Author's Notes:
Names in this section-
England- Alice Kirkland America- Amelia Jones
Romano- Lovina Vargas Spain- Antonia Carriendo
A. Rome- Alessandra Roma Prussia- Maria Beilschmidt
France- Francine Bonnefoy Germany- Louise Beilschmidt
Italy- Feliciana Vargas Denmark- Maren Køhler
Norway- Margaret Ericson Lithuania- Viktorija Lorinaitis
Poland- Felicyta Łukasiewicz Turkey- Sanem Adnan
Japan- Honda Kiku Netherlands- Larissa Dupont
Belgium- Clara Dupont Australia- Jane Kirkland
New Zealand- Helen Kirkland Hong Kong- Wang Fang
Taiwan- Sun Mei Russia- Anya Braginskaya
China- Wang Yao Switzerland- Vanessa Zwingli
Liechtenstein- Lili Zwingli Germania- Gertrude Pytheas
Egypt- Muminah "Gupta" Hassan Cameroon- Sierra Ahidjo
Hungary- Elizaveta Hédeváry Austria- Rosa Edelstein
Seychelles- Michelle Morphey Monaco- Grace Blum
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Scratch that, I actually own less than nothing.
The Princess and Her Knight
Chapter 3: What The F Stands For
It was a rather chilly morning at Saint Mary's. Often, even during the winter months, the school never got all that cold, due to it's position geographically. However, it appeared as if the school was thinking what all the students had finally realized- it was late September, and school was back in full swing.
Alice was rather pleased with the weather. Being from England, the land of eternal rain, Alice had been unused to Saint Mary's mild weather upon entering the school. She still wasn't completely used to it, and was always very happy to see a week of rain during weeks at home. Walking to the other building that morning, she could tell it was going to be a good day.
The person to her left seemed to not share this sentiment, however. Amelia was shivering as violently as possible, even under her thick jacket. Alice didn't understand how someone could not enjoy the beautiful weather. Besides, Amelia was most certainly fuller than Alice in some areas. Not Alice was thinking about that at all. She had definitely not thought like that ever.
She sighed, pushing up her glasses, and out her thoughts. "…What is wrong with you, Amelia?"
Amelia shivered a few times more and looked to Alice from the collar of her jacket. "D-D-D-Don't you feel the c-c-c-cold at a-a-all, Ally?"
"For one, my name is Alice, not Ally," she declared, shaking her head. "Besides that, I grew up in England. We have great weather like this all the time." She turned back to Amelia, eyebrows pointed downwards. "Why are you unused to this, anyways? Did you not grow up in Virginia? I'm positive they have winter there as well."
The American seemed to stand fully up at this statement. "Yeah, that's right. I lived in Virginia for the majority of my life."
Alice raised an eyebrow. Why had Amelia suddenly changed position? She was acting rather odd. Seeing the building looming closer, Alice began to hasten her pace. Once she was considerably ahead of the baseball player, Alice turned, her ponytails flying, and said, "Hurry up, git. We'll be late at this rate."
Amelia smiled widely, and, as if the cold had magically disappeared from her, she began to ran towards Saint Mary's, dragging Alice behind her.
After homeroom had ended, and the students had been released to go to the auditorium, Alice headed quickly to the behind of the stage, where the candidates and their partners had been instructed to meet previous to the beginning of the assembly.
"You sure like walking fast, Ally," Amelia pointed out.
Alice nearly had a heart attack. Where in the world had Amelia come from? Her homeroom was a floor down and on the other side of the hallway, due to Amelia being in a grade below Alice. Especially due to the pace that Alice had been walking at, there was almost no way for Amelia to have gotten to the third floor that quickly. Wasn't that inconvenient for her anyways? They were all headed to the first floor.
The British inquired of Amelia, "Where did you come from? We're meeting on the first floor, git."
Amelia titled her head to the side. "I'm here to pick you up obviously."
The writer flushed a vivid red. "W-W-What? I don't need you 'picking me up'. I can get to the auditorium perfectly fine by myself."
"That's not it," explained Amelia. "It's any hero or heroine's job to pick up their partner, obviously."
"You're not a heroine, git," Alice emphasized, exasperated. "You're a Knight."
Amelia puffed out her chest, looking insulted. "I'm both, I will have you know. And besides, knights are always heroes, right? Well, I'm like a female knight, so, I'm also a female hero. And, as a heroine, I gotta pick the Princess up."
"…Gotta is not a real word, idiot."
Upon entering the backstage of the auditorium, Alice and Amelia were pulled into a circle concerning of the other candidates, and who Alice supposed were the new Knights. Glancing around the circle, she saw that there was certainly an odd collection of people. She had been listening to the announcements of the pairings of course, but still hadn't matched the names until faces until that moment.
'Hm, some of these pairings are definitely not going to work out,' Alice thought smugly. 'I didn't think Lovina Vargas could even stand Antonia.'
Her inner smirking was interrupted when their Headmistress appeared on the scene. She was a lively as ever (something that relatively concerned the Brit), and greeted the thirty girls with a astounding, "Hello there, everyone!" Not noticing the relatively concerned looks of the students, the Headmistress continued with, "Okay, so it seems everyone's passed the first test. Well, sports program girls, while your partners have already been introduced to the school, only your names, not faces, had been announced. So today, I would like all of you to take the opportunity to step up to the mike and say whatever you like about yourself, not just name and sport. We'll go in the order in which the Princesses were announced."
'Great,' Alice thought sarcastically. "I'm last again."
"First up will be Maria Beilschmidt, Knight of Francine Bonnefoy," the Headmistress announced, before walking off to let the others behind stage it was time to start the assembly. "Good luck, girls."
"Fuckin' awesome!" Alice heard Maria cry out, before the British girl turned ever so slightly to Amelia.
She saw Amelia appeared to be lost in her thoughts most excitedly. Alice's eyes widened. This could not be good. If Amelia was thinking that deeply, she was most likely either going to do something incredibly over-the-top, or her mind was going to explode, and therefore, Alice would be thrown out of the competition due to lack of a partner. (It wasn't like she was actually worried about the other girl or anything. She simply needed a partner.)
"What are you doing, Amelia?" Alice asked, trying not to sound concerned.
Amelia turned her head down towards Alice's own. "What? You worried, or something?"
The British girl flushed, but before she could sputter out an excuse, the stagehands were directing the candidates to find their seats. The Princesses and their partners were lined up in order of who was going when, placing Alice and Amelia at the far left end of the semi-circle. Amelia waved to the crowd enthusiastically, to which Alice could only respond by sighing.
"Hello, everyone!" the Headmistress called out excitedly to the students sitting in the regular seats. "How are you doing today?" A cry rang out, though not as enthusiastic as when the girls thought they were going to be chosen for candidacy, only two weeks earlier. Alice felt relief wash over her again, as she remembered the stress of sitting through the other fourteen candidates, and knowing there was only one spot left, when her name had finally been called to be a Princess.
The Headmistress continued. "Today, you will learn about each of the different Knights in the competition. They have each prepared a little something to say to you all." The Italian woman turned back slightly to the far right side of the semi-circle, and announced, "First up is Francine Bonnefoy's Knight, Maria Beilschmidt of the football program!"
Not wasting a moment, Maria practically galloped to the microphone stand, basically ripping the mike away from the Headmistress. She yelled into it the loudest possible with an astounding, "Wazzup, Saint Mary's?"
A brief period of silence followed this, as the majority of the people in the rows appeared to be in a state of shock. Clearly, they had not been exposed to Maria previously. The British felt accomplished, as she knew all too well how strong the Prussian girl came on to those who didn't know her.
However, Maria appeared to be unfazed. "As you all probably know already, the awesome girl here is the awesome Maria Beilschmidt! I'm the awesomest member of the awesome football program here. I like the awesome country called Prussia, and awesome birds! So, you should all obviously vote for the awesome me, if you want to be awesome at all! Peace!" And, just like that, she had hopped off the stand, and went back to smirk next to Francine (who, for some reason, looked oddly happy).
The crowd appeared to have taken it surprisingly (and by this, Alice meant it was the shock of her life) well. Many of the female students had found it hilarious, and were whispering excitedly amongst themselves. The faculty also seemed to be conversing, saying how refreshing it was to have a student that was so self-confident. How Maria was "refreshing" in the least bit was a complete mystery to Alice.
Amelia's reaction stunned Alice vastly also. The American girl appeared to be muttering to herself about it, saying phrases like "was so amazing" or "Eight times. She used it eight times."
The Headmistress returned to the stand, looking like she had been one of the approving staff. She called order back to the room, and called out, "The next girl is Louise Beilschmidt, Knight of Feliciana Vargas, in the rugby program!"
Hushed conversations broke, wondering how Maria's sister would compare to her. Alice, however, knew they were all in for a surprise, as Louise was the complete opposite of her sister. While Maria was wild and narcissistic, Louise was more reserved, and much more grounded. Exemplifying this, the German girl walked carefully up to the stand.
"Ahem," she coughed, appearing to be testing out the microphone. Louise took out a small piece of paper, and said, "Good day. My name is Louise Beilschmidt. I am a second year in the high school rugby program. I shall be working with Feliciana for this year." She coughed at this point once more, and a dash of red became evident on her face. "A-Anyways, I just wanted to ask for support. Thank you."
Polite applause followed this, the loudest most certainly coming from Feliciana herself. Louise looked relatively embarrassed by this went she returned to her seat. The next speeches seemed to fly by faster and faster for Alice, who was concerned about what in world Amelia was going to talk about. She was only able to catch glimpses of the other Knights. Antonia talked about Lovina being a beautiful little tomato (which resulted into a kick to Antonia's knee). Maren (the partner of Margaret) mainly discussed how much better she was than any of the other candidates. (Her partner looked angry too.) Viktorija Lorinaitis, the Lithuanian basketball girl seemed pleasant enough, until Felicyta decided to catcall her, to which the brown-haired girl could only respond by looking incredibly depressed. The Turkish girl Sanem Adnan (partner of Alice's Japanese friend Kiku) promised all those who voted for her to get a glimpse under her mask. Larissa Dupont, Dutch Knight of her sister Clara didn't say much, other than to give her name and glare angrily at Antonia and Sanem. Jane Kirkland, one of Alice's distant cousins from Australia, and Helen's Knight, talked about Australia's various "beauties", including crocodiles. Fang Wang (who was working with Mei Sun) wasn't much of a talker either, though she did perform her signature arm gesture, pressing her third and fourth fingers down and crossing her arms. The night of Yao Wang, Anya Braginskaya's seemed to scare the entire population of Saint Mary's, even appearing to shock Amelia, who murmured something to the effect of "Damn that communist." Vanessa Zwingli (working with her little sister Lili) seemed passionate about the competition, and gave a decent speech. That was, until she decided to bring threaten the other girls with guns, causing Vice-Headmistress Pytheas to have to stop her. The Egyptian girl Muminah Hassan (Knight of Sierra Ahidjo) tried to sell some art students' works. Rosa Edelstein's Knight, Elizaveta seemed nice enough, until Maria tried to interrupt, and received a frying pan on her head.
Alice gulped. Before she had realized it, it had become the speech of Grace Blum's Knight, Michelle Morphey, the girl just before Amelia. Michelle was apparently attempting to shoot death glares at Alice, but Alice wasn't paying attention. She was too stressed about Amelia's speech. 'No!' Alice demanded internally. "I have to believe in Amelia! Believe… in her…" The British girl found herself looking into her lap. 'But… What about the last time I believed in her? What if-?"
Her thoughts were cut short when she felt a light tap on her shoulder, and looked up to find the American herself glancing down at her. Amelia smiled and poked Alice's cheek, announcing, "It's my turn, Ally." Before Alice was able to say anything, the other blonde was already at the microphone stand, and had opened her mouth.
"Hey y'all!" she cried happily, picking up the mike. "My name is Amelia F. Jones! I'm a pretty great athlete, not only being in my major of baseball, but also frequenting other super sports. Speaking of super," she started, bobbing her head to everyone in the crowd. "I think me and my partner- that's Ally over there!" Alice looked up, shocked, but embarrassingly waved to the crowd anyways. "Anyways, Ally and I are pretty super. She's all smart and writes pretty cool. And me, well, as I've said before, I'm super at sports. But more importantly," she stuck out her finger at this point for dramatic affect. "I'm a superhero. Heroine to be specific. I'll try to help everyone the amount I'm able to do, which is pretty much everything anyways. Ally will be the brains behind the operation, and will be super at convincing everyone to help in the ideas out there. We'll definitely listen to y'all." Amelia's face brightened, and she declared, "My name is Amelia F. Jones! Wanna know what the F stands for! It stands for 'For You'! That's the kind of Princess and Knight we'll be! Root for us!" Taking a breath, she smiled lightly and made a peace sign. "See y'all around!"
The auditorium broke out in applause, and murmurs of how cool that blonde girl was broke out like wildfire. Alice was in even more shock than the period after Maria's speech. Amelia was good, no even great at speeches. Alice had certainly felt inspired, which was a miracle in itself. She felt herself staring at the American girl the entirety of the other's trip from the stand to her seat beside Alice.
Once she had returned, Amelia turned to Alice and asked in a whisper that Alice thought not possible, "Hey, how was that?"
Alice flushed. She said stubbornly, "I-It was pretty decent, I guess, if you were someone that liked that type of thing."
Amelia began to laugh, confusing Alice completely. The other girl smiled lightly at Alice, and murmured, "Thanks."
Headmistress Roma had taken the attention of the audience once more, so Alice turned to indicate that she and Amelia should probably pay attention. The Headmistress asked of the crowd, "What do you all think of your new Knights?" Thunderous applause resounded off the walls. "Good, good."
Smiling widely, the Headmistress continued with, "So, guess what else is being announced today! That's right!" Headmistress Roma quickly pointed back at the ground. "Today I will reveal the first task of the competition!"
A general consensus of "Ooooh!" rang out throughout the room. Guesses were being made between all the students, and a good number of the clueless faculty too.
"The first task is… The Princess and the Knight will switch places!" Alice let out a gasp. What? "The Princess, who is normally so used to staying high in her tower and creating pieces of art, will go out onto the battlefield, and participate in a sport. The Knights, likewise, will take up the art of their Princesses. This event will last for five days, beginning next Monday!" The Headmistress waved. "See you all soon! Saint Mary's dismissed!"
Alice sat in shock in her seat. She was awful at sports. She had been relatively weak since her childhood, and had often been teased by her older sisters due to her lack of sports talent. Glancing at her partner, the Brit remembered it wasn't a one-way problem either. While Amelia usually was decent in school subjects such as math and science, she had always been terrible at English, and to say she couldn't write was the understatement of the year.
Twisting her ponytail over her finger, her eyes had become the largest they ever had. 'What in the world are we going to do?'
Don't worry Ally! You'll probably work it out somehow. And wait; didn't another chapter end just like this? God, this author sometimes…
The above is the readers' thoughts.
Well, I'm just happy you all read anyways. See everyone next week. I promise each chapter will stop being so filler-y, because every chapter from her out is a task.
See you all soon!
{Natsumi;;}