Darling Charming: Finally Extraordinary

13. Extreme Ping Pong

Waking up after my first night at EAH was not as serene and stress-relieving as I had expected it to be. In fact, I felt more distraught and lifeless than I had in the mornings at home. I was deep in thought about how to go about my new Luke problem.

From across the room, Bella shouted "Darling, relax!"

"Relax? What? How can you tell I'm stressing?"

"First of all, when are you not stressing? Second, you're all out of breath. And you just got up," she noted. Bella was right. I woke up in a cold sweat and all I could remember from my "dream" is that it was particularly out to get me and not anyone else involved in the dream the whole night. I was almost swallowed by a dragon that I'd failed to defeat, Luke and company standing by the side as if it was a show, laughing as it all went down. You'd think I'd have more faith in people....

"Why don't you just talk to him?" Bella suggested.

"Talk to who?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Darling Charming. I know you, and you've got it bad for Luke. You won't be able to deny this one. Besides, I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding."

I stood and stretched. My back made an awful cracking noise that didn't make me feel any better. The sight of my hair in the mirror was not something I could bear this morning- yes, my hair was a mess for the first time ever when I rolled out of bed. I hadn't yet unpacked my belongings, so I dug through a duffle bag for an outfit and my hairbrush.

"Darling?"

"What?"

"Your hair?"

"I have not a clue. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to figure out why my life is a disaster." I slid into the bathroom to make myself the flawless Charming kid that everyone's expecting of me, the one that gets proposed to an average of fourteen times a day.

"One day, you'll say yes to one of them," my dad had said to me one tiring night in the car. My dad had spent the whole day in town for meetings and stuff, and he brought me along since many of the kings in the area had sons around my age. Much to my dad's dismay, I had made it my mission to point out to every last one of them that I had a highly contagious disease, when I in fact did not. It was probably one of the most exciting days of my whole life, yet I managed to still attract seven proposals. This was the first day I'd noticed that my dad was showing me to potential suitors, which meant that the prince that was supposed to save me was not yet determined.

It also meant my story wasn't set in stone yet. It meant a lot to me then, but until now, I'd never seen an opportunity to make a change.

"One day, the right person will ask," I responded to my dad that night. He didn't talk the whole rest of the way home.

****

Of course, my first class of the day was Princessology. Apple and all her friends, including Anna, were in this class. I'm ninety-nine point nine percent sure that Anna is not a princess. Wealthy? Yes, but not a princess. Luckily, I had Bella, Annie and Ailie with me to keep me calm through the class.

Second period was P.E., though, and my friends couldn't hold me back there. I waited impatiently for the bell to ring, learning absolutely nothing in class. Since I only have this class every other day, now was my chance to see if anyone of value to my mission is in gym with me.

Changing into the required gym uniform probably should've been something that bothered me, as it bothered most EAH students. I was just happy to be here, so I wouldn't let a little thing like that bother me. What would, however, ruin the mood, is people who lie to me.

She's mean, she's awful, and I don't lover her, said his voice in a flashback playing on loop in my head.

I emerged from the girls' locker room cursing myself under my breath for even caring that much about what Luke did with his life. I just met him, and I'm Darling Charming. I can have anyone and anything I want... Which is probably exactly why I want him.

"Darling! My dearest sister!" Daring called. He turned on the charm with his prize-winning smile that made girls he passed on the way over to me swoon. Following closely at his heels were Cerise Hood, the introverted rebel girl he introduced to me yesterday, and Hunter Huntsman, a friend of his who used to come to the castle and play bookball or something in the backyard with Daring and Dex often in the summer. "I was pulling some strings to get our MVP here in the competitive gym class when it  occurred to me that that's where my little sister deserved to be too." Daring crossed his arms over his chest like this action was by far the most heroic thing anyone had ever done for either me or Cerise.

"They were trying to stick you in Apple's group...." Hunter added. "We knew you were better than that." Hunter smoothed the hair on the half of his head that wasn't shaved, and I noticed his eyes shift toward Apple's group near the back left corner of the grimmnasium. What was probably intended to be a resentful glance was dragged out much longer. He almost looked miserable, in a sad puppy kind of way.

"What do they do in Apple's group anyway?" I asked, trying to draw Hunter's attention back this way before my brother noticed that Ashlynn Ella was now staring dreamily back at Hunter.

"Cushy things like charmleading and ping pong," Cerise responded.

"Hey! We do ping pong too!" Daring noted. I'd never seen my brother get so defensive over something like ping pong before.

"And it's cushy," Cerise said, smirking at my brother.

"We play extreme ping pong. There's a difference," Daring pointed out.

Cerise rolled her eyes. "Only to you."

Coach Gingerbreadman, the short and thin (like, really thin) P.E. teacher and bookball team coach I'd met briefly spectating at my brothers' Thronecoming game earlier this year blew his whistle, calling all the students in the class to the center of the room. "Alright kids, today we'll all be playing Ping Pong-"

He was interrupted by an overenthusiastic outburst from my brother. "YES," Daring cheered.

"The Boys-" the teacher stopped himself, realizing his mistake, "the Competitive Group, will be playing in the left back gym, and the g-" he swallowed hard, "non-competitive group will be in the right back gym. Grab a paddle and get in groups of 4."

Daring got paddles for all four of us, and on our walk to the back gym, I noticed that the teacher's mistakes were not far off from the truth. Cerise and I seemed to be the only girls on the so-called Competitive Group.

"FYI, Montague is behind you," Cerise whispered in my ear, making me jump. I tried to look over my shoulder without making it noticeable. "Did you guys have a thing or something?"

I looked her dead in her gray eyes. I had no reason not to trust Cerise. After all, my brother did, and Daring doesn't go around talking about it all the time, but he's not the best at trusting people. Not only did Daring trust Cerise, it looked to me that he had taken a serious interest in her. It was unlike my brother to go out of his way to pursue a girl, which is precisely what he did to get her in this class. As for me, he's trying to be a better brother suddenly. My theory is that his sudden change of heart had had something to do with Cerise coming into his life, but that's just my guess.

I didn't even have to say anything to Cerise. Her eyebrow raised after I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. She smiled knowingly at me.

"You're not going to tell my brother, or anyone else, right?"

Cerise snorted. "Please, I'm not Blondie."