I'll Protect You (Original Version)

Have good taste in ties; kings like that

* * *

Park

An hour had ticked on by, and Logan Cross was still rocking back and forth in the bathroom, locking me out like I was serial killer. I didn't actually know if he was curled into a ball, rocking himself but that's what I would do when the person I've hated for six years turns out to be a princess and I have to be her bodyguard.

His parents and my father had almost immediately skitted on out through the door, laughing merrily like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. My father had given me only a few words: "Be nice to Logan."

This was bad parenting! They just left a shell-shocked boy in the guest bathroom with an incredibly insensitive princess to watch over him. Watch, we're going to fight each other and this house will explode.

Not knowing when he was going to stop being so weird and comical, I decided to change out of this ridiculous dinner dress. My legs bounded up the stairs and into my room, where I quickly changed into a pair of dark shorts, a white three-quarter sleeved tee and bright red Converses. The red wig was being twisted into a side braid as I hopped on back downstairs.

He still wasn't out.

I stood outside the bathroom door, my fist poised to knock. But I didn't want to. First off, it was incredibly awkward to knock on the bathroom door. For me, that is. I'm just weird. Second of all, would someone care to remind me why I'm trying to be nice to Logan Cross?

Wasn't he the despicable (at least, to me, that is) dictator of Cross Academy? The one that blatantly ignored me until he decided that life was too boring and he needed to pick on me? Cross had turned the academy against me in just one day. There are National Shame Park Sparow Days in a year at the academy.

No, I'm not kidding. There are several days throughout the school year where posters about it are strewn throughout the hallways. Oh, wait, that's courtesy to his oh so lovely best friend James. The headmistress demanded that the staff tear them down. I'm glad I kept some of them stashed away in my locker; it'll be perfect for guilting everybody when I reveal who I am at the end of my last year there.

My mind snapped back to Cross. Why was I doing this? Did I really want to see his face come out of there and discuss the fact that I was a princess and he was to be stuck with me for the rest of his life?

Obviously not.

Just as I was about to put my arm down and creep away, the door opened and he stood right in front of me. And there I was again, so close to Cross' body that I could feel his heartbeat in my own ears.

"Where are my parents?" he asked right away. I grinned as I noticed how his eyes were averting my own dark pupils. They were skimming over the blueprint of the house, refusing to look down.

"Not here," I replied. The corner of his pale lips twitched but still he refused to look at me. Come on! Being my bodyguard didn't suck that much, right?

However, according to that dull, stoic, in-denial expression of his, it did suck. And then I thought about the situation with a more sincere heart. Wouldn't it be a bad thing to learn that the girl you've been insulting for approximately six years turned out to be the next queen of a throne? And then you have to guard them.

Also, every bodyguard I've had hated me. And my guts. And my uncanny ability to hide away and watch them panic.

At that point, a rather wonder-struck expression crossed my facial features at this moment and a giant grin began to spread across my face. Technically, this set up wasn't too bad. It was bad for Cross, that was for sure. But for me?