The Contest

Chapter 12

The next week or so were pretty uneventful in my part. We recruited Zianna Lemonway, while Evangeline stole Faber Garrick and Josie Krasinki, just to have Josie eliminated after an awful date with the Prince. The contestants were notified that there was a challenge coming up soon, and that we had to be ready for it. No one knew what it was, so there was nothing we really "had to be ready" for. On a very grey and gloomy Saturday, Tink came into my room at around Five O'clock. She was dressed in a lavender floor length dress, her red hair falling curled on he shoulders.
"You look lovely." I said, closing the book I had been reading.
"I need help." She said, crossing her arms.
"With what?"
"A boy." She muttered.
"Like you like a boy, or a boy likes you, or you killed a boy and need my help burying the body, help?"  I asked.
"Well I may need help with the third one very soon if he doesn't stop flirting with me. The second one. There's this guard-"
"Oooh."
"Shut it."
"Fine. Continue."
"His name is Leroy, and he's really young, and I just want him to stop." She said, collapsing on my bed.
"Shall we call a Powders meeting?" I asked.
"No...dinner is soon." She said.
"Okay. So explain to me why you're so dressed up?"
"Well...I had a date with the Prince this afternoon." She said.
"Really?" I asked, feeling my heart drop. Stupid Prince.
"Yeah. We had lunch and then watched a movie together." She explained.
"Sounds fun." I said.
"You don't sound convinced." She said.
"No! No, I think that sounds like a lot of fun." I said, smiling. Teony, who was dusting in the corner, peaked over her shoulder.
"Yeah, but anyways, can you help me?" She asked.
"What is he doing? If he's being inappropriate you can get him kicked out." I said.
"No, he's being anything but inappropriate. He thinks I'm beautiful and like the nicest person in the world-"
"Does he even know you?!" I giggled.
"Hey!" She said, gently punching my arm. "He calls me his Ruby queen. Cause of my hair." She said, pointing to her ruby red hair.
"That's flattering." I said, putting my book down. I could tell this was going to be a long conversation.
"Yeah, but I don't like it, and he's not supposed to be doing it, and ugh." She said, and flopped face forwards onto my bed. I giggled.
"Have you told him that?" I asked.
"Yeah, and it didn't work." She said.
"Well just stick with me for a while. Tell the other girls too. They'll help you." I said. She nodded.
"I know, I just don't want to break the guys spirit." She said.
"You won't. You may break his heart for a little bit, but you won't break his spirit." I said.
"I know." Someone knocked on my door. Teony opened it.
"You have a gift, Miss." she said. I looked out the open door to see a bunch of flowers. I got up and got the vase, setting it on a table.
"Who's it from?" Tink asked. I took a look at the note.
"All it says is 'Meet me on the second floor.' It also has this map. Thank goodness, or I'd get lost." I said.
"Well then go! I'll be fine. I'll grab Harmonia or someone to keep me company until the whole thing with Leroy blows over. If it ever does." She said. I giggled, and grabbed the map.
"Wait!" Teony said. She picked one of the orange flowers and stuck it in my hair. It matched my blue dress. "Have fun." She said, winking. I smiled, and headed out, following the map.
"Hey Amberlyn!" Someone said behind me. I turned around.
"Evander, what do you want?" I asked.
"Pretty flower." He said.
"Thanks." I muttered.
"Still have the ring on I see." He said.
"Evander, dear lord, would you stop stalling ever time I see you, just spit out what you want?"
"Can we talk sometime?" He asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well we've just been avoiding each other, and I don't want that. I...I proposed to you Amberlyn."
"And I said no. Evander you need to realize when no means no." I said.
"You didn't say no Ber." He said.
"Stop calling me that!" I said.
"Ber listen to me-" He grabbed my arms.
"Let me go!" I asked.
"Amberlyn."
"Let. Me. Go. NOW!" I yelled. He dropped his hands and looked around.
"You're going to get me kicked out."
"Good." I said. "The castle doesn't need a guard who doesn't understand commands." I said, and walked away. As I turned the corner, my body started to shake, and my heart was pounding. I just wanted him to go away. I sunk to the ground against the wall and hugged my knees to my chest, waiting for the shaking and the pounding to stop. This experience had happened before. I had been out with my Amethyst one time and a boy my age had started throwing pebbles at me while I was at the market. I had faced him and asked him to stop. He shoved me back into the table of fruits and vegetables.
"Make me."
"Stop throwing rocks at me!" I said again. The boy pushed me harder, causing me to fall with a load of vegetables on top of me. I felt my eyes well up with tears. My sister stepped in front of me.
"Get away from my little sister you creep. What did she ever do to you?" She asked.
"I asked her out and she said no." He said. I looked down, feeling my heart begin to pound. Yeah
"So she said no. Learn how to take a simple no. Clearly she made the right choice." Amethyst said. My body was shaking. She turned to me.
"She's having a panic attack, good job!" Amethyst patronized the boy.
"I-I did that?" He asked, looking scared.
"Get out of here before you make it worse." She said, and he ran away.
"It's okay Lin, it will be over soon." She said, as I cried. People walked around us, looking at us, but not stopping to help. Eventually Amethyst helped me up and took me.
I had been 14 at the time. I had always been afraid to say no to boys after that, but no one seemed to want to talk to me. I doubted the Prince would even like me if he knew-
"Amberlyn?" A voice said. I looked up, my face wet with tears. It was Archer. "Amberlyn, oh my gosh." He said. He came to me, getting on his knees. "Are you okay?!" He asked. I tried to nod.
"My head...it hurts." I said.
"It's a panic attack. Just give it some time." He said. He pulled me up onto his lap, and wrapped his arms around me.
"I don't know what caused this, but it will go away. Don't worry. You're safe." He said. I felt my shaking slow lessen, and my heart beat slow down.
"What happened?" He asked quietly.
"I-I can't say." I told him.
"Why?"
"I just can't." I said. He nodded.
"If someone hurt you-"
"No one hurt me. Not physically anyway." I said.
"I see you got my flowers." He said.
"Those were from you?" I asked, looking up.
"Yeah. I knew you were mad at me." He said.
"I wasn't mad."
"You called me "your highness." I'm pretty sure that's the lowest I can succumb to." He said. I giggled.
"I'm not mad. This is a competition, it's just easy to get jealous." I said.
"You're jealous?" He asked, smirking.
"Did I say that?" I asked.
"You want to be here, don't you?" He asked. He didn't need a response to know what my answer was. "So I also wanted to show you this." He said, pulling out a small notebook.
"Whats this?" I asked. He opened the cover and showed me the first page.

To Steven
Send me letters. I'll send some back. I'll include pictures.
I love you more than you know.
Farewell, Allison

"Is there anything else?" I asked.
"There's one letter. Many more pages have been ripped out, I can only assume he sent her letters." He said.
"What does it say? Let me see." I said, and took the notebook. I flipped to the next page.

My love Allison,
She's beautiful. I only hope she grows to be as beautiful as you. I hope you're happy with your Husband. Andrew seems like a fantastic man. I'm happy you've chosen the name I suggested. I hope-"

The rest of the page was empty.
"He knew about my father, but for how long?" I muttered.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"My mother and father were writing letters while she was in the Contest. I wonder if your Father found out and kicked her out because of it. Maybe they were engaged before he found out." I theorized.
"That seems legitimate." He said. "I wonder why he never finished or sent this letter." Archer said. I looked up at him, realizing I was still sitting on his lap.
"I'm still...on you..." I muttered.
"I don't mind." He whispered. I looked down blushing. "You can get off if you want." He said.
"I don't mind really."
"Oh." He said. We sat there in silence for a while. "Find any more information out from your mom's journal?" He asked.
"Um yeah, I read a few passages, but I don't remember them entirely. Do you want to come back to my room and we can read them?" I asked.
"Sure." He said. We got up and went back to my room.