My Entry For the Soompi Short Story battle for the Month of April

SPECULATIONS

Taken from the Blog of Anonymous.

“Every hour wounds. The last one kills”, is how we would best describe this lachrymose tale of unreciprocated love. Today is Valentines Day but the biggest news that got the entire school in a buzz was the news that this morning a junior went hysterical in the principal’s office. Before going further on this hottest piece of news, let’s take a few moments to synthesize information we have derived.

Heavy and pimply Cornelius wasn’t part of the “in” crowd nor was he the smartest in school but most of us knew him. In fact, he barely speaks to anyone. He only speaks if spoken to. From his messy black hair, thick glasses, to his shiny shoes everybody adored him. We did mention that we adore Cornelius, not because he reminded us of that old ragged big teddy bear that we loved to wrestle when we were toddlers but because he had the cutest case of puppy love, he only had eyes for one girl ever since the world begun, Jenny. We knew it even if he doesn’t say or admit it.

Yes, Jenny. Tall, smart and beautiful, she was every guy’s dream. She’s also the most popular girl in class who struts like a model and who has been notoriously known for having only rich ex-boyfriends in the past. Probably a contributing factor why we adore Cornelius because deep in our hearts, there lives a Cornelius who wanted something beautifully perfect that we just could not attain because it’s just not in our level and it pains us why these beautiful creatures like Jenny seemed like they never had the same problem in any of their endeavours.

From our reliable sources, Jenny does prefer rich boys. Cornelius was rumoured to be the son of an oil billionaire or a wealthy Turkish sheik, nobody knows for sure. We never doubted though that he was filthy rich as was evident through his chauffeured limousine, penchant of only owning labelled things and how he tirelessly tries to impress or please her every Valentine’s Day for the past two years but what we really don’t understand is why Jenny doesn’t give her the time of day when she’s known to go after rich guys even if they looked like-well, like Cornelius

Every Valentine’s Day he would romantically declare his love, it is what everyone of us look forward to. Two years ago, everyone was shocked when we entered the cafeteria on Valentines Day, there was a make shift stage where a popular local band started to play a romantic song while furiously blushing Cornelius stood in the corner listening intently to the song, silently evaluating what he had done, we assumed.  In the middle was a giant projector where a slideshow of her pictures was flashed. We were amazed how he had acquired such a huge collection of her pictures from her childhood to the current time, probably he sequestered most of it from her blog (which we doubted, because she doesn’t even know what a blog is when we our IT teacher asked her in class) or acquired through stalking her, a bit freaky if we were her but understandable when you have no means to get to know your crush better. A close friend of Jenny even informed us that, the song played by the band was her all time favourite song.

What was Jenny’s reaction? She just sat on her usual table and examined her pink nails like nothing happened. Our heart went out to Cornelius, such a pitiful soul.

Last year’s Valentines Day was even worst for our love-struck Cornelius. Right after the last bell rang, students scampered out into the open field, where a march band played while a jet plane wrote Jenny’s name in the sky and scattered confetti of pink  rose petals onto the field. Cornelius was already there for he had PE for his last period that day and looked up into the sky with a bemused smile, probably admiring his ingenuity.

Jenny didn’t even stay long to wait for the Jet to finish spelling out her name; she rode the first bus to go home. We felt our heart bleed for Cornelius, we share his agony.

Although we condemn Jenny for ignoring Cornelius just because he didn’t have the acne-free genes or time to have a major liposuction operation we also feel a bit bad for her because as many of us observed, her dating life for the past two years had been stagnant. Most of us hypothesized that the main reason why Jenny hadn’t been seeing anyone for the past two years was probably due to the fact that boys got intimated with Cornelius’ acts of love, no guy, rich or not could simply top that.

As for Cornelius, a student whose locker was next to him swears that Cornelius tried. He would often see him with a pink stationery envelope which he keeps in his locker. Therefore, it didn’t come as a surprise when we heard the news last night that Cornelius had suddenly left the town at dawn today to go out of the country and transfer to a new school. Logically speaking, no one would find fault if he decided not to stay in this school where he had been shamefully rejected by his one and only crush, more harshly day by day until he probably couldn’t take the pain.

As for why Jenny threw a fit this morning when someone told her about it, only a few of us could speculate why.

Chapter One

Two hundred years ago in the southern hemisphere, the Kingdom of Adrianna was ruled by the powerful King Darwin. On his deathbed, he disinherited his son Prince Adrian in favour of his illegitimate son, Prince Carl. Prince Adrian was disinherited because he married a widowed commoner that was against his father’s wishes.

Prince Adrian raised an army composed of mostly commoners to win the kingdom back but his half brother’s army was able to protect the kingdom from rebel. The rebellion went on for more than a decade until finally; the kingdom was divided into two, North Adriana which was ruled by King Carl and South Adriana which was ruled by Prince Adrian.

For years, both kingdoms struggled to conquer each other.

Princes Carmina woke up in the middle of the night. She heard the merry laughter of the soldiers. The whole castle was celebrating her cousin’s wedding and tomorrow, her sixteenth birthday. She walked to the open window and gazed into the full moon. She had watched her cousin Melanie earlier danced with her groom.

She sighed. “Someday my hero will come and save me and I’ll give him my heart.”

“Oh nanny, I hope mother and father will come soon. They said they would try to come before Melanie’s wedding but I think they would come today,” Carmina said anxiously as her nanny brushed her hair.

Her Parents the King and Queen of South Adriana was visiting camps bear the borders. A skirmish had begun a week before between the troops of South Adriana and North Adriana when the northerners tried to invade a small town.

Carmina brushed lint of her sleeve when a knock came from the door and Carmina’s cousin Kimberly came in crying, “Carmina, I have some dreadful news.”

A cold shiver went down Carmina’s spine and she felt her hands go numb, “Do tell me Kim.”

“Carmina, your parents, the king and queen were ambushed,” Kim said trembling.

“No!” Carmina cried. “Tell me Kimberly, are they alive or dead?”

“No one knows for sure. There are rumours though, that they were beheaded”

Carmina felt her heart stopped and the Princess fainted.

Kimberly held her cousin’s hand. The poor princess will now have to rule their country and lead to war. Too much blood has been shed for this war. She wondered when it will end.

A forthnight later, on her coronation as the new queen of South Adriana, a resolute Carmina walked down the carpeted aisle. Her critics had bashed and doubted her. A young queen with no experience in leading a battle can’t possibly sustain their Kingdom but Carmina had vowed to show them that she can do it.

As the priest anointed her, Carmina’s heart burned with anger, “I promise, I’ll emerge victorious in this battle. I’ll avenge their deaths.”

As the priest placed the sparkling crown on her head, Carmina clenced her fists as she felt he heavy weight of the crown.

In North Adriana, Trumpet sounds blasted from the large courtyard. North Adriana was rejoicing over the marriage of Prince Brad to Lady Crystal, the daughter of a wealthy lord.

Crystal was happily dancing with her new husband. She can’t believe that she’s finally married. It seemed like it was only yesterday when she met Prince Brad. Her father had brought her to court to visit her godfather, the King. She was immediately introduced to the King’s sons. The eldest, Prince Arthur and the youngest Prince Brad.

She had an inkling that her father had intended her to catch the eye of Prince Arthur but she was immediately drawn to the shy Prince Brad. The King had invited her to stay in the castle for the summer. She remembered her first conversation with Brad.

She had finished sketching a willow tree. She eyed her sketch critically, her willow looked like it was leaning. She scratched her brow thinking how she could improve her sketch when he suddenly appeared behind her back, “I think you should darken the shade on this side,” he said pointing to willows trunk.

She considered his suggestion and shaded the part he had pointed out. She took a step back and admired her sketch, it did improve her sketch. She smiled at him, “So you are also an artist?”

Crystal smiled at the memory. She felt Brad’s arm tighten around her as he whispered, “I cannot believe you are finally mine.”

He kissed her lightly on the cheek. At that point the King tapped his glass and the music halted as everyone huddled to listen to the King’s announcement.

“It has been a dream of everyone to win back South Adriana. My friends, it has become apparent that faith had sided with us after all these years. South Adriana has weakened and under the leadership of a teenage queen, South Adriana is just within arm’s reach. I’d like to toast to my youngest son’s marriage and to a united Adriana!”

“Aye!” The guests raised their glasses for a toast.

Crystal never cared about conquering South Adriana, all she cared about was that she had finally married the man that she had dreamed.