Chapter 11:

Aurelia

   Training began the next day with princess Mereleona, Stephanie and Claudia also got front row, now I’m starting to make meaning of this first row stuff, we were the army’s defense, and what I mean by defense was shield, we were to shield the army from attacks, very cool.

‘this is going to be so fun, those idiotic Japanese won’t know what hit them when we’re done with them’ Louisa said during swords fighting training.

‘I’m telling you Louisa, I can’t wait to meet their emperor and stick my sword down his throat’ lizzy replied

‘it has just been a month since you became a warrior and you are already this fierce’ Stephanie said taking a seat on the floor and crossing her leg over the other

‘don’t you have better things to do other than making mockery of me your grace?’ liz replied scowling at her sister

‘Of course not, making mockery of you your grace is my new hobby, I decided to drop reading novels and history notes, I am very sure I know too much of our empire by now’

‘reading and being silent looked better on you that you should know’

‘enough girls, we have a threat issue and you guys are arguing over hobby’ Louisa said dropping her sword

‘my sincere apologies your highness, but her grace here…’

‘hold on, there are three persons who go by the title your grace here so please address fully’ that was Claudia, we always enjoyed when Stephanie picked a fight with Elizabeth and liz always trying to be polite in her comebacks

‘Claudia must you interrupt them with your silly suggestions, it was about to get more interesting’

‘oh please, those two, I have no words to compare them with’

‘shut up Claudia’ that came from her two sisters and Louisa

‘you know I’m not wrong’

‘about the archery competition, are you participating your highness’ liz asked

‘I absolutely cannot say no to an archery challenge, what about you your grace’ I said referring to Stephanie

‘I would love to but I better just sit this one out. The competition is in a weeks’ time and I’m a little rusty, I haven’t held a bow in weeks now so I imagine what that day would look like’ Stephanie replied

‘well I’d love to see you participate twinkletoes’ liz said

‘who the actual fuck did you just call twinkletoes’

‘why don’t you take a lucky guess, never knew you were dirty mouthed, what would the dear duchess of Rothesay say about that’

‘please shut up already lizzy, you are starting to be the twinkletoes now’

‘do you know the meaning of twinkletoes’

‘glad you asked but we don’t care to know’ Claudia said shutting liz up

‘well guys, I am participating in the competition since I feel my mother would want to see me win of course’

‘and what gave you the thought you might actually win?’ I said

‘well you’re not going to be present because I’m going to break your arm so you would not be able to hold your bow’

‘we are going violent now are we?’

‘just kidding, you know I won’t do such a thing to you Fauna’

‘I know, I was just kidding too’ and we laughed to that.

Zachary

‘I doubt if mother would be there for the competition, her priority now is keeping England safe from the Japanese’ I said ducking an attack from luke and kicking his arm

‘why can she not put her trust in us and the army and ouch!’

‘two simple reasons, both of us are in the army and she has never trusted us and I doubt she ever will’

‘she needs to learn to start trusting us because I’m going to be a lot worse when I become duke of Sussex’ I kicked him to the ground.

‘I doubt you will’ luke laid flat on the ground panting,

‘time out, an hour break please’ I chuckled giving him my hand to stand but instead, the idiot grabbed me making me fall beside him and getting up on his own

‘I was trying to fucking help you luke’

‘I know, but that’s what you get for putting me in that position in the first place, I’m going to grab a burger wanna come’ I got up

‘sure, you’re buying me a drink’

‘no I am not, I refuse with all due respect your highness, I request you buy me a drink for all the times you have been a dick of a brother to me’

‘oh, and you are the correct definition of a brother, I suggest we buy each other drinks for being dicks to each other’

‘agreed. But you do know, this semester, you’ve been more of a dick to me than I have to you’

‘and do you know that by telling me all this nonsense you’re being more than a dick’

‘don’t turn this thing around Zac’

‘whatever, by the way, have you seen her highness since’

‘twinkletoes? Nope, perhaps she is practicing with her girly friends who loves nothing but pink’

‘don’t make fun of them, your sister Isabelle loves pink also’

‘and I ruin her everyday life with torments, I feel pink is her most dreaded color now’

‘I see the reason mother doesn’t trust us now’

‘and it is not my fault’

‘oh it is brother, mainly yours to be exact’ I said walking out of the third year training room, passing the first years, I decided to see how they were coping before I go find my sister. I entered seeing some taking down targets with the sword, some beating the life out of a punching bag and some practicing archery, my eyes went to the corner of the room, Aurelia sat on the floor with her friends and the French princess, I walked up to them ‘excuse me ladies, I believe we are to be practicing for a surprise battle. They all got up and curtsied to me before leaving to busy themselves. ‘Aurelia’ I called, she turned around to face me

‘your majesty?’

‘please call me Zac, I believe you would be participating in the archery competition’ she grinned

‘yes I would. I can’t say no to anything that involves archery’ I smiled, the queen would be pleased to meet her, having the queen of Scotland in our favor, mother was toast, I could already see the look on mother’s face when the queen praises luke and I of our wondrous deeds. I looked at her purple hair, twirling a strand with my fingers

‘did you dye your hair a darker shade?’ she took her hair in her palm

‘uh…yeah, lighter purple looked too dull’

‘your hair is longer also, are you thinking of shortening it also’

‘I doubt, I have missed my hair being long, it has been quite a while’

‘you look more beautiful this way’ I couldn’t miss the way she turned red and suddenly looked down, was she shy, hasn’t anyone complimented her on her beauty before.

‘thank you Zac’

‘well I wish we could talk more but I have to find my sister, I hope you win the competition, make sure you do’ I said taking her hand and placing a kiss on it before I left to pull luke who was flirting with the girls

‘come on dude, I’m not allowed to flirt with them, but you flirted with one’ luke said as we left the training grounds, I ignored him and kept walking

‘I wonder where she would be’

‘where else would she be, we didn’t look at the spa, I heard commander Brittany ordered that for the ladies participating in the archery competition, so the guys also participating are what to her’

‘do you want to be a girl so bad, I’m telling you it is terrible, period pains are the worst trust me, I get scared when penny is on hers, she is a beast’

‘at least I’d be a beast to others and have peace for myself’ we walked towards where the girls were having their spa whatever

‘this is for ladies only your highness’

‘I’m a lady now’ luke said

‘veronica, is princess Penelope in there?’ I said since luke was being stupid

‘yes, should I get her?’

‘please’ she smiled and left, I looked at luke ‘sometimes I can’t help but imagine, if you were actually a girl who would date you?’

‘are you crazy, tons of guys dude, maybe you, you look tough but you are so soft when it comes to the ladies’

‘dude I won’t date you even though you were the last girl on earth’

‘that’s what they all say, I’m a pretty sexy duke, the ladies gush over me, if I were a girl, it would have been the same’

‘yeah, guys like you would be flirting with you to get into your pants like you do other girls’

‘oh please, I don’t flirt with them to get in their pants, they willingly let me into their pants’

‘I can’t believe I’m talking about this with you, that’s enough for today luke, thank you’ he laughed

‘you know what your problem is?’ I let him talk, nothing is going to make sense that I know

‘what?’

‘you are too perfect and to solve that bro, you need to loosen up’ I raised a brow ‘yeah dude, you need to loosen up, get laid man, when we become who we are to become we cannot commit a scandal or we’d be done for, your mother will kill us, that’s why we are still to be king, to be duke so we can rebel as we like and get away with it, this is called teenage life and I’m living it’

‘luke, really, I need to get laid, that’s your big solution?’

‘like I said, get the feeling now, when you’re king you won’t have time to really enjoy it like you can now’ I rolled my eyes

‘I have to be the perfect one for penny, nick and Isabelle and you too, since you can’t be for them’

‘please, everyone for themselves, I can’t be perfect for anyone, I’m just enjoying my teenage life while I can, we are 19 from 20, tough first born stuffs will begin, teenage life will go bye bye’ I laughed, luke could be stupid at times, I still couldn’t imagine he said I needed to get laid, with who, third year girls, that would be so gross. Penny came out later tying a robe

‘what took you so long, you’re in the competition also?’

‘I was busy having a pedicure, look at my nails, pink dolphins, isn’t it cute, and no, I’m not participating in the archery competition, I just lied so I could go into the spa’

‘why? I thought you loved archery twinkletoes’ luke said

‘I do, but since that Aurelia girl is also competing I don’t think it’s wise to challenge her, she shot a target over a meter away with her eyes closed, who does that and she registered for the competition and the rest of us are…’

‘I get your point penny’ I said

‘okay, sorry, so what’s up, since when do you come by yourself to find me?’

‘well I was worried, I have not seen you for quite a while now, I had to check up on you, you are my other half you know that’

‘is something wrong Zac, I’ve never known you to care about me before’ she said laughing

‘I care the hell about you penny, you’re just too occupied with your friends who love nothing but pink to notice, you’re the one who doesn’t care about me’ penny scoffed

‘I don’t care about you, don’t turn this thing around’ I rolled my eyes

‘well that’s all, unless you want to watch something with luke and I this night’

‘coming over to your dorm is stressful Zac’

‘suite yourself then, having a twinkle toes like you in my room isn’t something I quite fancy’ penny stuck her tongue out at him

‘are you coming or not’

‘fine I will, but I want popcorn and not the one Lucas made, real popcorn’

‘I don’t even make popcorn’

‘whatever, bye twinnie, bye lord duface’ she said and sassily walked away.

‘I hate it when she sashays’ luke said, I patted his back and walked away