There were many day to day things that King David had staff for but as far as possible he had always ensured he packed his daughters bag for school and despite having told her most evenings since the school year began in September she had failed to empty it. David had picked up the backpack next to the door that lead to their rooms within the palace at Northfort and headed towards the kitchen, no doubt Rhiannon would have stuffed her half eaten bag of oatcakes into a pocket into which they would have disintegrated into crumbs over the course of the rest of the day. David unzipped the side pocket and the offending crumbs tumbled onto the kitchen floor, today they had been particularly squished into nothingness. He cleaned them out and was thankful they'd opted for a backpack that had an easy clean interior. He went through the other pockets and found the detritus of the day, a Capri-Sun packet, three pencil crayons and a battered and torn envelope. It wasn't uncommon for his daughter to be given letters for trips, reports or even for school events but normally the assigned Security Detail would make sure word got back to David that such a message had been handed out. The King looked at the envelope and immediately realised it wasn't any of those. On the front of the white envelope was his own handwriting, "Shelly Madden" written onto it. The name didn't mean anything to David, nor did he remember writing on the envelope but he opened it anyway. It was an invite, David had written them for all forty of the girls at the school who were members of the Swordsmanship Club. For the New Years celebrations they'd planned a small tournament in the Palace grounds and David had invited the club members and their families to come as his guests. He'd told Rhiannon to hand them out and it appeared she'd done so, all with one exception. The way it had been crammed at the bottom of her bag though had surprised him and so after he'd finished chopping the carrot sticks for tomorrows snacks and then packed the bag ready for the morning he'd made his way into his daughters bedroom with the letter in hand. His daughter was laying on her bed as her small pet Fennec Fox, Goldie, was curled up next to her. Rhiannon gently petted her as the fox contendly munched away on pieces of boiled egg it was offered periodically. Rhiannon was focusing on a book she'd brought from the school library.
"What you reading?" David asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed and gave Goldie a gentle head rub much to the foxes delight.
"I got a book about Neu Urburzis." The Princess said, "I know Augustin told me about some thing with his uncle but it didn't make sense to me. I then heard Stasya talking about the same thing on the web with someone. I got even more confused. So I got this." She rolled onto her back showing her father the glossy front cover of a popular book series called "Young Traveller" which was designed to teach youngsters about foreign culture. Rhiannon enjoyed reading and knew that when she asked questions about other countries more often than not her father would just give her a book. The King was happy his daughter had been trying to find out about the upcoming bride competition herself but sensed he'd have to explain it himself to her, but that was for another day.
"Well once you've finished the book we'll explain anything you still don't understand" He smiled at his daughter who remained on her back so she could see her father. Goldie left her spot and went and sat on Rhiannons stomach curling into a warm ball of fuzz that Rhiannon ran a gentle hand through. "I found this in your bag." David held up the letter and saw his daughters eyes look away slightly nervously. "Was..." David had to look at the name again to refresh his memory, "Shelly not at school today?" he asked. He noticed his daughter didn't answer straight away and seemed to shift uneasy on her bed. "Rhiannon, why did you not hand out the invite to this girl?" He sensed something was not quiet right.
"I didn't see her at practice" She lied. Shelly had been there and in the changing rooms after Rhiannon had almost taken delight handing out the invites to everyone else, even the girls she didn't really know that well, and almost skipped her way past Shelly empty handed. Rhiannon had been pleased that it looked like Shelly was upset because she'd been left out of something and as the other girls opened their envelopes and then talked excitedly about the invite to see a big competition in the Palace grounds Rhiannon saw Shelly look at her forlornly in the hope that Rhiannon was rummaging around in her bag to find the obviously missing invite. Instead the Princess produced a silver packet of Capri Sun, threw her kit into the bag and almost triumphantly thrust the orange straw into the packet before striding out. The invite now lay crumpled under her blazaar and skirt, left there until discovered by her father now. She'd actually considered ripping the envelope up in front of Shelly as revenge for her managing to steal one of Rhiannons strawberry laces as they'd been sat in the bag next to her on the bench she liked to sit and read on under the tree. Shelly had made a grab for the whole bag but Rhiannons attention had been off the Neu Urburzis book just long enough for her to spot and with speedy reflexes from several years of sword training she'd managed to grab the bag and save all but one lace which was protruding from the bag and taken as a kind of spoil of war by the victorious Shelly. Rhiannon had yelled after her drawing the attention of one of the security detail who, wearing a high-vis jacket to blend in with the break time duty teachers glanced over. Seeing the Princess was not in any actual physical harm they let the matter slide, their instructions were to let Rhiannon be as normal a student as possible.
"So if I go and see your security detail they'll tell me the same right?" David asked sensing Rhiannon was not being entirely honest.
"I...maybe" Rhiannon squirmmed. She sighed and put Goldie on the floor. The fox sensed its comfy time with Rhiannon was over and so trotted over to its crate where it slurrped at the water bowl before snuggling into its bedding disappearing beneath the folds of a warm blanket. Rhiannon sat facing her Dad crossed legged. "She's mean Dad." Rhiannon almost pleaded as though the explanation would make her father agree and bin the envelope.
"Thats not fair" David explained. He shook his head wondering exactly what he should say next. "Look, I'm not saying you have to like everyone. You don't even have to be friends with everyone, but it would be good to. Sometimes in life there are people that we just won't get along well with and thats OK. Just because you don't like someone though doesn't mean its OK to be disrespectful to people. This girl is part of your team and that means you need to stick together and help each other. You can train together, you can compete together but then just go seperate ways but it doesn't help the team if you leave someone behind. I need you to give her this tomorrow." David held the envelope out towards Rhiannon who looked glum.
"But she doesn't respect us" Rhiannon said, "Today at practice she took Millie's chalk bag without asking, she hid Alana's gloves so she was late getting out the changing room and had to run laps and every single break time she tries to steal my strawberry laces." Rhiannon sounded extremely angry at the thought of the beloved confectionary being stolen.
"Is this the same girl you got detention for kicking last month?"
"Yes" Rhiannon admitted but leaving out the fact that the swift kick to the shin had seen Shelly all but double over and Rhiannon was about to reign an absolute haymaker of a backhand across her face before she was stopped by a teacher yelling at her. "I'm just fed up of it Dad." Rhiannon began to cry. "She's a bully and always stealing people's things but she gets away with it because she's sneaky and never gets caught." Even though David should probably be reprimanding his daughter he in a way felt a little bit of pride that she was standing up for people and couldn't resist giving her a hug.
"You have to remember sweetheart that one day you're going to be a Queen dealing with real bullies. Shelly stealing strawberry laces is nothing compared to Stalin invading Safraen and even though I'd have loved to send my army into Rodinha and destroy him I knew it was the wrong thing to do because it would have caused so many more problems. We have to do the right thing, not the thing that we think will make us happy. For the sake of my soldiers I didn't send them to Rodinha, for the sake of your team you can't leave someone out." Rhiannon pulled away and looked up at her Dad.
"But you do those sancty things when people upset you. Like you did that time you told everyone they can't buy stuff from like Smellycuid because they'd hurt our religion." David couldn't help but smile at the way his daughter had used her nickname for Royal Seleucid after she'd learned a little about the genocide attempt there. "This is my sancty.....no strawberry lace thieves shall set foot on royal palace grounds" She said rather regally making her father chuckle.
"Sometimes bridges need to be built and that means someone has to make the first move. You are a Princess, you are a noble and nobles act nobly that means they do what is best for the most people. The team would be a happier place to be if everyone came to the party." He was about to unleash his secret weapon, his daughters own competitive streak. "Look, if Shelly feels she's not part of the team you're going to have someone in your melee team that feels like they aren't part of the team, a shield wall needs to act like one living being. You don't make that leaving her out." Once more he held the envelope towards his daughter and this time as she used one hand to wipe away her tears she took the envelope. "Thank you" he kissed her on the top of her blonde head.
"But she doesn't get to sit near me!" Rhiannon said adamantly. "She can come but she stays away from me and Millie." David nodded that he would concede to these terms. He looked at the large clock on her bedroom wall.
"Its getting close to bedtime. Twenty more minutes with your book, put Goldie to bed, brush your teeth and then come and say goodnight. OK?" Rhiannon got back to book reading position as her father headed towards the door leaving the envelope on the bed, Rhiannon was in half a mind to just slide it into the folds of her book and forget about it but she knew her father would check up on it and so resisted the urge. Just before her Dad left he stopped and turned back. "And tomorrow try not to leave half eaten oat cakes in your bag." His daughter cracked a smile.
"I'm hoping if I half eat them you'll give me some of that chocolate flapjack instead" Her father simply shook his head and made his way out the room. He gave her bag a final once over, slid a new pen into her pencil case which was as well stocked as any in the Kingdom, and then went to the fridge and broke off a small slice of the flapjack and put it into the plastic lunch box. His fatherly duty done for the evening David made his way to the lounge. Stasya was sat on the sofa her feet half up on the black leather flicking through a book of various designs, already picking out her outfit for the party from those various designers had offered her. A baby monitor sat on the table next to her the other end in the happily sleeping Llewellyns room. David sat down and picked up his wife's feet placing them on his lap eliciting a satisfying purr as he gave them a gentle rub.
"Rhiannon OK?" Stasya asked turning her gaze away from fashion.
"Yes" David said, "I think she may have her first enemy" chuckling.
"Girls schools can be like that sometime. Unless she's trying to send Red Legion in just let them get on with it." Stasya offered her advice. "Beside I can't see Rhiannon not being very popular. The girls just jealous." The Lodjain side of his wife clearly coming out.
"I think it'll be sorted tomorrow but just do me a favour, next time you go shopping don't bring her any of those laces." David asked, "Think of it as a peace strategy."
