I imagined what my life would be like in Ingvarr. I would spend my days practicing with swords, halberds, maces, and every weapon I could imagine. Learning from the best warriors in the seven kingdoms. No more doing someone else's laundry, sewing, or scrubbing corridors. No more fending off personal space invasions from over eager princesses.

To get to Ingvarr, however, I would have to play nice with my partner in the Contest of the Crowns. I could be friendly to Rapunzel. How hard could it be?

…..

"Why can't you understand? We are not friends!" I turned away from Rapunzel, already regretting that I couldn't contain my anger. I let the rest of my frustration out and watched Rapunzel's enthusiasm slide from her face.

"You're right. I was pushing too hard. Besides Pascal, I haven't made any friends in eighteen whole years, so maybe I don't know how. I'll just leave you alone", she said as she crawled into the blanket fort she had constructed in the middle of my bedroom.

"But this is my room! Ugh…"

Even her sadness was annoyingly sweet. Great, now I feel guilty.

"You know…" I stuck my head into her fort. "I'm probably not that good at making friends either. I grew up with the Captain of the Guards for a father. He's not big on warm and fuzzy." Rapunzel looked at me with her sad, beautiful green eyes.

I continued, "I guess I… I've got a lot to learn about being a friend."

Rapunzel finally looked away from me. For a moment, I thought I was too late to try to make things right. She was going to give up on trying to be my friend. I suddenly realized I didn't want her to give up.

But then, she said, "Maybe…maybe we could learn together?" I breathed a sigh of relief. She continued, "Maybe I won't try so hard to be friends?"

This girl is resilient as hell. I've been nothing but rude to her, and here she is, not giving up, compromising to make being friends easier on me.

"And I guess I could try harder not to not be friends," I replied.

...

"Let's… just win this thing, so you can take advantage of this great opportunity. Maybe that would be better for both of us." Rapunzel had acid in her voice.

"Yeah, maybe it would," I responded calmly. Why did the Queen of Ingvarr have to come in right before the last challenge? Oh, I see. She knew it would destabilize our team.

My head swam as I stood alone in the tent, clutching our friendship bracelets. Rapunzel's face filled with hurt was etched on my vision, like after you accidentally stare at the sun directly.

Rapunzel said that I was only being nice so that we could win the Contest of the Crowns and I could escape to Ingvarr. Which was true. It was pretty obvious that I was unhappy being her lady in waiting. I don't know why she seemed surprised.

We could still win. I could go hone my skills as a warrior in Ingvarr, and never again be a servant to a socially awkward, messy, oblivious princess.

But then I would never see Rapunzel again.

I followed Rapunzel timidly out to the pitch where the final challenge was waiting for us. I barely even registered the monstrosity we were about to face; my friend was angry at me and that's all I cared about.

Suddenly the challenge began. Rapunzel sprinted towards the gigantic iron lion with determination, but was thrown back by one of the paws. She hit the ground so hard it made my stomach drop.

"Rapunzel!" I approached her laying on the ground. Blood was trickling out of her nose. "Are you okay?!"

Rapunzel looked up at me and wiped the blood with her sleeve.

"Don't worry about me. Winners focus on winning, remember?"

I now realized that her expression was not, in fact, determination, but anger.

Her anger infected me. I turned and ran towards the hunk of metal with my best battle cry. The paw clanged as it threw me across the stadium. I ran again and again trying to find an opportunity to climb to the flag, and each time got knocked down. Rapunzel got hit more than me because she was so quick to recover and try again.

I landed at Rapunzel's feet, the air knocked out of my lungs. When she looked down, I almost saw concern break through the anger. I couldn't handle that.

"It's like it's always two steps ahead of us," I gasped.

"Then let's make this a little more exciting," Rapunzel said to the lion.

She darted forward, slid between the lion's legs, jumped onto its spiked tail, and soared through the air to land on top of the lion's back. I could only watch in amazement, frozen to the ground. The 18 year old lost princess stood in a warrior's stance atop the lion, barefoot and in her most comfortable dress.

I made a decision. On what, I wasn't sure, as my friend was balancing precariously on top of a giant metal lion, and my mind was busy with planning my next action. But I was aware of some sort of decision being made in the back of my brain.

I grabbed a flag pole and vaulted myself onto the face of the lion. I climbed to the top in time to see one of the Ingvarr princesses catch Rapunzel's ankle and toss her off the lion.

Rapunzel yelled encouragement to me from the ground. I slid down the metal, past the red flag. That wasn't what I came up here for anyway.

I held my hand out to the princess lying in the dirt. She took my hand and frantically encouraged me to the flag, to win the job that the Ingvarrian queen offered me.

"There's something else that means a lot more."

The Ingvarrian queen looked down at me in disappointment. But Rapunzel wasn't disappointed. Her chameleon passed the friendship bracelets to me. My friend Rapunzel and I donned the bracelets, and she rushed to hug me.