Plain Jane

C5 - Fellow royalty

“Hi,”  Jane managed with a small, embarrassed voice and with a face as red as a tomato turns around to walk away.

“Hey, where are you going?”  Lilly asked getting off the chair.

“I already ate so I am going to my room to settle in,”  Jane says and attempts to walk off again.

“Not so fast.  It is a tradition for a new kid to clean up all the tables on their first day.”

“What?!”  Jane asked shocked.

“That’s true,”  another girl with short dark hair says.

“Even if you don’t have dinner it is a rule that you have to sit at the table until dinner is over,”  Lilly says pointing at a chair.

‘Great, perhaps I made a mistake; perhaps I am not up for this,’ Jane thinks as she takes a seat next to Lilly.

Jane just watched in silence as everyone eats.  Every now and then she will catch a boy from the far side looking at her.  Dinner is finally over and Jane waited for everyone to vacant the dining hall before she started clearing the tables.  She only got done by midnight washing all the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen wondering why the students have to clean up if they pay a fortune for in-school fees.

Jane got a bit lost on her way to her room and ended up in the boys boarding house.  Once she realized that she is in the wrong boarding house she tried to make her way out before getting caught.  On her flight here she read the school rules and the number one rule is that the opposite s*x is not allowed in the opposite boarding house. ‘Everyone should be asleep so surely I will be ok,’ she thought too quickly as before the thought is even completely formed Jane hears footsteps and she quickly ducks into the first door.

“Crap,” she whispers as there at the desk with his back turned to her is a boy studying.  To her left is a boy sleeping.  Jane realizes that the boy studying didn’t hear her as he is wearing earphones.

“Lights of Filipe it is just past midnight and you know how we feel about a good night's rest,”  Jane hears a deep male voice just outside the bedroom door.  Filipe does not hear the Controller speak.  Jane knew that the Controller might step into the room to take his headphones off so she quickly ducked under the nearest bed.  Jane is just in time out of sight as her prediction was right; the controller walks into the room and lifts Filipe’s earphones off his head, “it is past midnight, lights off.”

“Really, I didn’t realize,”  Filipe looks at the time.  Filipe stretches his arms and puts off his desk lamp, “get the lights will you?”  he says as he gets into bed.

The controller flicks off the lights and draws the door close.  Jane breathes a sigh of relief, ‘what am I going to do now?’

Filipe tries to fall asleep but still needs time to wind down so he puts on his bed night light and gets out of bed to get his mp4 player and earphones.  As Filipe turns around to get back into bed he sees a pair of shoes sticking out from under his bed that does not belong to him.  Filipe realizes that the pair of white sneakers are actually on someone's feet and with a quick tuck he pulls Jane out by her ankles and swings her body halfway out to the width of the room and pulls her out completely.  Jane is still face down not sure if she should look up or not.

“What are doing?”  Filipe asked, worried to have a girl in his room knowing the consequences that might follow.

Jane turns around on to her back, “hi.”

“Do you want to get expelled?”  Filipe asked, noticing that this girl is the new girl.

“No, I am lost,”  Jane says in a loud whisper.

“What are you doing under my bed?”

“I heard the controller so I ducked into your room and then under your bed.”

Filipe holds out his one hand to Jane and she takes it allowing him to help her up, “I am Filipe,”  Prince Filipe fourth in line to the Spanish throne introduces himself wondering if Plain Jane will be star-struck like all the other kids in the school. 

In the dim light Jane recognizes Filipe, “It's you,” she says in a loud whisper.

“Let's go, I will take you to your boarding house,”  Filipe says ignoring her star-struck eyes even though they are really beautiful.

“Look,”  Jane says pulling the baseball-cap off her head, “you gave this to me a year ago at a soccer match here in Italy.”

Filipe takes the baseball-cap to inspect it, “sure use to be one of mine but don’t flatter yourself missy as I give out plenty of baseball-caps, it is just a thing my mother insist me on doing at big events, especially when a soccer team from Spain is playing.”

“Oh, well, ok. Why does she make you do that,”  Jane says not remembering the boy having more than one baseball-cap that day when he gave this one to her.  She remembers taking the one from his own head and putting it on hers as she was trying to shade her face from the sun with her hand.

Jane remembers his hazel eyes and his brown slightly curly hair on his perfectly proportioned face.

“Because that is what members of royal families do,”  Filipe says, slightly annoyed at the dumb girl that seems to know nothing.

“You are royal? What are you doing here at this boarding school then?”

“Let us get going,”  Filipe peeks out of his bedroom door.

He grabs Jane by the hand and swiftly runs to the first dark spot in the hallway.

“So, who are you?  What country do you rule, your majesty,”  Jane tries to c***k a joke.

“Prince of Spain, fourth in line to the throne,..”  he starts but stops as Jane interrupts him when she finally recognizes him.

“Oh, yeah, I thought you had blond hair?” she questions as she did not really keep up with royal news unless it is about Norway or the British empire. 

“This way, we will have to go through the bathroom window as all the doors are locked,” Filipe says as he pulls her into the bathroom.  “Here,”  he says as he carefully removes one of the metal bars from the window frame making Jane’s mouth fall open, ‘sneaky.’