Mischief

Part title

Location: Athens (also known as the Kingdom of Acorn), the Athenian Palace

"HEY! Sally, give me back my journal!"

She nimbly dodged out of Elias' grasp faster than a startled squirrel. He gave chase to her as she tucked his leather journal more securely under her arm with a mischievous grin worthy of Hermes. It did not help that she was much smaller than your average nine-year-old and he was the most un-athletic teenager he knew.

"Why? Did you confess your love for Princess Marie in here and you don't want her to find out?!" She ducked behind a pillar and knocked a curtain in his face. He tripped and went sprawling onto the marble floor of the hall, his chiton nearly going over his head.

"NO!" He yelled indignantly, rubbing his backside as he stood back up, "You and I both know I don't like her!"

She gave him an eye-roll that said 'I know I just don't have any other ammo' then yanked open the closest door and bolted inside. The noise of their chase echoed throughout the luxurious throne room as it sat completely empty; good thing, too, had their dad seen them doing this they'd be nursing sore backsides for the rest of the night.

"Did you brat about the royal chef's cooking in here? I know you were pulling a face the whole of dinner last night!" She mockingly made a barfing face, drooping her eyelids like she was a zombie. Clearly it didn't make her vision any worse because she slipped away again the second he thought he had cornered her.

"I wasn't feeling good! And you're making it worse!" He whined, knowing that she was completely right and he was lying through his teeth.

"Or..." She jumped up onto the lofty platform where the throne sat, pacing with mock thoughtfulness, "Are you writing a book that you're super embarrassed about because it's all about romance and sparkly vampires an-" He jumped up after her, and while it was close she successfully avoided him.

She did not, however, avoid her newly untied sandal.

She went crashing to the ground at the same time he did, and they lied there for a second comprehending what happened.

"Ow."

"You deserved it for rifling through my stuff."

"Maybe if you'd talk to me like you used to, I wouldn't wanna know why you've been holed up in your room all day."

"Oh, blah blah blah — just tell me next time you wanna hang out. Beats listening to the royal tutors wax philosophical about how mighty Zeus was even though Athena's already kicked him off the Pantheon."

He pulled himself up, allowing Sally to give him a dirty glare as she pulled herself up on her own and crossing his arms for good measure. Then she gasped and leapt past him to where his journal was lying open. It had fallen to one of his more recent sketches; a very realistic, detailed picture of one of the roses that sat outside his bedroom window — something that he had worked on for hours instead of reading the pretentious text that some moron thought was 'important' (even though the opinions and viewpoints presented were outdated and frankly biased).

"Did you draw this?!" She exclaimed, holding it up. Without waiting for an answer, she started flipping through the rest of the pages eagerly. She stopped at the sketch of a family photo he had barely gotten his hands on long enough to draw. It was a ridiculous one of them at the beach splashing each other in the water, probably one of the few times a citizen had snapped a picture of them doing something normal.

"Uh... yeah? I drew... all that... Ummmmm can I have it back now?"

"No, I'm still looking! Why didn't you show anyone?!"