"Mama! Can I play with my friends?" words that Arala hardly said ever before. It made her feel happy to have friends now. She tried to find time to play with them after that party and it seemed like all the while they had fun. Especially Tiffany. She was only one year older than Arala and they looked like a good pair on the surface. A laugh, a chuckle and some games were to be had.
To Arala, it was all she really wanted in life. No money, no material goods. Just companions. But behind the scenes, Tiffany and the others were only being nice to her because she was an easy target. Arala was kind, generous and was a pushover as well. They took advantage of her kindness without her being aware. In truth they kept her around until they found a good time to break her. Why you may ask? We may never know. Kids tend to be fairly cruel.
One particular day, Arala and Tiffany were exploring the streets when they came across a young Hyur boy about their age as well. While Tiffany was not fond of boys at the time...Arala was. She never had a friend who was a boy yet and for some reason it made her blush a little thinking about it. His Highlander like build. The short brown hair and eyes seemed to pull Arala to him inch by inch.
"H-hi...My name is Makeo. Daughter of the Arala Family- no wait! I'm Arala, Daughter to the Makeo family!" she stumbled like a fool. Tiffany then realized who it was and dragged Arala around the corner.
"Do you know who you were talking to?! That's the Weaver's Guildmaster's Son, Roland! How can you stumble like that before him!" Tiffany was generally scared about it. Her family did regular trades and she had seen Roland a lot. most of the time he shrugged her off. Arala blinked. "H-huh? I didn't know. He looked like he could use a friend." her words falling silent as she noticed Roland approaching. "Pardon me, Tiffany." despite his age, he was well mannered compared to other boys. He offered his hand to Arala to pull her from Tiffany's grasp.
"Thank you..." Arala couldn't look at him. She knew that compared to her family, his was FAR more up in status. She simply bowed before him "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to stumble like that!" apologizing for her attitude. This made Roland laugh.Â
"Don't be! I found it funny that you would mix your name up!"
The two seemed like a cute pair, but Tiffany didn't want any of that. If there was one thing she hated more than kind and generous people, it was people who easily made a connection to others.Â
"How DARE a second class try to have a conversation with an upper class family! She needs to learn her place before things get out of hand..."
In the pool of her mind, Tiffany would hatch a plan to finally humiliate Arala. But she would need help from her friends to do so. She wasn't going to let some Second Class family upstage her higher class in Ul'dah. It looked bad for her image among the kids.
Arala was a nobody, and so was her family...
Months later, Arala sent out invitations to her friends for her Nameday party. It was the first Nameday party she had outside of family and she was excited to have friends over instead. She was going to turn Twelve.
