For the past few days since the whole incident at Kaya’s school, Amalie’s father had asked if Elain was alright keeping an eye on Amalie for a few hours during the day since the girl wasn’t even remotely ready to go back to school yet.

Not that Elain could blame the kid in the slightest.

Things at Elain’s home also had their own issues to deal with, from Kaya’s subsequent role in the fight between Amalie and Mia.

While Kaya felt really awful there was nothing that could be done now with what happened. But with it all, their Mom was a bit different from the norm, they all thought that it had to do with what happened, but their father Jair also gave off the vibe that this wasn’t that at all. the three soon found out why when their mom came to see them one by one.

Where she told them a story, a story about her life and how she came to no longer speak or even remotely mention her family.

When Zuri was young, she had an uncle named Charles, he was a kind caring man and loved by everyone in their community. But things slowly began to take a turn when Charles fell in love with a woman named Rose. Zuri liked Rose, but the other family members didn’t, it soon became clear to the young Zuri as to why.

Roze was of Mexican origin and moved to the United States with her mother to start fresh, but that wasn’t the reason for the family’s hate, it was for the one small factor that Rose could easily pass as being White.

And it soon came to a head when Charles was murdered in cold blood, by his own father when Charles tried to stop his family from attacking Rose and her mother. They wanted to make it a robbery gone wrong, but instead, instead of seeing the woman who stole their son, they saw Charles instead and in response his father killed him with a knife to the heart.

Zuri didn’t go into much detail about the crime itself, mentioning that after Charles died, they made it look like a hate crime to try and get the police on the wrong trail. But it didn’t work, thanks to one determined detective, and a young six-year-old Zuri who overheard her uncle’s family talking with her parents about getting rid of Rose.

Perhaps they only meant to scare her, but in the end, someone died. And Zrui became the family outcast after that. whatever she did, no matter what, she’d be looked down on. The biggest straw was falling in love with Jair before she cut ties and moved across the country to be with him and his family.

Elain found herself angry at that, angry at the people who killed someone just because of who they loved. It was like it was the 60s all over again where you couldn’t even marry anyone outside of your own race.

The look on Zuri’s face as she told each of her children what happened, spoke volumes.

The reason for this was mainly for Kaya’s benefit, simply because they did all they could to keep her away from all the horrible things that happened to Elain, and the aftermath of it. Afraid that it’d only frighten Kaya, but after what happened in school with Amalie, Zuri felt like this was someone that needed to be talked about.

Elain found a twisted sense of irony in it. So many people claim they want to fight racism, but can perpetuate such racist thoughts when those they know and were supposed to care for don’t agree with their ideals.

Land of the Free, what a farce. It all just seemed to be getting worse by the day.

The sudden move to Canada also made a lot more sense now, as both parents agreed it was the best course of action to get away from those people as far as possible, and what better to do that than to another country?

Most of it was because their Dad had dual citizenship in Canada, which made the moving process a lot quicker than it would have been if they were only American Citizens. And with it, it meant that even the children had dual citizenship, which was good to know.

All this new information made Elain’s head spin, but even still, she was glad to have been told, and it seemed to affect Kaya too. Who, after this whole debacle came to light, had been effectively grounded until further notice by the powers that be. Being an angry/disappointed Mom, Kaya seemed to accept this punishment with little to no retaliation, if anything, she just wanted to try and talk with Amalie again but seemed to have no success.

Later that Thursday afternoon, Elain paused when heading to the kitchen to see Kaya on her laptop trying to look something up. “What are you doing Kaya?” she said causing her baby sister to jump in her seat.

“El!” Kaya gasped as Elain came into Kaya’s room. “I... I thought you were looking after Amalie?”

“Not in the afternoons I’m not,” Elain stated before looking at the girl’s laptop. “Didn’t Mom say you can’t go online unless it was for school? What are you trying to look up?”

With a squeak, she partially closed the lid of her laptop. “I’m doing research!” she said very quickly. “For a school project on… m-missing people! Yeah!”

Elain didn’t believe a word of it. “Kaya?”

She smiled trying to hide what she was doing. “Hmm?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were being bullied by those kids?” Elain asked suddenly. “The very same kids who bullied Amalie, they did something to you too, didn’t they?”

Kaya broke eye contact, making what Elian thought to be true.

“Kai,” she knelt down and placed her right hand over both of her sisters. “Why didn’t you say anything if that was happening?”

“Because… I didn’t want to be blamed.”

Elain frowned. “Why would we blame you?”

“Because I’m a bad friend!” tears began to form in her dark brown eyes. “I… after the first day of school, Mia, the girl that hates Amalie the most, said something really bad… that bad word. The N-word. She called me that and… and said things about what she’d do if I kept staying near Amalie… it happened every day. And I listened! Like a dummy. I just… I was scared. I know what I did was wrong… but I kept thinking if I just pretended it wasn’t happening that nothing was wrong then we wouldn’t move again.”

“Move?” Elain repeated, rather confused. “You thought we’d move?”

Kaya nodded as her shoulders shook along with her voice. “And… even though I haven’t really made any friends… I didn’t want that to happen. At least… not until I apologized to Amalie. But she’s not in school and her dad won’t let me talk to her!”

“Kaya, we wouldn’t move because of that, if anything we would have done everything, we could to help you get out of that situation,” Elain tells her. “But we can’t help unless you talk with us.” Just like I did when we were still in the States… “I know it’s scary, but if something bad happens you need to tell us right away. No matter what, okay?”

“‘Kay…” was all that Kaya said in response, she still didn’t feel like she could be open with what happened at school and what led to it. Whatever else this Mia girl kept telling Kaya for over a whole month and a half must have really stuck with her in the worst of ways. Elain didn’t know how to even help her sister out.

And since Kaya didn’t seem to be willing to talk more than she already had, Elain thought it was best not to push it and take it slow. For now, she changed the topic. “So, you said you were trying to look someone up?”

Kaya wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and arm. “Yeah, I was. Because the person seemed to be really important to Amalie.”

Elain scowled faintly. “What’s the name?”

“Someone named Lauren,” Kaya turned back to her laptop. “But that name is so common I’m not sure which Lauren. I looked through our school’s photos online, for the school yearbook. But the only Lauren I saw was a girl in sixth grade and one in kindergarten.”

“Davenport,” Elain said, drawing her sister’s attention. “Her name’s Lauren Davenport.”

“Oh!” and went to see what she could find, but Elain beat her to it.

“She’s missing Kaya,” Kaya froze and slowly looked back at Elain with surprise. “She’s been missing since the summer. No one knows if she’s alive or dead. But it’s been in the news that she was being mistreated by her family and an investigation is ongoing.”

The look on Kaya’s face was telling as something clicked into place. “Oh…”

Elain knelt by her sister. “Kaya, I get you feel bad that this happened, that you want to make up to her. But I think it might be good just to give her some space when she comes back to school. You can try and talk to her but only if she’s up for it. Okay?”

Kaya just nodded.

Elain kissed her sister’s temple. “You know I love you, right?”

Kaya nodded again and Elain just hugged her.

“I won’t tell Mom or Dad what you were doing, but you got to be careful. Don’t want the Angry Lioness to come back, do you?”

“No…” she muttered in agreement and closed her laptop. “It’s just that… Amalie hasn’t been to school since Monday. And I’m worried. What if she’s really hurt because of me?”

“Kaya, Amalie’s okay now, at least physically. You just have to be patient and wait for her to come back. You can do that right?”

Kaya nodded.

Elain hugged her baby sister again while silently wondering when Amalie would remain at home, she hadn’t spoken about it, only to say sorry that Kaya was even involved, but it wasn’t Amalie’s fault for that but hadn’t spoken about it since. It made Elain wonder what went on in that little girl’s head.

* * *

On Friday, Elain continued to do her morning school work in the Hilmarsson home, an agreement with Alastor would be that she would come in the morning to do her school work and keep an eye on the little girl.

The first time she saw Amalie after what happened, Elain’s heart sank, Amalie looked so exhausted with the world and her eyes were red from crying, the poor kid. Yet even after all that, Amalie did her schoolwork. Though today, Amalie seemed to have recovered well, there were still signs of bruising, but it was almost gone. The kid had a fast recovery speed.

Today she was dressed in a black blouse with a frilled collar and long sleeves with a forest green long skirt that had suspenders that stopped at her knees. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a matching green bow and black socks on her feet.

She was currently sitting on the floor reading a book, she had already done most of her schoolwork and was now having a break.

Though she looked a little tired.

“Say, Amalie,” Elain spoke. “Do you, want to go to a park near my school?”

Amalie looked puzzled. “Your school?”

“Yeah, get some exercise, and that way your Dad won’t have to drive me to school. Would you like to see where I go to school?”

“Is it far?”

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“Nope, just a bit of a walk and a bus ride away. Though I should check with your Dad first because just to be safe.” She said as she pulled out her phone before looking at Amalie. “Do you want to see it?” though Amalie’s expression was clear. Her silver-grey eyes were wide with curiosity, wanting to know where Elain went to school. “Let’s see what your Dad says.”

Hi, Mr. Hilmarsson, I hate to bother you while you’re at work but I was wondering if I could take Amalie outside near my school? There’s a park and I thought it’d be good for her to get some exercise and fresh air. If that’s alright, I mean, it’s okay if you say no to the idea.

Then she waited.

For only ten seconds.

I see no issue; all I ask is that you forward me the location so I know where to pick Amalie up. You both be safe on the bus.

The man could type insanely fast, wow.

Elain smiled. “Looks like we’re good to go.” She then put her stuff away, she was pretty much done anyhow. “Go get your shoes.”

Amalie rushed off but stopped and asked. “May I bring a snack?”

“Sure!” Elain said as she made sure she had all of her things in her bag for school before going to the front door where Amalie was all set with a bag of cookies, freshly made, in a baggy for Elain to carry.

Then they headed off to the nearest bus stop after Amalie locked the front door with her own house key that she kept with her at all times. Amalie had never been on the bus before, so Elain gave Amalie the basics about taking the bus, how to watch for times, and even using apps to see how far the bus was from their current location.

Amalie seemed interested in riding the bus, seeing so many people on it, while Elain had her take a seat as she stood in front of her, keeping her mismatched gaze on her surroundings while Amalie peaked around looking at people and listening to small bits of conversations. She reminded Elain of a cat with how she looked around and paid attention to the smallest of things.

When they got off, Elain held Amalie’s hand as they walked, feeling Amalie’s smaller hand squeeze slightly as they walked past people, but also remaining alert.

Given her father’s status as a local celebrity, her being aware and cautious must have been ingrained into her from birth. Elain could only imagen what that might have been like. Then again, given the incident back in New York, it could have ended up the same way. With the many eyes peering at them with wonder, passing interest or intent.

It made Elain all the more grateful that they weren’t there anymore.

* * *

When they reached Elain’s school, she walked Amalie around the outside of the building, pointing out some of the classrooms that she could recall from the outside. And seeing some students practicing outside for some kind of performance. Amalie seemed amazed at how big the building was, she seemed interested in the history, so Elain told the girl as much as she could remember from when she learned about her new school while still settling in.

Then she took the little girl to the park that was situated near a wooded area, to Amalie it was more like a small forest than just a part of a park. The playground, while maintained, was still relatively old. The only bright side was that nothing was broken or rusted over. Perhaps the school was keeping it maintained as a number of teachers or students would come here, well away from the trees to smoke and talk.

Elain had come across this place by chance when her classes felt too overwhelming. Just hanging out sitting on the swing set while looking at the small patch of trees and listening to the leaves rustle in the wind, made things peaceful. It made her feel at ease. She hoped this could help Amalie too.

“Hey, El!” Elain paused when hearing Victoria’s voice, seeing the girl waving frantically with Robin not too far behind. “What the heck are you doing here?”

“I could say the same thing to you. Don’t you guys have class?”

“Yes!” Vic proclaimed almost triumphantly.

“Then why are you here?”

“We’re ditching,” Robin said when they caught up. “What about you? Don’t you have online classes in the morning?”

“I do but,” she looked to Amalie who was sitting on the swing reading, while Vic then came over and stood on the swing next to the girl and began to make it move with the momentum of her body. “Some things came up,”

Robin seemed to understand what Elain meant, at least by a bit. “So, you’re babysitting your neighbour’s kid for the next little while?”

“For the mornings, at least for the next few days since her Dad doesn’t want her to go to school after what happened.”

Robin looked to Amalie, noting the faint bruising, who was marvelling at what Vic was doing on the monkey bars. “She’s being bullied?”

“Yeah, and my little sister got roped into it by said bullies.”

“Oof, that’s rough,”

“You’re telling me, though my sister wants to apologize, I don’t think Amalie is even remotely ready given what those bullies said and how it affected everyone, even my sister, who while she didn’t take part, just watched from the sidelines.”

“That must be tough,” then Robin eyed Elain. “Are you holding up, okay?”

Elain gave a half shrug. “Life is complicated, Kaya knows bullying is wrong, but she still just… stood by and let it happen. I get that she was scared, anyone would be, but I just wished she talked to us, me or my brother, our parents. Someone.”

“Were you bullied?” Robin asked after glancing at Elain.

“I was.”

“Then you should know it’s never that easy. No matter what, be it being the victim of bullying, or being on the sidelines and roped in by the bullies themselves. Things like that, no matter how simple they sound, become ten times if not a hundred times more difficult to speak up about. Even more so if it’s online with how everything is online now. You can’t just turn it off and ignore it, not anymore.”

Robin had a point, things like that were incredibly difficult, especially just trying to be heard by others. Elain tried to take things into her own hands and look what happened.

For Elain, it just happened all at once, not a gradual thing that blew up when it went too far. If it had, maybe things would have been a lot like Kaya’s situation.

“Elain!” Amalie called who ran up to her from the monkey bars. “Did you see what that girl did? It was amazing!”

“Uh, no, I missed it.” She looked past Amalie to Vic. “What did you do?”

“I summersault jumped off the top of the monkey bars,” she looked to Amalie. “Don’t do that okay, kid?”

“I won’t.” Amalie nodded then asked. “Um, miss, can I ask a question?”

“Sure, go for it.”

“Are you and this other person,” she said referring to Robin. “Dating?”

“Kid’s pretty on point,” Robin said when Amalie turned to them. “Yeah, we are, have been since last year. Why? Do your parents not like that kind of thing?”

Amalie shook her head, sending her ponytail about. “No, my Dad always says it’s okay to love who you want within reason, or not at all if you don’t and shouldn’t feel like you have to because someone wants to. Vivian tells me that too whenever she’s dating a boy or a girl.”

“Is that a girl in your class?” Robin asked.

Amalie shook her head. “No, Vivian’s someone my Dad works with, though she’s on the late-night for the radio. But she’s nice. She’s like a second aunt.”

Both Vic and Robin seemed to stare at Amalie as though a record had halted before Robin asked. “Wait… what’s your last name?”

Not at all to Elain’s surprise, Amalie curtsied to the two of them. “My name is Amalie Míranda Hilmarsson. It’s really nice to meet you both.”

“She’s related to the angel!” Vic gaped in shock.

“Angel?” Elain asked, very confused as Vic then went on to proclaim that Amalie was one too with how cute she looked making the little girl very confused and telling Vic that she’s not an angel but a human being.

“Vic’s an Alastor fan.”

“Ah,” Elain said in understanding. “Well, he is handsome,”

“Yeah, I’ll give him that, though personally, he’s not my type when it comes to dudes.”

“What’s your type?”

Robin didn’t so much as stall on the answer. “Big and muscular, like a bear. And while Alastor is pretty and all, pretty don’t do it for me.”

“But Victora does,” since Elain always thought, that while Vic was a bit chaotic, she was pretty with such an outgoing personality.

“She’s a special case.”

Elain looked back at Vic who then said. “Okay fine, then, how about Princess! Because you look like one!”

Amalie still looked confused but seemed to roll with it. “Sure…?”

Vic then went down on one knee with a bowed head as Robin walked up behind her. “This humble servant vows to do what they can to keep you safe!”

“You moron…” Robin said lightly smacking Vic on the back of her head while Amalie looked confused and flustered.

“Watch out Princess! The Dragon has come to take you away!”

Robin looked at Vic with an arched stare and placed one hand on their hip. “Why am I the Dragon?”

“You got red hair. That makes you a dragon, that’s just simple logic. Duh.”

Robin scowled. “That’s discriminatory to red-haired dragons you know.” Robin then made a stance like they were holding an imaginary staff. “I’ll have you know that I’m a sorcerer as well! And for this rude injustice that you have brought, I shall take the Princess!”

“Ha!” Vic laughed. “Over my crispy corpse, you will! I’ll have you know I’m her appointed knight and as such, I have a great deal of strength boosted by being near her and her angelic presence!”

Robin scoffed. “‘Knight’ my scaly foot, you’re a Rouge and always will be! You just have an obsession with cute things!”

“And what’s wrong with that?!”

“Um, Sorcerer Dragon, Miss Knight, please don’t fight. Can’t we talk this out?” Amalie asked. “Please, I don’t want you both to get hurt because of me.”

Elain laughed seeing how quickly they changed their tune and went down to her level to have some kind of diplomatic talk. Then she suddenly felt like someone was behind her. And when a familiar sing-song voice filled Elain’s ears, she knew why.

“Well, they seem to be having fun.”

Amalie’s expression brightened. “Daddy!” and rushed towards him as Alastor knelt to receive his daughter’s hug.

“Hello, my Dear.” He chuckled and kissed her cheek. “Are you having fun?”

“Yes!”

“Hey Mr. Hilmarsson,” Elain said as he continued to hug his daughter. “My friends were just talking about you.”

“Whoa… never thought I’d see him in person,” Vic whispered, her voice strained only for Alastor to glance at the two. In which Vic merely held up a hand. Trying to act nonchalant and failing spectacularly. “Sup?”

“Hello,” he said with a smile. “I take it you’re both Miss Ortiz’s friends?”

“I think we’re friends by now,” Robin said with a bit of a smug smile. “Don’t you think so El?”

“Given the fact you guys bought me the largest brownie I had ever seen when we first met, I think it equates to us being friends.”

“Brownie Buds for life!” Vic said with glee.

Alastor gave a small laugh. “So, what were you all going on about angels and princesses? I could hear it from the parking lot and it made me wonder.”

Robin pointed at Vic with a jab of their thumb. “Victoria here’s been calling your kid an angel, but since she’s human, she diverted to Princess instead.”

“Can you blame me?” Vic motioned to Amalie’s form in a grand gestuer. “Look at her! She’s totally adorable! Anyone would think that too! Not just me!”

“Vic chill, she’s not actually a Princess,” Robin stated, but Elain noticed how Alastor didn’t say anything to that.

“Amalie, do you want these two lovely individuals to play with you for a bit? I need to speak with Miss. Ortiz.”

“Oh, I don’t—” Robin began only to stop when Vic grasped their left hand and pulled them to the playground.

“Don’t be such a stick in the mud, come on! Let’s show the little lady the best spot here.”

Robin could only groan in response but complied. “Fine, just stop pulling, you’ll pull my arm out of its socket at this rate.”

Amalie, on the other hand, looked back to her Dad and Elain to see if it was okay, both giving the okay to go which she did leaving Elain and Alastor standing near the park.

“They seem like wonderful friends, Miss. Ortiz, I’m truly happy for you.”

“Thank you, I’m happy that I just get along with them,” Elain said. “I actually wanted to do something for you as thanks, from before for what you did. But uh… it’s going to take a bit longer than I thought it would.” Because I suck at baking…

“You don’t have to,”

“You’re right,” Elain said. “But I want to.” Her gaze went to see her two new friends and Amalie who were showing some interesting spots on the playground. “You didn’t deny it…”

“Pardon, Miss Ortiz?”

“That whole thing about Amalie being a Princess, I mean there’s no actual way she’s a—” only to trail off when seeing Alastor’s slight shift in his smile. “Wait, really?”

“In a sense, yes. Amalie has royal blood flowing through her veins. Not from my side but from her mother’s. The d’Orléans family. You may not be aware of this but that line goes all the way to being related to Louis XIV, The Sun King.”

Elain’s mouth was left hanging agape. He was serious, Amalie…

Amalie was royalty?!

“Although, the family here is considered an offshoot branch, not one with a lot of power as they came here to Canada, specifically fleeing to Montrèal during the French Revolution. Even still, that side of Amalie’s family is very influential and holds a lot of power here in Toronto and Montrèal. And while they don’t hold the title of a King or a Noble, it’s best not to cross them. Well, a few of them. I know at least two from that family that are good people. Amalie’s grandfather and aunt, they’re decent folk. Unlike the others who I’d rather not speak of.”

Elain understood what he meant, but would never openly say it, not after how he revealed what his wife did to him. And somehow, that stupid thing about money made a lot more sense now. Why else would nobles or royals want to have more children if not to expand on their own territories, power and wealth? But these weren’t the days of old, yet there were those that just seemed to be stuck in that mindset no matter the era.

“Well, I think Amalie, would make an excellent Princess, and a wonderful Queen when she grows up.”

Alastor’s gaze became warm as he looked at his daughter. “I think so too.”

Shortly after Alastor called his daughter, telling her it was time to go home.

“Okay,” she looked to Robin and Vic. “Bye, it was really fun!” then went to catch up to her Dad but not before stopping and saying bye to Elain as well. “Bye Elain, I’ll see you later.” And then continued to catch up to her Dad.

“Yeah, I’ll see you later, Amie.”

Amalie stopped in her tracks. “Is that… my nickname?”

“Best I could come up with, I hope you like it.”

Amalie turned around with the biggest smile Elain had ever seen from her. Worth the wait. “I do! I like it a lot.”

“Amalie,” her father called. “Come now, you can talk more with Miss. Ortiz later, we need to prepare for dinner.”

“Okay, bye El!” Amalie ran to her father’s side, still smiling and grasped her father’s hand as they left leaving Elain in the park near her school.

“No!” Vic proclaimed as she hit her fist into the sandy ground. “Our Princess has fallen for the Dark Warlock, we have lost!”

Robin placed a sympathetic hand on Vic’s shoulder. “We were never going to win; such a man is far too powerful for the likes of us.”

You guys are really into DnD. “Maybe you both should shelve the role play until after school, the bell’s going to ring soon,” Elain said while pulling Vic towards the school.

“Damn you curricular schooling!” Vic continued while being dragged by Robin. “You shall forever be a menace to our adventures! I will not let this stand!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Robin interjected sarcastically. “You keep telling yourself that, don’t forget that we still have a math test next period.”

“Not the dreaded math! Anything but that!” Vic was clearly making a bit of a joke about all this, really just having fun with the whole situation as Robin egged her on going on about stats that they had, something that helped Elain not think about the worst of the world. Yet her thoughts drifted back to Amalie, and the new information she had learned entirely by chance.

That just put things in a whole new perspective.

This made all the more sense as to why Alastor was so protective of his daughter, and why he wanted to keep her safe. But perhaps that was always in his nature when it came to Amalie.

Either way, Elain hoped that things would get better, at least, that’s what she wished, not wanting to see Amalie’s smile disappear.