Chapter 4: The king (1)

Every day that passed after that was excruciating. The curiosity of these strange rules biting me. Bothering me, to the point where I can't even focus in class. I am getting in trouble several times for not paying attention.

For example, while in English class I was doing what I always seem to be doing nowadays. I was daydreaming of the king. A whole array of questions were storming and brewing in my head when the teacher called on me.

I confessed and luckily she let me off with a warning. Though, her warning didn't help because thoughts of the king are like a looming figure in my head. Always on my mind.

In music class, we practised, well at least for my fellow classmates, all the songs. For me, however, I was struggling to learn all the songs while they just continued playing. The old teacher said that I should already know them if I'm good enough to be in this school. So rude of her.

So, to catch up I decided, in my off period to learn the songs with mister Anderson (who is the actual orchestra conductor). Turns out he's actually a pretty good teacher because by the end of our first lesson I knew almost all the songs.

He and I seemed to click instantly and had formed a really good connection by the end. He said that if my band, the one that the old lady gave me, were ever to go off that he'd come to get me before I got in trouble.

He also taught me that the band is called an Infinity band, I.B, for short but the second my fingers could play the song without me thinking my thoughts immediately went to him.

So, with this constant nagging feeling, I decided after so much thinking that today I'm going to the king's wing. I'm going to see him. I thought about telling my friends, but I don't know if I can trust them. Anna, I'm sure she wouldn't tell a soul. Heck, she'd probably even join me but I'm not so sure of Edith, I don't know why but I just don't trust her enough to tell her.

I have decided to be on my best behaviour today, maybe when I get caught they'll see me like a little angel. I hope at least they'll think I was just lost.

I was very shocked in math class when the class was visited by a little someone. Actually, he wasn't little at all, he stands at an incredibly tall height of 6'4. With dark brown hair and cloudy almost grey, blue eyes.

He was actually quite jolly and wore a black and blue suit. My math teacher seemed very stressed by him being there and told us to be on our best behaviour before the king's brother came. Which name turned out to be Alexander.

The teacher isn't exactly the fondest of me but Alexander was. When the class was busy doing work he had stood right next to me. All the girls around me seemed to swoon over him. I had to admit he was quite handsome but I knew he was way too old for me. But every now and then he would ask me if I was okay. He then said something that quite shocked me.

"The King was worried about how you would adapt," I sat there, staring in awe at him, confused on what he meant by that. Does that mean the king know of me? Why would he be worried about 'how I adapt'.

"I think you and I will become very good friends." Then the annoying bell rang, he gave me a small piece of paper before walking up to the front of the class. Greeting everyone and then leaving just fast as that moment felt.

Later at lunch, I finally pull the rough paper out of my bag. Edith on my right grabs it before I even open it. She was a lot faster than me and just about 2 cm taller. I huff at her, jumping up trying to grab it out of her hand as she's holding it just high enough for me not to reach.

I notice that people are looking and stop jumping up and down, making me blush pink. Great that's exactly what I don't want. "Edith, people are looking!" she stopped and looked around her, realizing that people were in fact staring, she sat down. She chucks it over to me, reluctantly and continues chowing down on her beans.

I open up the paper, on it in black ink is written:

Meet me on the soccer field during the second break next Monday. ~ Alex

I raise my eyebrow, why does he want to meet me? Does he know about the plan to go see the king? I huff in frustration, Anna notices my annoyance and asks, "Where did you get that?" I look over to her, quickly thinking of an excuse.

"Oh umm, a guy gave it to me," She raised her eyebrow, her eyes gleamed with excitement. "Don't ask. I'm not gonna answer." She rolls her eyes, clearly frustrated with how little information I gave her about this letter. "Why can't I know?" She asks, at that moment I knew not to say a word because I knew if I did she would get my little secret out of my mouth.

I planned today perfectly, I chose today because my last period was music. That means that I don't have any books that I would need to pick up. The universe seemed to be on my side because the usual teacher was absent and guess who was the substitute teacher. You got that right, Mr Anderson. That means I'll be able to "go to the bathroom" without fuss.

He said that we could just keep ourselves busy. Waiting just a few minutes, pretending to be tuning my cello's strings. Then I walk up to him and ask him if I may use the bathroom. He says yes, as I suspected he would and he gives me a pass and sends me on my way.

It takes me over 2 hours to get there and because it's winter, it is almost dark. The only reason I know where the king's wing is is that one day I got lost here and I got in trouble for even being there. When I asked why. they said I was right in front of the king's bedroom door.

That is what I'm looking at right now. An archway with two oak doors, the doors have metal engravings on them. It truly is breathtaking, I stand there, telling myself that I need to go back but the voice in the back of my head refuses to leave after 2 hours of walking here. That I'm not giving up after so much planning and so much walking.

Without even realising, my hand flings up and knocks on the door. Like the universe is giving me that extra push. I curse myself for how dumb that was and that I should turn back but when the door rattles I know, there's no going back now.