Nothing Is The Same

Chapter 5: Forgotten Letter

Luck seemed to be on my side since no one seemed to know about the necklace incident yesterday, or if they did know about it they seemed to have bought the explanation I gave Josh. It was frustrating to wonder why Gui wouldn't let me give it back to him, and it seemed quite suspicious as well. When I had still lived here we had always talked about how devastated he would be if he lost the necklace. Him giving it to me when I was Alexa, his best friend and twin of his other best friend, was a lot different then him giving it to a girl that he had only known for two weeks. 

Curtis luckily had never seen the necklace because I knew my cousin would have never let me live it down, and he would have made sure to mention it in front of Gui. Or maybe he wouldn't considering that he is supposed to be under cover right now. He still hadn't met Greg though so I was still afraid that he would recognize Curtis, then again maybe he would think something else of it. Thinking that my cousin was sent here to be a bodyguard instead of being the moral support that I needed. 

Although I still hadn't told him what father and the King had done, I knew he would help me if I asked him for it, but at the same time I understood that it was what was best for all of us. If we didn't want the people to end up rebelling then the mysterious nephew needed to be seen with an important role. Not hidden away like he was some sort of dirty secret, which is how it seemed to a lot of people since he had never been in the public eye. 

Currently I was still debating on if I should arrive to home room before the bell or just as it rang. It had been ages since I had felt so afraid, but the way Gui had acted yesterday after my pyrophobia had reared it's head had me worried about my secret. I was already on thin ice as it was, and things kept piling up that could ruin my cover. It was almost as paralyzing as the fire yesterday had been even though that was in control. What am I supposed to do if I can't even act normally around him? 

Once I went to homeroom I would be stuck in that classroom until lunch time. Today was a double English class and we were supposed to be presenting a piece of writing that had inspired us. It could be something we had written or something else, but we had to explain why we had been inspired by it so much, and what it meant to us. The writing I had chosen was a poem that Gracy had written after a bad heartbreak, and it made me feel like there was still a chance to be happy no matter the circumstances. Even if lately that inspiration no longer mattered, unless if Gui somehow ended up being the King's nephew and not hating me for lying to him, I couldn't see how I would gain happiness after this year is up. 

I had tried to get Curtis to tell me what his own project would be. He had heard about it from me and had decided that even though he only had the night that he wanted to do it as well. I was a little suspicious over what piece of writing he could have chosen in such a short frame of time considering he had only come here with his clothes, but there was nothing I could do since he told me he had already asked Mr. Finch if he could present his own project as well. 

Then again since we had been assigned it at the beginning and given until now to work on it I was certain that most would have procrastinated, so it wasn't like Curtis would really be different from other students. Except for the fact that he had accepted extra work that he didn't need to do. Considering that it was such a broad topic I wouldn't be surprised if some people took twenty minutes to present well others would only take two. It's not like the length of it matters since it's the why that is really important. 

As the hallways grew more packed with people I decided that my Ice Queen image would take a dive if I acted like a scared puppy and hid out in the hallway. So instead I brought all of my regal bearing and training to the forefront of my mind, and acted like I did any time I was going to a party of someone I didn't like but needed to act like I did for political reasoning. Really as I walked into the room I felt quite silly considering that there wasn't any of the people I was avoiding here yet. Instead the room had nervous people going over their presentations and looking like they were going to faint any minute now.