The Girl Everyone Notices
Aria had expected Royal College to be intimidating, but she had not expected it to feel like another world.
The campus was larger than any school she had known, with old stone buildings, wide courtyards, manicured gardens and students arriving in cars that looked more expensive than the house she had grown up in. Everywhere she looked, there were signs of wealth she had only seen in magazines and television programs.
Yet Aria felt strangely calm.
Her scholarship had changed more than just her address. For the first time, she had enough money to take proper care of herself instead of constantly calculating what she could afford. The scholarship covered her needs, and after years of making do with worn clothes and secondhand books, she had finally been able to buy a few things she actually liked.
Her clothes were simple, but they suited her.
She wore a fitted cream blouse beneath a dark skirt, with polished shoes and a small bag resting against her side. Nothing about her appearance was extravagant, yet she had the kind of natural beauty that made extravagance unnecessary. Her long dark hair fell neatly over her shoulders, and the confidence in the way she carried herself drew attention before she had said a word.
Aria barely noticed.
She was too busy studying the map of the campus in her hand.
"Excuse me. Do you know where the administration building is?"
The student she stopped looked her over before answering.
"Across the courtyard. Second building on the left."
"Thank you."
Aria followed the direction and continued walking.
She had been at Royal College for less than an hour, and already she had learned that people here noticed everything. Clothes, family names, cars, accents, who sat with whom. Status seemed to move through the campus almost as naturally as conversation.
It meant very little to her.
She had spent too much of her life watching her mother struggle to be impressed by people simply because they had money.
At the administration building, Aria collected the last documents she needed for her enrollment and left with a timetable tucked into her bag.
Her first lecture was in less than twenty minutes.
She crossed the courtyard, glanced at the timetable again and nearly walked straight into someone.
"Careful."
The voice was calm but firm.
Aria looked up.
The young man standing in front of her was dressed more formally than most of the students around him. He carried himself with an ease that suggested people usually moved out of his way before he ever had to ask.
"I'm sorry," Aria said. "I wasn't looking."
"No harm done."
She stepped aside, but the expression in his eyes made her pause.
There was nothing arrogant about him.
Just control.
"Do you know where Hall B is?" she asked.
He pointed toward the opposite side of the courtyard.
"That building. Upstairs."
"Thank you."
She walked away.
Behind her, someone called his name.
"Adrian!"
Aria glanced back.
A group of students had gathered around him.
The reaction told her enough.
Prince Adrian.
She turned away and continued toward her lecture. She had heard the name before, of course. Everyone in the kingdom knew Adrian was the Crown Prince, but beyond that, he meant nothing to her. By the time she reached Hall B, the encounter had already slipped from her mind. She had more immediate concerns, such as finding a seat before the lecture began.
The lecture hall was filling quickly, and Aria chose a place near the middle. She opened her notebook and reviewed the course outline while the other students talked around her.
A few rows behind her, the conversation grew louder.
"He's coming."
Aria ignored it until the lecture hall fell noticeably quieter.
She looked toward the entrance and saw a young man walk in. He was about her age, but unlike the students around him, he seemed completely uninterested in the attention his arrival created.
His uniform was slightly untidy, his expression impatient, and there was something openly about the way he carried himself, as though the rules governing everyone else had never quite managed to govern him.
Aria recognized him from the photographs she had seen before coming to the capital.
Prince Kael. The youngest son of the king.
He glanced across the room, looking for a seat, and then his attention settled briefly on Aria.
She returned to her notebook.
Kael took a seat a few rows away.
Aria returned her attention to the front of the room, unaware that he was still watching her.
He was accustomed to people reacting when he entered a room. Some became nervous, others eager to catch his attention. She had done neither.
She had looked at him once, recognized him, and gone back to her notes.
Kael turned toward the professor when the lecture began, but the question remained in his mind.
“Who was this girl?”
