It’s the second year of a fine young man named Wade Vargas studying in his school, the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific located in Bataan. It is a school for those who want to be Marines. Students should stay around the school premises all the time so it has dormitories and the administration will just set dates if students are able to get out of the university grounds.
There is a fair weather that day, the fine young man thought that it is just another ordinary training day but it is not. His roommates, Cullen and Chad childishly fought yesterday. As a punishment, everybody on their room have to clean the woods located inside the academy. He did not got annoyed since they were all close friends.
As he was sweeping the dry leaves of the Acacia tree, he saw a student sleeping at the branch of the tree. He poked the person’s arm using his broom, and when the student moved, he realized that it was a girl. A girl with a wavy silky black hair and a pinkish-white skin complexion, who look innocent as she sleeps but when she opened her eyes and met the gaze of Wade, she had a dark aura around her. The girl got down the tree and faced him. After seconds of gawking at each other, out of the blue, the girl punched Wade‘s face and left. Wade was lying on the floor, dumbfounded. His friends went to him and he asked them
“What’s wrong with her? I don’t even know her name. Is she on drugs? I did nothing. I don’t get her”
“Seriously dude? You don’t know her? Her name is Raven, we’re on the same year.” said Chad
“It’s not like she’s a big deal” Wade replied
“Of course she is, she’s famous. She is known as the Dark Queen in the academy, she’s strong and courageous, and I guess its true seeing the scar from that face of yours but she don’t talk to anyone” Chad explained
“She can’t speak?” asked Wade
“Stupid. She can speak, its just that, she rarely talk to someone unless it is badly needed, she don’t have friends because she’s pushing every person who try, many hated her, some did bully her but since she’s a tough one, it turned the other way around” Chad said.
“Why is she inside the campus again? I thought she left a month ago?” Cullen asked
“Before, they are saying she just took a break. You know, her father died. So it’s true, now that she’s back” Chad continued
“You guys know too much about her” Wade supposed
“It’s just normal; all guys are pretty much interested in her because if you really look at her face, she’s a beauty, bad thing that she’ll just brush everyone off. Maybe she’s heartless.” Noah, their fourth and last roommate whispered.
After cleaning the woods for several hours, they decided to go to the cafeteria to have lunch. As they are eating, Wade noticed the gossiping girls looking at a certain table. He looked for that table and met the eyes of Raven, the girl who punched her. They stared at each other for about ten seconds then out of nowhere; she kicked the chair in front of her and left. Murmurs about her filled the cafeteria.
The next days, Raven got the attention of Wade. He looked for her every time and when he spotted her; she’s already staring at him. He wondered the way he acted like that, but he can’t help it; it became his routine every school day.
A month after their first meeting in the woods, during a night full of stars, Wade kept thinking about his interest to Raven, and that time he taught that maybe he actually likes her. He does not know why, he just felt like he wanted to always see her then hold her but she might hated him since the punching incident because every time he caught her staring, she would hit something and turned her head.
One day, the school had contest training for the sophomores. The challenge is to move the large barrels in a small room without blocking the doorway and still has a path for a person. Wade excelled on it since he got the brains and the body. The second in the ranking is Raven, although she did it slow, her strategy was her asset. They were given an award causing them o stand next to each other. Instead of congratulating Raven, Wade smiled at her. Raven got shocked, felt numbed and almost fell; Wade caught her and guided him to sit on a chair. When he was about to say something, Raven spoke “Don’t, Don’t ask. Don’t say anything and don’t care about me” and with that, she left. The students who were watching them started murmuring. He doesn’t know why but that time, Wade believed that Raven does have a heart, a fragile one and was wearing a mask all this time. And at that time, he heard his heartbeat pounding for that girl.
The next two days, early morning in the school was a rumor spreading saying that a guy saw the Dark Queen crying at the woods and Raven’s roommates are saying that they heard her weeping last night. Wade heard it, he got concerned. He looked for Raven but he confirmed that she did not attend her classes.
Wade did not felt comfortable when he was about to sleep that day, he decided to go to the woods. He walked towards the Acacia tree. As he was approaching he heard her voice again, but this time it is full of pain. He knew that there was nobody there, just Raven but she spoke like she is talking to someone.
“The first time we talked, you said that you will never leave me and the last time, you said you never did. What a liar. Now, I’m all alone. I really wanted to hate you but what I always felt is that I miss you so bad. I miss all of you actually. Stupid Cliff, you let me believed, but when I started believing, you died. And the last person I truly care and love just died too. I now got nothing. Maybe every person who got close to me will always left. No, I will never lose faith to God, don’t worry. Actually, he’s the reason why I am still living, I don’t want to waste the life he gave but you know what, sometimes I wonder why; I wonder why things happen the way they did” and with that Raven continued crying
Wade did not mean to eavesdrop but he heard it. He don’t know what got into him but he walked closer to Raven, get down and hug her. She did not show any signs of protest. She let that someone hugged her. They loosen their grip and Raven got the chance to see the guys’ face and realized that it was that guy, the one who got her attention.
“You always got the eyes of a person who care about me; I would say Thank You but please stop it. I don’t want to keep my hopes up. I trained. I’m strong enough, I actually don’t need you but tonight is the only exception, let me be weak, just for tonight” Raven said looking intently at his eyes. Wade hugged her and said “I will be here for you, don’t worry, and just let me be your crying shoulder tonight”. The two did fell asleep under the Acacia tree and that night Wade did understand that Dark Queens are the princesses that were never saved.
