Chapter 2: Just One of the Princesses
Author's Note: From here and onwards, chapters take place outside of or after episodes from the show, but everything in the show still happens, just offscreen. It's my way of not turning this into a retelling story.
"Giddy-up!" yelled Sofin, flicking a pair of imaginary reins from high in the air.
The purple winged horse he was riding spoke up excitedly. "Ooh, ooh, I actually know this one! It means go forward!" He continued flapping his wings in the air, hovering in one place.
Sofin looked at him, waiting.
"Oh, yeah!" said the pegasus, and he flapped his wings rapidly, sending him and his rider flying forward with a burst of speed. Sofin held on desperately as the winged horse soared through the air, flying across the empty field and towards the nearby woods.
When the two approached the edge of the woods, which marked the end of the training field, Sofin called, "Whoa!"
The horse turned his head to face Sofin, without looking where he was going. "Whoa? What does that one mean again?" He continued moving forwards towards the trees at an alarming pace.
"Stop, Minimus, it means stop!" yelled Sofin, and Minimus whipped his head around just in time to pull up and narrowly avoid hitting the trees.
Slowing to a stop, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew, Sofin, that was a close one. Why do we have to learn all these fancy terms for flying again? Can't you just tell me to go or stop when you want to?"
"Sorry, Minimus," replied Sofin. "But even though you're my flying horse, one day you might have to fly with someone else. And these are the words you'll need to know if you do. Come on, let's try again!"
"Okay, okay," said the purple horse, as he turned to face the empty field again. "Let's do this!"
"Giddy-up!" called Sofin, and this time Minimus shot off immediately, flapping his wings as the two soared through the air. Minimus had been such a shy pegasus when they first met, and he didn't have any confidence in his own flying back then, but ever since Sofin and James had gotten onto the Flying Derby team, narrowly edging out Prince Hugo at the last second, he was becoming more sure of himself by the day. Now, Sofin was helping him train to be able to fly with the other royal flying horses. The king had said that if Minimus learned quickly, he might be able to become a real royal flying horse by the end of fall. Sofin was determined to make that happen.
"Hey, is that James down there?" questioned Minimus, pointing with a hoof.
Sofin squinted at the point and could see a blurry James on the field, waving at the two of them. "I think you're right, Minimus. Come on, let's go down there!"
Minimus glided down towards James in an easy spiral, then landed without a problem. Sofin was about to congratulate him on a job well done, but caught his tongue at the last moment. Right. James didn't know he could talk to animals.
"Hey, Sof," said the older prince warmly.
"Hey James!" responded Sofin. "Why'd you come out here? It's not even a school day."
"Well," he said, "Royal Prep is having its first dazzleball game of the season against Hexley Hall in a few hours. It's Hexley Hall, so we always win, but I wanted to see if you'd come watch with me?"
Sofin climbed off of Minimus so he and James were at the same level. "I'd love to, James!" responded the royal.
"Awesome!" said James excitedly. "Amber's not coming, but it'll be fun watching with you there! The coach leaves in an hour."
"No time to waste, then!" said Sofin, heading towards the castle to get ready for the game.
Dazzleball was an incredibly exciting sport where two teams of players each tried to carry a dazzleball from one side of the field to the other without letting the other team intercept the dazzleball. If a team could get the dazzleball from one side to the other without letting it get stolen, and then they managed to score by throwing or kicking the dazzleball into the goal, that team would get a point. The trick was, the dazzleball would change between shapes at random moments: sometimes it was a round black-and-white ball that was good for kicking, sometimes it was a brown egg-shaped ball that was good for throwing, and sometimes it was a round disk that you could throw as it soared through the air. The sport had been invented a long time ago when a wizard was looking at the sports that kids used to play and realized it would be so much more fun if they were all combined into one.
Sofin loved playing dazzleball with Ruby and Jade back at the village, but he'd never seen a dazzleball game at Royal Prep before. So he was super excited when he sat down next to James in the stadium, packed with Royal Prep students, Hexley Hall students, and other dazzleball fans. The stadium overlooked a huge field where each team of seven players would play the game.
"Wow," said Sofin, "the field is huge! Dunwiddie's field isn't even half this size."
"Yep," said James, "isn't it awesome?" Sofin nodded in response. "Games like these can get really intense sometimes."
"Do you think we're gonna win?" asked Sofin, not really sure how good the teams were.
"Of course!" said James. "The Royal Prep team is awesome! And Hexley Hall is a school for magic, not for sports. It's not even gonna be close. But the real challenge is gonna be winning all the games this season."
Sofin looked out at the huge field. The players still hadn't entered yet, though fewer and fewer new people were joining the audience. "Is the game starting soon?" asked Sofin.
James was about to respond, but he was interrupted by the loud sound of a whistle, coming from way up high through a huge speaker. High above the stadium was a box where one man stood with a microphone connected to speakers all around the stadium. That way, he could talk about each bit of the game as it happened. Sofin had seen boxes like those before in Flying Derby races, but never in dazzleball matches.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said the announcer, "Welcome to the first dazzleball match of the season, between Royal Prep and Hexley Hall. Give it up for our two teams!"
As the two teams entered the field and walked towards the center, people from all around started clapping and hollering. James shouted, "Go Royal Prep! Woohoo!" Sofin could hear a lot of similar shouts from all around. He didn't even notice anyone shouting for Hexley Hall.
"We begin the game with a coin flip to determine who gets the ball first. Heads for Royal Prep, tails for Hexley Hall," said the announcer, his voice still audible above all the noise people were making. The announcer paused for a moment as the players on the field flipped a coin. At Dunwiddie, they usually decided with a game of rock-paper-scissors. "It's heads!" shouted the announcer. "Royal Prep starts with the dazzleball!"
Each team's players spread out, one player from each side moving to defend the goal while the others stayed in the middle or to the sides. Sofin noticed the goalkeeper on Royal Prep's side of the field was the only girl on the team, and Hexley Hall didn't have any girls at all. She was tall and looked really strong.
"Who's that?" asked Sofin to James, pointing at the girl.
"Oh, that's Freya," said James. "Usually only boys play on the professional dazzleball teams, but Freya was such a good goalkeeper that the coach just had to put her on."
"She's that good?" asked Sofin.
"She's that good," responded James.
The announcer spoke up once again. "The game begins in 3… 2… 1… Go!" The players shot off like a rocket, the dazzleball rapidly switching between forms as the players ran up through the field. Two of the players from Royal Prep ran together in a straight line forwards, passing the dazzleball from one to the other whenever a student from Hexley Hall got too close. They were really good at passing, whatever form the dazzleball was in. When they reached the goal, the dazzleball changed into the round disk that was good for throwing. One of the Royal Prep players threw the disk towards one edge of the goal, and the Hexley Hall goalkeeper moved immediately to block that edge. Sofin shook his head, knowing what was about to happen. Just on time, the disk swerved in midair, heading towards the opposite edge of the goal. The Hexley Hall goalkeeper wasn't quite fast enough to block it.
"Royal Prep scores!" boomed the announcer, and the crowd went wild.
As the minutes ticked on, Sofin realized James had been right. The Hexley Hall team was just no match for the Royal Prep team. On the few times that Hexley Hall did get close to the goal, Freya would block the shot without a problem. Meanwhile, the Royal Prep team just kept scoring and scoring. After just half an hour had passed, the score was 7 to 0 in favor of Royal Prep.
"And that's half-time," called the announcer. "Royal Prep leads, 7 points to 0. Unless Hexley Hall has an ace up their sleeve, I'm afraid this match might be a shoe-in for the royals!"
"Half-time?" asked Sofin. "What's that?"
"Dazzleball games are an hour long," replied the prince. "So halfway through, they have a break. It's for the players to rest and recover before the next half of the game. The coaches can also swap out players at half-time."
That made a lot of sense. But as the players vacated the field, a new group of students joined to replace them. They were all girls, and dressed in red, green, and blue, the school colors of Royal Prep. Sofin watched as they entered the field and came to a stop at the back, facing the audience.
"Wait, what are those people there for?" asked Sofin, pointing at the group.
"Oh, that's just the cheerleading team for Royal Prep. They come onto the field during half-time and perform to cheer on the dazzleball players." James looked at the scoreboard. "Not that it matters, since we're totally gonna win."
Sofin watched as the cheerleading team stood in formation. Then, he could hear them begin to sing, and students from all over the audience joined in. Soon, most of Royal Prep, including James, was singing the Royal Prep anthem.
"Huzzah, huzzah, for Royal Prep, for the red and green and blue!
We're all for one, and one for all, at R-P-A you'll hear our royal call!
Huzzah, huzzah, for Royal Prep, yes we're loyal through and through!
We rule on the field, and off it too, that's Royal Prep to a T we're true!
As the crowd sang, the cheerleading team jumped into action. Some members did flips and cartwheels all across the field, others moved into formation and threw each other into the air before catching them. Sofin watched all of it, starstruck by the skill the team was showing. At the end of the song, the members of the cheerleading team formed a pyramid, where girls at the bottom held up higher girls with their hands and shoulders. Then, as the song ended with triumphant trumpets, the team threw the girl at the top way up into the air, who flipped forward once in midair before falling and being caught by her teammates. Sofin was in awe.
"Hey, sweet, the teams are getting back on. You ready?" said James, after the song had ended and the cheerleading squad was entering the field.
Sofin was still shocked by what he had just seen. He couldn't even respond.
"Sof?" asked James, turning to look at his brother. The two made eye contact. Sofin was silent for a moment as the tension built.
"That was awesome!" screamed Sofin, breaking the tension. "James, did you see them? They just flipped—and then—flew in the air—throwing—and then the landing—THAT WAS SO COOL!"
"Woah, woah!" said James. "I didn't think you'd be that excited over cheerleading. It was pretty awesome though. But look, the game's about to start back up again!"
James was right. The game did begin, the announcer marking the end of half-time in a booming voice. But Sofin was barely able to pay attention to the rest of the game. It was just so boring compared to the cheerleading show. Who wanted to watch Royal Prep score every goal while Hexley Hall didn't score a single one? It didn't feel nearly as intense as the first half of the game had felt.
When Sofin and James left the stadium, Royal Prep having won 12 to 0, James was laughing. "We showed them, didn't we, Sof? Professional dazzleball is so cool. Tryouts for the junior team are in two days, right after school. I'm definitely going. You wanna come?"
If Sofin had been asked a few hours ago, he would have said yes without question. But now, there was a different team he had his eye on. "Sorry, James. I sort of want to check out the cheerleading team instead."
"Cheerleading?" asked James. "But that's for girls, not boys."
Sofin shook his head. "If Freya can play on the Dazzleball team, then I can at least try out for the cheerleading team. And come on, imagine doing a flip in the air like that! It's like you're flying."
James sighed. "I dunno, Sof. You sure you want to try out for cheerleading?"
Sofin looked his brother in the eyes. "I've never been more sure."
"Okay," said James. "I think Professor Velova is in charge of the team. You should talk to her if you want to find out when tryouts are."
"Professor Velova?" asked Sofin. "Our royal history teacher?" That was great! Sofin loved learning royal history: it was one of the only subjects where he didn't feel too far behind the other royals. During class, they'd learn about the lives of famous kings and queens, princes and princesses, and then try to understand what they did wrong or right. Sofin had listened to enough princess stories as a kid to know most of the tales already, and Professor Velova was his favorite teacher. She would have the students act out plays where each student pretended to be a character. Sometimes, she even had everyone play games to review after learning about each princess.
"Yep!" said James. "Good luck, though. She's a pretty strict teacher, I dunno if she'll let a boy on the team."
Sofin wasn't worried. Professor Velova's classes were all so much fun! And he thought the professor liked him, too. He'd talk to her, find out when the tryouts were, then get onto the team. What could possibly go wrong?