Disclaimer: The characters you recognize from Ella Enchanted are not mine, they all belong to the wonderful lady, Gail Carson Levine who wrote Ella. Other than that, it's all mine, hehe. Sorry its so long, but I had too much fun with this, hehe. Oh, Dive belongs to Steven Curtis Chapman (my favorite singer. squee!).
A/N: Review, PLEASE! Its what keeps me writing. If you read it, but don't review and I never get more than the one review I have now, I might give up and stop writing this.
Chapter Two: New World
I don't usually scream at much of anything, but as I fell, I screamed. It was pitch black, so I couldn't see anything; I couldn't feel my hands touching any walls or even my own dress, even though I knew I was; I couldn't even hear myself screaming!
After what seemed like forever, I suddenly wasn't falling anymore. I hit the ground with a thump and blacked out.
I came around to find a glass of water had just been splashed in my face. I jerked up and smashed foreheads with a boy who had been bending over me. I pushed backwards and up into a sitting position only to almost sit in another girls lap. She had been sitting behind me and I hadn't seen her. I sprang forwards again, jumping up this time to prevent myself from sitting on anyone else. Both of the strangers stood up, too, the boy rubbing his head.
"Who are you?" I asked in a gasp, still panting from the scare.
"Um, Shean and Kaetlin O'Connor," the boy replied, still rubbing his head where we had hit heads. He had the slightest of accents, almost undetectable, but definitely there. I couldn't identify where it was from, though.
"Where are you from? Maith?" I asked.
Shean raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no. Where is it? Kentucky?"
Now it was my turn to be confused. "Where's 'Kan-tuck-he'?" I asked, stumbling over the strange name. I saw the girl covering her mouth to hide her giggles. I knew I probably mispronounced it, but I didn't care. "Is it east of Kyrria?"
Both of them were staring at me now. "Uh, no. Its east of Washington, though, which is where we are."
"'Wash-in-town'?" I asked, stumbling over the name again. Where were all of these strange towns located? I'd never heard of them and I'd thought my geography tutor had taught me everything there was to know about geography in those long, boring lessons.
"No, 'Wash-ing-ton'," Shean said again kindly, pronouncing it carefully. "It's the state we live in."
"State? What's a state?" I asked.
"Its†its" Shean stuttered. Kaetlin took over.
"Um, you know what a kingdom is?"
"Of course I do," I snorted, "I'm a princess."
Shean and Kaetlin exchanged glances and Kaetlin continued. "Well, a state is kinda like that, except that each state is ruled by a governor and each governor answers to the President, which is kind of like a king ruling over a lord, I guess. I think" She added uncertainly.
I nodded, understanding a little better. There was a pause before Shean spoke again.
"So, where are you from?"
"I'm from Kyrria. My name is Princess Avalla Shirra Fealla Charlla, daughter of Queen Ella and King Charmont. But you can just call me Val." They didn't speak. They were both staring at me open-mouthed. Then Kaetlin gave a nervous little giggle.
"You're joking, right?"
"Joking?" I cocked my head, trying to make out what she meant.
"Yeah, you know, like you're just playing around? You don't mean it? You're jesting?!" The last sentence sounded desperate, but I understood then and nodded my head.
"Oh, good, you're joking." I thought I could hear a note of relief in Katelin's voice. I shook my head. "But you can't be serious!"
I couldn't help being surprised. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
Kaetlin looked like she was choking, but Shean just stood there staring at me. Kaetlin pinched herself and then winced. "But that would mean you're from the UK!" She yelped.
"The – the 'UK'? What's that?"
Kaetlin stared at me. "You really are out of it. Shean, shouldn't we take her inside and see what Mum says?" There was silence. "Shean?" She shook his arm and he looked down at her as if she'd just taken him out of a wonderful dream.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess we should." Kaetlin gave him and odd look and then took my hand and pulled me inside the house.
I'd thought we were going to just walk in, but Shean grabbed a handle and slid open a door that a door that I hadn't seen before. "I-is that glass?" I asked.
Shean grinned. "Yeah. Pretty spiffy, huh? Mum makes us keep it so clean that I've seen birds run into it." He stuck out his tongue as if cleaning it was the worst thing in the world.
"Why do you have a glass door?"
"Uh†uh" Shean paused. "You know, I don't know. I never thought about it before. That's a good question. I guess because it looks nice?" He didn't sound sure.
"But why would you buy a glass door when glass is already only used when we absolutely need it for windows or drinking glasses and that sort of thing?"
Shean looked puzzled. "We usually do. But we use it for doors, too. Its not really in that short a supply." I shrugged, not quite understanding, but not wanting a lengthy explanation or anything. Kaetlin dragged me inside and started calling "Mum!".
Soon, a medium sized lady walked in from another room, drying her hands on a cloth. "Oh, who do we have here, Kaet?" She asked in a cheery voice. Kaetlin and Shean pushed me forwards and I could see their mother looking me up and down, probably deciding if I was a good enough person to be with her children.
"This is Avalla, Mum," Shean said. "We're not sure exactly where she came from, someplace called Keera or something -"
I cut him off. "Kyrria. I'm Princess Avalla Shirra Fealla Charlla, daughter of Queen Ella and King Charmont of Kyrria. Pleased to meet you, my lady," I added, curtsying to her. I figured I'd better make a good impression or I'd find myself with no way to get home.
"I'm Sylva," the woman replied with a smile. "My, but don't you have just the best manners I've ever seen?" I gave her the nicest smile I could. "Um, do you have any other clothes, dear?" She asked, looked at my dress and cloak with a pained expression as she looked back and forth between me and Shean, and then glanced at Kaetlin. I shook my head. "Oh, um, Kaety, why don't you go and see if any of your clothes fit her, then?" She asked her daughter, pushing me towards the stairs, Kaetlin following. Kaetlin took my hand and pulled me up the stairs, towards her room, I presumed.
She pulled me into a room and closed the door. She looked at me and started giggling. "Where the heck did you get a dress like that? I don't think Mum liked it, especially with Shean standing right there." She dissolved into giggles, then pulled herself together. "So, lets see what I have" Only then did I really look at what she was wearing. My eyes widened. Kaetlin was wearing pants and a short-sleeved shirt!
She glanced back at me and saw me staring at her. "What?"
"Kaetlin, why aren't you wearing a dress?"
She looked puzzled. "No one ever wears a dress anymore, except for church and dances and stuff. Oh, and you can call me Kaet or Kaety or something."
"Oh," was all I could think of to say.
"So, how's this?" Kaetlin – Kaet, I reminded myself, asked. She held up a pair of short pants made of a medium-heavy material, to judge by the way they hung. They were a green color that on most anything else wouldn't be complimentary, but on the pants, it didn't look too bad. I think it'd be called an 'olive' color. She was also holding a gray shirt with short sleeves that was made of a lighter material than the pants, but not as light as a dancing dress. I just looked at them. "Oh, these are called zip-off shorts, or cargo shorts, because of the pockets at the bottom, here," she said, pointing, "plus the fact that they zip back onto the bottoms of the legs to make them into pants again. And this is a T-shirt. Here, try them on. I can help you with your dress, if you want," she offered.
I thanked her and she helped me unfasten the dress and helped me fasten the shorts, as she called them. I stood in front of a full-length mirror and looked at myself. I looked different, but it seemed to fit my personality. Kaetlin rested her chin in her hand.
"Mm, something's not right." She snapped her fingers. "I know! Your hair."
"What's wrong with it?" I asked, bringing my hand up to my head. Kaetlin laughed.
"Nothing, it just isn't 'you'. Um†oh, I know why. You don't seem like a girly-girl, and the ringlets make you look like that."
"But you have ringlets." I didn't understand. Kaetlin laughed again.
"Well, I'm Irish, so I guess it fits. Besides, I guess I kind of am a girly-girl. You're more of a tomboy. Here" She rummaged around in a little box full of interesting little things and pulled out a little band. She held it up. "Here, I'll pull out all the ringlets and then I'll put it in a high ponytail. Okay?" I nodded a little numbly, not sure what to make of this girl. She was kind, but she wasn't like any of the girls I know in Kyrria. She could take charge if she needed to, and yet she still acted like a girl. I couldn't understand it, but I decided that was just Kaetlin's personality. But she sure wouldn't fit into Kyrria. If she tried to tell anyone what to do, she'd probably get sent to her room to 'think about what she was doing'. I knew so; I'd already done it.
Kaetlin tried not to hurt me as she combed out my curls, but it still did, like always. But soon she had my hair reasonably straight. I have never really thought that the ringlets I had to wear were very complimentary to me and they're a pain, but Mother said they make me look pretty. Like I cared.
Kaetlin took the brush and this time she pulled my hair up high, towards the top of my head. She pulled it up very high and pulled it into the band. It was so high that I could see the top of the ponytail rising above my head a little in the mirror. I went back to stand in front of the full-length mirror and surveyed myself.
I almost couldn't recognize myself. Well, of course I knew it was me, but the clothes and the ponytail made me look different somehow. My eyes looked more alive somehow with my hair pulled back and I looked†well, I'm not sure if I looked older or younger. But either way was good. I looked like I felt like inside now. I wasn't a princess anymore, shrouded in the mist of court life and illusions. I heard Kaetlin thinking.
Wow, she looks even prettier now. Well, she's not a beauty or anything, not like a movie star, but she's pretty in a nice, almost plain way.
If I couldn't see her mouth in the mirror, I would have thought she was speaking aloud. I still hated hearing the thoughts, but it was nice to know that at least someone thought I was even remotely pretty. I think of myself as rather plain and I know I am because I've been told so, so this was the first time anyone had ever said I was pretty. Kaetlin broke into my thoughts.
"Avalla, lets go." I looked up at her.
"Please, call me Val." She smiled and nodded. She has a nice smile. It automatically makes you feel comfortable.
"Oh, hey," she suddenly said, turning to me. "Have you ever seen one of these?" She pointed to a box thingy that I can't exactly describe. I shook my head. "Well, it's a radio. Know what it does?" I shook my head. She grinned. "Then I'll show you."
She walked over to the box and turned a knobby thing. Suddenly music blasted my ears and I jumped so far back that my back hit the wall. I stared at the box in apprehension.
"How did it do that? Do you have tiny minstrels in there?" I asked, gathering up my courage to go over and touch the box. Kaetlin laughed.
"No. We have things called 'bands' who record songs so we can play them over and over again, and we also have things called 'radio stations' that play the songs and have people tell us what song is going to be played next." I smiled and nodded as if I understood, which I didn't. I did start to sway with the music as I listened to the words pouring from the box†no, 'radio' I corrected myself.
I'm diving in, I'm going deep,
In over my head I wanna be,
Caught in the rush, lost in the flow,
In over my head I wanna go.
I could get to like this, I decided. Yes, I really I could.
A/N: Sadly, from now on, this is an alternate reality for this story. Ella Enchanted was never written or made into a movie. If you're sad/mad/whatever about that, please think about it. Avalla would find out about it sooner or later and then I would have to figure out some way that Mrs. Levine could have found out the true events. I know it's a fan fiction and so nothing has to have actually happened (like Mrs. Levine going to Kyrria), but I don't feel like doing it. Yes, it is because I am lazy. wink