Season 3 Young Royals (Version 1)

49. Föräldrar dagen (1)

A/N: föräldrar dagen=parents day

"Headmistress?"

"Yes?"

"Yes. This is Jan Olof. I need to request something for the Parents' Day visit of the Royal Family."

"Of course. We've got all of the instructions for the security detail and the photographers for the Royal Family."

"Perfect, but what I'm really concerned about is that, as we'll be having photos and press present as usual, I'd like to be sure that there's no contact between the Crown Prince and the Ericksson boy."

"Ah..." the headmistress never knew what to expect from the Royal Court. One day the Queen called to protect Simon from a drug scandal and the next Jan Olof was calling to make sure he wasn't anywhere near the Crown Prince. "Alright...but I, uh, can't really tell him or his family they can't come. All of the students and parents are welcome."

"Mmm...Fine then. I'll speak to security...As for seating for the lunch, we'll need to have a table ready separate from the main dining room."

"Uh huh, I'll be sure to let the hosts and servers know that they should set up the smaller dining room just for the Royal Family, though it might appear that they don't care to mix with any of the other families...Is there anything else I should know?"

"Yes... it's about the choir's performance before the lunch. We need to be sure that Simon won't be singing a solo. It just looks too strange to have the Royal Family in the front row and Simon performing a solo, you know...especially if it's anything like that other song."

"Mm-hmm, well, you see, he is our best soloist...and we'd like our choir to give the best performance possible for the Queen's visit. It was planned that he would be able to sing that new version considering it was mentioned at the Jubilee..."

"We'd much rather just a song with no solo. It would be more appropriate any time the Royal Family comes to visit and any time there are cameras present."

"Mmm. I was under the impression that Her Majesty had, um, changed her mind about Simon, uh, generally..." she assumed that Jan Olof would know exactly what she meant.

She also wasn't sure she could explain this separation in such a way that Simon wouldn't feel unfairly targeted.

"As long as there are no cameras around, the Crown Prince can live his life as normal, but once the press is involved, it's a different story."

The phone conversation ended there, but the headmistress still had no idea how she would arrange what Jan Olof had asked and have it go unnoticed.

_______

By that Thursday all of the arrangements had been made for the Parents'visit: food orders had arrived early, decorations were placed, the school and Manor House cleaned and polished top to bottom.

All of the students went down in their uniforms to the entrance drive to welcome their parents as they usually did on Parents' Days. Wilhelm had gone down to wait with Felice, Simon and Sara and welcome their parents first.

He knew that his mother and father would be arriving once everyone else was already inside so they could take advantage of the space and take some photos in front of the facade.

That way they could also get everyone else in place and have spectators for their timed arrival. He hated this part and how scripted and rehearsed it all was.

At this point, Wilhelm had decided to only tell Simon about the false reports of the DNA results. Wilhelm hadn't told Simon that the Queen had basically threatened to stop protecting him if Wilhelm didn't do as he was told. There was nothing he'd be able to do about it anyway.

He knew he wouldn't be able to let it go forever but he wasn't in any position to bargain with his mother either.

Besides all of that, he told himself that it might be better this way, at least for a while. Then the boy wouldn't be brought into the existence that Wilhelm knew. He wouldn't have to grow up being pursued by cameras, pretending to be someone he wasn't, like Wilhelm had. At least that's what Wilhelm tried to tell himself so he wouldn't feel quite as distressed about possibly never meeting his nephew.

He greeted Smysan and Poppe with Felice first. Smysan still seemed a bit disappointed that there was no hope of Felice bagging a prince anymore. She had trouble hiding the look of judgement on her face when she looked over at Simon who stood off to the side with Sara, and Wilhelm made note of it.

Felice and her parents went inside with the other students whose parents had already arrived. Wilhelm stayed with Simon and Sara, waiting to meet Linda.

As they were talking and joking around to pass the time, Wilhelm took every chance he could to casually touch Simon, on his arm, his shoulder, his stomach. Simon smiled shyly at Wilhelm because he knew exactly what Wilhelm was doing.

Wilhelm felt like he was being watched as he flirted with Simon. He turned and saw Vincent and his parents staring so he made deliberate eye contact, then slowly turned his back to them.

Simon saw this and tried to hide his laughter in Wilhelm's chest as he held onto his shoulder for support.

Sara stood slightly away from them thinking how much they were behaving like children, but she also had a bemused smile as she crossed her arms over her chest and waited for her mother.

Linda arrived shortly thereafter and hugged both her children then.

"Ay, mis amores! Qué tal están? Wilhelm! Ven, te doy un abrazo también."

She hugged him tightly then too and some of the other parents were shocked at her casual manner with the Crown Prince and began to whisper amongst themselves, judging Linda harshly.

They all began to walk inside together when suddenly Malin stopped Wilhelm to tell him that his parents were nearly there and he should stay at the front with her too wait for them.

"Ok, thanks Malin." He turned to Simon, "I'll see you all in the chapel for the choir performance, ok?"

"Ok. See you later." Simon smiled widely back at Wilhelm who watched them walk away for a moment before returning to the front entrance.