Tuesday, Atlantean Royal Academy for Boys

Today we arrived in the Academy. We went to see the headmaster. He's a philosopher, called Eugenes. He was very proud of the fact that he was the best philosopher in the whole of Atlantis city. He was white-haired, just like that guy Cal showed me a picture of, that Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, Cal's favourite movie.

"Morning, Ms. Atlanto, and His Royal Highness Prince Michael Alfrenzo Esconthias Laurence. Pleasure to meet you. I am Eugenes, headmaster of the Atlantean Royal Academy for Boys. Ms. Atlanto will show you our facilities. I hope you have a pleasant stay here. Goodbye."

"Wait…" Cal said.

"Yes, Sire?" Eugenes asked.

"Which class am I in?"

"Oh. I heard you want to be a scientist. You will be in class Alpha, Didaskale Diogenes' class."

Cal mumbled, "Thanks," and we went to my class. Luckily Didaskale (teacher) Diogenes is not like the philosopher Diogenes, who go around naked. He's just eccentric about science.

James, the cute blonde aristocrat, looked happy to see me. Sigh. A girl can only hope… but which guy, cute and blonde, falls for a ladybird-hair tomboy?

Anyway, James introduced himself to HRH Cal and they really hit it off. Like, James might be blonde, but he's not a snotty Jock. He's full of compassion to help other people. And his father's the Treasurer.

Then during Sports Class… well, disaster.

Coash Vizalian was a muscular, tanned guy. He could not tolerate whims. So even though Cal's the Crown Prince, well, he doesn't care. In fact, he made Cal work even harder.

"That's it, Sire, Ten laps. Go!"

Ten laps. Each lap is five hundred metres? And that means… Five kilometre? I mean, hello? Does Cal strike you as buff, Coach? Um, I think not. Plus, he had a weak heart. What if that killed him? I'm not going to perform a cardiopulmonary resuscitation! I mean, Cal's my friend and all, but still, mouth to mouth… eew.

Plus if he died, the coach's head will totally be rolling on the floor. I'm not a big supporter of corporal punishment, but in this case, it's an exception.

Cal looked pained. "How much is one lap, Lia?"

"Well… five hundred metres." I said.

Cal looked ready to faint. "W-what?"

"Yeah, but don't worry, I'll run along beside you."

Cal looked me up and down. Then he knelt down to pray. I guess he must have noticed that I'm pretty sporty for a girl (well, an Atlantean girl anyway; everybody wears peplums, but I wear jeans. Cal let me borrow one of his. He said it's too long for him, which means it fits me well), while he looks pretty nerdy for a boy, prince or not.

"Why are you still here, Sire? I'm trying to train you up like Alexander of Macedon, and here you are, praying!" Coach Vizalian shouted.

I decided to defend him. "Coach, HRH Prince Michael is not feeling well today. Maybe you could excuse him? Or I'm afraid his belated father will be very concerned about his son…"

Coach looked visibly frightened. That's good. "Well, Sire, anything. Just as you're able to participate in the Annual Sports Fiesta of Atlantis, in February."

Cal heaved a sigh of relief. I asked him out of curiosity, "Who are you praying to?"

Cal blushed. "Well, usually I'm an atheist, but my mother was a devout Christian, so I…"

"What's Christian?" I asked.

"Oh, Christianity is about this guy called Jesus who is God's son, and who sacrificed his life to set us free."

Hmm. A self-sacrificing God like that is not bad. "Well, the people here worships the sea god, but I don't. I think he's biased. 'Cause he only allows male priests. I'm an atheist too, but Christianity does not sound too bad."

So we spend the last of the lesson talking. And Mitchell was chatting with Coach Vizalian. I had a feeling it was something bad.

At the end of the lesson, Coach Vizalian made a motion to us to come over to where he stood with Mitchell. Mitchell was smirking down at us, he being at least three inches taller than me.

"Sire, your cousin has kindly offered to help me coach you in your sports area. Every evening, you will go run around the track for two kilometres, to gradually train you up. Every morning at dawn, you will go to the indoors pool and swim ten laps around the pool. Ms. Atlanto is right at suggesting gradual workout instead of one major burnout, right or not?"

He had only a view of Cal's strickened, panicking face and my own face reddening with fury.