Tuesday 13th February 2007- Anniversary of Katheryn's execution
Both Catalina and Kitty look exhausted as they stumble into the playground. 'Kitty wouldn't stop screaming last night,' Catalina says when she joins us. Kitty is sitting a little way from us on a bench. 'But it's her death day today, so we should do all we can.' We all nod, and Anne and Jane walk over to Kitty and sit beside her. After a couple of moments, the rest of us join them.
'Getting killed sucks, doesn't it?' Anne asks. Kitty only nods.
'But you had a sword. A stranger killed you. That's not what happened with me.'
'I'm sorry, Kitty,' I say and look into her blue eyes.
'Don't apologise, Emma.' Rather than looking thankful for my apology, she looks angry. 'It wasn't your fault; you were following orders.'
'I didn't want to follow them.'
'You had your reasons for doing so.' Kitty stands up. Her curly blonde hair falls down her shoulders as it comes out of her loose bun. She quickly ties it back into a ponytail. 'But me getting eaten wasn't the worst that happened to me. It's what happened before that kept me awake.' Her blue eyes fill with tears. 'If you don't mind, I'd rather talk about something else.'
'Okay.'
'Did you see that trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?' Anna asks.
'It looks so awesome!' Jane says. 'But we've still not seen The Goblet of Fire.'
'It looks like it will take a darker turn from previous films,' Kitty says. 'But that could be a good thing. After Prisoner of Azkaban, the books started getting darker.'
'I still can't believe we have to wait until July!' Catalina moans. 'At least it'll be near the end of school.'
'Yeah, at least it will give us time to watch The Goblet of Fire.' I say. 'We should all go to the cinema together.' We've never done anything like that before, and it will make seeing the film more special.
However, we run into a couple of problems in history.
Henry was sitting in Kitty's seat. The teacher either hadn't noticed or didn't care. But when we look at the board, we realise that there is a new seating plan. 'As some of you hadn't paid attention when you were in the last seating plan, we are switching it up.' The teacher split our group up. Anne, Kitty and Jane are sitting together, but they are sitting at Henry's table.
'Miss, you need to move Henry,' Anne says. 'He bullied us for years.'
'Right,' the teacher says and moves Henry. He's not sitting near any of his friends, so let's hope he's less likely to cause trouble. Sitting next to the cousins is Rocky, a new girl who joined just after Christmas. She has resisted using her birth name, Jane Parker, in favour of Rocky. She has dark hair and warm brown eyes. Anne, Jane and Kitty start talking to her eagerly. Also on their table are three faces from my childhood that I never expected to see again- Bessie Blount, Joan Meutas, and Maggie Lee. Maria isn't there.
'What happened to Maria?' I ask Catalina as we sit down.
'I lost contact with her,' she says. 'But she did move back to England, but I've lost contact since then. I hope we meet her someday, but that could be unlikely.'
'How did you guys get here anyway? If we're the queens, and I travelled in time, then how are you all here?'
'You resurrected Catalina, Anne, Jane, and Kitty, but gave me immortal life,' Anna says. 'Schießen!'
'I can resurrect people? 'How do I do it?'
'I don't know; all you said is that you practised a lot.' It seems like the students who are meant to sit with us haven't arrived.
Jane turns to us. 'We must accept the ladies-in-waiting into our group.'
'I agree,' Catalina says. She gets her phone out.
'Catalina Aragon, put your phone away.' The teacher says.
'We'll do it at break.' Catalina puts her phone away.
In history, we started learning about Elizabethan England. We already learnt about Edward VI and Mary I. During those lessons, both Jane and Catalina struggled. Jane wouldn't stop crying when she learnt that her son died when he was fifteen. Catalina was furious when she learnt that her daughter was nicknamed "Bloody Mary" because of her reign and what she did to so many people—and that children would chant the name "Bloody Mary" to summon a spirit in the mirror. 'My daughter should not be remembered as a name that children chant to see a spirit,' she said when we left history that day. She was simmering with rage, and we had to accompany her to the bathroom so she wouldn't end up hitting someone because they decided to tease Catalina for siding with Mary.
'Ha! My daughter ended up on top!' Anne yells, and the classroom falls silent.
'We already knew that,' Catalina folds her arms. 'But you didn't tease me when we found out that my daughter became known as "Bloody Mary".'
'That's not a reason for teasing someone. Besides, that's a cruel nickname.'
'My son died when he was fifteen!' Jane wails.
'You two think that your children had it tough?' I demand. 'My daughter didn't even get to rule. Ruane was kidnapped when she was five!'
'I didn't even have a child, so I didn't have to worry about whether they did rule or not,' Anna folds her arms. 'But Lizzie was cool. We spent a lot of time together when she visited me at Hever.' Anne jumps up. 'Henry gave me that house when—'
'Shut up, Anna, this isn't about you!' Henry yells. Everyone in the class turns to him.
'Let's see if Henry can fly,' Catalina says.
'No one will see if anyone can fly. Anne Boleyn, sit back—' The teacher stops speaking when we turn to her.
'Is it sinking in yet?' Anne asks.
'I think it is,' Kitty agrees.
'I think she's going to work it out any minute,' Anna adds.
'Should we encourage her?'
'Nah, let her figure it out on her own,' Catalina replies. Jane and I exchange bemused glances before we turn back to the teacher.
Our teacher stares back at us. Her eyes widen, and she runs out of the room.
'I think we broke the teacher,' Anna laughs.
'I thought teachers would guess who we were!' I say. 'I'm surprised that our history teacher didn't catch on until now.'
'Wait...' One of the students say. I turn to find Kelsey Hooper staring at me. She is wearing her normal school uniform, but she's wearing her tie too short and wearing a pink hoodie. 'You're telling us that you are the six wives of Henry VIII?'
'You cannot tell anyone,' Jane adds. 'We've kept it a secret so far.'
'And besides, it's not like anyone will believe you,' Catalina adds. 'We'll deny it because for now, we want to live normal lives.'
'But you are literal queens. Why would you want to live like ordinary people?'
'We never got to be ordinary people,' Anna says. 'We've always been classed as the Six Wives of our stupid husband, and we never got to be anyone else. We all agreed to step out of those roles and find out who we are without our past hanging over us every second. And unless you haven't studied our lives, you'll know that some of us never got to be children.'
'You're all lying.'
'We're not lying.' The teacher comes back, and we all fall silent.
'Class,' she says after a few moments, her voice shaking. 'Open your textbooks and study whatever you want.' She then leaves again, and the class erupts into chatter.
It's only later that day that we hear that our history teacher will be taking extended leave for her health. Mr Blakeman didn't say what caused it but said it's likely that our teacher will not return for the rest of the term. Instead, we will have a substitute teacher.
During break, Henry and his friends started ganging up on Kitty. They tease her about being a slut and for starting her downfall. Even when we try to go to the girls' bathroom, they won't leave us alone. They send one of their friends, Kelsey Hooper, inside to drive us out. If I ever must become friendly with her, I'd probably bite her head off. I'd never want to be friends with one of Henry's lackeys, particularly one who bullies younger children—she even intimidates Anne a little, and she's the most talkative and reckless person in the class.
We all breathe a sigh of relief when the bell rings. We start walking home, and I hear Kitty humming to herself. It's not a tune I recognise, and even Anne comments on it. 'I was thinking about my past, and I thought it could help me if I wrote it as a song.'
'How do you think it will help?' Anna asks. Kitty looks blank. 'I don't want to discourage you, but I'm curious about why you think it'll help.'
'It'll get my side of the story out. Henry's bullying has grown out of control. Besides, history has taken a masculine approach to our stories; and we said that if we want to do more songs, we can. Ex-Wives proved that we could do that; we left it open.'
'Kitty does have a point,' Jane agrees. 'History sees me as the submissive wife. It's time that we told people what really happened.'
'But we shouldn't rush it,' Anne adds. 'We'll want our songs to feel natural to ourselves, and for them to tell the story we want to tell. But if we want to do songs based on different periods of time, that could also work.'
'If we think album wise, if we have Ex-Wives, we'd also want songs related to that, so us telling our story of what happened when we were married to Henry.' Kitty nods, and we begin thinking.
'I've already got part of my song; I could use that for mine,' Catalina says. 'I think I also have a title; No Way.'
'That has sass queen written all over it!' Anna says. 'What was it you had again?'
'I don't know if the first verse will work well, so I might rewrite the entire thing I have so far.'
'Don't do that, Catalina. What you had was great. Sure, it's the first draft and might need some tweaks, but I loved the chorus. You can still use that.'
'Okay, I might tweak some of the choruses, though. I still want a Spanish feel to it, so I'll see how that goes.'
'I can help with that,' Kitty says. 'I've got my guitar, so we can try and get the sort of style you want.'
'I can't ask you to do that, not on the anniversary of your execution.'
'I don't mind.'
We reach Bannerman Road and see the 'For Sale' sign in front of Kitty's old house. Kitty spots it and turns away. 'I guess I'll see you all tomorrow.'
'I'll come in soon,' Catalina tells her. Kitty nods and starts up the path to her new house.
'We better pull out all the stops tomorrow.' We all nod and Catalina heads home. The rest of us say goodbye before walking home.
When I get inside, I find the card I brought for Katheryn. We all agreed to put some money together so Katheryn can buy what she wants. I empty my piggy bank and find a ten-pound note to put in the card. I then look at the card and smile at the cute dog on it. I hope it will brighten Kitty's day tomorrow.
