The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

When They Became Friends

"Wow, are you okay, bro? Sorry, I didn't mean it at all," said the boy, his face looked worried.

Liam was still sitting on the floor, cupping his sore nose. Even though it's bleeding, it didn't seem like it's broken. 

"Is he okay? Just take it to the clinic!” said several students among the crowd.

Meanwhile, Troya, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly stood up facing the boy and grabbed his collar. She didn't say anything. For some reason her brain suddenly went blank, only emotions were taking over her. She felt so angry and sad. 

However, Troya knew that she could not hit the boy. It's just an accident. But, she should have been able to prevent Liam from being hit by the boy's kick, because she had seen it earlier before they walked past him. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it was real eventually. And she did nothing about it, she just kept quiet. Just like what she had done before at the time of the accident. An accident that took her best friend's life.

The students buzzed all around her, some worried that there will be an unbalanced fight between the soccer boy with huge body, and a girl who's known at school often falls asleep in class.

The soccer boy felt a cold air emitted by Troya. But he did nothing. Even though the eyes of the girl who's pulling his collar looked very sharp, but it was also empty. So there's silence between the two of them. Until finally this bad situation was resolved by Mayang's voice.

"Troya? Liam? Oh, my God, Liam, what's wrong with your nose?" shrieked Mayang immediately knelt down and gave him an handkerchief to help him stopped the bleeding. After that, she stood back up and walked closer to Troya. For a moment, she's confused about what to do, for Troya just stood still with her hands tugging tightly by the collar of the boy's uniform. 

Mayang decided to touch Troya's shoulder, "Troya, never mind, Liam is okay, really!" She said in a soft tone.

 Troya immediately realised when she felt Mayang's hand. She turned and saw Mayang's face. Before long, she finally removed her hand from the boy's collar. For a moment, she felt like she didn't know what was happening. 

Liam was much better now, so he stood up, "Troya, I'm okay, really!" He repeated with a smile at the soccer boy as a sign that there's no grudge between them. 

The boy smiled back. But other than that, Liam and Mayang actually feltl astonished at the reaction shown by Troya. Because, it's not her at all. She seemed different, just like someone else.

***

Two Years Ago At School Registration 

Troya barely missed high school registration. She completely forgot that there was such a thing as a registration every new school year. But Mama and Papa didn't have time to enlist her in the new school. They both were very busy. Mama was busy with her restaurant. While Papa, who worked as a contractor, was on duty out of town to build a five-star hotel. So automatically, Troya had to register by herself.

Having lost her way to her old school because she misinformed the driver, Troya finally arrived at the new school. The school was full of parents. Troya entered through the gate and after asked the security guard, she finally arrived in front of a room that was used to register the new students.

In front of the room, there was a long bench made of wood. On the bench was sitting a boy whom she would known as Liam. Liam looked a little clumsy, repeatedly correcting his glasses but never bothering to remove his bangs from covering his eyes. Made Troya a little itchy and wanted to put a comb on his head so that his face could be seen clearly. For some reason, she was compelled to sit next to him.

"Hey," she said cheerfully. 

But Liam was silent and still looked down, busy with his smartphone. Troya peeked a little to see what the boy was seeing until he didn't return the greeting earlier. And, who likes someone else peeking into our smartphone screen? 

Liam felt annoyed. But instead of said anything, he shifted his body away. Troya also shifted too, so that her eyes could still see the games that the boy was playing. Then Liam would shift his body again. Followed by Troya again. It just continued like that, until Liam reached the end of the bench and nowhere to shift anymore. He turned his head angrily at her. 

"You don't have your own cellphone, do you?" he asked in a sharp tone. 

“Oh, I have, but I don't have a game like you. To be precise, I don't like playing arcade games like that,” said her, not feeling guilty at all.

Liam gawked at Troya's answer. But then he said again, “You play games on your own cellphone! Do not bother me!" he snapped. 

“Oh, I'm not in the mood to play games anymore. But I like watching you play. So, just play! I promise I won't bother you while playing!” replied Troya innocently. 

It seemed that Liam wanted to scream in frustration at the behaviour of this girl he did not know. 

"Oh, have you registered?" asked Troya, suddenly changing the subject. 

Liam was stunned because Troya did not feel guilty at all, but instead changed the conversation. Finally, feeling that his anger would be useless, Liam decided to sit back on the chair, but of course move on the other side.

"Yes!" he replied quickly. 

"Oh, then why don't you just go home?" asked Troya again. 

Eeeeh ..., he meant to kick me out? Liam thought anxiously. It's not even that girl's business, whether he wanted to go straight home or hang out at school. Grandma had back home, but he didn't have to go wherever his grandmother went. 

"Then you, have you registered yourself?" asked Liam, deciding not to answer Troya's words. 

Troya shook her head, “Later, it's still busy inside. Ah yes, my name is Traumerei." She said while stretching out her hand to Liam. 

Liam almost had the intention not to return the hand just to get back at the girl's behaviour earlier. But apparently he didn't have enough heart. He replied even though it was fleeting and immediately took it back off. "Liam." He answered. 

"Liam? Liam one of the members of One Direction?" asked Troya a little stunned when he pronounced the name.

Of course Liam immediately looked at Troya in disbelief, but he didn't answer. 

"No? Liam ... Liam Gallagher? Liam Hemsworth?" Troya's guessing was getting crazy. 

Of course Liam got dizzy at all the babbling of this girl he just met. 

"Liam Pratama." He finally said. 

“Haaaah! Liam Neeson?!" shouted Troya completely unexpected.

Of course Liam got so shocked that he grabbed his own chest. But Liam decided not to answer anything. Whatever! Suddenly a teacher came out of the classroom and scolded them. Liam apologised. 

"You can call me Troya," said Troya when the teacher came back into the classroom. Actually some of the parents and other students who happened to be in front of the class also looked at the two of them in disbelieves. 

After that, they were both silent for a few moments. Then Liam said, "Traumerei is one of Schumann's classical music." 

"Ah yes, you know! You like that music too, huh?" said Troya, looked very cheerful because there were few people who knew the origin of the name. 

"No, it just so happens that my grandmother really likes to put the music in the house at a deafening volume and it successfully traumatises me from hearing the music too often."

Troya was stunned to hear the answer. A boy who wasn't cute at all. When Troya wanted to get back at the boy, suddenly a girl interrupted them. 

"Sorry, the new student registration room is here right?" She asked with a slightly out of breath.

They both turned to see who had just come. Then there was a girl with long back hair with curls at the bottom, fair skin, sharp nose and sensual lips. Inevitably they both were stunned to see it. Seeing that the two people she was asked did not answer her question, the girl waved her hand in front of their faces. 

"Are you all right?" she asked. 

Troya realised first, “If you want to register, I also want to. We could register together!" Troya grinned and without waiting for an answer at all, she immediately took the girl's hand into the room, leaving Liam alone with his mouth still gaping. 

Of course after that, the three of them didn't immediately become close. But the important thing was that they attended the same class, and somehow Troya sat right beside Liam. 

Meanwhile, the girl, who was finally identified as Tatiana Mayang, sat with a girl from a popular g**g. Until one day, Mayang was in a chemistry group the same with Troya and Liam. And since then they became closer, even Mayang preferred to hang out with the two of them rather than with her clique.[]