Virginia's personality,
Comes with a side effect of sting,
But how hard it is to rule as a queen,
Without your beloved king.
Peter, former king, had been just like November. He was always curious about the middle-classed world, the same sunshine in his bright green eyes every time he saw Mother Nature work her magic. He loved every tree, every stone on the pavement - most of all, he loved every person.
Every night, he and the Queen went back and forth about whether it was okay to go out. Virginia screamed, slamming the sturdy, wooden doors and refusing to come out and see his stupid face. However, it always ended the same way - no matter how angry she was, she loved him.
"Fine. Just go." She huffed, the heavy, gloomy rain pouring down from her eyes. Before he opened the door, Virginia sighed. "Wait, just one second." She walked up to him, her tender kiss touching his cheek and sending her love. "Promise me you'll be safe."
Three days passed and he wasn't home. Was he enjoying life more down there? Did he leave her alone? Did he leave her... with this baby?
The middle-classed men had gotten very angry with Peter. As a king he felt guilty flexing his riches, so he went undercover as a middle-classed man. He lived the same life they did, and loved every moment of it. Peter was fulfilled, happy and made friends along the way.
Unfortunately the men didn't take kindly to rich folk, and before Peter had a chance to explain himself, they sent a spear flying straight into his chest.
Virginia heard about the middle-classed men killing her husband. She locked herself back in the same room, but she couldn't come out and see the world light up in his eyes. She couldn't run her hands through his beautiful red locks. He was the sunshine to her rain, and together they'd made a rainbow. But now, everything felt heavy, and gloomy. The town rained for many coming weeks.
She gave birth on a warm, sunny day. For a second, the bright sunshine rose over the horizon and Virginia swore it sent a blessing to her child. 'Peter, thank you for your blessing. I love you more than I could ever tell you. I think I know why it's a sunny day.' The Queen turned to her baby, happy rain emitting from her indigo eyes. "I promise, baby. I'll never let you die like Peter did." Virginia weeped, holding her baby close to her chest. She lowered her voice to a whisper.
"I'm going to call you November, because that's when your daddy and I got married."
The baby smiled and clapped her hands, almost as if she knew what was going on. She opened her big, sweet eyes for the first time; they were bright green, just like her father's. It was all too perfect - this girl was the spitting image of her father.
"But he's not around anymore." Virginia sighed. "When you get to become a big girl, I'm going to tell you that I never got married. I'll leave little hints of him around the house - one day, you'll understand them."
"And I'm so, so sorry if my heart ever turns cold and it storms everyday. It's for Peter." She finished, placing a now asleep November into a cot. Her green eyes were closed, and she was at peace.
"I love you, November."
The rain began to lightly fall from the sky again.
Virginia didn't sleep that night. For the entire twelve hours, her hand was placed on her heart, her eyes glistened and she stared up at the stars. She remembered the time they jokingly found patterns of stars that represented each other.
"That's your constellation, Peter." She whispered, wiping a falling tear from her eyes.
Virginia had always been rude to November. She wished she never looked like Peter; it made everything more difficult. Every time she locked November in her room, it reminded her of herself hiding away from her husband.
November, who never understood that Peter existed, was tired of her mother's pointless ranting on the way the less rich lived their lives. It was all a broken, biased system built from the generation before Virginia, and the generation before that, and before that.
She'd call the others the less fortunate, but they looked a lot happier than she was. So November always knew them from that point on as the More Fortunate.
"Come here, November." Virginia beckoned her daughter over, who tiredly stumbled towards the palace kitchen. Her eyes flickered towards the sleek, sharp, silver blades for a second, but they quickly darted away.
"What is it, mom?" November asked, her voice having grown husky over the course of the day. She awkwardly cleared her throat. "Can I go to sleep soon? I'm very tired; the butlers have ordered me around all day."
"Quit complaining." Virginia scoffed, looking at her daughter with disgust. "Lay the table for me."
"Why don't you get your little servants to do it, instead?" November asked, finally getting sick of her mother's temper and daring to fight back.
"Because if you want to join those freaks..." Virginia began.
"Then you should be treated like one."
"That's ridiculous." November groaned.
"Where did you get that awful temper, young?"
"You're one to talk about temper." November frowned. "You're making up for your bad parenting by being angry, which doesn't make sense."
"NOVEMBER!"
"Auntie Matilda taught me not to lie." November sighed. Her mother never understood that all she wanted to do was help her to become a better person. She desperately wanted to believe that there was more than a bitter, biased queen who had a personal vendetta against people who didn't live in massive, shiny castles.
"LAY THE TABLE, NOW!"
November winced at her mother's harsh tone, but rushed over to the kitchen drawers to take out the cutlery.
"Better." Her mother nodded, beginning to walk away from the kitchen. "Best be done perfectly by the time I'm back."
"Um... Okay." November had no arguments left within her, giving in and setting the table. Her feet dragged across the floor, and she hit the forks against the porcelain table just a little too hard.
As soon as her vicious mother left the room, November smiled to herself. It was time.
'Normal world, here I come.' She thought to herself, rubbing her hands together excitedly. 'No more Princess-Slave anymore.'
She finished laying the table for good measure, ran to her bedroom and climbed down the first tower. The afternoon was clear and cloudy, perfect weather.
Her small feet were quickly getting scratched against the harsh exterior of the castle, large red blisters forming on the bottom. As painful as it was, November felt so much passion towards this. The pain of some small scratches on her feet could never match the love she had for nature and adventure. She could not, and would not, stop at anything. She was going to know how it felt to live in the world she had always dreamed of.
"Come on, you can do this." November egged herself on determinedly, making sure her footsteps were getting slowly more gentle. "You're getting so close..." She could almost feel real, genuine breeze and less confinement by the second.
Then she slipped.
Even more 'luckily' for her, she happened to land in the arms of one of the castle's strictest female butlers.
'Or not...' November thought to herself, sighing.
All of that effort to live life as just an average girl who wasn't a princess was for nothing. She refused to meet the butler's eyes; she was so, so furious - she had come this far and the turnout was falling into the arms of one of her mother's goddamn followers.
"What are you doing out here, Princess?" The woman asked, brushing the dirt off of November's dress. Much to the young princess' surprised, there was no malice resonating within the woman's voice. "You're filthy."
"Well, you see, I was just climbing down the tower to get something..."
"You could've gotten one of us to do that for you. We're your mother's servants for a reason."
"Why are you my mother's servants, anyway?" November asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.
"I'm not sure about the others, but before I worked for Queen Virginia I was in a lower class. Lived in a few pieces of wood, didn't have anything. Not everyone there lives like that and I liked it better there but at least I can survive now."
"Wow. I thought mom didn't like people from outside here." November thought aloud.
"Yes, well, I was so desperate for money that I had to take up this awful job." Butler frowned.
"That's a shame." November sighed. "I was on my way to help..."
She then covered her mouth again. 'Why do I always do this? Now mom's going to be REALLY mad.'
"Wait, you were?" Butler asked.
"Yeah..." November confessed. "Bad choice, I know."
"No, that's actually... amazing." Butler gasped.
"Huh?"
"You're a wonderful person, Princess." Butler put her hand over her heart. "You go and do that."
"Are you for real?" November excitedly inquired.
"Yes, love. I'll cover for you."
"Thank you so much!" She cheered. "What's your name?"
"I'm Victoria. Can I call you Vember?" The female butler smiled.
"Of course." November nodded. "Can I call you Tori?"
"Okay." Victoria agreed. "Well, Virginia shall be here soon, goodbye Vember."
"Goodbye, Tori."
November sped through the golden castle gates, out of her palace for good now.
Into the natural world she stepped; she already loved the feeling of the gentle breeze and laughter in the air. The evergreen leaves she once had to adore from afar danced around her, then fell beneath her feet. The puddles on the ground smiled up at her, playfully splashing their water into her face.
"Oh, how I love it here!" She laughed, twirling around on the concrete path. The concrete felt so firm beneath her feet.
"Look at all of these markets!" She sighed contently, buying fruits from all of the villagers who were walking around selling their goods. All of the colours of the foods blended together, creating a rainbow perhaps even contesting with the beauty of the ones in the sky.
"I can't help but buy from each and every one of them, every villager has a new fruit or vegetable with such a unique taste!"
"Hello there, Food Shop Advertiser." A deep voice coughed from behind November, making her jump.
"Oh. Hi. Hello. Didn't see you there." November giggled, putting her hand out for the stranger to shake.
"You're good." The boy laughed, shaking November's hand. "My name's Austin. What's yours?"
"I'm November." November nodded. "I may or may not have escaped from the castle."
Austin gasped.
"Don't tell!" November whisper-yelled, placing a finger over her lips.
"I won't, I guess." Austin shrugged. "How old are you?"
"I'm eleven." November said.
"Oh, I'm twelve." Austin smiled.
"Cool!" November smiled. "Do you go to school?"
"Yes, but it's not a very good school." Austin told her. "We don't have very much money."
"Oh, no." November frowned. "I don't know how to help that yet, but that's what I plan to do. Well, here's a start. Sorry it's not the best." She gave Austin a £20 note.
"Wow... Thanks November." Austin smiled, admiring the note for a while.
"So, where do you live? Close to here?" November asked.
"Yes, just down there. My parents sent me here to look for food."
"Look?"
Austin explained. "Money for food is hard to come by."
"Oh, that's unfortunate." November sighed.
There was a fairly long pause.
"Is it okay if you show me your house? I'm curious." November smiled, wanting to see what their houses looked like.
"Okay. But you may not like what you see."