All Aboard
Summary: Chrysta sends Sofia on an Undercover Protector Mission to investigate strange magical occurrences at a boarding school, and her mentor and siblings get pulled along for the ride.
Disclaimer: I only own the characters featured at the boarding school.
A/N: Time for some plotting and preparing! Also, where I teach, the seniors get the week before graduation off to prepare; here, I've edited it a bit to where the Royal Prep kids get "a few weeks" to prepare. Is it accurate? No idea. Lol. But I'm going with it. Enjoy!
Chapter List:
1: Protective Instincts
2: Intervention
3: Parental Agreement
4: Boarding Abroad
5: Magic Words
6: Claire Lois XIV
7: Hidden in Plain Sight
8: Down with the Dame
9: Safe and Sound
*Story*
Chapter 3: Parental Agreement
That evening, Roland called their kids, Baileywick, and Cedric into the throne room to speak with them about something important. All of them had different ideas of what that important something might be, but no one was the least bit surprised by the actual conversation.
"We'll be leaving tonight to head to a Multi-Kingdom Conference in Tangu for a few days," Roland advised them.
Amber blinked. "Oh, right. You mentioned that last week."
"Yes. So, Cedric, Baileywick, we'll trust you two to take care of the kids while we're gone."
"It would be our pleasure, Your Majesty," Baileywick answered instantly.
"R-Right," Cedric followed up, not nearly as convincingly.
"Actually, Daddy," Amber intervened, smiling kindly toward her father, "Sofia, James, and I have been invited to stay a few nights with Hildegard at her castle, starting tomorrow. A lot of the Royal Prep kids will be there, and it will be sort of like a one-last-time-before-graduation thing. Is it okay if we go?"
Sofia silently thanked her sister for coming up with an excuse. Not only was the younger princess an awful liar, but she was still scared to even tell a small lie, for fear that her amulet might become curse-happy again.
"Sure, I don't see why not," the king responded with a nod.
"Yes, that will be good for you and your friends, I think," Miranda added with a smile. "I hope you have a great time."
Luckily, their studies at Royal Prep were already complete, and they had the few weeks prior to graduation to prepare. Therefore, this plan worked out better than they'd anticipated.
"Um, Your Majesties," Cedric began as both royals turned to him now, "if it's all right with you, since the children will be gone and Baileywick has his own duties to tend to, could I possibly take those few days to…visit my parents?"
Sofia gave her mentor a sardonic look.
"My mother informed me that it's been 'thirty-two days since Ceddy-kins has last visited,' and I'm afraid she is going to literally drag me to Mystic Meadows to spend time with her and my father if I don't rectify the situation." He had to admit it: he was exceptionally proud of this fib, because he wasn't exactly good at lying on the spot… …And it had actually been thirty-four days, but who was counting?
Roland had to laugh at that, and he nodded while calming himself down. "Sure, Cedric. I wouldn't want you to get into trouble with Winifred. And I know very well that she probably would do that, so go and tell them we said hello."
Cedric bowed appreciatively. "Thank you, King Roland."
"And while they are gone, I'll oversee the castle and maintain order, Your Majesties," Baileywick informed them with a respectful bow.
"That's fine, Baileywick," Miranda laughed. "Just make sure to take some personal time for yourself at some point, okay?"
"I'll try my best, Queen Miranda."
The kids bid their parents farewell and a safe journey before leaving the throne room, with Cedric in tow. Out in the hallway, Sofia folded her arms and stared at Cedric pointedly.
"What?" he asked, surprised at Sofia's seemingly random action.
"I know we needed an excuse to go on this adventure, but you really should go see your parents once we get back, you know."
"I know, I know," he relented sighing. "I've just been so busy recently. But I promise, I'll go when we get back, all right?"
She smiled. "Good." She then glanced at the other two. "I think we should leave early in the morning. We can use one of the flying coaches, and Mr. Cedric can enchant it so that we won't need a driver. I don't want anyone telling Mom and Dad what we were really up to."
"Good point," James admitted. "I totally didn't think about that."
"Where exactly are we going, Sofia?" Amber asked, her hands on her hips now. "I know it's a boarding school, but where is it? Which one?"
"Um…" Come to think of it, Sofia didn't have all that information yet. She needed to speak with Chrysta, and quickly. "I'll have all that information in the morning. I mean, I have it, but…I can't remember the exact location. But I'll show you guys when we get ready to leave."
"All right," the blonde girl said with a yawn. "As long as we won't get lost."
"Fear not, Princess Amber," Cedric assured her. "Once we have our definitive location, I will be able to have everything accurately set up to get us to our destination."
The four of them bid each other goodnight and headed off in their own rooms for the evening.
Once she entered her bedroom, Sofia immediately activated her Enchantlet and contacted Chrysta, who appeared before her with what appeared to be a forkful of pasta nearing her mouth. The princess grinned. "Am I calling at a bad time?" she teased.
Chrysta rolled her eyes and set her fork down before smirking. "What's up, Princess?"
"Do you guys have all the information for me? I don't even know exactly where this boarding school is or what it's called."
"Yeah, I talked to Orion and Vega earlier and got everything for you."
"Oh, and there's one more thing." She shrugged. "Mr. Cedric, James, and Amber are all going with me." She saw the confused look on her trainer's face and smiled apologetically. "They didn't want me going by myself."
"I see… Hang on just a minute." She turned and spoke off-screen to someone nearby before grinning back at Sofia. "We've taken care of it. Vega is making the arrangements right now. First of all, the boarding school is called Le Calcaire Boarding School, and it's located in France."
"France?"
"Yep. Our Undercover Protector who's currently there knows you're coming, so keep an eye out when you get there. Let me get back to you in about half an hour, and I'll give you some updates, okay?"
"Is that code for, 'Sofia, you called me in the middle of my supper, so let me go so I can eat?'" She giggled.
"Partially, but it's also, 'I gotta oversee this registration of these extra people so you guys don't get kicked out the moment you walk into the school.'"
"Sounds reasonable. Okay, I'll talk to you in a little while then." Sofia silenced the connection before looking back at her half-packed backpack. She then decided to go ahead and finish up while she waited.
A little while later, Sofia responded to her Enchantlet when it activated, and she laughed upon seeing Chrysta's annoyed face. "Are you okay?"
"No, I'm not. Coming up with four fake names, backgrounds, and parental authority figures for you guys is not easy. But I did it!" She grinned. "Well, technically, Orion helped, but I came up with the names."
"Oh, no," Sofia sighed. "What kind of names did you give us?"
She grinned. "You'll see. Everything else has already been messengered over to the school, so everything will be ready to go when you get there."
Sofia took a bit more time to get necessary information from Chrysta, including the fake names, before calling it a night. With her bag packed and her Protector outfit picked out for the next day, she lay in bed, staring at the top of her canopy. Many different thoughts rushed through her head, but she managed to silence them before ultimately falling asleep.
To be continued…
