My Roommates are Princes! [Complete!]

Chapter 2: Victim to Bully

Perhaps one of the hardest things about being this Princess….was definitely the people she had hung out with……

I sat in a group with four of them, four incredibly obnoxious girls.

Next to me was a bony blonde with an overly pointy nose and a bright pink purse she liked to flaunt. “My purse is better! I got it handmade from the best designer in Paris!” She exclaimed to the other three, holding it up and waving it side to side, as prideful as a patriot with a flag.

To the other side of me was a brunette who laughed a lot like a hyena. She had her very own designer purse, which was identical to the one the blonde had, except for the fact that it was a pale yellow. “But mine was crafted from the best dyes in Brussels!” She responded. On her nose was a bright bandage, indicative of rhinoplasty.

“Whatever, I’m richer than you anyways.” The girl that sat in front of me had said, pointing a sharp nail at the two of them. She had dyed her hair red, a bright fiery red. She herself was dressed head to toe in brandnames too, a crop top with a horse logo which exposed her midriff where a rather large diamond piercing made its home, and a tiny skirt that barely covered what it needed to.

“You’ve been rather quiet today, Emmy.” Another girl that sat in front of me had said. She sat right next to the redhead. She, herself, had dyed her hair purple, strangely enough. If I could recall she was Polish, the heiress to a vodka company.

“Huh?” I snapped myself back to reality.

“It’s not like you to be so quiet….did the revolution REALLY get to you? It’s not like you won’t be princess anymore or anything.” The hyena chortled, jabbing me a little hard in the ribs, as if she was actually trying to snap them in half.

It was times like these that really made me doubt the training I have received. While a princess was always to be merciful and grateful….it was obvious that Emerald was far attaining such expectations if I was forced to jab her back with a similar insult. I looked at her, trying to find the quickest insult. “It’s not like you would won’t have a nose again or anything if I remove that bandage….” I flicked her cheek, sickened with my own morbid words, my stomach sank right into my intestines, wishing that I actually hadn’t said that.

The other three had laughed and so had the hyena, though a bit lower and more nervous.

Being with these girls had definitely made me nervous.

“That’s the Emerald I know!” The blond girl had slapped my arm which left a stinging that lasted a couple minutes.

After they all had finished, as I was unable to eat anymore, we had stood up, leaving our trays there for the janitors to pick up.

This was when they would begin to bully the people around them…as I have noticed after a week or so of sitting with them.

A bespeckled boy had passed by in front of us, walking with a girl who was a little chubby.

“Hey look it’s the ugliest couple in school!” The hyena laughed, her high pitched screech penetrated the entire atmosphere like a banshee’s scream.

The bespeckled boy turned around with a red face to which the blonde girl just slapped with the side of her purse, knocking his glasses down to the ground. I gasped, holding my hand to my face. “What do you think you’re looking at?!” The blonde growled at the knocked over boy. The girl next to him had began to cry and tried her best to help him up as they scurried away from the scene.

“What’s wrong Emmy? Why are you acting so shocked?” The girl with the purple hair laughed.

No matter how many times I see this kind of thing happen in front of me….I just…I just couldn’t NOT be shocked at how horribly they had treated everyone around them.

“N-Nothing…” I pretended to laugh nervously. “I….I was just acting like how his girlfriend would’ve.” I lied, my own stomach curling inwards into itself at such horrible words. Even as the girl had looked towards me with pleading eyes, I could only look away.

The four had c****d their perfectly plucked eyebrows at me, bursting out into laughter.

“It’s almost like you’re a completely different person….” The hyena had teased.

“haha…it’s just me!” I laughed.

“Really? Well…it’s your turn to throw an apple at Analyn today! Better not miss!” She put a large apple into my hand and directed my attention to a frail girl who sat down alone at an empty table. She was of Asian descent and had a thick pair of glasses over her face. Her hair was wildly frizzy which made it looked unkept.

She glanced at me for a minute, before turning as fast as she could, right back to her food.

“She’s the one who filed that complaint and kicked you out of the girl’s room!” The blonde girl had added.

“W-Wouldn’t she report me again if I throw this apple at her?” I asked nervously.

“Who cares?! What power does she have over us?! WE are the rulers of this school.” The Hyena added.

I gulped before shaking my head and placing the apple into the hyena’s hand. “You throw it, gotta get some exercise before you have to get plastic somewhere else.” I pretended to eye her stomach.

Her eyes were flooded with hurt although all that came from her mouth was that same laugh. She aimed for Analyn, the poor girl, before she threw it as hard as she could, right into her head.

Analyn began to cry at the pain as it hit her head. At this point, I couldn’t take it anymore and excused myself, quoting tiredness as the reason I wanted to go back to my dorm.

As I made my way back to the dorm, the exit out of the cafeteria was blocked by Duke, who had one arm on the bright silver, gold-laced door, and his eyes at me. His expression was rather…strange. As if he had discovered something. He smiled a bit before opening the door for me, watching as I ran past him, Chaiya, and Eric. The only one missing from the group was Felipe. But I had no time to think about them. I had to head back to the dorm as quickly as I could and purge my mind of all these horrible things I’ve done in order to be Princess Emerald.

~~~~~~~~

It was funny how the moment I had left the school building, I could finally let myself loose. I cried with angry guilt.

How could I have actually given someone an apple to throw at another person’s head?! How could I have said all those horrible insults at a girl whose self esteem was already so low?

My heart just felt as if it sunk lower and lower into my stomach every time those horrible memories flooded my mind. I forcefully wiped away my tears as if the amount of pressure I pushed into my face would make up for all the things I had said.

I walked into my dorm room, swiping my student ID for access. After the light had glowed green, I walked inside to a pitch black maze. I switched on the light, finding that the room was empty.

I made my way to my room, my hand hovering above the door knob right about to turn it, when a sudden, powerful pull had turned me right around, grabbing me right at the risk, almost dislocating my shoulder or perhaps even breaking some part of my arm in the process.

Turning around, I caught notice right away of those vast blue eyes, so deep that it felt like I could drown in them. It wasn’t until those eyes began to get closer and closer to my face, that I realized he was trying to kiss me.

“N-No! STOP!” I slapped him away in a panic, hard enough for him to go flying back, landing on his lower back right on the floor. A red mark stained his pale face, marked with a shocked expression.

He immediately got up again, as if he had made a realization. “I’m sorry….I thought you were someone else…..” He said as he walked away, back to his room.

“Someone else?….” I repeated. Like…someone in this room? I wondered, my mind jumping to random conclusions before I walked into my room, closing the door behind me.

~~~~~

Some days, I find it extremely hard to convince myself that pretending to be such a cruel person was somehow beneficial to my kingdom. Today, had definitely been one of those days.

In the locker rooms today before gym, the hyena had ridiculed a girl for having stretch marks all over her body. “You should’ve cut yourself instead.” She said, words that made my spine freeze in place. Honest to God, it had only been around 3 weeks since I had assumed the role of the Princess, but I already wanted so badly to give up on my role. It was a miracle they hadn’t caught on to my identity.

All around me, these people thought what she said was actually funny. But to me, it was just uncalled for. In the midst of their laughter, I escaped the locker room, in my shorts and t-shirt each sporting the logo of the academy.

The farthest place, located on the other side of the school, was the library.

It was large, probably large enough to fit around ten Olympic sized pools on each of the three floors. There were just shelves and shelves filled with all the books one could possibly imagine. In the maze of books, I somehow found the section of books written in Agricolan, the language I had longed to see after such a long time.

However, almost immediately, as I turned around, I found Duke, sitting at one of the study desks under a bright lamp, he had read a a textbook, something I had never seen him without.

“Ah, hello Duke.” I said first as we made eye contact.

He gave me a strange look of surprise. “Good morning, Princess Emerald…what a surprise to see you here. May I ask what suddenly brought you to this library?”

“A-Ah….I just came to look at some books and maybe catch up on some studying.”

“In your gym clothes?” He adjusted his glasses, his hazel eyes piercing almost straight through my soul.

I tilted my head, as if to act coy. “Ah…they were just a little more comfortable.” I straightened myself, my loose t-shirt moving with my body.

“The real Princess Emerald would never come to the library….much less in gym clothes…..and to my knowledge, she had never studied. She was definitely always out with her friends.” His words made my stomach drop almost immediately. “In fact…the only time she would come to the library was to patronize myself for studying in a quiet area. She probably would have slapped me with a book by now. One time she had done that. I had to get new glasses as soon as possible.”

I stood quite frozen in place with my heart racing as fast as it could, without knowing how to answer. I looked left and right as if to see if anyone who was “close” to the Princess was around.

“No one else knows.” Duke added nonchalantly. “And I plan to keep it that way as long as I can continue studying at my normal pace, I do not really care what happens around me.”

“A-Ah…thank you….” I felt my body become less rigid and a sudden wave of coolness and relief had come forth over me. I sighed. I sat down right in front of him to catch my balance. “But…how exactly did you know?”

“Let’s just say that I am a very observant person. I had known since the moment you had walked through the doors. If you hadn’t noticed, I was the only one to have introduced myself with the exception of Prince Maha Chaiya who was not personally acquainted with the Princess herself.” Duke explained. “And as far as I know, the only other person to have figured out is Felipe, who had told me last night.”

“A-Ah…I see.” I nodded. I was beginning to wonder now…if the person Felipe had meant to kiss wasn’t one of the boys in the room….but was actually the real Princess Emerald.

“Now…are you able to rest easy?” Duke had turned his head back to his book.

“N-Not really.” I replied. “I kind of ran off on the girls.”

“Oh those girls….the one whom you are being forced to hang out with?” Duke adjusted his glasses.

“Yes….those.”

“Just say your stomach hurt.” Duke replied.

I sighed again. It was pretty obvious I was being a bother to him at this point. “I’ll just go with that and head back to my room.” I added before standing up and heading out the exit.

~~~~~

As I laid in bed that quiet night, my face facing the ceiling in a room of pitch black darkness, I remembered how the people in Agricola had described the true Princess Emerald. They said she was unfit to be a princess, cruel, and mean. She was nowhere near as good as her father in terms of the ability to rule and the ability to connect to her people. She was disrespectful and rude. If she were to rule, she would definitely get Agricola into a war.

Now that I see how she has been living all her life, I could definitely see why everyone had said that.

I put my arm over my eyes to prevent the moonlight from entering my eyes, allowing myself to enter a world of complete darkness and silence. I felt my body slowly slip out of consciousness.

That was, until I felt a strong force grab me by my throat, shaking me awake. My arms fell by my side as my eyes forced themselves open.

“WHERE IS THE REAL PRINCESS EMERALD?!” A maddened voice bellowed. It was Prince Felipe, whose deep blue eyes had become crazed with loss. There was a little stubble on his unkept chin, framed by hair that hadn’t been brushed for quite some time now.

My heart raced. Was he actually going to strangle me to death?

“ANSWER ME!” He demanded, shaking me forcefully as my vision began to blur. Every shape and color in the room had began to swirl into a single point.

“I…..I don’t know…..” I gasped. Both my hands had made their way to his wrists, squeezing them as hard as I could as the oxygen left my limping body.

He tossed me back on the bed as I coughed and sputtered, trying to regain the oxygen I had just lost. He dove for my suitcases that, for the most part, had yet to be completely unpacked. It wasn’t long before everything had gone flying….undergarments, shirts, skirts, dresses, toiletries, papers…..

“Stop it! What are you doing?!” I stood up as he grabbed a rusted old album with worn out pictures and pages. I grabbed his wrists to stop him from throwing it but thus, he was much stronger than I was. The album had shattered upon contact with the ground on the other side of the room, knocking over a lamp with it. What remained of the cracked wooden cover and spin had already shattered and all the pages had found themselves scattered across the room.

It was the only memory I had of home before everything had been taken away from me, I went back to retrieve it as he continued to dig out my suitcases for information.

Another pair of feet had entered the room, this one more calm but quicker. I turned around to see it was Duke, just as I had cut my palm on a broken piece of the lamp.

He came with a cold bucket of water and ice, dumping it all over Felipe. “Sober up.” He said coldly as the Spanish Prince became drenched like a cat in a lake.

“Princess Emerald is gone.” Duke added rather sternly. “All you’re doing now is embarrassing the Spanish Royal Family and the Alpha Four.” Felipe had fallen over on the ground, as if such words had destroyed whatever stability he had left in his life.

Duke turned to me, bowing. “I apologize for his behavior.” Duke had knelt to the ground beside his lifelong friend, who had now fallen prey to depression and loss. He slung one of Felipe’s limp arms across his shoulders and picked him up a little too quickly, as if Felipe had suddenly lost quite a bit of weight.

“I shall be back with some medication for your wound.” Duke added before taking Felipe out of my room and back to the latter’s own room.

Down the hall, Chaiya had turned on the lights with a bewildered look just as Eric had had. The two of them turned to each other before they had turned to me with a hand hovering over my own pool of blood.

~To be continued~