The Princess And The Castle Maid

Chapter 1

"Now, you'll be careful, won't you?"

"Yes, mum," I sighed, dragging my heavy bag along the floor as I began up the stone steps towards the entrance of the castle on my first day. 

"Don't make any stupid mistakes!" She called out behind me. "You know we can't afford you getting kicked out!"

"I know, mum!" I shouted back, hauling my bag on my back as another exhasparated sigh escaped my lips. 

I was fed up; or worse, scared. I was extremely scared that people here wouldn't like me. I'd heard all sorts of silly stories about the people here, and I didn't seem like the type of person who would do all that  well here.

At the door, I was met with a guard in silver armour. He was holding a clipboard and a pen (Or, struggling to, through the metal glove). 

"Name and age?" He asked, but I couldn't hear through the helmet.

I dropped my bag to the floor and began rubbing my shoulder. "What?" 

"Your name and your age? What are they?"

"Oh. Naveah, fifteen." I replied.

"Right. Naveah..." The guard mumbled. "Naveah, Naveah, Naveah..."

I attempted to pick my bag up again but dropped it again along with a groan of pain.

"Ah! Naveah. Right, through you go."

"I can just go in?" I pointed towards the colossal wooden doors.

"Yep. Come on now, I've got more coming."

After many embarrassing attempts, I lifted my bag back onto my shoulder and gave the doors a push, revealing the buzzing world inside.

Girls and boys my age were running around the place, girls holding platters of food above their heads and boys roughly throwing helmets on and dashing for the training grounds.

I walked inside this crazy world of mayhem, advancing onwards through the massive entrance room.

I tried asking for directions but, before I could even manage one word, they were off and gone.

So, I just explored the place.

Walking down hallway after hallway, I would often pause to examine a painting or to give my shoulders another break.

After a little while, I was met with a boy my age who was rushing down the same hallway as me.

"Um, excuse me, can you help me?" I asked as he stopped walking, removing his helmet. "Where do...Girls go?"

"Huh?" He replied.

"Um, I'm not sure where I'm meant to go?"

The boy scanned me up and down, taking note of my bag. "You're gonna want to put your bag in your dorm room. Take a left and go out the doors, then cross the bridge until you reach the north tower. That's where you are."

"Oh, thanks." 

I did as he said, and upon opening the little wooden door, I was met with a few faces all pausing their conversations and staring at me.

I must have been in the right place though, because each of them were girls who also seemed to be fifteen.

"Um," I swallowed, terrified. "Hello, my name's Naveah. I'm new here?"

No reply.

"I hope I'm in the right place?"

A girl with long, red hair dropped the sheet she was folding in reaction to me. "Fucking hell, I thought you was the Princess."

"Hah!" Another girl sounded. "Glad I'm not the only one."

"I..." I pointed towards myself. "I look like the princess?"

"God, yes," The second girl said. "Apart from the hair, of course. She's blonde."

"Right..." I peered down at my brunette coloured hair. "Where's my bed?"

"Um, pick any one that's not in use." The redhead told me, gesturing towards the vast room of indentical beds. The place was extremely fancy compared to all the other castles I had worked at. 

There were large, arched, white-panelled windows lining the room and decorated with white and light pink curtains. Outside, gigantic weeping willows and evergreen trees could be seen filtering out the sun into collections of watery rays that flowed into the room.

The floorboards were made of the finest oak, a white and gold runner trailing along them in the middle of the room. The beds had two pillows each and a very tall, arched window behind them, a small white bedside table sitting next to each one.

I sat myself down on one of the beds and hauled my bag beside me. There were around thirty beds in here, but only four or five girls.

"Is this all of us?" I asked, worried that I may seem ammeteur-ish.

"Oh God, no! There's tons of us. This isn't even the only room, there's one upstairs, too."

I scanned the room until I found the ladder that must've lead to the second floor.

There was a door leading to another room, which I assumed must've been the bathroom.

"So. Have you been assigned a job yet?" 

I snapped my head back round to look at the redhead girl who was talking to me. 

"I'm Amy, by the way." She said.

"Oh. Nice to meet you, Amy. And no, nothing yet." I replied. "I can't lie, I'm a little scared to start."

"Oh, no, don't be scared!" Amy's pitch raised as she giggled a little. "This place is fun. Trust me. Once you open up a bit, I'm sure you'll have the time of your life."

"Really?"

"Really. I were similair on my first day, wasn't I Bella?"

A light-skinned, dark-eyes, freckled girl who I assumed must've been Bella piped up just then, without raising her head from the pile of clothes she was currently folding. "Yeah, you was hopeless. Like a lost little year seven, you were."

"See? We're all the same. Anyways, you might want to get used to the layout of this place."

"You think?" I said, still panting from my embarrassing, colossal-sized bag.

"Well, the people who built this place decided to be total prats and make sure they made everyone jealous of their castle, so it's a bit like a puzzle when you first get here. Might as well start learning your way around early."

And so, I left the room and went back inside the castle. I found myself wandering the hallways once more, feeling as lost as a newborn puppy. 

This place was far more busy than my previous castles; It was seen as the biggest, greatest, most important castle in the world. Only, it didn't seem that way to me.