My Golden Life

Chapter 36

At last, it was the end of the day. Freedom at last. I had managed to survive my first day, and I felt happy it went well. I had managed to make a few friends, learned new things, and I even helped someone who was in trouble. All in all, a perfect day, to say the least. Out of everything that happened, meeting Artie was the highlight of it all. I did hope that we would bump into each other again. The girls were busy with some extra school stuff, so I made my way back to my room on my own. As I walked through the boarding gardens, I spotted a few people gathering around the noticeboard outside my block. 

Everyone had beaming smiles and were talking quite loudly amongst themselves. When I managed to get in full view of the noticeboard, I saw a large poster pinned on it. It was a stained brown colour with bold black letters. It had a fancy red and gold design around the border, and there was a drawing of a person holding a sword in their hand. The poster read:

'Fancy your chances of winning 100 gold coins? Come and take part in our annual sword fighting competition after school tomorrow and challenge yourself to beat our reigning champion.'

"Reigning champion? Who is it?" I asked.

"Lancelot, of course," a guy behind me replied. "No one has ever managed to beat him, and I mean ever. You've got to be totally skillful and have quick thinking if you want to claim his title."

I pondered on it for a brief moment. How cool would it be if I managed to win? I mean, it had been a while since I handled a sword, but I could still remember how to put up a good fight. I was super pumped about it and couldn't wait to share this idea with the girls. However, when I did tell them during dinner, I don't think they shared my optimism, well Lucy did anyway.

"Are you crazy?" Isabel gasped. "You seriously want to compete in the competition?"

"Yea, why not?" I replied. "Don't see the problem with it."

"Me neither," Lucy said. " Can you just imagine him loosing? And to a girl too?"

"Only the boys enter, though," Merida stated. "No girl in the school's history has ever taken part."

"Well, I plan to change that," I smirked.

Isabel leaned back on her chair, tapping her fingers against the table. "Hmm, it would be cool to see that smug look on Lancelot's face disappear."

"And it will show everyone that girls aren't just damsels in distress," I added. "We're tough and mean business!"

"Now, I like the sound of that!" Merida cried.

Once we all finished our dinner, we quickly hurried back to my room so I could practice. Since I didn't have an actual sword on me, I used my umbrella instead. Merida grabbed the broom from my cupboard, and for the next hour and a half, she helped me prepare for the competition. The last time I did anything sword related was a couple of days before I left Far Far Away to go back home. 

I was intrigued about what knights did, and had asked Queen Lillian if I could have some lessons with using a sword. Surprisingly, I had managed to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Even though I hadn't practiced in what seemed like forever, I still knew all the rules and tricks. All the girls were pretty stunned, me myself, to be frank with you.

"Woah, Katie, you're good, no amazing even." Merida panted, crashing down onto my bed. "Have you done this before?"

"Let's just say I had some training from the best of the best," I chuckled.

"You better put that training into good use if you want to win tomorrow," Lucy said. "Remember, the entire school will be watching you."

"No pressure then," I half-laughed.

"Hey, you'll win for sure," assured Isabel. "We all believe in you, right girls?"

"Yea!" they cheered. A huge grin grew on my face. I'm so glad to have great friends like them.

They continued to help me practice for another hour, then I remembered that I had English homework to get done, so we had to end our training session so I could do that. I'm not going to lie I was a tad bit nervous about the competition, what if I ended up losing and as a result becoming the laughing stock of the entire school.

"This is why girls shouldn't do boy things."  Some might say.

"Did she honestly think that she could win?"  Others might whisper amongst themselves.

I didn't want to dwell on those things and doubt myself as much I was doing, I pictured myself being victories and showing everyone that girls can do anything boys could; we're strong and independent individuals. I hoped that I would even be allowed to enter. The poster didn't say that girls weren't allowed to participate, so I presumed that I could. Once my homework was complete, I decided to get an early night's sleep. 

I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen; getting to see the sheer shock on Lancelot's face was something I was super looking forward to. This was undoubtedly was going to go down in the school's history as being one of the most epic and exciting competitions.

And I was ready for it.