November looked longingly at the world before her eyes. The tall, evergreen angel, adorned in leaves, spread her branches across the valley. The fresh breeze swirled across the sky, catching her breath and taking it away. Mother Nature was working her magic as usual. This was the world outside of her palace; where there was no duty to fulfil, and everything was built around love rather than laws.

A young boy's caramel tresses. His hair never had to be perfect - it was happy in the wind, making beautiful ripples you could never find in an ocean. The world was this beautiful, and she was confined by the countless walls of the castle. Her mother, Queen Virginia, was responsible for her confinement.

"Mommy?" November turned towards Virginia, who was looking at her with a sour expression.

"What do you want, November?" Her head snapped around. November was always wasting her damn time.

"Do you ever think..." The hopeful girl began, "That I could go out there with them one day?"

Virginia looked to where November was pointing. Happiness radiated from young girls skipping out of their public school. The ethereal beauty of nature took the form of forest green leaves, swishing around the girls and making them giggle. They were content. A flash of longing briefly appeared in the queen's eyes, disappearing as quickly as it came.

After staring out of the glass full of intricate gold patterns, Viriginia faced her daughter once again. She replied, a look of disgust on her face. "November, we raised you to be formal, not to fool around. You are staying within this palace."

"They do not look like fools to me. They look like they are having fun." November curiously said, her voice laced with an undertone of sarcasm.

"Well, people are not how they appear. They certainly are not." Virginia cringed in response.

"How do you know that, mom?" The young, naive girl inquired.

"Trust me, you do not want to... associate yourself with them." The queen picked her words carefully. "It would do a lot of harm to your brain."

"How?"

"Those unruly folk..." Virginia gestured toward the residents outside of the castle. "They hypnotize you into becoming one of them."

"Can I maybe try it for myself?" November asked. She wistfully stared outside again, but quickly shook away her hope.

"You're young and unafraid." Virginia shook her head. "You don't know what those awful people are up to."

"Why do they do such awful things?"

"They're jealous of the money we have. People like them work all day and resent us for our kingdom. And, November, even at the end of the day, they will always be in the same position." Virginia scoffed.

November thought for a minute, then suddenly lifted her head.

"Well, maybe we could give them some of OUR money and they won't be jealous anymore. We could make it equal!" She grinned, jumping up excitedly. "I'm a genius." This statement was followed by a proud smirk.

"We can't do that."

"Why not, mommy?"

"I've told you this countless times before. They're not like us."

"That's not fair." November gasped after realising what she said to her mother.

"Oh, and why do you say that?" Virginia bitterly asked, rising from her throne.

"We should all be equal!" She knew the words coming out of her mouth were true, but she was always conflicted. The life of living as a stoic robot, leading a town who doesn't respect anyone in your bloodline, then dying - it didn't appeal to November as much as it did Virginia.

"Well, well, well, November. That's never going to happen. We are better than they are."

"If all we do is take, then we're not better!" November wailed, then lowered her voice to a whisper.

"We're worse."

"November, go to your room!" The queen snapped. The 11-year-old girl shook her head, holding back tears. There was no way she was going to let her mother win again.

Virginia clicked her fingers. Three butlers appeared in the room, black suits and leather shoes on their bodies. Without a single word of argument, they dragged November out of the room.

"Why do you always disobey your mother so?" One redheaded butler asked, scratching his moustache.

"You are disgraceful." Another added.

November didn't say a word. She knew that her mother had won the argument and gotten the last laugh that she wanted.

Again.

"Answer us!" Redhead Butler hissed. He lifted November's pale hand, and smacked her on the wrist as a disciplinary measure.

"Ouch!" November cried out in pain. "I want to help everyone, it's not their fault!"

"You should learn to be more considerate." Redhead growled, in disbelief of the disrespect towards her mother. "You're very lucky that Queen Virginia hasn't disowned you yet."

"What does disowned me mean?" November asked, worry swimming in her green eyes.

"It means to get rid of you." The other butler scowled.

"Well, she should do it!" November yelled, covering her mouth once again. Her tongue was like a dog chasing its own tail; mindlessly running, without realising it was sabotaging itself.

"What was that, child?"

"Anywhere has got to be better than this!" She frowned, then bit her lip. Rain clouds began to fog up the forest in her eyes, as she longingly stared out of the window.

"It has to be."

The Redhead slapped her again; this time, a large handmark appeared her wrists. November didn't dare let out a cry of pain; she'd already caused more trouble than she could fix. Virginia was probably in her luxurious bedroom with one of her servants, weeping into her handkerchief and feigning dismay.

"Well, she's not letting you leave the palace either." The second butler raised his eyebrows. "You'll run into people a LOT worse than her."

"Nobody is worse than my mom." November whispered to herself, earning her a harsh shove into her room by Redhead Butler. She began to lose her balance, but slowly propped herself back upright.

"See for yourself, Princess." He scolded her, slamming her bedroom door.

November sighed, jumping onto her silver bed, small
hearts lighting up on the headboard. On one of the legs, a small silver 'P' was engraved - what that meant had always remained a mystery. Princess? A brand name? She didn't expect to ever find out.

"You know what?"

She liked talking to herself; it was almost like having a conversation with somebody who saw the world the same way she did. Somebody who loved the evergreen trees, the forest green leaves - even the brown, sloppy mud just like she did. The only person she could express her true opinions to and not be slapped was herself.

November took off her tiara.

"Why am I a princess if I don't hate those people?"

"I definitely shouldn't be a princess." She laughed, also taking off her long, snow white gown. The clothes that she wore seemed like a mask — desperate to cover up all of the fun and love she wanted to experience as a girl.

She rummaged through her wardrobe, frantically trying to find clothes she owned that could make her feel like a normal girl.
Surprisingly, she found something.

The short white skirt and green long-sleeved cropped top were beautiful. She'd always loved green; Virginia hated it, but it was the colour of all of the most magnificent pieces of the world November had ever seen. Excitedly, she spun around in front of her jewel-adorned mirror.

"I like it!" She squealed to herself. Although being locked in her room wasn't liberating in the least, she felt as free as the other kids just for one second. She did a few jumps and flipped onto her bed, not caring in the least whether it was feminine or not.

"You know, I like being sent to my bedroom." She smiled. "I get to do what I wish to do rather than arguing with mom."

She found a dark green leather-covered notebook on her desk, a few scribbles of her being angry at her mother on the front. Yeah, you could say that the book had 'character'.

"Maybe I can learn just like they do in school."

She started to work on her multiplication; she used to do them sometimes, she always loved getting to sing them. Clicking to the beat, she hummed
the equations to herself until she remembered almost all of them.

"12 times 12 is-" She gleefully sung, until a knock on her door rudely interrupted her moment of bliss.

"144." November muttered to herself, jumping off of her chair to answer the door.

Her moments of liberation were over the second she saw the storm forming in her eyes. She opened the door to be met with the fury of her mother, Virginia.

"Nobody is worse than mommy, huh?"

The queen stepped towards her daughter and smacked her right in the center of her face. She nodded approvingly as the crimson red liquid slowly dripped out of November's nose. November flinched and held onto her nose gently, as if it would break if it was touched again. Maybe it would.

"And why do you say that?" Virginia asked, quoting her words from earlier.

"I'm sorry mom! Wh-What do you want? I'll give you anything, just..." November started. She hated when her mom got like this.

"Anything?"

"I'll work harder on my homeschooling..." The girl replied, tears forming in her eyes.

Virginia shook her head. "That's not what I want from you."

"I'll make you cookies for a whole week! I can t-try to cook, or-" November knew damn well she couldn't cook. All she wanted was for her mother to believe she took back her words - although, the hatred-induced carvings and scribbles on her notebook did not really help her case.

"No."

"Okay... What do you want?"

"All I want is for you to agree that you won't ever venture beyond this palace. You will run into some horrible people." Virginia hissed. The storm in her eyes cleared and made room for her pupils to sparkle.

"I'm sorry mommy, that's the one thing I can't do." November sighed, shrugging. Setting aside her morals for a woman she didn't look up to?

"Why is that, sweetie?" She mockingly asked.

"Because they're not bad!"

"How can I prove it to you? How can I prove that they're horrible?"

"You've gotta let me see it for myself."

"November, no..."

"Only way, mommy." November shrugged. "Either that or it's not happening."

"Never in my life am I putting you on a suicide mission by letting you go out to that land." Virginia coughed, gesturing her head towards the mud? It could have been anything she was gesturing towards; they were separated only by a fence, but the land still felt so far away.

"Why is it a big deal about letting me out anyway?"

"I told you, it's hypnosis."

"Then prove it, asshole." November, at 11 years of age, considered this very bad language.

'I am SUCH a rebel.' She giggled to herself, watching the storm come back again. The lightning manifesting in Virginia's eyes was going to strike hard one day.

"Fine then. You can think those people are nice for as long as you wish, but you are not leaving this castle until you're 21 years old."

"No..."

"Yes."

"NO!" November decided.

"Whoops, too late." Virginia clicked her fingers again, and a crowd of butlers appeared. Of course, victory was hers.

"How can we be of service, ma'am?" One brunette butler asked.

"Add a point to the list of laws and send it out to the public. November won't be leaving this castle until she is 21 years of age."

"Coming right up, my Queen."

November watched the scene in shock, almost not believing the extremes her mother had just gone to. Maybe there really wasn't a single strand of good left inside her. Maybe there was only one way to find out for herself if the real world was really as bad as her mother said.

She was going to rebel against her mother's orders, rebel against the butlers, rebel against the law.

She was going to sneak out into the normal world.