Author's Notes:

Thanks for continuing to the second chapter! Same rating, and whatnot as the first. :D

Names in this Section:

England- Alice Kirkland America- Amelia Jones

France- Francine Bonnefoy Prussia- Maria Beilschmidt

Liechtenstein- Lili Zwingli Switzerland- Vanessa Zwingli

N. Italy- Feliciana Vargas Germany- Louise Beilschmidt

Austria- Rosa Edelstein Hungary- Elizaveta Hédeváry

Hong Kong- Wang Fang Taiwan- Sun Mei

Seychelles- Michelle Morphey Denmark- Maren Køhler

The Princess and Her Knight

Chapter 2: A New... Hope?

Alice Kirkland, for all of her life that she could remember, had not liked her older sisters. They had constantly oppressed and outright harassed the British girl. However, just being related to them was bad enough. For some reason, they all obtained genes that made them become geniuses and excel in life. The Kirkland parents were incredibly pleased. That was, until Alice was born about a decade after the youngest one.

Throughout the entirety of her school career, Alice was constantly being compared to them, and always seemed to come up short. Alice's first instinct was to rebel, which summed up her middle school life. First, she had cut her hair short and messy, taken up the electric guitar, and proceeded to wear mainly black. The looks on her parents' faces were priceless. Unfortunately, however, this did not dissuade them from treating Alice differently. So, Alice did the one thing she could think of. She moved to America for half a year.

It had been a totally out-of-body experience for Alice. The culture was just so… odd. It was as if they were trying to take proper British life and go 360 degrees the opposite direction/ The family she had stayed with was even odder. (Then again, she had found the listing for an exchange student online, so what do you expect?) However, this trip abruptly came to an end after a certain life-changing incident (which Alice tended to not want to dwell on too often), she gruntingly came back to Great Britain, grew her hair out, and began wearing light blue again.

Around this time, which was near the end of her ninth grade year, Alice really got into her one outlet for her troubles- writing. She then won some awards, and suddenly found herself accepted to the world's most prestigious school- Saint Mary's. Her parents looked pleased for once when she had told them the news. So, Alice set her mind straight then- she would do whatever it took to become the top student of the school, and finally please them.

It was due to the events in her past that Alice knew she absolutely had to become the school's Princess. She was feeling oddly confident about something for once. The other competitors weren't too much of a threat (except for a small number of them), and Alice really was talented. Thus, she was going to win.

However, there was one small problem. Alice had no idea whom her partner was going to be.

Sure, she had received a few applicants from some sports girls, but they weren't anyone Alice knew, or wanted to trust with the most important task. From the applications, it even seemed as though the students had simply been applying to be involved with the competition, not as if they actually cared for Alice or anything. The finding of a partner was the first task, to an extent. Without finding a partner within the time limit, the candidate would be thrown out of the competition.

The situation would have probably been all right if the other competitors had been having trouble too. However, to Alice's dismay, this seemed to not be the case at all. Francine had announced her partner the very next school day. She had picked Maria, probably due to Maria's endless whining/claims of awesomeness. Seriously, though? That wine bitch had gotten a partner before Alice?

That wasn't even the worst of it, though. That Tuesday, two more candidates had announced partners- Lili Zwingli would be with her adopted older sister, Vanessa Zwingli of the biathlon program (obviously), and Feliciana Vargas would be working with her German friend from the rugby program, Louise Beilschmidt (also known as Maria's younger sister).

It was the Wednesday after the contest had been announced, and one more contestant had announced their partner on the morning announcements- Rosa Edelstein would be working with her Hungarian friend, Elizaveta Hédeváry, of the fencing program. No doubt at least one more would be announced in the afternoon.

Alice felt exasperated, and wondered instead of trying to study all the time, if she should have been more social. She didn't have many close people to choose from, and they were all either competitors themselves, or simply in the art program. There was one person she could ask, she supposed, but… No, there was definitely no way.

The blonde Brit sighed and walked over to her school mailbox during the lunch break, wondering if there was to be another application. She supposed she would have to go with one of the girls after all. Alice had to stay in the competition above everything else.

However, the letter in her hand seemed to tell her differently. It was a new application! Alice nearly cried out with relief. Maybe now she could find a proper ally.

These sentiments were shattered when she opened the letter, and saw the name of the applicant. No, that person couldn't, wouldn't…

There were other people Alice was able to ask. She would have to.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if the first person she decided to ask was a definite rejection. Alice had turned to Fang Wang, a Chinese girl in the cricket program. The Brit knew Fang in that they were distant cousins. One of Alice's third aunts, or the like, had married Fang's father, a prominent businessman from Hong Kong. For the majority of Fang's life, she had lived in England, in a house not too far from Alice's own, as so she had spent much of her younger time with Alice and her family, often amusing (and scaring) Alice with her intricate knowledge of fireworks. However, for reasons unbeknownst to Alice, Fang had randomly decided to move to Hong Kong on her own in the summer after sixth grade. They had first kept in contact often, but, especially after Alice's rebellion, their relationship had dwindled to much less than it had been previously.

Alice, at first, had been relatively happy to see Fang hadn't changed much at all. Yes, obviously, she was taller, and her dark brown hair had grown out past the girl's shoulders, kept in a messy low ponytail. However, her personality had relatively remained the same, with that same still and quiet, yet gentle demeanor she had always had.

So, it had come as a shock for Fang to almost immediantly turn down the answer, to say the least.

"W-W-W-Why?" Alice had stuttered. "I go to all the trouble to ask you, and yet you turn me down? Why?"

Fang blinked, and said, "…I'm working with someone else."

"Eh?" Alice asked, her eyes widening. "Who is it?"

"Anyways," Fang started, changing the subject. "Why don't you just ask A-?"

"Don't say that name!" Alice interjected. Her face heated up to a fine deep red just thinking of what could possibly happen. "Fine, if you're not working with me, I'll just go!" She stubbornly stomped off out of the room and down the hallway. Fang sighed, expecting that kind of reaction.

Several excruciating hours later, Alice determined her situation was hopeless. The Brit had asked almost everyone she knew, from her family's friend Michelle Morphey; to the Danish she used to be close to, Maren Køhler. It seemed as if Alice had no options left. She was so stressed out that she barely heard the afternoon announcements in her last block, Pre-Calculus. The blonde only heard the announcing of yet another pair in the competition- Mei Sun, the Taiwanese girl in the painting program was to be working with Fang Wang.

'Fang's such a git,' Alice thought solemnly. 'Not working for me just because of that Mei Sun girl. A total git…'

The bell then dinged, singling the end of the school day. Alice sighed, and rose from her seat, far too tired to even consider going to the library that afternoon. However, she walked so slowly, the school emptied around her anyways. Alice let out a sigh once more, and decided she was just going to have to get one of the giggling girls to do it. With a little more determination than before, Alice walked faster. Alice was so caught up in her scheming that she almost didn't hear it.

"Alice."

It was a voice all too familiar to Alice's ears. Beautiful and painful memories sprung up like flowers in springtime. Alice completely froze, not daring to move away or closer to the sound.

"Alice," Amelia F. Jones called again.

Alice couldn't believe that Amelia would even dare to call Alice out like this. She gulped, pulling in her true feelings, and called back to the girl, "W-What do you want?"

"Alice, look at me," Amelia pleaded. "I need to talk to you about something."

Alice considered running away at the very thought of looking at Amelia's face, but decided against it, knowing it wouldn't solve the problem. Slowly and most reluctantly, Alice turned her body until she was halfway facing Amelia.

Regret hit her like a ton of bricks. Standing there, looking like an older version of the girl that had flipped Alice's world upside down all those years ago, was Amelia Jones. Her curly hair was now cut to her chin, and held out of her face by two red infinity-shaped clips on either side. She was much taller than Alice now, but still wore her signature bomber jacket. The uniform she was wearing seemed to be a size too small, particularly in one area. Alice blushed, and diverted her eyes to the area right behind Amelia.

"Alice, let's be partners!" Amelia announced, breaking Alice's thoughts.

"I know," Alice said completely indifferently. "I received the application."

Amelia smiled widely. "Well, why haven't you responded yet, then?"

Alice sighed, a frown evident on her face. Her earlier thoughts had been misleading. Amelia hadn't changed at all. She was still happy-go-luck, and unable to read the atmosphere of those around her. Amelia was from the United States of America, and acted like such a typical American. She even was at the school for her talent in baseball. Alice couldn't figure out why in the world Amelia hadn't gone to the school on her own continent. It was more sports-based there anyways.

"So?" Alice questioned, turning more towards the bubbly blonde. "Why do you want to work with me?" She figured she might as well listen to Amelia pitch the idea of them being partners for the competition. Not that she particularly wanted to, but Alice had free time at the moment.

Amelia grinned even wider, and clasped her hands into fists in mid-air. "Well… We could totally win this together!"

Alice waited a moment, before she realized that was all that Amelia had to say. She suddenly felt even more exasperated than before. Why had she been expecting some great speech? This was Amelia Jones she was thinking of.

"Is that all you're going to say?" Alice inquired, all ready to head back to her dorm. "If so, forget about it."

"Wait, Alice!" Amelia cried out, taking a step towards her. "We really should work together! We could definitely win this thing! You're from England, where there are a lot of princesses, and I'm strong like a knight, so it'll be perfect! I'm totally serious!"

Alice turned to the side, and contemplated the proposal once more. Amelia was (oddly) rather popular. Alice looked at Amelia once more, and thought with a blush that Amelia might possibly resemble a knight if you were into that sort of thing (which Alice wasn't). What choice did Alice have? It was this or forfeit.

Sighing, she mumbled, "…Fine, you git."

Amelia heard, and became super excited, letting out an "Awesome!" and hugging Alice profusely, to which Alice could only respond by blushing more, and letting out some low requests for the American to let her go.

However, once the two were walking back to the dorm for dinner, and Amelia was talking animatedly about how she was hoping the cafeteria was serving hamburgers, Alice wondered if she had made the right decision after all.

Thanks for reading these first two chapters! I promise more will come up soon concerning actual USUK at the other candidates. See ya!

Natsumi