Over My Rainbow

Chapter 22

I breathed. In. Out. My breath fell through the air. I glanced at the large, grand time-teller. Eight. The moon glowed on the floor around me. Calm down, Amantha. I walked over to the mirror outside the ballroom. Henrie was going to walk me into my birthday ball any moment now.  I looked in the mirror. I didn't see me. No Princess Amantha was in the mirror, smiling back with her quest-found confidence. Instead a girl in a green, gold-speckled gown looked back. She had kohl around her eyes, eyes that did not twinkle. 

"It's not me," I whisper and the girl in the mirror frowns.

The girl in the mirror had curled and pinned into a very fancy hairstyle. She was wearing powder, but not too much. She was wearing a beautifully painted mask decorated with feathers. Mother had decided my ball was to a masquerade so that I could choose a man 'not only for his face'. I pull the mask off my face and allow it to hand around my neck. I look in the mirror and breath out sharply out. How did I get myself into this mess!

"I'm not sure why I am here if I can't always remember who I am. And.." I sigh and emotion gets clogged in my throat. "How can I know," I begin to tear up, "who I am if I can't remember why I'm here. "How Amantha, can you forget?" I stare at my reflection and wipe away a tear before it messes up my face. "How can you forget what you felt just a little while ago. You had such joy, oh, and love to fill a room. You felt confident." I hushed to whisper. "Now you are breaking, already broken in two. For what, Amantha? For what? You are full of fear of the future."

I stare at my reflection. I can always shape up when my mother tells me what to do.

"Stand tall. Shoulders back. You can do anything. Smile. Be who you are. Never forget it." I watch my body shape up and paint on a smile. "Amantha, you are strong." I close my eyes and breath. "I can do this. And I am going to." I slip the mask back over my face. I look in the mirror.

"Smile, Amantha. You," The girl in the mirror point at me as she talks, "have got to find a worthy prince in this bunch."

I hear a noise down the hall. I turn and brush down my skirt and stand as perfect as I can. A man in an ochre outfit strode down the hall in a matching mask. I smile, and truly mean it. 

"Amantha, we have a problem," Henrie says when reaching me. "Your mother decided to have a contest. Sometime during the night, the princes will bring gifts to you and kiss you."

My eyes flare. 

"I didn't think it was a good idea either." Henrie assures me. "But your mother is adamant."

I look down.

"You are quiet! This cannot be good. We have to find the physician. Your humors must be off. I'll get the leeches," Henrie started down the corridor.

"Henrie," I say in a warning tone.

He backtracked. "Good, because I have no clue where leeches live."

"Am I to go in now?"

"If you want to be fashionably late," he jokes.

"What else could I be?"

"You could be late." His eyes twinkle in the starlight.

"Bring me in the ballroom, you," I say, hitting the side of his head.

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I believe I have danced with all the men at the ball vying for my heart, and half of them I disliked so much I stomped on their toes so they would stop talking my head of. Some I stomped on their toes to see if they could make any sound at all. None of the princes, however, seem understandable enough to work with the plan. Then I was matched with Eddie for a dance, who gleamed in the emerald green of Jale.