Royals and Rebels 2: Love and War

Nine: Penelope Peters

Chapter Nine

Penelope Peters

Back when Hollow Hills had a “sister school” it was the job of the girl school to host dances to foster good socialization skills. Also, I suspected, to help young girls find a rich husband before they graduated. I hadn’t gone to the sister school. I was a public-school rat. But, according to Gwyneth, dances were called “balls” like we were characters in a Jane Austen novel.

Gwyneth had also been student body president over at the girl’s school and had been regulated to “vice president” since the school had become coed. She was determined, however, to take that place back even if it was in power only. The current class president was Andrew Addington, the prick that Jasper had punched the first day. He and Gwyneth seemed to be in a strange, battle of wills that I didn’t completely understand. This battle of wills meant that he hated Cadoc, which also meant that he hated me.

In my first month since being there, he had stolen my books, spilled water on my homework, and tripped me at least six times. If he thought he could get away with more, he probably would have. But Jasper was usually by my side, which meant that Cadoc was usually by my side too.

Jasper and Cadoc shared almost all their classes together, except for English. Jasper, as it turned out, was dyslexic and it made reading difficult. Even though he’d had the best tutors, and Cadoc had helped him, he still hadn’t been able to test into the advanced placement classes.

I’d found out by accident. We’d hung out at Nandos one evening, eating wings until our tongues were burned by the sauce.

“Favorite cartoon?” Jasper asked.

“Sailor Moon,” I replied, “and not the new version, the original 90’s episodes.”

He smiled. “You would like that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I challenged.

“You’re a dreamer,” he said, “you’ve got that whole look about you. The soldier of love and justice, with a magical compact.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Damn straight. What about you?”

“I was always more of a Clone Wars kind of guy,” he admitted.

“You would be,” I replied, with a smile, “what about your favorite book?”

He sipped furiously on the coke that he was drinking, as if hoping that I would skip over that question.

“Jasper?” I asked. “C’mon it’s not that hard.”

He put his drink down. “I don’t read that much. I…” he made a face. “Shite, I couldn’t be a worse boyfriend for you.”

“Jasper,” I tilted my head to the side, “what is it? Just tell me.”

“I’m dyslexic,” he explained, “I was really behind in school from the start. I eventually caught up, but it wasn’t after a lot of testing and tutoring from the palace. I don’t read that much if I can help it. I like films. I like music. I just…you’re never going to catch me reading Chaucer, alright?”

I smiled softly. “Well, the only Chaucer that’s important is the naked one in A Knights Tale anyway.”

He smirked. “Ah, she’s a Heath Ledger fan.”

“Anyone who knows what good looking is would be a Heath Ledger fan,” I replied. “But you…you know I’m a writer? How have you not lost interest in me yet?”

He looked up at me playfully. “Because when you talk about writing, it’s like you’re talking about love. This peacefulness comes over you. It’s like you know your place in the world. I’ve never seen anyone look so at peace. It makes you beautiful, it’s like I see your soul every time you talk about your work.”

“My work is my soul,” I told him, “it’s me shouting at the universe, hoping that the universe answers back.”

“Well, I’m answering back,” he told me.

We kissed there, over a plate of Nando’s wings, not caring that there was a grumpy college student in the back watching or two drunk guys having a burping contest nearby. For me, it was a rose-colored glasses moment. One of those memories I would always see tinged with perfection, no matter how old I got or what age I was.

But me kissing Jasper wasn’t the point.

The point was the ball. Gwyneth had endeavored to make the balls a thing again, no matter how much the boys griped and groaned about their campus being “girlified”. As such, she’d enlisted every girl she could find because the boys from student council had refused to help with party planning.

I was one of the girls she’d enlisted, pulling me out of my room where I’d been busy working on a new story.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, as she dragged me from my room to the gym, “Gwyneth, I’m not even part of student council.”

“I don’t care. This is about feminism. This is about showing those bastards they can’t get to me. This is a moment of I am female, hear me roar! I need bodies to decorate. I don’t care if you’re on student council or not. Cadoc’s helping too.”

I glared at her. “Gwyneth. No. I’m not going into that gym.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, this isn’t about your weird Dan and Serena style romance.”

“I’m Dan?” I replied.

“Obviously,” she said.

“Right,” I brushed a strand of my brown hair behind my ear, “things are already weird enough as it is. I don’t need to spend an afternoon in a gym, helping decorate for a dance.”

“Ball,” she corrected, “and if you do, I’ll get you a signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.”

I frowned. “How do you know that’s my favorite book?”

“Because I’ve seen your tumblr, and it’s nothing but pictures of Ricky Whittle with thirst hashtags,” she replied. “And a lot of likes of paparazzi pictures of a certain Prince you say you’re not interested in.”

I covered her mouth with my hand. “You breathe a word, and I kill you.”

She smirked, removing my hand from her mouth. “I thought that might get you.”

“Shut up,” I hissed, “Cadoc…he doesn’t know my tumblr, does he?”

“Oh please,” she said, “a girl never reveals her tumblr unless it’s to someone she trusts. It’s practically part of the girl code. Now, come on, Dan Humphrey, Serena Van der Woodsen awaits.”

“I hate you,” I told her.

“Well that’s what makes me Blair Waldorf. Now, c’mon.”

She dragged me into the gym. At least ten girls were there, some painting banners, others putting up balloons, and Cadoc was the only guy in the middle of it.

“Why don’t you get Jasper?” I asked. “He’d help, you know.”

Gwyneth raised an eyebrow. “Jasper didn’t tell you?”

I frowned. “Tell me what?”

“He won’t be here,” it was Cadoc that had said it. He must have run to get there, because one minute he had been on the other side of the gym, the next he was right by us.

“Serena,” Gwyneth said.

“Blair,” Cadoc replied without missing a beat. He looked at me with a smile. “Jasper has to go to basic training. He’s going to be away for the month of October.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“It’s part of his training,” said Cadoc, “his family guards the palace, and every October, they go do their basic training again. It’s a requirement for everyone under the age of eighteen, and then they’ll enlist after graduation.”

I stared at him. “Enlist?”

“In the military,” Cadoc replied, “he did tell you what being Captain of The Guard means, right?”

“I guess I didn’t…I didn’t think that it mattered right now.”

“He was born into this life, Pen,” said Gwyneth, “if he walks away, he’ll walk away from his family. He’ll be a commoner. He won’t be admitted into the palace again, ever.”

I looked from her, to Cadoc. I clenched and unclenched my fists. I couldn’t punch the Prince of Wales, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to. “Sorry…. I have to go.”

I rushed out of the gym, ignoring Gwyneth’s pleading shouts for me to stay. I ran and ran, not stopping until I was in the quad. I doubled over, breathing heavily, and coughing as I tried to gasp for air.

I heard footsteps and saw a shadow cross over me.

“You didn’t know?” he asked.

I sat down on the grass, my knees buckling, unable to stand any longer. “It’s only been a week. We’re sixteen. It’s fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

He sat down on the grass next to me. “This is our world, Pen. It’s a world of rules and obligations. If you don’t think you can deal with that, just back out now. It doesn’t matter if it’s me, or if it’s Jasper. Don’t give him hope if there isn’t any.”

“Your world sucks,” I muttered, as tears streamed down my face.

“Welcome to the world of privilege,” he said, “it comes with strings. All the better to keep people roped in.”

He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him. I sobbed into his shirt. I didn’t know why I was crying, or why I was.

“He’s just forced into it?” I said. “He doesn’t have a choice?”

“The Jefferies family has always protected the royals,” he explained, “if they’re not in the guard, then they’re servants. That’s just the way that it is. If they choose another profession, they lose their home, and their family. You know as well as I do that the palace doesn’t allow commoners in.”

I jerked myself off his shoulder that I had been using to rest my head on. “Well, then I’d better not go anywhere near you then. Wouldn’t want to filthy you up with my commoner touch.”

I pushed myself off the grass and stormed off. I could hear him running after me, even though I was angry, and clearly done speaking on the matter. “What do you want me to do?” he begged. “What can I do, to make this right?”

“This isn’t about making things right, Cadoc,” I snarled, refusing to look at him because I knew if I did I would melt under his gaze, “Jaspers sixteen. He shouldn’t have to worry about family obligations or fighting for crown and country.”

“I could force him to take another job,” he suggested, “he doesn’t have to be my second.”

I looked up at him. “Don’t you dare.”

“Well, what can I do to make this right?”

“Nothing, Cadoc,” I said bitterly, “that’s the point. The system that we’re living in, it’s wrong. Hollow Hills Academy is the most prestigious school in The Nation of Wales, and it took over 500 years for them to allow girls in.”

“We had a sister school,” he commented.

“Yes, one that wouldn’t open sometimes because it’s funding got cut,” I said, “Jasper shouldn’t be obligated to your family. If he wants to follow the family tradition, that’s great, but it’s warped that if he doesn’t want to, he’s going to lose his family because of it. Look I…. I can’t look at you right now or be around you. I just can’t. Don’t follow me.”

There were few spaces at Hollow Hills that the Prince wouldn’t be caught dead in. The first was The Banon Family Theater. Hollow Hills was known for putting on elaborate, all boy’s productions. Some of the actors that had come out of there had even gone onto win BAFTAs and Oscars.

The arts director was currently feuding with the Headmaster about whether to let girls into the performance space. I lay down in the middle of the stage floor and stared up at the lights overhead.

I could feel my cell phone in my blazer pocket. I took it out and called my mom.

“Pen!” she exclaimed. “It’s about time you called instead of texted. You okay, sweetie?”

“Mum, I don’t know if I can do this,” I said.

There was a long pause. “Did something happen with one of the boys there? I know there was that incident with the Addington asshole when you first started, but I thought things were okay since you befriended Prince Cadoc.”

I had told my Mum all about Jasper and Cadoc. Not the bits that they were both infatuated with me, but about Jasper coming to my defense and about him being Cadoc’s bodyguard. She knew I was dating him too and kept on talking about bringing him home for the Holidays so she could meet him.

I couldn’t tell her about Cadoc being interested, and the bizarre deal that we’d made. If she knew that the Prince of the Welsh nation was interested, Jasper wouldn’t stand a chance and I’d probably be married off before my eighteenth birthday.

Not that my Mum was a social climber, but I wasn’t an i***t. I knew that on paper, Cadoc was the better choice. With him, I’d never have to worry about anything a day in my life.

“No…. it’s just…. I don’t belong here, Mum,” I said, “this whole place, it’s so different. I know this is the best chance at me getting into Oxford, but I haven’t felt myself since I came here. And Jasper…”

“Did he try to pressure you?” she asked, her voice filled with worry.

I sighed. “No, Mum. It’s nothing like that. He’s been a complete gentleman. It’s just that I really like him, and I don’t know that we even stand a shot at being together. His life is so different from mine. We’re having a ball, you know.”

“Did he not invite you?”

“No, it’s just that he has basic training when it’s happening. I guess it happens every year around this time, and he just left, without telling me. I had to find out about it from Cadoc.”

“Well, he probably left suddenly,” said Mum, “maybe he didn’t have a chance to tell you.”

“I know but…. everything about this just feels so intense. I don’t want it to feel life or death, I just want to be a girl, who’s able to go to her first ball without having to worry about where her boyfriend is.”

Mum didn’t say anything for a while. “Perhaps you shouldn’t date him, then. I wouldn’t blame you if you ended it, love. You’re sixteen. You shouldn’t have to be worrying about that kind of commitment right now.”

“It’s different, Mum. It’s not like my old school, where if I didn’t invite someone to a party maybe they wouldn’t talk to me for a week. I mean, he’s not just someone on the lacrosse team or something. He’s the future Captain of The Guard.”

“He’s also sixteen, and he knows what it’s like to feel pressure,” said Mum, “just because you might not want to date him now, doesn’t mean that there’s not still hope for the future. You’re kids. You need to figure out who you are first.”

“I hate being sixteen,” I grumbled, “I feel like I have no power over anything.”

“Well, make it through Hollow Hills, and it will help you get the power that you want,” she told me, “just don’t let boys try to take control of your future. I didn’t agree to let you go there just so that you could spend your time dating, okay? I know it’s hard but it’s all going to work out. I swear.”

“Alright, alright,” I said.