Chapter Two. Here's Alanna's first morning of classes. Francis notices a few more little clues to her true identity, but does he pay attention to them? Thanks for all of your reviews guys; they really encouraged me to continue this story. I even know how it's going to end (whether Francis will die like he did in the book or not), I think. I can't wait to tell you, but I'll have to until the end of this story :) .

Disclaimer: The characters, places, and many of the events in this story come from The Song of the Lioness: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. So basically everything belongs to her. Dialogue that has double quotes ( ""hello"" - Like this) around it is a direct quote from the book, and all of that definitely belong to Tamora Pierce.
When the deafening morning bells called Francis into wakefulness, he felt oddly refreshed. Serving Duke Gareth hadn't been as bad as he had expected. He had served the Duke and Duchess of Naxon quickly and tidily without a single spill. Francis had been greatly relieved when at the end of the night, his training master found nothing to complain about. Now all he had to do was stay punctual and poised for the next year, he thought with a grimace

Silently, he sat up and slipped out of bed. The sun was just rising above the royal forest without a single cloud to mar its morning rays. He might have whistled simply for pleasure of such a beautiful day, but he didn't want to disturb his neighboring pages who were more than likely trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep before the next bell demanded that there was no more time for such pleasure. They would think it silly and girly that he admired the beauty of the world around him. This was just one of the many reasons why he preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.

After a quick stretch to wake up his stiff body, he stripped off his nightshirt and began to dress.

This time when Raoul's morning knock came, Francis didn't jump. It was just another part of their morning routine.

"Come in Raoul," he called softly as he pulled on his breeches.

Raoul strolled into Francis's room looking as cheerful as ever.

"G'morning Francis!" he said through a giant grin.

"Morning Raoul," Francis answered as he began to button his shirt. "You're up early, even for you." He noted.

Raoul nodded, then made his way over to the looking glass to straighten his hair. Francis hid a grin when he saw that his big friend had to stoop down to see his reflection. Raoul had grown quite a bit over the summer break.

"I'm just excited. We're fourth years, finally! Kings of the pages! Maybe this year our teachers will finally realize that our heads aren't as full of fluff as they think."

"Yes," Francis replied, "And perhaps you will shrink. Hand me my tunic?"

Raoul delicately flung the wrinkle-free golden tunic over to his friend before continuing, "And next year, next year Francis, all this work will finally mean something. We'll be squires! No more boring classes then, just adventure!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself Raoul, we've got to survive this year first," Francis said with a laugh. Quickly, he slipped his boots on and collected all he would need for the morning classes.

"Right, let's go eat," Francis said cheerfully.

He slipped out the door and was surprised to find Gary outside waiting for them. Normally, nothing was worth delaying a good meal to Gary, yet here he was leaning against the wall on the other side of the hallway, looking as if he had all the time in the world.

"Why Gary, I didn't know you cared!" Raoul exclaimed.

"Sorry, chaps, but I don't. Well not about you anyway. I'm waiting for young master Alan. I'm his sponsor you know," Gary said, puffing his chest out importantly. His moment of dignity was ruined when Raoul elbowed him in the stomach.

At that moment, the new page Alan stepped out of his room, looking slightly groggy and bleary eyed. Francis was surprised to find that Alan had the room next to his.

"Good morning Alan!" Gary exclaimed cheerfully, much to the distaste of the tired looking redhead.

Alan answered in some sort of a grunt, only half awake.

"Morning Alan," Raoul and Francis echoed.

"Morning," Alan managed, swiping a lock of hair from his eyes.

"Well, let's head to the mess hall lads, we'll need our strength to survive the morning lessons," Gary said starting down the hall.
At breakfast the group met up with Prince Jonathan and Alex who had already begun to eat. Jon greeted them cheerfully while Alex waved weakly. Like the new boy Alan, Alex hated to be up early enough to see the sun rise. Francis hoped that he would be awake enough by mathematics to help him. Math was his worst subject by far and the fact that the Mithrian priest who taught the subject made him nervous didn't help.

Francis placed his tray, loaded with porridge, toast, and sausages, across from Jon and sat. Raoul plopped down next to him on one side and Alan on the other. He dug into his porridge, laden with cinnamon and honey, listening to his friends' morning chatter.

"So Alan," Jon asked the new page, "Why do you want to become a knight?"

Alan however continued to eat as though he had not heard the prince.

"Alan?" he asked a little louder.

Alan looked up from his plate and stared at him, baffled. It seemed to take him a second to realize that the prince was speaking to him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say your highness?" he asked sheepishly.

Francis studied Alan for a moment. It had been as if the lad had forgotten his own name. He let it go, explaining to himself that the first night at the palace could do that to a country boy. He remembered how he had felt after his first night at the palace and was glad that he had adjusted to the change quickly.

"It's alright, it took me a full year with Gary, Francis and Raoul to learn to be at least half awake in the morning. I swear they should have been birds; they're so cheerful so early. Alex over here," he gestured to his friend, "has yet to even try to be civil. I asked you why you decided to become a knight."

Alan pondered his answered for a moment, chomping on an apple. Finally he decided, "I've wanted to be a knight for as long as I can remember, it's been something I've dreamed of since I was a little boy."

"Not that you're much of a bigger boy now, eh?" Gary joked as Alan turned crimson. It was true. Alan was easily the smallest page at the palace.

"And, I did not want to go to the con-Corus Royal University. I would hate to be a scholar like my father wanted me to. I want to have adventures, not read about them in books."

Raoul nodded in agreement, "I'd trade a book for a blade any day."

Overhead the bell rang to summon them to class. Alex groaned softly.

"Well," Francis began, "If you did trade your books in now, Master Gadsberth might be a tad upset, seeing as you still have to get through his class."

"A tad upset?" Gary asked jovially as he picked up his tray to leave, "He would die of shock, then come back to throttle you!" To Alan he explained, "Master Gadsberth is our Reading and Writing master. That's what we have first."

Francis picked up his own tray and hurried to follow the other pages out of the mess.
In reading and writing, Master Gadsberth promptly made sure that all the new boys could read and that the older pages had managed to crack a book during their summer of "lazing around". No sooner had he done so, than he assigned them all a two thousand word essay on what they did over the summer.

Next was mathematics where Master Hornswort seemed to pick him out especially to do a complex problem on the front board. Francis had never even seen such a problem and had a feeling that Mater Hornswort had assigned him the problem just to humiliate him in front of everyone. As he trudged back to his seat to start the punishment work that he had received for admitting that he didn't know how to solve the problem, Francis wondered what it was that he had done to make the mathematics teacher hate him.

He asked Raoul as much during their morning break.

"There's no rhyme or reason to it, Francis, that man's just got a grudge against you. And there's a good chance you'll never find out why." He explained.

"The least he could do is teach me what I do wrong, but he won't even do that. Why if it weren't for Alex, I wouldn't know what two and two was!" Francis exclaimed.

Raoul laughed as he steered him to deportment class, "My, Francis I don't think I've ever heard you raise your voice."

Francis reddened and tried to regain his normal composure. "It just doesn't make any sense," he muttered as he took a seat.

During deportment, the pages worked on reviewing bows and the proper topics of discussion with men of different ranks. Francis hid a smile when he saw Alan's look of indignity when the Deportment Master told him that he knew close to nothing about manners and must have been raised by barbarians. The poor lad was looking overwhelmed already and they were only half way through the morning.

Towards the end of class, the Deportment Master took Francis and two other boys aside to practice the bows used by one lord to greet another. After his father died three year ago of illness, Francis had become the lord of fief Nond. He and the other young lords had to master an entirely new set of bows on top of the ones they were expected to use as pages.

Finally, all of the pages were released to go to their history class. This was Francis' favorite class of the day, taught by Sir Myles of Olau. The knight was nothing like their other teachers and had a knack for keeping even the most absent minded boy's attention. Today they discussed the Bazhir wars and, as always, the Code of Chivalry. Francis chuckled along with the others when Alan told Sir Myles that all he had learned so far was ""to jump when I'm told to and I have no free time."" Francis wished that he had the nerve to speak his mind like Alan, but he would only do so was in his daydreams.

The final class of the morning was Philosophy, Francis' second favorite class. While most boys took the hour to catch up on sleep, Francis listened with rapt attention to the teacher. Philosophy pondered all the questions that he often wondered himself. What was the difference between right and wrong? When was it all right to break the law? And To what point did you honor the rights of your over lords?

Francis couldn't see how any of it could be boring. After class, he walked with Raoul, Gary, Alex and Alan down to the practice courts.

"Gary," Alan asked, "What was the work we're supposed to do for philosophy tonight, I, uh, wasn't really paying attention."

Gary laughed, "I don't know. I never pay any attention to that old windbag. He would go on for hours if the bell didn't summon us away."

Alan looked a bit worried, but Gray continued, "Just ask Francis, that's what everybody does. He's the only one who pays any attention during that class."

Francis grinned, "You fellows don't know what you're missing!" Quickly he told the group the night's assignment before they began their afternoon on the practice courts.
So guys, how are you liking this so far? I know I'm kind of taking this slowly, but I have to stretch it out because of Francis' untimely death in the book. Please review!