Lucy Pevensie, Courtyard, during break:
Lucy Pevensie watched with no small amount of trepidation as her classmate Melinda reached for the first branch of the tree.
This is a bad idea, she thought to herself. Any previous voicing of this had been quickly overruled and Lucy had been deemed 'no fun,' so all she could do was watch. Someone's going to get hurt, I know it.
Although, being called 'no fun' was hardly fair. Lucy liked to have fun, but she also had a sense of self preservation that these nine year old girls did not. She supposed that growing up once had already matured her mind such that she could no longer see things from the point of view of a child. But still, it wasn't so bad. She had another chance to grow up, to have fun all over again. Though, at the same time it was so disappointing. She missed all her friends.
Mr. Tumnus...
Oh, how she dearly missed her beloved Tumnus. He had been her closest friend. And not to leave out the Beavers or any number of the creatures she had ruled over as Queen. And Aslan. She missed Aslan too, with his powerful presence and kind demeanour.
Not to mention all her new friends. Like Caspian. Dear Prince Caspian. She was ever so glad they could help him. She felt better knowing that Narnia had the likes of Caspian to watch over it now. But to think of the state in which it had been before!
Sometimes Lucy couldn't help but think it was their fault, for having left. Sometimes she just felt so guilty about leaving her kingdom, her home, behind, that it brought tears to her eyes. She had always been a caring soul, but for once Lucy wished she could be more like Peter. Peter was able to take things in stride and make the most out of what he had with no regrets. Unlike her, or Edmund. Edmund was having such a horrid time of it, she knew. And Susan...Lucy just couldn't understand her sister anymore. Although...she knew Susan missed Narnia. How could she not? After all, it had been her home for more than half her life!
But though she was not bitter like Edmund, or withdrawn like Susan, Lucy still could not hide the longing and (sometimes) sorrow she felt for Narnia.
Fifteen years. Fifteen years was such a long time.
But now the clocks had turned back, and she had fifteen years extra with all the memories of before. So she couldn't help but be excited, if not somewhat sad.
Still...wrenching her mind back to the present, Lucy watched Melinda try to drag herself up the tree.
"Really," she tried again, "It's not safe. Someone's going to get hurt." Honestly, whose silly idea was this in the first place?
"You're suck a stick in the mud, Lucy Pevensie. You didn't used to be like this. I bet you're just jealous cause you can't climb trees like me." Melinda had paused in her tree climbing to look back over her shoulder at the crowd of girls - more specifically, Lucy.
"I am not jealous," Lucy responded. And to be frank, Melinda's tree climbing skills left much to be desired. Lucy herself would have been up that tree and down by now. But she didn't say this, instead she said, "Besides, what would the Headmistress say if she saw you? This is hardly proper behaviour for young ladies."
"That's the point," said someone.
Lucy felt she was being slightly hypocritical (after all, let's not mention all the thing's she'd got up to throughout the years), but she hardened her resolve and tried to argue back.
"You know what?" said Melinda after a while, still hanging in the same place, "I bet you couldn't climb this tree if you tried, Lucy Pevensie. You'd be too afraid of getting hurt or messing up your frock!"
Lucy felt a spark of anger, and tried to squash it, telling herself to be mature and not let little girls rile her up.
But the other girls started chorusing their agreements, chiding her and giggling at her supposed cowardice.
Lucy felt an eyebrow twitch.
"Oh for Aslan's sake!" she finally exclaimed, telling herself that since she was nine again, she could let loose a little and it would be okay.
The other girls stared at her strangely as she rolled up her sleeves. Lucy realised she'd probably said something strange from their point of view, as no one in England knew who Aslan was. Oh well, their loss.
"Excuse me, Melinda," said Lucy, and took a running start.
She'd had much practice of the physical kind as Queen in Narnia. She'd learnt how to swim, sail ships, ride horses, fence, dance, and explore the outdoors. She'd especially had fun with the dryads on several occasions and had played games of hide and seek with them. Lucy had eventually become quite the little monkey in trees, and felt very confident that she could get up this one no problem, even if the first branch was high off the ground and only reachable by jumping.
With that in mind, she ran up to the trunk and jumped, giving herself momentum. Her hands shot out and grasped the first branch, and, using her feet, she climbed up the trunk and swung her legs over the first branch in a matter of seconds. Then, quickly, she reached for the next, and after that it was a matter of stepping up from one to the next. Soon she was high at the top, legs swinging over the air as she sat on the strongest branch. Looking down, she half expected to see scampering dryads pointing up at her and giggling as they danced and played.
Instead she saw the gaping expressions of several nine year old girls.
"I-I can do that too!" Melinda was still in the same place as before, but she was soon straining her arms and struggling over the first branch with much less grace than Lucy. Her hair was mussed and she was panting. She looked like quite a sight. Lucy absently checked her own hair and found it to be mostly all right, just a little ruffled.
Then, Melinda began her slow ascent upwards. She reached gingerly for each branch and clutched them like a life line as she hauled herself towards where Lucy was sitting. Lucy watched her white face as it moved closer and bit her lip. She could just see Melinda loosing her grip and falling.
Somehow, some higher being must have read her mind, because in the next few seconds it happened. Like slow motion, Lucy could see what was about to happen just before it did, but was helpless to stop it. She shouted a "Watch out!" but it was too late. Melinda's shoe slipped and her grip went slack as she scraped her knee on the branch and went to hold her leg. The next second she was tumbling out of the tree and had landed with a sickening thump on the leaf-littered ground.
She screamed.
The girls screamed.
There was mass panic.
Lucy stared at the chaos from her perch in the tree as girls burst into tears, others ran to Melinda, and Melinda herself wailed fit to rouse a hibernating bear. Suddenly, she noticed some of the less hysterical girls about to try and help Melinda up and she shouted a warning.
"No! Don't touch her!"
She punctuated this exclamation by slipping from her seat and swinging down from the tree smoothly, landing in a crouch (she'd jumped greater distances before).
A few girls stopped crying to gape at her.
Lucy quickly ran to Melinda and shooed the other girls away.
"Don't touch her, she could have broken something. You don't want to aggravate a broken bone, or a fracture."
"Wh-what?" sniffled one girl.
Lucy hushed her. Then she began to give orders, slipping into the role of the responsible queen quicker than she would have thought.
"You there, go get the nurse. And you, get the Headmistress or a professor. Whichever comes first." Lucy shooed away two of the girls who weren't crying and turned to another. "And you, go get some ice, just in case."
Everyone followed her orders without protest, too shocked to do otherwise, and automatically responding to Lucy's authoritative tone of voice and clear expectancy to be obeyed.
"Ow ow ow! It hurts!" Melinda was clutching her leg near the ankle, big fat tears still trekking their way down her cheeks.
"Don't move it!" Lucy snapped sharply.
Actually, Lucy was feeling a fair sense of deja vu. This was almost the exact same situation as that time when Ed had been bucked off a young stallion he had been breaking in. Lucy had come to watch and she had had to order the servants to go fetch a doctor and supplies. In her opinion, Edmund had been foolish to try riding a non-talking horse in the first place. But one so young and not yet trained had been even more foolhardy. But, it had been a gift from Calormen, so Edmund had felt obligated (and in Lucy's opinion he already had a slight obsession with horses anyway).
She remembered kneeling just like she was now, next to a nineteen year old Edmund and scolding him loudly for being so irresponsible. Then she had made him sit still and let her check him. After all, all those practices with the doctors had to be put to use somehow.
"Ow, Lu, stop it, it hurts!" Ed had cried while batting at her hands and trying to scoot away simultaneously.
"Sit still, Ed! You think just because I'm not the doctor, you don't have to listen? Well you do. Now hush!" Lucy had smacked him lightly on the back of the head where she knew he wasn't hurt and he had stopped trying to escape. Then she had reached for his leg and begun to check lightly with her hands.
Remembering all her lessons from a while ago, Lucy did almost the exact same thing this time around and reached for Melinda's leg. They were even sitting the same way - hunched over and clutching at their limbs. In Lucy's mind, she could almost superimpose the images and imagine she was back in the Narnian stables with Edmund.
"Hold still," she murmured as she prodded around, searching for the tell-tell feel of a break.
Melinda drew in a sharp breath and cried out, just like Edmund had done, when Lucy hit a certain spot.
Almost the same place, she thought whimsically.
Prodding just a bit more, Lucy sat back, satisfied she knew what was wrong. Melinda's face was white with the pain, but she had stopped crying, now only sniffling occasionally. Perhaps she was in shock?
Where was that doctor? Hadn't she called for him ages ago?
"Honestly," she said without thinking, "how long does it take for that elf to get here? Surely not this long!"
"What?" said someone, clearly confused.
Lucy quickly shut her mouth and flushed. How silly she'd just been! Of course there was no elfin doctor here in England, especially not dear Mr. Porifius.
Suddenly there were shouts as the girls Lucy had sent off returned with help.
The school nurse came first, her footsteps hurried, and the Headmistress and two school teachers came second.
"What on earth is going on?" cried the Nurse, eyes sweeping over the scene quickly, before focusing on Lucy and Melinda.
Lucy stood up and brushed off her skirt.
"Melinda fell off the tree. I believe she has a mild break, possibly only a fracture, just above her left ankle. I check around the hurt area and there's some mild swelling, so some ice would be prudent. I advise getting a stretcher because she certainly can't walk at the moment. It's also possible that she sprained her wrist as well, as I noticed she's using her left hand a bit awkwardly." Lucy glanced down at Melinda's left wrist which she was, indeed, holding strangely. Lucy was glad it had just occurred to her that other parts of Melinda might be hurt, and that the awkward wrist had come to mind. "Oh, and I believe she is in shock. You might need to bring her out of it. I believe that is all. Feel free to verify my claims." Lucy finished off her dialogue with a regal nod of the head, hardly realising what she was doing and that it might seem strange to an adult for a nine year old child to be taking charge of such a situation. Or that she even had any medical knowledge in the first place.
In fact, all three adults were staring at her with a mixture of astonishment and uncertainty, clearly not knowing what to think.
Oh dear, though Lucy, I've messed up.
"Miss Pevensie..." The Headmistress trailed off, at a loss for words.
"Someone please get a stretcher then," the Nurse said faintly. One of the teachers nodded and headed back towards the school. "And we'll need to do an x-ray in town, I think, just to be sure." She shot a side-ways glance at Lucy, as if not quite believing that a nine year old girl could be right.
"Certainly," Lucy responded, belatedly realising that she hadn't been addressed, nor was she being asked for permission in a roundabout way; which is what would have happened were she Queen and the nurse one of her subjects.
Deciding it was best to remove herself from the situation before things got even more sticky, Lucy politely excused herself and turned to walk away before anyone could object.
Behind her she heard the Headmistress ask, "How did this happen? A-and what did Miss Pevensie do?"
And for an instant Lucy felt a flash of resentment at the woman's sceptical and amazed tone, wishing that she could be back where she belonged where no one would question her and there would be no need to act and pretend.
Because pretending was lying after all, and Lucy was not in the habit of lying.