Flayn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seems_fishy) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
synergetic2021-07-27 10:33 pm
seems_fishy) wrote in synergetic2021-07-27 10:33 pm
The Princess in the Tower
To be the new girl in school was the stuff of legends. New girls inexplicably had a mysterious aura of glamour and, well, mystery, and that she was getting to do it in the kind of private school that actually had its own college was more than a little exciting! Her father had been worried about her passing the entrance exams -- enough to offer her another semester or two of home study to be sure she wasn't straining herself -- but everything went fine, perfectly fine. As always, his efforts in looking for reasons to fret were just a little too much, and she had no idea how he was able to divide his time between her and this entire grand building of students he was being paid to worry about.
After a week of spending the hours between the last bell and the last of his paperwork in his office staring out the window and nagging him to let her explore more, he'd agreed. He had a lovely view of the sports fields, and she swore up and down that she knew her way around the campus, would be waiting for him by his car when he was ready to leave, and had already done the majority of her homework.
As a little bit of revenge, she'd left her bookbag there with him. He could carry it out to the car for her!
But now she was free. Free, finally, to see exactly what hid in this sort of prestige-laden institution. Father had been more than a little surprised that he was actually qualified for the position, given he wasn't even a native Japanese speaker, and he came disastrously close to turning it down, before Flayn entered into another exhausting round of reminding him that no, she would not wither and die if he had to focus a little bit on a new job, and anyway, didn't he think it would be good for her to go to such a school herself?
That last bit hadn't had the quite the effect she hoped, but she was, in the end, victorious. He liked his work, and she liked the landscaping around the building, the tall shelves in the library, and especially the neatly manicured sports fields.
She was probably supposed to join a club. Probably Father had gotten her excused from that on account of her supposedly-precarious health, but it was probably the best way to meet people. Her classmates were all very nice, but shared interests would be half the work done in a conversation, wouldn't it? Something to build on!
So she'd spent the week staring out the window at the sports fields, trying to find the interest she could share with people. She'd never thought much about playing sports during her long recovery, and watching or learning the rules to something she couldn't play also never occurred to her. And, honestly, some of the games, it looked like the students weren't playing, but instead working like the school day was still going. Admirable in its way, of course, and she was herself quite excited to learn the things Father admitted he wasn't skilled enough to teach her, but it didn't look quite as fun when you did things that way.
Up until someone started showing off. She'd seen him balance a tennis ball on the boundary net and run it down a length of it, and gasped in such delight that Father had asked what was going on. She'd fobbed him off with something from the book on her lap, unable to explain what she'd seen, but she was here, now, to get a closer look, and there he was! There was that same player!
Surely, no one could mind if she just... planted herself at the fence, right?
After a week of spending the hours between the last bell and the last of his paperwork in his office staring out the window and nagging him to let her explore more, he'd agreed. He had a lovely view of the sports fields, and she swore up and down that she knew her way around the campus, would be waiting for him by his car when he was ready to leave, and had already done the majority of her homework.
As a little bit of revenge, she'd left her bookbag there with him. He could carry it out to the car for her!
But now she was free. Free, finally, to see exactly what hid in this sort of prestige-laden institution. Father had been more than a little surprised that he was actually qualified for the position, given he wasn't even a native Japanese speaker, and he came disastrously close to turning it down, before Flayn entered into another exhausting round of reminding him that no, she would not wither and die if he had to focus a little bit on a new job, and anyway, didn't he think it would be good for her to go to such a school herself?
That last bit hadn't had the quite the effect she hoped, but she was, in the end, victorious. He liked his work, and she liked the landscaping around the building, the tall shelves in the library, and especially the neatly manicured sports fields.
She was probably supposed to join a club. Probably Father had gotten her excused from that on account of her supposedly-precarious health, but it was probably the best way to meet people. Her classmates were all very nice, but shared interests would be half the work done in a conversation, wouldn't it? Something to build on!
So she'd spent the week staring out the window at the sports fields, trying to find the interest she could share with people. She'd never thought much about playing sports during her long recovery, and watching or learning the rules to something she couldn't play also never occurred to her. And, honestly, some of the games, it looked like the students weren't playing, but instead working like the school day was still going. Admirable in its way, of course, and she was herself quite excited to learn the things Father admitted he wasn't skilled enough to teach her, but it didn't look quite as fun when you did things that way.
Up until someone started showing off. She'd seen him balance a tennis ball on the boundary net and run it down a length of it, and gasped in such delight that Father had asked what was going on. She'd fobbed him off with something from the book on her lap, unable to explain what she'd seen, but she was here, now, to get a closer look, and there he was! There was that same player!
Surely, no one could mind if she just... planted herself at the fence, right?