Chapter Three

"You have to wake up right now princess, you got school today. You cannot be late on the first day itself," Katy said softly and shook me gently.

"Oh yeah," I grumbled and slowly sat up. "Don't call me princess, Katy. Not even in the house, I don't want to get  busted. We cannot risk getting caught especially after all this . . . "

"I'm sorry, wouldn't happen next time," she apologised and I smiled woefully at her.

I could smell some aroma of food and something chocolatey which made me sniff. Katy smiled brightly and placed the tray of breakfast which was initially kept on the nightstand on the bed. It consisted of waffles, cream and fruits. She walked out of my bedroom while I had already started eating and reappeared with a mug of hot chocolate. Perfect.

I finished eating when Katy called out to someone. A small crowd of two ladies and three men huddled up together, entered my room. The ladies wore white shirt, black, knee-length pencil skirt and block heel sandals. The men were dressed neatly in their black and white suits, cool sunglasses and their hair was gelled back.

"Before I introduce them, do you want anything added to this room?" Katy asked rather formally and I shook my head.

"Nothing really, this room is very pretty Katy," I complimented and sipped the hot chocolate.

"Wonderful!" Katy glanced at the mini-squad of strange people who I was looking at curiously. I quitely wiped my hot chocolate moustache and raised my right eyebrow at the crowd. Their expressions was very absurd, it was in between looking solemn and smiling, but they pulled it off correctly to let me know that they respected me. But, the uncomfortable silence was annoying me.

Katy flashed a bright smile at them and said, "Er . . . meet the ladies, Rita and Mary. They are the housekeepers and will look after your every need. And those gentlemen over there will be your new bodyguards."

"Cool, but won't these 'bodyguards' attract attention?" I asked and licked my lips while narrowing my eyes at them.

The tall, muscular, black man from the group of three stepped forward and pushed himself through the ladies who frowned at him. But he smiled cheerfully at us, flashing his pearly white teeth, completely ignoring the ladies.

He bowed his head low and said, "Princess, we won't attract much attention because from tomorrow, I wouldn't be wearing this suit and sunglasses. I'll be dressed as a civilian and I'll be your driver too."

I nodded while returning his contagious smile. He removed his sunglasses and tucked them in the upper pocket of his dress shirt. He had black, twinkling and friendly eyes. He seemed to be in his early thirties and looked absolutely charming with his fit body.

"Amelia, this is Jack. He'll drive you to school from today onwards," Katy said nervously and glanced at Jack. Jack winked at her playfully which made her blush. The crowd behind them cleared their throat as if notifying them of their presence.

"Those two other bodyguards will be called whenever necessary while I'll be staying here in this house. Hope you wouldn't mind princess, it's an order from the King," Jack stated and I just shrugged.

One of those bodyguards that Jack mentioned was short and bald. He had an extra-long, pointed nose resembling Pinocchio but in a very creepy way. He had a big mole sitting on the right side of his cheek. I noticed the mole had tiny hair growing which made me internally gag.

I snapped out of my weird thoughts and subconsciously nodded again at Jack who couldn't keep his eyes off Katy.

* * *

"Hi, I'm Amelia Parker," I introduced with a lot of confidence in my voice and subconsciously curtsied.

Why even I did that . . . I didn't know.

All the students in the class stared at me like I had swallowed a giant hippo in front of them and I just laughed, waving off their suspicion.

"Well . . . Okay then, Miss Parker. You may take your seat," the teacher said and I nodded.

I looked thoroughly at the whole class to find a spot to sit while the teacher patiently waited for me. I half-smiled at her and quickly sat beside a red-head, avoiding the death stares of the people around me.

I was pretty confident and bold in front of a crowd. I was used to the feeling of being exposed to a huge audience, but today was different. I had to act like a shy nerd who was a social outcast to not attract unnecessary attention. I had to be invincible.

The girl beside whom I sat had wild curly, red hair and she still wore braces. She welcomed me warmly by flashing her neon coloured braces and I returned back a sweet smile while taking out my history book.

I didn't even know the basics of this country's history very well, let alone I had to know this advanced history. I should have learnt and done some research before hand. Besides history, all the other subjects except the ever-struggling Math, was pretty easy for me, especially languages. I could fluently speak, read and write in English, French, Spanish and Mandarin, something about these languages was always appealing to me.

So, here I was stuck listening to the French teacher who was pronouncing each word ten times which made it even more confusing because half the time it sounded like some buddhist mantra.

Noah and pretty much all the students including me had all the classes together, since this school was located in the beautiful countryside and did not have many students. Moreover, there weren't many options for subjects either which forced me to take up history.

This was the only highschool in the entire town. My gaze swept over the class one more time to notice that Noah sat behind me, leaving two benches. The awkward moment was when our eyes met and we just looked at each other, before I tore my gaze away from him.

I learnt that my partner's name was Peyton, but people called her Ginger, obviously because of her gorgeous hair. Ginger was indeed pretty with her red hair and tanned skin. Her bright brown eyes and the genuine smile that was always plastered on her face made her look even more prettier. She pretty much resembled the female lead from the animated movie, 'Brave.'

At lunch time, I sat with Ginger and her friends - the bubbly twins, Anne and Marya. Noah was sitting with the large group of noisy boys. I learnt from the twins that Ginger and Noah's best friend Chad had something juicy going on. They were the new couple of the town but they hadn't admitted it yet.

"Amelia, I heard you're the next-door neighbour of Noah? It's a small town, so we pretty much know everything," Ginger asked while slurping her milkshake. I quietly bit into my sandwich and nodded. The twins were fighting over a piece of gum and I laughed lightly.

"Ignore Anne and Marya, they're always like that. But you know you're quite lucky to be Noah's neighbour. Look at him, he's hot and single. Besides, he has a good heart," Ginger said sincerely and then playfully winked at me.

"Well, erm let's see," I said dismissively which made Ginger laughed and she twirled her curly hair between her fingers.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Noah and our eyes met for the second time as I sat frozen. My heart hammered against my chest wildly and my breath hitched when he didn't look away. Unfortunately, his deep blue eyes left mine as soon as Chad smacked his arm and started to tease him. I sighed wearily and brought my attention back to our table where Ginger was grinning widely at me.