The Elusive Prince

Chapter 6: Back to School

Merideth

After that uneventful encounter with my big sister, my headache decided that the situation was too funny so it just miraculously decided to give me a peace of mind. Thank God for that.

After that half-assed advice from my sister, she just smiled and stood up, thinking she did something good, but really all she gave me was more questions and confusion and maybe a little bit of comic relief. She just patted me on my shoulders and decided to head back inside the party. I was finally left alone again, thankfully without the pounding headache, and after a couple of minutes contemplating everything that just happened, what Arcane said slowly made sense.

I don’t even know why I was so pissed off when I always used to dance with random strangers before in these types of events. (“Maybe because he made you feel something.” My subconscious whispered at the back of my mind but I chose to ignore that and you should too.) I just did my head in for something so simple and if basing on what Arcane told me and she was right, I would probably meet that person again, yes that was definitely going to happen. Hopefully he won’t keep me waiting long.

After that resolve that I said to myself, I went back inside the party and decided to enjoy it with my friends and let my mind drift off to their silly bet and behavior which proved to be a very good distraction because at the end of the night, I barely remembered that dance that left me wondering and instead only remembered the thrill of surprising my classmates when I recognize them in the crowd.

It was fun and we stayed up late just enjoying the free day off but now, with Hailey knocking on my door at the ass c***k of dawn, I groaned internally because I tired myself out too much last night. Also I shouldn’t have impulsively drank all those juices last night because my bladder was about to burst.

I had to run to my bathroom, all the while urging Hailey to come inside. We are currently back at the Palace, because of course, we were too freaking tired to go back to school just yet so yet another day to relax, yey.

Hailey came barging in, this time alone because I don’t want to deal with the helpers bathing me today because I wanted to scrub off the dried sweat and basically just the dirt off myself.

“Good morning Your Highness, I’m glad to see you’re energetic. I really thought you had too much wine when you passed out in the car when it was time to go home. But it seems you were just tired.” Hailey snickered which made me scoff.

“I’m more surprised you’re not tired yourself. You danced quite a lot yesterday.” I retorted while massaging my scalp to ease off the signs of a building headache because I really don’t want to deal with that on my rest day.

“Your Highness, I was trained to be able to keep up with you and go beyond that so my body is pretty used to it already. Anyways, since everybody is considered dead tired from the party last night, the school sent a message informing us that we can return to school later this evening instead of lunch. So as usual, you have a free day. Although, please be ready around 3 PM because His Majesty appointed that time to the driver that will drive us for our return.” She informed as I stepped out of the shower and into my closet. I picked a fairly simple brown summer dress and changed into that. Going into my vanity table, I proceeded to apply some light make-up and then I was ready for the day.

Before heading to the dining room, I did a detour and started heading to Frida’s room instead of going down. I wanted to go down with her, seeing as we won’t be seeing each other for quite some time because I need to go back to school and it will probably take 2 months before I can stay again because it was exam seasons and I need to study like crazy for this month to prepare for the onslaught of tests.

I knocked twice, just to let them know about my presence, before heading inside and saw Frida prancing around and heading into her closet, seemingly to change her outfit with Lira following her with her eyes timidly at the side. I smiled seeing Frida look energetic so early in the morning . She was sent home earlier than us from the ball seeing as she shouldn’t stay up late for her age so I guess she had a good nights rest unlike me but that’s my own fault so I shouldn’t complain.

Lira saw me enter and bowed down slightly and I just waved her off. I told her and Hailey to go on ahead to get breakfast and that I would be the one carrying Frida downstairs. They just bowed and Hailey dragged Lira out of the room again. At the sound of the door closing, Frida came out from the closet where she just changed her outfit. Instead of the pink frilly dress she was wearing earlier when I entered, she was now dressed in a blue floral dress.

“Mori! Where’s Lira?” she asked while craning her neck around, looking for her aide. I swear she’s so bratty sometimes but I love her anyway. I just chuckled and carried her up and rested her on my hip and she clung to my shoulder all the while giggling.

“I sent her away. Why do you want to spend more time with her than with your big sister?” I pretended to be upset which only just made her giggle even more. She knows when I’m kidding. She’s perceptive like that.

“No silly, I was just wondering. Hehehe okay shall we go down now Mori?” she asked as I bounced her a little and nodded, heading for the door.

“You’re getting quite big are you? I used to be able to carry you like nothing but now you’re a big girl already and my arms ache just carrying you.” I teased her a bit in which she just smacked my arm gently, commenting on how she’s not fat. I just chuckled at her reaction and headed to the dining room where my parents were already seated. They just smiled upon seeing me and Frida bound into the room. Ahh what a peaceful day.

As they say, peace was never an option, I thought as I was waiting for the driver to come around to come drive us back to school. I spent the whole day bonding with my older brother and Frida as we played games and just spent our free time together. We were all still in school, though in different ones because Frida was still in grade school and Hunter is in college. Even if Hunter was the heir and the crown prince, he still wanted to finish college first and experience independence saying this will give him more opportunity to learn how to be a ruler by understanding the people’s point of view. I think he just wanted to have a little fun before taking over the throne where he will be swamped with work and responsibilities. So when he convinced our parents, instead of going to the local university here in Wiyelt, he goes to a university somewhere around Vian where he has his own apartment. Although, his aide Marco, is still with him, reporting every once in while to our parents about how they are doing, I think he still is having fun with his independence. Still, we don’t usually see each other often seeing as a college student, his schedule is even more erratic than mine and considering Vian is a 4 hour ride from Wiyelt his schedule is very hard to manage so oftentimes he doesn't go home much.

Meanwhile for Frida, since she was still just 9, even if she basically goes to the same school as me, but the grade school was located in a different location than ours so we also don’t see each other often. Still though, Frida goes home every week so at least she gets to spend time with our parents.

The driver finally decided to show up so it’s goodbye for now. I kissed mother and father on the cheek while giving Hunter and Frida a bone crushing hug before bounding inside the car where Hailey was waiting for me. I sat down and sighed as I signaled the driver to go. Happy days are over now, it’s time for work and school now.

As soon as I saw the school gate, I let out a sigh again as Hailey snorted at my absurd reaction. “What are you so sad for Your Highness? I thought you loved school?” she teased me as the car entered the school. I just rolled my eyes at her as I saw the glorious sign of the school. Irini Alliance was the name of the school and it signifies the Peace of the Alliance of the different Kingdoms in Kaia. Long ago, the kingdoms were all at war and in conflict, until my great great great grandfather stepped in and proposed an alliance instead of war and thankfully they all signed it, well maybe not Shriner but that’s a different story for another time. Irini is the living sign of that peace treaty and hopefully that stays that way because I really don’t want to experience war myself. I shuddered at the thought and that made Hailey think I was scared to go back to school and she laughed. Oh Hailey, only if you knew what I was scared at was way much worse than the torture of schoolwork’s.

Anyways, when the car finally entered the school and we got out, I decided that I would head straight into my room instead of going to the main building where people were probably talking about the events last night. I don’t really want to have a headache the moment I arrived so I went straight into my dorm. The dorms where divided by class to keep the bond and “teamwork” in class. Although as most dorms are, the boys dorm were in a different wing of the building with only the living room and study hall jointed with ours. Because even if they are matching us with other royalties, the boys building is still far away from the girls dorm to avoid umm well acts that we probably shouldn’t be doing yet. Also there is a teacher living on the middle of the dorm to act as the guard if there was someone trying to cross the other side of the dorm. Our dorm was named after our class name, Leontine, which means Lion to honor the King of the Beasts seeing as we are after all the royal class. Our dorm was also located on the Western side of the main building as well as all the other dorms though ours was a little closer to the main building than the others.

Hailey wanted to go after me, seeing as she rooms with me, but I just wanted her to go have fun while I chill in my room with much needed peace before going out. I also don’t want to be surrounded by people talking about the ball last night because I really don’t want “that” event that happened to come occupy my thoughts so early. Yeah nope, I don’t want to manifest a headache so before I could think about it, I head straight into my room and flopped on the bed and took a power nap because I will surely need it for the next few hours out there.

After a 2 hour power nap, Hailey came in to wake me up for dinner. I swear I don’t need an alarm clock because Hailey is a more accurate wake up call one could ever have. I just groaned and waved her off as I tumble into the bathroom, despite my sleep addled brain. I took a quick shower and threw on a white tee shirt with a little flower embroidered on the middle and black square pants as I head into the dining room, all the while stopping to greet people I was walking past with.

As soon as I entered the mess hall, I spot my classmates in our usual table. Tables were not separated nor assigned by status but my classmates just like to stick together so we usually stay on the same table especially for dinner and breakfast. I see my distant cousin, Sumire, wave at me frantically from the other side of the hall. I just waved back before heading to the counter to get my dinner which consists of marinated chicken with a Caesar salad on the side and chocolate pudding for dessert.

I carry my tray into our table as I hear their loud and obnoxious voices get louder the closer I get to them. I swear, they are all over the place. As soon as I sat down between Sumire and Ava, Luna one of the daughters of the high officials in Lirch clapped her hands loud enough to silence our table as she tries to draw our attention. It worked seeing as they all fell silent and looked at Luna expectedly. Before she could say anything though, Kairo, the one person I don’t want to see at the moment, came into the view like the i***t that he was.

“Hey guys! Sorry I ran a little late. Hugh was holding me up. So what were you talking about?” he energetically exclaimed as I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. Really, for someone so bright, he can be dumb sometimes especially when it comes to reading social cues. Luna just gave her a glare in which he ignored before Luna cleared her throat to begin again.

“Before I was so rudely interrupted by a Labrador puppy.” In which Kairo just yelled in protest but was ignored, “Let’s see who won our little bet last night.” She smirked. “Lay down the people you recognized now and we’ll tally it. Only list the people you recognized yourself and not when they introduced themselves or saw them at the end of the night where we gathered to enjoy the party together. Don’t even think about cheating, I’m looking at you Kellen. I’ll know when you’re lying so live up to our classes and be honest.” She said with a Cheshire grin in which made me roll my eyes internally but contained because these idiots were buzzing with excitement over this like a kid getting candy.

“Do we really have to do it now? Can’t we wait for dinner to be done at least?” I proposed but only got a chorus of ‘nopes’. Well guess I could I say I tried. Ava just pat me in the shoulder as if to comfort me because my efforts were fruitless.

As soon as they stopped me from ruining their fun, they started listing down the people they recognized on the party yesterday. Seeing as they would probably not stop bothering me to do the same, I just quickly listed the people who I recognized yesterday, which by the way was many despite my meltdown because really, only an i***t would not recognize the people you grew up with just because their eyes were covered.

‘But you didn’t even recognize that guy wasn’t Kairo, you hypocrite.’ My mind interrupted me. I immediately tried to shake that thought off. I was too focused in trying to get rid of that thought invading my mind that I forgot I was currently in the middle of the mess hall where everyone was eating and not to mention I was in a table with my classmates. The moment my brain registered that I wasn’t alone and I looked up, the entire table was looking at me with mixed expressions. Some were confused, some were shooting me concerned glances, while some was trying to hold in their laughter at the sight of me losing my mind. I turned red from embarrassment of being caught shaking my head like a wet dog trying to brush off the water out of its head.

“Are you okay Mori? You’ve been acting strange ever since yesterday. Are you perhaps sick?” Our class president, Amity one of the daughters of King Philips right hand man, asked with a very concerned tone which almost made me melt because of the genuine concern behind that voice but I was too embarrassed to let any other emotion take over me except wanting to dig a hole I could bury myself into.

“It’s nothing Amity, just remembered something unpleasant.” I answered which didn’t convince her at all but seeing as I won’t be sharing anything, she just let it go and went back to writing down on the paper Luna gave earlier.

“Mori probably remembers that she will lose this bet.” Teased Kellen our class clown. With his comment, the table went back to talking about the bet again enthusiastically that I couldn’t help but feel relieved that the focus wasn’t on me embarrassing myself. I need to put a reminder on my phone or have Hailey put in on my schedule to treat Kellen into something as thanks.

Although everyone’s attention wasn’t entirely on me, that doesn’t mean someone’s attention wasn’t. I can feel Kairo’s concerned gaze on me and even if I don’t really want to see his face just yet, because it reminds me of ‘that person’, he still is a close friend who I know worries a lot so I shot him a reassuring smile in which he returned with an even brighter smile clearly satisfied to see me smile. Even if he reminds me of that event, I won’t let one simple confusion destroy our years of friendship and maybe possibly flirting.

“Okay so, I might need until tomorrow to finish tallying this so I hope you guys can wait. Also the winner of the bet, as decided by the council, will have bragging rights and get wishes for a week in which we will be granting. Although please keep the wishes to a moderate and don't ask for impossible things. Sounds fair?” Luna, the organizer of this bet announced in which she got positive exclamations in return. Clearly satisfied with the response, she nods and tucks the pieces of paper she gave earlier to write on a folder that I didn’t even knew she had with her. Oh well, Luna has always been prepared when making trouble so I’m not surprised.

After that, the table went into idle chatter and I couldn’t help but laugh along with them when they retold the crazy things that they did last night. This little distraction made me momentarily forget about my confusing thoughts about that dance but that doesn’t stay that way for long because at the end of the night, when I was lying down listening to the sounds of the dogs howling, the wind billowing softly and the ambient sound of nature as it calms down signifying the night, I lay awake instead of sleeping like any normal person was as that dance replayed in my head over and over again until I felt my consciousness slip away and I fell into sleep all the while that dance remained playing in my head, haunting me in my dreams.