THE ROYAL ENEMY

CHAPTER 8- GOOGLE EYES

"A man's vanity is more fragile than you might think. It's easy for us to mistake shyness for coldness, and silence for indifference." ― Lisa Kleypas

JULIA

Casandra and I, sat on the brick wall overlooking the training ground, we were taking a break, from the vigorous fighting routine our coach makes us do.

"Hey, you want to have a sleepover today?" She asked me, and I grinned happily, "Oh my god, yes, we haven't had one in ages. We can even invite becks and the others," I said.

"It's going to be so much fun," she agreed. We fell silent after that, each in our own thoughts about what we would do at the sleepover.

"He seriously needs to learn, and fast," Casandra suddenly broke the silence. I frowned at her, "Huh, what do you mean, Cas?" I asked and she nodded at something behind me.

I watched as Leo beat a boy to the ground, his sword almost falling out of his hands in doing so. It almost looked like the boy was letting him win. He got back up and swapped places with another boy, who lost like the last, going down without a fight. Then another and another, and they all let him win. The coach nodded approvingly at them when he thought Leo wasn't watching.

I jumped up from my seat and looked at Casandra, who shook her head, "Go ahead, he needs you more than me."

I smiled gratefully and jogged over to where Leo was standing. He was currently sparring with a boy twice his build, who was obviously loosing. I stepped in between them, drawing out my sword and swiftly nocking both of theirs to the ground.

Everyone stopped to watch me, the whole class's eyes on me, including the coach. I caught Leos eye then turned challengingly towards the rest of the class. My voice boomed load enough to hear across the whole training field, "As of today, I am Leo's sparring partner, no one else but me is to duel him-" the coach cut me off.

"And who gave you the authority to decide that?" He asked, annoyance leaking into his tone, I smiled, "You're right, I don't have the authority," before I finished, he shot me a satisfying smirk.

I smiled sweetly, "You know who does have the authority? The King, those are the Kings orders, from today I am Leo's sparring partner, any arguments, take it up with the king."

The coach is the only person in the whole Kingdom I don't get along with. Well him, and Leo. If I had an option of saving Leo or the coach from hungry crocodiles; I'd probably leave them both. Ok, maybe not. But you get what I mean.

I swiftly turned away, to Leo, who was still on the ground from shock, I reached out to help him up, and in doing so, leaned to his ear and whispered, " Remind me to tell your dad that I'm your sparring partner now," Leo chuckled, and I had to forcefully stop myself from laughing with him, his laugh was contagious.

Casandra suddenly came running over, I raised an eyebrow and she squeezed my arm and pointed behind me. I turned around and when I noticed what she was looking at, I grinned. It was James, a built boy with blond hair, blue eyes and our age. He was lifting weights, his muscles working in strain, and he had no shirt on. To put it bluntly, he was the eye candy for the thirteen girls in the room. Casandra giggled and from next to her Bart huffed, "I don't get what you see in him," he said. Casandra glared at him, "Of course you don't, because you're a guy." Bart glared at her and looked away, mumbling profanities under his breath.

I laughed, nodding in agreement, "What she said." Leo scoffed and shook his head, "even I have a six pack, but you don't see me taking off my shirt and prancing around, do you? James is just a show off" I ignored him, as did Casandra as we continued to watch James, who looked up, noticing our stares. He smiled, winking at me, he continued working out. From next to me Casandra squealed, "Did you see that? He totally winked at you," I turned a blushing red, hitting her arm to shut up. "He'll hear you," I hissed.

Casandra continued to jump up and down, a tight grip on my arm when Leo suddenly glared at me, "Are we going to practice or what?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I smirked, "Be careful what you wish for.

LEO

I was panting heavily as each swing knocked me to the ground, but even after she knocked me down, she continued to launch her attacks at me, giving me barely enough time to pick myself and my sword up from the floor, before the tip of the blade almost cut me again.

"Leo, it's really simple, all you need to do today, is block my attacks, that's all you're learning today, what you can't do however, is block my attacks without a sword, pick it up and try again," she said, noticing my confused look, she swung at me for the dozenth time, nocked my sword to the ground.

It was almost dark, we had been practicing for hours, and the class had left almost three hours ago. Edward, Bart and Casandra had stuck around for a little longer, cheering Julia on as she beat me, but eventually they got bored after being told off by Julia, saying their noise was distracting me, and they left too.

"Stop stop stop," Julia said, and I came to an abrupt halt, still gasping for air, I raised an eyebrow at her, "Look at how you're holding your sword, is that how it's supposed to be held?" She asked and I shrugged, "I don't know," I said. Julia sighed and came over to me, gripping my hand that was loosely around the bottom of the hilt and using her hands, she moved them up to the top, she didn't let go straight away, instead held her hand there and looked me in the eye. We were only inches apart; my breathing was still rugged and was blowing against her face.

"Hold it up here, and hold it tighter," her hands squeezed mine around the hilt of the sword. Then she abruptly let go and turned away, "Keep it there at all times and do not let go."

I groaned, " But my hands will get tired," I said, she shot me a blank look, " If you are in the face of an enemy, do you think he will care that your hands are tired? Do you expect him to get down on one knee and massage your hands for you?" She sighed, "Fine, I guess you've had enough for today, you can go." I'd never been happier in my life, than when I heard those words.