Dark Rose [#Wattys2016]

Eight**Chloe

THE BUZZ AROUND THE SCHOOL was a lighter and louder today than it is normally. I decided to shrug it off since I don't pay attention to that. I grabbed my books out of my locker, still listening to Morgan chatter about the ball.

"...And then we danced. Cory was super nice, and he even gave me his phone number. Thankfully, I had the best time of my life and no one had been obnoxious to me." She finally took a breath and it was almost music to my ears. "If Cinderella was real, I'd laugh in her face about her magical night!"

"Sounds like you had fun." I noted, laughing as well.

At that we both laughed and she backed away. "I'll see you at the end of school?"

I nodded. "Yeah. See you." I waved and she waved too, then turning on her way to World History.

I stepped through the door of English Literature and took my seat, realizing that Kyle wasn't here in his next to mine. I shrugged it off and went to pulling my notebook out of my bag.

Just then the door opened and I expected to see Kyle.

All attention was on the person—the wrong person—who stepped through the door. I felt the pencil I had slide out of my hand. I winced as she turned to look at me, a smirk about to cross her lips but replacing it with a polite smile to Mr. Barrow.

"Good Afternoon." She says.

Princess Autumn was at my school. And she wasn't alone. Flanking her side were three bodyguards and...the prince. I straightened myself up and groaned, throwing my face into my hands.

"Forgive me, but I have to ask, why are you here?" Mr. Barrow asked, trying to not to stare at the bodyguards.

"Well, I came to...inspect the school, see what it is, because most of my life I was educated at home." She answered. "That came with an advantage for my brother and I because we can speak at least three languages for our allies in kingdoms."

The class sighed in awe. I sighed in despair.

"Well," Mr. Barrow said. "That's amazing. I'm truly impressed, please take a seat. No need to have the princess standing here in the middle of a class. Please." He scanned the room, I began to rapidly pray that Kyle walk through that door in this very moment.

Unfortunately, the teacher's bifocals landed on the desk next to mine. Suddenly, I was very aware of the pairs of eyes that landed on me, burning a hole through my forehead. I met about ten pairs of glares.

"There, you can sit there." Mr. Barrow pointed and was careful not to just lead her to the seat himself. He tried to look for a seat for the prince but couldn't find one, and then he smiled. "Well, no need to separate a sister and a brother. Why don't you take Courtney's seat, behind Chloe?"

I heard shuffling and turned to see Courtney eagerly moving her stuff and going to sit in an empty chair, treating the prince as if he was the most auspicious person she'd ever met.

"Thank you, sir." The prince said speaking for the first time, and every female sighed. Mine was from annoyance, but the Prince Keegan took it as the rest of the girls, winking at me in return. I looked away.

Both of the royals took their seat and I felt very claustrophobic in mine. I squirmed a little and they both sat down. It took Mr. Barrow a while to shake himself from his reverie and go back to lesson at hand.

I fixed myself to my notes and the lecture, ignoring the royals altogether. Each time I could see in the corner of my eye, Princess Autumn glancing at me with a smirk.

We were down to the last twenty minutes of class, Mr. Barrow called for study our to work on our new assignment about predicate subjects and writing an essay comparing them to an object of the prepositional phrase. Others took this opportunity to talk about something meaningless.