"GOD DAMN IT!' Rayyana sputtered awake looking around at the room. Wait, where were the beds? and why was she on hay? "Rida oh my god!" Fatima said getting up. Rayyana looked to see Rida dripping wet. Rumaisa standing above her with a bucket in her hand. 

"What the fuck was that for?!" Fatima yelled. "My fiance isn't paying you guys to sleep around." Rumaisa said throwing the bucket "Seriously you guys slept all night instead of working?!" Damn it they had fallen asleep. But then again, it wasn't their fault sine their room was conveniently placed right beside of the bell tower. And conveniently, the bell had to be rung all night. 

"So what if we fucking did?" Marium said getting up "we don't get paid for any of this bullshit anyway." Rumaisa pursed her lips "Fine, I will let you all off with a warning for today, but for now get the fuck up." 

Rumaisa spun around without another word leaving 3 angry girls and 1 dripping Rida behind. Marium picked up the bucket and was about to throw it at the back of Rumaisa's head but Fatima and Rayyana held her back. "Not yet." Fatima said thinking on how to kill someone. She would have searched it up on her IPad but... 

"Come on, let's go get cleaned up." Rayyana said holding onto Rida. They walked very solemnly back to the washing room and each took turns taking a bath. Rayyana was the last one to take a bath, making it her job to pick out and iron the clothes Alejandro had ordered for them. 

When Rayyana emerged, she saw Rida happily munching on some chips. "We found it in one of the kitchen cabinets." Fatima explained when Rayyana stared ahead quizzically.  "So about that secret."  Rida asked while munching on the chips.

Right, Rayyana had forgotten about that. "We need to figure out what it is." Marium said grabbing the chips from Rida who protested. Rayyana hummed in response not understanding what it possibly could be. What kind of secrets could someone like Alejandro have hidden?

He was an odd creature, he banned the gays, he banned any other religion then one he made up on his own called Jandroism. (pronounced Han-dro-ism) and he had absolutely no sense of protection for the stupid people of his land. 

Whatever the secret was, it would be difficult to uncover since everyone was loyal as fuck to him. This land and its people were useless. They needed a strong leader, someone who would listen to them and make them normal again.

And suddenly, that's when Rayyana had an idea. "What if...we get rid of Alejandro?" She asked slowly. Fatima scoffed "Get rid of the king? I thought you wanted to escape not die." Rayyana tutted "No! What if we make Alejandro a.. commoner?" The girls all stared at her not understanding what she was trying to say.

"I'm saying what if we held a vote? What if we asked the commoners to select someone else to rule this god awful place?" The girls exchanged a look with each other before Marium said "It wouldn't work, Alejandro's kids are set to rule after him."

That would make sense, but was that how the system worked here? If payment was two exhales of breath, and to show respect you had to do a somersault then surely the way the system works is also different. 

Rayyana explained her thinking and every girls face lit up  "Wait oh my god you're right!" Fatima said excitedly "Really?" Rayyana asked suddenly equally as excited, Fatima shrugged "I don't know, I just said that." Marium sighed while Rida facepalmed. "Okay..uh anyway we need to work hard then to get Alejandro off the throne. And I think I know who to ask."

"What in Alejandro's name do you want now?" Sir Balisto let out a heavy sigh as the 4 girls entered Balisto's study. Rayyana smiled at him sweetly "You know Sir Balisto, we don't think you're being honest with us." Sir Balisto raised an eyebrow and put away the papers he was working on "Whatever do you mean?"

"We mean that while your weird king speaks a language no one knows, the rest of the people speak proper English." Fatima continued circling Balisto. Rayyana watched as sweat trickle down his face, he reached into a pocket they didn't know he had and wiped away his sweat with a handkerchief.

"The royals are required to learn Shakesperian. We take him serious here." He wasn't wrong, Shakesphere was a huge deal to the people here since there was a huge fucking statue of him in the middle of town square.

"Yeah, you're still lying." Marium said with calmness. And when she's calm, you know hell is about to break loose.

"What is the point of your visit?" Balisto gritted out obviously cornered. Huh, for a bald man he was very weak. But Rayyana couldn't help but smile, they had him right where they wanted him. "We know you have a hatred towards Alejandro, and before you lie and deny it we can tell." Rayyana quickly said when she noticed Balisto opening his mouth.

"So? Are you going to report me?" Balisto asked "No, but we want you to help us." Balisto snapped his head to look at the 4 girls now circling him. "You require my help? With what?" The girls all exchanged a nod with each other. Rayyana stepped forward praying this would work. Right now, based on Balisto's answer they can either leave or get their heads chopped off.

"We're going to make Alejandro step off the throne." The room grew quiet as Balisto sat frozen still, taking in the words. Would he start yelling? Would he hurt them? would he call for the guards? Rayyana's thoughts were cut off as a loud laugh boomed off the libraries walls.

Sir Balisto laughed for a total of 10 minutes straight, his belly held in his arms as he couldn't stop laughing. Finally, he stopped and said "I haven't had a good laugh in ages, thank you!" He continued laughing for another two minutes before he stopped and turned completely serious "No. I will not be helping you take Alejandro off the throne." He mocked.

"Why not? Clearly you don't want him on the throne." Rida asked accusingly. "Yes perhaps I might have.. over shared but if Alejandro won't rule..who will?" Shit. the girls hadn't thought that through. And it was true, who would rule? The girls only needed him gone until they could all manage to escape.

"Rayyana will." Rida said slapping Rayyana roughly on the back. Rayyana sputtered out a "what?" Marium smiled "Yeah, Rayyana will." Sir Balisto raised an eyebrow at her "You will rule?" It sounded ridiculous even to Rayyana but she decided to defend herself "What you think I can't?"

"Yes, you are not fit to rule a kingdom." Balisto answered immediatly. He was right, but still the girls wouldn't let him have that win. "Well too bad because you're looking at your future queen." Rayyana said with confidence she did not have.

"And what will I get if I help you out?" Balisto sounded bored now. He yawned and leaned back in his chair as if this were all a waste of time. "I don't think you're from here Balisto." The girls stared at Rayyana with quizzical looks. She hadn't shared her thoughts about the people from town also coming here by accident.

She quickly explained what she thought, carefully watching Balisto's expressions. But if what she was saying was true, she couldn't tell since the only expression's that changed were the girls. "my my my, you have thought this through haven't you?" Balisto scoffed and said "You're wrong, each town person here was born here. My final answer is no, I won't tell Alejandro for now but just know I have my eyes on you." 

He pointed towards his front door. The rest turned around to exit but then in the quiet of the room they heard a "Alejandro is gay, isn't he?" Rayyana turned just in time to see Balisto freeze and stare up at Rida with a look indescribable.

Rida had said that back in the stables, they just didn't know that was Rida's final thoughts. "W-whatever made you think of that?!" Balisto sputtered out his face growing red. "No wonder you're protecting him. It's because he's in love with you...or you're in love with him." Balisto got up suddenly, his chair falling from behind him. 

"Get.OUT." Rida stood her ground however "No, you're in love with him aren't you?" She slammed her palms down on Balisto's desk making all of them jump "TELL ME!" 

"OKAY YES I DO LIKE HIM." The air rushed out of Rida as she stood back with a smile. She turned around to the others who stood their with there jaws on the floor. "Told you." 

"But..Alejandro banned the gays." Rayyana said. Balisto nodded "I know he did, I was there. I helped him make the final decision."  He stopped and took a deep breath "I loved Alejandro ever since I was appointed as his right man. He has his faults but he was also caring especially when he was younger." Balisto grew angry, his fist clenching as he recalled Alejandro's previous lover. 

"Her name was Sasha, she was a commoner but she had caught Alejandro's eye. They spent every waking moment together, hiding in the forest a bit far from the palace so Alejandro's father wouldn't find out. I was out in the forest studying this new type of flower the King had wanted when I found Alejandro and Sasha...I caught her naked back first and then him and when I figured out who it was I felt this...pain I had never felt before, 

That's when I knew that I was in love with Alejandro. I kept my feelings to myself and instead wished day and night that a day would come when Sasha would vanish. Then, that day came when Alejandro was in his office angry. He had opened up to me since we were friends, he told me that sasha was pretending to come when they both finished. In truth, she was just using him because he was the prince. Sasha was a lesbian, and Alejandro had found out when he caught Sasha making out with a girl. 

After that, Alejandro was so upset and angry that he banished the gays, and threw Sasha in a cave along with her lover. I have hidden myself since." 

Balisto finished, his head hung low as he picked his fallen chair up and sat down holding his head. The girls stood their taking in the information Balisto had just bestowed upon them. Holy shit, Rida was right.

Well, half right. Alejandro wasn't gay, but Balisto was. "We won't tell anyone," Rayyana started "But you need to help us in return." She finished. Why waste such an opportunity? Balisto shook his head "No. Alejandro and I will never be a thing, but I won't let you take away his happiness." 

He got up and pointed towards his door again "I meant it what I said before, I won't tell Alejandro but I also will not be helping you. Leave." 

"Well that was...something." Marium started when the girls had left Balisto's office. They hadn't said anything after Balisto told them to leave, too shocked to continue their thoughts. 

"Let's go to town square." Rayyana said walking in the direction of the girls room. "What? Are we just going to ignore whatever happened in there?" Rida asked following Rayyana "For now yes, good job by the way Rida, but we can't do anything about that information just yet. For now, let's go to town square and try again to convince the townsfolk to follow us." 

"We're still going with that?" Fatima asked. Rayyana nodded "Yes, If we want to leave we need to continue our plan." The girls quickly got to work grabbing materials, and making posters. The others were determined as ever now to leave. 

And they will find a way to do it.

"This is a horrible idea," Marium said handing out a flyer to a little boy who eyed them both suspiciously. Rayyana stared down at her from the carriage she had possibly stolen and said roughly "No it isn't, you want to leave? Play along!" She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted

"YEER HI YEER HI!" Fatima scoffed "Seriously?" Ignoring her Rayyana continued "ARE YOU TIRED OF FEELING UNPROTECTED BY YOUR OWN KING? DON'T YOU THINK ITS TIME WE LEARN TO FIGHT BACK?"

People around her stopped and listened, "WELL I AM, I PROMISE IF YOU ELECT ME QUEEN I WILL GIVE YOU GUYS THE ONE THING THIS PLACE NEEDS, PROTECTION. no actually TWO THINGS, PROTECTION AND FREEDOM."

The girls watched as people started whispering to each other, some boys snickered while other older men and woman looked on. By the end of her speech Rayyana was certain Marium had been right.

It was eerily quiet, everyone staring at this strange girl who suddenly wanted to overthrow Alejandro. With a sigh Rayyana turned to get off the carriage but suddenly stopped when she fell a splat on her back.

She froze and ever so slowly turned around to inspect what someone had thrown on her, but before she could look another splat and whatever it was landed on her face, making her momentarily blind.

What the fuck was that? She felt the taste of it on her tongue and winced. She hated this Vegetable as much as she hated this place. 

It was fucking- "THEY'RE THROWING TOMATOS RUN!!" Rida screamed loudly. God fucking damn it. Rayyana threw the tomato on her face to the ground and jumped off the carriage running away with the girls, the splat of tomato's following them until they landed outside the big doors of the palace.

"OPEN THE DOOR!" Marium shouted blocking the tomato's with her arms. Tomato's were thrown more fierce as the girls watched the door open very slowly. "UGH!" Rayyana squeezed through the tiny opening making the girls follow.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!" Rayyana shouted at the man who blinked in surprise and then started closing the door. Thankfully the towns people weren't allowed inside unless they had special permission from the king so the girls just stood there, tomato dripping from them as the townspeople continued to angrily shout.

"Well...that could have gone better."

Rayyana felt like showering and crying at the same time. The tomato smell wasn't going to come off of her for months and she hated every prospect of this.

"Rayyana!" The girls turned around to see a fuming sir Balisto walk up to them, his hands were folded behind his back as he inspected the girls. He looked better from before, he must have washed his face. He sighed and said "my God...Alejandro wants to see you." Marium, Fatima, and Rida looked at Rayyana "Well, you will be missed I guess. Bye!" and then they decided to run off, but were caught by guards.

"OH COME ON!" Rida said as they were being pulled with Rayyana.

Rayyana was too tired to argue as she let the guards take her to wherever. Hopefully, somewhere where she can get a shower and rest.

The girls were brought to the throne room where Alejandro and now Rumaisa were seated. They were both occupied with each other, but they stopped as soon as they heard the door slam.

Rumaisa gasped and got up from her throne as if she fucking cared "what happened to you?" Rayyana scoffed "as if you give a fuck." Rumaisa gritted her teeth and sat down with a huff.

"what hath happened to thee?" Alejandro asked a bit too calmly. Rayyana took a glance at Sir Balisto who slowly shook his head. He hadn't snitched so she could lie. "We were out in town square and they thought we were stealing. They threw tomato's at us.

Alejandro coughed seeming to hide his laugh before suddenly laughing loudly. Everyone around him including Rumaisa laughed making Rayyana angry, but for now she will take this humiliation.

"I'm fain, anon thee knoweth bett'r than to runneth off." Rayyana bit back a reply and just nodded her head. But apparently the girls didn't get the memo "we didn't run off." Rida said angrily "yeah we didn't, we were bored and wanted to explore!" Fatima exclaimed.

"If you're bored, let me know and I'll give you more chores." Rumaisa said mocking them. "Let us go." Rayyana said too tired to rip Rumaisa's head off. Alejandro shook his head "Thee may wend batheth, but they're is still w'rk to beest done."

"More work?! We cleaned this entire damn palace already!" Fatima said looking around for help. The girls all agreed protesting this new work idea. "Break thee off!" Alejandro slammed his fist down on his throne.

"What?" Rayyana turned to the girls and said "he just told us to shut up." Rida rolled her eyes "seriously man, you need to start speaking English or something."

"The chef is out sick, we need dinner prepared." Rumaisa answered for her "love" "you got 50 other fucking servants ask them to make you dinner." Marium said. Rumaisa hummed "hmmmm...no."

Oh for fucks sake. "I want steak and rice." Rumaisa said yawning and looking away. Alejandro nodded "Aye the most wondrous steak thee can prepareth."

They couldn't prepare fries, let alone a steak. But they remained quiet knowing they could get their heads chopped off.

The girls were dismissed and finally they went to their room and one by one went into the shower washing themselves as best as they could. The tomato smell still lingered though as the girls put on their clothes.

"I'm going to throw up, I haven't eaten in god knows how long and now I smell like a fucking tomato." Fatima said running a hand through her skirt. "I know right, I'm really craving poutine...or noodles." Rida stopped and stared up into space possibly thinking about food.

Fatima walked next to her and also looked up. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean for this to get so out of hand." Rayyana muttered, Marium waved her off putting on her apron "it was our idea, you did nothing."

Fatima and rida nodded still looking up at the ceiling transfixed. Rayyana nodded feeling a sense of relief wash over her, what did she do to deserve such caring friends?

A knock on the door sounded and then a guards voice "get down to the kitchen." The girls sighed and made their way down the stairs.  "Look on the bright side, we've always wanted to cook together didn't we?" Rida asked in a small voice.

They had planned this out multiple times where they would go to someone's house and would cook together.  Funny how they're doing it now, but in a whole other dimension.

The girls all got into easy chatter as they made their way down to the kitchen. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

It was worse than they could imagine.

"None here either." Rida said closing a cabinet. The girls had walked in and grabbed whatever respectful ingredients were needed for rice and steak. They're were no phones in this world but they're was thankfully a cook book.

"How are we supposed to make a steak without the fucking steak?" Rayyana said slamming cabinets closed. Rida had told them that in the olden days they preserved meat by putting it in a salt mixture water.

Since they girls guessed that it was like olden times here they looked around for a mixture of salt water but they found none. They knew it was ridiculous but they then decided to try the cabinets but it wasn't there either.

"I see you guys are having fun." Rumaisa said in a mocking voice walking into the kitchen. "Fuck off." Marium said still looking in the cabinets.

"I hope you aren't looking for meat in there." She said with a laugh. She slammed 4 heavy crossbows down on the table in front of them. The girls gathered around and stared at the heavy things wondering why they were here.

"What..what is that?" Fatima asked picking one up only to quickly put it down "those are heavy!" Rumaisa shook her head "we'll get used to carrying them around."

Carrying? What was she talking about? Marium looked up at Rumaisa, her face pale but also filled with excitement "you..you aren't saying that we need to hunt for meat are you?!"

The girls snapped their heads towards Rumaisa who looked confused "hmm? Oh yes! You do."

"WHAT?!"

"HUNTING?"

"BITCH I CAN BARELY GO UP THE STAIRS??"

"Shut the fuck up. In this place me and my fiancé rule. And we say go out and hunt so you fucking hunt." Rumaisa smirked and turned around, saluting them. "Have fun! Oh and get the dinner on the table quickly, Alejandro doesn't like waiting."

The door slammed behind her with a loud slam. Marium picked up the crossbow and aimed it towards the door "call her back here."

Rayyana stared down at the crossbow with a defeated look.

Shit just got real.