October 4, 1941; Saturday
A month had gone by without me mentioning Narnia to Susan. Instead, I watched her and was as good a friend as I could be. In every class except science and history, I would notice that Susan tended to allow her mind to wander, though the teachers never knew. It was a royal ability to make it look like one was paying attention when one actually was not. The only reason I knew Susan was doing it was because I had been a queen myself. After classes, my fellow queen and I would return to our dorm to do our homework – which usually got finished in an hour or so – and then we would head outside and part ways. Even while I quite literally hung with my girls in one of the trees, I kept a watchful eye on Susan. Most of the time, she sat and talked with Lucy. There were occasions when she tried to spend time with her old friends, but she only seemed to tolerate their company, never enjoying it.
I walked down the stairs of Saint Rose, my destination being the big oak tree behind the building. My fellow queen was beginning to worry me. She was becoming more introverted with each day, and while she hadn’t cried since I first met her formally, I could tell that she was deeply pained.
“There you are, Belle!” Heather and Heidi yelled when they spotted me.
The identical twins were hanging upside down from the tree looking silly with their strawberry-blonde hair billowing in the gentle breeze. Their hazel eyes danced with their smiles as I ran up to meet them.
“Hello, H squared!” I greeted. “Are Maggie, Sara, Phebe, and Emma up there?”
“You bet!” they all shouted.
I looked up the tree with a wide smile and hoisted myself up onto a branch. Quickly but carefully, I climbed up to the middle of the tree with Heather and Heidi on my tail. I situated myself on a thick branch next to Sara and greeted everyone with a “Hello girls!”
“Hey, Belle!”
“So, how are my girls? Any problems that demand attention?” I asked the last part with a hint of humour so I could still be me without anyone being suspicious.
My girls, minus Emma, had yet to hear my tale of Narnia. Though I have no doubt that they’d believe me, Eamon told me not to tell the rest of my girls about my trip, unless they asked about a certain behaviour, just in case they let the secret slip – which I doubted, but I obeyed my older brother.
“Can we get rid of Sister Catherine?” Phebe asked. “She’s a cranky art teacher.”
“She’s good though, you have to admit,” Sara said, defending Sister Catherine. Sara loved art and was thinking about being an artist, though what kind she did not know. She was speaking extensively with Sister Catherine about art, so it was only natural that Sara defended her.
“But does she have to be cranky, too?” Phebe whined.
Sara gave Phebe a pointed look. “If you got to know her, you’d realize that she’s not cranky on purpose – only after Bethany’s class.”
“Speaking of which,” Maggie started. “Something has to be done about Bethany. The younger kids I tutor have been complaining about her teasing them.”
“I’ve even seen her pushing them in the halls,” Emma put in.
“It’s not only the younger kids she’s bullying,” Heather said.
“She’s teasing anybody not in her small circle of friends – even the older girls!” Heidi finished.
I sighed. Bethany sure was a problem. “Though she hasn’t bothered me or Susan outright, I’ve at least gotten my share of glares.”
“You two have got to be the only girls – besides the teachers – who haven’t gotten harassed by her since school started,” commented Phebe.
“She’s planning something,” I stated.
“Like what?” asked Sara.
“Does everybody remember our first dinner this year?” My girls nodded. “The only reason Bethany confronted Susan in the first place was because her brother had been fighting with Susan’s brother, Peter. I have a feeling she’s going to start something with Susan, and I am going to be drawn into it.”
Emma looked at me uneasily. “And why would you be drawn into it?”
“Because I stood by Susan when Bethany tried to bother her, and I will not let Susan stand alone when Bethany tries to take her revenge.” I looked outside the tree in search of Susan. She was sitting in a sunny spot on the grass reading a book. I looked farther north and saw Bethany with two of her friends walking towards Susan. “And it seems that the time has arrived.”
As fast as I could, I swung down from the tree, and my girls followed. “Is there anything you need us to do, Belle?” Maggie asked when everyone was on the ground.
I squinted in the sun as I sized up my enemies. “Stay away, and do not let anyone near us – even the Sisters,” I ordered. It felt good to give an order again. My girls were hesitant, but agreed to do as I said.
I felt my battle instincts returning to me as I walked away. Upon looking up, I saw that Susan had taken notice of Bethany and her comrades and had risen to her feet. Bethany, on the other hand, was nearly in my fellow queen’s face.
“What do you want, Bethany?” Susan asked gently.
“I just wanted to finish our little conversation,” she answered with evil barely contained in her voice.
“And why would you need two extra people to help you finish a conversation?” I called as I came up behind Susan.
Bethany’s gaze shifted to me. “I was hoping you were going to join us.”
I gave a thin smile. “I have no doubt.”
Bethany grinned wickedly at me and then turned her attention back to the girl she was in front of. Susan stared right into our enemy’s eyes and searched for something; it made the older girl squirm to be under such a strong gaze from a supposedly younger girl. My fellow queen looked calm, collected, and gentle, whereas Bethany appeared restless, anxious, and angry.
After a minute, Susan asked, “Why do you wish to do this?”
The older teen’s face darkened. “Why do you care?” she snapped.
My fellow queen’s eyes hardened a bit, but still looked concerned. “I feel revenge is not your nature,” Susan answered kindly.
Bethany’s eyes narrowed. “And how would you know?” she growled.
I visibly saw Susan pull up to her full height. While she was still a few inches shorter than the other girls, I saw them shrink the smallest bit.
“I have seen many men and women try to act against their nature, and I have seen the result of it,” my fellow queen said slowly. “And I do not wish to see others here do the same.”
Susan’s words confused our enemies for a moment, but I understood what she was talking about. So many Narnians tried to either follow their parents’ footsteps or attempted to do something they were told that they were supposed to do, but it was not their nature to participate in. I helped a few Narnians when I visited the villages while I ruled, and it sounded like Susan was able to help more.
Bethany then looked Susan square in the face, glaring into her eyes, and spoke low. “Well you’re wrong.” She then turned to her accomplices and asked, “Are you ready?”
As she said this, I leaned over and quickly whispered to Susan, “I hope you remember your hand-to-hand combat training.”
“I do,” she answered without thinking about what I was suggesting.
Just as we pulled apart we were jumped – Bethany at Susan and her two comrades at me. I ducked and was able to avoid my blonde attacker, but not the brunette – she shoved me right to the ground. Before she could get another hit in, I kicked her hard in the ankle which brought her down to the ground. The blonde then grabbed my hair and pulled me to my feet, causing me to yell out in pain. Once upright, I grabbed the blonde’s hands, quickly kicked the brunette (who had gotten back up) in the stomach, and tilted my head backwards. My head movement caught my attacker off guard, and she loosened her grip enough for me to pull her hands off my hair, twist around and kick her in the abdomen – letting her go as she fell. From behind me, my other attacker grabbed my arms and pinned them behind my back so my first attacker could punch my lights out – which would have worked had I not been trained by a Centaur. The blonde got in one good punch to my head. As she came back for a second hit, I smashed my head into the brunette’s face, causing her to let go of me, and I quickly blocked my first attacker’s punch and delivered a knockout blow. I looked to my brunette attacker with my hands in fists in case she attacked again, but she was in too much pain to care about anything else. I turned around just in time to see Susan give Bethany her own knockout punch.
“Somebody go get Sister Agatha!” my fellow queen shouted. In the corner of my eye, I saw Sara’s blonde head bobbing off in the direction of the Nurse’s Ward.
“Are you okay?” I asked Susan.
She nodded. “You?”
“Yes.”
“Susan!”
The two of us turned towards the voice. It was Lucy, and she was running in our direction. When she reached her sister, Lucy practically bowled Susan over when she hugged her.
Before Lucy could ask Susan for details, Sister Agatha yelled, “What on earth happened here?”
Susan and I turned to the nurse. “A brawl, Sister Agatha,” I replied.
Sister gave a frustrated sigh before she checked the girls’ vitals; Lucy helped her. “Well, they have no major injuries, just a couple of broken noses. They’ll have a mess of bruises though, and so will the two of you, by the looks of it.”
Susan and I looked at each other. Our hair was messed up, our clothes dirty, and we had spots that were starting to swell. We shared a small smirk before redirecting our attention back to Sister Agatha. She gave us a glare of her own. We hung our heads in shame.
“Help me get these young ladies to the Nurse’s Ward.”
“Yes ma’am,” we chimed together, snapping our heads back up and moving to help.
Sister Agatha helped Bethany, Susan got my brunette attacker, and I got my blonde attacker. Lucy followed us to the ward, no doubt so she could figure out why there was a fight. Susan and I somehow were able to get all three girls to the Ward and leave before they became lucid. However, we weren’t quite out of the woods, as we had to go talk to Sister Anastasia – the dean of Saint Finbarr’s, also known as ‘Sister Superior’ – about what happened.
-x-x-x-x-x-
“So, what happened ladies?” Sister Anastasia asked us.
Susan and I stood in front of Sister’s desk with our arms crossed behind our backs in a queenly way; Lucy was off to the side with her hands in front of her. We shared a glance that asked who was going to speak first.
Susan opted to begin. “It started at dinner the first day everyone arrived at Saint Finbarr. Annabelle and I were getting to know each other when Bethany came up from behind and got cross at me because my brothers had supposedly ‘beaten up on’ her brother earlier that day. I explained to her that her brother and his two comrades were assaulting my elder brother long before my younger brother joined in to help him. That was when Annabelle stepped in to help me tell Bethany that it was her brother who had started the fight. She told Bethany that the only reason Peter (my older brother) was even near Jason (Bethany’s brother) was because he refused to leave her alone, and Annabelle suggested that she leave us alone…”
“It was then that Bethany said that it wasn’t over,” I continued. “So today, Bethany decided to ‘finish the conversation,’ as she said. She had two companions to help her attack Susan, but I saw and went to help her again. They jumped us, and Susan and I were merely defending ourselves.”
Sister Superior was silent for a while. “Is there anybody who can back up the part about the fight?”
“Yes, Sister,” I said. “I have a group of friends that were around when it happened.”
Sister nodded and fell silent, but this time for a longer period. Susan and I started to become uncomfortable with her silence, but hid it well. I had to resist the urge to start fidgeting with my sleeves. Relief flooded over me when Sister rose up from her desk chair and came to sit in front of it before she spoke to us.
She smiled. “As of now, I shall take no disciplinary action against you. I will speak with Bethany and her friends to hear their version of the story and then make a decision.”
We beamed. “Thank you, Sister.”
Sister Anastasia’s smile grew. “You are dismissed.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
As we headed down the hall and out the door of the building, I began humming “And They’ll Know We Are Christians” or “And They’ll Know We Are Narnians” – depending where you came from – as we walked. Once I started humming it, Susan and Lucy shared a confused look, but didn’t say anything until we got outside.
“How do you know that song?” Lucy asked curiously.
I ceased humming, and turned to face the two queens. “I am the one who gave it to you,” I answered a bit cryptically.
Lucy’s eyes grew wide instantly, and Susan’s followed a moment later.
“You mean you are…” Susan began.
I looked around to make sure we were alone. “Queen Swanwhite,” I said with a curtsy. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Queens Susan and Lucy. May Aslan’s blessings be upon you.”
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