The bell went, signalling the end of the day at last. I packed my books away eagerly to catch Leandra at the end of her last lesson, she said she'd allow me briefly call Alexander, it had been three whole months since I started boarding school, consequently, three whole months I hadn't spoken to him.
"Arianne!" A pair of feet appeared in my line of my vision while I was bent down sorting out my bag. The voice was female, recognisable, but in my state of rush, it wasn't distinguishable. I glanced up to lock eyes with April, one of the girls I shared my room with, someone I had become good friends with. "Do you wanna hang out? I don't have homework tonight."
I slung my bag over my shoulder. "I can't, sorry. I have to catch, Lean- Miss Underwood. I need to ask her for a favour."
The bright expression on April's face faltered ever so slightly and she shifted her balance from her right foot to her left foot. "That's fine. Find me afterwards instead, I'll invite some people to our room." She flashed a grin before I could even answer. She left promptly, and I did too, making a beeline for Leandra's final class.
The door to her class was slightly ajar and from where I was stood, Leandra was in clear vision, leaning on her front desk, back facing me. I didn't enter because she was on the phone, it'd be rude to just interrupt, and then really awkward to stand in the room while she had a conversation with someone else.
Instead, I focused my attention on how empty the halls were after school, it was almost ghost town like.
"Wait so Alex is where exactly? Is he alright?" I heard Leandra almost yell.
I literally felt my ears perk up at the mention of Alexander's name, and the worry in her voice. Now I made sure to hide and listen more intently to the conversation Leandra was having, rather than just staring aimlessly down the hallways. It was obvious something bad had happened to Alexander back in Nox Aterrima from the tone in her voice.
"God, so exactly how did this happen? Where were you and Jayden? Isn't it your job to stay beside Alexander?" A few curses came from within the room every now and again. "...yeah. No. I won't say anything to her for now, she's doing so well here, I don't want her to worry." ... "OK, bye. Don't forget to update me. Bye."
A clatter came from the room and a large sigh. I waited a bit before entering the room, it'd be a little too coincidental if I entered the room right after the conversation ended, and it would be obvious I had eavesdropped.
Leandra smiled over at me and told me to shut the door to behind me. She put on a good smile, regarding whatever bad news she'd just heard about Alexander. If I hadn't listened in to her conversation, with who I assumed to be Leyton, I would never have guessed something bad was up.
I leant on one of the desks at the front of the class and placed my satchel beside me.
"Have a good day?" She asked while packing her stuff away from her desk.
"Yeah, you?"
"The usual." She responded halfheartedly. This would be the part where I'd notice something was wrong if I hadn't already eavesdropped.
"I see." I paused slightly, pondering on whether to ask if she was OK, ask straight about Alexander or to just ask if I could call Alexander. "Are you alright? You seem a bit... Bothered."
"No, no I'm fine." She released her hair from the tight bun it was currently in. "You wanted to call Alex, right?"
I nodded, leaning up from the desk and standing myself in front it.
"Then it'll have to wait just about a week, uh, The Prince is busy these days trying to prevent Austin doing any more damage to Nox Aterrima. You understand?"
"He can't even spare a few minutes to talk to me? It's been a few months now." She shook her head and looked away from me. I sighed, so she wasn't just going to come out with it and tell me straight? She was actually going to hide what happened from me? "I heard your phone conversation."'
Leandra's head shot up. "I thought I heard someone!" She squeezed her temples. "You know it's rude to eavesdrop right?"
"Don't need to be a princess to know that." I narrowed my eyes. "What happened to Alexander? Is he ok?"
"He's fine. Totally fine. The king just, uh, had him moved to a different location. You don't need to worry. He's been fine all this time I promise you."
I narrowed my eyes further, I knew lies when I heard them. Once again, Leandra averted her gaze to somewhere that wasn't on me to avoid my penetrating stare. Was she honestly going to lie straight to my face?
"I have to go, papers to grade. I'll see you in next week's lesson."
"Wait!" I called out. It was too late. She disappeared from in front of me. I really hated it when people did that!
I left to go back to my dorm, in a slightly bad mood now. Leandra had probably gone to the faculty department, where it was off limits to any and all students.
Back at my room, I could hear music was booming from within. I contemplated going somewhere quieter where it could just be me and my thoughts, however, before I could turn away, I was pulled into my room by none other than April. She had some foil on her head, and the tips of her blonde hair were darkly coloured, I think she was having it dyed.
There were two other girls in the room, also with dye on their hair, sat on April and Kyra's beds. I knew them, they were Kelsie and Laura. They weren't in any of my classes, but they often sat with me Charlotte and my roommates at break and lunch. I wasn't not friends with them, but Kelsie hated me, which was honestly something I didn't lose sleep over.
"Do you want to dye your hair too, Arianne?" Inquired April as she pulled me over to sit on my bed.
Before I could answer Kelsie was already there. "She can't, her royal highness has an image to uphold." Sarcasm. What was new from her?
"Kelsie, you should really watch what you say to Arianne," Kyra warned.
"Why? What's she going to do? Have a maid come shoo me away?"
"I'm not like that. I came from a normal home before all of this-"
"Yeah, parents who were drug abusers, a boyfriend who lied about his age and is the most hated guy in the kingdom, best friend died by having their throat ripped out, human. Very normal."
I tried to stay calm but that was the last straw. I really didn't know what her problem was but it was really beginning to anger me. She was so rude, for no reason other than the fact that I was a princess. She assumed I was spoiled and got everything just as I wanted it. That wasn't the case, and that wasn't how I behaved at all. Then to bring in my life, my personal life to make a joke out of was not ok and was not something I'd stand for.
"Shut up for once. I don't know what your problem is, whether you're jealous, don't like the fact that I'm human or whatever. I don't care and I don't need to hear it. If you don't like me, keep my name out of your mouth." I huffed, it felt better getting that off my chest.
Kelsie just rolled her eyes and went off into the bathroom. Good.
The remaining three girls in the room were silent until Kyra perked up, and asked a question a lot of the girls at this school had asked me plenty of times over.
"What are Jayden and Leyton like? Do they really have completely different personalities?" Asked Kyra.
"Extremely opposite most of the time. Jayden is an ass ninety percent of the time, whereas Leyton is the nicest guy all the time. If they weren't identical, I wouldn't believe they were related at all." I answered truthfully. That wasn't really something I needed to lie about or anything.
I was half asleep in class the next morning, after not sleeping until late since Kelsie and Laura didn't leave until the early hours of the morning, and the rest of the girls weren't necessarily quiet, even when I told them to quieten down.
My eyes felt like they were sticking together each time I blinked. I was trying so hard to stay awake, and it wasn't like this lesson was exciting, unlike the other ones, like potions class. I really hated geography, and here was having to sit through an hour and a half of it.
Someone whispered over to me just as I was about to pass out from boredom. "Take this." Charlotte handed me her coffee. "Extra strong. You look knackered."
I smiled weakly and nodded as a thanks. I didn't have the energy to even talk. I finished the whole cup while the teacher's back was turned as she drew a diagram out on the board.
No more than ten minutes later I was refilled with energy. That coffee worked really well! I could actually keep my eyes open without having to put up a fight. I flashed Charlotte another grin, this time filled with more life, so she knew her coffee worked.
The bell finally rung; the end of class. I quickly packed up my bag, and as soon as everyone was finished, the teacher had an announcement to make.
"We're having a test two weeks today, and for those of you who aren't quite... awake, today is a Thursday. It's on everything we've been learning this term, so please revise well. OK?" She then dismissed us and I couldn't have gotten out any sooner.
Why did she need to give us a test?
I had been here for only a month and I could've sworn I had done more tests here than I ever did at my old school. They really kept us on our toes here, there was no slacking for anyone.
Charlotte was quick to catch up to me, we had a free period now, a good time to ask her about Alexander. She probably knew what Leandra wouldn't tell me yesterday.
Luckily, April and Kyra didn't have a free period right then, so it would just be me and Charlotte for an hour- plenty of time for me to squeeze the truth out of her.
Once we were at the table, I pulled my maths book out and some paper, in order to revise for tomorrow's non-calculator test. I still hated maths no matter how much I had kind of missed going to school.
Charlotte pulled out her maths book too, she was amazing at it, well, she was amazing at everything, but in maths she knew everything. I wished my brain retained memory like hers did.
"So about Alexander, Leandra says he's too busy to talk to me these days," I said, immediately grabbing the attention of Charlotte, who stopped midway through flicking through her book to look up at me.
She looked around, I think making sure no one was listening to what we were saying, "OK, I'll be honest with you, I can't lie to your face..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here we have it, the first chapter of Book two!
I'm going to apologise now so I don't have to in the future, but the future chapters will be coming out VERY slowly and unplanned, so be warned before you get too attached.
I'd like to thank everyone who's waited this long too, you're all awesome and I'm only writing this for all of you guys:)