Young Royals: What...now?

Coffee for 12.

Simon

Just as predicted, when Simon and Wilhelm shuffled into the lounge off the main cafeteria in Manor House at 10:01, Felice jumped and screeched, "Where were you?! I thought you had bailed on me!"

"Sorry, Felice. But, woah, this place looks great. When did you start setting this up??" said Simon. 

"Literally last night," she deadpanned. "And you're late."

Simon scanned the room, chock full of mini pastries, fruit cups, antique china, and heirloom teapots. He had never seen so many varieties of croissant in his life. Chocolate-glazed, raspberry jam-filled, blueberry jam-filled, cream-filled, nutella-filled, almond-studded, and others that he couldn't even recognize. On top of that, she had filled baskets with pains au chocolat, éclairs, mini apple strudels, cinnamon rolls. And the fruit cups. They had fluted pastry on the outside. Simon had seen them do that on a baking show one time, and the process was so complex it had put Simon off pastry for a little while. Nothing you eat in 5 seconds should take that much work.  

"This is for twelve people?" asked Wilhelm, eyeing Felice perplexedly. 

"Yes," she said coyly. "And it might also be a bribe for the cleaning staff who are going to notice something was up."

Simon looked at Wilhelm, mystified. "She thinks of everything!"

"Ok, guys. It's time. You have your first group at 10:30. Let's send out the text messages. I prewrote the message and saved it in my drafts. I tried to make it sound like a guy, but feel free to change any wording," she said. 

Felice sent the message to Wilhelm's cell phone, and Simon read it over his shoulder. 

"Hey, can you meet me in Manor House dining hall in 10 minutes? It's important."

Simon hooted at Felice. "Vague. I like it." Simon grabbed Wilhelm's hand and slipped it into Simon's back pocket, and Wilhelm grinned. Felice just rolled her eyes.

"So, who's in Group 1, captain?" Wilhelm asked as he pulled up his Whatsapp to send the message.

"Ok, Group 1 is easy. It's people you know- Henry, Helenna, Maja, and Peter. All first years, all in your classes. At least one of you has done a group assignment with each of them. And they have no reason to hold a grudge with you. Perfect set-up."

Felice walked away to primp the pastry table, putting some wayward cinnamon rolls in their places. 

Simon saw Wilhelm eyes begin to furrow, saw his hand come to his chest. He pulled out a chair and sat down, slumped over with this head to his knees.

Simon sat down this him, putting her arm around Wilhelm's shoulder. "Hey. Tell me." he said.

Wilhelm turned and met Simon's gaze. "Does this feel right?"

Simon stared at him for a second longer that he knew he was supposed to. "Um, I'm not sure."

Wilhelm looked up at Felice and paused, not making eye contact. "Felice, can you come here?"

Felice skipped over. "What's up? Wanna change who comes first?"

Wilhelm looked down at the floor, staring at the pattern on the rug. "I can't go through with this. It just doesn't feel r-right. I'm sorry, Felice."

Felice humphed. "Ok. Then what? What's your plan?" Simon could tell Felice was agitated, and he understood why. She had organized the room, the snacks, had planned everything down to the last detail. And now, they were backing out. If Simon were Felice, he'd have taken it way worse. Felice was the essence of compassionate, though. You could tell she wasn't going to push it. But still. 

Wilhelm held his head in his hands, clearly trying to work through how to make everyone happy. That was the thing about Wilhelm that Simon loved. Wilhelm really cared about what other people thought, but not so much that he was willing to lose himself in the process. But sometimes Wilhelm went along with things too long, was just a little too passive, until things really came down to the wire. Like now.

"I'm just going to go to everyone's room - with some pastries, those will be awesome - and talk to them one by one, by myself. I'm still using your list Felice, still only talking to those 12 people, but, yeah, I'm just better one-on-one. I don't want to creep anybody out or make a scene. So, yeah, I'll be going."

Wilhelm puffed up his chest, grabbed a basket of pains of chocolates, fruit cups, and éclairs, placed the group list in his pocket, and he walked out the doors. He didn't even look back. 

Simon would have been put off by Wilhelm just leaving him in the dust like this if he didn't know him better. I mean, who just walks out like that? But he knew Wilhelm. Wilhelm had to do things before he thought too hard about them. His mind was his worst enemy. He would play through things a million times to the point that he'd become paralyzed with the what-ifs. For Wilhelm, if he didn't do it right then, he wasn't going to do it at all. 

Simon smiled lightly at Felice. Felice came over and put her arm around his shoulder. "You think he can do this?" Felice asked quietly.

Simon nodded. "He's done worse. I think we just wait." 

They headed to the deserted common room. Simon pulled out his History textbook, and turned to the chapter they had been assigned. Simon must have read the same page twenty times. Not in a thousand years could he have concentrated on the words on that page with what was going on just down the hall with Wilhelm. 

Felice looked over at Simon, "What if this doesn't work?"

Simon tried to put on a brave face. "It'll work. We just have to trust him."

"I hate trusting people."

Simon grinned. "Me too."