"So Mateo has the scroll in his wizard's workshop for the time being." Elena said to Gabe as they walked toward the entrance of the castle. "He's been experimenting with the orbs to see if there is anything else that can be done with them. How is Naomi's practice coming along?"
"She's a quick learner, I have to give her that." Gabe answered. "She's got great precision throwing, but she wants to work on her power." He shrugged a bit. "I think she's got a good amount down considering the times she works at the docks but I guess it's not enough as far as she's concerned."
Elena laughed. "She'll get it. And I'm very impressed that you're helping her Gabe." She reached over and squeezed his hand softly. "I appreciate that, especially after that assignment you gave her."
Gabe tried to look innocent. "Assignment?" He asked.
Elena shook her head in amusement. "You really thought I didn't know that you and Naomi made a deal that she would keep a closer eye on me so that way you could keep a closer eye on our little sisters?" She asked him as she poked him in the side gently. "Yeah, I knew all about that one Mr. royal guard."
Gabe laughed, feeling a little embarrassed. "Yeah, you got us." He admitted.
"Don't feel bad." Elena said. "I appreciate the thought. I promise." They had reached the doorway out. "So, we'll see you this evening for dinner?" She asked.
"How did I let Christina talk me into this?" Gabe asked rhetorically. "We'll be here at six pm sharp your majesty."
"Gabe, you're off duty right now. And you two are coming here as guests." Elena reminded him. "You can drop the formalities."
Gabe only shrugged, still kind of uncomfortable with that. He understood what she was saying but training was hard to break. "We'll be back later your maj…Elena." He said and with a wave he left the castle and headed toward the village where he lived with his mother, younger brother Javier and younger sister Christina.
He still wasn't entirely sure how he got roped into that one though. Granted he liked Elena, sometimes he thought more than was really okay for a royal guard, but that was why he wasn't sure about it. But Isabel and Christina had become fast friends and he had a big hand in that since it was his idea to introduce the two. He shook his head in amusement at how his own actions lead to this bizarre situation and then muttered, "Ah." When he felt a sting on the back of his neck. He slapped the back of his neck and when he looked at his hand he could see a dead mosquito on his palm that he shook off in annoyance.
He walked in the door and his mother came in from the kitchen and smiled. "Gabe, how was work?" Carmen asked.
"Just fine." Gabe replied. He could hear Javier in the living room doing his homework, he hated to do it and often was very loud about writing out his answers. Gabe knew he wished he was like Isabel and was pretty much home schooled. The difference was that Isabel had forty one years of missed things to catch up on. "Where is Christina?" He asked now.
"In the library." Carmen answered. The library had been the favorite room of their father when he had been alive. He had been a professor before speaking out peacefully against Shuriki and her regimen. As a result he had been killed and Gabe had become the head of the family.
Gabe went to the library door to find it closed. That in itself was rare since she almost never closed the door. He was about to open the door when he swore he heard her crying. That brought him up short because she rarely cried, except when it came to mourning their father, but if that had been the case she would have talked with someone about it. Elena had told him once that she had found both their little sisters crying one day after talking about their fathers, and she had confided in him it had taken all of her strength not to join them. He knocked on the door. "Christina?" He called out.
To his surprise he heard her muffled response of, "Go away Gabe."
He shook the shock off. "We have to leave in a couple of hours to go to dinner at the castle with Elena and Isabel, like you wanted." He reminded her.
Her response was even more shocking. "I don't want to go to dinner with them anymore."
Gabe wondered what happened. He touched the door lightly and then headed back to the living room. "What's going on with Christina? What happened?" He wondered. Carmen simply shrugged. It was clear she had known something was wrong but hadn't known what and hoped her son could get it out of her.
"I'm going to get Princess Isabel." Gabe stated as he started toward the door.
"I wouldn't do that." Javier told his brother. "She's part of the problem."
"What do you mean Javier? Did the girls have a fight?" Carmen asked her youngest son.
"I doubt that one." Gabe said. "Javier, what's going on?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Javier sighed. "Look, I don't know for sure what happened, I've heard it second hand and Christina wouldn't talk to me either." He warned his brother as he sat back on the couch. "Christina has been telling the other kids about her adventures with Princess Elena and her friendship with Princess Isabel."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Carmen asked.
Javier nodded. "Most people think so." He agreed. "But from what I've figured out someone hasn't been happy about that and he's been calling her a liar and saying even if it's true that Isabel doesn't really care about her."
"That's not true at all." Gabe replied easily. "Isabel loves Christina the way that Elena loves Naomi." He frowned a bit. "This guy must have really gotten under her skin. In such a short time too." He added with a shake of his head. It had only been a couple of days since they had returned from their last orb quest.
"How could he have done that?" Carmen wondered as she shot a worried look at the library, where the door was still closed and her daughter lay entombed within. "Your father and I were alive when the Shuriki attacked, the queen and king lost and the princesses disappeared of course, but we never knew them. I hadn't even met the princesses until you brought them here Gabe." She mused.
It fell back to what Gabe had thought needed to be done in the first place. "I'm going to get Princess Isabel and have her talk to Christina." He repeated and then left their house.
He returned to the castle and for the first time ever he was actually hoping to avoid Elena. He knew she would also insist on helping, but while her ways were usually effective they were hardly subtle and that was what he thought was needed. Luckily he found Isabel alone with some of the rocks in the garden.
She waved when she saw him. "Hi Gabe." She said. "Kara is asleep upstairs, she missed my bed. I'm working on a new invention so I came out here to examine some rocks to help me out."
"Rocks?" Gabe questioned for a moment and then shook off the curiosity. "Princess Isabel, I need…"
She thought she knew what Gabe wanted. "Elena is in the throne room with abuelo and Esteban, they have some last minute things to sign to repair the damage that was done by that big demon thing." She shuddered just a little bit at the memory.
"Actually I need you to talk to Christina. Something happened at school but she won't tell me or mom what it was." Gabe told her.
Isabel sat up, dropping the rock in her hands and a few others she had set on her lap. "What? Oh no." She gasped and walked toward Gabe. "Let's go."
Gabe escorted Isabel to his home, where she said hello to Mrs. Nunez and waved to Javier before going to the library where Gabe had told her she had gone to after coming home. She thought about knocking but decided not too after Gabe had told her what happened. She instead just walked in and saw Christina look up from a book by the window.
Christina seemed unsure of what to say, but it was clear she had been crying. "What are you doing here?" She asked her.
Isabel remembered asking her older sister that same question during the invention fair when she had been balancing helping her with that and the visiting emperor from Satu and she had found out about it. She hoped she didn't sound as harsh to her sister as her friend had to her just now. "I heard something happened and I wanted to make sure you were okay."
Christina looked up sharply at Isabel but the look in her eyes made any ice there fade away. "You really do care about me, right?" She asked.
"What? Of course I do." Isabel replied as she came sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder the way that Elena sometimes did to comfort her. "Why would you think that I didn't? What happened the last couple of days Christina?" She asked.
"This guy I go to school with…Sergio…he, he told me that you guys didn't care about anyone really, not even me." Christina answered softly as Isabel took her hand. "That I was foolish for even trying to think I was important enough."
"That's not true at all." Isabel replied huffily, already mad at the guy who would try to belittle her friend. "He's clearly just being a jerk."
Christina sighed. "Yeah, you have no idea." She said. "He keeps pulling at my hair, I keep waiting for him to pull it out. He shoves by me in the building." She lowered the sleeve of her dress, which was slightly black with a bruise. "The last time I hit the wall and got this."
"You need to tell your teacher." Isabel insisted.
Christina just shook her head. "I can't. They won't believe me." She replied. Isabel doubted that was true but was sure her friend was afraid of him.
"Then I'll talk to him myself." Isabel declared.
"Isabel, no." Christina said to her. "Look, don't worry about it. Just knowing that you do care about me makes me feel a whole lot better, and I can figure out the rest myself. Don't worry about it, okay?"
Isabel frowned as she thought a moment. She trusted Christina, she really did. But did she trust that she could handle someone who seemed to have no compunction about tossing her around. Finally she sighed. "Okay, I promise." She relented. "Are you ready for dinner?"
"Sure." Christina said and the two left the library to join Gabe and head toward the castle.
Dinner went off well and it was clear that even Gabe had had a good time. The two bid Elena and Isabel goodnight and the soon they all went to bed as well. But Isabel found she couldn't sleep as she worried for her friend.
"Hey, are you okay Isabel?" Kara asked her now.
"I'm fine, but I'm worried." Isabel answered and then explained what had happened to Kara.
When it was done Kara shook her head. "Oh no, don't leave it alone. Make her go to the teacher, or better yet go to your sister. I know Elena will put that to a stop." She insisted.
"I promised her Kara." Isabel insisted.
Kara shook her head a bit. "Sometimes it's worth breaking a promise, and this is one of those times." She told her. "Christina's safety could depend on that."
Isabel bit her lip in worry. She didn't know what to do. "I'm still a princess of Avalor Kara, I need to try to solve this myself." She stated. "I'm going to go to that school tomorrow to help Christina. And then if that doesn't work I'll talk to Elena."
Kara repressed a sigh. She saw no reason sadly why a kid like Sergio would care what Isabel tried to say to him. She was sure he needed an adult to tell him what he was doing was wrong. She watched as Isabel stood up. "I need to try to get some sleep." She decided. "I'll see you tomorrow Kara."
Now it was the little Chamster's turn to worry about her friends.
Morning rolled around and Isabel had not gotten much sleep. She had time to kill before the afternoon which is when she figured she could find Christina and the boy picking on her, she was close to calling harassing herself. She went down to breakfast and found that in addition to her family Naomi was there as well. That seemed to annoy Esteban a bit though her grandparents didn't seem to mind.
"What are you doing here?" Isabel asked Naomi curiously as she sat down and reached for her juice. "Aren't you usually helping your dad at this time?"
"Slow day at the docks." Naomi replied with a smile at her. "It was like he couldn't get rid of me fast enough, and since Gabe is going to work with me again today I figured I might as well come by for breakfast."
"Well you're always welcome Naomi, you know that." Luisa said. Everyone ignored the slight roll of the eyes from Esteban.
Isabel watched Naomi and Elena as she ate, how the interacted. She saw the same similarities with her and Christina on normal days. She hoped they came back when she put Sergio in his place. She was interrupted from her revere when Elena asked, "Are you okay Isa?"
"Yeah. I just didn't sleep well last night." Isabel answered. It was the truth as long as no one asked her why.
"Is everything okay neita?" Luisa asked her, which is not what Isabel wanted to have to answer.
Esteban answered for her. "I'm sure she's just distracted from that invention she was working on yesterday. She was gathering rocks in the garden for quite a while yesterday." That of course was not what Isabel was distracted by but she appreciated the most likely unintentional diversion from telling the truth.
Breakfast passed and Isabel waited anxiously to sneak out of the castle around noon, trying to figure out what to say. She had noticed that some people seemed uncertain what to make of her and Elena sometimes, two girls out of time, never mind they were princesses and one was the kingdoms rightful heiress.
Soon Isabel snuck out and headed toward the school yard. She didn't even stop to get Kara or to notice her surroundings. She ran as fast as she could and soon found herself at the school. She vaguely remembered it from her time going there, but that was forty one years ago. Armando had started to home school her since they had gotten out of the painting. In truth very little seemed familiar if she thought about it.
She heard kids playing and found she missed that sound, that interaction. Aside from Christina she rarely was around that anymore. Aside from when Sofia, Amber and James were around. She found herself wishing that James was there now.
She found Christina talking with another girl. She could hear her talking about Freezenberg and how cold it was compared to Avalor. She then saw a boy coming up behind her. Isabel assumed this was Sergio, he was big for his age, almost bulky. He reached out and pulled her hair hard, making her let out a noise of pain. "What are you going on about now?" He asked.
"She's talking about Freezenberg." The girl replied. "Just leave her alone already."
"Zip it." He snapped at her. Then he looked to Christina. "They were probably hoping you'd freeze to death." He supplied.
"That's not true at all." Christina said. To Isabel's shock he reached out and slapped her across the face. And of course there were no adults around.
"Hey!" Isabel yelled. "Don't touch my friend."
"Princess Isabel." The other girl gasped in shock. She looked like she thought she should bow or something but that was the last thing Isabel was concerned about.
Sergio didn't look nearly as impressed. He even smirked a bit when Isabel came over to check on Christina. "What was that for?" Isabel demanded to know.
"I'm just trying to get some sense snapped into that thick head of hers." Sergio said nonchalantly.
"You hit her." Isabel retorted. "That isn't right."
"Why do you even care? What are you getting out being friends with her?" Sergio demanded. Isabel could see he didn't believe that they were real friends at all and she didn't know how she could prove otherwise. Then she had the idea that maybe it wouldn't matter what she did.
"Isa, let it go." Christina said softly.
"I won't." Isabel said. She looked around. "Where's a teacher? An adult?" She wondered. "This has to stop now." She had hoped somehow things weren't as bad as they seemed but seeing him hit Christina was beyond what she was willing to leave alone. She turned around to look and then was pushed aside.
She turned just to see that he had tried to slap her and Christina protected her, taking the hit on her already bruised arm. For a moment Isabel feared he would strike her again and then Javier came in from behind him and leapt onto his back. "Leave my little sister alone." He said.
He struggled with Javier for a moment and then grabbed a hold of his face and shoved him off. He then shot out a fist and hit him in the face hard, both girls gasped as they saw blood spurt from his nose and Isabel feared he had broken it.
"You're nothing more than a bully." Isabel said. "I won't let this go on. I'll go all the way to my sister to stop what you're doing."
"And you won't have to go far." They heard. They turned to see Elena, Gabe and Naomi standing there now. Kara was on Naomi's shoulder and Blaze was on Elena's shoulder. Now Sergio seemed unsure, caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar, only with far worse consequences.
"Elena." Isabel gasped and ran to her sister, hugging her around the waist and found herself crying, which embarrassed her just a little bit.
As much as Gabe wanted to tend to his siblings he stepped forward to Sergio to make sure he didn't try to get away. He needn't have worried; Christina had used their arrival to go check on her brother and now Naomi was checking on them, she had found a cloth and put gently around Javier's nose. Gabe felt immense gratitude for Naomi at that moment.
"What are you doing here?" Isabel asked Elena softly as she looked up at her sister, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. The arrival of the crown princess had not gone unnoticed and she was sure now someone who worked at the school would show up.
"Blaze saw you leave the castle. Alone." Elena told her sister gently but pointedly. "She followed you to the school, she was probably concerned. Then whatever happened made her fly back to the castle."
"But I ran into her first." Kara told her. "She seemed frantic and since I knew what you were doing I had a feeling something had gone wrong. I went to Elena and got her. We decided to get Gabe since it involved his sister too and Naomi was with him practicing."
"Kara told me what you were trying to do here Isabel." Elena said to her little sister. "And I think you're very brave to try to help your friend. But you should have come to me." She stroked her sister's hair. "Now, tell me what happened. Why did Blaze freak out?"
Isabel should have hesitated, some part of her was sure of that. But she didn't. "He hit Christina across the face after she said we didn't take her to Freezenberg on the hope she would freeze to death." She told her sister. "And he tried to hit me but Christina protected me. Then Javier tried to stop him from hitting her again and he did that."
"Naomi?" Elena asked her best friend.
"I don't think his nose is broken." Naomi told them both. By that time a couple of the teachers had typically shown up. One was tending Javier while the other took Sergio back inside so that Gabe could tend to his siblings. "Gabe is trying to stop the bleeding now." She looked to Elena now. "This was more than simple bullying Elena. He attacked two kids."
"Three." Elena corrected her with a soft frown. "He tried to Isa, but Christina took the hit."
"As a member of the grand council Elena I have to tell you that attacking a princess is a whole different matter for him." Naomi pointed out seriously. Elena only nodded in agreement and Naomi added what they were both thinking, "He could be a in a lot of big trouble for that alone, let alone attacking Javier and Christina."
Elena saw that they were taking Javier and Christina inside now, she assumed to the nurses office. She went over and placed one hand on Gabe's shoulder and another on his arm. "Gabe, Naomi and I are going to find out who his parents are and have them come down here so we can address this problem before it gets any worse." She said softly.
"How could it get worse?" Gabe asked, and at that moment felt a little dizzy. He assumed it was because of Elena's hands on his arm and shoulder.
"There are ways for it to get worse, trust me." Naomi said and Elena looked at her in confusion. The blonde quickly moved on. "This has to be stopped before it really gets started Gabe."
He nodded his head. "Yeah, you're right. But no." He looked to Elena. "I think I know who is parents are. I'll get them and I'll get my mother as well. You three," He looked at Isabel now. "Go in and be with my sister and brother. Tell them I'll be back as soon as I can."
The three girls headed inside and Isabel told Javier and Christina where Gabe had gone too. With them watching the two younger Nunez children the nurse came over to them. "His nose was not broken but it will likely be very sore for a few days." She reported to them.
"We'll be sure to pass that along to his brother and mother, thank you." Elena replied.
"What are we supposed to do about this?" Naomi asked. "I mean can we really let him attacking Isabel, Javier, and Christina be ignored?"
"That's up to them." Elena told her best friend. "Whatever they decide, we have to support." Elena already suspected that Christina would just want to let it go, she didn't want to let anyone know what was going on in the first place despite how the violence had started to escalate. And she figured that as long as Christina didn't get hurt anymore Isabel would decide to let it go.
About twenty minutes passed before the door opened and Gabe came in with his mother Carmen. She immediately rushed to her younger children as Elena and Naomi went over to Gabe. "His mother is in the office talking with the head master." He told them even as he leaned against the door frame casually, more to stop the room from slightly spinning than anything else but he didn't want to tell the girls that.
"Are they coming here?" Elena asked now.
"Why would they?" Gabe retorted. "Christina sure doesn't need to see that punk any more than she has too."
Elena knew he was right but still had things she wanted to say. "Okay, good point." She said and then left the nurses office to go find the headmaster and the boy's mother. Naomi let out a surprised sound and followed her. Gabe wanted to as well but when he spun around to do so he had to place his hands on the door frame.
Elena marched right into the room, ready to give the boy's mother a piece of her mind. She realized that many people were having a hard time readjusting to life under Shuriki and that scars remained, some that would never heal. She and Isa sure had a couple of them. But none of that excused striking a young girl, trying to strike another regardless of her position, and a young boy. But what she saw brought her up so short that Naomi almost ran into her .
What Naomi saw was a woman a few years older than her own father was. She looked tired of course and very unhappy, presumably because she had just found out what her son was up to, her hair was slightly gray. A man about her age was with him and he seemed unequally happy with what he was doing, not that that made Naomi feel any better.
But that wasn't what Elena saw. "Lorelai?" She whispered in shock. She hadn't entirely thought about it with all that had been going on but she wondered about many of the people she had known. Lorelai and her little sister April had been friends with her and Isabel forty one years ago, they had spent a lot of time together though she wondered if Isabel even remembered that time.
Naomi looked at her in confusion. So did she for a moment, but then something sparked in her eyes. "Crown Princess." She said formally.
"You know her?" Naomi asked Elena.
It was Lorelai that responded. "A long time ago young lady." She said to Naomi.
"It has been a long time." Elena agreed softly. "It's good to see you again. I didn't know you were still…well, here." She frowned, torn now. She looked to where the man, presumably her husband and son were. "Your son…" She didn't know how to finish that.
"His father and I will straighten him out crown princess." Lorelai promised. "I think some of what inspired this was my fault."
"Your fault?" Naomi asked.
She sighed. "After Shuriki attacked, causing your parent's death." She looked to Elena. "And you and Isabel disappeared, things…well you've heard the stories."
"Of course. What happened to April? I'd like to see her again too." Elena said.
A flash of sadness and even anger passed her eyes. "She died crown princess, twenty years ago. Shuriki killed her to exercise her rule over Avalor with twenty other people." She said a bit coldly.
"Oh…" Elena started, clearly catching her off guard. Naomi wanted to comfort her friend but kept still. Elena then tried to reach out a hand to her long lost friend. "I'm so sorry that happened Lorelai."
She took a step back from Elena, and Naomi saws the flash of hurt that crossed her eyes. "It was a long time ago crown princess." She said simply. Naomi found herself fuming a little, if this woman was supposed to be Elena's friend then why was she acting so cold toward her? She understood things had changed but when one of Juan's people forced Elena to age Naomi had sworn she wouldn't turn her back on Elena.
"So how is this your fault?" Naomi questioned a bit coldly herself.
"You see, in the years that Shuriki ruled I had written a journal expressing my thoughts about everything." Lorelai said. "And, as irrational as it might seem in my youth and anger I…I placed a lot of that blame on you and your family crown princess." Elena looked shocked to hear that, none of that had been any of their fault. And Naomi found her ire growing higher. "Of course as I matured I realized how foolish those thoughts were, the blame falls on Shuriki and not any of you and we in fact owe you for what you did to liberate Avalor."
Elena thought she understood now. "Sergio found your journal though, right?" She asked softly.
"Yes, crown princess." Lorelai answered.
"So?" Naomi asked, her own emotions blocking any attempt she would normally make to put two and two together.
"He read the journal, heard Christina talking about her time with Isabel and I and how much she enjoyed it, and he must see her as…I don't know a traitor or something." Elena told her friend softly. "He's been taking what he read from that journal and making what he perceives as injustice to his family and making Christina pay for it."
"That isn't right." Naomi stated.
Lorelai glared at Naomi. "I realize that young lady and we will make sure he learns from that mistake." She promised. "And he will make amends to them for what he has done. He's already got two weeks detention after school and forty hours of community service, and that's not counting whatever his father and I decide needs to be done."
"I…I'll talk to Gabe and Mrs. Nunez." Elena said. "I think Christina just wants to let this go anyway."
"I apologize for the problems I've caused you and your friend's crown princess." Lorelai said and Naomi swore that Elena flinched a little. She turned to go back to her family.
"Wait." Elena said and Lorelai looked to her. "Lorelai, I…I'm so sorry about what happened forty one years ago. There are things that can never be changed, but there are things that can. I'd like to change this now. Maybe…we could get together for lunch or something. We could get the chance to get to know each other again, your son could get to know us and see who we really are."
"I don't think so." Lorelai replied bluntly. "It's been forty one years, it's all in the past. And I think it's best that's where it stays." She curtsied a little, showing proper if not real respect in Naomi's mind. "But I promise this won't happen again. Good afternoon crown princess." With that she turned and went to her family.
Naomi glanced at Elena, who was standing there for a moment in shock. She was about to ask about her friend when Elena shook her head subtly, so subtly that if she hadn't been looking at Elena Naomi would have never known. "Let's go." She said simply.
They walked in and saw Carmen fussing over Javier. Isabel already seemed to have taken the job of fussing over Christina, much to her friend's mock annoyance. Even as she tried to push Isabel away both girls were laughing a little.
"I'm okay Isabel." Christina said as she took her friend's hand. "The bruises will heal, but what you did to show how much you care about me." She smiled and then wrapped her friend in a hug. "That will stay with me forever."
Naomi reached over now and placed her hand on Elena's shoulder. "Remember what I told you a while ago at the palace Elena? You're my best friend and you'll always have me. If some people can't see that, then that's not on you." She squeezed her shoulder softly. "That's her loss Elena."
"Thank you Naomi." Elena said softly as she looked at Christina and Isabel and placed her hand over Naomi's. Watching the girls meant that Naomi couldn't see the faraway and slightly hurt look in her eyes.