Gold Hair Gone Green and Hating William- Chapt 5

Today William and I sat down for our "two hour
get-to-know-each-other session" and I looked at him straight in the eye
and said, "William, do you like me?"
Of course he said, "You know I do, Aurora."
To which I asked, "Why?"
He didn't answer for a moment. Come on, he knew this question would
come up sooner or later. Doesn't every girl want to know this? He sat
there with kind of a surprised look on his face, his mouth open like a
gaping fish.
"I- well, Aurora I?"
"Is it because I'm? pretty?" I asked.
"No! I mean, you're beautiful and all, but I don't like your beauty? I
mean, I don't like you for your beauty, I-"
"Then what is it? I certainly haven't given you a reason to like me at
all, have I?"
"No! I mean, yes! I mean?of course you have! You really haven't given
me a reason to not like you, though."
"So what you're saying is you don't like me."
"No, Aurora! Augh!" He took a deep breath. I tried not to smile.
"You had better think of a reason quick, William, before I marry you.
No matter what my parents say."
And then I left. Just like that. I skipped the rest of our little time
together so he could recollect himself and I could come back to him
with my second plan to get rid of William.
It was obvious he only likes me for my looks. I hate being beautiful.
I'm not trying to be conceited, it's a fact that I am, and I hate it.
Maybe if I were ugly, William would go away.
I took some fabric dyes, hoping they would work on my hair. If I had
green hair, William would act differently and maybe if I persisted in
being ugly he would get the idea that he'd never have a pretty wife and
leave.
So I mixed a few colors and came with this horrible shade of murky
green, like a swamp. I soaked my hair in it and blotched it on my skin
to look like I had Sibiran Plague. I did this early the next morning,
so for the whole day I would look absolutely wretched!
William was at the table bright and early as usual. My parents had
already eaten and were going about the days activities elsewhere. He
stood up as he always did to greet me, though somewhat
cautiously.
"William!" I said rushing to him. "I am so sorry for the way I acted
yesterday! Simply dreadful of me I know!" I threw my arms around his
neck and pretended to cry. "I am a horrible person, I feel
awful!"
"You look awful!" he said, looking at me up and down.
"What?"
"Just kidding. You never look awful, Aurora."
"What do you mean I don't look awful?" I shrieked, racing upstairs and
looking into my mirror. The dye was completely gone. Only a few minutes
before I looked like I had come down with Plague or something and now I
looked like I was in perfect health, with normal hair and skin.
Pounding on the vanity with my fist in anger, I tried to figure out how
this had happened. 'Oh well,' I thought. 'There are other things I can
do.' But what? For goodness sake, I tried dying my hair green! Skin
too! Anyone who had seen it would scream in terror and run for a doctor
(Sibiran Plague is very, very contagious and deadly, although extremely
uncommon).
Still? what was I thinking, doing that? I know it'd never work.
Something has been terribly wrong with me these days. It's as if
everything I do, like dye my hair puckish green, is against my will. I
normally wouldn't be such a nightmare to William, what is wrong with
me?
~*~
"Orpheus, what's wrong? The spell is working, isn't that a good
thing?"
"Nothing, I just have this feeling?I don't know if I want to do this.
I actually never did."
"You're such a coward, Orpheus. If Malvada heard that, she'd kill you.
Why don't you want to? Everything's going wonderfully. And think of the
power and riches? we've never had this before!"
"It doesn't matter to me, Maladia. It just isn't right. You and I both
know it."
"Who cares? You can't back out of it anyway, because of what Malvada
did to you. You try to back out and the instant you do so you?"
"I know, I know! If I could get out of this, I would
immediately."
~*~
That day William and I decided to go horseback riding so he could see
the palace grounds, and it gets so boring inside playing chess and
other various games for two hours. My horse is a fiery stallion named
Beagan, all black with a splotch of white on his forehead and
back-right hoof, very beautiful. It had just rained the night before so
the ground was very muddy and luckily the horses are very tall (being
Hammington Blacks, both William's and mine) so when we galloped the mud
didn't splatter on our clothes.
Then the fun started. William is a great prankster, as am I,
naturally. We started to race and William tried to drive my horse into
puddles and I did the same to him. We took a picnic out and watched the
Flying of the Dragons as they flew to the star Castor for the upcoming
fall where they live during the fall and winter. Only three passed but
they were beautiful, they're blue and purple scales glittering under
Castor's light. I don't know when I had very much fun.
But then that sensation came over me again. I didn't understand why, I
just understood that I hated William. Hated the ground he walked on,
hated the air he breathed. It started when we were having a race and he
ran my horse over so I slipped off into a puddle of mud. We had been
doing this all day, and laughed every time. This was a larger puddle of
mud than the others, and normally I wouldn't have minded.
But I did.
My face darkened like a storm as he laughed. Not mockingly, he thought
he was laughing with me, but he wasn't.
"What did you think you were doing!" I yelled. "Look at my hair? and
my dress! Ruined! Oh, what will Mother say?"
My dress was an old one that my mother didn't really care if I ruined
(she hated it anyway) and somehow the mud was evaporating off of my
hair. Probably because of the heat. I hoped William breathed it, filled
his lungs with it.
Of course the prince was confused. How could I be so happy one moment
and hate him the next? I didn't know either. When I had these mood
swings my heart exploded in pain for five seconds of torture, then I
would feel nothing but hatred. What could make me feel this way?
"I think our two hours is up," William said nervously. "Do you want me
to help
you-"
"I'm fine on my own, thanks," I snapped. William nodded. I leapt up
onto Beagan and galloped away, leaving him there, and stormed up to my
room. Finding nothing to do there, I drew pictures of Argy eating him
(I didn't want anything too hard on Odetta's stomach considering her
delicate condition).
A few days passed with awkward silences for our two hour times. We
would eat lunch together in silence, take walks with me folding my arms
and looking in any direction but the one he stood in, and doing
everything I could to avoid him besides.
Two weeks until Darla and Elliot. How will I live?