Competition

"Hi, Benny-boo."

Ben was sitting at the center lunch table with the other princes. He turned while the others kept playing stone-sword-scroll and flinging princess peas at each other. Such boys.

"Hey Audrey. How are you?"

"Great. So, you ready to plan our summer vacations? Momma's thinking Camelot Heights but I would love to visit Neverland again. What about you?"

Every year our families got together for a brunch before summer vacation to plan our summer trips together. We had ice cream sundaes and would throw darts at maps to find new places to visit. It was one of my favorite summer traditions.

"Actually, I have a project to finish on Saturday. I thought my mom already told your family," Ben replied, tilting his head like he did when he was confused.

Maybe Belle had and Momma forgot to tell me. Or maybe Belle had gotten distracted by a good book again. That was fine, there was plenty of Saturdays left before summer vacation.

"What's the project?" I asked, sinking gracefully into an empty seat. Chad misfired a spoonful of peas, he was too busy staring at me.

"Just something for science. Jane's coming over and we're going to experiment with holy oak," he answered, opening his pudding cup.

"Jane?" She'd gotten weird since junior high started, too awkward, too bumbling, too different. I hadn't hung out with her in years and I thought Ben felt the same. After all, royalty shouldn't hang out with commoners too much. Grammie taught me that.

"Yeah, she didn't have a partner so I thought we could work together." Oh, he was being nice. "She's actually really smart. I missed hanging out with her; shame she got so busy with school and everything."

"Yes, a shame," I muttered, staring at my fresh manicure. "Maybe I can visit you after?"

"Sure! Maybe we could all hang out together," Ben suggested, his smile stretching across his face.

"Definitely," I lied with a matching smile.

Saturday arrived and I took my pink stretch limo all the way to Ben's palace. It was a gorgeous place, shimmering in the sun, flowers always blooming. Auradon was beautiful, yes, but this castle was the most stunning place in all the land.

"Prince Ben is out in the woods with Miss. Jane, Your Highness," Cogsworth told me as he led me through the halls. "Would you like some tea as you wait for them to return?"

"No, I'll just go surprise him now," I replied and prance outside.

A stone path led into the woods and the minute I started upon it, I felt calmer. The woods were my mother's haven and mine as well. Squirrels scurried down branches to say hello, birds serenaded me as I passed, and foxes smiled up at me from their dens. Everywhere else everyone was expecting me to be a perfect princess and become the perfect queen. But here I could just be me, Audrey.

"I'm really sorry, Jane."

I jumped and leaped behind tree. Coming down the path, towards me, was Ben holding Jane. What on earth…?

"It's okay, I promise. Thank you for helping me," Jane replied. Her legs looked injured but the way she was looking at Ben…that wasn't a way friends looked at each other.

"Anytime," Ben promised as he passed my hiding place. His face…he only looked at one other person like that. Me.

Looked like I had some competition.

"Audrey, hey," Ben said as he came up to me on Monday by my locker. "What happened to you on Saturday? Cogsworth said you came but left right away."

I shut my locker, stifling the urge to slam it. "I was going to surprise you in the woods, but I scraped my knee on a loose stone. And you were so busy with Jane, so I decided to let you two have."

"You could have joined us. I was looking forward to seeing you." His eyes were so sincere. I loved that Ben never lied; he was always so transparent. Made my job so much easier.

"We can get together this Saturday, then. We still have a whole summer to plan, after all," I giggled. Ben smiled back at me.

"See you then."

Ben walked away as I watched on. Everything was back on track.

The rest of school went smoothly. I nailed my Royal History final and the Blue Fairy Headmistress said I was a model princess, a perfect fit for my future throne. On the last day, I signed every yearbook I could find, left lipstick stains on all the prince's pages, and wished everyone a great summer.

On the way to lunch, after I stopped at Mrs. Fitzherbert's class to give her a hand made gift, I spotted Jane staring at Ben's locker. What was she doing?

I strutted past her, smacking my shoulder against her. She fell back against the lockers and I let myself smile just a bit at her shocked face.

"Sorry!" she gasped.

"Oh, Jane, I didn't see you," I simpered, smirking slightly.

"Are-are you heading to lunch?" Her hands were shaking, she seemed so nervous. I couldn't remember the last time I'd talked to Jane. Maybe it was back in sixth grade?

"It is lunch time," I laughed, flipping my hair. "What are you doing over here anyway? Isn't your locker in Dinglehopper Hall?"

Her eyes darted to Ben's locker but quickly returned to me. Her worried eyes were clearly hoping I hadn't noticed so I just crinkled my brows.

"I…I…I was just, uh, just wandering…around. It is our last, er, our last day here. I wanted to…say goodbye?"

What a stupid lie. She had no grace, no poise. There was no way she could handle being in my world anymore. She wasn't fit for royalty.

"Of course," I replied, smiling brightly. It wasn't time to call her out, not yet. "Have a great time."

I clipped away, balancing perfectly on my heels, formulating my plan and trying to guess what Jane was up to.

On the way to my last class of the day, I wandered back into Rose Hall where Ben's locker was. I paused around a corner, watching it. There, as the hall cleared, was Jane. She stopped in front of his locker, stared at it for a really long time. Then she pushed a paper into the slot and ran to the bathroom.

Once she was gone, I walked up to the locker. Luckily, Ben and I had swapped combos in case either one of us were sick (as if I got sick). 67-02-45 and it sprang opened. There, resting at the bottom of the locker, was a wrinkled folded paper. I quickly grabbed it and headed to my last class.

Once seated, I unfolded the paper, ignoring our teacher, and read the poem written on it. It was sappy and cliché and totally lame. And it was signed by Jane! Who knew how Ben would react when he saw this? He already said he missed her and if Jane became his girlfriend before I did, I would lose everything. Grammie would be so disappointed in me…

I needed to ensure he reacted correctly.

I pulled my only black pen out of my bag and scribble across the top of the page. Then I raised my hand.

"Mr. Thatch, can I go to the restroom?" I asked.

"Oh, of course, Audrey!" he exclaimed, jumping up from his reading. His idea of a lecture was reading his notebooks about Atlantis. It was so boring.

In the commons area there was a huge board full of announcement. I crumpled someone's ad for a tutor and replaced it with Jane's poem.

Now I just had to wait for the bell to ring.

The poem spread faster than Elsa's ice magic. Every princess had it re-shared on her social media and all the princes were making jokes about oaks and saying hello. I resisted a smirk as Jane walked through the halls, not realizing everyone was laughing at her. Then she ran to the announcement board and found what had finally ruined her.

"Tough blow, Jane," I simpered, walking up to her. I patted her arm in sympathy. "But I suppose you had to find out some way."

"Wha…what?" she blubbered. Snot was bubbling out of her nose and her eyes were red as they shed tear after tear. She'd clearly never learned how to pretty cry, and it was making it harder for me to fake sympathy.

"Ben needs a princess, a real one, not a girl who writes silly poetry and collects sticks. He doesn't like you. He was just being nice."

"Bu-bu-but…"

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but it's over. You're…a weirdo," I whispered, watching Jane's face crumble. It was hard to see, if I'm being honest, watching her lose something she thought she could have. But everyone already knew that it was mine and she was a fool to try and mess with it.

She ripped the poem off the wall and ran out of school, laughter chasing her down the sidewalk.

"What was that all about?"

I spun around to see Ben standing behind me, looking bewildered.

"Jane wrote you a poem and some meanie put it on the school board for everyone to laugh at. Poor Jane," I explained, pouting my lips.

"Jane wrote a poem? For me?"

"It was very sappy. And now its all over the internet for people to laugh at. But she sort of had this coming."

"What?" Ben looked shocked. "What do you mean?"

"Benny-boo," I giggled, placing my hand on his arm, "you're a prince. Jane's a sweet girl but not worthy of a prince. She would look awful in a crown, after all. And you need someone who will elevate you. Someone who's a perfect princess."

Ben pressed his lips together, looking at the doors Jane had fled through. Had I overdone it? Underdone it? Oh, what if Ben really did like Jane? I would lose everything! Grammie might disown me!

"I hope she wasn't hurt too bad," Ben eventually said, looking back at me. "Are…are you ready for our summer?"

Victory! "Of course." I hooked my arm through Ben's and we walked out of the school together, ready for our future.