Red Queen One-Shots

The power in our veins

For the RQ writing contest on tumblr. Category: RQ children

POV by Arthur Ives, adoptive son of my OCs Cassandra and Sorata Ives

Set in the year 333

Not one, but two Red Queen children for the contest. Note: They aren't dating or anything, they're twelve and eleven.

Clara came late to the last period before lunch. Well, not technically, as while the teacher Miss Ashford was already in the classroom, the bell hadn't rung yet. It did the moment Clara stopped in front of Miss Ashford's desk. Ashford looked up and even though I saw only Clara's back and her brown, chin-long curls, I knew she had to be smiling at the coincidence. Not that it mattered, Clara was a teachers' pet and could talk herself out of anything.

They exchanged a few words before Clara turned around to get to her own seat, opposite from mine. She mouthed something to me in passing and I nodded. We would meet after the lesson, history. An ungrateful subject. We were in the model school, made up of pupils with Red, Silver and New blood, and of several nationalities. Most kids - even more so their parents - were personally involved in the events we talked about. Some Silvers kept utterly quiet in these lessons, but not me, nor Clara and her Silver friends. Reds and Silvers had been seated alternatingly for a long time, and Clara had befriended everyone who crossed her path.

While Clara rejoiced in showing off her knowledge, some eyes inevitably turned to me. I was the mystery, the Silver boy without a "house", without a known ability or alliance - besides those of my parents and their families. What the other kids knew was that they weren't my birth parents, a difficult concept for some of them to grasp.

Mum and Dad had always been open to me abut my origins, but I wasn't supposed to share that information with other people. But we were unable to deny our lack of blood relations: While Mum was a Silver, Dad was a Newblood, and I looked nothing like them. True, there was a strange resemblance between my cousin Alysanne and me, as we both had rich brown skin, wavy black hair and dark blue-grey eyes. Yet while that was a kind of family joke, the stares of other people, trying to figure me out, became a drilling presence in the back of my head.

Who you were born as is none of their concern, Arthur. You are your own person, with your own life. Mum's reminder, which I glady accepted as my mantra.

I had to wait for Clara after the lesson, as she was still discussing animatedly with Ashford and apparently, she didn't care about losing time of her lunch break. It wasa fun sight, as Clara was tall for her age, already of the same height as the delicate Miss Ashford. I shook my head and went closer.

Clara noticed me. "Well, Miss Ashford, that's is for today, goodbye," She spun and left the room with me.

"You know how much you're like your mum?" I asked her on the corridor.

She sighed. "Must be true, if everyone says it. What about you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Do you wonder who your birth parents are and if you are like them?"

I stopped. "I know who they are."

Clara turned to me, and said, "really? And?"

I shrugged. "I guess I'm more like my Mum and Dad. Apart from the ability I'll have." I cleared my throat. "How was it, Clara? Did you ... feel your ability before that happened?"

She rolled her amber eyes. The day Clara Farley accidently made it rain and ruined the school festival's cakes and barbecue was legendary - and notorious.

"Seriously," I insisted.

Clara sighed. "I was nervous the whole day. It wasn't like I started the storm, but as if it had started in my ... blood." She shrugged as well.

I nodded. That was very similar to how I felt often, when heat and fire threatened to rise in my veins. "Thank you for the answer."

Clara started to smile, but her face froze suddenly. "Wait - you said know who your parents really are .. ?"

"Yeah? They're alive. I've seen them a few times." I blinked, then I saw the confusion - and envy - appearing on her face.

That was a mistake, Arthur. How easily you were baited! You mustn't tell anyone about -

"Why would they have given you away?" Clara almost spat the words out. She couldn't understand, despite our friendship. She missed her own father too much.

I looked down. "I shouldn't have told you. Forget it. But you've always known I wasn't - "

She waved me off. "None of my business." She left me alone, no longer caring about lunch or our homework project.

I couldn't follow her. Clara was her own kind of queen and I had to wait for the storm to calm, and I was used to it. Mum and Dad had reminded me too often to keep my origins hidden, or I was cursed to become a tool, to be used by those who still believed in Silver monarchies, who would think my blood was royal, that of a prince of two realms.

Commentary:

I hope you have guessed who Arthur's biological parents are.

If you want to stop guessing, here are the stats:

Clara Farley

Born: May 17th, 321

Parents: Diana Farley and Shade Barrow

Newblood

Ability: Weather control

Face claim: Tashi Rodriguez

Arthur Ives

Born: March 26th, 322

Parents: Cassandra and Sorata Ives (adoptive), Iris Cygnet and Maven Calore (biological)

Silver

Ability: Burner