5 The Height Of Stupidity

"No, you may not" I say politely and look down trying to hide my face from Leonard's view

Please don't let him know-

"I know its you Tessa. Why are you trying to hide from me?" A cool whisper tickles my ear making me gasp

Why god why?

"It most certainly isn't! I fear you have been mistaken. Now if you will-" I try to move out of his way as my heart thuds hard due to the fear of Grace finding that I am the royal family

Then I will lose my job, my only place of sanity and then I will die and-

Wait. Why will you die? My inner voice interrupts me

'I don't know' I yell back at her 'Someone always dies'

Great I am having internal conversations.. again

"Tessa?" I snap out of my reverie to stare at the face staring at me

"Who is that? Sounds like an interesting person!" I say with delight and try to walk away

"I am not going to tell anyone that I saw you here" Leonard tells me without an once of joke in his voice

Bloody- Wait what?

I turn to Leonard, my eyes shining with unshed tears of gratitude. I may just tolerate this person and be grateful for saving me from my demise and-

"If you have a dance with me" He adds as he notices me trying to slip away

Dance? Dance?! Oh I will show you dance

"Of course" I say sweetly offer him my hand

I am going to step on his foot and then I am going to-

Before I can put my evil, malicious thoughts into actions, I start flying. Well not actually flying since humans can't fly, but the way I was being whirled on the dance floor made me reconsider my thoughts.

The dance was exciting, to put it mildly. I felt like a kid who was swinging and yelling whee overtime she does so. All the faces were a blur except of Leonard's who was smiling all the time.

And somehow I was laughing, not like the fake giggles made by Lydia but the real laugh. The laugh which makes you sound animalistic and convince people that you have a monster underneath your skin.

And then too soon, the song was over and I was standing unsteadily on my own two feet, waiting for the world to stop bouncing and stay still.

"Did you enjoy the dance?" Leonard inquires with a hint of smugness in his twinkling blue eyes

"If you call trying not to barf fun. Then yes" Lie

A full blown smile appears on his face "I could tell by the way you were screaming at me to stop"

My cheeks redden and-

Wait! Am I blushing? No way. Must be a trick of a light

'Except there is no light' My inner pessimist tells me

"Why did you dance with me?" I inquire, hastily trying to change the subject

Leonard leans close to me and whispers "Do you see the man with the funny moustache, drinking a lemonade and looking out the window?"

I follow his gaze and indeed spot a middle aged man drinking lemonade and looking out of the window

"Yes" I affirm

"He dared me to dance with the most beautiful lady in the ball"

Oh.

Wait-

OH MY GOD!!

I turn with surprise plastered on my face only to find no one behind me.

Is he a freaking vampire?

And.. was he just philandering with me?

~*~

"-the only thing that I have found women good at is taking care of children" A man with with grey hair says with a laugh and a wink at me

Row row row your boat.... gently off a cliff

Beside me Marie gives a light cough which suspiciously sounds like a snort. Darn! I mumbled it aloud

The night is still young, men are still getting drunk and I am still being put through torture

What a perfectly brilliant day!

"Hey. Here is a thought. Don't you think that you have reached the height of... uncanniness yet?" Lydia whispers and then proceeds to laugh at her own joke

A thought crossed her mind? Must be a long, empty and lonely journey..

I feel Marie stiffen beside me. That girl is way too protective of me. When will she learn that I am not a little kid anymore and I can fight my own battles?

I plaster a smile on my face and turn to Lydia "I am afraid that I don't know your exact height"

Lydia scowls at me before realising that if she took a jump from my level of smartness to hers, she will probably be charged for committing suicide and promptly stalks away

"Good one." I feel Marie whisper which brings a small smile to my own face and realise that she has one too on hers

The trick to fight back is to believe that these people won't be able to get to you and be able to hurt you in any way. As they say 'Fake It Till You Make It'.

And the thing is: I don't need to fake it.

I mean, Lydia believes that sun is a 'bulb' put up by 'men' to help us get 'tanned'

She does know that there is know vaccination for stupidity, right?

I may just understand that why the court thinks that one man as a witness is equal to two women as witnesses.

Though, that doesn't stop me from saying that women should get the right to study, vote and be treated equally and rightly.

Because in the end, we are all humans. Like damn! Women literally give life to something which makes them a kind of god. I don't think that men can suffer as much as women do and yet not give into crimes

You realise that you are offending the men right? My inner voice tells me

Argh! Of course I am. I mean Diana was widowed and she wasn't able to support her daughter because no one was ready to offer employment to women without any recommendation from a duke or duchess

If I hadn't found her half dead in the cold streets of England...

A shiver travels up my spine as unwelcome memories of past engulfs my mind feeling my feelings with rage.

If only..

~*~

"-and then they lived happily ever after"

I sigh at the text in front of me. How many times will the hero save the poor defenceless girl? How many times will the girl faint? And how is it possible that every time it happens, the hero is near to always catch her? And why is the girl always called an 'Angle Fallen From Heaven'?

Ouch. That must have been painful

I drop the book on my bed and roll over to stare at the ceiling. I look at the white walls and realise how different and posh they are when compared to Grace's room.

I don't deserve this. If I could, I would give all this away. To tell the truth, I never really understood the concept of royal families having their own mansion and servants and stuff.

Nor did I understand why water is wet.

It is totally wet and it just flows around and wets the floor and the carpets and makes the hair all soppy and mopey.

Why don't men have long hair? Long, long long with a pair of tong, tong, ton-

'You need to sleep' My inner voice (who I am sure is a feminist like me) advises

That doesn't sound half bad. My eyes flutter as sleepiness spreads like a blanket over my deep philosophical thoughts.

Chocolate... Yummy chocolate.. philosophy.. poo!..-

A crash makes me jerk my eyes open and sit up right. What was that?

I hop out of my bed and open the mahogany rich doors only to be greeted by a sight I never wanted to see.

My dearest father. Jonathan freaking Castellanos.

"What is going on here?" I ask sharply as I look at the broken vases and his guilty face. Then all of a sudden he starts tilting left and right.

Is he going to belly dance now?

Nope. He is drunk. I realise as I look at the bottle in his hand

I quickly help him and make him sit near the along the wall, he- thankfully- complies and proceeds to put his head between his legs.

I am about to call for help when my father burns into sobs surprising me and look over at him in shock. Never, ever in my life have I seen my father broken like that.

I swallow hard before asking in a curt tone "What is the matter?"

Keep it expressionless Tess. Be strong. Don't break down.

"Princess-" I flinch at the nickname he used to call me "-she died today."

Sh- Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh My God. OH MY FRIGGIN GOD.

I look at the man who used to making me laugh. Who once used to be my role model. Who once was the missing piece to the puzzle of the perfectly perfect family.

And now?

One piece is all crumbled and barely able to stand up on his feet and the other-

The other has been lost forever.

~*~