The Once and Gifted King [ON HIATUS]

Chapter Thirteen: Mashed Potatoes

A/N: If you couldn't tell, this is no longer for NaNo. XD I'm sorry to everyone I left hanging. I'm back to writing it, so here's a new update! All of you GwenxNeil shippers watch out! (Speaking of shipping, do any of you have ship names?)

 Zeke found the two of us rather quickly, but I didn't see Neil anywhere. The three of us stood in line to grab food. The people behind the counter worked extra fast. They probably weren't used to serving this many kids at once.

“They didn't plan this very well,” I pointed out.

“I don't think they could plan this,” Blake said.

“True.”

Zeke noted, “I wonder why this outbreak is so much bigger than in the past. Also, what caused all of it?”

I smiled. “You should do some research. There's probably a library around here, and I'm sure Kat will tell you anything you want to know.

Zeke made a sour face. “No way. I don't want to talk to that crazy lady.”

Blake and I laughed and Zeke joined us. Then Blake said, “She won't give you straight answers anyway. If you ask her what's for lunch, she'll threaten you with her scanner.” We laughed again.

“Did you know she came in with a needle full of adrenaline this morning?” I said. “And she said, 'beggin your pardon'. Who does that?”

“You're lying,” Zeke said.

“Honest!” I answered, beaming. “I wonder what her dad's like. Maybe he raised her crazy.”

“Does that mean this whole place is crazy?” Blake asked. Zeke and I looked at him with expressions that said 'no duh.' “Haha, I was only joking. Hey look, it's our turn.”

We stopped the conversation to pick out the food we wanted. There wasn't much variety beyond oranges and mashed potatoes. It looked like most of the meats had been picked off already. I hoped they would have more food choices as time went on. Which made me wonder, did they have a Nicolas truck pull up to the castle every week? Wouldn't food deliveries give away their location? I shrugged it off and followed the boys to a table. Luckily there was just enough room for a few more people to sit and eat. I was squished up between Blake and some other kid who probably went to my high school.

“'Scuse me,” I said to him.

“Sorry,” he replied, scooching a little. “Not much room.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

Zeke leaned over the table to get a good look at me and Blake. “Should we eat somewhere else?”

Before Blake or I could answer, kids started sliding down the rows, making more room. A group of people on the other end must have just left.

“Much better,” I said. At least I could move my elbows. As per habit, I kept one hand on my lap, which meant there was more room between me and the guy sitting next to me.

“Do you want to work on the orientation papers together?” Blake asked as we started to eat.

“We were told not to cheat,” Zeke said.

“We can work on them together without cheating,” I countered. “Besides, you'll get the highest scores out of all of us.”

“You're the one who's graduated already,” Zeke said to me.

“You're still smarter than me.”

“Let's go to my room after we eat,” Blake suggested. “We can get started at least.”

“Too bad you're in a different homeroom than us,” I said to Zeke.

“Yeah, I'm stuck with a bunch of twelve-year-olds.” He raised a fist and put on a fighting face. “I may be twelve but I'm a junior!”

“You tell 'em!” I cheered.

“Has anyone told you you guys are weird?” Blake asked.

Zeke and I smiled at him. “Yup!” we said together. The three of us laughed.

After eating and throwing away our trash, we saw Neil, but he wasn't alone.

The guy was basking in the attention of about eight different girls, all preppy looking. They were giggling and massaging him and feeding him. Ew! For the first time I noticed he had Excalibur strapped around his waist. Maybe he got it before eating just so he could show off during the free hour.

Passing Zeke and Blake, I walked up and stood in front of the spectacle, hands on my hips. “Dude!” I yelled. “What the heck?”

Neil looked up at me with an innocent look on his face. “These girls want to know what it's like to be near royalty, so I'm letting them. Is that a problem, Lady Guinevere?”

“Seriously?” I shouted. “You are totally playing this up! I thought you were different. I thought you didn't care about this stuff!”

Neil frowned, getting angry. “I didn't, but these ladies pointed out to me how cool it is. Why should you care so much? You obviously don't like me. It's not like we were dating or anything?”

“Totally,” one of the girls said. “Don't listen to her,” another told Neil. He smirked at me.

“You are such a jerk!”

“What are you going to do about it, floater?”

Yeah, I was floating again. I wasn't used to being so angry, but being able to hover above him made me feel better. “Well I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to have a jerk for a king.” With that I dropped to the ground so I could storm away. The girl's degrading comments followed me out of the room.

Blake and Zeke hurried to catch up to me.

“You okay?” Blake asked.

“No,” I muttered without stopping. “This is so not cool.”

“He wasn't like this before,” Zeke said.

“I saw it a mile away,” Blake countered. “He's finally showing his true colors.”

“I don't want to talk about it,” I told them. “Which one is your room?”

“Follow me.” Blake took the lead and took us to his room. It was a lot less than my room. In fact, it was only about the size of my closet. The walls were plain and cream colored. The furniture was black, and the bed had white sheets and pillows.

“This place is so messed up,” I commented. “Let's just work on this paperwork.”