Chapter 5: Two Princes and a Cheerleader

Author's Note: This chapter takes place after "Two Princesses and a Baby," though it's not directly related.

"Psst, Sofin!" came an insistent whisper. "Wake up!"

Sofin rubbed his bleary eyes, yawning. He could hear the clip-clop of horse hooves trotting against the ground as the coach he was riding in moved. Opening his eyes, he realized he must have fallen asleep on the coach ride. Charlene, the captain of the cheerleading team beamed at him.

"Come on, sleepyhead," continued Charlene. "What's got you so tired, anyway?"

Sofin pulled himself up into a sitting position. "I was just up late last night thinking and I lost track of time," he said. It had been months since he'd visited Atlantis with Oona, but he still spent time thinking about the mystery thief and what it all might mean. Last night, he'd been up late trying to puzzle out the weird way the thief had acted. But for all his work, he was still so far away from figuring out exactly what had happened down there.

"Must have been a real doozy of a thought then. You were sleeping like a troll!" said Charlene good-naturedly. Sofin grinned in response. He and Charlene had become fast friends ever since the cheerleader had told him when cheer tryouts were against the coach's orders. She was a little feisty and a little mischievous, but Sofin was still glad to call her his friend.

"Anyways, silly," said Charlene, "we're here. Greenleaf Forest. Let's head out and meet up with the other students." The coach slowed to a stop, and Charlene hopped out onto the grass, dusting dirt off her gown.

Sofin yawned again, then followed her out of the coach. The coachman bowed to them, then turned the coach around to ride back towards Royal Prep. Around Sofin and Charlene, other students got out of their own coaches. They had all come from Royal Prep to Greenleaf Forest in groups of twos and threes for the field trip.

Out of one coach came Professor Velova, their royal history teacher and the captain of the cheerleading team. She wore a tan sun hat atop her head. The professor landed on the grass with a little bounce, energetic as always. Despite that one mishap with tryouts, which Velova had apologized for later, the royal history teacher was still one of Sofin's favorite professors at Royal Prep. She always tried to find ways to make class exciting and fun, and supposedly today they were doing something really interesting for their field trip to Greenleaf Forest. Sofin just didn't know what it was.

Behind Professor Velova exited Sir Gillium, the flying derby coach at Royal Prep. He'd volunteered to come along on the trip to watch the children. Though he could be a little gruff at times, Sofin respected him, since he was supposedly a really good flying derby racer many years ago. They had a race against Weslock coming up soon which would determine who was going to the flying derby championship. Sofin was excited to compete with James.

Sir Gillium blew his whistle, and the groups of Royal Prep students, still chatting as they got out of their coaches, stood to attention. Sofin and Charlene joined the other princes and princesses as they scrambled to get into an orderly line in front of the two teachers.

As the gaggle of students quieted down, Charlene whispered, "Oooh, this is going to be so exciting! I hope you're on my team, there are so many plans I have this year!" Huh? Teams? Plans? What was Charlene talking about? All he knew was that the whole school had come to Greenleaf Forest for a field trip that had something to do with royal history.

But before Sofin could ask Charlene what was going on, Professor Velova cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. Sofin turned to look at the royal history teacher instead.

"Now begins our annual school field trip to Greenleaf Forest. As I'm sure you all know, we start by breaking up all the students into two teams, who will each do various activities today." She surveyed the large crowd of students. "Hmmm…how exactly should I split these teams up?"

"How about the princes on one team, and the princesses on the other?" suggested Sir Gillium. "The numbers seem about even."

Professor Velova looked out over the crowd of students, and Sofin thought her gaze rested on Sofin and Charlene for a moment. But the professor eventually agreed, "Yes, the numbers are pretty close to half and half. Alright, princesses to me, we'll go off and find a place to set up camp."

"And the fine princes, to me," announced Sir Gillium.

The crowd of students split into two. Sofin spied Amber, Clio, and Vivian among the sea of princesses heading towards Professor Velova, though he didn't know too many of the princes.

"Darn!" said Charlene in frustration. Sofin turned to the cheerleader, who was frowning at him. "I was really hoping we could be on the same team. We would've had so much fun together!"

Sofin sighed. "Yeah, it sucks." Why did they have to split up the teams into boys and girls anyways? He wanted to spend the field trip doing fun activities with his friends, like Amber and Charlene and Vivian and Hildegard and Clio! The only prince Sofin was really friends with was his brother. And James would probably be spending more time with Zandar, anyways. "I wish I could be on the princess team," he said, sadly.

Charlene's eyes took on a mischievous glint that Sofin knew well. She bit her lip, thinking. "Well, hold onto that thought," she eventually said, before running off towards Professor Velova and the rest of the gathered princesses. Sofin sadly watched her go.

"Sofin!" called Sir Gillium, as the princes gathered around him. "Get over here!" With one last longing look at the princesses, Sofin headed to stand by his brother in the circle of students around Sir Gilliam. James was whispering something to Zandar that was too quiet for Sofin to hear. Instead, Sofin moved to stand by Prince Khalid, one of the few princes he knew.

"Good!" said Sir Gilliam. "Now that everyone is here, it's time to choose a team captain for the princes. Does anyone want to volunteer as captain?"

James and Zandar's hands flew up into the air, as did Hugo's and a dozen other hopeful princes Sofin didn't know. Sofin kept his own hand down. Captain? Of what? He still didn't even know what they were doing at Greenleaf Forest. Apparently it was a field trip that happened every year, but Sofin had never been on one before, since he'd only been at school for a little less than a year. There was no way he could be a captain.

Sir Gilliam looked at the raised hands, thinking. "James will be the princes' team captain," he eventually decided. The other princes all groaned, while James pumped his fist in the air triumphantly. "Now, I believe that with your team captain decided, I think it's time to lay down some rules for the event today. First, your captain's word is law!"

James glared at the other princes sternly, to emphasize Sir Gilliam's words.

"As captain of the prince's team, James's word is final. Now, I'm not really supposed to help you out with what to do next, but I recommend you explore the forest some to find a good place to set up camp."

"Right!" agreed James. "We'll split up into groups of twos, and then we can find a good place to set up our base! It has to be somewhere defensible, so maybe somewhere with trees or rocks to the sides. We also want to find somewhere on a hill so that we have the high ground…"

As James droned on, Sofin took the opportunity to ask Khalid what was happening. "What's going on, Khalid?" whispered Sofin to the prince of Khaldoun. "What are we doing here?"

But Khalid just shushed her. "Shhh, I don't wanna miss what James is saying," he said. Sofin sighed in frustration, then listened to what James was saying again.

"…so, I'll need someone to find out where the girls are setting up, too. Zandar, can you follow them without being seen?"

Zandar saluted to James. "You can count on me, captain!" Then, the prince from Tangu split off from the group of princes and hid behind some of the many trees as he carefully followed Velova and the princesses, who were starting to head off all in one group.

Seeing him go, James nodded. "Alright, now the rest of you, into groups. Search the forest for places like the ones I just mentioned, and report back to me in fifteen minutes." He pointed at two princes Sofin didn't really know. "Gustav, Carl, you two head that way." The princes headed off in that direction. He kept naming off pairs of princes until there were just two princes left: Sofin and Hugo. James seemed to realize what he had just done and winced.

"Sorry," mouthed James silently to Sofin.

"It's okay," mouthed Sofin back.

"Hugo and Sofin, you two explore that way," said James, pointing into the forest. For his part, Hugo didn't seem too happy with the arrangement, either. He turned and headed in the direction indicated without saying a word, leaving Sofin to run to catch up.

Hugo stepped into the line of trees and through the deep underbrush. He kicked a stick that had fallen onto the ground, pointedly refusing to look at Sofin. The Enchancian prince fell into step behind him, looking around at the forest. Though some were still barren, most of the trees had grown new leaves for the spring. Fallen logs and sticks were scattered across the ground, along with hordes of green plants growing beneath the shade of the trees. Sofin gingerly tried to avoid stepping on any plants.

"So," asked Sofin as he and Hugo avoided a patch of flowers, "what are we looking for anyways?"

Hugo sneered at Sofin. "You heard James. We need to find somewhere for us to make a base. Set up camp, and hopefully stop the girls from finding it. That's gonna cost us a lot of points if they do."

"Points?" asked Sofin. "What do those do?"

Hugo groaned, and ducked to avoid a nearby branch. "What, your brother didn't tell you on the way here?"

Sofin smiled sheepishly. "Actually, I fell asleep. And I wasn't with my brother, I was with my friend, Charlene. She's the captain of the cheerleading—"

"Pfft, that girl?" said Hugo, cutting Sofin off. "Lemme guess, you two are friends?"

Sofin paused for a moment, confused. "Uh, yeah? Is there something wrong with that?"

"Hmph," said Hugo. "Nah, makes total sense. The namby-pamby cheerleader prince is friends with another girly-girl princess."

Sofin thought for a moment as he sidestepped a fallen log. Now that he thought about it, he was friends with an awful many princesses. Even back at the village, his closest friends Ruby and Jade were both girls. But that wasn't weird at all, especially if the princes were anything like Hugo. Even if he couldn't tell what was exactly off with that sentence, Sofin could tell from his tone that Hugo was making fun of him.

"Hugo," said Sofin, "I know you probably feel upset for not getting onto the flying derby team, but why don't we just let the past be the past and maybe start over?" The two came upon a somewhat wide stream in the middle of the woods. "I don't know, maybe we could even become friends?"

Hugo laughed and kicked a stone at the water's edge, watching it skip across the water twice before sinking. "Friends with you? Puh-lease. This has nothing to do with the flying derby tryouts and everything to do with the fact that you wear an amulet around your neck."

Sofin fingered the Amulet of Avalor, still not really getting what Hugo was trying to say. "Um, yes, I do?" he said, uncertainly. What was wrong with that?

Hugo groaned. "Nevermind," he said, sounding frustrated. "You clearly don't get it because you're basically one of those princesses yourself. You should have joined their team instead."

"Maybe I should have," muttered Sofin under his breath, too quietly for Hugo to hear. Then, looking at the stream in front of them, he realized it was probably too far to just walk over. "How are we getting past this stream?" he asked. "Is there a bridge?"

Hugo sneered at Sofin. "Maybe you need a bridge." He backed up a couple paces, then with a running start, jumped across the stream, landing on the other side. Hugo wobbled in place unsteadily for a moment, but eventually regained his balance, smirking at Sofin. "But I'm a prince who actually does sports."

Sofin narrowed his eyes. He hadn't wanted to get his shoes dirty, but if Hugo was challenging him... Taking a few steps back, Sofin ran forward with measured steps, making sure he was jumping at the last possible moment. Then, with a practiced leap, he flew over the stream, landing on the other stream with inches to spare. It was clear that he'd gotten farther than Hugo. Dusting off his pants, Sofin smirked at Hugo and said, "Cheerleading is a sport too."

"Wha—bu—" blubbered Hugo. The expression on his face was priceless. With a satisfied smirk, Sofin copied Hugo's move from earlier, turning and walking away, letting Hugo catch up behind him.

Hugo was silent after that encounter. They trekked across the forest for a few more minutes, but didn't find any sign of a good camp spot.

"Okay, we should head back now if we want to get back to James in fifteen minutes," decided Sofin eventually.

"You can go back," said Hugo, "but I'm gonna keep going till I find a place for the princes' camp. I don't need you, I can find it on my own."

Sofin turned to look at the taller prince. "If we don't turn back now, we won't get back in fifteen minutes," he repeated.

Hugo clenched his fists. "I don't have to take orders from a cheerleader," he said rudely.

"Not from me," retorted Sofin, "but you do have to listen to the team captain, James. One of the other groups might have had better luck."

Hugo's fists shook for a moment, but he eventually sighed. "Fine," he said. "We'll go back." And he followed Sofin back towards the clearing where the students had first arrived.

James was there, surrounded by other princes as he furiously scribbled notes onto a clipboard. Nearby, Sir Gilliam was leaning against a tree, watching the crowd of students.

James poked his head out from under the crowd of students. "Oh, Sofin, Hugo, you're back!" he called, seeing the two of them. "You're the last ones. Find anything interesting?"

Sofin shrugged. "Not really. Just a stream. Nothing good for making a camp."

James scribbled it down anyways. "There's a lot of streams around here," he remarked. He stood up straight, then blew a whistle at his side. Looking over, Sofin saw Sir Gilliam was missing his own whistle. James must have borrowed it.

"Listen up, everyone!" called James. "As team captain, I've decided that the location Magnus and Edward found would be the best place to choose as our base. Magnus, please lead the way."

A tall prince with light brown hair stepped out from the crowd. "Got it, captain," he said, and started leading the group of princes toward a direction roughly opposite to where Sofin and Hugo had gone.

Sofin followed the taller prince, Magnus, as he led them towards the spot of the new camp. Trekking through the forest, Sofin felt hopeful that this field trip would be fun even if he didn't get to spend it with his friends.

Now, if only he could figure out what the field trip was supposed to be about…