Disclaimer: I do not own The School for Good and Evil

Chapter 2: Lost for the Moment

Waking up to her smiling maids in her face forced an unwanted scream from her throat. Both Anna and Ella balked at her clear fright and seemed even more put off when their soon-to-be king burst through her bedroom door, blearily brandishing his sword. "Step away!" he roared as best he could, swinging it to separate the women from his beloved. "Agatha! What's happened?!"

"It's fine." She scrambled out a bed and forced the sword down, away from her frightened maids who bowed their apologies and scampered from the room. "Tedros, I'm fine, honestly." She eased the sword out of his hand, gauging his fair reaction like it was a firecracker about to go off. Only, it never went off. It flared before dying down and fading like a weak candle. He just gave her a dopey smile and fell in a manner so like a faint that Agatha nearly snickered. "What's wrong with you?" Guiding her prince to the bed, she pulled him up on it and tucked a pillow beneath his head.

"Mmm, Agatha?"

"Yes?"

Her fingers brushed back golden strands from his face whilst baby blues roved her face in a haze of sleepy adoration. "Did I save you?"

"Um…" Agatha glanced at the open door where her two maids had exited. They peeked at her around the corner and she flashed a half-hearted smile, motioning for them to leave while they could. "Yes, you did. Sort of."

"That's good."

He hummed into her thigh quite pleased with this answer. Agatha wasn't sure what to do with affection this earlier in the morning. Living with Tedros in Gavaldon had been similar. Despite waking up multiple mornings with fighting and petty squabbles, there had been a few odd ones, particularly in the first few weeks of their freedom, when she would wake up to the fingers of her prince running through her thin hair with loving care. He'd coo her awake, marveling at some feature of her that she was never able to see in her reflection. "Tedros?" she asked softly and found him blinking up at her with drowsy attention. He looked adorable.

"Hmm?"

"You look a little strange," she replied instead, easing him up onto a pillow. "What time did you sleep last night?"

"Nope. Too busy."

"Too busy? Tedros, your coronation is today! You needed all the sleep you could get."

"But-"

"You're exhausted." She should have known better. To have her prince rush into her room still wearing their school blazer with half-hearted strength should have been a dead give away. Her hands fluttered about the crown of this head "Why don't you rest a bit?"

"You're cute when you worry."

She flushed and got to her feet in a rush, nightgown slapping at her ankles. "You are clearly sleep deprived," she muttered, grabbing the duvet and throwing it over him. "You're staying here and I'll come get you when it's time to go. Queen's orders."

"So picky." Having him concede, however much sass she received in the process, was surprising enough. She inched away from her prince in his obedient slumber and slipped into the bathroom. He had been up all night? Surely Merlin would-

But Merlin was busy preparing for the coronation, she reminded herself, and would be unable to help the both of them.

After cleaning and donning her old pinafore, she stared at her tired reflection in the mirror. If she wanted to walk around Camelot without being plagued by people, she would need a disguise. Something to at least hide her hair. Agatha wavered between wearing a cloak with her hood up before choosing a hat instead and stuffing as much of her hair into it as she could. Agatha quitted both bathroom and bedroom as silently as she could and allowed herself a relieved exhale once she was out in the open. Her maids were out of sight and as of that instant, out of mind. Agatha crept through the halls, glad to be rid of the diadem even though it sat in the bag at her side. However she was getting strange looks from some of the guards, and after walking the halls for a solid five minutes and determining she was lost, she had the sinking feeling that the guards did not place her as their princess. On the contrary, with her bed head and tattered pink uniform, she no doubt looked like a strange stowaway that had snuck into the castle. Or perhaps the young guest of the king from his time at the school. Either way, she was not acting like a queen and a fair majority of them did not recognize her as one.

She doubted that they would recognize her even if she wore the crown of Camelot on her head.

Granted, Tedros said that the corrupt advisers of Camelot had strictly monitored the storybooks' distribution. Agatha maneuvered the halls carefully, but was stopped by one of the younger guards, jogging up to her with his sheathed sword slapping at the metal. "Excuse me, miss?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you're allowed to be here. We're all preparing for the coronation of Prince Tedros today."

"I am aware of that. I'm his…" Did she want to say princess? Queen? Girlfriend? True love? The last one seemed more corny than the others, so instead, she said, "friend. He's currently resting but I can surely help out until he is needed."

"You look quite familiar…" He squinted, trying vainly to recall where he had seen her. She prayed he would not remember. It would be much easier to navigate Tedros' vast kingdom as another peasant rather than his princess. Perhaps she should have dyed her hair like Sophie had taught her. She wouldn't hate to be blond, although it would likely bring more attention to her than her black helmet of hair.

Agatha tried to stealthily push a stray strand of hair back up into the hat. "Not likely. I'm just his friend. Maybe you saw us talking in his fairy tale once."

"Maybe that's it," the young knight said. "My pa doesn't let me read too many fairy tales. He thinks they'll give me ideas too big for me."

"There's nothing wrong with big dreams," Agatha soothed. "Speaking of dreams, I remember Tedros telling me that he always dreamed of becoming a good king to Camelot. Could you show me around the castle? Just so I know what's going on, of course."

"Friend or not, miss, we're not supposed to let civilians into the castle until the hour of Prince Tedros' actual coronation."

"Just a small look around. See?" She flashed the white swan of her pinafore to him. "I was in the School for Good. I won't do anything wrong. I just want to look around a bit while Tedros sleeps. He worked really late last night."

"And after the look, you'll leave until his ceremony rolls around?"

"Of course." The thought of being on her own in Camelot's streets was a little unsettling, but she had spent plenty of time alone and doubted that walking down its streets was much different than the streets of Gavaldon.

Off they went, through the stony halls of Camelot that looks more up-kept than they had the night before. The knight escourted her around, explaining different things about Camelot. Some of its history, architectural information and coronation nuances. He had been the rogue scholar of his family who had been serving the ruling kings of Camelot before even Uther Pendragon was born. Agatha asked about the plans for Tedros' coronation and found the whole thing quite elaborate.

"I don't think we need it."

"But it's tradition," the boy spluttered as they passed the excessive flower arrangements and extremely long cape that reminded her of a bridal trail (not that she had looked them up, of course, but Sophie had shown her many a plan in preparation for her fairy tale ending).

"And tradition calls for a three hour ceremony? That's three hours of standing!"

"We are honoured to stand for our king."

"I'm sure you are. But I'm also sure that it would be exhausting. Especially for some of the older members of the kingdom."

They continued through the halls, only stopping when she had a pressing question about the huge portraits or when maids, keenly placing decorations, asked for her advice.

"In the end, they asked for your advice too," Agatha pointed out when the knight got suspicious.

"But why would they ask you in the first place?"

"Maybe it's because you don't have a lot of girls in charge here. There are some things that wouldn't be happening if a woman was in power, you know?"

"Great kings have ruled Camelot and its court for centuries. We haven't had a female ruler in at least a hundred years."

"Perhaps that will change," said Agatha.

"I suppose. The council did mention that Prince Tedros has a princess now."

"Indeed."

It was getting harder to keep her identity hidden but once the knight had escorted her out of castle, shutting the door and locking her out, she became acutely aware that she was in a foreign kingdom with no friends or family to call her own. It was just her and her prince and maybe a little bit of his family. None the less, she was quite alone in this way and felt the distinct lack of Sophie even more than before. With a fair bit of resolve in her body, she moved away from the stone castle and into the village surrounding it. Tedros wasn't kidding when he said that half the people had vacated the lands. There were plenty of houses on every street that was boarded up and abandoned. The drunkards from last night lay now sprawled on pub steps in a deep sleep. The working class trudged about, buzzing half-heartedly about their prince's coronation.

"The prince's coronation?" Agatha sidled up to one of the women trying to rouse a sleeping man from their stoop. "When is that?"

"It's today," the woman sniffed. "It's been years since he was a babe and his father dying was tragic, you know?"

Agatha nodded, trying to look sympathetic with her hat pulled down past her brows. "The prince has become a man now, though sixteen ain't nothing to sneeze at. He could be a lot more prepared than he is now."

"That's what he has Merlin for."

"That old geezer?" She snorted. "Haven't seen that old goat in years. Doubt he's even alive these days."

"Oh. I guess."

"And the prince has a princess now," the woman gave up on the sleeping man and stomped back into her bar. "Wonder if she's anything like that runaway, Guinevere."

"I don't think so," said Agatha, an uncomfortable feeling settling in her chest.

"That woman was a good queen. A bit plain and a bit too gracious, but Good without a doubt. With the exception of her running away, that is." Agatha nodded obediently. "I've heard his princess isn't the fairest either," Agatha stiffened at that, "there's something in their story about her being a soul of pure Good or something like that."

"Yeah she's not so great."

"Never said that." The woman hefted a bucket of water up. "At least we know he won't be straying off for some prettier princess. Not like he couldn't find one."

Agatha gave out a nod again. She was surprised there was some positive rumours floating about the kingdom about her. She would bet her diadem that it was more Merlin's handiwork than anything else. "Do you have their story?"

"Somewhere around here, yeah. One of the men at the palace was handing out Prince Tedros' story by the dozen. Something about increasing morale before his coronation. Speaking of which," the woman gave her a keen look, "I don't think I've seen you before. Are you in town for the coronation?"

"Yes."

"So many people are coming around or his coronation. We might get some decent business tonight."

"Business has been bad?"

"Generally. You'd be surprised how many tossers come in and try to drink without paying. They think they've got a tab or something."

"Well it must be difficult to live like that. Have you ever thought of moving?"

"Plenty. But Camelot is my home. I'm not moving any time soon." The woman wiped down the tabletops with a wet rag. "Where's the rest of you group? You're here with one of those dignitaries, aren't you?"

"A princess from Maidenville," lied Agatha quickly, "but I'm just one of her maids."

"Do all maids from there walk around as freely as you?"

"Um," Agatha fiddled with her pinafore. "I just escaped actually, and got lost. I've never been here before."

"Well, you can spend time with me until the coronation. I don't quite know how to get you back to your princess but we can figure that out once we get to the palace. How does that sound?"

She gave her a weak smile. "Sounds super."