The Prince

Part 41

After two weeks of working on the ball, Noah felt like he was on the verge of a breakdown. In all his excitement about joining Skye, he'd forgotten that exams were still on the cards and looming around the corner. He was lying in bed in the early morning hours thinking about everything that he still had to do and the hours of studying he was going to have to cram in.

He didn't want to ask Skye or Tsukasa to tutor him, since they were doing the bulk of the work. He knew Skye looked good in a suit and could come up with a killer business plan, but he was surprised at how good he was at leading the group and keeping tabs on everything that was happening. How was it that one person had it all worked out while he felt like he was fumbling in the dark?

When his thoughts drifted over going home and confronting his brother, he willed them away. He knew that at some point he was going to have to go back and face the music or whatever hell his brother was up to, but for now, he had bigger fish to fry. With a groan, he turned on the light and dragged himself out of bed toward the bathroom. He was going to have a long day ahead and he was nowhere near ready for it.

"Skye, what are you doing up?" He sleepily asked, moving to grab a coffee.

"I'm taking the mock test today, so I thought we could go together," he handed Noah a sandwich.

"Really? But you're top of Class A, why would you get up so early to take the mock tests?" He asked, his sandwich halfway to his mouth.

"I'll forgive you for being slow since it's early, but by now you should know why," he chuckled reaching over to tousle Noah's hair. "Come on, Hollard is outside since it's raining."

Noah was surprised that Skye didn't drag him out of the door in his usual impatience, but was too caught up by what Skye'd said. What did he mean that he should know, he thought. Was there something that he was missing? It was odd for Skye to be cryptic, he was always painfully direct to the point that you'd want to murder him.

After three gruelling hours, Noah left the exam room feeling deflated. He knew that he wasn't going to score well or at least anywhere near the same as when he moved up in the ranking. With a heavy sigh, he dragged himself to the cafeteria to get something to eat.

"Noah, hey Noah, come sit here with us."

Surprised he turned around to see Skye and Tsukasa's fan club leaders and their two lieutenants smile at him. He turned around to make sure they weren't pranking him. What could they possibly want this early in the morning, a better question was, what were they doing together?

"Hey, why are you here so early?" He came to stand next to their table. He was glad that he could get them to make peace, or at least a tenuous one. It seemed that you either loved one and hated the other or vice versa, but there was no in-between.

"We had some plans to discuss before we met this afternoon. Why don't you sit with us, then we can talk them through?" Casey smiled at him nearly blinding him with his sparkling white teeth.

"O-okay," he perched himself on the seat next to Didi and soon got lost in their discussion. He almost laughed, realising that through all their cooperation with each other, they still had a snide remark aimed at the other every so often.

Skye," Noah called when he spotted him paying for his meal. He watched Skye frown at him before his face settled into its usual expressionless mask, which Noah had come to learn was one way of showing his displeasure. But Noah stared him down, refusing to look away until he started moving toward them.

"Hey everybody," he smiled, towering over the group. Looking around, he noticed that they didn't seem to get as excited around him anymore, which was a blessing. He had feared that they'd be following him around everywhere being more of a nuisance than a help.

"Oh, Skye, it's good that you're here, we've got a few more things to discuss," Casey said sliding up in his seat, looking expectantly at Skye.

Glancing at Noah, he watched him almost break his neck in trying to force him to sit down. He had half a mind to turn around, but the could see that a bollocking would be on the cards if he didn't give in. With a small sigh, he slid into the seat, setting his tray down.

"So what other plans have you been making? I thought we had signed off on almost everything."

"We wanted to have horse-drawn carriages to take the guests from their cars to the venue," he said matter-of-factly, scrolling through copious notes on his tablet.

"Horse-drawn, what?" Skye looked at them as if they'd lost their minds. Maybe they have lost their minds. "How on earth are we supposed to block off an entire road for this?

"Don't worry about that, Agnes's dad will sort that out for us. He's also decided to help us out by putting fairy lights in all the trees on our route." He smiled satisfied with himself, showing Skye a picture of a tree-lined avenue with fairy lights.

"You can do that?" He asked in surprise. There weren't many things that surprised him, but the things they managed to pull off were really impressive. They certainly knew how to use their connections well when it came to what they wanted.

"You're funny," Casey laughed like a tinkling bell as if Skye'd joked. "Don't worry, I'll have it all sorted," he patted Skye's arm and turned back to the others.

Turning to Noah, he got a big smile and a thumbs up, before he turned to listen to Casey. He smiled to himself happy that for once he wasn't being scowled at. Looking at Noah, he realised that he'd been the orchestrator and peacekeeper of their strange group. Admittedly, his methods were sometimes questionable, especially when he used him as a reward or threat, but he did seem to have a plan.

He'd brought all these people together who were furiously working to help them pull off what seemed impossible. Hollard was right, Noah easily got excited and often had to be reined in as he ran with an idea that had struck him. With all the time he was spending on the project, his days were packed with work and school as well. He'd have thought that by now Noah would have complained, but he'd not said a word.