The Ghost of a Prince

Chapter 16

"Just like that?" She knit her eyebrows together at the ease with which he explained it.

"Just like that" he nodded. Valerie shrugged, preparing to do it herself.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The noise his classmates were making to talk between each other felt like more like a constant buzzing than human voices. Jonathan fiddled with his phone in his hands. He had sent Valerie a few messages, and now he was waiting for any sort of answer.

"Still a bad feeling?" Emily's voice resonated. He turned to her, nodding briefly. Andrew was by her side, his phone in hand. "Hey, I'm sure everything will turn out alright." she smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder. He frowned slightly and pulled away from the sudden contact.

"Are you sure you're not just constipated?" Andrew questioned, the smile he had on his face from looking at his phone didn't fade. Jonathan rolled his eyes, mumbling a series of insults under his breath. Andrew laughed in response. "Calm down, listen, I know, terrible thing to say, but sitting idle here is not going to make the feeling go away, you can either distract yourself or get to the root of the problem, whatever that is, Mystery Man."

"We could help you if you want." Emily smiled, sitting in the desk in front of his.

"We sounds like you included me," Andrew spoke with pretend offense, "but I'm up for it, I want to know what has Sour Face so twisted up."

"Can anyone pass me their Physics homework?" A voice resonated above the rest. Jonathan put a hand in his schoolbag almost absentmindedly and lifted it in the air for the boy to see. His eyes lit up and he took the notebook from Jonathan's hands making promises about kissing the floor he stepped on.

"Just like that?" Andrew mumbled, watching the interaction. The boy was holding the notebook like if it was the Holy Grail and mumbling something about how there still existed nice people in the world.

"He's usually not a pain in the ass." Jonathan retorted, and Andrew stared at him as if he had hurt his feelings. "And it's just homework, what can the teacher do about it?"

"Worst case scenario, they could suspend you, for a day or so." Andrew added. Jonathan rose an eyebrow, his lips twitching at the exaggerated nature of the punishment.

"Not the first time it would happen." he shrugged. Andrew stared at him, an eyebrow risen and a smile on his face. Jonathan saw him exchange a glance with Emily.

"Would you look at that? We have a rebel between us." He mocked; Emily smiled. Jonathan almost thought he heard her tell Andrew to leave him alone, but he wasn't sure, nor was he going to try to get any confirmation on it.

"You know what? You might be right." Jonathan said, turning to Andrew and standing up from his chair. He pressed his phone tight between his hands, he told Andrew and Emily he would return in a moment, without giving them any time to answer back to him.

He stood on the school's hallway, and dialed Valerie's number, waiting until her voice greeted him on the other side.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Valerie adjusted her fencing clothes and shook her shoulders, a feeling of relaxation rushing through her body. She missed it. She missed the white uniform and the familiarity of the place where she trained and the people in it. She decided to wear her favorite red and blue socks. Some of the people in there had known her since she was eight, so they also seemed quite surprised at the new length in her hair. Valerie was still figuring out a way to fix it so it wouldn't get in her eyes.

The coach put a hand in her shoulder. She froze for a second, until she realized who it was. For a second, she felt the icy sensation of metal. "You missed a week Pendleton, and you cut your hair, is everything alright?" The coach greeted her, his voice as loud as ever. Valerie shrugged.

"I had a few... inconveniences." Valerie said with a vague moment of the hand. The coach gave her a pat in the back and sent her to go off against Beth.

"For those who don't know, we'll have a small tournament this Saturday, if you want to assist, you must let me know; it's going to begin at nine and I expect all of you to be there at eight thirty, no exceptions." He gave a boy the side eye and he mumbled something about only being late one time.

Valerie smiled at Beth with friendliness and the girl returned the greeting. She had a freckled face and her hair, the same color as caramel, was pulled back in a ponytail. Valerie could remember going against her a couple of times before. They both got in guard and adjusted their masks. Beth stepped forward, but Valerie was quick to avoid getting marked before she scored her first point against her.

"You're faster." Beth noted, her voice muffled due to the mask, Valerie smiled. Arthur would probably boast if he had heard her, claiming how happy he was his training had some use.

"Thank you." Valerie nodded.

They stepped towards each other again. This time, Valerie misstepped for a second. Her saber hit Beth above her shoulder, giving her the opportunity to aim at her chest.

"You've gotten better." Valerie complimented as they both got in position to continue.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Valerie dropped herself in the bench, putting her bag over her legs to drink from her bottle of water. She took her phone out of its pocket and began to fumble with it, staring in curiosity at the flood of messages at the top from her classroom's groupchat. Behind it there were a series of messages from Audrey, Iman, Gabriel and Philip demanding to talk to her with urgency. Valerie tried to remember to make a group for all of them.

"Hey, you go to Milton Secondary?" Beth's voice resonated, a slight frown in her eyebrows as she stared at her phone screen. Valerie nodded, lifting her eyes from her phone.

"Yeah, why?"

Beth's lips tensed as if she was deep in thought before she put her phone in front of her face. She dragged her finger across the screen until the video was starting over again. Valerie stared at the screen, waiting for it to load. Once it did, she saw someone had recorded from above. Although the image was far from perfect two voices narrated what was going down a couple of floors below. In the middle of a schoolyard was a group of teenagers in their school uniform were trying to fend off some knights.

Valerie felt her blood run cold and she pulled the phone closer to her face, trying to figure out how on earth it had happened. She counted herself grateful that the recording was poor enough to make everyone's faces unrecognizable. The video ended when the first knight withered to the ground.

"It's probably fake." Valerie smiled, with a vague movement of her hand. She put the same dignified face her cousin did when she told her the mermaids on videos were not real. "Where did you get it?"

"A friend sent it to me." Beth mumbled; eyebrows knit together. Valerie tried to think how many people had seen it and figured her friends' urgent messages might have had something to do with it. "But it doesn't seem fake, do you know the girl?"

Beth put the phone closer to her. Valerie was grasping Excalibur tight, and the shield was on her hand.

"I don't think so." Valerie answered, handing the phone back to her.