Castleside Academy

Chapter Four: Hazel

“Hazel! Kailey! Jackie! I'm so glad you’re here!” says Queen Amelia Just.

“Hi, Mom,” I say as I set my hand bag down to give her a hug.

“Hello, Queen Amelia,” Kailey and Jackie say in unison.

“Come, girls, I shall show you to the parlor to rest and snack. And please call me Ms. Amelia, for casual visitation. I prefer to keep the royalty portion out of my life,” my mother tells them.

“Yes ma'am,” they say as we follow Mother into the parlor. There are little cakes and candy and such on a tray as we walk into the parlor.

“Just help yourself to whatever, girls,” my Mother says.

“Thank you, Ms. Amelia,” Kailey and Jackie say as they both reach for the cakes.

“So Hazel, how is school?”

“It's going well, mother, thank you,” I say, on my best behavior. My mother expects my manners and etiquette to be their best when I'm around her.

“Good. I'm sure you girls are tired, why don't you go and freshen up. We'll see you all for dinner. Nancy will show you to your rooms,” Mother tells us.

We all nod, then our maid, Nancy, comes and gets our bags and leads us to our rooms. Luckily, my mother give Kailey and Jackie the two rooms next to mine, and there are also doors leading to mine so that all of our rooms are connected. After Kailey and Jackie go into their rooms, I step into mine. Nothing has changed since I had been here a few weeks ago. My bed is placed in the middle of my room with blue, green, purple, and brown designs on the comforter. My dresser is on the far side of my room to the right of my window, and my wardrobe on the left. Then my desk/bureau is to the left of the door. I sigh as I go to sit on my bed. Just then I realize how sleepy I truly am, so I lay down and fall asleep.

“Oh my goodness! Dinner was so good!” Kailey says.

“Yeah! Way better than the food at school!” Jackie adds.

“Well, thank you. But we do have, what everyone says, the best cook in the land,” I tell them.

“I know! Okay, switch gears. Let's talk about school,” says Jackie.

“What about it? I thought we left school this weekend to not think, or talk, about it!” I exclaim.

“No! That's not what I mean! You know, about our outings and such,” Kailey exclaims.

I sigh. I thought we would be finished talking about it. But I must say, I'm rather excited that I finally have some input in these conversations. Normally I would just fall asleep to them giggling and talking about August and Sterling.

“What's with the sigh?” Jackie asks.

“Nothing, I was just thinking,” I reply.

“About Toby?” Kailey asks with a smirk.

“Actually, no. Just how excited I am that I finally get to be in on these conversations,” I reply.

Jackie giggles, “Yeah, imagine how we feel now that we have an extra person.”

I giggle and we start our chit-chat.

“I can't believe the weekend is over!” Kailey exclaims as we walk into our room at Castleside Academy.

“I know! It's already eleven at night! We better get to sleep, we have classes tomorrow,” I say.

We all set down our stuff and crash.

“Welcome back, class. I trust you all had a fine weekend,” Lady Whisp says.

“Good afternoon Lady Whisp,” the class says in unison.