The most interesting re-introduction was with my little sister. Éralla came running out to greet my parents as we entered the palace.
"Who was at the gate, Mother?" She asked. Shean and I were intermingled with the guards so as not to attract too much attention. I chose this moment to step out.
"HeyÉra," I said, kneeling down to her level.
"Who're you?" She asked, cocking her head at a quizzical angle. Well, she had been only five when I left, and I'd almost definitely changed, so I was half expecting this reaction. My mom, however, apparently was not.
"Éralla, don't you even recognize your own sister?"
She cocked her head up at Mom. "I thought you said my sister left when I was five?"
Mom nodded. "Well, she did, but she came back today."
"Oh," Éralla said in a bored voice. "So when can we get started planning for the Year's End celebration, Mother? I want a new dress, too," she added in a slightly whiny voice, completely forgetting that her long-lost sister had come back after three years.
I stood up and walked back into the safety of the guards and had a good laugh with Shean over Éra's reaction.
Mom introduced me to my other sibling, Gehvan. He was almost three years old now, and just starting to talk and run, and I could tell already that he was going to be a royal terror when he got a little older, and then he'd probably become the toast of the court once he got old enough to stay late enough at the balls to dance. And also that he'd probably be a royal pain, too, once he got just a little older. Goody. I couldn't wait.
"So, Val, now that you're back, I was hoping to have a welcoming ball," my mother said a few days later. I groaned.
"Mom, remember what happened last time?" I asked incredulously, amazed that she was actually thinking of doing this again.
She sighed. "I know, Val, but you're eighteen now and everyone thinks that you should have been married at least by the time you were sixteen, if not sooner." I stared at her.
"You don't actually agree with that, do you?" I sputtered, unable to believe what was happening.
She smiled sadly and shook her head. "No, your father and I don't agree, but there are diplomatic tensions starting to form with the kingdom of Ferrel and if you married into another kingdom, we'd gain another ally that we need right now."
I stared at her and my jaw dropped to the floor. "You're going to sell me to another kingdom in return for help in a war?" I all but shrieked. Mom put her hands on my shoulders.
"Val, calm down and – " she started, but I didn't let her finish.
"No! I will not let myself be sold like an – an object! I can help in other ways, and you know I can! I'll attend your stupid ball if you want me to, but I refuse to choose a husband!"
With that, I ran to my room and collapsed onto my bed, clutching the sheets and sobbing into them. Why couldn't she understand? She had had a curse to obedient for crying out loud! I knew for a fact that she hadn't liked it and even now she didn't always obey certain commands unless she was asked nicely. So why in the world was she going to make me do something I didn't want to?
Suddenly I heard a knock on the door.
"Go away!" I yelled, raising my head just enough so my voice wouldn't be muffled in the sheets. The intruder obviously didn't care what I thought, because a second later, I heard the knob turn and the door creaked open.
"Val? Are you okay?" It was Shean. I immediately sat up straight as a ramrod, wiping furiously at me tears. I couldn't stand it when people saw me cry, especially Shean, because he was bound to tease me about it.
"Of course I am!" I snapped back, even though it was obvious that I wasn't.
"No, you're not," Shean said, stating the obvious and sitting down on the bed next to me. Why did he always have to be right? "Come on, tell me, what's the matter?" He asked, putting an arm around my shoulders.
"Nothing!" I snapped again, glaring at him, but my nose was tingling, so I knew I was going to start crying again if I spoke any more.
"Val, come on," Shean coaxed, "I'm your best friend. I know when something's up. Come on, tell me or I'll have to sic the dogs on you."
It was supposed to be funny, but I didn't laugh. Instead, I started crying again.
"I've been back for three days," I sobbed, "and already I'm having my life decided for me again!" I buried my face in my hands, but Shean put both arms around me and I clung to him for moral support.
"Hey, it's okay," he said in a soothing voice. "What exactly are they trying to decide for you?"
"My parents are going to throw a 'welcome home' ball or something and they're going to try to make me choose a husband from the young men who come!" I sobbed, getting a bit angry again. "Mom should understand that I don't want to be told what to do!" I griped. I had told Shean the story of Mom's 'gift' once he agreed to come back with me. I felt him nod in understanding as I cried into his shoulder, unable to stop.
"I understand," he whispered, even though I was pretty sure he didn't. Had his parents ever tried to force him to choose a husband? Wait, no, of course they hadn't. Um… had they ever tried to force him to choose a wife? There, that was better.
I finally cried myself out and then we just sat and talked, mainly about how different it was here than in America and stuff like that. By the time we were done talking, it was almost time for dinner, and I had to get changed into a dinner dress (just one more thing I didn't like about coming back).
The next day, my mom announced that my old friends had arrived. It seemed that she had invited them when I got home, and they'd only been able to get here today (and that they'd all brought a male 'chaperones' or something. Go figure). It also turned out that she had arranged for us to go on an 'outing' to the lake. She finally agreed that if my friends' boyfriends (that's what I decided to call them instead of chaperones, since that seemed to be closer to the truth) went with us, we didn't have to have any guards go with us. Whatever. I just wanted to be able to go swimming, so I didn't care who was there, as long as there weren't any guards. They got so annoying when they kept trying to stop me from doing anything fun. So I decided to drag Shean along so I'd at least have someone fun to swim with.
My 'friends' had definitely changed. Before I'd left, they'd been more… sedate, I guess you'd say. Something like that. This time when they saw me, they all but suffocated me, clustering around and squealing about how much I'd changed and how glad they were to see me and all sorts of other piffle. Choke.
When I finally disentangled myself, I made for my room and locked myself in until dinner, where I had to hear all the 'latest' (is three years old talk still called gossip?): who had gotten married and who was the current Prince Charming of the uppers circles while I did my best to keep up an interesting conversation with Shean, who was more than willing to discuss the different aspects of the Force and didn't mind when I would have to turn and nod or something in response to one of the other girls.
He couldn't decide if he agreed completely with Jacen or if some of what Jace said might not be completely correct, so we had a sort of mini Jacen/Anakin argument about the Force and it's merits or whatever (except that since we're not Jedi we can't go into quite the same depth, even if Jaina is my alter ego or whatever and Shean says Jacen is his alter ego, heehee). It was a fun conversation, other than the detached nods and occasional 'uh huh' to the others.
The next day I was out of bed earlier than most of the others in order to get ready for the trip to the lake. The dogs were coming along, so I had to have everything ready for them.
Everyone else finally got up and we ate breakfast, and then set out on horseback. They had made me wear a dress, so I had to ride sidesaddle like the other girls. I could barely even remember how to ride sidesaddle after riding Western and English ever since I'd left Kyrria those three years ago. I was dying to get out of that stupid dress. Everyone had worn 'swimsuits' under their clothes so that we could just take them off when we got to the lake and decided to go swimming. I wasn't wearing one. Well, I was wearing a swimsuit, but it was a real one-piece, not those wading dress things the other girls were wearing. The boys were wearing things that resembled men's gymnastics apparel, except for Shean, who had told me that he had worn his swim trunks underneath his pants (probably a pretty good idea).
When we got to the lake, I started fumbling with my dress. I hate button-backs. Have I mentioned that? I hate them with a vengeance. What ever happened to zippers? Wait, that's a stupid question. They haven't been invented in Kyrria. Stupid Val.
Well, I couldn't seem to get the buttons, but to my relief, Shean came over and helped me. I finally shrugged out of my dress and let it drop to the ground with relief.
"Ah!" I exclaimed, "that's better!" Underneath my dress, I had been wearing a pair of my black sports pants and a sky blue t-shirt. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and saw everyone staring at me (well, except for Shean, who was used to t-shirts and pants, of course).
"What?"
"You – you – you," sputtered one of the girls who had previously termed herself my 'best friend'. Why did they insist on saying that? I just associated with them because it was expected of me. My only real friends had been some of the boys who hadn't enjoyed court functions any more than me, and I wouldn't be able to see them now without my mom trying to pair me up with one.
I rolled my eyes and looked heavenward. "Oh, I'm wearing pants and a t-shirt?" I asked, anticipating what she was going to say. She nodded, looking like she was going to choke.
"And she definitely looks better with a dress on, doesn't she?" Shean stupidly decided to put in his two cents. I whirled on him and saw him giving me his lopsided Solo grin. I knew he was baiting me, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
"Why, you stuck-up, scruffy looking… nerfherder!" I cried in my best imitation-Leia voice
"Who're you callin' scruffy?" Shean replied in kind (in his best Han imitation), still grinning.
"You!" I replied back and tackled him. I knew he was joking about the dress thing, but it was so much fun getting to beat up boys. I sat on him and play-pummeled him, then he finally got a hold on me and we wrestled around until we both ended up on our backs in the grass, laughing. (the dogs had decided to get in on the action and instead of getting in on it, they just ended it)
I sat up and dusted myself off and saw that all the others were staring at us.
"What?" I asked, exasperated with constantly getting stared at like that.
"You were wrestling… with a boy!" The same girl who had commented on my clothes taste squeaked. I looked upwards again and tried not to scream. We used to do that all the time back at home! (and I always won) There wasn't anything wrong with it. Well, I guess that now that we're back in Kyrria, I'll have to get used to this kind of thinking. Oh well.
Shean sat up too and we pushed the dogs off us to stop them from licking our faces off. I looked over and noticed that Shean had a bruise on his cheek.
"Oh! Sorry about your cheek!"
Shean put a hand up to it. "Oh, I didn't even notice it. It doesn't hurt." Too much, I caught his thought. "Well, I guess you won, since I didn't get you at all."
I had a little bruise on my shoulder, but I wasn't about to say that.
"Come on, let's go swimming!" I called, standing up. The other girls helped each other off with their dresses and emerged with what I can only call old-fashioned ladies' bathing suits. If you went to go swim in them, you'd sink.
I pulled off my pants and t-shirt and put them with my dress, which left me in my one-piece. By now everyone else was in their bathing suits. I immediately ran for the tree that hung out over the lake and grabbed onto the rope that someone had tied onto one of the stronger branches. I swung in a long arch out over the lake and let go. I plunged into the water and came up spluttering and calling, "Come on, Shean, the water's great!" (I knew that the others would either be too scared to go out deep or they wouldn't know how to swim)
Shean followed my example and swung on the rope. I had paddled a ways away and he fell in at just about the same spot I had. He too came up spluttering.
"Whoa! Geez, Val, it's freezing!"
I laughed. "It's a lake and it's October. What did you expect?"
"Well, it's like eighty degrees out or something, so I expected something a little warmer!" I rolled my eyes.
"Shean, we went to Lake Meridian enough that you should know well enough by now that just because it's seventy outside, that doesn't mean the water's going to be the same temp." I splashed him. "There, maybe that'll warm you up."
"Hey!" He yelled and splashed back, which started a big water fight that lasted several minutes. It finally ended when Shean pushed me under and kept me down so long I finally had to push myself off of him to get to the surface and breathe.
I choked and gasped and made out for shore. Shean suddenly looked genuinely concerned and followed after me.
"Hey, Val, are you all right?" I ignored him. He grabbed my foot and I kept kicking like I hadn't noticed. His hand wasn't the only thing that'd grabbed me, my temper had too, and when my temper flares, I don't usually give in easily.
"Val, I didn't realize you'd been under that long!" Huh, like I would deign to reply to someone who'd tried to drown me.
"Come on, give it up!" He cried one last time as we got to the shallows and walked out. Well, he walked out and I hopped out on my hands and one foot, on my back like a crab because he still had hold of my foot to keep me from walking away.
He gave my foot a yank, making me collapse onto my back and I glared up on him. He stared back at me and suddenly I began to laugh, thinking how ridiculous I must look, laying in the sand with my hair spread out behind me like a cloud and my right foot being held in the air. Now that I thought about it, it was pretty funny.
Shean stared at me for a moment, then started laughing as well and dropped my foot and collapsed onto the sand, too, still laughing.
"Oh, wow, you looked ridiculous!" He chortled and I didn't contradict him. We lay there and laughed for a few moments, then Shean pulled himself together and stood up, brushing the sand off himself, then offered me his hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet and I brushed off the sand.
"Come on, let's go get the rest of this sand off, then we can go dry ourselves off," I said, walking into the water again just deep enough to go under water and get all the sand off of myself, then walked out. Shean did the same, but had to go farther out, being taller and all. We liked to make things difficult, so we didn't just dunk ourselves in the short water.
I got one of the towel cloths I had brought along and dried myself off, then spread another on the ground and lay down on it to dry off in the weakening sun that was still shining in October and still making the temperature a decent seventy degrees or so.
Shean soon joined me and we started another Star Wars discussion that lasted until we were dried off, at which point we put our clothes back on over our swimsuits and went back to join the others who were also just drying off and redressing. We all remounted and rode back to the palace for another boring diplomatic dinner, after which I escaped back to my room and Shean and I finished up our discussion about Star Wars.
All in all, I decided, a pretty fun day.
A/N: Okay, I now have a pretty decent loose plot, but I still would like input on what you think the characters will do in the next chapter, etc. and how you think the story is developing. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far; you keep me inspired to write!
A/N2: Well, I updated quicker than last time. Go me! Just a quick question: if I found a picture of what I think Val looks like, would anyone want to see it? Just curious. If you would want to see a picture of Val, let me know and I'll see if I can find one and put up it up on a website or something, and I'll post the link in the next chapter. One more thing: do the paragraphs bunch up? If they do, please let me know so I can double space every single paragraph and fix it.(please say they don't bunch, or I'll die, hehe! Just think... twenty-odd chapters I have written up on my laptop that I'll have to double space. Choke and groan)