It was a few more days before Edna was able to go back to that spot. Sure enough, George was waiting for her, this time with her ball in hand. “Where have you been?” George asked her. “Ah? How would you know I’ve been gone?” Edna asked. George’s cheeks flushed as he started to sputter. She decided to spare him any more embarrassment by asking him about the ball, changing the subject. “Oh, this? Um…here!” He thrust it into her hands.

“Eh? You’re giving me your ball?” she asked him. “Dummy! It’s not my ball, it’s yours…” George protested. “I was thinking about it…and I’m sorry!” He sure was fired up, huh? Edna tilted her head, somewhat amused by his loud voice and frantic actions. “Well, thank you,” she told him. He looked away, avoiding her gaze. “W-whatever! I just didn’t need it anymore!”

“So why do you come here every day?” Edna asked him. “Well…it’s because I’m…kind of…interested in the games you came up with….” He said the last part in a small voice. “Bwahahahaha!” Edna clutched her sides and began laughing. “W-what’s so funny?!” he protested. Edna struggled to calm herself down. “It’s just….I don’t know why you think me or my games are interesting, when you have money and such…” she told him. “I don’t…know what you can buy with lotsa money, but surely it must be better than this…?” she indicated the ball.

George stared at her, then laughed, although his was a bit self-deprecating. “Ahaha…you think I can play? Well…I guess….” He sighed. “I’m the first son of my family, so I don’t really…get to play a lot, you know? I’m always…studying and stuff,” he told her softly, none of the former arrogance in his voice.

“I don’t really get time to spend with my friends, and my Father is always pressuring me to accompany him on business trips and such…that’s why I…kind of like…well, this…” he swept his hand outwards, indicating the alleyway, including Edna. “Alright then, so why me? There’s other kids around here to play with, yanno?” she asked him. “Well…you’re, um….different, I guess. That’s why I’d rather spend time with you….”

Edna frowned, having a subconscious sense that this might be quite embarrassing, although she didn’t really know what about it would count as such. Still, George was quite flustered. “Is that so? Well, I think you’re pretty interesting too,” Edna told him. “Mommy told me all nobles were stuck-up and jerks to us…um, ‘lower class’ people, whatever that means, but you’re…not like that…well, kind of.” She amended her statement, remembering he did take her ball. “Well, that’s….true.” George said in defeat. “But…I don’t want to be like that with you. If it was anyone else, I’d stomp all over them...but I just can’t with you…”

“I’m not sure if I should take that as a nice thing or not,” Edna remarked, leaning forward to look at his face more closely. “Why can’t you be nicer to us if you can be nice to me?”

“Well…that’s…Father says you’re deplorable…and that you’ll just drag us down…and that you’re evil…”

“Am I evil?” Edna asked him. George stared at her helplessly, although he was unable to meet her gaze. “…I don’t think so,” he told her softly. A thought came across her mind. She reached out and took George’s hand. “Eh?” he let out a startled gasp as she did so abruptly. “Wait, why is your hand so waaaaaarrrrmMMMM?” His question ended in a strangled scream as she began pulling him along. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to my Mommy!” Edna said cheerfully. “Wait, wait! I can’t be seen in such a plaaaaace!” George wailed, but in the end, it was futile.

They advanced forward. “Wait, why are we going this way?” George asked her. “That particular part isn’t….friendly. We stay away from there,” she told him. “Eh? Aren’t the slums all the same? Aren’t you all the same?” George said in surprise. Edna shrugged helplessly. “Mommy just tells me to stay away from there because that’s where bad people are…”

“I see….” George responded, eyeing the alleyway warily as they passed by it. As they walked into the part of the slums Edna lived in, they came across several homeless people, who were staring at Edna and her strange friend. A dirty girl with a clean, proper noble. Surely the two made for quite a strange couple.

“It…smells,” George complained. “It’s not that bad!” Edna protested. “Just bear with it, please?” Against those words, George was hopelessly ensnared, and thus he continued forward. “This is your home?” he echoed as Edna proudly displayed their simple shack, which to George looked like it might fall apart at any second. “Isn’t it great?!” Edna asked him, oblivious to his attitude. “Um….yeah….” he could only manage a halfhearted reply. Frankly speaking, he was stunned that Edna even had a home. He thought all homeless people slept in the streets. Yet again another expectation that was broken.

=================

“And so, this is my friend, George Cartwright II!” Edna said proudly. George was fidgeting nervously, while Veronica was staring at Edna with a dumbfounded look. “Edna…you should have let me know you were bringing a guest in advance!” she shouted angrily, thumping Edna on the head, although gently. “Owie! What was that for?!” Edna protested, rubbing her head with teary eyes.

“The place is a mess! I could’ve at least tidied up!” Veronica said angrily. Despite her words, however, their small shack was about as tidy as one could manage in this sort of area. George stared at her with a surprised gaze. “Aren’t you…going to bow before me?” he asked her. “Hm? Why would I do that?” Veronica asked him. “Well…aren’t all peasants supposed to bow before a superior being?” Veronica’s eye twitched, displaying a significant amount of anger, while Edna chuckled awkwardly.

“I could have you beheaded?” George prompted, trying to get some sort of response that would at least fit with his expectations. “If you were the sort to do that, I doubt Edna would’ve taken a liking to you,” Veronica responded with a smug look. “Edna…liking…me..?” George spluttered, completely forgetting the other part of Veronica’s sentence. Once he had calmed down, he sat down on the cobbled ground right outside Edna’s shack, while Edna and Veronica sat next to him.

“So, how does it feel to be in the slums?” Veronica asked George, who was still a bit nervous. “I’m worried I might get mugged…” he complained. “That’s what Father says will happen to me if I ever came to such a place…”

“Not all of us are criminals, you know? Some of us are honest folk!” Against her words, George could only throw his hands up in defeat. “Alright, you’ve got me…I’m sorry for being so prejudiced…”

“Preju…what?” Edna turned a gaze towards Veronica. “How nice it must be to have a noble’s education,” Veronica said, mildly impressed with George’s use of the word ‘prejudiced’. “Say…I have a question to ask…” George proffered tentatively. “Hm? Go and ask,” Veronica told him. “Why don’t you two look alike?” he asked them. Edna and Veronica both froze in response to that question.

Certainly, the two were very different- Edna’s hair was a crimson shade of red, and her eyes were red as well, colors almost never seen in humans. This was compared to Veronica’s straight brown hair and brown eyes. Their faces were markedly different too, with Veronica’s face being a bit more angular, while Edna’s was fairer and gentler. “That’s…” Edna was confused, while George was confronted with a gaze from Veronica that convinced him he was going to die.

“She carries her father’s looks, rather than mine,” Veronica said pleasantly, the murderous gaze instantly gone. Unknowingly, George had been holding his breath, which came out heavily in an awkward chuckle. “Yeah, that makes sense…”

“Mommy says I’m the prettiest girl in the city! So if I look like daddy, daddy must’ve been the prettiest girl in the city before me!”

“Daddy wasn’t a girl, though,” Veronica reminded her gently. George scratched his cheek sheepishly with his index finger, unable to keep a smile from forming on his face. The environment here was far more pleasant than the stuffy atmosphere of the Manor he stayed at. “Oh, come on, there’s a place I want to show you!” Edna said, taking George’s hand. “Alright…um, bye Miss Veronica!” George called, then screamed as Edna forcefully dragged him away. Veronica smiled brilliantly and waved back, seeing them off. “Oh, how nice it must be to be young…” she said enviously. Up ahead, they saw two kids running around, playing tag. “Who are they?” George asked. “Those are my friends!” Edna said cheerfully, pullign away from the path and moving towards them. “W-wait, what are you doing?”

“Silly, of course I gotta show you off to my friends!”