The Princess and The Crown: Chapter One, The Girl

by Dakota C.

Her name was Cecilia. She had shoulder length brown hair, streaked with black highlights. Her skin was pale, though tanned from years in the sun. Freckles scattered over her nose, cheeks, and a few under her eyes. Pale icy blue eyes with a hint of emerald to them rested under thick, dark eyebrows. Often arched with a hint of sarcasm, she looked quite a bit older than she actually was. She was slender and well-built, with long arms and legs. Her fingers were delicate and graceful, with alternating pink, purple, and black nail polish.

Her nose was softly rounded, her mouth smaller than average, though it possessed a certain sweetness. Her light-pink lips were always pressed into a firm line, except when smiling. They lit up her whole face. Her ears were slightly pointed at the ends, which made her seem a little elfish, though not in a bad way. Her face was rounded nicely, her head tucked neatly into her neck, and her chin was fine. Cecilia had long legs and a short torso, ending up with an average height. She had long lashes that gave her an air of daintiness.

She was, however, muscular, as she did gymnastics with naturally flexible legs and swimming with strong arms. She was pretty, and no one could say she wasn’t. If not for the fact that she wasn’t looking for one, and that she considered all the boys at her school disgusting and troll-like, she’d certainly have a boyfriend.

Cecilia Ruby Seaman was quite a girl, with amazing grades and amazing looks. Her one downside was that she had no friends. She considered all the girls at her school annoying, and they simply just didn’t want to be friends with her. No, her personality was sharp, humorous, and sometimes callous. That, and the fact that any time they tried to get close she told them to take a walk, which was quite humiliating. Yes, they hated her, and she hated them.

Though she ate lunch alone, and never had anyone over, her sass, her sarcasm, and her personality made her quite a tom-boy, hanging around boys that were older than her. She could hold her own with the rowdy boys, by burning, teasing, and joking with them. Any boy which could call themselves a friend of Cecilia Seaman was an honored and popular boy, for she was often picky with anyone who got close to her. Cecilia was, for all accounts, someone who could hold her own on every front, whether teasing a boy who told her that a girl like her shouldn’t be hanging out with boys like them or laughing at some snotty girls. Cecilia was a character, that was for sure. And she wouldn’t care anything for you if you didn’t care for her. Cecilia was fiercely loyal to anyone who could call themselves a friend of hers. This might’ve come from the fact that she was adopted. The way her parents said the story, was like this:

“We were walking home from a restaurant, and by a 7 Eleven, in a cardboard box, we saw this little scrap of a girl, with her hair in an amazing braid, smiling, and wearing pj’s! We never found her parents. We took her everywhere! The police, social services, everywhere! She was too young to remember anything, but still! Ah, I wish we knew where her parents are, I mean, she had to be abandoned, but…. Oh? Where is she now? Glad you asked! Cecilia, come here! We didn’t want to give her to an orphanage or a foster home, so we adopted her!”

A good parent story, though Cecilia generally tried to pretend her family was her biological family. It made no sense to tell anyone what they could just use to bully her. Just as it made no sense that her real family had abandoned her. Who would do that? Hadn’t they loved her? Where were they? These questions Cecilia pondered, just as she was doing right now.

“Hey! Ceci? You there? Me and Trevor were thinking of hitting up downtown. You got any bucks?” asked the boy in front of her.

Cecilia blinked and glanced at Sean. He had sticky brown hair and eyebrows, dark green eyes, tan skin, a smile like he’d seen heaven, and didn’t look all that great. A bit like a rat, and with a pointed nose, he wasn’t anything special. With too small ears and too sunken eyes, he was a bit ugly, though Cecilia would never say anything, unlike many of the girls at her school. He wore a blue hoodie and sweatpants, though it was over 90° Fahrenheit. Cecilia shrugged and smiled. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, “sure. I got a couple bucks. Though I am not paying for you! You still owe me five dollars!” She yelled to him as he smiled, gave her a thumbs up and ran to Trevor.

Of all the boys, Trevor was the one she most likely would like. He had blonde hair, sky blue eyes, an olive tone, and thick eyebrows. He always wore some sort of jersey-as he played nearly every sport-and shorts, even when it was freezing. He gave Cecilia a short smile and said, “You know you’re not getting that money back, right?” He laughed. “I’ll keep trying.” Cecilia muttered as she stalked down the sidewalk. Sean chortled at that and spent the rest of the walk playing games like ‘I Spy’ and ‘I Went to the Store.’ Cecilia tuned him out, and it was only after she saw him, what had to be five times, did she realize. A boy was following her.

He was dark haired, with pale skin and freckles. He wore dark clothes and always had his eyes on her. She couldn’t see much of him because of the distance, but he didn’t go to her school. Anytime he saw her staring at him, he’d duck behind other people. He seemed to only be looking at her, but she couldn’t be sure. Cecilia almost wanted to point him out to Trevor and Sean, as walking downtown after school wasn’t normally a place you’d be followed, but she was afraid of scaring him off before she got answers.

Cecilia put on her ‘mean face’ as she walked, though, to ward him off. It didn’t work. She swore, this boy was creepy, but she wasn’t going to chase him, if that’s what he wanted. Patience. Silence. Wait. Her brother always said. Not that she ever really listened to him. He was nearly ten years older, and fourteen-year-olds didn’t mix with twenty-three-year-olds. But she would, waiting like a cobra for her prey. He’d slip up. He had too. Every human did, eventually.

“Ladies first.” Sean said with mock primness as he held open the door to a gas station, presumably to buy junk with Cecilia’s and Trevor’s money. Cecilia smiled, though she couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. She turned around, and sure enough, there the boy was, staring at her from across the street. “You good? What’re you looking at?” Trevor asked, making the boy duck behind a group of teenagers when he saw Trevor’s lips move. “Nothing.” Ceilia said, turning to the store. “Absolutely nothing.”

About the Author

Dakota is a young writer who lives with her family and four cats-Rocky, Ginger, Zoro, and Puma. She mostly writes fantasy.