Life in Elnea

[alexandria-mallow]

Uh Oh

Her mother finds out, of course, word spreads fast in the kingdom especially with a family as large as her own. And of course she gets a lecture about it, sitting at the table right after breakfast. 

“He’s not on our approved list, we’ve talked about this, Alexandria!” Her father is there too, though he hasn’t said anything so far. “I know you want to follow in your father’s footsteps but securing a good match for you is paramount to your future. You have to think about your children-”

“Mom!” She cries out, looking away from her. “We haven’t even been together for that long and you’re already talking about kids?” She doesn’t mention the fact that they aren’t really dating, despite her feelings on the matter her mother thinks Juanito is a good match for her. If she found out that Alexandria was only using Teddy to avoid the other man then she’d blow a gasket. “I bet Grandma Emerald didn’t set you and Dad up, you found him on your own!” 

She can see her mother’s eye twitch at her comment and mentally she begins to brace herself for another tirade on ‘respecting your elders’ when her father finally steps in. He places his hands gently on her mother’s shoulders and the action alone has her mother taking in a deep breath. He leans down to her ear and whispers something to her before taking a step back, allowing her mother to push herself away from the table, grab her cane, and leave the kitchen. The sight of her mother relying on the cane, practically hobbling on the stairs makes her wince. “Your mother-”

“Just wants what’s best for me.” Alexandria cuts her father off, wince forgotten and replaced with an exaggerated eye roll. “I just don’t understand why she can’t trust me to make the best decision for myself! She hasn’t even met Teddy.” Not that she was ever planning to actually introduce him to her parents. They weren’t really dating after all. “I mean he’s very respectful, he joins me during my training some days. Not to mention how sweet he tends to be, just the other day he brought me a charm for one of my upcoming matches-” She cuts herself off here suddenly because uh oh. That’s genuine affection in her voice and she can see the look her father is giving her across the table. 

They’re not actually dating. She’s just using him to ward off Juanito until he loses interest in someone who’s ‘taken’. He’s kind of handy to have around when she’s out exploring the ruins, he’s able to find traps faster than she is and avoid them instead of setting them off. He is rather thoughtful too, not just because he gave her that charm but because he always goes out of his way to see her at least once a day. They haven’t gone on any proper dates but he’ll join her for her training sessions, either helping out or sitting in the stands to watch. Or he’ll catch her in the market when she’s running errands and just sort of stick around. But it makes sense for him to do that, if Juanito sees them around each other then he’s less likely to get suspicious that they’re not actually dating but-

But it really sounds like they are. She can feel her cheeks heat up at the realization, her eyes growing wide as she stares down at the table. She can’t look at her father right now because why is her heart beating out of her chest just thinking about Teddy? Why does the thought of going on dates with him, being knights together with him, why does the thought of a future with him make her so- so-

Her father reaches across the table and grabs one of her hands, encouraging her to look at him and the soft smile he sends her way. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to your mother. It looks like you should talk to your guy though,” he pats her hand twice but she’s already scrambling up and out of her chair, trying to get to the door as fast as possible.

[alexandria-mallow]

Fake Dating or is it?

She’s not doing it on purpose is the thing, or at the very least she’s not doing it consciously but… Well she’s avoiding him. There’s simply no other way to put it. It isn’t like he’s a bad guy or anything, no Juanito has been a very kind man to her it’s just-

She’s only seven years old, she still has moments where she can’t believe she’s actually considered an adult. Not to mention that she’s gunning for a knight position, she just doesn’t have the time to enter into a relationship with someone. All her time is being spent training, learning how to effectively wield different weapons as if they were extensions of her body. A relationship means going on dates and out to eat and spending time together that she just doesn’t have. It’s fine though, maybe if she avoids him for long enough he’ll-

“You know you’re not supposed to be back here, right?” The voice comes from above and she startles badly, knocking her head back into the crates she’s hiding behind in her attempt to find the person speaking to her. The resounding thunk and her groan does nothing to dispel the frown being aimed her way. “That’s why you’re not supposed to be back here. What are you doing?” 

Alexandria’s hands rub at the back of her head and she hisses slightly at the pain but she does her best to take in the person leaning over the top of the crates. She doesn’t recognize him but that doesn’t really mean much, her childhood had been spent in dungeons and on sparring grounds and causing trouble across the farmlands. Though, if he can see her, can lean over the crates she’s hiding behind, and is actively addressing her that means-

She grabs him by the sleeve and quickly tugs him into her hiding spot, choosing to ignore his sounds of protest as she presses a finger to her lips. “Shhh! Please I just need him to leave first,” whispering isn’t one of her strengths but she does her best now. If the incredulous look she gets back means anything then she probably isn’t doing a very good job of it right now. He opens his mouth like he’s about to say something but she quickly presses her hand over his mouth to stop him. “Look- Look! He’s right there ok? I’m just waiting for him to leave and then I’ll stop hiding here I promise.” She gets the feeling that he was a bit of a stickler for the rules when he was younger. He probably would’ve hated her in class. Still, she leans out a little from behind the crates to point at Juanito, who is clearly looking for something. She’s not vain enough to think he has to be looking for her but better safe than sorry. 

The man’s eyes follow the line of her finger and she sees him look between her and Juanito a few times. Eventually he grabs her wrist and gently removes her hand from his mouth. “I suppose… If you’re really intent on avoiding him but I don’t see why.” 

That makes her grimace, “I think he’s got some sort of infatuation with me or something, but I’m not interested in him! My friend actually has a major crush on him so she asked me to help her get to know him.” The situation is a bit more complicated than that but she doesn’t have the time, or the whispering skill, to explain all of it. 

His eyes narrow at that and he looks back out toward Juanito. “Do you need me to say something to him?” 

Alexandria shakes her head quickly before pausing for a moment and thinking. This might blow up in her face but… “Not- I mean you don’t have to say anything to him right now but would you… Pretend to date me!” She blurts out quickly before placing her own hand over her mouth and throwing a hesitant glance out of her hiding spot. She lowers her voice before speaking again, “If I tell him that I’m already dating someone then he’ll leave me alone and I can get him to focus more on my friend. We don’t even have to do anything together, I mean I’m trying to become a knight so I don’t have the time for a relationship anyway but-”

“Ok.” He cuts her rambling off and even if this is the answer she was hoping for it still makes her come up short. “Teddy Yale, it’s nice to meet my girlfriend.” There’s a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips and well, maybe he’s not such a stickler for the rules as she thought.

“Alexandria Mallow, my boyfriend would call me Lexie.” She takes the hand he offers her and shakes it, looks like this will be the start to a wonderful partnership.

[alexandria-mallow]

Best Friends

A squeal peeled from her as she darted to the side, dodging outstretched hands with a laugh. The summer sun has made the grass under her bare feet plenty warm without being overwhelmingly hot. “Get back here Alexandria!” Asanta calls out, though her tone is playful instead of competitive. She risks turning to look over her shoulder at the other girl, sticking her tongue out at her to tease, to taunt. 

The risk doesn’t end up being worth it when her feet take her directly into the shaggy side of a rudder. The animal is huge and heavy and solid, running into it easily knocks Alexandria down on her back. It turns its head to look at what just ran into it but upon seeing Alexandria it returns to grazing on the pasture grass. She’s lucky that it doesn’t care, if she had run into one of the bigger bulls it’s likely it would have run her straight out of the pasture. “Alexandria! Are you okay?” Asanta’s bare feet appear in her peripheral vision, worry plainly on her friend’s face. 

A pale hand reaches out to her and Alexandria takes it without hesitation, smiling up at her friend. “I’m ok, let’s keep going!” The matching grin from Asanta warms her more than the summer sun ever could.

“You’re it!” The other girl cries out suddenly, turning on her heels and darting off between the large bodies of the rudders, attempting to use Alexandria’s moment of shock to put distance between the two of them. Too bad for her that Alexandria has always been the faster runner.

—

“What do you mean you’re too busy for lunch with me?” Asanta’s eyes are narrowed behind her glasses and Alexandria looks away quickly, her expression twisting into a grimace.

It’s not that she doesn’t want to hang out with her best friend, her closest childhood friend, it’s just… “Mom set up lunch between me and the current acolyte uh Rita?” The girl is a few years older than the both of them and very devoted to her path. Alexandria’s mother wants Petrarch to marry the girl though and is using her to bridge the connection. 

“Oh that’s…” Asanta’s accusing tone has dropped but now she just looks confused. “I thought you wanted to join the knights?” 

“I do!” Alexandria winces at her own loudness, glancing around to make sure that she hasn’t disturbed anybody. “I do. I swear I’m not trying to get her job. My mom is just playing matchmaker, you know how it is.”  Except she doesn’t think Asanta does know how it is considering she only has younger siblings. If anything her parents are more than content to let her find someone on her own time. 

Apparently Alexandria’s parents aren’t so content with that though. Her mom has a whole list of ‘acceptable’ dating candidates for her to look over that she’s putting off for as long as possible. Her dad is more subtle, attempting to drop names into conversation more casually but Alexandria can see what he’s doing. Usually she would share an eye roll with Petrarch over their behavior but these days he’s too busy wallowing to even hang out with her. 

“I guess,” Asanta shrugs, which confirms what Alexandria thought. “Just promise that we’ll always be close, okay?” They’ve both just recently been accepted into the ranks of adults though there are always the few elders and family members who still treat them like little kids. So when Asanta holds up her pinky finger to Alexandria she doesn’t hesitate to wrap her own around it. Who cares if some adults still see them as kids? Who cares if her mom is being pushy? Asanta will be there for her and she’ll be there for the other girl.

—

The crowd is roaring but Alexandria can’t focus on it. Her arms are shaking, shoulders rising and falling heavily with each breath she takes. She thinks that her ankle might be twisted but she can’t tell. The fight had been hard, it had lasted longer than her other fights in the selection tournament. It makes sense though as to get this far all those who slacked in their training would have already been picked off. The knight tournaments are never as fair as the ones the mountain corp go through, these only get harder the further you progress.

The officiant of the match is saying something, she can see his mouth moving, but the words aren’t being processed. Alexandria hopes it’s just announcements for the crowd and not information for her, she hopes someone catches what he says and tells her about it later. When she swallows she can taste iron. Her whole body feels like one giant bruise. The officiant is looking at her now, his gaze expectant. Is she meant to say something? 

“I-” Her voice shakes and trembles as she speaks, it comes out in a barely there rasp.

Alexandria is confused, she’s possibly concussed from the fight and it must show on her face. He places a heavy bag of bea in her hand, the one not clutching her sword and using it to prop herself up, he turns back to the crowd and dismisses them. She thinks that’s what he does anyway, they all stand and leave at least.

Between one blink and the next the officiant is gone and Asanta has taken his place. Her hair is in disarray, normally pin straight and now sticking up in every direction, her glasses are smudged and she’s digging around in her bag for something. “You’re hurt! You’re bleeding and he just leaves like that? Oh I am going to give him a piece of my mind-”

“Asanta.” The ringing in her ears has finally subsided. She can hear the other woman’s voice. “Asanta I won.” Her throat hurts and she sounds as if she’s been chewing on sand but her words are clear.

Asanta stops digging in her bag and scoffs, giving her an unimpressed look. “Of course you won, you’re Alexandria Mallow. You’re my best friend. Nothing can stop you.”

[alexandria-mallow]

Growing Up

“You sure you don’t want any help?”

Alexandria huffs and throws a pout over her shoulder at her mom. “No momma, I’m a big girl now. I can do my hair by myself.” They’ve gone over this about three separate times this morning already and she would really rather get her hair done and be out the door by now. She turns back to the mirror with another huff, her eyes narrowing in concentration. She’s already parted her hair and separated her bangs out, the cowlick she had inherited from her daddy allowing the right side of her bangs to sway outwards naturally. 

Despite her assurances to her mom she has only done her hair by herself a few times now, usually when both her parents are busy in the morning with breakfast and the baby. Still, today is her first day of school officially and not just the entrance ceremony which means that she’s on her way to growing up. Carefully she reaches up to separate the left side of her hair into three even strands, braiding them together to fall over her shoulder before repeating it on the right side. She ties off the ends with pink ribbons that turn out a little crooked and uneven, just like the braids themselves but…

When she looks at herself in the mirror she can’t help but smile. The part isn’t the most straight, not like when her daddy does it and the bows are crooked in a way that they aren’t when her mom does her hair but she doesn’t focus on that for long. She did it, she did her hair all by herself without any help from her parents. It feels like a big step to take and seeing that she did a good job makes her smile and giggle to herself before hopping off the stool she dragged over to be able to see herself fully in the mirror. “I did it!” Alexandria called out with a sing-song voice, stepping out of the bathroom on light feet and throwing her arms out at her sides to present herself to her mom’s eyes. She gets to watch as the corner of her mom’s eyes crinkle up at the corners as a smile grows on her lips. She’s got Minerva in her arms to feed her, holding Alexandria’s younger sister close to her chest. 

“You did it!” Her mom cheers happily in agreement. “Your dad has breakfast ready for you downstairs and a lunch for you to take with you. Your brother is going to walk with you today but his classes start later in the day so you’ll have to walk yourself the rest of the time, ok?” 

Alexandria nods quickly, “Yes momma I know,” and fights not to roll her eyes. All week had been the same little speech on repeat as the plan was drilled into her head over and over again. Living in the Scholar’s Association Hall meant the school wasn’t a very far walk and Alexandria felt like she had explored plenty of the kingdom by now between visiting her mom’s side of the family up in the mountains and her dad’s side of the family that lived in the suburbs. 

Her mom gave her a smaller smile and somehow Alexandria knew that her mom understood. “I’m your mother, I worry about you just like I did with your brother and just like I will with your sister. You know I walked your brother to and from school his entire first week, I could always do that for you too-”

“No!” Alexandria was quick to interrupt her mom, and perhaps a bit too loud given that her sister stopped feeding to let out a small squeal of her own. “Uh I mean… no thank you momma.” She corrected herself before quickly moving past her mom and down the stairs to see what her dad had made for breakfast. Thankfully her mom didn’t call after her with anything else and Alexandria almost breathed a sigh of relief. 

Downstairs her brother was already sitting at the table, a plate of pancakes drizzled with bowa jam in front of him. “Yay, pancakes!” She cheered almost instantly at the sight, picking up her pace just a little more to claim a seat at the table. Her dad’s back was to them as he finished up at the stove, another plate with more pancakes resting on it sat on the counter next to him. Alexandria drummed her hands on the table in front of her as she eagerly awaited her own plate, eyes darting to the clock on the wall above the fireplace a few times. 

It didn’t take long for her dad to set a plate down in front of her, the pancakes drizzled with more jam than was on her brother’s plate which was exactly how she liked it. “Ok, I can see that you’re just rip ready to go but try and slow down a little, yeah?” The laugh at the end of her dad’s voice was comforting, almost as much as the kiss he planted on the top of her head. “Finish breakfast and don’t forget your hat on the way out. Your mom is hosting the New Year’s Party for the scholars today so I’ll pick you up from school instead.” 

Alexandria hummed absently to what her dad was saying while she took the first bite of her breakfast. “Mmm! So good!” She made sure to give her dad a big smile as she said this, his pancakes were always her favorite food to eat no matter what time of day it was. “What did you pack for lunch dad?” 

“Well, I packed a marlin sandwich for your brother since he likes spicy food but I wasn’t sure if you would want the same thing. I have extra of the fried swordfish though,” her dad offered and Alexandria took another bite of the pancakes to think about it. She wasn’t as big a fan of spicy food as her brother was, he could eat a peppi, red or green, all by itself. “There’s some leftover quiche if you want that instead.”

“Quiche please daddy!” Well that was a relief. Trying a new food on the first day of school was a little scary, what if she didn’t like it and the other kids laughed at her? It was a silly thought to have, she knew that, but it was still a scary one. “Oh, oh can we walk with Asanta to school? I wanna make sure I sit next to her in class.” Just the thought of sitting next to her best friend in class was enough to have her wiggling in her seat, almost spilling her next few bites of breakfast. 

Her dad stopped for a moment where he was splitting the rest of the pancakes up, probably for him and mom. “Well…you’re walking with your brother today, remember? Why don’t you ask her after class today if you two can walk together the rest of the week, hmm?” 

Alexandria’s eyes darted over to her brother and she suppressed a sigh. She knew her brother and her best friend didn’t get along well even though there was only two years of difference between them. Asanta had a tendency to brag about being an only child while Petrarch simply didn’t have a tendency to brag at all. Momma was always complimenting him on how humble he was, especially since he was one of the top students in his age group. “Yeah…okay.” Knowing this didn’t make it any easier to hide her disappointment. Still another thought allowed her to perk back up almost instantly. “That’s fine though because Asanta and I are matching today! Both of us are in fur!” She shoved her chair back quickly and jumped up to show off her outfit. While it was a rule that students had to wear the uniform to the entrance ceremony and the introduction to school, after that there was no real dress code. Alexandria smoothed out the skirt of her dress and beamed at her dad before doing a small spin. It had the effect of making him laugh again and clap a little. 

“Don’t you look precious! I’m sure you two will look very cute next to each other.” Alexandria couldn’t help but feel warm inside at the comment, practically glowing under the praise from her dad. 

Of course, the moment was interrupted by her brother. “Are you done? We need to leave soon.” Alexandria’s eyes darted up to look at the clock again and she gasped, rushing to shovel the last few bites of her breakfast into her mouth. “Hey wait- Don’t choke! We’re not in that much of a hurry!” She ignored her brother’s words as she finished off her plate and deposited it in the sink. “Jeez, did you even taste it?”

Her brother was eyeing her with something close to suspicion from close to the door, his own hat already in hand, and it gave Alexandria a moment to look at him. She was going to be three this year but Petrarch was gonna be turning five soon. Already he was much taller than her and his hair had grown out enough to rival her own. He still wore it tied back into a ponytail like their mom did but his bangs resembled their dad more. This was his last year of schooling before he was officially recognized as an adult, next year he’d be part of the coming of age ceremony held in the castle and would start thinking about things like getting a job, going on dates, and eventually moving out entirely. It was…scary to think about. A lot scarier than thinking about kids at school laughing at her for not liking a new food.

For a moment Alexandria felt like she was too close to tears and in an effort to keep that from happening she rushed her brother and threw her arms around him. Her face which had once been able to rest comfortably on his shoulder now only reached his chest. “Lexie?” Petrarch didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around her too but she could hear the hesitance in his voice. No one in their family is exactly reserved about giving affection but she guesses it is odd for her to suddenly throw herself at him.

“You're not allowed to grow up without me!” The fierceness in her voice surprised even herself and she felt the jolt that went through Petrarch’s body. “You can't leave me behind…” Tears hadn't quite reached her eyes but they had reached her voice, making it quiet and small in a way she normally wasn't. Busybody had been the word used to describe her for as long as she could remember, quiet and small didn't exactly fit into that.

The arms around her tightened for just a moment before Petrarch was releasing her and bending down a little to look her in the eye. “I'm not gonna leave you behind Lexie, even when I'm an adult I'll always be your big brother before anything else.” And maybe Alexandria understood a little bit why her brother always ended up getting in an argument with her best friend about whether having siblings was better or not. Asanta wasn't going to have this conversation with an older sibling, heck she might not even have it with a younger sibling if she ever got one. “C’mon, you ready for your first day of school?” Petrarch held out her hat to her and Alexandria took it with a determined nod. “Good, then let's go.”