Rival

5. Part A Kiss

Dear Diary,
My queen lessons continue and are going quite well. To fulfill one Genovian tradition I have to shoot a flaming arrow through a ceremonial ring, for a sign of good luck. Which will happen on the eve of my coronation. It’s not going so well. My hand eye coordination still is shit. But I am trying. I feel there are some important steps missing in my lessons. I just don’t know what it is.
Today, I learned the art of the fan. Which was quite a fun activity.
Then Grandma asked me to come to see the how to act while taking audiences with the people of Genovia. A chicken ran loose in the throne room which was also quite funny, Mia tried to run after it.

Dear Diary,
Tomorrow my stress level goes far into the millions as I review the royal guard and have to ride sidesaddle. The whole court will be watching, plus the troops, and I’m wearing a floor length dress. Thankfully Grandma had a secret helper to help me. His name is Herbie, a wooden leg. Hopefully this goes well.

Well, this went horribly wrong. A rubber snake was thrown at my horse Rose and she went into a state of panic, which resulted in Herbie falling off my saddle and me running away to the stables to cry. But of course Lord Devereaux couldn’t leave me alone and came to bother me. But Joe came to save the day. After that I went to my suite and Mia comforted me with cookie dough ice cream.

Some fancy event which I didn’t care to remember the name of was going on. I had on a green flower patterned tea dress and a wide beige sun hat. I handed a young opera singer an award, talked with the guests and tried to enjoy myself. Andrew insisted on taking pictures of me.
Then Devereaux came with Lady Elissa on his arm.
I was a tad jealous, but knew I shouldn’t be. I was engaged for god's sake.
Andrew and I were walking in the garden while he wanted to take pictures of me.
“You did very well, Kathleen,” Andrew called me Kathleen, ‘cause that’s more proper. But I don’t mind.
“Aw, thank you,” I blushed ever so slightly. We kept on walking
“Wait, wait, wait. The light is perfect. Just one more…”
“Uh, Andrew. No please no more pictures.”
“Oh, Kath, please.” We ended up running into Devereaux and Lady Elissa. Andrew was his polite self.
Me and Devereaux started comparing our ‘dates’, which felt like we were measuring the size of something. Elissa and Andrew excused themselves to get a drink. They’d be a nice couple together if Andrew and I weren’t engaged. Now it was just me and Devereaux.
“S…Mm.” I tried to say something.
“Fantastic party.” Devereaux said. Awkwardness had taken to the air.
“It is.” I said.
“You two make such a lovely couple.” He complimented.
“We do, yeah.” I said softly, nodding, feeling uncomfortable.
“It’s a shame you’re not attracted to him.”
“I know. It…” I stopped myself before I finished my thought. Asshole! “You…I… Come back here!”
I followed Devereaux who had walked away from me. We ended up in the hedge maze close to a fountain. I called after him. Walking next to him. “Ohh, you come back. You can’t just say something like that and walk away. I will have you know I am attracted to Andrew.” I stumbled a bit in my heels.
“Well, obviously.” Devereaux spoke.
“I am. He’s… We are perfect for each other. He understands me.” That first part was mild bullshit, but he did understand me in some way.
“Understand you? Wow. What passion.” Devereaux mocked, “I didn’t hear you mention love.” I opened my fan and started fluttering it snobbily.
“You are so jealous.” I stated plainly as I walked in front of the fountain. Devereaux followed close by.
“Why would I be jealous of Andrew?” He asked me, “He’s got a spend the rest of his life married to you”
Those words hit harder than they should have but they did. I hit him with my closed fan.
“I loathe you,” I exclaimed. Devereaux gasped. Then he hit me with his rolled up newspaper. I gasped.
“I loathe you.” He exclaimed back at me.
“I loathe you first.” My face got closer to his.
Next thing I knew, Devereaux had put his hand behind my neck and pulled me closer to him, kissing me. All the self control I had was abandoned. I kissed him back. My foot popped like my sister had told me hers did when she had kissed Micheal. Kissing Nicholas was nice. But I was far too mad to completely enjoy it. But I did move my hands so they were entwined around him. He did the same with me.
But then I really thought about it and gasped moving backwards away from him.
“What are… are you doing? What is wrong with you? You can’t just go around kissing people, especially engaged people.” I told him. My blood boiled.
“You enjoyed it. You wanna kiss again?” He asked me.
“Well, I…No!” I exclaimed. I hit him again with my fan, “Stop trying to confuse me and play with my emotions.”
“What’s confusing about a kiss? And I didn’t mean to play with your emotions.”
“You're just trying to make me like you so that I won’t marry Andrew and won’t become Queen…you narcissistic asshole!” I pointed my fan at him, before turning away walking away from him. By that time we had circled the fountain and were back at the front of it.
“Well, maybe I am and…” He walked after me and took me by my waist pulling me flush against him, “Maybe I just like kissing you.”
“I… You stay away from me! Ahh!” Trying to get out of his grasp was a struggle and we fell into a fountain. Getting fully soaked.
“Kit…” Devereaux tried to speak.
“You know what? I have an idea. Stop calling me Kit. And why don’t you go under water and I’ll count to a million.” I swayed out of the shallow water, while Devereaux tried to reach me.
“Kit…careful...Kit”

When I reached Grandma and Mia. Both had a shocked expression at my soaked state. I walked closer to Grandma.
“Do I want to know?” She asked.
“Nope. I don’t think so.” I replied quickly.
“Mm” Grandma hummed. I walked past her and Mia followed me and I explained to her what happened in more detail, but not telling her that my foot had popped. I said nothing to Andrew.

Later. Grandma yelled at me for being in the closet with a man who is not my betrothed, falling into a fountain with a man who is not my betrothed. I told her, it’s not like I plan these things to happen. Grandma also told me that people like us are held to a higher standard than others and that I needed to reach that standard. I told her that I grasped that concept but that the execution is a little elusive.
I ended up storming out.