A pauper meets her Knight and her Prince in the wrong place at the wrong time.
****
Patricia Zenith Collins works her butt off to sustain her family's needs and save up for college. When her mum's job at the Palace is on the line, she finds herself...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Man, where are you? We've been waiting for hours here," Mark hears the voice of his friend, Lucas on the other end of the line. He knows they have a practice session for the Debate Tournament they've been preparing for weeks now. They've been winning the national tournaments since he joined the club in his Year 11. He's been considered the "leader," though he doesn't really want to be.
"I'm almost there," he says, as he struggles to hold the 6 iced coffees and 4 boxes of pizza in his hands. It's already 9 pm, but he gathered his team to prepare for the topics given to them. And they just asked him to pick up their online order so he volunteered to go down being the good leader that he is.
As he walks past the lobby of the Boys' Halls, he doesn't fail to miss the presence of a familiar person sitting on the corner of the lounge area. He stops on his tracks to confirm if he really saw Chelsie and he's right. She's sitting alone on the couch, her eyes casually wandering around. When he meets her gaze, he sees her face light up, making him anxious for a moment. But he manages to lift his chin up to acknowledge that he saw her.
"Mark, I'm so glad to see you here," Chelsie says, as soon as she reaches him.
"Chels, what are you doing here?" He asks her.
"I actually was hoping to see any of the princes here," she explains. "I don't know where else to look for them."
Mark tries to process what she just said. He wonders if she meant to say she's waiting for any of the princes or just Jeno, in particular. But either way, she won't have any luck with that because the Royals are not staying at the Halls, unless they choose to. "I'm afraid you won't see any of them here, Chels. Maybe tomorrow?"
Chelsie sighs, her shoulders slumping down. "I guess so." She looks at the coffees he's holding and wonders how he's managing to hold it. "You need help with that?"
"Yeah, all good," he answers, then he suddenly realizes how late it is already, but Chelsie is still there. He doesn't really know the timetable of the buses around there, but he's certain that she will miss the last bus if she doesn't start running at that instant. "Will you be alright going home though? It's pretty late."
She blinks at him, realizing what he said. But she suddenly smiles at him. "Oh, I'm already staying at the Halls. It's my first night here."
"Really? That's... that's great!" He exclaims, trying not to sound too delighted.
Before Chelsie can answer him again, a loud voice startles the two of them. "THERE YOU ARE!"
Mark groans inwardly, realizing who that voice is from. He doesn't need to turn around to see who he is. "Sorry, man. I just-" he gets cut off, when Lucas turns to Chelsie with a wide smile, which he finds confusing.
"Chelsie! Hey, how are you? Did you pass Social Studies?" Lucas asks her casually, as if they've known each other for a while.
Mark looks at Lucas, then stops at Chelsie, who smiles at his friend. "Yeah, I actually did," she answers him.
