Seeing Red
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Author's Notes: Wow! Reviews! I didn't expect to see these until Chapter 5! It's people like you that make me want to write a Chapter 2. So, thanks to my loyal readers. You guys rock. …All 3 of you.
Disclaimers: Blah, blah, blah. I don't own anything. Zip.
Replies To Reviews:
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Dargon: ^^; Sorry if I disturbed your mind frame for the rest of the day after reading them. Thanks for the review, though! Have a brownie.
ignorantly grinning: D'oh! *smacks self on the head* I should know that! Sigh. Thankee for helping me out there.
Kurai-Jaugen-Doragon: Hey! You do shameless self-promotion in reviews too? Cool! KINDRED SPIRITS, UNITE! Woot! Relatively long review! It's people like you that make the world keep on spinning. *blink blink* Hey! I KNOW YOU! You're the authoress of the Grand Tournament! I'm dancing around in my underpants for joy! (not literally) About the Koren/Heath pairing though…dunno how the heck I'd work Heath into the storyline. But I'll try, for you. ^^
I am a little insecure a little unconfident
Cause you don't understand I do what I can but sometimes I don't make sense
I say what you never wanna say but I've never had a doubt
It's like no matter what I do I can't convince you for once just to hear me out
So I let go watching you turn your back like you always do
Face away and pretend that I'm not
But I'll be here 'cause you're all that I've got
- (Linkin Park) Meteora … "Faint"
Chapter 2: A Tornado Trapped in a Hurricane Storm
Jose's eye twitched, for the 20-something time that day.
Splat.
There went another 50 Luc.
Another splat, this time landing on, non an inanimate object, but the prized, preciously silky hair of Kierra, the notorious 'Miss Perfect', sitting up in the front row. This produced some giggles.
Did they think him completely senile? He knew his eyes were heavily bagged and often squinting, but he wasn't a blind old bat…
Splat. The man took a deep, shuddering breath to qualm his fury at the unmistakable wet, mushy feeling of a spitball. Remember the old tactics, Jose. He told himself. Act as if you hadn't noticed anything...then…
"A-hah!" Jose cried triumphantly, just as he whirled around.
He was sitting there looking completely, almost eerily, innocent, with big blue eyes, an expressionless face, and hands clasped together neatly on his desk.
She was much more obvious, but still devoid of any hints of mischief-making, whistling a little ditty she made up on the spot, her eyes wandering around the classroom, choosing to focus on anywhere but Jose.
That was it. He was having a migraine. That was the only thing to explain this head splitting, mind numbing, absolute feeling of frustration and driven insanity. He was at his breaking point. There was no…way… in hell, was he going to teach these...these things, any longer.
Positively seething, he slammed his book onto the intricately carved oak desk. A sea of tiny heads bent down over a textbook with tiny words jumped up at the abrupt noise.
Except for those 2, of course.
"Class. Dismissed." He said with his tongue between his teeth, stressing each word as if it was poison.
A sound of joyous relief swept up the tiny room, and the door immediately opened with the kids pushing each other to get to the tiny, cramped door. But them. They were trying to escape from his notice, were they?
"Koren! Angela!" Jose thundered with an ominous voice, but realized that the 2 little gremlin demon children were already long gone. He sighed in resignation and slumped back down into his chair. Goddess save him.
"What a fool!" The tiny princess of Altena flipped her hair with a buoyant air, smiling mightily into the enchanted sun that only shined for them, those fortunate to be living in the castle. Her companion looked up at her with faint annoyance.
"He's the greatest magician living here, second only to your mother."
Angela rolled her eyes. "You're such a pet, Koren. And if he's so great, how come he didn't catch me when I hit that spitball right at his butt?"
Koren tried to stop smiling, but it was futile. "I thought you were aiming at the Van Daan kid."
"Colin? But he's cute!"
His smile immediately turned ugly. "He and some other boys he got together tried to beat me up last week."
Angela looked surprised. "How come I didn't know?"
"You were off with your mother to that Forcena peace treaty thing, remember?" Koren said. "Honestly, Angie, you're so absent minded sometimes."
The said person pouted cutely. "That's not fair! So what happened??"
"He just came up and said 'freak' and pushed me." Koren's scowl, if anything, grew deeper. "Then some more came over and formed a little circle, laughing and taking turns shoving me and calling me a name. They re-used the ones they liked, like 'oddkin', 'demi', 'freaky-odd', 'orphan', and 'bastard'." [1]
"You know, it's weird," remarked Angela, idly twirling a strand of hair around her finger while staring into the sun – which never burned their eyes, as was rumored to happen in those foreign places like Navarre – "I heard Jjiylinn Varas call me that last Tuesday. I asked her what that meant, but she just pointed and laughed."
Koren's face turned stony and murderous. "I'll hit her."
Angela waved her hand vaguely. "No, no. I got the gist that it wasn't a compliment, so I punched her and gave her a bloody nose."
In spite of himself, he laughed. "Angela, princess of Altena? Dirty her hands to fight?"
She sniffily turned up her nose. "I wasn't just going to let her laugh at me, a royal princess! Besides, I went without 2 meals that day as punishment from Mother for it. It was an unladylike thing to do."
"Well, the Queen is very powerful. She must be right." Koren shrugged.
This provoked a 'humph' from Angela. "Mother is powerful, I admit, but not always right." Angela said.
Koren looked taken aback. "But, Angela! How can you say that? She is the most powerful person in all of Altena, of women and men!"
"Power isn't everything, Kor! In any case, I couldn't allow myself, a princess, to be treated like that. So I snuck into the kitchen at night when everyone was asleep."
Angela was the only person in the world who could make Koren return from one of his sanctimonious preachings/tantrums/moody fits of sullenness in .01 seconds flat.
"Oh, that's real princess-like. Wait – last Tuesday? You went without me?"
The purple-haired tiny royal stuck out her tongue. "You kept a secret, so did I!"
"Fair enough."
Undeterred, Angela lightly punched the boy on the arm. "Hey! What was that for?"
"You're supposed to beg me for forgiveness now, dummy!" said Angela as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Koren rolled his eyes. "You're such a prissy brat, Angie."
"And you're such a snobby jerk that's, what more, a boy!" Angela said imperiously. "Take it back!"
Punch.
"Ow! That was uncalled for!" Punch.
"You're bruising my delicate skin!" Punch.
"Says you! Is this how a princess acts?" Punch.
"It is when it's a matter of self-defence!" Punch.
"Self-defense?! What world are you living in?" Punch.
"The kind where I can beat a wimpy boy like you pulp!" Punch.
"Hah! You're a girl, Angela! You can't do squat!" Punch.
"WHAT?!" Tackle.
This went on for a length of time, 2 children yelling and biting (in Angela's case) and screaming and kicking and flailing their arms and all-around generally just having a good ol' time. If her mother could've seen her. Angela would've had a flogging that would bring back tears just remembering it. That fact delighted her, and she tousled and struggled with Jose's adoptive son-of-sorts with merry glee.
"Princess Angela!" A voice said, sounding stunned. The fighting stopped immediately, and the 2 bruised, dirtied, disheveled children that were positively grinning mad with enjoyment froze and stared at where the voice came from. Angela's scrawny frame was saddled on top of Koren's own boniness. Koren's bright smile turned automatically into his stoic, blank stare, and Angela started glowing even more brightly than she had been before.
"Victor!" She squealed, and tackled for the second time that day. Koren's face stiffened, but remained with the same blankness that made villagers talk of the 'dumb, retarded child that Jose took in'. Victor, who was a preteenager with all of the standard attributes – tall, gangly, lanky, and gawky, at least in Koren's opinion, fell down at the small, speeding object that hurtled into his abdomen, and laughed gaily at the girl who was squeezing his waist and cutting off the circulation.
"Princess, what on earth were you doing?" Victor asked, smiling affectionately.
Angela took on her puppy pout that no one in all of Altena could resist. "I was just having some fun, Vicky!"
Victor chuckled. "Your idea of fun is always entertaining for the Great Council and your mother to hear in the middle of an important conference, when she is busy with a heavy debate and hears all of a sudden from a manservant that you got yourself stuck in a tree 50 feet in the air and refuse to come back down."
"That was only once!"
Victor shook his head, smiling. "Well, I came to tell you that the Queen is calling for you in the throne room."
Angela widened her eyes. "Mother? Calling for me? She wants to speak with me?"
The princess didn't wait a second to jump off of Victor and race off with that same arrogant, impatient hop-and-skip that Angela patented. But not before planting a kiss to Victor's cheek, much to Koren's repulsion.
"Oh, Koren." Victor turned his head and faded his genuine smile to a polite, indifferent one. "Sir Joseph wants to see you in his classroom. You can find your way there, right Koren?"
"I'll manage." Koren spat with forced civility. He got up and brushed himself off, and, mustering all the lost dignity he had, marched out of the courtyard. The lanky blonde stood there alone, coolly watching the smaller blonde boy walk away.
"Princess Angela, the Queen awaits!" The guard announced in an impressive voice.
"You know, you don't have to say that every time I come around. I know. That'd be the only reason I'd come here." Angela said, aggravated.
"Princess Angela, the Queen awaits!"
Angela rolled her eyes, exasperated. "What a dork." She muttered as she moved past the 2 stupid, brainless guards through the door. [2]
She rarely went into the throne room, and even when she did, it always seemed new and frightening and – she hated to admit it – scary. It was a large room, much larger than her bedroom, with high ceilings and everything dark and dimly lit because the windows were high up and small. Everything was made of stone, and the air was a constant frigid cold that made shivering impossible to avoid. The floor was the only thing not made of stone – pure marble, gleaming so bright that you could see your own reflection. Presently, she was walking timidly forward with tiny baby steps, and could hear very clearly the echo of her steps. She could not see the Queen, as she was walking through a mini-hall of grand, mauve curtains with a gold trim.
"M-mother?" Angela said with a tiny voice, devoid of any courage and spirit and regality she usually carried with her.
"Come where I can see you, Princess Angela." said the regal, majestic voice that resounded all throughout the room.
Angela walked forward a bit, pushing past the heavy curtains, to see the great Queen of Reason sitting there, her eyes glossy and dark. Many poets in the world had tried to describe Queen Valda's beauty and power – no one could ever really get it right. 'Beautiful and terrible', 'the waves in the sea after an earth-shaking storm', 'Cold, pure, and untouchable, like winter's fresh snow'.
The only way Angela could think of to describe her was 'a person who everybody thinks is great, but is really a downright fraud with many, many flaws'. And it wasn't even that poetic. Her version had some more crude words she had learned from the blacksmith's mouth whenever she and Koren snuck in to steal a hammer or a ring or some tiny object to amuse themselves with.
Angela had to admit, the Queen was very beautiful, though. Graceful and poised, commanding and great, with a natural air of solemnity and strength. And all Angela could think of was, it wasn't fair that Angela couldn't be like her. It wasn't fair that just because Angela tried so hard to, but couldn't, that she was punished for it. All this, she longed to yell at the Queen's face, and to throw a gigantic wad of spitballs at the Queen's lovely face, but that was neither here nor there.
"Jose tells me you have made trouble for yourself, your classmates, and him again." Valda said.
"W-we didn't mean to." Angela said in a tiny voice.
"We? You mean the only other child in this kingdom that cannot perform a drop of a magic. Clearly, the lack of magical essence in your blood makes you idle-minded and dim."
"But-but I do good in my studies!" Angela protested, offended at the bluntness of it all.
"Only because you copy your work from the boy's. Never mind. I blame myself. I should've known nothing good would come out of trying to make you blend in with the other children. The other children, of the common folk, who have more magical ability than a child of direct bloodline to the Royal Family."
Angela fell silent, making a valiant effort not to cry. Her chin trembled.
"From now on, you receive private tutoring with Jose. No more classes where you can further humiliate this palace with your antics."
"Is that all you have to say, Mother?" Angela said with an unnaturally high voice.
Valda surveyed the child for a moment before saying dispassionately, "That is all. You are dismissed."
"I thank you, Queen."
tbc
[1] There's this book I'm reading, it has weird words in it, like 'freaky-odd' and 'demi'. (short for demon child) That's to explain if any of y'all are confused by made-up words. ^^
[2] Heheheh. This is just a play on NPC's stupid, repetitive words. ^.^ You'll see more jokes like these in this story. Beware.
A/N: Soo…what do you think? Come on, you know you wanna review! Clickety clickety click!
Fun Fact: Kierra is based on a girl at my school. And yes, I did throw a spitball at her. It was very satisfying to do, even if I did get a citation. XD
2nd Fun Fact: Pixie sticks are good. Fufufufufufufu.
3rd Fun Fact: There's a kid in my church whose friend is cousins with Joe Hahn of Linkin Park. I wish I had connections like those. -_-