Author's Notes:

Names Used in this Section:

England- Alice Kirkland America- Amelia Jones

France- Francine Bonnefoy

This chapter is basically to make up for the lack of Amelia/Alice in the story. But, there's also barely any mention of the Princess competition.

The Princess and Her Knight 6

Nighttime Conversations and You

Alice knew what she had to do. She had been in love with the other for so long, it was nearly bursting out of her. However, Alice's personality only caused her to push the other further and further away. Today, though, Alice had decided to tell the one she liked so much her feelings, no matter the cause.

And, really, what did she have to lose? The other was just so dense, that person would not understand anyways. Even if that person did, Alice was probably going to have to leave soon anyways. Her parents had not been pleased with her decision to dash off to the United States spontaneously, to say the least. (Not that Alice particularly cared, she just didn't want them to cut off her inheritance in total.) The other person was so open to anything, anyways; the other would most certainly not become immediantly disgusted with the Brit. But, most of all, Alice had grown sick of the eternal back-and-forth pull of her heart. She was going to tell the other what she needed no matter what.

Stepping lightly around the house that had grown so familiar to her in the past few months, Alice began to look for that other person. It was an early Saturday morning, and both Alice's host mother and host half-sister were off doing miscellaneous chores, leaving only Alice and the one of her affections left.

At least, this is what she had thought.

Passing by the spacious entertainment room, she suddenly heard voices. The other person was talking to someone else. Alice racked her brain for which it could be, but was unable to come up with anyone. Silently, she tiptoed to the outside of the door.

"I mean, you're the one who said it's only us anyways," the unfamiliar voice said, in a relatively demanding tone. "Why not?"

"'Cause it's not just us," the other one emphasized, pursing her lips. "Alice, the British girl I was telling you about, is here too."

"Yeah, and have we seen her all morning?" the unfamiliar one inquired. "Like you said, she's probably sleeping or something."

"Probably…" the other one said without heart in the voice. "I'm just don't want to bother her, y'know?"

'Oh brilliant,' Alice thought. 'They haven't realized I'm awake yet.'

"Whatever," the unfamiliar voice sighed. "I don't care if you don't want to or anything. Do you know if there's a game on or something?"

"Oh, fine," the other one gave in, standing up. She moved over to the unfamiliar one, and made a sound like she was kissing the unfamiliar one. However, Alice could only hear the sound of her own heart breaking.

"Alice!"

Alice Kirkland was thrown awake with a start. Snapping out of her dreams, she glanced around worriedly, and found herself in Saint Mary's nurse's office, nowhere near the United States at all. It looked to be around dinnertime, as the sun was low in the sky; the orange of the sunset flooding the normally white room. The blonde let out a sigh of relief. She turned her head once more, slipping on her glasses, and found her nose practically touching that of the Knight she was working with, Amelia F. Jones.

"A-Amelia!" Alice exclaimed, practically fleeing to the other side of the sterilized bed she was on. "W-W-What-?"

"Alice." Amelia stated totally seriously, silencing the writer. "Do you feel all right?"

Alice, for the first time since waking, pondered why she was in the nurse's office anyways. Feeling a sharp pain run through her head, she rubbed it absentmindedly. "Yes, I suppose."

Amelia let out what looked like a giant sigh of relief, facing her lap in the plastic chair by Alice's bed. "That's good, that's good. Do you remember what happened?"

Alice went through her memories of the day. That's right- she had been playing baseball in the outfield, due to the Princess competition's "5-Day Switch". Grimly, she recalled her incredible slowness and her extreme lack of skills. Suddenly, she remembered how she had passed out in the first place. A fly ball had been hit right towards the writer. Unfortunately, the sun had been all too close, and it had proceeded to hit Alice in the dead center of her forehead.

"Yes," she concluded. Unfortunately, this left one thing unanswered. "But, how did I get here?"

Amelia smiled. "Me, being the heroine I am, was watching over you in your trying of baseball-"

"You mean you were skipping classes?" Alice interrupted incredulously. "We'll never win now…"

"Nah, I wasn't skipping," Amelia emphasized, shaking her blonde bob back and forth. "I just took a sort-of long bathroom break during The History of Play-Writing. Seriously, though, how the hell do you manage getting through that class? It's, like, torture. I never have heard that much about Romeo and Juliet in my entire life."

"Shakespeare's a genius, you git!" Alice exclaimed, suddenly infuriated. Remembering her lost time, she inched Amelia back onto topic. "Anyways, how did I get here?"

"Oh, right, that," Amelia remembered, her eyebrows rising. "So, as I was saying, I was just checking up on you, when, all of a sudden, the ball went way too high, and, from watching you running the bases-"

"You were there that bloody long?" the writer inquired, interrupting the story once more.

Amelia continued, pretending not to have heard Alice. "Anyways, I just knew you were going to be in a heap of trouble, especially when I saw you looking up and your eyes growing the size of the ball itself. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to you in time to save you from it totally, but I did catch you while you were falling. Then, I picked you up, and carried you here. You're way lighter than I expected, Ally."

Alice's face turned a deep rose red. Amelia had carried her all the way to the nurse's office. Though Amelia had said the Brit was light, she was still worried about how long the trip had been. How long had she been in Amelia's arms?

"Not that I'm thinking about that or anything!" Alice declared loudly, her face redder than before.

"Huh?" Amelia asked, obviously confused at the sudden outburst. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?" She put her hand on Alice's forehead, her own face getting closer. "Your face is, like, really red, and you're spouting nonsense."

Stubbornly, Alice spun around, forcing Amelia's hand off of her head. "I-I-I'm just fine, git! A-A-And anyways, w-what were you thinking, idiot, carrying me around like that? What if people get the wrong idea?"

The American's head titled to the left. "Wrong idea? Like what?"

'I forgot she couldn't tell anything!' Alice thought worriedly. "N-Nothing. It's fine. I should be fine going back to the dorms for dinner. You can head on if you would like."

The blonde curls were flipping yet again. "Like heck I'd do that! I'm a heroine, not someone who would ditch others like that. Unless they were the super villains, obviously. Or communists."

Alice's face flushed once more. Suddenly too tired to fight (and secretly sort of happy), she gave into Amelia's demands. "F-Fine you can walk back with if you really want. B-But only because you want to. I don't particularly care."

The so-called heroine smiled her widest. "Awesome!"

Luckily for Alice, on the way returning to the dorm building, Amelia was taking up the majority of the conversation. She was telling Alice about even though Play-Writing had most certainly not been her favorite, Brainstorming had been mildly interesting, and the American had come up with quite a few ideas. Alice, though relatively happy that her Knight seemed to be working for the title finally, wasn't completely listening. She was too busy contemplating her life.

'So, Amelia carried me all the way to the nurse's office…' she thought solemnly. 'I… sort of wish I had been awake for that.' Realizing what she had just thought, Alice blushed some more, and shook her head, throwing such things to the wind. 'No, no, I just would have liked to tell her off for doing it, that's all. There's nothing more to it than that. At all.'

The British writer stole a glance at her partner's cheerful face. Amelia appeared to realize this, and turned and looked in Alice's eyes. Suddenly, the gaze becoming more serious, and the silence ever growing, they both stopped walking. Amelia gulped, her face totally red, and mumbled, "Um, well, Ally, I-"

'Oh, damn,' Alice thought, as her vision faded as if her glasses had been removed. Her head throbbed as if professional drummers were using her as a cymbal. Alice's footing loosened, and she suddenly found herself lying on the arm of Amelia. She had been caught in midair. Embarrassed, Alice stood up and tried to move further along the path, but instead was stopped by a strong hand.

"A-Amelia! Let me go!" Alice demanded, trying to shrug the hand off her shoulders that felt smaller and smaller every second. Her face was red once more.

"No," the baseball girl said, her tone, for once, totally serious. "I can't let you go off alone. What if you fell somewhere or something? You could end up with an even worse injury, Alice. And I doubt I'd be able to forgive myself if that happened." She seemed to realize what was going on too. Her face became the color of her hair clips, and she stammered, "B-Because I'm the heroine, of course." Her bob flying she bent over and pointed to her back. "Anyways, let me carry you back to the dorms."

Alice shook her head. "I absolutely refuse! I'm totally fine!" She walked a few more steps to prove her statement to Amelia. "See?"

"No, you're obviously not," Amelia countered. "Just get on my back. It's only for, like, a minute anyways."

'That is still sixty seconds I would rather not deal with!' Alice mentally screamed. However, her head was absolutely throbbing, and she was most likely would prove to be able to return to the dormitory by Alice's own efforts. Thus, outwardly she said, "F-Fine. I won't hop on your backside." Seeing Amelia ready to object, Alice continued. "Y-You can link arms with me o-or something. But just because you're being really persistent, okay? Not because I particularly want to or anything."

Amelia's mouth turned into a cat-like smile, obviously happy at winning the argument. She quickly slipped her arm through Alice's own, and began to continue with her speech. Alice returned to contemplating. The Brit wondered, 'I wonder what Amelia was planning on saying… No, it was probably something idiotic.'

So, the two made their way back to the dorms, one not saying anything, and the other saying too much.

Later that night, Alice had just taken a shower, and proceeded to lie down on her bed. She went over the events of the day once more in her mind. After she and Amelia had made her way into the school, Alice demanded they stop linking arms, and the American had agreed, but only in the case that they eat together during dinner, and she could walk Alice to her room afterwards. Reluctantly, Alice had agreed.

As the writer had only been used to Amelia seating with her for breakfast, so she was been expecting to not enjoy it too much. She had been surprised to find that Amelia, though noisy and crude while eating, wasn't too bad, she supposed. Amelia asked numerous questions about Alice's writings, and appeared to actually care what Alice was telling her. It was nice to be able to tell someone about Alice's stories, as she had few friends, none of which were in the writing program.

Alice sighed, and rolled over on her bed, snapping back into the present. She found herself blushing, and mentally kicked herself. Why in the world would she be blushing? Amelia was nothing to blush over. Alice was convinced of it. She certainly did not like the other. She was annoying, stupid, blunt, much too strong, and brave…

Besides, (though she may have suspected herself as such) Alice's parents would absolutely murder the writer if they found out she was into other girls. They pushed the idea that all of Alice and her older sisters should have an abundance of children to help the Kirkland family gain further influence. She had been trying so hard to win back their approval for three years now. It was too early to give in, just because of one person. (A person she most certainly felt nothing towards, thank you very much.)

Picturing Amelia in her head for a moment, she blushed, but quickly pushed away the thought. 'Besides,' Alice thought solemnly. 'I know Amelia is not weird, like me. She probably like boys a whole lot.'

A sharp rap on her room's door forced her up on her bed. Expecting it to be Amelia wanting to check on Alice's well being once more, the writer opened it, saying, "I'm perfectly all right, you git." However, instead, she found herself face-to-face with her old rival, Francine Bonnefoy dressed in more modest sleepwear than Alice thought was possible for her.

"Bonjour, Alice," the French girl greeted, smirking. "Mind if I come in?"

Thanks for reading thus far! Sorry about slow updates. Christmas is hectic. If I don't update every week, I promise at least every other.

See you next time!

{Natsumi;;}