Flashback [Blacksugar Plantation] Trouble, Meet Trouble

[Opal Draer]

76th.fall.503av
blacksugar plantation
harvest ball

Nine year old Opal kicked morosely at the walkway, taking her own sweet time and then some as she followed her parents to the entrance of Blacksugar Plantation. This ball was not her idea of fun. Oh, her mom had tried to make it sound like fine times, but Opal knew better. She had to wear the puffy dress. She had to wear the pinchy shoes. And she had to leave her instruments behind.

That was the worst offense, in Opal's mind.

She glared tiny daggers at her parents' backs, mouth twisted into a pretty, if ill-tempered pout. Her mother must have felt it boring into her from behind, though, because she chose that exact moment to turn her head and give Opal 'the look.'

Gulp.

Opal knew that look. It was the look that said "I don't like what you're doing, stop it instantly; what will the Dynasties think? Yep. Opal sure knew that look.

So she made what was, for her, a humongous effort to replace her pout with something resembling a smile. Or at least a bearing of her teeth, which was close enough, Opal thought. Putting her 'pretty' face back in place, she followed docilely behind her parents as they entered the lavish Blacksugar Plantation.

Opal's eyes widened in amazement. The Morealis' knew how to throw a party, that was for sure. Everyone in the whole world was there. Or at least everyone in Kenash. Even some freeborn were in attendance, dressed in what, for them, amounted to finery. The sight of the freeborn mingling with the Dynasty families made Opal feel angry, but she couldn't figure out why.

But she, for sure wasn't going to talk to them. She didn't care how many of them told her how pretty she looked, or how much they loved her hair - because adults always said stuff like that. She was just going to ignore them. Her head lifted as she thought about what she would do if one of them dared to talk to her. Her little nose lifted into the air with an inaudible sniff at the idea.

A second later, she saw the musicians and her jaw dropped. Finally exhibiting some of the excitement her mother had said she'd feel, Opal hung back as her parent's made their way through the room. Out of sight now, Opal shyly walked up to the group of performers - slaves, Opal knew, but... Musicians. She reached out tentatively to touch one of the drums--

"Opal!" Her mother had finally missed her and come back to find her socializing with slaves.

"I wasn't talking to them, mother. Did you see the drum? It was giant!" When her only response was pursed lips and a speedy walk that she had to skip a bit to keep up with, Opal knew there would be a 'discussion' later on. Mostly Opal could get away with anything, but party rules were different.

Opal hated parties.

[Katherine Morealis]

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They said she was very pretty. “Oh Katherine, you are such a lovely darling!” was what the adults often told her whenever she showed them her good girl smile. She loved being called pretty, of course. That meant she looked so much better than all those ugly kids who came with their parents to the ball. But in parties such as these, that was all they kept saying. You’re pretty, your hair is so beautiful, that dress is lovely… The more she heard of it, the more it started sounding insincere to her ears.

Another thing she didn’t like about parties was how the grown-ups seemed to dismiss her as just another Morealis girl. Katherine snorted at this. Didn’t they know that her dad was Remosh Morealis? He’s going to be the next Head of the household. Then she will be the next because Tahn said he won’t do it because he can’t see, and then everybody will like her more than they like her now. But speaking of Tahn…

“Don’t stick too close to me, Tahn. You’re embarrassing me.” Her older brother only chuckled, affectionately, and reached a hand in her direction to pat her hair. Kat swiftly swatted it away, lips pursed and brows drawn together in irritation. “Argh! You’re so annoying! Go away!” she cried, accompanied with a shove that caused her older brother to stumble a few steps back. Unfortunately for Katherine, her mom and were just nearby during her sudden outburst.

“Katherine Lillian Morealis!” Her mom called out, and the young girl knew she was in trouble. Whenever her parents called her by her full name, a good scolding comes right after. “What are you doing to your elder brother? And in the during an important ball, too! Are you not thinking how your actions will influence the name of our family?” Katherine flinched as her mom went on about how wrong it was to treat her blind brother like she did. It wasn’t fair. Why can’t they reprimand Tahn too? It’s his fault for consistently pushing himself to her. She wouldn’t have shoved him if he kept his distance.

Instead of voicing her protests though, she lowered her head to look as sorry as she could. “I’m sorry, mom. I promise I’ll behave.” Satisfied with her answer, her mom smiled and stroked her hair. Her mother said they can greet the guests and Tahn can go with her father instead, but it did not do much to lift her spirits.

With Tahn out of the way, Katherine kept close to her mom as they made their way across the ballroom. There were a lot of different people who had attended the harvest ball, but to Katherine there were only three types of people in that party: the rich, those pretending to be rich, and those sucking up to the rich. The slaves don’t count because her grandpa said they’re Dynasty properties, so that means they’re only things like her toys. They can be easily replaced if they get broken, just like her toys.

Her mother was talking to yet another well-dressed grownup lady again, one of the many that came that night. Unlike those they had greeted earlier, this one had a young girl with her. Katherine looked at the girl curiously, especially at her hair. She wondered why it looked so red when hers was more brown.

With a nudge from her mother, Katherine dipped her body in a slight curtsy, and flashed her prettiest good girl smile. “Good evening, Ma’am. I am very pleased to meet the two of you.” Her mother, Denibra Morealis, introduced her to the two guests. Her mom called the other girl pretty, to which Katherine said nothing, and she encouraged the two girls to get to know each other.

“Of course, mom. I'd love to.” Katherine replied dutifully. She looked at the girl once more and stretched her hands out to her. “There’s not much fun here, isn’t it? Want to go somewhere less boring?” It was uttered in a whisper, away from their mothers' ears. They weren't listening anyway since they're already talking about grownup stuff, but it's better to be careful than to receive another earful regarding her behaviour, especially after she had just promised to behave well.

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[Opal Draer]

Interestedly, Opal eyed the pair in front of her; their clothes marked them as Dynasty, and acceptable, and Opal's mother smiled indulgently at the other girl before launching into conversation with the mother. While the other girl didn't look as interesting as the musicians and their instruments had, Opal knew her mother would never allow her to hover around the slaves all evening. So when the other girl - Katherine as she'd been introduced - invited her to go exploring, Opal agreed readily.

"Hi. Is this your party? I hate parties. There's never anyone to play with," Opal looked at Katherine curiously. "How old are you?"

In Opal's experience, the few parties she had been forced to attend had been almost painfully boring. Her older siblings didn't seem to mind going to them, but they always had loads of kids their own age to play with. Although, in her opinion, 'play' was not the right word. The girls all got giggly and stupid, and the boys walked around pretending to be grown men. It had been fun to watch, the first time, but the more often she saw it the less she wanted to.

Like now.

"Look at them," she tugged on Katherine's hand and indicated a group of girls, all dressed in frilly, lacy pastel colors. "That's my cousin, Brookie. And she never acts like that at home. How come parties make people act dumb?" With a huff, she glared at 'Brookie', actually Brooke Draer, 17 years old and entirely boy-crazy. Opal had tried to talk to Brooke before at the parties; her cousin just shooed her away and wiggled up to a group of boys, giggling and batting her eyeballs at them like a big dumb -- Opal didn't know what. But like a big dumb something, that's for sure.

Since then, Opal hadn't even bothered greeting Brooke at parties.

"Where are we going, anyway?" They'd been making their way through rooms crowded with people. More than once Opal had heard the adult women commenting as they passed. 'How lovely!' 'What pretty girls.' 'Aren't you two precious?' Each time, ingrained manners had forced Opal to offer a wide smile and a pretty thank you. But when someone reached out to touch her hair, braided around the crown of her head and then falling in large curls down her back, she just hadn't been able to stop herself. Skipping out of arms' reach, she'd turned to glare at the woman before she could think. Once she realized it was simply one of the freeborn guests, and no one important, she'd sniffed and continued walking away, tugging Katherine with her.

"I hate when people pet my hair," she confided in the other girl. Every time her hair was done up fancy it took bells and bells, and once it was finished, she had to be very careful not to muss it, or she'd have to sit and let the slaves do it all again. But people still tried to touch it, and Opal just couldn't figure out why. Cocking her head, she studied Katherine's brown locks for a moment. "Do they do that to you, too?"

[Katherine Morealis]

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The other girl, Opal, agreed to go around with her. To this Katherine grinned. She loved it when people agree with the things she say. Things always go well for everybody when she gets her way.

“Not really.” Katherine responded to the girl’s question. “This is my grandpa’s party for all the grownups. My party was a few days ago, for my tenth birthday. Now I’m ten years old.” Katherine glanced at the younger girl, head tilting a bit sideways and a slight pout appearing on her lips. “I didn’t see you at my party.”

Opal asked her to look at someone, and Katherine’s eyes curiously followed the other girl’s gaze as she pointed out an older relative. There was a group of girls gathered together, and among them she recognized Eleanor, a cousin from her mother’s side of the family. “See, my cousin’s there, too. But unlike your cousin she’s just really dumb, even when there are no parties.” She tugged Opal along, not interested in sharing more about her silly relative.

Actually, Katherine had no idea where they were going as well, so when the other girl asked her this, she was quiet for a short moment. And then she came up with, “Outside, at the garden. There are almost no people there so it’s less noisy than here.” They had been greeting various people they had been passing through - it’s expected of them to do so because they’re Dynasty - when one of the guests tried to touch Opal’s hair. This got the other girl upset, and she told Katherine that she hated whenever that happened.

“Yes, and I hate it when they do that, too.” Her thick brown hair was swept up and fastened in large rings of curls on her head. A few loose strands were left out to hang naturally to her neck. It looked a bit messy, but it was the pretty kind of messy so Katherine liked it anyway. What she didn’t like was how long it took to get her hair done, and how her mom would reprimand her every time it got ruined. Her back, and neck, and head all hurt just to become pretty. “I wish they’d just look at it from afar. They’re not the ones who have to sit through fixing it all over again so they keep touching and touching.” Katherine puffed her cheeks out. “It’s weird though. They get their hairs done too so they should know what it’s like to go through, but they touch our hairs anyway.

“You don’t let them get to you though.” Katherine smiled a cheering smile and tugged Opal with her. “Mom said it comes with being very prety. We’ll just make them not touch our hairs every time they feel like it, just because we’re smaller than them.”

A stray thought crossed her mind, and she looked at the girl with a curious look in her eyes. “Do you have someone you play with at your place? I don’t go out very much because of my studies so I don’t know other girls my age. I only have my older brother, but he can't see so he can’t play with me.” Katherine scrunched her nose at the thought of babysitting her older sibling. She'll get laughed at if other kids saw her doing so.

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[Opal Draer]

With a typically childish lack of focus, Katherine switched topics, asking if Opal had a playmate back at Riverwave. Opal thought it was pretty rotten that Katherine had to study so much that she didn't have time to play, and frowned in sympathy for the other girl.

"I play with Brookie sometimes," she answered, referencing her cousin again. It was a toss up, some days, whether she idolized her older cousin or was irritated by her. "But mostly I play with..." she stopped herself just short of acknowledging that she played with the slave children. It wasn't something her family approved of; Opal's trouble was that sometimes when she was playing with the children her family owned, she forgot who was the boss and who was the slave. Those times were the most fun for Opal, but she inevitably got scolded whenever her parents caught her.

"Mostly I play outside. I don't have to study very much. Just sometimes manners and dance and stuff." She shrugged, dismissing it; lessons were boring and talking about them was boring. "I don't know lots of girls my age, either. I'm nine. And a half," she hurried to add, lest Katherine think she could boss Opal around because she was older.

"What's there to do out here?" Opal looked around curiously. It was pretty, she guessed; she could tell that the Morealis family liked flowers - there seemed to be every kind in Kenash growing here. There were gardens on Riverwave, too, but Opal was used to them and didn't pay them much attention unless she was hiding behind some of the bigger plants, trying to sneak up on her cousins. The Draers also had a maze, though. Opal had spent lots of time lately walking through the maze, hiding from her mother and spending time with the slave children where she wouldn't get scolded for not bossing them around. Did Katherine's family have a maze?

Opal stood on her tiptoes, peering into the shadows, looking for a hint of anything that might be a maze. Or at least some place fun to explore. She saw a couple slipping into the deep shadows, laughing, and wondered what they were doing. "Do you have a maze here? Is that where they're going?" She pointed off in the direction of the disappearing couple, and tilted her head at Katherine quizzically.

[Katherine Morealis]

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Hearing that Opal did not know other people more than she did, Katherine smiled. That meant she wasn't the only girl around who didn't have girl friends. "I think we should hang out and play more from now on. We can be like sisters." Katherine bobbed her head excitedly. "I've always wanted one, but my parents did not want to have another after me." She added.

The two girls walked through the garden, with Katherine walking just a tiny bit ahead of her companion as if to lead her around the place. "We don't have a maze in our garden." Katherine said, looking from the giggling couple to Opal. She brought Opal outside because she was hoping to show her secret place to her. It seemed to Katherine that Opal did not like the flowers as much as her though, so she did not answer the other girl's first question anymore. Katherine did not want to sound boring to the first fellow Dynasty child she talked to in a while.

"We have another maze inside the house though." As soon as she finished saying it, Katherine turned white as sheet. She had almost revealed the secret tunnels going in all directions under their house! If her grandfather finds out, he is surely going to punish her. "A-and ruins too. The slaves tell all sorts of ghost stories about our family's old house." Katherine offered, crossing her fingers behind her and wishing that the girl would forget what she just said about mazes. And in a whisper, she added, "They say it's haunted."

Katherine knew that there was nothing of interest in the nook where the couple had gone, but the way they seemed to enjoy themselves made her curious. Making her steps as quiet as possible, Katherine slowly moved closer to the shadows where the couple had gone, just like she did when she was about to catch one of her hiding playmates by surprise.

When she was close enough to get a good look, she saw that the couple were kissing. The woman's skirt was raised to her waist, and the man was pushing her against the wall. At her young age, Katherine did not understand that the two figures she saw in the shadow were making out.

"Eww," Katherine muttered in disgust. She had seen her parents kiss each other on the lips, but definitely not like that. She turned to Opal and whispered, "They're kissing and touching. That is so gross." A pause, and a nasty idea struck her. "I don't like them and I don't like what they're doing. Let's make them stop." Katherine stared at Opal, trying to determine whether the girl shared her thoughts.

OOCOh my god, I am so sorry! I totally forgot to post my reply even when I have done it a couple of weeks ago already. Darn my faulty memory! > n <

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