mwandishi : Genevievebarbie
chanzo : fanpop.com
Author's Summary : Prequel to Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses. The story of how Prince Randolph and Lady Isabella faced hardships and difficulties and later on, fell in upendo and got married. This is my first fanfiction so please no flames. Lastly, please read and review!
Rating : T
Category : Romance, Drama
Disclaimer : The main characters of the story are owned kwa Mattel. I own all the supporting characters and the plot.

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Chapter 17 : zaidi Guilt

As it turned out, even though Isabella knew the ngome inside out, she didn't know the courtyards inside out. Randolph, on the other hand, knew both of them inside out.

When she had met him that night, he took her to a weird corner in the north courtyard which jutted out from the rest of the grounds. The whole place was covered in overgrown ivies, making it difficult to understand what was behind it. Just when she began to think that Randolph was probably trying to kill her, he moved the ivies aside to reveal a funny looking doorknob. He turned the knob and opened the door, to reveal a flight of stairs going underground. kwa now, Isabella was completely spooked and had even begun refusing to go, but luckily, Randolph managed to convince her otherwise.

"Come on, you'll upendo it," he had said.

The stairs led to an underground tunnel, and after walking through it for what seemed like an eternity, but actually five minutes, they found another flight of stairs, going back to ground. The tunnel however, seemed to go on forever, even after the stairs were found. She slowly climbed them up, holding Randolph for support – and perhaps even breaking a few of his fingers in the process, considering his "Ouch" s and "Oof" s. Well, that was his fault, for bringing her to a spooky place – the door to ground was finally found.

Problem was: there was a buibui on it. On the doorknob, to be precise. Isabella screeched loudly, nearly making Randolph ears bleed, as her voice echoed down in the tunnel. The buibui too, seemed to be getting a moyo attack, judging kwa how still it had gotten. Randolph, meanwhile, somehow recovered from the shock of having his girlfriend screech inayofuata to him, and had burst out laughing, to Isabella's dismay. Meanwhile, the buibui seemed to be permanently stuck to the doorknob, as it recovered from it's moyo attack. So when the buibui lifted its head, Isabella screeched yet again, and this time, the poor-yet-pesky buibui Lost its grip on the knob due to the sheer intensity of her scream and fell down. Alas, it fell down, near the hem of her dress. kwa then, Isabella's throat couldn't handle zaidi screams, so she simply hurried down a few steps, ignoring Randolph laughter as he rubbed his ears, trying to soothe them.

"As long wewe don't do something about that spider, I'm not coming with you!" she said, maintaining a salama distance from the buibui while squinting at it.

So Randolph, being the absolute gentleman he was, did do something about the spider. He crushed it under his boot.

"I didn't know your screams could give spiders moyo attacks. Twice, that too."

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kwa then, all the girls were laughing like crazy, as Isabella finished telling them the beginning of her tarehe with Randolph. The moment she was back, Ilana and the girls started bugging her, asking her to tell the details, as they had somehow found out that her tarehe was Randolph.

So here she was, having just told the beginning of her crazy-yet-beautiful first date.

"So what happened next?" asked Lalaina, catching her breath from all the laughing.

"Don't leave us in all this suspense!" alisema Ilana, eager to know more.

"Yeah," cheered Natalie.

So she told them. She told them how beautiful it was after the door opened, and they walked into a luscious garden. Flowers and butterflies and soft nyasi and a river with a small waterfall. How they had had a picnic there, just the two of them. How Randolph told her there was an even bigger waterfall upstream. They asked for the details, she gave them the details.

Of course, she did deliberately leave out a few things like their first kiss. How he slid his hands into her hair, sending a spark of electricity down her spine. How their lips met, and how she sank into the warmth of the kiss with a sigh. No, these were much, much zaidi personal, she wouldn't tell them these. Sure, her Marafiki figured out at some point that she was probably thinking of her first kiss, thanks to her blushing as she remembered the perfect, earth-shattering kiss. But luckily, they didn't bug her about that.

All was well, until she got to the point where she didn't want to continue. The point where she and Randolph had something close to an argument. She didn't even know it was possible for a couple to fight on their first date. When she had first come back, all she wanted to do was just sleep, but when she noticed that her Marafiki were awake, she quickly wiped away the tears and pretended everything was fine. Now though, she couldn't take it anymore, and simply let the tears fall. It was all her fault, for bringing up the topic that they – she and Randolph – simply weren't good together. He thought of her as a simple maid, and he himself was a prince.

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"Randolph, do wewe think we should continue this?" she had asked him, as they stepped back into the north courtyard.

"Continue what?" he asked.
"This whole dating thing," she replied.

"Why shouldn't we?"

"Well, it's just that...you're a prince and I'm, well.."

".. A maid? I don't see any problem with that."

"I'm not a maid. There's something I need to tell you, actually."

So they sat on the grass, and she explained to him everything, from the fact the that she was the missing Duchess, to how she was kicked out of her home.

"So we had the missing Duchess all along right in front of our noses?" he asked slowly, processing everything in his mind.

"Mmm hmm."
"Why didn't wewe tell anything?"

"I just thought this was something us girls should handle alone. Besides, it's not like no one knows, your mother knows. She knows for a long time now."

"My mother!" he suddenly burst out, "How could wewe tell my mother about this before me?"

"Well," she hesitated.
"Be honest," he told her, firmly.

"I just thought that I couldn't trust wewe with something like this, and..."

"Couldn't trust me? Just why could wewe not trust me?"

"Well, since you're Marafiki with Dylan, who I know is an irresponsible idiot, I just thought –"

"–you just thought that I'll be as irresponsible as him," Randolph finished for her, then continued, "Really, Isabella, first wewe choose to completely hide your identity from me for two years, two years Isabella!

"Calm down, Randolph," she said, gently touching his arm.

This only made him lower voice a bit, but he continued. "Then wewe choose to tell me your identity after our date, and expect me to take it all calmly?! How could I trust you? "

"I.." she hesitated, not knowing what to say. She had never thought of it that way. She had never thought about what he felt about something as big as this. Tears had slowly begun spilling out of her eyes, and she hadn't even realized she was crying, until Randolph pulled her for hug, trying to calm her down.

"Bella, I'm sorry," he said, and she easily figured out that he was being truthful, which hurt her more. Why was he apologizing for something he didn't do? Randolph continued on, "Please, please, don't cry."

Wanting to be alone, she simply pulled out of his arms, assured him that she was fine, and went back to her room, only to come across the girls.

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She finished telling the girls everything, hugging her mto kwa the end of it.

"I knew something was wrong. Your eyes were all puffy, but I thought it was just wewe being sleepy," alisema Ilana, "Oh, poor Isabella."

The other two told her everything would be fine, and she hugged them and Ilana. After a while, the lights were out, everyone was asleep, and all that was left was Isabella and her thoughts.

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A/N : hujambo all! How's the chapter? As always, read, review and favorite. Laterz!