The not-a-princess

Tower of relationship talks

"WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGG!" I screech. My arms and legs flailing above my head, I can't feel my stomach... Oh that's not good.

"TRUST ME!" he yelled back. I wanted to say that I did not but the wind was screaming past my ear and I was getting light-headed

Now we were free-falling almost 50 feet and all three of the gargoyles were plummeting down after us,their mouths open. At the base of the tower, Ria and Kieren were playing cards. I closed my eyes. We're going to die. So, stupid, its good to have an honourable death (in combat or whatever)  but here I am plummeting down because some stupid idiot left his brain under his bed. And even the fall didn't kill us, the gargoyles are inches away.

Still holding onto me, James reached out and grabbed a wing of the gargoyle right next to us and swung his weight to shift mine to catapult the two of us onto its back. We both landed on our side and instantly began to slip off. Desperately, we hold onto both of its horns,it wasn't pleased and tried to shake us off by soaring up. We clashed and bashed and nearly split our skulls open but we didn't let go. 

Not until... we reached the window at the top, in unison we both leapt off, feet facing towards the window and broke ourway in. Sitting inside the tower we gasped for breath. We both had the soles ofour shoe ruined, glass in our ankles and a long hard bruise going from our shoulder to thigh. Pro tip: never ride a gargoyle. Ever.

We lay there for almost 10 minutes groaning in pain. Everything hurt so badly, I could feel my vision blurring. It felt like someone had poured acid down my skin. And without meaning to we both still gripped each other's hands tightly as if we let go, we would fall back to our doom. James sat up with a whine, "I think I hit my head, you still in one piece?" I nod, forcing myself up. 

I spit out blood and stand up, letting go off his hand, "oh." 

"uhm, that was just for safety, anyways did you bring a torch?"he said - a little too quickly as he started to make his way around the room, "Stay close to me." 

I roll my eyes and hand him the torch, regaining my composure "It would be advisable to let the others know we're inside the tower."

 "No, then we'd let the whole school know."

"If I were to say so, my opinion is that both Ria and Kieren are really cute together. They're both two wrecking balls of chaos, like the sun and moon - it's almost poetic," I let my thoughts aloud, sighing with slight longing. 

He chuckles, "I know right? The whole school is begging for them to date!" I spit out more blood, "they're not dating?!" I exclaim. I take a deep breath, I can't let emotion get to my speech. Think princess. Royal. Formal

He shoots me a weird look, "I keep forgetting you're new." As if that explains anything. "So now they do everything together as 'friends' karaoke nights, pranks like setting the school carriages with whoopie cushions, kieren even learnt how to play guitar for her. They're like partners in crime." He continues, "Everyone in this school is either scared to date or dating is just not their thing, you know. These two are made for each other so well, it's scary. They're so perfect together, the teachers believe nothing good will come from their relationship and banned it." 

I stop in my tracks, "That is the utmost tragic." Its sound like a backstory for a villain.Stop... I shouldn't think like that, even if Ria is a little bit... how to put it nicely..? a little bit dodgy but I'm sure nothing that bad will ever happen...right? I mean I'm pretty sure she just won't just go ahead and like blow up the school or something... Sweat starts forming at the back of my neck. I could feel a rash creeping up me. I shook my head: I need to focus on this mission. I can doubt Ria later but for now my life is in her charcoal smudged hands – whether I like it or not. 

James just absent-mindedly carries on walking to the more recent section, "I know but I'm not banned from dating anyone and I'm not scared either." 

"I am unsure of how that correlates to me or this mission. So, good for you?" I mumble, pushing past him, my eyes on the one and only. In the background, I heard him scoff. My eyes brush past something. Shiny and sharp. Covered in sapphires. 

Excalibur. 

It was safe, thank god. I turn to him sharply, "Send signs to our comrades to send us the explosives so we can barricade this off." 

"Yeah, yeah." He sighs, limping towards the window. Using the flashlight, he sent signals down and in a matter of moments, a very badly used floating hex flew up some grenades and mousetrap likes. (And nearly blew us up in the process) but I quickly start setting them off, my nimble fingers flying around faster than I could even think. 

Meanwhile behind me, my future, I mean James is setting a tactically sequenced booby trap while leaving us an exit route. We both acted feverishly for an hour or so, somehow working together as if we'd been trained together for years. James whistled, "Not bad, lady. I think we make a great team." 

I scoff, adding the last trigger - the cherry on top for our grenade pile, "Prince James. Whether or not we make a good team, it is a matter of survival. But if you must say so, I think I did extraordinary." 

He shrugged and raised his hands in surrender as if not wanting to question my authority butI caught that small smirk. "Well? What are we waiting for? Lets drop the ropes and head down." We both obeyed silently and upon reaching the bottom, I nearly got my ankles seared by a laser. Yet just in time, James reached out, caught my leg and swung me the other way. Then we nearly got blinded, shot at and bombed with. I would've died five times if it weren't for James. (As much as I hate to admit it) I guess he has sharp and... dreamy eyes. 

Apparently, Ria and Kieren had set up, movement sensitive fart bombs, glitter flash grenades, a kitty cat laser beam and an automatic robot that sang happy birthday and shot bullets every five seconds. It was as if this whole thing was set up to be a deadly birthday party. We spotted Ria snoring away in Kieren's lap and as for himself, he was too busy braiding deadly nightshade into his bright pink hair. He waved us over, "guessing by those burn marks, glitter and bruises, I'm saying we did a pretty good job setting those traps," he shrugged rather smugly, causing Ria to wake up mid-snort. 

Her hair stuck up in all direction and she had glitter on one side of her face, "yo."