Spin like the Lilies (Part 1/2)

You know how fairy tales work? The princess usually meets the prince at a ball. They fall in love. But then something happens and then the prince has to rescue the princess. He rescues her and then they ride off into the sunset on a horse that has no other role. That’s how they work. There’s never been any change to it.

I, for one, always hated that story. There were just so many problems with it. Here, have my full list of issues, that grows by the day-

1. You can meet *insert love interest* at ANY OTHER PLACE apart from a ball. These authors could have put in so much more character development before the ball! They could have been frenemies, but then see another side to each other that they didn’t see before!

2. Why is the love interest only restricted to a prince? I’d like to read a story where the prince has to be rescued. Maybe even one where a princess is being rescued by another princess.

3. Why. Does. The. Princess. Legit. ALLOW. Herself. To. Be. Kidnapped. By. A. Legit. DRAGON. Or. Something.

4. Why doesn’t anyone give credit to the dragon? I mean, he never has any motives. Oh I’ll say, I’m in the mood to randomly kidnap a princess even though it means I will most certainly die at the hands of the cliché prince!

Please! CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, PEOPLE, CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FOR VILLAINS!!

5. Why do they always ride off into the sunset? Why not into a sunrise?

6. Where did the horse come from? How do you know if it’s being mistreated by the prince? Animal cruelty exists!

But all this is beside the point. My point NOT being that the cliché romance story sucks. Even though it does.

My point actually being that, no matter how much baloney the old stories feed you, it isn’t like that in real life. Despite being not true at all, you might find yourself using them as benchmarks in love, like, comparing your love life to Cinderella.

I made that mistake when I first realized how I saw my best friend, Merielle.

Yes, Merielle Olympe. As in beat-maker extraordinaire, the one who helps me with songs, the one who goes by Rai (short for my nickname for her, Mirai) online.

I should probably explain a bit more.

Mirai and I first “met” in Geography. Everyone says that math is the devil, and so is History, but NO! You have it all wrong. The one you should be hating is Geography.

(Cough.) (Let’s get back to the story.)

I shouldn’t say “met”, exactly, we were just random people back then. I was that one loner kid who sat in the back with a notebook.

The way our school works is that there are twenty to thirty kids in a class, all divided into four rows.

It’s not very fun because then you get grouped with random people each class… Back to the notebook. It was yellow.

It was only for me to see. I wrote little songs and doodled. That notebook was my life.

Unfortunately, it was also the reason I didn’t pay attention in class, and therefore, wasn’t allowed to bring it to Geography any more.

Pfft. Like that was going to stop me.

I hid it in my jacket but didn’t dare take it out. But then, just as my teacher finished inspecting the row in front of me’s work and was about to start on my row, I got a song idea.

A good one to boot. And I couldn’t write it. Not with the teacher stalking me. I started fidgeting in panic. The girl who sat behind me noticed and also took in that I didn’t have my notebook. She tore off a page from her notebook, and then crumpled it, then threw it with amazing aim to under my desk. And I caught it and clutched it.

The teacher passed. I was safe. I then furiously started to scribble my idea.

It’s a serendipity,

That I met you.

I won’t leave your side

Until the end of time.

We’ll spin like the lilies,

Gaze up at the stars,

Under my patchwork sky.

I turned around and mouthed, ‘Thank you’ to the girl. After class was over, she introduced herself to me.

“My name is Merielle. And you are the song girl?”

“Song girl?”

“You write songs. Good ones, too.”

“M-My name is Elise…”

“Can I see the song you wrote in class, Elise? I can find a beat for it!”

I then show the song to her. She starts nodding her head to an invisible rhythm and takes a picture of the words on her phone. She then puts her headphones on from where they were dangling from her neck, and opened GarageBand on her phone.

“Well, songbird, I’ll have a tune done by tonight! Can I have your number?”

“S-Sure?”

We exchanged numbers, and she declared that her official nickname for me was going to be ‘songbird’. (!!!)

And that’s how I met my best friend of three years. Yes, I met her when I needed paper to doodle an idea right before a teacher ruined everything. I’m now glad that I wasn’t allowed to bring my notebook- without that happening, I’d have never met Mirai.

Well, now seventh grade has passed by. So has eighth and ninth. And with Mirai’s help, I’ve produced and copyrighted about five whole songs! As a celebratory thing, I’m taking her to the skydiving stadium.

It’s where you get prepped to go skydiving.

Obviously.

(Seriously, am I ADHD or something? Oh wait. Bad joke. I am ADHD.)

Well, little does Mirai know I have something planned for her!

I came clean to my family about it, and they are all okay with it, and my dad even told me that he was proud. I’m so happy I have a loving and supporting family.

Well… Time to imagine it once again. Everything has to be perfect.

We jump off the helicopter and hold hands and do air tricks. Then, about a minute before we open our parachutes, just in case she’s shocked, this is what will happen-

Me: Mirai, I have something to ask you!

Mirai: What is it?

Me: Merielle Olympe… do you promise to be by my side forever? Or at least until we graduate?

Mirai: What the penguin, Eli?! Didn’t I already promise that??

Me: No you idiot! I’m asking if you want to be my girlfriend!

I don’t know what she would say.

I don’t know what I want her to say.