Dedicated to knk_zoobie

Thanks for the follow.

•••

"You're so skinny." Ervin teased.

It took all effort in me not to deal him a solid punch on his face. Last time I broke his fingers, dad punished me surely for that. I had to scoop pig poo for a week. "Poo Duty" as me and my two siblings called it was the worst kind of punishment in the Kennedy household because even after showering, the smell of shit wouldn't leave.

"You didn't get the message, did you?" I say pointing at his fingers still wrapped up.

Ervin scowled. "Stupid."

"Do I look like a mirror to you?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but rather than speak, he turned and fled.

"Dang, woman you're on fire." My brother Axel appeared from the street adjoining the one I'm currently standing.

"What are you doing here?"

He smirked. "Coincidence. Sis. What are you doing here?"

"These bags of corn meal are heavy, I needed to catch my breath before that axehead showed up." I explain.

Axel helped me with the bags and together we walked home.

During dinner, while rain descended heavily on our roof, small conversations flew across the table. I didn't take part as usual. I was the calmest child but I could be a raging dragon when provoked and everyone knew not to bother me when I'm in one of my "moods".

"We're having a special visitor tomorrow."

I droned out the rest of dad's voice, focusing instead on the appetizing meat ball resting on my plate.

As Axel told me yesterday when I stumbled into his room, Princess Sophia would be visiting us.

"Princess Sophia, daughter of King Maxwell and Queen Loretta of Pinewood?" I ask, not bothering to conceal my shock.

Axel smirks. Although, I could not see his face well because the only light filtering in was light from the moon which decided to partially hide behind a cloud tonight.

"Dad said all that but you were busy devouring your food like Diana."

"Hey!" I protested, hitting him for comparing me to Diana, my favourite pig.

Yeah. We had a small farm behind our house.

My brother laughed. "Go to bed, Al." He pushed me off his bed and I landed on the floor, rolling to my corner of the room we all shared.

On the other end, Tony lay, snoring quietly.

"Good night dung head." I say, settling under my blanket.

"Night, little dragon."

Snorting, I relished the silence until I finally drifted asleep.

•••

Our house was never quiet in the mornings. Sounds of different animals, of Tony chasing Axel around and mom yelling at them to stop.

I shake my head at the two racing past me. In the kitchen, mom's almost breathless from all the yelling.

"You need to breathe, ma." I say, patting her back tenderly.

She sighs. "I blame your dad for these two rascals."

"It takes two to tango, ma." I murmur, hoping she didn't catch my words. But she did.

A smile stretches her lips. "You naughty child." she hit me with a napkin which I dodged, laughing. "We just ran out of sugar."

Like me, she has skin, brown like the colour of coffee, bouncy black hair laid back with a red scarf.

I prefer my hair to be in braids and unlike the customary dresses for the females, I'm always in a pair of trousers and a loose shirt. Haggard and willowy like a giraffe.

"Alright ma." I reply, grabbing a shopping bag and some coins.

"Don't go causing trouble!" She yells after I sail out through the front door. Already, our house's decent enough for Princess Sophia when she arrives.

I hope I get to meet her. Her father and  the current king used to be best friends when he was a prince, but duty called and he couldn't visit as he used to.

The sun's just starting it's ascent up the sky and quite a number of people were heading to the market like me with carts of commodities to be sold.

"Yo! Skinny!" Ervin yells from a distance. He and some boys are playing with an old football and they manage to see me before I can duck out of sight.

I ignore him and march on deeper into the market, not forgetting to hold my purse closer.

Petty thieves and pickpockets roam the market and streets, skilled in their jobs.

I know each of them by names and faces. Edgar, Valerie, Dan, Sylvia, Timothy, Larry, Gad, Ben, Simon and Yusuf.

None of them dared my pockets because I could give them a broken finger or two, but I couldn't be too careful.

Whilst waiting to get my package of sugar from my favourite trader, Lance, I spot some sort of struggling in the alleyway next to the stall.

A fair skinned young boy and two stronger boys bullying him for his bag.

Ignoring Lance's call, I dart into the alleyway.

"What do you think you're doing?"

All heads snap to me even the young boy who looks fragile to be on the streets. In my estimation, he looks sixteen, and so are Simon and Dan, but the streets had made them into rugged males.

"Stay away from this, Alanna." Dan says tossing the back to Simon.

I narrow my eyes at him. "It's Alan. Hand over the bag, Simon."

Simon snorts. "Why? Are you the f-cking king?"

Pretty boy winces at that vulgarity. I roll my eyes.

"We could do this the hard way or the easy way fellas. The easy way is hand the bag over." I fold my arms, not even bothered by their glares.

"No way." Simon responds, tightening his grip around the bag.

I crack my knuckles. "As you wish."

Five minutes later, they're both lying unconscious on the floor.

"Come on." I say, handing the bag over to Pretty boy whose jaws are still hanging low. His brown hair's totally curly and it's nice though.

He wordlessly follows me back to Lance's shop.

With my sugar safely lodged, I turn to the boy.

"You don't look like you're from around here." I remark, glancing at his shiny gold wrist watch.

He swallows. "Uh. Am I that obvious?"

Sighing, I gesture around us. "Look at them, and look at you. Big difference."

He observes the dressing of several traders and finally sighs. "You're right."

"Yeah. Whatever. Look, I don't have all day but you should hide that." I nod at his wrist watch, already moving away.

By the time he's finished doing that, I've blended in with the crowd.

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Thank you for choosing to read my book. That's all I can say because I suck at writing author notes. Lol.

BTW, I don't have any cast in mind, so visualise my characters as whomever you wish...

What are your thoughts about this chapter?