2 Like a Weed to a Rose
".....-nd so the alliance between our kingdom and the southern kingdom lives on till this day, making our longest and our strongest alliance, going on for generations to gener.....
And so the Royal History professor continued, making silly dramatic gestures to prove his point.
Maika let's a small giggle at this.
He stops and looks at her with a stern expression.
"Your Highness, would you care to explain what you found so humorous that you would think to interrupt my lesson," Sir. Harry scolded.
"I apologize," Maika gracefully lifts herself up and bows with both hands clasped together slightly to the side of her skirts. Harry's scrunched face clears, and he clears his throat continuing on with the lesson.
She lets out a sigh of relief and sits back down, this time more discreet to avoid another scolding. One small noise, one wrong move, and Harry goes into a hissy fit and scolds her like she just did an unforgivable and despicable sin.
As the royal tutor continues his lesson, Maika closely pays attention and takes down notes on her parchment with her quill. Suddenly the door abruptly opens.
A maid, slightly panting, out of breath, comes in.
"Your Highness. Dinner is ready and being served at the Banquet Hall." she says as she looks at Maika with a bored expression on her face. To other Royals and people of high status, this would be a sign of disrespect which would cause an unnecessary display of drama and some shouts and rants here and there, and finally ending with the maid either fired or being highly humiliated and ignored by the other staff.
To Maika, however, this is normal.
Harry muttering 'thank goodness' under his breath is normal too.
...
She walks down the halls on the way to the Banquet Hall, walking past servants, greeting them, but never noticed.
As she continued, she passed by a portrait of the royal family.
'I remember that day...'
'I was standing beside my father, wearing an uncomfortable light pink dress, heavy jewelry, my ash blonde overdone hair, and makeup done to a minimum, well…. as minimum as it can be.'
'My father, King Ezekiel, standing tall, authoritative, and proud, chestnut hair combed, wearing his finest suit, standing at the right of my mother. My mother, Queen Cathleen, sits on the throne, looking like that of a trophy wife, looking pretty and sophisticated, wearing a purple satin dress, covered in fancy jewelry, with her auburn hair in a bun, with strands curled on her sides.'
'Then my sister….'
'Hundine'
'She looked like the epitome of Beauty, her flaming red locks curled in luxuriously waves, her eyes shining brightly and confidently, shining with jewelry, wearing a bright green dress, standing to the left of mother.'
Maika stares at the portrait of the family, specifically her sister.
She couldn't remember much from my childhood, but she's the firstborn, the older sister. They always placed her in the center of attention. But then again, placed. Past tense. Hundine was born. With her pretty eyes of emerald green, a smile like a breath of spring, and soft ringlets the color of the sunset's flaming skies .
Everyone suddenly forgot about Maika. At first she was jealous, she threw constant tantrums, but those just caused the people around to think she was aggressive compared to the calm Hundine.
After a while she calmed down...
until that fateful day.
They were children; Maika was only 7, and Hundine was 4, at that time the servants were happy that Princess Maika began to play with her little sister.
The two were walking around looking at the fish on the pond, everything was calm and peaceful, but when the servants turned to grab their snacks, Hundine unexpectedly looked at Maika with an angry scrunched-up face, she looked at her like this for a few seconds, until she suddenly smirked up at Maika.
Hundine then grabbed some dirt from the ground and placed some on her dress. Weird was the first thing Maika thought, but then she placed some on Maika's shoes!
Maika was about to reprimand her, but Hundine suddenly started tearing up, sat down and wailed. The maids heard this, then came rushing towards the two. They asked what had happened when they saw the state of their appearances; Maika was about to reply and tell them the weird doings of Hundine, but Hundine suddenly pointed at Maika, and told them she did it.
They scolded Maika endlessly, and when she tried to tell them the truth, they said she should be the better person, and not try to get out of her consequences by lying.
Since then, Hundine has been trying to be the better person, or seem like one, she framed Maika, lied to and manipulated the people around, and every time Maika tried to tell the truth, they never believed her, in their eyes, Hundine is nothing but a perfectly good little princess, someone who would never do such horrible things.
Hundine never liked Maika, for whatever reason. Whatever she tried to reach, Hundine grabbed. Maika couldn't compete nor compare to Hundine in everyone's eyes.
Like a weed to a Rose…..
...
A servant silently pulls out a chair for her next to the Queen's left side in the table, my mother. Maika calmly sits down and says her thanks.
Mother doesn't quite look too happy as she looks at her from the corner of her eye. Maika could tell from her expression that she's displeased with her presence. Maika silently takes her glare as suddenly, the door bursts open revealing her sister Hundine.
Mother's face suddenly lightens up "Hundine dear! What took you so long?" she gets up and approaches her. "My my my.. You shouldn't just burst in like that unannounced," Mother laughs softly as she welcomes Hundine with a bright smile.
"Mother, won't father be joining us?" Hundine asked, with a small pout.
"Your father is busy, he unfortunately won't be joining us today." With a soft look on her face as she replied.
"Good Evening sister," Maika gets up as well and nods towards her direction. she watches as her mother for a moment looked surprised, remembering Maika was there, before giving me a small scowl.
Hundine approaches Maika and hugs her tightly with a smile on her face… that Maika knows is all for show. She reluctantly hugs her back. Hundine sits on Mother's right side of the table. They indulge themselves in conversation about their day, and gossip about certain royals, during the entire meal completely forgetting Maika's presence. Maika once again doesn't mind at all. She's used to it.
When the main course is over, the servants then prepare their dessert. Maika silently waited with her thoughts somewhere else, a certain name caught her attention in their conversation.
Fleek Shticman
Maika has neither heard of him nor met him, but for some reason- just for some unusual reason. She felt shivers down her spine.
Maika took the last bite of cake and excused herself to bed. She got up and excused herself. Her own Mother barely noticed her and continued her conversation with Hundine. Hundine took notice of this and Maika could see the satisfaction in her smug smirk, that Maika knew no one else but she saw.
Maika hid her clenched fists and left the Banquet Hall to prepare herself for bed. While combing her hair on her nightstand, something outside her window caught her eye. She headed out the balcony and saw a bright star. She then caught a glimpse of a shooting star.
A sweet familiar voice whispers in her head, "....look maika! A shooting star!.. Old folk say of a powerful woman who visits us every few years, no matter who you are, as long as your heart is in your dream, she will make your wishes come true.." the voice fades, another distant memory.
As She pondered her most recent distant memory, Maika spotted her sister taking a nightly stroll, her handmaidens around her, laughing at Hundines words.
Like a weed to a Rose…
