Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 12 - Katarina - Kick-the-Can

"Julyan Bertrand Heckel, get your sorry ass out the door!"

"That's not my middle or my last name, Granny!"

"Does it look like I give a shit?"

Watching as Siscilla puts all her weight into trying to shove Julyan out the front door, is pretty entertaining. Especially since he barely looks to be putting much effort into standing his ground behind the screen door. He's the only one who has put up a fight and argued against her sudden grand idea: for all of us to go outside and play a game of kick-the-can. I have no idea what that is, but I was already outside and had little choice in the matter. I know how to play tag, but that's it, and I only just learned how to play that when they first brought the orphans to the castle and I outright sucked at it.

Everyone but the royals and Melody are playing, though the mare seems perfectly content to keep Levi and Mira distracted. They're sitting on her back as she trots this way and that, both laughing with blue tongues from the candy they somehow smuggled from the kitchens. Thea claimed to not know how they got the sugary sticks from the top shelf, but I was a witness to her crimes of not so subtly, "accidentally," dropping them on the ground. Sure, I let the children grab two handfuls and run right past me, but I was no more than a bystander to Thea's weakness for pursed lips and fluttering eyelashes.

"Move or I'll drag you by your ear," Siscilla threatens.

"Can you reach that high?"

Siscilla gives a frustrated screech before stepping back abruptly causing Julyan to go tumbling to the ground. I almost feel bad for him that his little rebellion only lasted a minute or so. Almost. He kind of deserves the loud thud that his head makes when it hits the wood floor. He is, after all, acting like a child. Though Lance did warn me that he's prone to such behavior. Even in the House of Jade they'd sometimes find him swinging around the training rooms as if it were a playground. It's absolutely hilarious, but you know you've gone too far when Siscilla takes you by the ankle and drags you down the front porch steps, and then through the dirt to where everyone else waits.

"You're a mule, you know that," Julyan seethes, dusting himself off as he stands.

She gives him a flat look, unimpressed. "Boy, I knew that before you were born. Not wait here and don't test my patience again."

"Where are you going?" He calls after her as she heads back up the porch stairs.

"To get a can so we can play you dipshit!"

"Withered old crone!"

The screen door slams behind her, leaving us to stand in awkward silence. Their banter has become something of a normal occurrence in the passing cycles. It's nice to have something to laugh at every now and then, but it doesn't keep me from remembering all of Fauna's snarky comments. Sometimes I'll find myself replaying certain memories in my head just to hear an inkling of her voice again. It's depressing, but I'm glad that it's keeping everyone's mood up.

"So," Thomas says, breaking the quietness. "What's kick the can?"

"You've never played kick the can?" Thea asks with an astonished expression.

"Us servants don't really get the opportunity to run in the gardens and make normal childhood memories," I tell her, trying not to make my voice as harsh as the sentence sounds. Her falling eyes tell me that I failed.

"Right. Sorry."

"Kick the can is basically tag and hide and seek put together." Both Thomas and I raise an eyebrow at Aillard. We don't know what hide and seek is either. "Gods you two are hopeless."

"Gee, thanks," I say dryly.

I turn to Blight, hoping she'll be more helpful in explaining the concept of the game to us. "To start," she explains, giving both Aillard and Thea a seething glare. "One person is 'it.' The person 'it' will count to fifty - or some other number - while everyone else runs off and hides somewhere. Once the person 'it' finishes counting, they'll go off and try to find, and tag, everyone who's hiding. If you get tagged, you go to jail – or in this case, the porch. In order to free anyone in jail, those who haven't been tagged must avoid the person 'it' and kick the can. The game is over when everyone but one person is in jail, or someone gets tagged three times, at which point, they'll be the next person 'it.'"