~ The Unworthy Title ~

~ Chapter 10 ~

   "I didn't expect a cat to actually be a human." Her eyes went wide, I took a better look at them. They were filled with rage but it didn't seem like I was the reason for her to feel that way, she looked just...angry, broken even.

   "You are not in your little village anymore. Almost everyone in Keith is expected to be an animal."

   "If you consider Vesta a village then you really haven't seen one." She made a face as she was thinking something and turned her head a little to the right. She started walking very slowly around me with her eyes studying me from head to toe.

   "You are the girl my brother mentioned. I did expect you to be this... strange. But I didn't expect.. this." She told me and waved her hand while pointing at me. She was the same as her brother. No, her brother knew my limits. He knew when to stop and when he wasn't meant to say the stupid things he always had in his head. She was worse.

   "Well, sadly he never mentioned you. Maybe you are not that important to talk to me like that."

She took one step closer towards me and made her voice loud enough only for me to listen like a whisper, which didn't make any sense cause we were alone in the room.

   "Don't bother me and I'll do the same, how's that?" I grinned a little with satisfaction.
Alarick's Team 0 - Me 1.

   "Perfect." She nodded and slowly went inside the room that seemed to be her's and the other girl's room, with her eyes never leaving my face. That was gonna be so fun.

~~~~~~~~~~
~ Aiden ~

It wasn't hard to find my room. Once I got upstairs there was a corridor filled with wooden doors. Each door had a letter and a number carved on it so when I stepped through the corridor, on my left there was the door of my room "A1". It did surprise me that Crystal and I had the same room but I had a theory of why was that. Once I would open my door I would see if my theory was correct.

I opened the door and the room inside was filled with a warm atmosphere. The walls were painted with a navy color, small white bullets were also painted on the sailing which made it look like the night sky. In the center of the room there were three gray armchairs and a big gray couch.

The couch was turned to the right which meant whoever would sit there he would look at the person on the armchair across it.

The other two armchairs were turned like the other, to look at the person who would sit on the sofa. I could picture people sitting there talking, laughing at their jokes, being passionate about their interests. I went towards the big couch and sat on it.

Once I sat I raised my head a little to look at the armchair but across from me was not an umpty armchair but Sam. I almost heard his voice when I noticed him, "I think someone from you will see me sooner." he told us before he left us at the entrance of the academy. He was an idiot, I knew something was off once he said it but I wanted to be sure before making assumptions. He was sitting there, sunk into the armchair, no concern was visible on his face, only joy and a wicked smile as if he had accomplished some feat. His head was supported by his right hand and his feet rested on the table in front of him, he was acting like he owned that place.

   "Missed me?" Sam asked me like the idiot he was.
 
   "Shut up." He laughed and came to sit next to me. I turned my head and looked at his devilish face. At least I had him for the whole year, it was going to be awesome. I hoped Crystal would find someone to befriend while we were there. Someone who wasn't Bryce.


Bryce was like a big sister to me, she could be childish but at the end of the day she would always be there for all of her loved ones. Three armchairs and one couch. I looked around the room, four doors. Two on the right and two on the left, let's assume each room has a bathroom next to it.

That meant there were two bathrooms and two bedrooms. And because of the four kingdoms, there must be two beds in each bedroom. That meant that room was made for four boys.

I didn't like asking for instructions or anything at all, I preferred to think about it until I figured it out on my own. I heard a door opening and I raised my head to look at the door across from us. Gold blonde hair, green deep eyes, tall and muscled body, the heir to the throne of Keith appeared and looked at us.

Sam simply nodded as a greeting to his older brother and Alarick just went to the bathroom, not giving us another glance. Sam and I just looked at each other and raised our shoulders not knowing what was wrong with him. Despite what Crystal thinked of him, Alarick was not a bad person, he was just... complicated. As the heir to the throne he had been putting so much pressure on himself that he didn't know how to be himself anymore. How to be...just Alarick.

   "Do you know if the other kingdoms have any princesses or perhaps a counselor's daughter?" I asked Sam and stood up.

   "Why? You want one for yourself?" Sam asked me and winked at me. I looked at him with a serious look on my face, tired of his stupidity.

   "No you idiot, I want to know who Crystal is going to spend the whole year with."

   "And how do you know she's not going to be with strangers?" I looked around the room, not giving any importance to his words. If I shared a room with Sam and Alarick, two boys from a royal family then Crystal must have been with girls from other royal families. That's why me and Crystal had the same room number, the first on the corridor. They put all the royal members in the first room, it made sense.

   "Well, there's my sister Alyssa. Also, I think Zion's king has a younger sister."

   "Zion's king has a sister about our age?" I turned my head now looking at him, filled with surprise.

   "He's just six years older than us, he became king last year after their parents died." I didn't know any of that. I might had spent too much of my life in that castle, I had a lot of things to learn.

   "A girl from Zion, your sister and if she's lucky enough... a girl from Cordelia. It'll be good for her to befriend girls from all the kingdoms." Sam just sighed and stood up.

"For now, let's just settle you up and tomorrow we will see Crystal." I nodded and followed him to our room.

~~~~~~~~~~
~ Crystal ~

   "She can't be that bad." Mavise told me from the couch across from me. I turned my head a little to the right, making her a face.

   "That bad?" I nodded and she sighed. When the girl went to her bedroom, I mean- Alyssa, that was the name Mavise gave me, I went back to my bedroom and Mavise suggested we go to the living room so we didn't feel squeezed by the walls of our bedroom. I was right about her being Alarick's sister, she was one year younger than him and me.

   "Well, she's never been to any ball or event, even at Keith." My eyes must have widened by surprise, she was Alarick's sister and she had never been to any event? How was that even possible? Alarick and Sam had attended every ball and event, this world had made but she hadn't?

    "She really hasn't?"

   "You are the one to talk! You have only been to the events of your kingdom!" Mavise said with a loud voice, and a little excited. Well you couldn't blame me, no one from my family liked traveling. I simply gave her a smile, avoiding to answer. Mavise laughed and I laughed with her.

In our laughter, the sound of a door opening was heard. Mavise and I stopped laughing and our heads turned immediately to the center door of the room. A girl came in, she had dark skin and her white hair was braided by multiple braids that looked like a million. She was dressed in black robes, the clothes were obviously not hers, they looked like a man's clothes.

She came in and closed the door slowly, trying not to make any sound. She made a step forward very shyly, I took a better look at her face. Blue deep eyes, they were different from mine, they were like the ocean's. Some seconds passed in silence that felt like hours, three girls in the same room just looking at each other. I looked at Mavise and she looked back at me not knowing what to do. Mavise put a smile on her face that felt nothing like a fake smile, she looked genuinely happy. She stood up and went towards the girl.

    "Hello! You must be the girl from Cordelia. I'm Mavise and that's Crystal," Mavise pointed at me and I just turned my head and made a small wave with my right hand.

    "What's your name?"

    "Zaira." Said the girl with a shy voice. She was looking at me. She must have been wondering if I was from Cordelia too.

   "Do you perhaps know where my bedroom is?" Mavise looked at me and I just pointed to the room Alyssa went to earlier with my eyes. Mavise turned back at the girl named Zaira and pointed at the bedroom's door.

   "It's...that one." Zaira looked where Mavise pointed and gave a small nod. She took her bag from the ground and thanked Mavise. Before she went inside the room she shot me with one last glance and got inside Alyssa's room.