My Roommates are Princes! [Complete!]

Chapter 10: The Prince's Birthday

As per my agreement with Felipe, we had began to do face masks together after he no longer experienced the same symptoms that he had before. It was a start of him getting back to the pace of his old life. The start of a new happiness for him.

I leaned back against the arm of the couch, my face heavy with a mud mask that Felipe had suggested we tried. He leaned back on the other side of the couch, barely able to keep his heavy eyelids open. We sat with both our knees bent, our toenails barely touching, fearful of what that may have meant. We had become a lot closer over the course of February and had even began walking to class together, studying together with Duke and Chaiya, and we even went downtown together sometimes with the others and sometimes alone.

“How long until we can take this off?” I asked him.

“I think the label said around 20 minutes.” He replied to me.

“Has it been 20 minutes?” I pondered.

“I have no idea.” Felipe yawned.

Our small talk had soon become habitual, the presence we had in each other’s lives became irreplaceable.

Unfortunately, our little moment of peace had become interrupted when I received a call from the Prime Minister, the distinct and rather alienating ringtone resounded through the empty dorm room. Knowing it was the Prime Minister, I had to berid my face of the mask immediately before taking my call in my own room where I was sure that I wouldn’t be interrupted.

“Prime Minister?” I locked the door behind me.

“Luisa Cardona.” He replied. “Yes it is I. I’m calling you today because it seems as though we may have some idea of where Princess Emerald is.”

“Really?” I asked, forcing myself to sound at least a little excited although a part of me wished that it was just a lie. I couldn’t help but wish to stay at this place where I have made so many good friends. “So..what does that mean for me?”

“It means for you….that your mission may soon be coming to an end in the near future. However, for now, the hypothesis of her whereabouts may be proven incorrect later on.” The Prime Minister added.

“Ah…I see.” I said, although my voice seemed to drop to a solemn disappointment.

“The truce we had recently gotten with the people have forced us to make many sacrifices. In order to maintain the power of the crown of Agricola, your duty is of utmost importance to our country. You must maintain the dignity of the royal family even if you yourself are merely a peasant. And of course, as a peasant, you must remember that your time there is fleeting."

“I am well aware.” I said to him.

“Good.” The Prime Minister hung up promptly.

~~~~~~

I put the conversation I had with the Prime Minister in the back of my mind as soon as I could. For reasons I could not explain, I felt uneasy remembering his words.

Gym class was now a bit strange as I became estranged from the girls whom were friends with Emerald: Josephine and Penny. I had no choice but to be paired up, reluctantly, with Eric whom was quite unhappy with the arrangement. Usually, he would be stretching with Chaiya or Duke but Duke decided to stretch with Chaiya as Felipe was exempt from gym for the time being. No one else had a partner in the entire class.

“I hate this just as much as you do.” I made myself clear. Our backs were against each other as we leaned forward to reach our toes.

“I can stretch perfectly fine just by myself.” Eric scoffed, as if he had a point to prove.

“Well. Unfortunately, neither of us have a choice today.” I reminded him.

We then stood up and faced each other, grabbing each other’s hands and tugging backwards. I refused to make eye contact with him and thankfully, he had felt the exact same way.

Today’s activity was badminton, a class competition. Eric had volunteered to grab the rackets although I know that he himself also wanted to steer as far from me as possible.

“Have you even played badminton before?” Eric asked as he handed me a racket, or rather, tossed it and hoped that I would somehow catch it.

I shook my head as we were immediately paired up with a group of girls.

Eric leaned on his left foot with his arms crossed across his chest to see what would happen when I tried to serve the birdie. I tossed it in the air like a tennis ball, as high as I could. I lifted my racket to hit it as hard as I could, but the birdie had landed within centimeters of my feet, not even so much as attempt to fly over the net.

Eric scoffed. “You need to be gentle with the racket not hard.” He snatched the birdie from the ground and tossed it up to about eye level. With a gentle swing, the birdie had gone flying to the other side. The girls on the other side could not run to the birdie in time and ended up missing, giving us a point. This game was all too easy for him.

“This is just one of the games I’m good at.” Eric told me, before we had advanced to tougher opponents.

He was right to be self confident. I was merely just a showpiece nearing the end of the class. Eric had stolen the limelight in all our games, leaving me out as if on purpose.

I sighed as the class finally ended, never happier to hear the whistle of a gym teacher being blown in my life. I was about to die from boredom.

“Like my skills?” Eric smirked as he was tossed a towel from Duke.

“As great as ever.” I rolled my eyes, quite annoyed with his presence already.

“You shouldn’t give me that sass.” Eric said, wiping his face, he followed me halfway to the girl’s locker room as Duke and Chaiya had walked the other way towards the boys’ locker room.

“Why are you following me…..?” I asked him, stopping in place.

“Duke’s birthday is tomorrow just so you know. He tries to act cool and say that he doesn’t care but I think deep down inside he does. Just try and greet him got it?”

“DUKE’S BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW?!” I exclaimed. “We have to prepare something!”

“What the…. he doesn’t need a bloody party he’s not 12.” Eric scowled.

“We have to prepare something for him!” I repeated. “He’s your friend just as much as he is my friend.”

Eric sighed with the presence of a vein popping up on the side of his forehead. “Whatever.” He walked towards the boy’s locker room. As if annoyed.

~~~~~

The moment I had arrived at my dorm, I had immediately gotten to the phone, calling up Analyn and the rest of the members of the dormitory, gathering them all at the dorm while Duke had been away at the library.

Of course, it was a strange moment when Analyn had walked through the doors tentatively, as If she couldn’t believe that I had called her up so nonchalantly. I, myself, however, didn’t feel as if I had enough time to dwell on the matter. I wanted to repay my debt to Duke for helping me on those exams. She stood awkwardly next to Eric, who leaned back on the loveseat with one leg over the other knee, sprawled back with his ripped white t-shirt and black claud leather.

Felipe was in the kitchen, preparing a small snack of fruits for himself while Chaiya had put down his controller with a bright smile on his face, excited for what I would say next.

I stood in the middle of the room, with my hand on my chin in rather pensive thought. “Alright, Eric and Felipe, you two distract Duke while Chaiya and I go downtown to find a cake.”

“Why are you dragging me into your bloody charade?” Eric asked.

Felipe shot a glare at him. “She is doing this out of concern and love for a fellow friend, feelings that a git like you wouldn’t have.”

“You f*****g-“

Analyn raised her hand. “W-what about me?” Analyn asked, her voice was rather meek which matched her shy personality.

“Ah….I didn’t really know what you could do. I wanted you to be a part of the party because you’re one of Duke’s closest friends. That was the point.” I said.

“I-I can help with the decorations….” She said.

“Then it’s settled!” I agreed, with a bright smile.

~~~~~

Chaiya and I had headed to the downtown area in smiles.

To me, Chaiya had always been the easiest person out of the bunch to talk to. He was always kind and quick to offer help that sometimes I didn’t even know I needed.

“Ahhhh Luisa! I can’t believe that Duke is going to be seventeen!” Chaiya exclaimed as we got off the shuttle to the downtown area.

“I can’t believe it either!” I replied. “I didn’t even know that such a fact would even slip me by….” I sighed. I couldn’t believe that no one would have informed me about it either if not for Eric.

“We should get some gifts for Duke too while we get the cake!” Chaiya said. “The cake can wait though since we have to take it back to the dorm anyways. Plus, it’s at the end of the street. There’s lots to do before then."

“Hmmm….what do you think Duke would like though?” I asked him. “Besides books of course.”

“Hmmm….what about clothes?” Chaiya stopped as we stood in front of a men’s clothing store.

“I think he has enough.” I continued to walk down the path, passing by a pet store.

“WHAT ABOUT A DOG?!” Chaiya exclaimed excitedly, as he saw some puppies jumping at him through the window.

“Hm….he doesn’t seem like much of an animal lover to me.” I replied.

“BUT DOGS ARE ADORABLE!” Chaiya exclaimed.

I chuckled. “They sure are…” I stood next to him in front of the store, placing my finger on the glass window.

The darling puppies jumped, reaching my fingertips with their little pink paws before falling back to where they had originally jumped from. They were so precious I could have cried.

“Luisa! Luisa! Stay there!” Chaiya exclaimed as he backed up a bit, pulling his phone out.

“What?” I turned my head to face him before he had quickly taken a photo, while I was off guard.

“Got you!!!!!! AWWWWWWW!” Chaiya exclaimed as he checked the picture, holding his phone up so I wouldn’t be able to snag it away from him. “I honestly can’t tell what’s cuter the puppies or you!” He chuckled.

I rolled my eyes. “Obviously it’s the puppies…..”

“No I think they have some competition….” He teased before pocketing his phone and walking again.

“No they don’t…” I giggled.

The time spent with Chaiya had flown by quite quickly. It wasn’t long before the cake had been ready, announcing itself with a friendly phone call.

“Your cake is ready for pick up!” The sweet voice of an elderly woman was on the other line.

“We’ll be there soon.” I assured her.

~~~~~~

Chaiya and I had pulled the cake out of its box, it was chocolate flavored, the favorite of Duke. Scribbled across the cake in white icing were the warm words “Happy Birthday Duke!”

“What time is it?” I asked Chaiya, suddenly remembering that we had to get to the shuttle as soon as possible. The plan was to surprise Duke right at midnight.

“Oh shoot it’s 10:30.” Chaiya said, quite surprised. It was as if dusk had suddenly turned into evening.

He took my hand, running with me towards the shuttle station back at the other end of the street. Immediately on instinct, my feet picked themselves up, running as fast as we possibly could. I began to feel the pressure on my lungs as they struggled to achieve even the simplest of exercises. The frigid winds blew itself towards my face in an icy blast, sending my hair in all different directions.

“I see it! Just a little further!” Chaiya assured me, seeing the final shuttle depart for the day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t 24 hour. In order to protect the students at the academy, they had issued curfew hours.

As I saw some clouds of smoke dissipating from the back of the vehicle, my heart dropped.

The shuttlebus had taken off, towards the mountain, perhaps never to return to the street until the next day.

“No….” I whispered.

“Luisa! DON’T FRET!” Chaiya exclaimed, although he himself, had been quite scatterbrained. His head darted left and right.

“It’s kind of hard not too…..what time is it now?” I asked him.

“It-it’s 11:00…..” He whispered before pocketing his phone. “I don’t know how to say this Luisa…..” He turned to me with teary eyes. “It looks like we’re going to have to run up the mountain….”

“Are you crazy?!” I exclaimed. “We should just call a taxi!”

“Would a taxi even take us there?”

In the corner of my eye, I had seen a flash of yellow. I stood at the curb, waving my hand frantically.

Thankfully, the driver had pulled up to the curb, opening the door to allow both of us in.

“Where are we headed?” The driver asked. In the rear view mirror I could see that he was a portly man, sporting a large mustache and a beret in his hair.

“To the mountain up there.” I pointed.

“Alright.” The driver agreed, seeming to slam his foot on the accelerator.

“Will we even make it on time?” Chaiya began to sweat, checking his phone.

“We will, don’t worry.” I reassured him, placing a hand on his shaking arm. The cake rested in his lap, hopefully a safe place.

We made it to the campus by 11:40 with an angry call from Eric.

“WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?! I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY I BOTHERED GETTING WOUND UP IN THIS BLOODY MESS IF YOU AREN’T EVEN GOING TO BE HERE ON TIME!”

“We’re coming, Eric.” I assured him.

The taxi dropped us off at the gate, patrolled and guarded by five policemen. Though they recognized us by face, they still had to conduct security tests to make sure that we weren’t bringing in anything dangerous to the school, especially since it was so late at night and way past our curfew.

The checks had taken at least fifteen minutes, leaving us with only 5 minutes to get to the dorm and set EVERYTHING up if the others hadn’t done so already.

We ran as fast as we could, although my lungs were ready to give way anytime, bombarding me with a batch of unprecedented coughing.

“Hurry in!” Analyn had opened the door for us, she herself had been setting up the banner with Felipe and the table which had been a buffet. There were two others who had joined us: Prince Akiteru of Japan, a tall prince who was rather skinny. He stood on a ladder, smiling as I had walked inside. Blowing balloons last minute in the corner had been Wang Yu Jun from South Korea. If I had remembered correctly, he was the son of a successful music producer in Asia.

“Where’s Eric?” I asked them.

“He’s still distracting Duke at the library but it’s 11:55 so we should hurry!” Analyn exclaimed, rather rushed. She swiped the cake right off of Chaiya’s hands and put it on the dining table right at the center. “Come on guys! Hurry hurry!” She exclaimed with her meek voice.

“I think they’re outside, I hear Eric cursing…..” Akiteru whispered.

“Typical.” I commented.

“I have the confetti ready.” Yu Jun said, handing Chaiya another party popper.

Just as Eric had opened the door we all had yelled “SURPRISE!” At the same time as Chaiya and Yu Jun popped two party poppers right in Duke’s emotionless face. Confetti had flown in the air and fallen atop his head as the smoke fogged up his glasses.

Eric rolled his eyes as if it wasn’t obvious enough to everyone that this was a waste of his time.

“Happy Birthday!” I exclaimed, snapping a party hat right on top of his head.

“Happy Birthday Duke!” Analyn smiled as she lit the candles on his birthday cake.

“Come on sit down!” Chaiya pulled him towards a chair and seated him right in front of the cake.

“Come on now! Make a wish!” I encouraged him, though his lack of a reaction was quite alarming for me.

Duke cracked a smile. “I wasn’t expecting this.” He looked at me, deadset in the eyes. “Thank you.” His hazel eyes flashed a sight of appreciation as he turned back to blow the candles amongst a grand applause followed by a flurry of presents that everyone had hope he’d like.

~~~~~

The party ended at around 2 am as soon as everyone had realized that there were classes tomorrow. Even though Analyn had tried to stay and help clean up, I had assured her that Eric would be more than happy to fill in that role for her even if it wasn’t the complete truth.

Eric shot me a glare from the other side as I threw him a broom.

After the door was shut, Duke had also stood up to throw away some paper plates. “You didn’t need to do that, you know.” He stood beside me as I was throwing away the paper cups. “But thank you, Luisa.” He smiled, a full smile this time before going back to the dining room to pick up some confetti from the ground.

I glanced back at him. “You’re welcome.” I whispered with a small smile of my own.

~~~~

~To be continued~