Chapter 20 - The fallen Crown

The ironically named friendly match between St. Gloriana and Pravda took place once the strong concealed pact between the two schools was very much dead. In the stands sat the beleaguered faces of Orange Pekoe and English Breakfast, watching with two forces preparing to destroy one another in a huge twenty versus twenty slogging match. Both sat away from any other blue-jerseyed St. Gloriana girls. Orange Pekoe was slouched in her seat, glumly resting her head on one hand. Sarah was one seat away, also looking dejected, with a pair of crutches propped up next to her.

"Pekoe," Sarah sighed. "I'm sorry... I was an awful vice commander. I tried to do what was right for St. Gloriana's and I just made things worse," Sarah spoke but just couldn't bear to look at Orange Pekoe's rather unemotional face. She knew she shouldn't even be talking to Orange Pekoe in case Rukuriri found out about such an encounter would unleash her full wrath of fire and fury upon Sarah, most of it being left to her goon Green Gunpowder to do as she'd please. That however was just a risk her future self would have to deal with. Orange Pekoe was too much of a loss not to be included in the A team when needed so her punishment would only be a slap on the wrist is what she thought.

"I'll be honest with you Sarah, as let's be fair no one has been civil to you in a long time. You did fail me, you are correct by that," Orange Pekoe said rather to the point with a tone equal to her expression. "However, to put it bluntly, leadership was never my forte. I was never meant to be the one to lead this school and I failed not just you but the team, so don't blame yourself," she added watching the screen as the Chindits found their targets, with Green Gunpowder at the helm in her Cromwell.

Sarah wallowed in her own self-pity. "I just wanted ... to work hard and achieve something ... to make Mum and James happy you know. And now I'm just going to be thrown into the B team for the rest of my school life and to add injury to insult, I've got a busted knee as well. The doctors are saying it won't ever be the same again. It's never ever going to get better than this, I'll have to have this bloody knee brace on wherever I go." The St. Gloriana fans cheered ecstatically as the Chindits demolished a whole column of Pravda tanks in a matter of seconds and caused the following Pravda force to rout. "Sometimes I think to myself, was it really worth it coming here?"

"Everything has a purpose in life, from the largest of mountains and the smallest grain of sand. And, Miss Alexander, you are no mere grain," came a voice. Sarah looked over to the source of it; one that was not expected here at all. The grey shirt and the small black cross on her collar, with one empty arm sleeve folded and pinned up, her intact arm behind her back.

"Erika?" Sarah said, surprised.

"It's a pleasure to see you here, Miss Itsumi," Orange Pekoe responded in turn.

Erika, a girl known for being extremely stern, remained in her usual form, with not a smile or a wink; there was no indication of any soul inside her as she gave Orange Pekoe a slight nod.

"I have a proposition for you," she said.

The crowd were now ecstatic as St. Gloriana's heavy tanks rolled in with fire support from the Firefly then began to massacre the Pravda tanks that lay in their path.

"Orange Pekoe. I am offering you the option to transfer to Kuromornine. Would you like to accept this offer?" It was blunt and to the point, her Nishizumi style training sticking out like a sore thumb. She moved her hand out from behind her back showing a Kuromornine black, red-piped tanker cap.

"I see…" Orange Pekoe said as she looked at the hat, then back to Erika, then over to the large screens and back again to Erika. "English, what is your opinion of this?"

"Yes, do it. Please, Orange Pekoe, this is your chance to get revenge on Rukuriri; do it for me at least," Sarah pleaded looking at the cap to Pekoe's face and to the cap once again.

Orange Pekoe looked over to Sarah and then to Erika. "As much as I am flattered, I love this school and how loyalty means a lot here. I would have to say no…"

Sarah just slumped a little back into the hard wooden bench. 'What a shortsighted view. No stupid women Orange Pekoe is! Can't she see this?! How bad this place is and how it's ruined us! If she was to get into a relationship with a violent person she'd always stick with them when she should move on. She'd say she could change them, but in the end the outcome is always the same,' Sarah mumbered in her head.

"But times have changed and this isn't the St. Gloriana I knew; the bonds that would have kept me have been broken." Orange Pekoe looked onto the battlefield one last time the light sound of The British Grenadiers humming throughout the crowd... "Yes I'll go."

Erika cracked a light smile passing over the cap to its new owner. Orange Pekoe placed it on her head.

"Ah, a perfect fit," Erika added, pulling a little further down Orange Pekoe's head so it sat more snugly.

The fans all began to celebrate in their stand as St. Gloriana utterly destroyed Pravda with Katyusha's T-34-85 flags both waving in the victorious wind. Erika outstretched her arm and indicated where she wanted Orange Pekoe to head towards. Orange Pekoe stood up from the wooden bench of the stand.

"Erika," Sarah said as they began to move away. Erika stopped and looked towards the lone St. Gloriana student not celebrating. "Look after her and break a leg," she said proudly, however it was visible that her heart was broken.

"Look, I would have loved to have chosen you, but Orange Pekoe was the commander. She knows far more than you'll ever know, which is invaluable. I want to destroy Rukuriri more than you and Orange Pekoe could ever do,"

Sarah laughed a little to herself. "That's a lot of hatred you have then," Sarah said. "You know she did all of this to me. She was the one who broke me, her and Green Gunpowder," she said as her eyes began to dribble. "I don't want to be here anymore, but I have nowhere else to go. I can't go back to Darjeeling. I can't even say I'm sorry to my friends as they hate my guts."

Erika moved close and just patted Sarah's curled hair with her lone hand. Sarah wrapped her arms around Erika's waist and cried.

"Shhhhh, shhhhh, it's fine. It's fine," Erika said with no real empathy and a little disdain etched across her face. Orange Pekoe, who had stopped waiting for Erika, moved back over to Sarah.

"So is this true Orange Pekoe?" Erika asked.

"Yep. On the day of the leadership vote, Green Gunpowder beat Miss English so she couldn't attend, so Rukuriri won by default. Miss English couldn't walk properly for days," Orange Pekoe said as she looked down on the weeping girl. "What makes it worse is that a large number of girls vouched for Green Gunpowder saying she was with them at the time of the incident including all four of her ex crew mates."

"That… That's... They can't get away with something like this," Erika blurted out.

Orange Pekoe shook her head. "Being the commander of the St. Gloriana Sensha-do team gives you some privileges. The better you do the more you get. And with today's performance, Miss English would just be seen as a liar if she was to speak out to tarnish the commander's reputation."

Erika knelt in front of Sarah's face, so both eye lines were perfectly equal. She began to wipe the tears off her face with her thumb just as James did. "Lady Nishizumi may look down on this decision but in the long term, I think it's worth it. You and Orange Pekoe will be coming with me then, I will look after you both. Together we will beat St. Gloriana in the 64th Nationals, and we will win. You have my word." With a small triumphant smirk, her eye's fell back on the ginger.

"I can't keep calling you 'Orange Pekoe' at Kuromorimine," Erika said to Pekoe as they began to walk away from the stands with Sarah following. "What is your real name?"

"Well," Orange Pekoe said, blushing heavily. "It's…"

THE END

A/N: For those who have been reading the story I really hope you have enjoyed it. I and Sharky thought to really do something different and try creating a story with many curveballs as possible as well as write a different sort of GuP story. I do have to apologise for the uploads speeds, normally chapters would have been more common however covid happened and that threw everything out of the window but if another story comes in the future maybe I'll keep to a tighter schedule but we will have to see.

And Finally, I have to say a very heartfelt thank you to Sharky, his ideas and help could not have made this story as good (Or bad) as it was and if you haven't you must have a read of these works and they are truly worth a read.

And so, goodbye for now.