I'm sure you're all familiar with this. I only own the plot. The characters belong to TP.
More girls
They went down to the practice courts reserved for pages and watched them for a while. A few of her friends were thinking of taking squires. Kel wasn't sure. What squire would want to serve with her? They were talking about the oldest pages. Neal elbowed her sharply.
"Not going to take a squire, Mindelan?" He asked and pointed at a page. "What about one of those three girls? They're third years now." Kel glanced sharply at him.
"I didn't hear there were girl-pages."
"You never asked." He retorted.
"I'd love to, but what about the other two?"
"I'll take one," Merric offered.
"And I'm sure Owen would take one, if you asked him." Whispered Neal so only Kel could hear him. She snorted.
"What about you, Neal?" she retorted. "Would you take one of them if I asked?"
"Yuki might object." He said without meeting her eyes. Kel stared at him.
"I didn't know you two were that serious." One of the girl-pages dropped her staff and pointed at Kel. The other two girls stared at Kel. She knew them from somewhere. They were the girls who had been in her tent that one time after she jousted with Lord Wyldon on Progress. What were their names? Oh Fianola and Yvenne. I never got the other girl's name.
"I guess they've noticed you, Kel," said Merric casually. "Maybe we should leave. You're interrupting their training." Kel nodded and they went to find their own practice court. Kel soundly thrashed her friends before it was time for lunch. While they were eating, Owen came over to speak with them. He grinned at Kel to the glare of the others before speaking.
"Kel, my lord would like to express his sympathies at the loss of Cleon."
"I thank him for that." Kel replied as custom dictated.
"He would also ask that you join him for dinner tonight at this eating house." Owen added and handed Kel a piece of parchment with an address on it.
"Tell him I would be honored." Kel told Owen. He turned to leave. "Owen," she called. He turned around. "Glad to see you still have your head." He grinned and left. Kel turned around to the stares of her friends.
"'Glad to see you still have your head?'" Neal repeated in a high, false voice. She elbowed him, hard. "That was the worse attempt at flirting I've seen in my many years." Neal teased. Kel punched him this time. Kel bit her bottom lip.
"What's wrong?" asked Seaver.
"I don't have anything to wear." She lamented as her friends laughed.
"I never thought you would worry about clothes." Merric commented.
"Come on, Lady Knight," Neal said grabbing her elbow. "Let's go visit Lalassa and see if she can come up with something for you to wear." They went down to the city to Lalassa's dress shop. Luckily for Kel, Lalassa had the perfect outfit. It was quite cute, actually. She wore dress breeches under a calf-length dress. The boys gave their approval and they went to Raven Armory while Lalassa made various adjustments on Kel's outfit. An hour before she was supposed to meet Lord Wyldon, Kel returned to Lalassa's shop and dressed as Lalassa did her hair. Kel refused to put face-paint on her face. Kel's friends whistled as she came back downstairs. She blushed as Seaver offered her his arm. She took it as they made their way to the eating-house where Kel was meeting her former training master. The boys left her at the door and made her promise to get Owen to walk her home.
"You know how hard it can be to fight in a dress." Neal reminded her as Kel was about to protest. She turned to go into the eating-house.
"Wait a second, Kel." Neal said. "Who has it?" he said turning to the others.
"I thought you had it." Seaver accused.
"I have it." Merric said. They looked at each other. "Who's going to give it to her?"
"One of you had better do something, because I'm going to be late." Kel said, frustrated. Merric pulled something out of his purse and stepped forward.
"We were going to save this for you birthday, but decided to give it to you now. It's from all of us. Neal, Owen, Roald, Shinko, Yuki, Seaver, Faleron, Raoul, myself, and Cleon. He picked it out before he died." Merric handed Kel a box. It contained a pair of emerald drop earrings, a ring, and a necklace to match it. She started crying.
"You guys are the best." She sobbed as Neal began putting the jewelry on her. Seaver handed her his handkerchief. By the time Neal was finished, Kel had stopped crying. "You guys are the best." She said again as they pushed her through the door.
Thanks again to all reviewers. I'm putting up the rest of this fic, so let me know how you like the ending.
Squire Kali-I know about the denial thing from experience. When my grandmother died, I wanted to laugh at the horrible joke my mother was playing on me, except I knew that my mom doesn't do jokes. And Kel blows up at Neal because he can be with the person he loves and she can't. She's jealous of the fact that his one true love is still alive, and hers isn't.