---------------Alter-Ego---------------
Chapter 5
And yes, Kel was actually jealous of her. Jealous of what was essentially a manifestation of Kel's non-existent lady-like side. Jealous of someone who didn't actually exist, and when she did, it was only Kel in disguise. In an indirect way, they were actually complimenting Kel. But that was the thing; they weren't. Mia wasn't like Kel at all.
The night before, after Roald had left, Kel had considered what to do about his discovery, but had come up with no solution to the problem. Despite being sore and sleepy Kel had forced herself to scrawl out a few answers to the maths sums that were due in the next day, hopefully slicing down the amount of punishment work she would be given by a small amount. Then she'd fallen into bed, aching all over and praying that she wouldn't feel quite so tired in the morning.
Yet she still felt like she'd been trampled all over by Peachblossom when she woke up.
Kel squinted at her porridge with bleary eyes, sighed at her lack of appetite, and looked up.
Roald was watching her.
Kel flinched away from his gaze and pretended to be listening to the conversation about Mia.
"You were such a hog, Neal," Merric grumbled.
Neal grinned cheerily. "I wasn't hogging her. She was just more interested in me than you lot because I'm older."
"Well, let us young ones have a few minutes with her, at least."
Neal frowned as if reminded of something extremely depressing and said, "In ordinary circumstances I would, but she's leaving on Saturday. There's only today and tomorrow's balls, and then Mia will be gone forever." He stirred his porridge moodily. "It's just my luck that she'd be leaving. The only lady in the room that I like."
"She can't like you back, Neal, or she would've let you walk her to her rooms," Seaver said.
Neal was immediately bristling. "Well, you ask her tonight then, see if she doesn't reject you as well!" Suddenly Seaver didn't look quite as confident.
"I will!" Merric said.
Kel sighed and looked back at her porridge; she supposed she'd have to keep making excuses about being walked to her rooms. Then Cleon turned to her.
"How did your evening go last night?"
Kel smothered a yawn and replied, "Oh, I got loads of sleep. I'm glad I stayed behind."
He looked at her solemnly. "My offer still stands tonight," he said, avoiding making eye contact with Kel for more than a few seconds at a time. "You know, to stay behind with you. I don't mind."
Kel slipped her eyes away from his gaze, not liking having to lie, but she almost immediately met Roald's piercing eyes and dragged hers back to Cleon's again.
"No, it's okay. I wouldn't want you to miss out on any fun on account of me."
Cleon shrugged and turned back to his porridge.
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"And where, pray tell, are your sums, Hollyrose?"
Merric faced Master Ivor courageously. "I didn't do them, sir."
They all knew Master Ivor's reply - he'd gone through this conversation with three others already and each had said the same. "Why not?"
Merric lifted his shoulders and answered, "I forgot. Sir."
"One bell of punishment work on Sunday, Hollyrose. Training Master Wyldon will assign you some after dinner," Master Ivor said. His tone was sceptical, as if he didn't think there'd be enough punishment work to go round. He turned on Kel. "And you, Keladry of Mindelan? Did you also experience temporary memory loss yesterday evening?"
Kel extended a hand silently, not trusting the side of her that had been most influenced by Neal to burst out with some snide remark in reply. Master Ivor took the crumpled, ink-blotted sheet of sums from her hand and surveyed it with a critical eye.
"At least you did the sums, I suppose, but I don't remember specifying that you should leave them in a pigsty over night."
From the corner of her eye, Kel spotted Neal giving their maths teacher an admiring look. Perhaps Master Ivor would become his new idol in the field of sardonic comment creation.
I don't remember Master Ivor ever being this sarcastic, Kel thought, intimidated despite herself.
"How did your work become so messy?"
No point in making up excuses - "I don't know, sir."
He raised his winged eyebrows and said, "Half a bell of punishment work." Then he moved onto Roald. "Immaculate, as always," he announced crisply, placing Roald's sums on top of Kel's. "Very good."
However, his praise didn't extend to anyone else. Kel and Roald had been the only ones to actually do the sums. As Master Ivor returned to the front of the class to put away the two sheets of sums he'd collected Kel heard him mutter, "At this rate, every servant in the palace will be out of a job."
The pages all returned to their seats, breathing a sigh of relief. For the homework collection they had all filed into the classroom and stood at the back as if a squad of archers were going to appear in front of them and shoot them dead. (A medieval shooting squad xD)
Neal slid into his seat beside Kel cheerily. Master Ivor began to drone on about some sort of algebra. Instantly Neal's attention slid away to nothingness and he began whispering to the others. At one point he turned to Kel and asked, "How come your work was such a mess? You had ages last night to do it."
Kel sighed. "I was tired and bored, so I did it as quickly as I could."
Neal didn't appear to notice her impatient and irritated tone. "If you were bored, you should have gone to the ball," he informed her sincerely. "There was this amazing lady, Kel, you should've seen her." He paused, looked around conspicuously, and then leaned in closer. Kel was suddenly reminded of her crush on him. "In fact, I was writing some poetry this morning to her, and since you normally listen to my poems I thought you could maybe tell me if it's okay. Personally I think I've improved rather a lot."
Then he began to recite his poem, so far consisting of seven verses. One verse was repeated several times throughout, and stuck in Kel's head long after the lesson in Neal's lamenting chant, complete with his usual atrocious rhyming skills: Mia, oh Mia, you live so far away/ But I would like to kiss your lips every single day/Nothing would make me happier than being with you forever/if only you would stay in Tortall so we can be together.
Kel scrunched her nose up, not liking most of the emotions besieging her. "You really like her that much?"
An all too familiar lovelorn expression crossed Neal's face. "You wouldn't understand, Kel, if you'd been there you would. She's amazing."
Kel frowned. "Well, I'm glad you had such a wondrous time," she said, barely disguised sarcasm gripping to each word. "My evening was positively stupendous too."
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It was now the last lesson of the day: etiquette, with Master Oakbridge. Somehow the other pages were still discussing Mia, plunging into very in-depth detail about every thing about her they admired. Kel sighed and hoped she wouldn't give them anything new to talk about tomorrow.
Oakbridge was talking in the usual, dull tone employed every lesson that could easily send the most eager of students to sleep. From what Kel could pick up he was talking about the order in which carriages passed out the palace gates. Some people, it seemed, always had priority, whether they were on urgent business or not.
Somehow, Kel couldn't concentrate even half as much as usual because everything that had gone wrong that day seemed to flash back in front of her eyes. Probably the most prominent disaster of the day was Roald, who always seemed to have an eye on her with a thoughtful sheen to his eyes. More than once she had bumped into a wall or post while trying to escape his notice. Then there were her sore feet, which ached from dancing all night. Wyldon had been quick to comment on her fumbling footsteps that morning in training. Chances were her feet would be even sorer the next day after another night of dancing (Kel could hear his insulting bark already). And finally there was the way she was constantly ignored - the way Neal looked right through her as he daydreamed of Mia on his arm, the way she'd finally pluck up the courage to try and change the subject from Mia, only for it to change straight back and completely throw Kel from the conversation.
And yet I'm not going to stop being Mia. For one thing, the boys would be devastated if she just left without telling anyone. Neal would be grieving for weeks. And also Lalasa would be disappointed. She's been working late on dresses for me and it's not like I'll get to wear them anytime soon otherwise. Like she said, I'd grow out of them by then anyway. Kel sighed. No matter how much she hated it, it didn't seem like she really had any choice. At times like this, caring about other peoples' feelings was really inconvenient.
"Gods, I can't wait until tonight," Neal was saying.
Merric nodded eagerly. "Me either."
"Apparently the Tyran prince is attending tonight," Seaver said.
The boys exchanged wary looks.
"He won't, will he?" Merric asked.
Kel listened, unsure of what he meant. The Tyran prince won't what?
"He'd better not," Neal announced aggressively. "If he takes a liking to Mia I'll strangle him."
Oh, Kel thought. They think he might become interested in Mia. And spend ages with her, so Neal and the others can't. But being a prince, he won't be able to hang around with her for long, will he? But... he won't like her anyway. Well, I hope not. Because I don't think I could deal with that. Neal would be ranting about it all tomorrow and probably after, too.
"I just know it," Neal continued. "He'll hog her all evening."
"Speak for yourself," Faleron said.
Deep within the palace, the bell rang.
The boys all suddenly stopped talking and pretended to be taking notes. Oakbridge cast his stern gaze over their row and then told them to pack up. Within minutes they were filing out the classroom. Kel followed impatiently, wanting to hurry off to her room as quickly as possible. Lalasa had warned that the dress she had constructed might require a few adjustments so Kel had better hurry back.
When Kel finally stepped out, most of the pages were long gone. Cleon was dawdling.
And Roald was standing right by the door. Waiting for her.
"A word please, Kel?"
Kel froze. A few metres ahead, Cleon looked over his shoulder at them speculatively, then strolled away at full speed. Once he'd rounded the corner, the hall was empty except for Kel and Roald.
She found herself fidgeting. "I'm kind of in a rush," she replied evasively, hovering in the direction of her rooms.
"Yes, I know," Roald said. There wasn't a trace of emotion on his face. "I know you're Mia."
There was a pause. "I know you know I'm Mia," she said finally.
He smiled wryly. "I was quite surprised," he admitted. She could hear the curiosity in his voice. He wanted to know why she was doing it.
"It wasn't exactly my idea," she explained. "My maid assumed I was going to the balls, but I didn't want to. You and the others - well, not you specifically, you kind of have to because you're the prince, but - you're always fawning over the court ladies. So I didn't want to go because I thought I'd get lonely. Except my maid Lalasa had already made me a dress, and I felt really guilty about it. And then she suggested it. I... I just kind of went along with it."
"That's not like you," Roald remarked.
Kel thought about it for a bit. "No, I don't suppose it is." Again, a silence stretched out. Kel didn't know what to say. "Um... so, you won't tell anyone?"
"Of course not," he said. He appeared to consider saying something more, then decided against it and began to walk away. But then he paused and turned to face her again, sweeping a hand through his hair like Neal did when he was nervous. "The Lioness did a similar thing when she was training to be a Knight, too."
Kel stared at him in disbelief. "Really?"
He nodded. "My father found out." A faint smile crossed his lips as he added, "By accident."
Kel smiled, amused. "It's almost like we're following in their footsteps, isn't it?"
Suddenly Roald's face was blank. Kel, dismayed, wondered if she had done something wrong.
"Well, I'd better go and get ready," she said eventually.
"Yeah," Roald said. "Me too. See you later." He turned and walked away.
Kel watched his back for a while. At the last moment, their conversation had suddenly slowed to a trickle as tension filled the air. Maybe it was what she said? "It's almost like we're following in their footsteps, isn't it?" But... what was wrong with that? It wasn't an insult. Even if it had been offensive Roald would have known she hadn't meant it that way.
Mystified, Kel hurried back to her rooms.
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By the way, I think Roald would probably know about Alanna and Jon having a relationship. Even if he hadn't been told, he's a smart guy, I think he could probably work it out by watching them. (So... "following in their footsteps" suggests...) So yeah. Anyway, the next chapter is going to be pretty mad. Seriously. I'll probably have it posted by next Friday (I hope). I have all weekend to write so it might be done before then.
So, anyway, a few people have asked about the pairing, I'm not sure what it's going to be and I want to keep people guessing so I've decided to leave several characters that could end up with Kel, and then decide which one should end up with her when the time is right. For this reason I can't divulge information on the pairing because I don't know it myself. However pairing votes are appreciated (give me some hints here! I'll count them up and they will affect the end pairing, so please offer your opinion!) and as usual reviews are lovely, thanks to everyone who reviewed last time and put this story on alert and whatnot. See you next week!