The Princess & The Jerk (Fifth Book of "Fire and Ice" Series)

CH.9: The jerk in the shining armour

Dear All,

I am finally posting after long time, I am very sorry for the wait, but the past weeks were hectic with work and also with travelling back home, as I am now here with my family and Cat 😊

This chapter, well...is very long, rich of many different emotions, our two protagonists are taking more steps ahead and you will see what I mean with this, and I think it has a lot of cute moments. What can I say? Viola and Sergey call for soft and cute moments.

I really, really hope you will enjoy it and I will be looking forward to reading your fabulous messages, comments and see your votes, thank you!

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to all of you as a big and sincere thank you for always following and support my stories, but in particular to FoxRaine as huge THANK YOU, because you keep reading and enjoying my works, leaving lovely comments and letting me know what you think of it! Thank you!

I chose a song that it seemed to fit ^^

And now, enjoy it!

"A true knight is fuller of bravery in the midst, than in the beginning of danger," by Sir Philip Sidney

SERGEY POV:

I woke up earlier than the alarm thanks to a stupid dream I haven't had in long time; it was about my days before high school, when I used to go to the same school as my cousin and some of his friends, like Denisov and his loud twin brother, the guy with cunning eyes named River and then the black one named Derek who always called everyone "dude". They hadn't been really nice and cool days, especially the last two years, considered I spent those many months basically entirely alone and sort of isolated from the others. It was partially my choice but also a condition I found myself thrown into.

My cousin and I argued a lot and I took out my anger on him for the inferiority feelings my father inculcated into me, behaving like a jerk and searching for excuses to fight and get the edge out. It backfired me tremendously because the teachers could not stand me and my classmates started to avoid me like a leper; I was troublesome, always in bad mood and snapping out at people for no real apparent reason, behaving like a bully sometimes, being an asshole most of the time. I started out like a cool kid and ended it as the outcast.

The truth was that at first I really minded being alone and left aside, having my classmates not talking to me or, if they were doing so, it was behind my back, whispering whatever they were bullshitting about. It was hard at first and I blamed Sasha, since in my eyes he was the one who made me look like the jerk I was, along with his insufferable friends who would always side with him, being loyal. River had once or twice tried to talk to me, and the way he seemed to read inside of my head had freaked me out, so I pushed him away even more. I was so stupid that I didn't realize it had not been Sasha's fault for becoming a jerk and the piece of trash I was until now.

Once I started high school I decided to stick with a group of people I wasn't crazy about but that seemed to like the way I pretended to be, the other self I created for myself, not wanting to be left aside as before. Yet, the more time I spent with them the lonelier I felt, and I had to add, the more time I wanted to spend on my own, no longer minding it.

No, it was not bad, and I came to appreciate it.

And now, after having started to interact with Viola, after having made one promise to her and one to myself, I could really see what an idiot I had been. Sure, Sasha and I would probably never get along, because he still was my most perfect and insufferable cousin, who with all chances hated my guts with burning passion and would never give me a second chance; but at least I had the opportunity to wake up from that moronic daze and see what I had slowly turned myself into. A version of Sergey that was pretty much pathetic and ridiculous, pretty much grotesque.