Sunlilly: When history repeats

Chapter 6: "her"

Me and Ben had become really close over the years, honestly we were more siblings than cousins with how much time we spent together but there was always a looming pain in my ass, and it's name was Audrey. Audrey was never a fan of mine and you know what, I get it, I was the girl from the isle she probably thought i was gonna try and kill her but as we got older i realized something... this bitch thinks she's better than me, she would always emphasize that she was princess Audrey and how she would "be queen someday" though honestly, i fault her family for that last one, very elitist those people. We were 12 when Ben and Audrey had started dating which was the most annoying shit in the world. I remember the day she was officially introduced to me as his girlfriend. I was sitting in a tree in the gardens drawing in a notebook when Ben walked up to me with Audrey on his arm
"Raina... I want you to meet my girlfriend"
Audrey puts her head on Ben's shoulder and smiles
"It's Audrey isn't it?"
"Ah- Princess Audrey"
She corrected
"Yeah, and i'm Princess Raina, honey your not special"
I came down from the tree glanced at Audrey, then at Ben
"Really?"
I ask
"What do you mean?"
Ben looks at me perplexed
"You couldn't do any better?"
Audrey gasps in shock
"How dare you! You know I'll be your queen someday!"
She says
"Yeah, we'll see about that"
She looks at me confused
"Look, all i'm saying is i'll be surprised if this actually lasts"
Audrey once again, gasps in shock and ben just looks confused
"Benny- boo tell her how much you love me"
Audrey looks to ben
"Yeah, she's great"
He says
"If you say so"
I say as i walk away and up to my room, it's always better to walk away when arguing with Audrey, she was impossible to reason with, i went to my room and to my nightstand opening the bottom drawer where I had kept my letters from Harry each one longer than the last, honestly i didn't think the boy could count let alone write but he sent me paragraphs upon paragraphs of emotions and conversations and... oddly violent "poetry"... maybe part of me was jealous of Ben and Audrey, I mean they could actually see each other, all I had was pen and paper. I was looking through a handful of letters when Ben walked in
"Hey, what was all that about?"
He asked, he wasn't angry but definitely slightly pissed off
"You know how I feel about Audrey... girl's a bit of a gold digger, though it's more her family's fault... also I don't think I've ever seen that girl have a coherent thought"
I say, Ben processes my words and looks to me
"You think?"
"Yeah, have you heard the stuff her grandmother says to her? Not to mention marrying one of us is basically a fast pass to the most powerful throne in the country"
Ben looks at me shocked and then looks to the letters I had in my hands
"... your jealous"
He says
"What! No! Audrey sucks. I feel sorry for you!"
I retort, Ben sighs
"You're jealous because you can't see harry, I get it, but why do you take that out on Audrey?"
I didn't have a response, I could only sit there in silence, Ben hops onto my bed and looks at me, and then the letters
"You know, there is a way you could see him again"
He says in hushed tones
"Really?"
I ask
"Yeah, it's a little dangerous but look who i'm talking to"
Ben tells me about a weak spot in the barrier that, with enough force, could create a small hole so I could get in and out. It was a pretty viable plan as long as I knew how to close it back up. That night we made a plan, Ben would cover for me while I snuck out through my bedroom window and by calling in a few favors, getting sailed over to the isle to access the weak point. At about 10:00pm i had snuck out and i had made it to isle at around midnight, now the hard part... opening the weak spot, my magic couldn't do much i could heal and that's about it however magic being forced on more magic could break it open, so that's exactly what I did, I pressed my hands to the barrier with healing magic emitting from my fingertips, after a couple minutes a small hole formed and i jumped in onto a rock patching the hole back up and assessing where I was, there was a couple feet of water in between me and the harbor, it was cold but not unmanageable. I dove into the water and swam to the docks, I walked the twisting creaky planks of the harbor until I saw the jolly roger, I snuck onto the side of the ship, making sure I was out of sight surveying the area, not much was happening on the deck, Captain hook and some of his crew were getting drunk while his eldest, Harriet sat by the steering wheel looking out into the midnight sky. I waited a couple more minutes, my arms burning from hanging from the ship for so long, once hook and his crew went below deck i shimmied over to the plank and used it to propel myself up onto the ship as quietly as possible to making sure harriet wouldn't notice and I snuck through the door to the captains quarters where Hook was passed out in his chair behind a desk covered in maps of auradon, in the corner of the room there was another door that led to Harriet, Harry, and CJ's quarters, I snuck to the door and opened it quietly. Within the small side room little CJ was fast asleep but harry was sitting on his bed with a lamp, writing a letter to me, I silently shut the door doing my best to stay out of the lamp's light, I reached Harry's bed and tapped him on the shoulder
"Hey hook"
Harry turned around and almost knocked the lamp over when he saw me
"Rai-how di- yo-your here!"
He stuttered loudly, CJ started shifting in bed and I put my hand over his mouth
"Ok, i'm really not supposed to be here and i don't want to get caught so you might want to lower the volume a bit"
I whispered, Harry got up and hugged me tight planting a small kiss on my cheek
"How'd you get here?"
He whispered, letting his arms relax at my waist
"It's a long story but the short version: my cousin called in a favor from a ferryman"
I explained quietly
"Do you want to go somewhere we can be a little louder?"
Harry asked, I nodded and we snuck off the ship and walked to the edge of the docks picking up right where we left off as if i never left
"You still have the watch?"
Harry asked, gesturing his head to the pocket watch around my neck
"Yeah, I almost never take it off"
I said
"It reminds me of you"
We sat down at the edge of the docks with our feet hanging off the edge, Harry sat there fiddling with his hook for a moment before he asked me something
"Do you remember when we were 10, and you said you had strong feelings about me?"
He asked
"Yeah"
I responded, he paused for another minute before he continued
"Would you say you still have those feelings?"
He asked, looking down at the water
"...yeah"
I felt my face get warm
"Do you still have strong feelings about me?"
I asked, harry's ears turned red and he looked me in the eyes
"Yeah"
We both let out a small, awkward laugh and we looked into the water
"You know... dating is a thing on auradon"
I said
"And being boyfriend and girlfriend is pretty common there too"
I continued, Harry looked up at me, giving me a smug expression
"Are you asking me to be your boyfriend?"
He teased
"Maybe"
I laughed
"Well, i accept"
Harry says, taking my hand, I rest my head on his shoulder and we sit in peaceful silence for a few hours listening to the waves crash against the rocks
"I love you"
I say quietly
"I love you too"
Harry says back, I look at the pocket watch and check the time, 3:59am
"Oh shit!"
I yell
"I'm so sorry but I gotta go"
I said to Harry as i scrambled to my feet getting ready to jump off the dock
"Will I see you again?"
He asked
"Ideally"
Harry got up with me and gave me one last squeeze goodbye, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and dove into the water swimming back to the rock creating a new hole in the barrier and closing it back up hopping onto the boat with the ferryman sailing back to auradon as fast as he could. The next day I had to make a "royal appearance" at the museum of cultural history along with ben... and audrey, probably the most unbearable shit in the world honestly, i had to wear a lavender knee length dress with pink ribbon crossed along the chest with braided hair and my mother's old tiara, i looked like her and it was miserable, and of course there was audrey doing the most, she was in a carbon copy of aurora's gown and she was practically glued to ben's arm giving me the death glare at any chance she got... how classy, now why we were there was because the remains of the magic golden flower or as I took to calling it, the sunlilly was being added to the museum's collection, there wasn't much left of it at this point it was just a couple of shriveled up petals and half a stem, you could rub two petals together and it would all dissolve into dust so why the museum wanted it I don't know but now it was sitting under a display case. Ben stumbled his way through his speech about the museum and its history before i walked up to the mic to give a speech about the flower
"Hello, as you probably all know, this flower saved my grandmother's life decades ago so by extension, it's the reason I exist, and now I'm the only one who can harness its powers after my mother took on the powers of the moon stone all those years ago..."
I stopped and turned to look at the flower
"And as the only one who can harness its powers i'm going to make this a lot less depressing"
I walked up to the flower and lifted the case off of it, i took the flower by the stem and slowly let healing magic flow from my fingers to the stem, the crowd watching in awe as the flower slowly returned to its former glory, the gold and purple slowly returning to its petals, I held the now revived flower in my hand as the crowd erupted into applause and cheers, i walked back up to the mic to finish off my speech
"Well, we're gonna need to pot this"
The crowd burst into laughter
I finished my speech and museum curators came to pot the flower and put it back into its display case. Then almost on cue, Audrey storms up to me furious as she pulls me into a corner away from the crowd
"You can't do that!"
She yells at me
"What? Jealous?"
I ask sarcastically
"No!"
Audrey denies
"You can't use magic! It's not allowed!"
She lectures, I look at her and just stare in mental confusion
"I revived a plant, it's not that big a deal, get over it"
I'm about to walk away when audrey continues her lecture
"This isn't the isle of the lost, you can't just do whatever you want! As a princess you need to set an example and as someone who's been a princess much longer than you-"
I cut her off
"Well one, we're the same age so you haven't been a princess longer than me and two, your overreacting, it's a fucking plant not a person, chill out"
Audrey is now red with anger
"Well i'm a much better princess than you and as your future queen you should respect my advice"
"It's not advice, it's making a mountain out of a molehill"
I sigh, mentally exhausted, and Audrey just keeps going
"No it isn't, I mean think about what your parents or-or Ben think of this!"
I put my hands on Audrey's shoulders
"I don't care what my parents or Ben think about me, they have no authority over my actions"
I say sternly
"Well I know I wouldn't use magic to one up people"
Audrey mumbles
"So you are jealous"
I say to Audrey, she's about to deny when I keep going
"Your Jealous because I can do magic and you can't so you're projecting your feelings onto my family"
I say to her
"I wonder what benny-boo would think of this"
I say to Audrey smuggly before walking off to meet up with my family, Audrey briskly walking after me. I go up to ben who was with the rest of my family
"What were you and Audrey talking about?"
He asks, I look to Audrey standing a couple feet away shaking in anger and fear I was gonna tell ben she tried to tell me off
"Nothing"
I say, Watching her squirm. Audrey's a pain in the ass but damn is she fun to mess with.