Child of a King

Chapter twelve - Kindergarten

I stared at the ceiling through the darkness in the bedroom. It was still early in the morning, but I couldn't sleep. Nerves were pumping vicariously through my body, making it hard for me to drift off as my brain couldn't stop spinning.

Today was, after all, the first day of kindergarten.

Just thinking about it made me depressed.

What if I don't fit in, or I fail everything like the loser I am or I do something stupid? The list of things that could go wrong was getting longer by the second.

Maybe I should play hooky and pretend to have the flu. That would buy me approximately a week.

Sighing, I slipped out of Nate's arms and reluctantly got out of bed, acknowledging that it would be hard to come up with a new illness every week to delay my attendance.

Thankfully, I wasn't going to be there all day. Only until lunch, then someone would pick me up again. Nate meant it when he said that we would take things nice and easy, keeping in mind how I felt going into this.

After I got ready in my own room, I went down to the kitchen, thanking the maid for the breakfast buffet she sat on the table for us. I stared at the various types of fruits and scrambled eggs with toast I had gathered on my plate, absentmindedly poking it around.

I felt so nauseous. Perhaps I didn't have to fake the stomach flu after all. All the nerves that were boiling in my gut were doing a fine job on their own. I forced half of the food down, knowing I would need something in my system from the start of the day.

When I looked at the clock a third time after I got downstairs, I wondered if I had mistaken the time we were leaving. Until now I hadn't seen any of my brothers and comparing the time Nathaniel told me we were leaving and what the time showed now, I was nervous if we were going to make it. Not that I would complain if that was the case.

Like he had read my thoughts Ray walked into the kitchen with a hurried stride and quickly poured himself a glass of orange juice. His thick dark hair was damp, and his dress shirt was left unbuttoned, showing a large tattoo that covered his left rib cage and some of his chest.

I decided to voice my presence instead of sitting here and watching his every move.

"Good morning".

Ray whipped his head in my direction, his eyes big and the hold he had on the butter knife tightened. My teeth firmly bit down on my tongue, as I tried not to laugh. Was he going to stab me down with a butter knife if I was an intruder?

His signature smirk flashed on his lips. "Morning!" He chirped all joyfully as he continued his assault on the morning buffet.

Shortly after, Sebastian and Nate came down. Both dressed in suites. They greeted us with a good morning as they continued their talk about God knows what while they arranged their plates.

Lastly, Slade hurried inside the kitchen. His pants halfway up and one arm through the hole of his t-shirt and a toothbrush hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

There was no chance of seeing Marc at the crack of dawn as he works night shifts and mostly sleeps during the day because of the late closing hours at the casino.

"Are you excited for today?" Ray asked, still piling food on his plate.

"Yeah..." I answered with a hesitating voice.

"Nervous?" Nate joined in, sitting down next to me.

"Yeah". I nodded and played with my fingers underneath the table.

A warm hand squeezed my knee. "You'll be fine", Nate soothed.

I nodded, looking down at my lap. I appreciated the effort of calming me down, but my stomach was still doing somersaults and my palms were starting to get sweaty.