The (Not So) Perfect Princess

Eily gets a babysitting gig

We’d been half-walking, half-jogging through the giant town for a while when suddenly a voice next to me asked, “Do you think we’ll make it?”

I jumped a little, startled out of my depressing thoughts of being caught. I turned, and found that Q was staring at me intently.

“What?” I asked.

“Do you think we’ll make it? To the ship, I mean.” He looked worried.

I tried for a smile. “Q, of course we’ll make it. There’s no way we came this far just to miss our ride.”

He shook his head. “I just can’t believe we actually made it this far, you know? And even before we met you, we’d gone through so much. Always running from people, stealing food, sleeping in ditches, the works. I just can’t believe all of our problems might be over soon.”

I smirked. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Not having to worry about a thing; just kicking back every day.”

Q sighed dramatically. “Yeah.”

Suddenly, Eily (who was at the font of our little group) turned to all of us with a delighted expression on her face.

“Guys, I can see it,” she said excitedly, and jutted a thumb over her shoulder. “We made it!”

Eily was right. No more than three hundred feet behind her lay the ocean. I could smell the salty air; feel the chill coming off of the water. We’d made it.

“Let’s not get our hopes up too high until we’re actually on the ship,” Q insisted.

“Fine, Mr. Pessimism,” Eily said. “Let’s get on that boat. Avani, lead the way.”

I had no idea what the name of the ship was, but thankfully I remembered what it looked like. It was this grand thing—expertly crafted and decorated in pain-staking detail; nothing like the shabby excuses for dinghies that sat bobbing up in down. But, unfortunately, there was no sign of the thing. I scanned the dock once, twice, three times, but I still couldn’t see it. My spirits now somewhat dampened, I turned to my friends.

“I can’t find it,” I said miserably.

Eily scrunched her eyebrows together as if she hadn’t understood what I’d just said. “‘You can’t find it’? What do you mean?”

“It’s not here,” I said, gesturing at the line of boats along the boardwalk.

“Maybe it just hasn’t arrived yet,” Q suggested. “It’s supposed to sail tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah,” Eily frowned. “Should we just look for an empty spot then?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, and the four of us began combing the dock. Scout was the one who found it, so he waved his arms frantically until someone saw him. I couldn’t help noticing that his mouth was silently moving, too. He’d get the hang of it someday, that I was sure of.

Seconds later, all of us were crowded around the boat-less part of the dock.

“You guys do realize that there is an extremely small chance that that ship will dock at this port, right?” Eily said.

“Who’s the pessimist now?” Q joked.

Eily’s eye hardened. “Q, I’m serious. What if this isn’t the right place?”

“It has to be,” I insisted. “It’s the only empty slot. Besides, what else can we do? It’s not like we can just ask someone if a boat we don’t even have the name for will be here tomorrow.”

Eily threw her hands in the air. “Well, what are we supposed to do until tomorrow morning?”

“Sleep?” Q proposed.

“Sleep,” I agreed. “We also need a place where we can see this spot easily.”

“How about there?” Q pointed at the side of a small-ish building. The front of the thing was facing away from the ocean, so we probably wouldn’t get yelled at for crashing there.

“Looks perfect,” I said, and moved toward it.

“You guys really want to sleep?” Eily asked incredulously as she followed us over. “It’s, like, noon.”

“We were walking through practically the whole night, though,” I added, dropping to the ground. Q plopped down next to me, and then Scout.

“Well I’m not tired,” Eily huffed and crossed her arms.

“Me either!” Nessa pouted, stomping her little foot.

“Well, then you can two can stay up together,” I said, yawning.

Eily stared at me. “You want me to watch her?”

“What’s that?” Nessa asked and grabbed at Eily’s bag. “Can I see it? What’s inside? Is there food?”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

Nessa pulled harder on Eily’s bag until it came loose from her grip and spilled onto the ground.

“I have no idea what to do with kids,” Eily argued, trying to scoop up her stuff.

Nessa’s eyes went wide when she saw Eily’s knife lying on the ground. “Shiny!” she exclaimed and made a grab for it.

“Good luck,” I snickered, and, despite being insanely excited for the ship to come, I fell asleep.