A Royal Internship | Complete

Chapter Twelve

When we finally got back to the house, we were already three hours behind on our packing and cleaning.

"It's going to be hard to get out of here before the plane leaves tomorrow." Janet put her hands on her hips and surveyed the house from the doorway. "But at least we don't have to actually move all the stuff."

I looked at the pile of empty boxes the movers had dropped off for us. "And we only have to pack our own things, right? The movers are going to do the kitchen and stuff?"

"Yeah, so your room, my room, and my office."

"Okay, I'll do my room first and come help you once I'm done." Fortunately, when I'd moved out of HIS house, I'd sent most of my things to storage, so I only had the most necessary items here at Janet's.

"Come here, suitcase," I spoke aloud as I pulled the suitcase out of the closet.

I stared at the suitcase and the boxes in front of me. It's now or never. Do I pack a suitcase for maybe the scariest adventure of a lifetime, or the boxes to return to my mom's house for the summer, working with Uncle John? When I put it like that, why is it even a choice?

"We need to get packed," I continued my monologue.

Janet poked her head in the door. "Did you need me?"

"What? No!"

"I thought I heard you talking. Weird."

Yeah, weird. "Well, I'm fine. Thanks." I smiled and waved.

Janet seems so sure I can do this, and I know I want to, but I don't think she's right. I just keep thinking what will happen if Clarence goes rogue and refuses to commit to the events or if I mess up and cause the king even more embarrassment.

I took the clothes out of the closet and dresser and piled them onto the bed.

And, on that note, I have no idea how to behave in front of a king. Will I have to curtsey all the time? How do you curtsey? Are there special rules for how I dress or act? Will I offend them if I don't behave correctly at the palace?

My breathing had sped up in my chest without my knowledge or consent. My breaths were coming in quick, shallow spurts and my head started to spin. I sat down on the bed and hung my head down between my knees until my head almost reached the floor.

Focus on breathing. I kept myself occupied with counting to four hundred before slowly sitting up once I was feeling a little better. My heart leapt into my throat again when I saw Clarence standing in the door of my room.

Mortified to see him standing in my doorway after my near panic moment, I couldn't seem to do anything but stare at him.

Finally, he broke the silence. "Can I come in?" He pointed to a desk chair I had never once used during my stay here.

It felt like my brain was walking through a fog, so I did the only thing I could think of. "Sure, go ahead."

He walked across my room, pulled out the chair, slid it towards me about three feet, and then sat down. "I wanted to talk to you about this whole Janet thing."

I slid a little away from him onto my bed. "What about the whole Janet thing?" I didn't have any idea what he was going to say, and it scared me.

"Her idea to have you come intern for my dad and pretend to be my girlfriend in public." He waved his hand as though the answer was obvious, which it probably was.

"Oh." I took a deep breath. "And what do you think about the whole Janet thing?"

He sighed. "I really do think it's a terrible idea. I can think of about a thousand ways that it could go wrong, but I've had no luck convincing my dad to scrap the idea. It looks like no matter what I do, I'm going to have a 'girlfriend' following me around all summer," he laughed bitterly. "Well, he did give me the option of him finding me a fiancée, but that sounds a lot worse, so I'll stick with a girlfriend."