Chapter 1: Identity
Xavier Rynne was exhausted. His shoulder-length black hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and he knew he could do with a shave, but it was nearly midnight and he had just finished a paper for his Advanced Placement Art course. He turned off his computer, lights, and changed into pajamas before climbing into bed.
However, Xavier could not fall asleep. All he could think about was how his mother was pushing him to choose another major for college than art, how his girlfriend was pressuring him for a more physical relationship, and how totally exhausted he was.
When Xavier finally did fall asleep, his dreams were wild and turbulent. In one, he was at a club with his girlfriend and they were dancing and flirting and kissing and he was having a great time, then a ceiling tile fell on her. In another, she dropped dead in the middle of a shopping trip for which she'd dragged him along. In a third, his band was performing and one of his jealous fan girls shot his girlfriend.
Xavier woke in a cold sweat at five AM the next morning, immediately reaching for his cell phone. "Xavier? I'm fine, calm down. They were just dreams," whispered the voice of his girlfriend, seventeen-year-old Jessica Cebra.
"Okay, I just wanted to be sure. I was genuinely worried for a moment," Xavier smiled. He sighed and asked, "Will I see you tonight?"
"Actually," Jessica replied, "I don't think it's going to work out. Tonight or any other night. See, I'm going to be very busy for the next few weeks. You understand? It's over. You're too prudish and clingy for me, I'm sorry."
"At least I don't need sex to be happy," Xavier replied, shocked, as he slammed down the phone. Then, he crawled out of bed and into his shower to wash away all the sweat and grime that had accumulated on his skin and in his hair in the past night.
He took his time in the shower, scrubbing his hair and body slowly. When he did emerge from the shower, he felt cleaner, not only bodily but emotionally as well. He threw on a pair of jeans, a gray tee shirt, and a baggy black sweatshirt with a tear in one sleeve and jogged down a flight of stairs to the kitchen for breakfast.
Driving to his last day of high school, Xavier took a deep breath. Jessica was in the majority of his classes and things were going to be awkward. He fingered the cross hanging around his neck and took a deep breath as he opened the rusty door of his black pickup truck into the shining white Mercedes convertible parked next to him.
He left a note on the windshield, then slung his backpack on his shoulder and headed up to the main school building.
"Will Xavier Rynne please report to the main office?" demanded a whiny voice over the PA system the very moment Xavier set his bag down on his chair. With a groan and a sigh, he heaved the bag onto his shoulder and shuffled down the hallway.
Gum on the bottom of his shoe caught a piece of toilet paper hanging out of the bathroom doorway and his hair was a mess as he pushed open the door of the main office.
"Xavier Rynne?" asked the scarily cheerful voice of the secretary. He just nodded as he set his bag down. "You have a visitor. You may greet them in the principal's office." The secretary pointed at the door, smiling, and Xavier shuffled on, picking his bag up again.
"Xavier Rynne?" asked the deep voice of a man seated at the principal's desk. The young man nodded and the man smiled, "Well, you've grown up somewhat differently than I'd have planned, but nothing we can do about that now, eh?"
"What are you talking about?" Xavier asked. "Who are you and what do you want with me?" The man, a stout business-type in a pinstripe suit, just laughed.
"You can't be serious! Not knowing your own father? One thing's for certain, that is certainly my sense of humor!" laughed the man. Xavier just wrapped his sweatshirt around himself awkwardly and shifted. "You can't be serious. I am Reagan Rynne, your father. Your mother, Elyssa, never told me about you until a few weeks ago and this is the first chance I had to come meet you." Xavier just stared at the man as though he were crazy. "Come, come, the limo is waiting outside." With that, the man left the room, intending Xavier to follow. "Come, I'll explain everything on the ride." Xavier obediently picked up his bag, feeling he had nothing to lose, and walked after the man.
"Mom?" Xavier asked, surprised when he slid into the limo and found his mother already seated there. "Why didn't you tell me I had a father? I thought he was dead."
Elyssa Rynne just blushed as she twisted her hands in her lap. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Had your father known, you'd have grown up in the stifling courts of the king."
"Why? Who exactly is Reagan Rynne?" Xavier asked. However, the pinstripe-suited man entered the limo and Xavier fell silent.
"You must be terribly confused," said Reagan to Xavier. "You don't even have to call me Dad, just Reagan will do if you want."
The limo driver asked then, "Where to, my King?" Xavier's jaw practically dropped.
"The mall. I daresay we have something to celebrate." He turned back and explained to Xavier, "See, your mother was hired at the castle as a cook and I was just a prince then, no older than yourself, really, and we fell in love. We eloped and then, one day, about eighteen or nineteen years ago, Elyssa disappeared."
"And eight months later, I had you," Elyssa said to her son. Xavier stared at them.
"Why now? Why didn't you come earlier?" Xavier asked Reagan. Reagan just sighed heavily and looked at Elyssa.
"I didn't know about you until two weeks ago," Reagan said. "Only my father's advisor had known and he'd not told me. Instead, he'd told Elyssa to disappear."
"And I did," filled in Elyssa. "Xavier, honey, you know you don't have to rule after your father. You can abdicate the throne."
"What would happen then?" Xavier asked his father. "Because really, I'm just a student. I'm supposed to go to college next year. I'm supposed to be an artist, not a prince!"
"You can do both. Rule and your art," said Reagan. "If you abdicate, though, the throne will simply move to the next in line. Right now, that is my cousin."
Xavier just nodded, taking it all in. "You also don't have to decide right now," said Elyssa. "You can go to college first."
"But not at that dreadful public college! That is no place for a prince!" sneered Reagan. "No, you will attend my alma mater, Wellington University."
"What about my friends?" Xavier asked. "And my sports? I'm the captain of the fencing team!"
"You'll be able to take over at Wellington," Reagan shrugged. "Come on, what do you stand to lose? You can make new friends!'
"I've known my friends Danielle and Rachel for my whole life! I won't leave them behind!" Xavier told his father, his voice shaking.
"My son, friends with peasants? Xavier, I'm not sure you know what you're saying! This is the chance of a lifetime! Are you just going to throw it away for a couple of kids, only to regret it later? Trust me; there will be new friends at this school."
"If I hate it, you will let me go back," Xavier stated coolly, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Certainly," the king smiled. He and Xavier shook hands and Reagan quipped to Elyssa, "I'm liking this boy, he reminds me of myself." Elyssa just lay a hand over her son's and smiled.
When the limo pulled up at the mall, Reagan's entourage of bodyguards had to empty each store before the king and his son could shop there. Xavier ended up with several suits, new jeans and button-front shirts; even new gym shoes.
"No son of mine will wear torn clothes again," the king smiled with pride as he piled sweatshirts into the carriage for Xavier.
"Reagan, this is a lot of money," said Xavier. "I really don't need all this." He went to put things back on the shelf but Reagan stopped him.
"Just enjoy it for now," he whispered vehemently. "When you're away at school, you'll want as many clothes as possible so you won't have to do laundry. You'll need uniforms, as well, for special occasions."
"When will Hansen City CC know I'm transferring?" Xavier asked as he evaluated a dark blue tee shirt.
Reagan tossed the shirt in the cart and replied easily, "Tomorrow." Xavier gaped at his newfound father as Reagan said, "Well, when else? The sooner the better, I always say."
"I want one last day with my friends," Xavier said clearly. "They're going to sob like mad as it is." Reagan sighed, but nodded.
"Have them over to the palace tonight. Your suite is huge," Reagan said.
"They're girls. We can't stay in the same room, it wouldn't be right," Xavier replied, flabbergasted. Reagan just rolled his eyes.
"If you want them to visit, then have them over, Xavier. If not, stop complaining," replied the king. He then waved over a salesperson. "Do you have these in a smaller size?" he asked, holding up a pair of jeans.
"I'm sorry, sir, but that's the smallest size we carry," the salesclerk replied. "I'm sure you could find something that would fit, maybe in the boy's department."
Xavier, sensing his father's anger, just tugged the pants from his father's hands and put them back. "That's fine, thanks," he replied, rolling his eyes.
"Ridiculous, the son of the king should want for nothing," Reagan muttered. He picked up armfuls of button-front shirts and put them in the cart Elyssa was pushing with great difficulty.
"Reagan, this is plenty, and this is only the third store," said Xavier. "Now, if you don't mind, there is just one thing I'd like to get." Reagan nodded and they checked out. Xavier's eyes flew wide when he saw his father about to charge three thousand dollars of clothes.
"Where would you like to go?" asked his father as he handed over his card. "Anywhere in particular? What are you looking for?"
"Actually, I know exactly where to go," Xavier smiled. He and his mother tried to carry their bags but Reagan insisted that servants carried them. "Come, I'll show you." With that, he led his father to a small store tucked away in the corner of the mall.
"What is this? A shoe store?" his father asked. Xavier nodded as he approached a pair of fencing sneakers.
"They just came out last week," he said. "My friend Danielle's father works for the company, so he had a pair set aside for me to buy, and I finally saved enough to buy them." He selected a box of the sneakers in his size and paid for them with wrinkled dollar bills from his pocket, much to his father's chagrin.
"If you're all set, then, there are a few more places I'd like to go," Reagan told his son. Xavier just gaped as he gestured silently at the servants carrying bags and bags of clothes.
"Please, I'd rather just go home," Xavier said. "Besides, I have to pick up my truck at school." Elyssa gently touched her son's arm and smiled.
"Why don't I pick it up while you and your father go to the house to pack up?" she asked him. Xavier's eyes widened.
"We have to move in, too?" he asked. "But I grew up in that house! I was born in that house!" Elyssa sighed and her son just nodded. "Very well, then. We'll see you soon." He pecked his mother's cheek and then they parted ways, his mother to go to the bus stop to ride back to the school, and he with his father to the limo.
"Why don't you call your friends now?" Reagan asked Xavier. "I'm sure they'll jump at a chance to spend the night in a romantic palace with the prince."
Xavier rolled his eyes. "I'm sure they would love to do that with their boyfriends, but trust me, Danielle and Rachel are just my friends." Reagan smiled and Xavier dialed the girls' number.
"Ello?" asked Danielle as her twin sister, Rachel, picked up the other end of the line.
"Hey, guys, it's me, Xavier, and I just wanted to know if you wanted to stay over tonight. I've got a lot to tell you two."
"Sure," said Rachel. "Dad's away anyway, and Mom went with him, so we'll come. See you at your house?"
"Actually," Xavier replied, shooting a smile at the man who was his father, "You guys can meet me at the palace. Okay? I'll see you in ten minutes." With that, he hung up.
"They're coming?" Reagan asked. Xavier just nodded, smiling sadly. "What's wrong?"
"It's just that, they're my friends and I love them as though they were my sisters, and I'm going to miss them. I don't even know what I'm going to tell them."
"They're peasants. You're royalty. It's as simple as that," shrugged Reagan. "They're commoners, you're uncommon."
"They're not just commoners. They're my friends," Xavier sighed. "It doesn't matter; I'm going to see them in five minutes, only to tell them I'm never going to see them again."
"I'm sorry, but try to remember how much you're doing for your country," Reagan said, attempting comfort. Xavier nodded and sighed as he looked out the window of tinted glass.
