Princess Clexa

Part 1 and all

It's a rainy day. I should be on Latin but its raining and the whole courtyard is full of mud. My toes are itching to be in it. The teacher is arriving soon so I have to decide now. I get up and sneak up to the door. I open it and run off. I kick down my shoes and for a moment I enjoy the soft mud under my feet. I hear someone calling my name very angrily so I turn my head a bit but I continue to run. Until someone stops me... with their chest. I hear my head bump in it and a grunt and a squeak when we both fall. We lock eye for a second. Panicked blue ones looking in confused green, before I hear my name again but this time from much closer.

"Ohoh, Sorry!" I manage to say before get up and run away again.

In the end I get caught. On my way back with my arm in the teachers vulture leg-like hands I see the green eyed girl again. Her hair and clothes are full of mud; a man is talking to her. She doesn't look at me. Beside my usual lesson I have to write at least a hundred Latin verbs. My teacher watches my every move and she doesn't seem satisfied because I don't say a word. Yes, my hand hurts, the mud is slowly drying on my feet and clothes but I don't complain. Because I have a plan. After I finished with the lesson and I got cleaned up, I go to the stables. The girl is there talking to a horse.

"Who are you?" I use my "royal" voice as I like to call it. I like to do this just to test them.

"Lexa. Who are you?" Her eyes are defiant.

"I'm Princess Clarke." I answer with the most grace I can muster in my six year old body.

"I don't believe you."

"Why?" No one talked to me that way ever before.

"Because princesses have manners... And you don't have any." We watch each other for a few moments before I start to laugh.

"I like you." She blushes with a shy smile. "Tell me your story."

And she starts to tell me a tale. I believe it until the purple dragon. That part is too much of a fiction. So next day I go to her with a drawing of her and her purple dragon, I bring it as an apology for the mess I made before. Since that day she is my friend, my best friend, the woman I love.

*

I don't want to be here. My dress is too tight, it's too hot in here and most importantly we are here because we're waiting for a man - my future husband - whom I didn't choose. I hate my life right now. And here he is. Tall frame, brown eyes and surprisingly lushes black hair. Better than the others before... But still. He comes to me, kisses my hand, he's all kindness and good manners although his hand is wet and clammy. I hate that.

"Princess Clarke." his voice is deep and raspy.

"Prince Finn..." for parental advice, I try to bit back my usual sarcastic tone - which worked with the last thousand proposals. Unfortunately this one is not my choice.

"I can't wait to marry you." Yeah, I can. I don't want to marry you at all. I would rather spend my days as a farm girl in the middle of nowhere than marrying someone I didn't choose. And I definitely didn't choose this prince. My chosen one is in the stables, probably feeding my horse at the moment. But she can't know that I'm in love with her, never. So I clench my jaw.

"The feeling is mutual." I hope it's a good enough lie to convince everyone.

We chitchat a bit but he turns out quite dull. He can only talk about hunting. And how much he likes it. It's a relief when we part ways before dinner. And Raven is waiting for me in my room to know everything about him. She heard about Finn from the staff but she wants to know more from me. And I'm a disappointment to my best friend cause I answer most of her questions in one word.