A/N: Please keep r&r. It makes me really happy!!! Yeah that really warm giddy feeeling you get. It makes you feel sooooo special. Thanks for any of the reviews I've already gotten. (And BTW I realize that I make her sleep a lot... hmmm...)
And note to Impulse_k9: Merri's not the daughter of Char and Ella... I didn't mean to come off that way if it sounded like that. Her parents are totally kind of... nothing particular to Ella Enchanted. Just people to make my plot work.
Chapter Three :: Life Can Change :: The Trip
Merri had cried herself to sleep last night in the clothes had worn all day. Gertrude awoke her and quickly left the room. The first thing she noticed was how early it was. She never got up this early. Then she began noticing more, everything in her room was gone except clothes lain out for the coming day. She fell back into the bed; that proved the nightmare had been real. Tears swelled in her eyes causing her vision to blur; she wiped them away. Everything would end up being okay though. She could work out a plan.
She had just finished dressing when her aunt knocked on the door. "Meredith, wake up and come down, now. We're all waiting on you." She would also just have to live with them calling her Meredith for a little while. Only a little while, she told herself because she would escape them. She would escape them if it killed her to do so.
"I'm awake. I'll come down when I want to." She had to be a little bit defiant or else she would die.
"You'll come down now right now or I'll break down this door, Meredith!" Her aunt said as she kicked the door open.
"That was so lady-like," Merri said sarcastically. "You know the door was unlocked. I told you though, I'll come down when I feel it's time." Her aunt was in a very bad mood and glared at her crossly.
"It's time now, and now I feel obligated to make sure you make it all the way down the hallway and the stairs." Her aunt came over to her and held on to the back of her dress. Merri was small and sleep deprived so she could do nothing against her rather large aunt, who was surprisingly very strong. Her aunt dragged her down the hall while she kicked and swat at her.
"I can walk you know!" Merri exclaimed.
"I know that perfectly well, but I felt there was a lesson that needed to be taught."
"You'll never teach me everything I should know to be as proper a young lady as you would like!" Merri would never grasp the concept of just saying, "I've learned my lesson now. Would you please set me down?" That might not have worked in this particular situation, but it wouldn't aggravate it as her comment had.
"We'll see about that. And I'll set you down before anyone is in view. I wouldn't want to cause you or me embarrassment." She set Merri down. "Now please promise me you won't be so disagreeable on our trip to Frell. You certainly wouldn't want someone important to see you like that." I wouldn't care. It would only embarrass you. Merri was learning. That was another comment kept to herself.
"I'll try with my full potential to be well behaved." Her aunt seemed to accept that even though she wasn't quite sure of Merri's full potential. They left the manor and made their way to the extravagant carriage. Her uncle was already over there.
Her aunt pretended as if Merri were not there and commented to her husband, "We'll have to watch out for this one. She a very rebellious little wench."
Since she was ignored as the comment was said, Merri ignored the comment. Merri's eyes began to water when she was struck with a thought. "What is happening to my manor and all the servants?"
Her uncle was the one to answer this time, "Don't worry about the manor. As for the servants, they are all being relocated."
Relocated? There was nothing she could do to stop it, so no sense getting into more trouble. She was made of tough stuff. She could survive this trip. She would and then figure out a plan later.
"All your luggage has been packed so we best be on," her uncle told her.
"I'll sleep the whole way. Don't wake me up," Merri told them.
"Fine, I'll allow you to sleep, but I may need to wake you so we can discuss a few things," her uncle said, surprisingly agreeing to her request, but giving her something else to think about. Discussions? What type of discussions? I guess that's only normal; I mean they need to tell me about life in Frell. Well actually they probably just want to explain how I should not do certain things or perhaps people will mistake me for a commoner. They would consider that simply dreadful!
Merri entered the carriage and lay down on one of the two cushions benches of the carriage. If anyone else wanted to ride they would have to share the other one. Merri would make it as comfortable for herself as possible. "I'm going to sleep now."
She closed her eyes and was almost asleep when the carriage started. You never truly appreciate the stableness of a real bed until your bed is moving. It took her a while to fall asleep, and she was fortunately a sound sleeper so once she was out, she was out.
A couple of hours later, her uncle woke her up. The sun was high, but to her it seemed like she had just fallen asleep. Her uncle told her, "We should discuss things now. The carriage is approximately 2 hours away from Frell."
"Wake me up in 1 hour and 55 minutes. We'll a nice little brief discussion then," Merri said as she flopped back down on the seat.
"You'll discuss now. Well, you will if you know what's best for you." Her uncle was getting fed up.
"Oh, but I don't know what's best for me." He grabbed her arm and pulled her back up to where she was sitting. His face turned red and his ears looked ready to have smoke come out of them. He shot Merri a look that scared her. "Okay, we can talk now."
"Well, before all this misfortune came up we had planned a huge ball," her aunt started. "That ball is set for tomorrow, and we still intend on having that ball tomorrow. Do you understand what I've told you so far?" Merri nodded. It wasn't that hard to understand. "I don't want you to do anything… well, what's the word… mischievous."
"I understand that. I'll be good only for the sake of all the other people that will be there. What I don't get is why you aren't just locking me in my room and pretending I'm not there at all," Merri told them.
"Believe me, we certainly considered that," her aunt explained. "It's just that we felt that with all the people that will be attending…. Believe me there is going to be a lot of people. Well with all the people attending we thought it would be a good time to find you-"
"-an ideal mate," her husband finished.
"A what?" Merri asked alarmed.
Her aunt had clearly now figured out what she wanted to say, "We believe that with all the men that will be at the ball, it will be a good time to find you a husband."
"A husband?!" Merri screamed. She could've fainted only she wasn't the type of girl who did just that. Apparently they didn't want Merri around their house any longer than she had wanted to be.
"Yes Meredith, a husband," her aunt said, surprised Merri was so shocked.
"I'm too young to marry! I don't know anyone in Frell, and no one knows me. I know we don't like each other-more like hate each other-but you can't just marry me off as soon as I get there!"
"Don't waste your breath, child. We do as we please. And you're not too young to marry. Many marry much younger than you. Trust me, this whole ball isn't just for you. We were just happy we could fit you into it. Originally, we planned to find proper suitors for our daughters. They are about your age," her uncle explained as if it were no big deal. "And you better not try anything I've seen you do or the likes, and that's only in the short time I've known you."
"It'll be okay. I'm sure you'll end up with someone you won't despise. You're a beautiful young lady, and all the guys over there would be happy for you to be their wife. You also come from a wealthy and well-respected family." Wow, Merri had to give them credit. Those last few things her aunt said were compliments. Oh well, it didn't matter; she wouldn't marry anyone.
"It'll be exciting. You know, the prince of Kyrria will be there--not that he would go after a slut who's not close to their value." And the compliments come to an abrupt end. I knew they couldn't last very long. "They are around your and our daughters age. Maybe they'll go for Freya or even Adelaide, Charles. Wouldn't that be just splendid?" She continued droning on and on about how great that would be. They seemed to have forgotten that they were talking to her. Merri didn't mind though. She could do without their endless chatter.
Merri tried to fall asleep once again but all of her new thoughts didn't allow her to. She instead began to work out her plan. After much debate with her own self, she decided on one: she would run away the night of the ball. It would work out perfectly. She was sure no one would really pay that much attention to her, and everyone would be too caught up in their own social events to notice her disappearance. At least she hoped no one would notice her disappearance. It wasn't as if she had never run away either. She ran away all the time at her manor, and she wasn't noticed to be gone for hours. But then again, those times she hadn't been running away very far. She supposed it was better experience than nothing. Plus the hardest part was always sneaking away, not the journey itself.
Now all she would have to do was deal with these people for the remainder of this day and the next. How bad could her cousins be? Maybe they hadn't inherited any of their parents' wits and were just stupid blobs. Merri could think and hope but sometimes that didn't always work. Besides, they were probably just as much trouble. At least they were both girls. They would probably just tell her their wishes to become queen, and how beautiful they believed themselves to be. That was the typical girl of the stupid capital, she supposed. Boys on the other hand tended to not care so much about those things and instead about playing evil tricks to humiliate or just make a person look bad. Maybe Merri hadn't been exposed to so many boys in her lifetime but that was her perception of them.
When Merri stopped thinking, she instantaneously fell asleep. It was odd as she had gotten quite a bit of sleep last night and taken a nap this morning. It was hard work fighting a battle against tears. She didn't like to cry in front of people. She felt it made you simply look too weak. Most people would laugh at this notion, but Merri didn't know that. She had a lot of ideas and the ones she kept to herself would never change because nobody would tell her otherwise.
A/N:I'll try to update next the next chapter in less than a week.
~*~Jane of Q~*~