Prologue
"Horses!" Al said in disgust. "You always want to play with the horses. Don't you have any imagination?"
"As much as you have," Eric said defending himself, but he knew it wasn't true. His sister was always the one coming up with adventures to do.
Al was sitting on the grass, wiping sweat from her brow as she leaned forward and watched Eric brandishing his wooden sword atop of his horse.
Al had never complained about playing knights with him before and Eric was surprised to hear her complain about it now. Al had always been like a brother to Eric. She wore his old clothes and her hair was chopped off.
Eric often reminded himself that she was a girl by picking her up and swinging her around. But then Al retaliated by slipping into places his big body could not get through. She delighted in reminding him of how he got stuck in fence back at the old house.
"Can't you think of something better to do than horses?" she whined.
"This is why I wanted a brother." Eric said as he made a fierce jab at an imaginary foe with his sword. "Men are always going to be better than women."
Annoyed, she said in a huff, "If you want to play knights. Go find yourself a brother!"
Al jumped up and ran out of the house. She already did what she could to be a boy. She always thought that by acting like one her father would spend time with her like he did with Eric. But no matter how she swore like a sailor, didn't take a bath or ride horses, he never did. And she couldn't believe her brother felt the same way.
She headed towards the direction of the park. It was her favorite place in the world. Watching people and inventing stories about their lives always made her feel better. But as she turned a corner, she saw a boy with blonde hair and eyes like the bright blue sky above her.
He was wearing a suit. She watched as his hands fidgeted closer and closer to the flowers on display in the flowershop. He's going to try and steal them, she thought. Her eyes widened as the shopkeeper grabbed the beautiful boy's hand. "Ric, don't even think about it."
Without another thought, she grabbed a fistfull of flowers and started waving them around to attract the shop keeper's attention. Catching it, she quickly put the flowers in her pocket and ran to the nearest alley.
She was grabbed directly from behind and shoved into an alcove behind the dumpster.
"Shhh." a voice said behind her. She stopped struggling and watched as an officer walked into the alley and looked around. She held her breath and hoped he wouldn't look behind the dumpster, until the officer went back out into the street.
She whirled around and saw the same blonde haired boy. In her shock, she had pushed him off and he landed in a heap on the ground.
"Are you okay?" she asked crawling towards the heap on the floor.
"I'm fine." he said with a wince. "I'm Ric, 11."
The age was an offer of friendship. It was how little boys assessed other little boys. And Al had enough practice of being a boy to respond to protocol. "Al, 9." she said offering her hand.
As they walked out of that alley, they were as thick as thieves. Thieves trying to steal flowers, but thieves nonetheless. They walked to the park together and grabbed ice cream. It might have seemed insignificant, but to Al it was the first time anyone had treated her equally. Not as her father's daughter or her brother's sister or the anomaly little girls and their mothers avoided. She was just Al.
"My nana just died." Ric had said while skipping a rock on the flat surface of the pond.
"Is that why you stole the flowers?" Al said.
"Yeah," he explained. "I just wanted something pretty next to her. Roses were her favorite."
"Roses are pretty nice." She gave him a small smile and picked up a rock.
"Yeah they are." He smiled back before pulling back his arm and throwing the rock.
"Score!" Al said pumping her fist in victory as she hit a duck, earning a cluck from the woman next to them.
"That's not a very nice thing to do, dearie." The old woman who was feeding the ducks said.
"Well it isn't very nice of you to feed them either." she said. "They would get fat and drown."
The old woman just laughed in response and asked. "What's your name, dearies?"
They looked at each other warily and said, "Al." "Ric."
"Is that short for Allan and Richard?"
Al smirked. She always loved it when grownups got her name wrong. It showed her that they didn't always know everything. She immediately stated her real name as Ric stated his.
"Alaric."
They stared at eachother, realizing what the other just said, and Al thought. We shared two halves of the same name.
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This is the updated version of the prologue. Hope you liked it!
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The Name Game (On hold)
Romance"I met him when I was 9 years old. He had blonde hair and sky blue eyes. I was instantly captivated. " Allie Louis had always measured all the boys in her life by her first love whom she met 8 years ago. Convinced she had already found her one...
