Chapter 3: Your Highness, Prince Lee
Cabin life was fairly easy for the kids. Tim, Sarah, and Ryan lived in the smaller cabin, and Cathy, Turtle, and Mike lived in the bigger one. They could use the trees around them to make furniture and get firewood. They all got jobs to buy food and other supplies. Cathy got a job as a teacher's aide. Tim and Turtle got jobs as grocery store clerks (which got them some discounts on groceries). Sarah was a nurse in a family clinic (this skill will come in handy later in the story). Mike was eleven, and too young to get a job, or so Cathy said. So, he stayed home and took care of Ryan.
On this distant planet of Golda, there was a king named Lotharon. The king had two sons, Humperdink, and Lee (where he got these names nobody knows). Being born first, Humperdink was the favorite. But that didn't mean Lee was not treated well. He had anything he wanted and servants to do anything he wanted them to.
When the king died, Humperdink was crowned king. He did not like his little brother, so during a parade on the streets near the cabins, King Humperdink "accidentally" pushed his brother off the platform and threw all his things after him. Lee rolled down the hill and into the trees.
Lee was not too badly hurt, but he had hit his head on a tree stump and was unconscious. If it were not for Cathy and Tim, though, he probably would have died. They were walking along the road after watching the king parade by. Suddenly, Tim spotted something glittering in the sun.
"Hey, Cathy! See that shiny thing over there? What is it?"
"I don't know. I'll go check." Cathy walked over to the glittering thing. It was a golden necklace, hanging in the branches. She looked under the tree. It was a boy. On his face was an old, yellow teddy bear, and on top of his right ankle, there was a small stool.
"Hey, Tim! Come look at this! There's a boy under this tree!"
Tim ran over to the tree. "What happened to him?"
"I don't know. He's hurt. Let's take him back to your cabin. Your sister's a doctor now."
Tim ran back to the cabins to get the car. They put the boy (and his things) in it. When they got back, Sarah took a look at him.
"Is he okay?" Tim asked.
"His right ankle is sprained and he has a big bump on his head, but he'll be okay."
"That's good," said Cathy. "I'll bring him over to my cabin for a while."
After a few hours, Prince Lee woke up. His head hurt badly and he did not recognize the place he was lying. "Where am I?" he asked.
"Oh, so, you finally woke up?" said Cathy.
"Hey! That's no way to treat me!" said Lee.
"And why not? It's not like you're royalty or something!" said Cathy.
"I am too! I'm Lee, prince of Golda."
"Uh, huh. If you're really Prince Lee, then I'm Cathy, queen of England."
Lee got down on one knee (with great difficulty since he had a sprained ankle). "Your majesty…"
Cathy laughed. "You really believed that?"
"Well I am prince of this planet, so you must be the queen of England."
"Gee, you never heard sarcasm before?"
"Sarcasm?"
"You're hopeless," said Cathy, walking out of the room.
Lee shrugged. He got out of bed and hopped on his good ankle over to the bookshelf. There was a book about royalty on it. Lee pulled the book off the shelf and opened it to the index. He looked for his name. He was sure he was a prince, but this girl didn't seem to think so. Cathy, her name was.
Lee found his name and flipped to the page indicated. He was mentioned as the son of King Lotharon and the brother of Prince Humperdink (the book was written before the king had died), but the only picture of him was taken when he was a baby. Not too helpful.
Lee wondered why Cathy had not known he was a prince by his clothes or crown. He looked down at his clothes. They were muddy and dirty, almost unrecognizable. But his crown. Surely, anyone would know a prince by his crown. He reached up for his crown, but it was gone!
"No wonder!" he sighed. He was about to hop out to look for his crown, but Cathy came back in.
"Your ankle is sprained! You shouldn't be up and about, prince or not," Cathy scolded.
"I am a prince. My name is in this book of royalty," Lee said, holding up the book.
"You must have hit your head harder than I thought!" said Cathy, taking the book from him and putting it back on the shelf. "Now, get back to bed." She ushered Lee to the bed.
"But what about my crown! It's missing! And my clothes are dirty!" Lee protested.
"Well, I'll get you some of Turtle's clothes to wear and wash your clothes, but when we found you, I didn't see the crown you say you are missing. I'll look, though." (She wasn't really planning to.) She got a pair of clean clothes for Lee and brought them to him. After he was changed, she took his clothes outside to the stream and washed them.
"Whoa! He wasn't kidding when he said he was a prince!" Cathy said when Lee's clothes were clean. His clothes were red and blue, the royal colors, obviously custom made, and expensive; things only a prince could afford to wear. "I think I should go look under that tree for his crown."
She went back to her cabin to hang up the clothes. "So you believe me now?" asked Lee.
"Yeah. I'm going to look for your crown." Cathy left the cabin and walked back to the tree. Under it, she found the crown.
Cathy brought it back to Lee. "I guess we should take you back to the castle now," she said.
"No way!" Lee shouted. "My brother tried to get rid of me! I didn't just fall off the platform; he pushed me! And it's not the first time he tried to do it, either!"
"But don't you want to be king?"
"Of course I want to be king! Who doesn't? It's just that I don't care enough about it to risk my life by living in the castle."
Cathy thought for a while. "Hmm…. Well, I guess you can stay with us," she said, "but I'll have to ask everyone else, too."
Cathy talked with Tim, and they decided Lee could stay with them. It hadn't even been a week since they had left the orphanage, and they already had a new friend. He was the first, but he would not be the last. Though there were seven of them now, there would eventually be eleven.