A/N:Huzzah! Here is the next chapter! I am sorry, I meant to have this up earlier but I had stupid homework and other stuff. Also thank all of you so much for your reviews, I lied, I will in fact keep track of the points for you guys. Most of your guesses were really interesting and some were actually pretty close, one question though, a lot of you said Heather was going to poison Trent and Chris, I just noticed that a lot of people thought that, any reason why? Just wondering, anyway I have gone on for far too long here is the chapter!
Disclaimer: I will own TDI when Sue starts using proper grammar, it is not going to happen any time this century, perhaps the next one...
Gwen looked up from the book at Heather.
"What?" the queen bee asked, she looked around and noticed that the Goth wasn't the only staring at her "what?" she asked again.
There was an awkward pause until Noah broke the silence "everyone is staring at you because in this book you are an evil witch bent on taking over the kingdom" he said plainly, a few people nodded in agreement.
"So? It's just a stupid book…..keep reading Gwen" she added.
Gwen sighed "why not, but there had better not be any interruptions this time" she said before turning the page "Chapter two…."
While Princess Heather plotted away the three protesters were walking through town.
"So Gwen" started the chocolate haired one "who was that guy?" she asked teasingly.
Gwen blushed "he was no one Courtney, let it go."
The blond smirked "actually I heard he was quite a someone, namely Prince Trent!"
Gwen blushed furiously "Bridgette!" she exclaimed.
The other two girls laughed "calm down Gwen" Bridgette said "I was just kidding but seriously, was that guy the prince?"
Gwen paused "um….maybe…" she muttered.
Courtney smirked "I knew it, you like him don't you?"
"……………………………………………………………………………."
"Gwen, what's the matter?" Beth asked from her bean bag.
Gwen looked up "huh? Oh nothing, hang on" she looked back at the book blushing…
"Come on Gwen" Bridgette insisted "do you like him or not?"
"N-no" Gwen stammered.
Courtney smirked "uh huh, sure."
Gwen frowned "shut it Courtney, what about the guy you like?"
Courtney looked confused "what guy?"
"Oh you know who I mean" Gwen was glad she was the one smirking now, she looked down the road and her smirk grew "speaking of which isn't that the knights' training ground up ahead?"
Courtney started and looked, she grew slightly red "uh, oh I suppose it is" she stopped walking and frowned "you guys set me up!" she exclaimed.
"Chill Court" Bridgette said "it was my idea to come this way, not as a set up though, I made some lunch for the guys" she held up the basket she had been carrying "and I kind of want to talk to head knight about my application."
A sympathetic look came into Courtney's face "again?" she asked.
Bridgette nodded "it's stupid that they won't let girls enroll, I'm just as strong as any guy" she said defiantly.
"We know that Bridgette" Gwen said putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.
Courtney nodded "it's just those stupid rules made by pigheaded officials."
Bridgette smiled "let's just go before Courtney starts her lawyer rant."
Gwen chuckled and Courtney frowned but they continued walking over to the knights' training areas. There were five guys standing in the main area, the area itself was just a large fenced piece of grass with a few training dummies and about five and half archery targets, five and a half because there were four whole ones, two halves that had been stuck back together and what looked like about two thirds of what used to be a target….or a tire, no one could really tell the difference. Two of the nights one with blond hair and another darker skinned one were over practicing with the dummies. Two others, one with brown hair and one that was stunningly gorgeous were taking care of the horses and the last one, who had black hair and a green fauxhawk was tormenting a redheaded stable boy.
"Give me back my glasses" the stable boy cried reaching for them.
The green haired jerk laughed, he was holding the stable boy back by keeping one hand on his face while the redhead swung his fists wildly missing his laughing tormenter. Courtney frowned "shouldn't some one be stopping that?" she asked her friends, "uh guys?" she turned and looked at them.
Bridgette was sending glances at the blond knight while Gwen was watching the gorgeous one.
Courtney frowned "are you two even listening?"
"Uh huh, oh what?" Bridgette asked temporarily distracted, she looked back at the blond guy "uh I'm going to go see how Geoff's doing" she said before hopping the fence and quickly rushing over to the Blond knight.
Gwen paused watching Bridgette go "uh" she was interrupted by a large crash, the brown haired knight had his head caught in a bucket and the gorgeous one was too busy watching himself in a mirror to notice. Gwen groaned "I'd better go help him" she said walking over leaving Courtney alone.
The brunette frowned then walked to the fence trying to hop over it like Bridgette had done, she was doing alright getting over but she lost her balance and fell hard. She groaned and grabbed her ankle.
"Hey Princess, need a hand?" a voice asked.
She looked up and saw the punk knight standing over her holding his hand out to her. Courtney frowned and stood up "I don't nee any help from you, pig" she said dusting herself off "weren't you bothering Harold?" she asked.
The knight scoffed and twirled a pair of glasses in his hand "still am darling" he replied.
Courtney scowled "you really shouldn't pick on him so much" she snapped quickly snatching the glasses away "you're such a jerk Duncan."
He smirked "but I'm your jerk Princess."
Courtney ignored him and walked over to the stable boy who had been wandering blindly around the area with his hands outstretched. She caught his elbow "here are your glasses Harold" she said handing them over.
He grabbed them quickly and shoved them on blinking a few times "thanks Courtney" he said then looked at Duncan "idiot" he huffed then rushed back to the stable. Courtney frowned but before she could yell at Duncan again Bridgette and the other two knights had walked up "hey Duncan" Bridgette said walking over "I made you guys lunch" she said going through the basket.
Duncan smirked "thanks Beach Bunny" he said putting an arm around Bridgette's shoulders. The blond knight, Geoff, frowned at this and Courtney turned red 'Why the hell is he hitting on her?!' she screamed in her head.
Bridgette glanced at him "what are you doing?" she asked shrugging off his arm.
He smirked "sorry, sometimes I just can't help it" he said coolly "isn't that right Princess?" he teased seeing Courtney's scarlet face.
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about" Courtney said glaring at her shoes. Luckily for Courtney Gwen chose that moment to walk over with an annoyed expression on her face "hey guys can I get some help?" she asked.
"Uh sure Gwen, what's up?" Bridgette asked.
"Sir trips-a-lot over there can't get the bucket off his head" Gwen said pointing behind her to the other two knights.
Duncan groaned "everyday he does this" he sighed "come on let's get him out before he forgets how to breathe in there, again" they all walked over just as the bucket headed knight paused then began running around shrieking.
Courtney groaned "I'm guessing he either remembered that you can't breathe very well in a bucket or that that's the bucket that you use to feed the chickens."
"Let's just get it off him already" Duncan said holding his ears "his screaming is making my ears bleed."
Duncan stuck his foot out in the path of his shrieking comrade causing him to fall hard on his bucket….I mean face….Geoff and Duncan helped him up while the bigger knight grabbed the bucket. "On the count of three" Geoff said.
"Three!" they all called and the big knight, DJ, tugged hard on the bucket while Geoff and Duncan pulled on the bucket head's arms.
"Little help!" DJ cried and the girls rushed over to help him pull. For about a second it looked like it would work but the chicken feed holder was stuck fast. Duncan glanced around the area and his eyes found the gorgeous knight still staring at himself in a mirror, Duncan growled "yo, little help here!"
This snapped the hot guy's attention away from himself; he sighed then rushed over to join Duncan and Geoff. "Okay on three" Duncan started "Three!"
DJ and the girls began pulling and Courtney cried "what about one and two?"
"No time for one and two!" Duncan yelled back. This effort failed as well as DJ slipped and everyone else fell to the ground. The bucket head started yelling again, "oh put a cork in it" Duncan said stuffing a straw under the rim of the helmet "breathe through that, moron" he added in an undertone.
Geoff looked at the bucket for a minute then snapped his fingers and pulled out a marker, he quickly drew a face on the bucket. He stood up to admire his work, two lopsided eyes, one was about three times the size of the other, no nose to speak of and a crooked mouth.
Duncan frowned "he needs a nose Geoff" he took the marker and added one, a big round one with hair and a mole on it.
Courtney chuckled "Duncan, he looks like a stop sign, give me that" she took the marker and grew a new face on the side, an overly happy smiley face.
"Much better" she said straining up.
Duncan shook his head "way too cheery Princess, his head's in the chickens' bucket for crying out loud."
"The Chi-uns' buk-ut?" the unfortunate knight cried clawing desperately at the bucket.
"Calm down Tyler" Geoff said patting his shoulder "I'm almost positive that this isn't the chickens' bucket…..I think…"
This didn't really relieve Tyler very much but he sat there quietly while they took turns making new faces for him. Bridgette laughed when she saw the Justin had drawn himself "guys as much fun as this is we really should get the thing off of him."
"Come on Beach Bunny" Duncan whined "other than annoying Princess this is about all the fun we get" he said putting an arm around Courtney.
Courtney was about to make Duncan regret that when a cheery voice came from the fence "hey guys! What cha' doin'? Tyler get his head in the chicken bucket again? Wow he does that a lot. Isn't he like deathly afraid of chickens or something? That reminds me of my cousin Larry who was super scared of pinecones, I don't know why he was afraid of them but he was and anyway, there was this one time when my brother shoved about twelve pinecones up his nose and he completely passed out, it was so funny!"
Duncan let out a groan as he looked to the fence "crazy girl's here" he muttered. Sitting on the fence was a girl with frizzy red hair and a bright green outfit, it was a strange dress with long sleeves but no fabric over the shoulders and a torn skirt that ended at her knees revealing pants made out of the same material also torn at the ends showing her shoes with long toes that curled up, she also wore a pointed green hat with a wide brim.
"Hi Izzy" Bridgette called as she stood up "I didn't know you were in town."
Izzy easily hopped the fence and skipped over to them "oh well now you know" she said smiling "I'm going to open up my potion shop in town. I was just on my way there when I heard that you guys were here so I figured I'd come say hi" she paused then waved "hi!"
"Uh hi" Duncan said then muttered "crazy" Courtney elbowed him "it's great to see you again Izzy."
"You two!" Izzy replied happily "I missed you guys so much! Want some help with Tyler?" she asked noting the bucket head.
"Sure, not sure how well it'll work, it's stuck pretty tight this time" Gwen said shrugging.
"Oh don't worry" Izzy said "I can totally get that bucket off, I just have to use one of my super awesome spells!"
"Are you sure that's a good idea" Courtney asked taking a step back "have you tested this one?"
"Oh yeah, completely!" Izzy chirped, everyone else took a few steps away. Izzy raised her hands over her head and sparks began flying between her hands. Courtney held onto Duncan, who just happened to be the person nearest to her while the rest took shelter behind DJ. Tyler looked around him, well his head turned from side to side, he couldn't really look at anything, in fact he couldn't actually see anything, but he sure could hear. Tyler squeaked and tried to stand but fell over his own feet while Izzy chanted "Bucketus liftus!" and the sparks shot from her hands and hit Tyler square in the bucket. For a moment everything was still. Suddenly the bucket let out a high pitch whistle and sparks shot out. "Hit the deck!" Izzy cried diving behind a training dummy.
Justin and Gwen followed DJ and ran behind the practice targets. Geoff picked Bridgette up and ran to the stable. Duncan pulled a stunned Courtney behind a dummy pulling her close to him as a particularly loud blast went off. A large tower of green and red sparks flew into the air and smoke filled the training grounds. There was lots of spluttering and coughing as DJ, Gwen and Justin came out from their hiding place. Geoff and Bridgette slowly made their way over from the stable and Harold nervously peaked out the door.
"Izzy" Gwen coughed "I though you said you tested this one."
"I did" Izzy said stepping cautiously out from behind the charred dummy "I just never tested it on buckets stuck on people's heads, or buckets, or people…."
"Then what did you test it on?" Bridgette asked.
"Bottle caps that wouldn't come off" Izzy answered grinning sheepishly.
Duncan and Courtney stepped out from behind the training dummy, Duncan standing in front of Courtney incase there were more explosions. "Is it over?" the brunette asked as the smoke started to clear.
"Yeah I think so" Izzy said.
The smoke cleared and a coughing Tyler sat now bucket free, well almost. A thin ring of the bucket's edge was resting on Tyler's relatively unscathed shoulders. "Good going Izzy, now we have nothing to do" Duncan complained.
Courtney stepped on his foot "you should be glad Tyler's out of the stupid bucket!"
Duncan was about to retort when there was a blare of trumpets, or trumpet to be precise. The group looked to the road, a large pink…thing was coming down the road.
"What is that?" Geoff asked trying to discern shapes through the pink.
He didn't have to wonder very long as the pink monstrosity was soon upon them. It was a royal procession. King Chris and Prince Trent on their horses being lead by Cody, who was playing a trumpet and a large blond teen with a jester's hat and outfit colored green and red. Behind them came Heather and Lindsey in a pink open carriage, the pink cloud was being generated by Beth, she had a number of pink filled bottles and was pouring the contents through a large tube circulating around the carriage and filling the air with bubble gum scented pink smog.
"Hello peasants" Heather said waving "I know it must be a great honor to see your royalty parading around and acknowledging you as if you were important."
Gwen growled then began coughing as she inhaled some of the pink. Trent stopped his horse and hopped down. He approached the group, Courtney and Bridgette curtsied politely, Courtney elbowed Duncan "pig, that's the Prince, show some respect."
Duncan rolled his eyes "whatever you say Princess" he nodded to Geoff, he DJ, Tyler, and Justin took the hint and knelt. Trent waved a hand "you don't have to do that, I'm no one special" he said with a friendly smile.
Duncan straightened up smirking "see Princess, told you he wasn't special."
"No you didn't" Courtney said frowning "you've never even mentioned him."
"Hey look green Jello" Duncan said pointing behind her. Courtney jumped, she couldn't help it, and looked over her shoulder then frowned "not funny Duncan."
Duncan just smirked as Trent walked over to the still coughing Gwen "are you okay?" he asked.
Gwen looked up "yeah" cough "just a little too much pink for me" she replied lightly.
Trent chuckled "yeah, the pink, not Heather's greatest idea ever."
"Hear-me, hear-me!" the blond jester called "Princesses Heather and Lindsey, Prince Trent, and King Chris are here to inspect the Knights' training grounds!"
Heather smiled and waited for a second then frowned and snapped her fingers, Beth snapped to attention and jumped off the carriage nearly spraining her ankle and opened the door for Heather and Lindsey. "About time" Heather said stepping down, she cast a glance at Beth "stop hobbling about so, stand on two feet like a normal person" she said flicking her hair in Beth's face and walking away. Beth frowned but did as she was told and stood normally wincing at the pain.
Chris dismounted and walked over to Geoff, DJ and Bridgette "can one of you show us around the place?" he asked his gaze on Bridgette "how about you miss?"
"I'm Bridgette" she said with a small smile.
Chris grinned "cool, would you mind showing me and the Princesses around?"
"Not at all" Bridgette replied, she and Geoff led the royalty into the training area. Heather paused and looked back at Trent who was still with Gwen and smirked "Trent, I'm sure your friend would be more than happy to join us."
Gwen blushed a bit and glared at Heather, Trent held his arm out to the Goth "would you like to show me around?"
"Um of course" Gwen said taking his arm and following the others. Heather smiled but her eyes stayed cold, she glanced around and spotted Justin "um sir" she said tapping him "would you mind showing me around?" she asked.
He shrugged and took her hand walking after the rest of the group. Lindsey paused looking around "hey who's going to escort me?"
Tyler walked up to her and cleared his throat loudly. She turned to him "uh hi…."
"Hi" he answered.
Lindsey looked around then back at him "will you show me uh stuff?"
"Of course, what stuff would you like to see?" Tyler asked linking arms with her.
"Uh, how about ponies" Lindsey paused "do you have ponies here?"
Tyler shrugged "probably, let's go find out."
"Okay" Lindsey agreed happily. The two practically skipped off, Heather glared at them over her shoulder then turned back to her own much hotter escort.
Izzy sat on the fence watching not noticing the blond jester coming up behind her until "Are you sneaking up on me?" she cried turning around.
The jester froze "…..uh no, I was just coming over to say hi…..uh hi" he said shyly with a small wave.
"Hi!" Izzy chirped grinning "I'm Izzy!"
"Oh uh, my name is Owen" he said holding out his hand.
Izzy stared at the outstretched hand and poked it.
"Uh you're supposed to shake hands" Owen said slowly.
Izzy grinned "I know! I was just checking to see if it's alive! It didn't move so that means it's alive and safe to shake" she said grabbing his hand and doing so "if it hand moved that would mean it's dead and likely to attack at three second intervals just like my cousin Jody's" Izzy explained.
"Uh okay…." Owen wasn't sure how to respond to this. Izzy continued blathering on and on about her various relatives while Owen stood listening occasionally laughing or mentioning something that had happened to him in the past. All the while Izzy kept shaking his hand.
Duncan and Courtney stood a few feet away, they had been the only ones not to go on the tour with the royalty and stood watching Izzy and Owen. Duncan smirked "hmm I'd never think of them as a couple, but I guess anything can happen, right Princess?"
Courtney frowned at him "I don't know what you mean by that" she sniffed then looked back at the couple and smiled "but I guess they are cute together."
"They sure are" Duncan said quietly putting and arm around Courtney. She paused about to push him off but decided against it and put her head on his shoulder. He stared at her and smirked "I knew you liked me."
"I do not" she protested "it's just the pink getting to me" she explained but kept her head on his shoulder.
"Whatever you say, Princess."
After a little while the tour group returned, Heather was helped into the character by Justin, she made a big show about this pointing out repeatedly how noble it was of him to be helping her, a princess, and she noted how strong he was. This was received with much eye rolling from Duncan but other than that no one really cared, Gwen and Trent were talking quietly near his horse Izzy was still yammering on and Tyler and Lindsey were busy staring at each other. Bridgette noting that no one else was talking to Chris quickly made her way over to him "um Sir, I mean King Chris, I was just wondering if since you're the new ruler and all, will you be making any changes in the way of women's rights?"
Chris looked at her and thought for a moment "well to be honest I hadn't really though about it too much."
Bridgette sighed 'great, just great.'
"Why? Is there anything you think I should change?" Chris asked, he didn't sound exactly smug or rude when he said it and that gave Bridgette hope.
"Well you see Sir, I've been trying to apply for knight training for a few years now but I'm not allowed to because I'm a girl" she started but was interrupted by a high pitch laugh; she turned and saw Heather putting a hand to her mouth.
"I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean to interrupt you but isn't being a knight, you know the whole fighting business, really more in the way of man's work?" she asked with an over friendly smile.
"Well that's the thing isn't it? People think it's man's work but they've never even given women a shot at it and I think they should" Bridgette replied "women are just as strong as men and we should be given the opportunity to prove it."
"I see your point" Chris said before Heather could interrupt "I'll think it over and get back to you savvy?"
"Uh yeah" Bridgette nodded.
"Well we'd better get going, see you on the flip side" Chris said walking over and mounting his horse "let's get a move on people" he said spurring his horse forward.
Trent said a quick farewell to Gwen and got on his own horse.
"Lindsey!" Heather cried.
Lindsey looked away from Tyler "uh coming! I have to go, bye, call me!" she said rushing to the carriage.
Izzy finally let go of Owen's hand and he ran slightly to catch up with the massive moving pinkness.
"Well I'd better be going too" Izzy said hopping off the fence "see you guys later" she called as she ran skipped and jumped down the road.
"I will never understand how she does that" Duncan said shaking his head slightly then turning his attention back to Courtney "so Princess, got any plans tomorrow?" he asked.
She pushed away from him "no but even if I did they certainly wouldn't be with you, Neanderthal."
"Fine have it your way Princess" Duncan said crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Courtney frowned "that's another thing, stop calling me Princess."
"Why should I?"
"Incase you haven't noticed, I'm not the stupid Princess, if fact the real one would probably throw a fit if she heard you calling me that" Courtney said sharply.
Duncan rolled his eyes "and you think I care about Miss spoiled rotten because?"
Courtney turned on him annoyed "why do you even call me Princess then you ogre" she poked him hard in the chest with each syllable glaring at him.
He smirked "you really wanna know?"
"Try me."
"Okay then" his arms shot out, one locked around her waist, the other her shoulders and pulled her against him. Courtney went scarlet and tried to pull away but he held on tight. He took his arm away from her shoulders and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and continued tracing her jawbone carefully with his fingers, he lifted her chin up slightly "I call you Princess because you're my Princess, Princess" he said softly.
"Uh…D-Duncan…I-I" Courtney stammered.
"Yes?"
She blushed harder if that was possible and pushed away a bit, Duncan realized how red she was and let go of her, she staggered away a bit dizzy. Duncan put a hand on her shoulder to steady her "you okay Sweetheart?"
"Duncan….you're, you're" Courtney looked at her feet "you're an ogre."
He smirked "yeah I know, but I'm your ogre."
A/N: Okay I know I got way side tracked there in the middle but I was having a heck of a time coming up with anything good. I kinda had the ending planned out for a while, it was one of those moments that made me want to write this whole story so I hope you guys like it. As you may notice I am trying to fit in a lot of couples at once, am I doing okay? There is one coupled that will be a big central one that I think I have yet to even introduce, 15 points to anyone who guesses it, also another five points to anyone who guesses what Izzy's role in the story is going to be, hint it is a one word answer, Speaking of points as I said earlier I will in fact keep track of points for you they are as follows:
Amethyst Ocean: 25
HeroicEight: 15 (you touched on a big thing that will cause major problems later)
HowlingWulf: 20 (good guess on Heather's plot, not exactly right but good guess!)
AnimeGirl 144: 20 (trust me Heather makes MANY attempts)
Calisun8: 15
Techgirl10: 15
randomhottiexoxo: 20
Bladecutter25: 20 (not exactly what will happen but great suggestions...maybe I can work them in somehow...)
Poetic Nothingness: 15 (was not planning that either but with what I am planning that may work...hmm...)
Mew of Fire: 20 (good ideas...you guys are all really good coming up with this stuff!)
Jessiemisty: 15
Claudia G.: 15 (do not worry, so far I have a happy ending planned for this...so far...er actually the very end is the one part I have not worked out...we shall see)
Sam7418: 15
animenut18: 5
Tai-Ness: 22
...sorry if I missed anyone, if I did please let me know and I shall add you to the list! Well anyway I hope you like this chapter Please review! Huzzah!