Jess
We were on our way home from the tea party with the Queen. I was sitting next to Alexandra across from us was our newly released house guest, Derek. She was looking out the window, no doubt overthinking about how the tea party went. My perception of her was that she overthought things an awful lot. She overthought the Scribe program and how people would perceive her. I had often thought it was because her life in Terre was often judged rather harshly. In my eyes, if people had really gotten to know her for who she truly was; she likely would have been so popular amongst the humans. She’s certainly popular here amongst most and the ones that hate her did so out of jealousy or perceived notions on how she was raised. It’s funny being an introvert like myself because you often see what others don’t. You see a girl in deep emotional pain finally making friends but she doesn’t want to lose them so she frets over everything. In Derek, I see a guy who plays up like he’s a ladies’ man when in reality he was biding his time to find someone he deemed special. Unfortunately for him, he has some competition and he doesn’t know that that is lady he won’t win. As for me, I have known Derek my entire life and I had had a crush on him since we were small children. At first, it was painful for me to watch him shamelessly flirt with anything female but I kept that to myself and I accepted that maybe he wasn’t really into me. Still, the heart wants what the heart wants and my heart always has wanted Derek and it likely always will.
I should be jealous of Alexandra myself since my object of affection has a crush on her but I know that isn’t her fault. I hadn’t really told her where my heart was either. I made a mental note to myself that she and I would have to find some time to speak about these things before the next full moon. Luckily the full moon came around less in Vellum than it had in Terre so I had time to do so. I wanted to have girl talk for my birthday so I could see how she felt about Derek then I can tell her where I was at. Knowing Alexandra, she would help me to figure out how to catch his attention. I wasn’t exactly the prototype of the girls he was looking at and talking to. I shrunk into the background and was usually a bit of a tomboy while all the other girls were outgoing and bold girly dressers. I only dressed up when I had to for things like the ball or today’s tea party. The silence broke when Alexandra looked at me, “What did you think about today?” I looked down at my hands folded in my lap, “It was exhausting for me but I think we all at our table represented our families well. How about you?” She smiled and patted my hands, “I know you’re the quiet type and I don’t know if you desire to marry the King but if you aren’t more outspoken, sweet friend, you might be alone.” I glanced up at Derek who was staring at Alexandra, I sighed, “I know, Xan. I am working on it. I don’t really have the desire to marry the King though. I have someone else that I like.” I could feel the heat rising to my face as it so often did.
She giggled, “You’ll have to tell me some time when male ears are in range. You never know if this one is friends with your crush.” I nodded, “Okay, let’s talk about it during my birthday slumber party in a couple of weeks.” She sat up straight, “You know? This will be my first one. I’m so excited!” I giggled at her, “It will be you and me but did we want anyone else?” She regarded me with a strange expression on her face, “It’s your party sweet girl. You get to decide.” I blushed again, “B-but it’s your house.” She scoffed, “Mi casa es su casa love.” Derek laughed, “Is that some sort of weird language you girls came up with?” She rolled here eyes and went to looking back out the window, disregarding his question. I spoke up, “Derek, it’s a human language called Spanish. It’s very prevalent in the place she grew up. It’s really a beautiful language.” I looked at Alexandra and wondered if anyone had ever mistaken her as being of Hispanic descent. I asked, “Hey Xan, did anyone ever think you were Hispanic?” She laughed, “All the damn time. You would think I knew that language as much as it was spoken to me. Besides basic Spanish in high school and being spoken at by random people, I know nada.” I always loved Alexandra’s charming wit and I imagined it was precisely what drew so many in or, at least, it kept all of us hanging on. Derek made a grunt to acknowledge that he now understood what I said to him.
He looked at me, “So Jess, why the Citadel? You don’t even seem like a warrior type.” I looked him in the eye, “I don’t seem like the type? What do you mean?” He shifted in his seat uncomfortably, “Well, as long as I have known you, you always looked like you were two seconds from breaking. I never thought you’d be a warrior. I always pegged you for a bookworm type of job like librarian or diplomat.” Alexandra rolled her eyes again, “So you think it’s proper to judge a person by their looks? Why does that not surprise me?” He shrunk in his seat, clearly embarrassed for having the preconceived notion that I was fragile. I raised my fist to her and she fist bumped me back. I looked at him and spoke, “Actually, humans have this thing called martial arts. With a little money, you can get taught this and so in my year in Terre, I took advantage of these classes. I’m stronger than I look.” Alexandra exclaimed, “Dude, I can vouch for that. Back in Terre, before we came here, I asked her for a demonstration and she threw one of the servants who volunteered across the room. He was a heavy-set dude so it was rather impressive that someone so thin could basically use a big guy like a darn football.” He furrowed his brows, “What is a football?” She chuckled, “Only the greatest sport in Terre’s America. Jess can vouch for that.” I smiled, “Go Broncos!” We fist bumped again, Alexandra loved to watch American Football and being she grew up in Colorado, her team was the one local to her state. Derek leaned forward, “You ladies will have to teach me about this sport. If both of you are into it, it must be something.”
Silence descended upon the carriage until Alexandra snapped her fingers, “Oh right! How in the heck were you able to pull off being my escort?” Derek chuckled, “Simply that we drew names out of a hat, I actually got Lady Baltilliard and Meldon Maigny got you. He asked to switch because he knew that his sister would cackle at him for escorting you. He seemed upset having to do so though. He wanted to meet you but his desire to not get nagged at was stronger.” Alexandra and I looked at each other and started laughing. She wiped a tear from her eye, “I imagine it isn’t easy being related to that harpy.” My laughter died down a little, “Well put, it’s even worse though for him.” She looked at me, “How so?” Derek chuckled, “They’re twins.” She gasped, “You mean to tell me that he had to share a womb with her? Oh, that poor soul. I can’t imagine being stuck to her from inception to growing up. I can’t even stand to be in her presence for a little while.” I spoke, “Oh I know, she’s pretentious. How you even dated her is beyond me?” I eyed Derek and he shrugged, “I mean it wasn’t all bad. She can be less intense at times. I honestly only liked her for her looks anyhow. I know that’s shallow but that’s the harsh reality. Heaven help the guy who ends up with her.” Alexandra scoffed, “If anyone is willing.” The carriage pulled up to the manor and as Dana came into view her face was panic stricken more in her eyes than anything. I don’t think Alexandra saw the way she looked because she was continuing to smile as Derek and I got out of the carriage. She finally realized it when she stepped out and Dana ran over to her. Alexandra had wiped the smile on her face as a look of worry set on her face. I looked at her and could tell she was playing a million scenarios out in her mind. She looked at Dana and said, “What is it?” Dana looked down, “Someone broke into your room. They left bloody traces.”
