The Knights and the Princess

Prologue

"No apology is going to help, but... yeah. Sorry."

"Gah, I need to toughen up. I'm sorry. I'll shut up now."

"Another necklace?" I asked, opening the envelope in surprise. I pulled out a small necklace, expecting to find brightly colored stones and rocks, but was rather startled when I saw that it was a plain silver pendant with what appeared to be a jade stone decorating it. "That's different." Mom nodded in agreement, but had to comment,

"It's always jewelry she's sending, though."

That much is true. Whenever Aunt Tabitha sent gifts it was always in the form of necklaces or something of the like. Earrings and bracelets for mom and Tiana, and necklaces for me and Melissa. Dennis I don't believe I ever received anything. "It's beautiful." I said, half-ignoring what she said as I tried to decipher whether it was exasperation or contempt. Most likely the former, but I couldn't be sure. "I think its... jade, or something." I reached the necklace clips and fumbled to get it around my neck, nearly dropping it as my hands shook. After a minute or two I managed to get it to clip and grinned, pulling on it and making sure the pendant rested on my chest, just below my collarbone. It was just as short as I liked it, surprisingly.

I quickly put the letter that came with the gift back in the envelope it originated from, and quickly piled up all my drawings that I had littered on the floor as I had been scanning them onto my laptop earlier. I paused the song I had been playing, Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story , closed my laptop, and stood. I flinched as my legs popped and yawned, stretching and automatically slumping over as my body grew tired. I put my pictures in another neat pile, sorting them and organizing my piles of drawings depending on which fandom they were of. Fandoms such as Ouran High School Host Club , Fairy Tail , Kamigami no Asobi , Vampire Knight, Undertale, and Kingdom Hearts . There were a few others, but I'm not going to mention them.

Making sure everything was perfect, protective over my pictures and wanting to make sure they would be unharmed, I passed by my desk-pausing briefly to look at my flute sheet music for Undyne's theme Spear of Justice and what little notes I had written out for His Theme. My oboe sat in the corner, along with a music book for beginner Oboe players. My flute was in my locker at school-an instrument I've been playing for six years. I wanted to learn Alto Sax, like my brother Dennis, or even trumpet like Melissa, my second eldest sister, but we didn't have the money and Dennis needed his sax to be fixed before he could ever even attempt to teach me.

My chest hurt a little at the thought of my siblings, as it had only been Christmas since I last saw any of them and it was now August. I missed being the little sibling, constantly being teased and made fun of, or just goofing off with Tiana and Dennis and arguing with Melissa about what might happen in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game. Sometimes I'm convinced that she still hates me, but other times I remember that she's happier and more bubbly now compared to what she used to be, and I feel a bit better. She's even been nicer to me these past two years, after completely despising my very existence for ten years.

I scratched my head, ruffling my bangs and messing up what hair I had, and tugged on my jackets as I shivered a little. I never could handle the cold... Two jackets and I'm still freezing. Three, I'm a bit warmer, but I can hardly move. Two jackets and a long sleeve and I'm perfect.

I was wearing short sleeves today though.

"Hey, Mom!" I called out as I walked into the livingroom, making sure I had my watch and Fairy Tail wristband on my wrists, "When are we heading out to the high school?" I had another basketball game and the Band was going to be playing again. She looked up from the thing she was crocheting, informing,

"In just a few minutes. Why?" I shrugged.

"Just curious..." I wonder if I should try to play Jack's Lament on the oboe again... I was able to get a pretty good sound out of it, the teacher saying I was a natural, but it hurt my cheekbones after a while and my lips didn't want to stay curled over my teeth as I tried to blow into the reed. Instead I plopped down, looking up at the TV and seeing Grey's Anatomy playing. Leaning back I closed my eyes, yawning.

I reached up with a hand and fiddled with the necklace, wondering how things were going to turn out at the game today since a student committed suicide yesterday. The game was going to happen that day, but because of the recent event it got rescheduled. The kid had a lot of potential too-he was going to have a bright future. Straight A student, so I heard. Someone said his parents were strict, and it didn't help that he was being bullied by his ex and a guy that I know-who happens to be a total jerk by the way. I had him in my Art Class, and he and his friend bullied this one senior who sat at our table. I was the only one nice to the senior, getting on the two boys when they kept taking his things (I being a freshman then). One day when I was walking to my lunch table with my tray (back when I had free lunch and Mom hadn't received her pay raise) I noticed he was sitting by himself eating at a completely desolate table.

I walked up, and with my brilliant people skills I asked why he was being so "anti-social". He said he had no friends, so I awkwardly forced him to sit with me and my friends.

I told my Dad about this (he and mom were divorced, by the way) and he laughed, saying that "all you kids are like that. You have to make everybody happy". It wasn't wrong, as I hated seeing people sad. Me and the senior became friends after that, but he graduated last year and I haven't heard from him since. I think I was his only friend...

I hope he's doing okay.

~~