Disclaimer: The characters you recognize from Ella Enchanted are not mine, duh; they all belong to the wonderful lady, Gail Carson Levine who wrote Ella. Other than that, it's all mine, hehe.

Chapter Four: New Acquaintances

Later that day, when Shean and Kaetlin's friends arrived, we all sat down in the 'living room'. I couldn't see why it was called that. I mean, you're alive in every single room of a house, right? So why call just one the 'living room'?

Anyways, we all crammed onto a big 'couch' and one of the girls went and popped a little black box into a bigger black box. Suddenly, the big black box lit up and something appeared on it. It looked like little people were inside it! As it appeared, I jumped and accidentally jumped sideways towards Shean.

"Hey, chill, babe. Its just a picture," he whispered. He had put his arm around me when I jumped and now he quickly pulled it off as we both blushed. Suddenly, he groaned as the figures started speaking. I jumped again when they first spoke, but I didn't jump onto Shean this time.

"Oh, Starla, did you have to bring this one?" He complained and then stood up. "Come on, guys," he said in a disgusted voice, "its one of those dumb romances again."

The other three boys stood up and followed Shean, but then the picture suddenly got bigger and the two little figures were suddenly just two faces kissing passionately. All of the other girls sighed happily, but I was so startled by the size change that I jumped straight out of my seat. The other boys were already out of the room, but Shean saw my face as I looked away from the kissing couple.

"Come on, Val. I doubt you'd like this movie anyways."

I followed Shean up to his room where the other three boys were waiting for him. One of them raised an eyebrow at me and another snickered.

"Finally got a girlfriend, huh, Sheanie?" He asked in a singsong, mocking voice. Shean managed to glare at him, though he was blushing furiously.

"Val is a friend of Kaet's who doesn't like romance movies." The other three boys looked at each other for a moment and burst out laughing. Shean and I exchanged glances.

"What's so funny?" Shean finally asked.

One of the boys pulled himself together enough to answer. "A... a girl – a friend of Kaety's at that – doesn't like romance movies?!" They started laughing even harder. I glared at them.

"And what's wrong with that?" I asked in a cold tone, hands on my hips and glaring frostily at them.

"You're a delicate little girl and you don't like romance movies."

That was it. I had had enough of being called 'little' for one day. I knew I was as old as everyone else in the room and if I'd proved I was tough once already today, I could do it again!

Shean must have seen the glint of steel in my eyes because he gave the boy a warning look. "Now you've done it. Never call Val 'little'."

The other boy stopped laughing and sat up on the bed, looking mockingly at me. "Oh yeah? Lets see what you've got, missy."

I grinned nastily. "All right. But remember, you asked for it. Get up and stand right there." I pointed to a place close enough that I could prove my point, but far enough away that I wouldn't accidentally kick him.

He rolled his eyes but followed my instructions. I waited a couple seconds till he looked bored and then suddenly did a one-two kick with one leg after another, followed by a front snap kick and then a roundhouse. I didn't come close to hitting him, but I proved my point well. He was a little shorter than Shean, so it was more impressive being able to kick over his head than just level with his head as I had with Shean.

All of the others stared at me. I knew I now had their attention and now it wouldn't be as hard to gain their respect, too. I looked over to see Shean hiding a grin. Then he seemed to realize the others were all still there and he looked over at them.

I had already been introduced to Kaetlin's friends, Starla and Amanda, but I didn't know Shean's friends because they'd been late. I gave him a little prompt. "Oh, I forgot. Um, guys, this is Val." There were three soft, 'Hi's from the boys. "Val, this is John." He gestured to the boy sitting on the left side of his bed. "And this is David, but you can call him Dave, too." He gestured to the other boy on the bed. "And this is Tourney." He pointed to the boy who had dared me who was still staring at me. I nodded to all three as Shean sat down backwards in a chair and spun it around.

"So, wadda we do, guys?" Tourney asked, shaking himself from his reverie or whatever he had been in.

Shean shrugged. "I dunno. Turn on the radio." Recognizing the word, I was prepared for the blast this time. They all grinned at the words that came from the radio.

Well I got myself a T-shirt that says what I believe

I got letters on my bracelet that serve as my ID

I got the necklace and the key chain

And almost everything a good Christian needs, yeah.

I got the little Bible magnets on my refrigerator door

And a welcome mat to bless you as you walk across my floor

I got a Jesus bumper sticker

And the outline of a fish stuck on my car

And even thought this stuff's all well and good, yeah

I cannot help but ask myself...

Shean joined in on the song with the radio on the second line. He had a pretty good voice! As I listened to him, I saw the other boys strumming or beating the air. I cocked my head at them, wondering what they were doing, but they didn't pay any attention to me. They were so engrossed in the music that they had their eyes closed as they continued their weird motions.

When the song finally ended, they finally saw me again. Shean looked apologetic, but the others were just grinning.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"Well, see, we've got a band and the guys do the guitars and the drums and I do lead vocals. Say, we've been looking for lead female vocals. Can you sing?"

I nodded. There was a pause. "What, do you want me to do it now?"

Shean nodded silently. I took a deep breath and started singing. I couldn't think of a good song, so I sort of made it up as I went.

The warrior maid, the princess bold,

The shieldmaiden am I.

With sword in hand, I know I can

Do all things if I just try.

I'll fight beside the men

With victory in hand.

My first real battle was fought right on

The field of Kervalim.

I swung my sword called Ultamin

Against the evil men.

I parried, cleaved and downed the foe

And fought most valiantly.

But still I see clear in my mind

The men who died with me.

The men who fought

The men who died

Fighting for their country.

But then I saw a sight I had

Never wished to see.

I saw lying upon the field

My father near to me.

I ran to him fast as I could,

But still I was too late.

But before he left, this he said,

In his last words to me.

He told me to be strong

To right the wrong

That would surely come my way.

And though he died

I could not cry

No matter how I tried.

I had to do as he had said;

I stood without a thought.

I hacked and hewed

All through the foe

To the middle of the fray.

I stood there in the midst of swords

The heroes round me fighting.

I called into the skirmish then

To bring my men to me.

"The king has died but his spirit lives

Forever still in me.

Fight for him now

Just as we did

When he was still with thee."

Then rose a cheer from Kyrria

We battled then and won.

And evermore that battle was called

The Battle of the King.

I stopped. I had been getting into the action up until then, swinging Ultamin again, my eyes blazing, but now I couldn't go on, even though the song wasn't exactly how it had happened. I could feel my throat closing up and the smallest of tears stinging my eyes. The boys stared at me, their mouths hanging and their eyes wide.

"Did that really happen?" Shean finally asked in an awed voice. Tourney gave him a disgusted look, breaking out of the trance.

"'Course not, numbskull! She couldn't have. We haven't had a war in America for... oh, why bother with how long, but its been long enough! And besides, she can't be much older than Kaet, so there's no way she could even enroll in the army or anything. And we don't use swords and we haven't for ages." Tourney looked very satisfied with himself and his explanation. Shean didn't look too sure anymore, though.

"No, when we first met Val, she told us she was a princess. I didn't believe her then, but with every hour, I find more things that she's never seen that even if she lived in the UK, she should have seen somewhere, if only in a magazine." Shean turned to me. "Did it really happen, Val?"

"Sort of." I had a hard time thinking back on it. Shean looked sympathetic.

"You mean your father actually died?"

I shook my head. "No. All right, here's the story... I was thirteen and we learned that a neighboring kingdom was going to attack. It wasn't a large force and they were starting with small villages so they could pull in all the men from the villages they'd conquered. I don't know how, but I managed to convince my father that I could at least come along since I could help with bandaging the men up afterwards and caring for the wounds as I'd been taught by my fairy godmother." Dave interrupted me.

"You have a fairy godmother?"

"Well, I thought she was just our cook at the time, but on my fifteenth birthday, she told me she was actually my fairy godmother and that she had been my mother's fairy godmother and my mother's mother–" This time John cut me off.

"But if she told you on your fifteenth birthday, that would make you at least fifteen!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I am fifteen. Now, may I get on with the story?" If I had to keep thinking about it, I was going to cry, and I didn't want to cry in front of the four boys. They all nodded for me to go on. "Well, I was going to help with the wounds and all, but I also secretly brought along my sword and helmet and my friend brought along my armor that I used for practice. When we got there, my friend managed to give me my armor and I had it ready when the call to arms went up. See, I hadn't really cared as much about helping with the healing as I did about getting to fight. My best friend, Nayne had been bragging about going along for weeks and I just had to show him up. When the battle started, we stuck close together, counting each of our kills. I've never really liked killing, but these men would have killed more innocent people than I could think and I knew I was doing my country good by killing them. The battle was nearing the end when I heard an awful scream. What made it worse was that it was familiar, too. I turned to see Nayne sliding to the ground with blood streaming from an awful sword thrust. I tried to use a small healing power my fairy godmother had taught me, but it was too late. I dragged his body back to the tents and..." I couldn't keep going anymore. I was reliving the memory in my mind and it was all too vivid for me. I could feel my nose starting to tingle and then my eyes started to fill. I knew I probably looked stupid, but the memory was as fresh as if it was yesterday.

I managed to get a hold of myself quicker than I had thought I would and looked back up at the boys. "He died and it took a long time for me to get over it. I saw many brave men died that day, some of whom I knew. That wasn't a very good song, I know, but I made it up right then." Shean looked surprised.

"Well, that wasn't bad for a spur-of-the-moment song. Wow, a good voice and able to compose songs! You're in, babe!"

I wasn't crying anymore and I cocked my head at him. "Into what?"

"The band. You want to be the lead female vocals?"

"What do you mean?"

"You'll be the one to sing solos or duets with Shean, Val," Dave offered.

I shrugged and nodded. "Sure. What do I do?"

"Well, right now, we sing our own versions of songs by our favorite Christian singers and bands, but we're working on some of our own. So I'll teach you some songs later. We won't have a performance for quite a while." They all laughed at Shean's last comment.

We all sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while. "So, um, what do we do?" Shean asked for the second time that day. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"Sure!" Shean called. He obviously knew who it was. Kaetlin opened the door and came in, the other girls following her.

"Hey, done watching 'Attack of the Vamps' already?" John said 'Attack of the Vamps' in a weirdly accented voice and made claws with his hands. Kaetlin rolled her eyes.

"Oh, come on, Johnny, you know it wasn't a horror movie. I know you're scared of kissing, but that doesn't mean it's a horror movie." Kaetlin puckered her lips and closed her eyes as if she was going to kiss him and John scuttled away in mock terror, holding his hands up in front of his face and crying, "No, not that!"

Shean caught John as he ran past him and motioned the other boys towards him. He whispered something and they all glanced over at us girls and grinned wickedly. We exchanged glances just before the boys broke formation and came at us with their arms outstretched, calling, "Come here, darling, I want to kiss you!" in fakely accented voices.

The other three girls shrieked and ran downstairs and I followed. I figured it was probably just a strange game they played. I decided I was right when the girls started laughing and dashed outside. They ran up a wooden ladder into a little tree house and I followed. The boys did too, but when they reached the step up, Kaetlin called out, "Oh, I don't think you want to come up here, boys. It's got 'girl cooties'!"

I saw Shean glance down at the other boys, but I couldn't see his face or what he said. Then suddenly he clambered up with a shout of "Get 'em, men!" They all dashed up and started tickling the other three girls. I just sat and watched. I think they were too scared of me kicking them to try to tickle me, and besides, they knew the other three girls and probably already knew that they were more fun than I'd probably be because they shrieked.

I sat and waited, trying not to laugh. Starla finally kicked and caught Tourney's arm. "Ooh, not another Val!" He groaned. I laughed and he grinned.

"All right, all right men, lets bring the prisoners back inside," Shean said in a militant voice. "Val, Dave, you go down and take the prisoners when they come down. Tourney, John and I will flank them." We all grinned and David and I scrambled down the ladder to wait for the other girls.

Soon they came down and we made sure they stayed put. I found that I was having fun playing along. No one was getting hurt and everyone else seemed to be having fun too. Shean and the other two boys quickly scrambled after Amanda, who had been the last girl to come down and we marched them inside.

Once we were inside, Kaet suggested playing a 'board game'. I wasn't sure what it was, but after they showed me how to play, I quickly got the hang of it. The game was called Monopoly and it took forever to finish, but Shean said not as long as if we played with all eight of us. Instead, we did four teams of two, one boy and one girl on each team.

Kaetlin and Dave won the game, but Shean and I came in second. When we were finally done, we all had a bite to eat and then the others went home.

We all collapsed onto the couch in the living room (I still don't understand why it's called that) as Sylva poked her head around the door of another room.

"Are they gone?" She asked in a cautious voice and her children laughed.

"Yeah, Mum, it's safe," laughed Shean. It appeared to be an ongoing joke between mother and children.

Sylva stepped out of the room. "Oh good." We all looked at her expectantly. She had been closeted in the room with Shean and Kaetlin's father ever since the other kids had arrived.

"What?" She asked, looking confused.

Kaetlin sighed. "Mum, you know what..." There was a pause and Kaetlin finally burst out, "Can Val stay?"

Sylva looked sad and I started to be afraid of the outcome. "Well, I discussed it with your father and..." She trailed off and stared into the distance.

A/N: Do you think you know what happens next? Tell me! Since I write this freehand (no outline), I don't know what's going to happen next either. So if you think that so-and-so's going to do this, or this-and-such is going to happen, post it in your review or email me. There's a good enough chance I might put it into the story or rewrite a chapter to include it! So let me know what you think and help write a story!