thing that they had been talking about only a few minutes before. "Oh, don't worry about little stuff like that. The past is in the past and I've learned from that mistake."

"But you didn't really make a mistake, I was just being all uppity," Monnie argued, looking up at Kairi sadly, "just like Ernabella was just now. And I didn't apologise afterwards."

"Um… well, better late than never," Kairi replied awkwardly. "But honestly I wouldn't care if you never apologised. We're friends now and that's all that really matters to me."

Monnie looked away but couldn't stop the huge smile spreading all over her face. She tried to cover it behind her hand but she still couldn't hide it. "I just felt I needed to say it. I'd feel bad forever knowing that I wasn't even nice enough to apologise to one of my friends. And, um… since you seem to like our dance a lot, do you want to come to our dress rehearsal tomorrow?"

"A dress rehearsal?"

"Yeah, normally, we're not allowed to bring people other than family to dress rehearsals but I'll see if I can get my teacher to make an exception for you. Otherwise you'll have to pay thirty munny for a ticket. But the dress rehearsal is going to be exactly the same as the real thing – or at least it should be – so that's the next best thing."

"Really? That sounds great! I'll get to see all of your costumes as well?"

"And the make-up. We have to do it with all the lights, costumes, props and make-up to make sure it's all perfect for the performance. It'll be the first full ballet that you've seen, right?"

"Are you sure that's alright? You did say you had to make an exception…" but even as she said that Kairi's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"I can work something out, don't sweat it. And all of the other classes will be there too. Usually the way it works is: every class has to do some kind of performance and after all the performances are done, the advanced class has to do a full ballet but since the advanced class is split into groups they rotate the groups each year."

"Oh, so it's like you have different levels of advanced students."

"Yeah, I'm in the lower advanced group. The higher advanced groups are all so much older and they're so good. The only person in my group who gets to go up to the next level this spring is Ernabella…" Monnie looked down at the ground again.

Kairi sensed the tension in her aura and tried to cheer her up. "Hey, just don't think about her. She may be good at ballet but I know that at heart you're a better person anyway."

"It's just not fair that she's so good, though. I moved up into advanced classes first but she's going into the next level ahead of me. I wasn't able to learn how to do all of those more complicated steps and pirouettes, except for a fouette and I can't even do that without travelling," Monnie moaned, throwing her head back in exasperation.

Kairi stared blankly for a moment, unable to understand the particular ballet terms used there. Finally, she came up with something to say: "I don't think it matters that you can't do things like that quickly. Take all the time that you need. Ernabella won't be better than you just because she gets there faster. So don't be jealous."

Monica smiled and glanced at Kairi. The Princess of Heart returned it warmly. The two of them parted ways at Monnie's bedroom door and as Kairi finally made it back to her own bedroom, it dawned on her. It was Monnie's feelings towards Ernabella that turned her into the Duchess of Envy. It was that one piece of the puzzle that once you found where it was meant to be, several others just fell into place easily but there were still several that were missing. Realising exactly what an Unversed was is only one thing. And with a spike of loathing Kairi realised that there was probably only one person who knew the full story.

Sorry, I kind of lied when I said it would be about seven days before I got this up, although I will point out that it wasn't an intentional lie.

Glossary:

Turn out: refers to a ballerina's ability to turn her legs out. Turn out is supposed to start at the hips so that the entire leg is turned to one side.

Fouette: I explained what a fouette is in chapter 8 (if you remember that far back) but here's a little note - fouette is often used a colloquial term for 'fouette en tournant' (see glossary chapter 20), even though it's also a different move.

Travelling: basically, moving. A travelling step is one that takes you from one point to another and in some moves (like fouette en tournant) travelling is an accident that happens when you're not balancing properly or you're not executing the move properly.