THE ROYAL CROWN WARS

Chapter Four

"Where have you been!?" Lizzie asked the second I barreled into my room.

While my room was fairly large, it didn't compare to my parent's room. The designers redid my room last month with everything in purple. The bed sat in the middle, and then my desk directly to the side of it, and then two bookshelves pushed into the corner. The door to the bathroom stayed closed and had a giant movie poster on it.

I pushed past her and threw myself face-first onto the bed. The fuzzy purple blanket ended up partially in my mouth. Ew. "Ugh!" This wasn't happening right now. This couldn't have been real. None of this could've been real.

"Jamie," Lizzie said softly. "What happened?"

Pressing my face further into the blanket, I sighed. "He's going to war with Seninno."

"What?" asked Lizzie. "All I heard was mmmfffmmmm."

"He's going to war with Seninno," I repeated.

"WAR!?"

I pushed myself up and settled on sitting in the middle of the bed. I bought my knees up to my chest, and Lizzie plopped down on the bed. I retold the story word for word. By the time I finished telling her, bile rose up in my throat.

What would happen if he was actually serious? I didn't want to go to boarding school. Sure, school could be awful most of the time, but all of my friends went there. Lizzie went there. Being the new kid doesn't look like it's much fun.

War doesn't sound good either. While I get sent off to another country, everyone else has to deal with it. They'll send kids just a few years older to us to fight. Those who didn't die on the battlefield won't ever be able to forget what happened over there.

My stomach twisted into knots.

"Wow," Lizzie said. "Do you think he was serious?"

I shrugged. "He sounded serious. I don't want us to go to war, Lizzie. I don't want to go to boarding school. Someone has to find those jewels."

Lizzie wrapped her arms around me. "Someone will find the crown jewels, Jamie. You just need to relax. They have all the guards out looking, I bet."

"What if they don't find it in time? What if-"

"You worry too much," she interrupted.

My eyes narrowed. Of course, I should worry. I was the one who was going to have to go to boarding school. It would be my country going to war. Alright, it wasn't my country just yet, but it will be someday.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The bedroom door slowly creaked open. Lizzie and I huddled together in the bed and tried moving as far away from the door as we could without falling off the edge of the bed.

"What are the two of you doing?" Alexandria Evans demanded. She had her black hair tied back into a tight ponytail with not a piece out of place. Her sunglasses rested on the top of her head as dark brown eyes stared at us. She smoothed out her red dress shirt which matched her red jeans perfectly.

"Nothing!" We answered in unison.

Alexandria's brows knitted together. "I don't believe either one of you, but I don't have time for whatever this is. Lizzie, your father is waiting downstairs in the car. Come on, it's time to go."

"But-"

"No buts," Alexandria said. "Come on, say goodbye to Jamie. I do not want to keep your father waiting."