Rebel Lies

Chapter 10; Scarlet

For what felt like the millionth time today, I stared at the German textbook Rarity had given me. She'd decided that German was an easy place to start the first step. Why German? It was beyond me, why not another more useful language, and one with actual grammar. The sentences sounded so wrong that even though I technically know what everything means, It doesn't make sense at all. I'd initially decided to focus on German this morning to take my mind off of my failure so far, but it wasn't really working.
I was finally given an excuse to stop trying to study, when the door knocked, and Theresa entered. After an exchange of pleasantries, she asked how I was doing with German, and I couldn't help but share all my grievances with her. I told myself that it was going to help me gauge her overall empathy, and try to form some sort of relationship with her. She then gave some actually useful pointers, but it only made me more frustrated at my state.
"How about we go out for a horse ride. It can help you unwind a bit?" She proposed and although every cell in my body didn't want to, I agreed because I did not want to sit at this desk any longer.
~~~
Soon enough, we were both in equestrian wear and given helmets, gloves and crooks. The pants were surprisingly comfy, and I was already planning on trying to sneak them away with me. Theresa then pointed me to one of their more tame horses, and as I pulled her out I could sense that the horse knew I didn't belong here. The moment Theresa turned to get her own horse, mine tried to return to its stall. I sighed. Horses.
Instead I put him back, and decided to look around for another horse that wasn't given the royal treatment. The stableman noticed and seemed very confused when I told him that Ben was giving me a hard time, but he was new and just glaring at him made him agree. Pathetic. I had a look at the stable, until a black beauty caught my eye. It was one of the rebel horses. What was it doing here? I sighed, someone must have borrowed her and then left her the moment a sign of danger showed up.
" I'm afraid you can't take that one miss. If Ben was too much, I don't think Scarlet will be any tamer." I paused, and glared, but he held steady this time. Maybe not that new, then.
Theresa called for me and I motioned for her to come.
"What's wrong?" She asked, " where did Ben go?" I then explained in my sweetest voice, trying to keep the anger away, that he wasn't very cooperative and that I wanted to try scarlet. Theresa seemed unsure at first, but she told the stableman to give me the keys. He looked scared, but nodded. With the key in hand, I caress Scarlet and undo the lock on her stall. I guide her out and get her set up with minimal gear, and prep her.
" you've done this before, Athena?" The princess asks.
"Horse-care is one of the only things I remember my father teaching me." And everyone went silent. Glad that people were no longer questioning me, I finished up Scarlet and led her out beside Theresa and her horse.
"So since you're no newbie, how about a warm up race?" Theresa challenged and I gladly accepted. The stableman was given the position of judge and a path was set, and as he shouted for us to start, I took Scarlet by the reins and she ran, and I remembered how awesome it is to be on a horse with no care in the world. To my surprise, Theresa wasn't lagging behind, and I smiled, this was the closest thing to an actual horserace in a long time.
~~~
Five races later, all of us were exhausted, and breathless. We wordlessly brushed the horses, fed them, and led them to their stalls. By the time we were heading to the castle, we both had a mess of hair on our heads and really wide smiles on our faces. And to my utter surprise, me and the princess turned out to have something in common. It made me question if the princess was as weak as she seemed.
" hey how about you bring your German over to my room and I can help? Maybe a change of study spot is what you need?" I paused taken aback by the offer, yet still suspicious of it. Regardless, I agreed hoping that maybe I can dig up some information about her family from her. Although, I wasn't so sure about that now that I've seen her on a horse, and that she was always close behind. She'd seemed like the weak link in this unbreakable chain of royals toying with me, but I was beginning to wonder if it's her part in the whole thing. To be the innocent clueless princess that everyone loves and gently steer people away from her family's disasters. Suddenly, I felt a cold chill down my spine. she wasn't simply bored earlier, she wanted to evaluate me, and I'd almost exposed myself.

In the princess' room, there was a desk nothing like mine, a love seat, and lots of pictures of her on the walls. I knew other people lived in the castle, but this seemed to have been her room for a while now, well over 4 years. Above her desk, were a few shelves filled with numerous knick-knacks and more pictures. Her desk was what caught my eye though, if simply because while I have a plain wooden desk, hers is made of a sleek metal with a screen jutting out over a keyboard, and As she pushed it down, it was like it was never there.
"You can have the desk," she began as she waved her hand over the side, "I'll be beside you in case you need anything" but I wasn't listening to her anymore, I was focused on the side table that was extending from the desk and the stool that was tucked under it somehow. My focus returned to her as she chuckled " I may not going to ever be a true ruler of Amal but Bas isn't the only one with all the new tech." Then I realized where I hadn't seen anything in the study when I looked through everything, it's because all the important stuff isn't going to just be sitting out in the open in an open study. I felt a sense of pride as I finally figured a piece of the puzzle out. I smile and sit at the desk.

But looking down at the German book in front of me, I feel like a failure all over again. As I try to learn the useless language's nonexistent word order, Theresa juts in, "so what's the part you're struggling with? The vocabulary?" I shake my head and tell her about all the frustration that this stupid language has given me in the past few days. She nodded "I see, I had that same problem when I was learning it except I was a lot younger back then, but there's like a secret to German" she pauses, scoots closer to me, and points at a sentence, "I like to think of German as a punctual language" at my look of utter confusion she continues "when it comes to being punctual, you're either on time or you're not. That is the first thing people will notice or hear. YOU. If you're not punctual, then the first word that comes out of your mouth is a quick one word excuse, like traffic or another person. Then you usually say what that person or traffic was doing, like the traffic was bad or the person overslept."
For a brief moment, it feels like I'm back at HQ with Diane and Ophelia teaching me how to read people and finish their sentences. "So It's basically like an out of breath person running to a meeting barely on time trying to come up with a coherent sentence?" I blurt out. She seems surprised but nods.
" No one gets my metaphors on the first try," she said with a smile. " I had to explain this to Sebastian like five times before he gave up and went to teach himself." She sighed and shook her head with a reserved smile. Something tells me they don't have a great relationship. Everyone knows about princess Theresa and how she was born a few seconds after her twin brother, but they looked almost nothing alike. She takes on more of Rarity's appearance and her father's temper, while her brother is the complete opposite. Then I paused for a second.
"Wait didn't you two learn German at the same time?" Their classes together were seen as the pinnacle of cuteness and joy.
She hesitated. "Well yeah, I just was able to wrap my head around it faster." She said finally with a smile. It wasn't sincere, she was telling a lie. The problem is I couldn't tell what the lie was. I decided to not press the subject lest she get suspicious, and we went back to the books. This time she was helping me with any clunkiness in my sentences.