Sofia filed into her homeroom with her classmates, claiming her assigned seat and opening her desk to pull out the materials she would require for the period. Her teacher, Ms Johnson, approached just as she was retrieving her arithmetic workbook.
"You missed the health check while you were absent, Sofia, so I'm going to send you down to the nurse." She informed the girl, who nodded and slipped back out of her desk, grabbing her backpack from the floor beneath and quietly exiting the classroom to make her way through the corridors.
Try as she might, she couldn't actually recall her way to the infirmary, despite attending the school for the last four years, so she had to rely on the occasional signs posted on the wall, plus trial and error, to find it. She announced herself to a receptionist seated behind a computer at the front desk, who directed her to wait on a bench outside until she was called.
"We appreciate you coming in on such sort notice." A voice caught her attention as a pair of men, a shorter blonde one in a suit and a taller dark-haired man, wearing khakis and a button-up that seemed to hang a bit too loosely from his narrow frame, passed a nearby intersection of the hallway. "Our last janitor left us high and dry, so we were starting to get desperate."
"Sofia?" The nurse, a rotund woman with a kindly face, peeked out from the infirmary and beckoned her back inside, drawing her attention away as the men disappeared from view. "In a way, you're lucky. Missing school means you can do your exam privately." She pointed out, leading her into a room filled with empty cots.
Inside, she was asked if she had her phys ed uniform in her bag, which she did, and left alone with instructions to switch to the shorts and remove her polo shirt. She complied and waited on one of the beds, wearing her favourite camisole and the petrol blue sweatshorts, for what felt like an unreasonably long amount of time.
She poked her head through the doorway to see the waiting room still empty, save for the first woman she'd spoken to.
"Need something, sweety?" The woman asked, peering at Sofia over her glasses, which sat low on her rounded nose.
"Can I use the washroom?" Sofia nearly whispered, unable to put it off any longer. She skirted through the doorway, crossing her arms nervously over her chest.
"We don't have one in here, but if you go out and take a left, there's one just down the hall." Sofia nodded that she understood, then dashed off.
...
Can't believe I'm stuck doing servant work. Cedric groaned to himself, dipping his mop into the bucket before sliding it across the tiled floor. Fifteen years of sorcery training... Thank the gods Goodwyn can't see me right now. As he backed down the hallway, he struck against what he at first assumed to be a wall, until it let out a surprised cry. No, it wouldn't be...
He turned around slowly, finding himself face to face with a rather flustered looking young redhead.
"I... I'm sorry, sir." She mumbled, waving her hands in the air between them frantically. "Are you alright?"
He almost lost his cool, almost let slip that he'd been reminding her to watch where she was going repeatedly for the last seven years. Remembering that Sofia had no recollection of those events, or even of him, he held his tongue.
"I'm fine." He managed, just barely, to reassure her.
She took a step back, looking him over to confirm this. As she did, he got his first real look at her shocking attire. Her knee-breeches came nowhere near the area the name would suggest, instead ending nearly at the top of her thighs. Above that, she wore a waist length sky blue corset cover, despite her obvious lack of stays, with illustrations of toy bears and hearts printed on it. 'Here, she's considered a child.' Merlin's warning repeated in his head, accented by the sight of her covered in pictures of children's toys, no matter how tightly those clothes might cling to curves that were decidedly grown.
"That's not the uniform. Why are you dressed like that?" He couldn't not ask the question tumbling around in his mind.
Does she make it a habit of running around public in her underthings? If they think she's a child, why doesn't anyone insist she put some damned clothing on? Sofia crossed her arms across her chest, as if that somehow resolved the issue.
"I'm in the middle of a health check." She mumbled, her face blooming into a rather pleasing shade of red. Cedric gripped his mop so tightly that his knuckles turned white, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her, which he knew would be stupid for many, many reasons. "Ah, but... I really have to go. Sorry again!"
Taking no notice of the wet floor behind Cedric, she broke into a run, though she didn't make it more than a metre before her feet slipped. Without thinking, Cedric dropped the mop, sliding after her and landing hard between the princess and the floor, cushioning her fall. His arms wrapped around Sofia, cradling her to his chest as his breathing slowed, though his pulse seemed to grow more erratic by the second.
"I-I'm so sorry." Sofia blurted out again, partly muffled by the fabric of Cedric's uniform.
"Are you hurt?" Cedric questioned, reluctantly loosening his grip when she tried to pull away.
"I don't think so. You?" Cedric shook his head, trying to ignore the intensity in her jeweled eyes as she stared down at him. I've always loved her eyes. He forced the sentiment away, motioning for her to get up so he could stand. "I..." Sofia chewed her lip nervously, cutting off her sentence.
"What is it?" Cedric prodded, trying to hand her a rag from his cart so she could wipe mop water off of her legs. Sofia didn't accept it, instead glancing impatiently down the wet hall.
"I really need to go." It was barely audible, taking Cedric a minute to register what she'd said.
"Hold on. I'll walk you... so you don't fall again." He offered, even though he knew keeping his distance was important. Returning to his cart, he retrieved a 'wet floor' sign, placing it over the fall hazard before silently accompanying Sofia the rest of the way to wash room.
Author's note: So, originally, Sofia didn't meet Cedric until track & field day, which means that writing this chapter forced me to rewrite the next 3! Oh well, I like it better this way, so...
