Song of the Secret Prince

Chapter 1: The Teacher

Sage was fuming—absolutely boiling. How could that little brat do this to her, again, after everything they'd already been through? He was so dead. Sage aggressively turned another page of the magazine she was "reading," though she barely took in the content. It was an article on some European king passing away, but of course it focused more on the hunky prince that was set to inherit the throne. He was certainly easy on the eyes, but even his good looks were not enough to stir her out of her current mood. She flipped the page again, barely glancing at the one before.

Did her little brother not realize how tight they were on money? Did he not see that she was already on thin ice at work without having to take time off to deal with his shenanigans? Sage closed the magazine and threw it back down on the lobby's coffee table with more force than was necessary. Of course, he knew—they'd been over it a million times. He just didn't seem to care. The world revolved around him, and he was content to sit back and watch it burn.

"Mrs. Darling? Mr. Avery will see you now. Follow me," an older, raspy-voiced woman called.

Sage startled but recovered quickly and rose to follow the woman. She hadn't bothered correcting the erroneous title. It was Ms. Darling, not Mrs., but she was used to being addressed as such. She was almost as used to being confused for Conner's mother, though that only mildly offended her now. She didn't think she looked old enough to have a teenage son—at most she could pass for being in her early thirties. She supposed it was possible for someone around that age to have a 16-year-old, but at 24, it just wasn't her reality.

Sage reminisced about her mother and father as she followed the woman. They had both passed away three years prior in a tragic car accident. Sage had already been well into college and was only a month away from graduation when it happened. The news devastated her and her brother. She had originally planned to apply for jobs in her college town, but ended up having to return home after graduating to finish raising her brother. That day had changed them both for the worse.

Sage exhaled as a familiar sadness settled in her heart. She knew Conner was still grieving, or else his personality had been altered by grief. She felt like a failure for being unable to help him. He used to be so happy, and she knew it would have broken their parents' hearts to see the troubled young man she'd let him become.

The woman guiding Sage led her out of the front building, through a courtyard of bustling high schoolers, and into the fine arts building. She recognized it from her time at the high school nearly eight years earlier. Many of the poorly done murals on the walls had been painted over in a bland beige. Time was weird. She had spent so many of her days back then in that same fine-arts hallway, whether for concerts or musical performances. There were new fine arts teachers now, and with the colorful murals also gone, the magic of the building faded away into no more than a memory. The hallway now felt cold and empty, and she wrapped her arms around herself instinctively.

She was led to the very end of the corridor in the direction of the familiar music room. The nameless older woman ahead of Sage opened the door to allow her in.

"He's waiting for you in his office, do you know where that is?" the woman asked. Sage nodded and entered the room. The woman mumbled a quick reply and left, allowing the door to shut behind her with a click.

Sage couldn't help the smile that broke across her face as she glanced around. The space was still incredibly familiar—even the smell was the same. The walls were less barren than they had been in her day, mostly from all the newer senior plaques. Each one displayed the senior's name, any officer position they held, and their voice parts. Climbing the risers, she stepped up to her own plaque hanging on the wall near the top. It was shining as bright and clear as the day she'd hung it there in her senior year. It read Sage Darling, President, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. Hers was still the only plaque she could find that had a checkmark in each of those boxes.