My Golden Life

Chapter 39

The rest of my week went ok. I refound my hatred in Maths, Art was pretty chill, and Drama was possibly my all-time favourite class. Not just because of the teacher and the activities we did, but because Artie was in my class too. I must say I didn't realise just how hard being in a prestigious school was going to be. Lots of work needed to get done before the weekend, and I wanted to get most of it out of the way so that I wouldn't have to stress about it when hanging out with Artie. 

As I sat on my bed reading a book on Friday night, I evaluated everything that had gone one in my first week, from meeting new friends to winning a tournament. I was surprised that I had achieved quite a lot in such a small space of time, and I was looking forward to seeing what more I would do.

I was pretty excited about spending the day with Artie. He seemed like a great guy, but everyone in school, even some of the teachers I may add, thought otherwise, and treated him like trash. I still don't actually know why Artie was super unpopular at school; even to this day, he has never said the reasoning, and he doesn't talk about it. Perhaps it was something super terrible, and it still brings up bad memories for him. I won't ask him if that's the case. Poor Arthur. 

Anyways, after finishing my book, I got myself ready for bed and headed off to sleep, excited about the next day.

The ringing sound of my alarm clock drew me out of my deep state of slumber, causing me to slam it into silence and onto the floor. I rolled out of bed to retrieve it as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"Ughh, it's only 9 am?" I groaned. "I thought I set it for later than that."

I don't know what was worse; waking up early or having to find something to do until Artie arrived. I could have gone back to sleep, but I was already wide awake by then. Thankfully, I needed to clean up my room and sort out some other school-related things. By one o'clock, I was finished with everything, and I began to get myself ready. I had a shower and changed into a pastel-coloured purple dress with white sleeves, which mum had made for me for my birthday. 

I decided to let my hair down a little, but keep it in a half ponytail hairstyle. I have to say, I looked alright. I'm not going brag and say that I looked amazing, but I looked okay. I wasn't dressing nice to impress Artie, not at all. I just... I wanted to make a good first impression. Even though we had seen each other more than once.

It was five minutes past two, so I checked myself once over in the mirror and hurried down to the entrance of my building complex. I spotted Artie leaning against the archway, looking in the opposite direction. He had on a dark blue shirt with brown trousers and a jacket. He was so busy whistling that he didn't notice me walking up to him.

"Hey, sorry if I kept you waiting," I said.

"Don't worry, I haven't been here,-" His eyes widened a little when he turned to face me. His whole body froze for a short second.

"What? Is there something wrong?"

"What no, not at all," he stuttered. "I just haven't seen you in your own clothes before. You look great."

"Oh," I chuckled. "Thanks, you look good too. So shall we get going?"

"Of course, I'll be your guide for the day." He jokingly said. "And I hope you enjoy the tour of this magnificent and high-end establishment."

"I'm sure I will. I'm guessing that you're a great tour guide?" I smirked.

"Oh, the best for sure. Don't worry, I won't disappoint."

We then headed off down the opposite path, and Artie began to show off his tour guide skills and taught me a lot about the Worcestershire and the surrounding areas, adding a few jokes here and there as we went along. The school was, as I had guessed, quite old. Eight hundred years old to be, in fact. 

Many well-off and wealthy individuals studied there, and a number of them had gone on to become incredibly successful. Governers, lawyers and doctors, any high ranking profession you could think of. Artie also explained there had even been a few royals who had studied at our school too. Some, I have to admit I'd never even heard of, but the ones that I did know interested me for sure.

I couldn't quite get my head around that for a while. I wondered what gave my dad the idea to send me there. Seemed like a random choice at first, but now learning about the school, I wasn't so sure. I guess he figured that it was just another posh strict school that would 'straighten me out' and sort out 'my bad behaviour,' as he had called it. How wrong was he?

"Was there anyone else that came here besides the ones you've told me about?" I asked as we walked along the outside walls of the main campus.

Artie didn't say a word but shoved his hands into his pockets. He gazed down at the ground for a brief moment.

"My dad came here. Unlike me, he was extremely popular. He still is."

"Oh," I asked. "What's your dad's name?"

"Uther."

I stopped in my tracks, I could feel my mind exploring with shock. Did I hear him correctly?

"Wait, Uther?" I gasped. "As in Uther Pendragon? King of Camelot?"

"Yep. That's my dad." He sighed.

"Wait, wait, hold on," I stuttered. "T-that means that you're-"

"His son, yea." He grumbled.

"And a prince!" I cried. "You're a prince! I can't believe it, I'm actually in the presence of royalty! But why do people treat you so horribly?"

"It's how it is, I guess," he sighed. "Look, I don't want to focus on that now. There's still more of this island to show you."

"We've seen everywhere around the school. Not much else to see."

"Remember, I said that I would also show you the secret places too," He laughed.

I slapped my hand against my forehead. "Oh, of course, how could I forget."

"There's one particular spot that I want to take you to. I know you're going to love it." He smiled, taking my hand and pulling me along the path.

It had to be pretty amazing to have to practically drag me. I was curious, of course. I couldn't wait to see where Artie was going to take me. I was having so much fun, I didn't want the day to end.