#it’s very fucking embarassing to go yeah sorry i’m in trouble my mom’s mad at me i cant play games Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[shiominato]

starting the year off strong by being in trouble for doing nothing

[camille-marshall-blog]

Challenge #2

Alternately titled: Browling

a/n: SURPRISE BITCHES, BET YOU THOUGHT I WASN’T POSTING ON TIME Well, I was planning on bringing this in late buuuuuut, the over achiever in me hates missing deadline LOLOLOLOLOL Anyways, please enjoy this challenge! I only started writing it like a few hours ago, but I’m pretty happy with how much I’ve done in less than a day!! My schedule’s still a little packed, but I’m happy to say that I’ve survived all my midterm exams and the stupid project deadlines I had. Now!! ENJOY THIS FIC, WARNING FOR LANGUAGE AS USUAL. I’LL PROBABLY POST THIS AGAIN LATER WHEN I CAN MAKE MORE EDITS

I wore an outfit like this the last time I went on a date…

two years ago.

 Jesus, I have been out of this whole dating game for a long time, and I’m expecting myself to just breeze through my date with the prince? I know what I got myself into when I started this competition, but sometimes I wonder if ever I’m going to be ready for this. The prince was taking everyone on their first dates, and I know that it’s going to be such an honor to really have a one on one with him- well, other than that time that I had caught lifting weights at the gym- but it was still so… weird… to know that I was stuck somewhere between single and not single, and that I was going on a date with someone who was also like that? 

As I look into the mirror and fix my sweater, I remember how much being completely single was so normal for me these past few years. Dating was such a weird concept to me.

 A knock on my door catches my attention and I’m quick to open it to the sight of Prince Nate wearing civilian clothes, he looked nice out of that monkey suit,

 “Hey there, Natalie.” I greet with a smirk, giving him a once over.

“Mariah is it?” he asks, raising an eyebrow, still running with our inside joke.

“I thought I told you that I was Michelle,” I shake my head in mock disappointment, “What can I do for you?”

“Oh sorry my bad Michelle.” he shakes his head with a little laugh, before his face suddenly turns serious- was that hesitation? “Are you ready for your date?”

“Date…? Sure! Where to? I don't know if I'm going to be underdressed or something…” I ask, looking at what I was wearing, I felt bad that I had forgone any of the more formal or girly stuff my maids had suggested, but I really just wanted to wear my own clothes. Though I did take into mind that heels should have been worn to keep up with that palace formality- no matter how painful they sometimes were.  

“Just put something... comfy on... moveable, wait that sounds weird but just trust me.” WEIRD? How can comfortable clothing be weird? I’m relieved to hear Nate tell me that I just needed to wear comfortable clothing, so I really didn’t have to change.. save for the heels.

“Alright, just give me a moment to change. Please, come in.” I nod, opening my door for Nate to come in while I grabbed a pair of sneakers from under my bed. “Are sneakers okay? Cause these heels are killing me!” I ask again, waving my shoes up in the air.

“Here’s a hint, you’re going to be putting on completely different shoes anyway,” Nate tells me, and I’m pretty sure I know what he was planning there and then.

“Wow, that narrows things down... but sneakers it is!” I reply, kicking my heels off and putting my socks then sneakers on. “Okay, I think this is comfy enough.”

“Okay, let’s go!” Nate nods at me as he holds out his arm.

“I'm supposed to take your arm, right?” I know that I am supposed to, but I was just checking if he really wanted me to take his arm

Why was that always a thing? Thanks to Lady Collette, I know that it’s because of formalities and all that… but I didn’t find it appealing that seemed like some kind of forced intimacy with someone else, that stuff never really seemed genuine to me. Plus not to mention how used I was to not much physical contact. Back in the air force we had a thing called personal space and our portocols didn’t involve 24/7 physical contact with strangers. It was always about keeping distance and all that. I just found it uncomfortable when I don’t really know the person that well, so much that it made me want to squirm- but hey, things were different here and well… when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

“Yeah,” he laughs a little, “don’t worry.” He seems so laid back, perhaps this was just really second nature to him.

“Thanks,” I say as I take his arm, though I still do find it uncomfortable, “As you know, I’m not really used to this.”

“It’s fine, I don’t really mind.” he says as we walk out of my room, “If you don’t feel comfortable doing this you don’t have to…”

“Oh thank you.” I breathe out before pulling my arm away from his, “This is nuts.” I shake my head a little.

Nate flashes me a confused look, “What’s nuts?”

Fuck, did I just offend him? Have I just offended the prince by not wanting to take his arm? Well, Time to do some damage control!

“Just all the little rules of etiquette and stuff. Don't worry, I'm not going to share more of my laments- you've probably heard enough from everyone else.” I clarify to him, adding a little laugh to reassure him that things were fine.

“Oh I haven’t heard anything for any one else. You can tell me, I won’t get offended.” he tells me as we resume walking together, side by side. I hesitate at first, thinking of what I was about to say. Looking at his face, the prince didn’t seem like the one to judge so fast, but then I could be wrong, but I decide anyway to tell him.

“Hmph, well first of all- it's not really problem of having rules... I mean there are always going to be protocols to follow. It's just how weird it is for me to adjust to the protocol here versus being in the military.” I explain to him while I placed my hands behind my back out of habit.

“Well there is an adjustment for everyone and I mean everyone. Everyone is trying to get used to how everything if going to be for awhile. And I understand that you have quite the change, and could you explain what exactly is... bugging you the most?” Nate asks, and I’m taken aback at that question. What did this boy want me to say? My deepest darkest secrets? I try to assess Nate’s face, searching for any ulterior motives or the slightest bit of judgment, would he share this with anyone else?

Then again, I remember that I was on a date, in the palace, with the prince, during the Selection… which was technically buying me time from being deployed. Nathaniel deserved a chance to know a part of the story.

I rub my wrists and take a breath before explaining things to him even more,“I'm just not used to this lifestyle.. you know? I'm a Two and all that, but I lived pretty minimally on bases- I was always treated like a soldier. Mom and dad were always ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma'am’.” I have mini flashbacks to a life of living on naval bases and barracks, and the pressure of always joining the military from my father. This Selection… this moment… this was one the first moments that I was given a break from everything I had experienced in the past.

“For the first time, I feel like I'm not a soldier.” I admit to him, and I feel the guilt crashing over me again- what made me feel even worse was that I liked this civilian life.

“I understand, the change is very different. Like all of a sudden you have to be acting all these ways that you are not used to, I understand.” Nate nods in understanding, and I’m so glad that he does. It makes me realizes that he understands what it felt like to be raised a certain way to be a kind of certain person… because he probably was raised that way too, he was future king after all.

“Huh thanks,” I smirk at him, glad to have gotten something off my chest, “There's just a lot of pressure on me too. I think you know that I'm one of the first women in the military, right?”

“I think I’ve heard something, yes.” he says.

“People tended to give me shit since I was one of the few girls in my military school.” I remember the first day I was brought to the Fort Lauper Military Academy, one of Illea’s best military preparation schools. I was only one of seven girls in my class. “I was obligated to do better just to make everyone see that the decision of letting girls in was a good idea.” Prejudices were never far behind in that school when I first came along.

“I feel like being here kinda feels like me failing everyone who's believed in me.” I confess to Nate, and I’m realizing that I’m probably freaking him out with this sob story.”Jesus, I'm getting too mushy with my backstory.”

“No, no it’s fine,” Nate stops in his tracks to awkwardly place his hand on my shoulder, “you aren’t failing anyone.”

“Good to know that someone else thinks I'm not.” I reply to him as I pat the hand on my shoulder, this time I didn’t shy away from him- I needed that comforting gesture to make me not feel as guilty as I’ve been these past few days.

The two of us continue walking after he puts his hand down and asks,“Who do you think you are failing?”

Wow, back to the hard hitting questions. “Mostly my ... uh.. squad. We've been a team for almost two years, and we were supposed to get deployed as a team abroad. But now I'm here and the Silver Bullets are now in South Korea.”

“Did you chose this over them?”

“Whoa there, Nate- getting a little too deep into the convo right now.” I blurt out, putting my hands up a little up defensively. This was starting to feel more like an interrogation than a date.

His expression suddenly turns embarassed, “Oh sorry, uh I didn’t mean to.” he says as he looks to the ground.

“Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who's used to talking about feelings.” I give him a shrug, making sure that he knew that I wasn’t mad or anything. I just had trouble opening up to people, in fact I’m a little surprised at how much I’ve opened up to him in less than 10 minutes of this date. “But, I'll answer that last question: yes, I wanted to be here.”

“Not everyone is open to talking about feelings,” he looks up and turns to me as we continue walking down the hallway, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize that I was digging too deep. But I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too,” I give him a brief smile. This prince was defnitely more than what I was mentally preparing myself for, but he seemed to have the best intentions.

We walk a little more down the hallway until he stops us at a room on the first floor, “Here we are.”

“If I remember my map correctly, this is the bowling alley... right?” I’m pretty sure this was the bowling alley, plus Nate did mention a change of shoes.

“Yup,” he smiles as he opens the door and walks in right after me, “Wait do you like bowling?”

“Awesome, yeah! I used to go to an alley with some of the Silver Bullets before.” I nod my head to look around the alley. This was so cool- having a bowling alley in a home, I’d have to tell the bullets about this later.

“Sweet. What size are you?” Nate says as he heads over to a rack of shoes and seems to pick out his own shoes.

“Eight and a half. You get the shoes, I'll find the shoe freshener.” I say, looking around the alley to see where they’d store the freshener.

“We’re in a palace, these are going to be the cleanest bowling shoes you’ll ever wear” he comments. I’m pretty sure that this guys has never been to a bowling alley outside of the palace. I still get chills over how bad were the shoes back in Midston.

“Alright, if you say so. ” I shake my head, laughing a little, “Do you bowl often?”

“If I feel like it, yeah.” He answers as he sits down and starts changing into his bowling shoes.

“Oh right! yeah- I remember, you're busy a lot.” I say as I take a seat opposite to him and change my own shoes, “But I guess you find sometime to bowl in between princely duties, working out, and playing guitar?”

“It’s not my go to activity but I still have fun,” Nate adds as he laces up his shoes.

“Same for me.” I agree, remembering the days off from the base with the Bullets.

Nate then stands and looks through another set of racks for a ball, “ ’m going to beat you.”

Oooo, confidence. I’m so intimidated.

“You may have a home court advantage, but I've been bowling against pros.” I raise my eyebrow at him as I pick out my own ball.

Nate raises an eyebrow at me this time, “Oh have you?”

“Oh yeah, Wolf and Drone are pretty competitive- they always managed to strike.” I nod my head at the memory of Wolf and Drone always taking our bowling games too far.

“Is that a pun?” he looks at me incredulously

I raise my hands up and chuckle, “I'm capable of being funny too.”

Nate rolls his eyes playfully at me before gesturing to the lane. “You go first.”

“Sizing up the competition first, huh?” I raise my eyebrow in question as I take a few practice swings to get used to the weight of my bowling ball. Okay, I then go up the lane a little and let of the ball, crossing my right leg behind my left. Watching the ball go down, I hear the sound of pins crashing against each other and see only one pin left standing.

“Good job, I’m impressed.” he claps.

“Thank you!” I reply while I got my returned bowling ball and watch it as it hits that last pin. “Now, it's your turn, Natalie.”

I watch him warm up a little before he lets go of his ball, hitting 8 pins then rolling again to only hit one of two remaining pins.“It’s only the first round.” he tells me, and I almost laugh at how competitive he appeared to be right now. Oh this was on.

“That was good though.” I nod my head as I got my ball, “do you do this with your siblings? I roll my ball and only manage to hit 7 pins then only 1 in the next roll.

“When we’re in like the... awkward years. That’s when we were really into bowling.”

“What else are Schreave family activities? All of you seem to be so different.” It’s true, from the family I’ve seen during meals… all of them seemed so unique.

He shrugs, “We did stuff a lot when we were little, but now we are all busy doing our own things.” He says as he knocks 8 pins down and the last two in the next roll.

“Oooo nice!” I say as I stretch a little so I won’t pull a muscle, “so you guys don't hang out frequently anymore?”

“Well they hang out together sometimes but I can’t because I have to work. But when we’re all together we’re a mess.”

“The same thing happens whenever my siblings and I are altogether.” I shake my head in the memory of my siblings, then get my ball and manage to get a strike.

“Good one,” he smiles and gives me a thumbs up, “what are your siblings like?” he rolls a ball and manages to only get seven down.

“Quite honestly? My brothers are assholes. My sister's kinda decent. All three of them are kiss asses to our dad.” I explain to him as I play with the bowling ball in my hands. It was true though, both of my brothers were ginormous asses. I mean, they’re the reason why I never go by my first name. “I'm the youngest, so all three of them liked to bully me.” I shrug.

“I know I’m the oldest, but I’m just saying that is how siblings are.” he tells me, and it’s so obvious that he doesn’t get the pain of being the youngest.

“I know they are,” I laugh, “They just annoy me a lot.”

“So do mine.” he chuckles.

I laugh with him again, “But you seem to have a nice family though.”

“They are all very nice, we just don’t get to hang out all that much.” he reveals to me, and I kinda get it- that’s exactly why my siblings and I never got to hang out too- except all of us were stationed and working for different parts of the military. Ferdi was a captain in the Navy, Toni was a lieutenant general in the army, and Vange was a Lieutenant commander in the coast guard… and I was in tha air force.

“Yeah, sorry to hear that.” I reply to him as my first roll gets another 8 pins down, and the next knocks one down.

He shrugs,“You’ve seen the way we interact at dinner though.” He laughs again, and I had to agree.. they all seemed like a normal family.

“Yes, in all their majestic glory.” I laugh. The Schreaves seemed to have a better family dynamic than my own, that was for sure. Everyone was together, their parents were seemed lenient with them, and they all didn’t hate each other’s guts… yeap- better than mine.

“Enough about family, what…” he takes a moment to think, “Oh if you could go anywhere where would you go?”

“That's tough... but probably…” It’s my turn to pause and think. Where did I want to go? The funny thing about my life was that I had been to nearly all the provinces of Illea- lived in them actually… but I’ve never… ever been out of the country before.

“South Africa.” I say as I roll a 5 then knock down 3. “How about you? Where would you want to go?”

He thinks for a while before answering me, “South Africa, that’s a cool place. I’d probably want to go to Australia.”

Our conversation picks up from here, and we ask each other more about our favorite things, just typical getting to know you questions. It turns out that we have the same favorite color, which was nice to know. I’ve always liked Navy Blue. He liked eating chicken and potatoes, while I was more of a burrito girl, myself.

I roll twice and manage to knock down 9 pins as I ask him another deal-breaking question, “books or movies?”

“Hmm movies because I don’t have enough time to sit and read a book. What about you?”

“Books. I didn't have a lot of means to watch a lot of movies when I was younger.” I explain to him.

“Probably cause you were always doing something.” he mentions.

“Nope, strict parents.” I clarify with him.

He turns to me in surprise, “Really?”

I nod, “Uhuh, they though that watching movies was a waste of time... or watching anything on a digital screen.”

“Hm so are you not good or in the know of technology?” he asks me, and I laugh a little. I got asked that question… a lot.

“I'm actually pretty decent with tech..” I reply to him, showing him both of my phones… the old flip one and the new one I bought about a month ago.

“Wow, thats an upgrade.” he comments.

I laugh again, “Yeah, it is.”

Nate takes a lot at his watch, “I need to get back to work soon, is it okay if I walk you to your room or are you guys in the women’s room right now?”

“Oh sure! Yeah! It's no problem with me.... you could just walk me to my room- I don't really spend much time in the women's room.” I answer as I set my ball down.

“Okay, let’s go.” he holds his arm out to me.

“Sure.”

“Wait we don’t have to do the arm thingie if you don’t want to.” Nate tells me, and I realize that I took his arm without any hesitation.

“Don't worry, I'll try to get used to it.” I say as I pat his arm reassuringly.

“So other than reading books what else did you do as a child?” he asks me as we walk out of the alley together.

“Well, my siblings and I used to play mini warfare.” I smile, remembering that memory. “We used to bust out a couple of my brothers' Nerf guns and create our own fortresses out of the couch cushions.” We were so young back then, with heads full of fantasies of becoming heroes.

“That sounds like a lot of fun, nerf guns are the best.” Nate remarks, and I nod in agreement.

“I know! I'd trade them for real ones any time!”

“Any time.” he echoes as we arrive to the front of my door.

“Thanks for the date, by the way. I haven't had one in a long time.” I admit to him, shaking my head as I let go of his arm.

He laughs, “Well I have. But I had a lot of fun, even though I’m pretty sure you won.”

“I don't think either of us were keeping score.... but... you bowl good.” I reply, patting his shoulder. He was a pretty decent bowler.

“You do too! I had fun.”

“It was fun,” I smile again, wow my cheeks must hurt after all this smiling, “so... I'll see you around?”

“Yeah ,” he smiles back.

“Good luck with not getting bored in your meeting.” I turn my door knob and open my door, taking a step into my room. “Bye!”

“Bye.” Nate waves at me as I go into my room.

The minute I step in, my maids nearly tackle me with so much excitement and glee asking me so many questions about the date and Nate.

Eliza looks down disapprovingly, “Miss, what happened to your shoes?”

I look down and realize… hah, I was so caught up that I had forgotten to take off my bowling shoes.