Chapter 7: A Wicked Surprise
"No, this can't be true!", Tessa angrily thought as she quickly left the library. "That girl..."
Tessa was only hanging around in the library looking for some random books when she heard someone mention her name. And when she started to carefully listen to their conversation, she accidentally discovered a serious matter that could affect her entire family.
Steeped in her own unviverse, Tessa passed Audrey, who just returned from Soccer practice. Normally she would make some cruel jokes about her "unladylike interests", but today she completely forgot it and ignored her victim.
"Strange", Audrey thought, amused. "She ran into me, but didn't call me names as she always does. Something must have gone wrong. Oh well, not my business."
-
"Mother!"
It was a quiet afternoon at the Gardania Palace, and queen Cassandra, Tessa's mother, was relaxing in her private library when her daughter stormed in.
"Tessa!", she exclaimed, apparently surprised. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at school right now?"
"I know this is abrupt, but I want to ask you something, Mother."
Queen Cassandra put down the book she was reading and carefully listened to her daughter.
"Well, I know this sounds unusual but...", Tessa began to whisper. "Do you remember the Royal family that you overthrew years ago?"
The queen was shocked at the question, but nodded anyway.
"What are you trying to say, Tessa?"
"Are you sure you got rid of them [i]all[i], Mother?" Tessa ignored the question and continued hers.
Queen Cassandra wasn't happy everytime her daughter mentioned this. It could either be the remorse she felt for commiting it, or it could simply be the fact that she didn't want anyone else to know the secret. Either way, she was not willing to talk about it.
"Yes. How many times do I have to tell you? And what's wrong with you today, Tessa? Why are you asking me such things?"
Tessa bit her lips. Maybe it was best to tell her mother what she just discovered.
-
Blair ran as fast as she could back to her room, slammed the door and leaned against it, panting.
"What's wrong, Blair?", Melody asked, looking worried.
Blair looked up and saw her friends studying her with concern.
"I...I think I need to let this out. Listen, this morning... I saw Elaine in the library..." She couldn't stop panting.
"What? All right, just sit down first." Melody forced Blair to sit on their bed.
"You need to exercise more", Audrey joked, and immediately got a disapproving look from the red-haired princess.
"Tell us", she urged.
Within half 15 minutes Blair tried to explain to her friends what had happened in the library. And of course, at first both thought it was a joke, but as Blair kept stressing that what she was telling them was true, both became confused.
"I don't know what to think about this...", Audrey remarked after listening to Blair.
"If you don't believe me, go ask Elaine. She knows best." Blair was tired of this and only wanted to rest.
"That's a prefect idea! You come with us.", Blair was only beginning to lay down when she got violently pulled up again.
"Hey! Let me go! I didn't mean go right now!"
-
"Are you sure?", queen Cassandra looked at Tessa with bewilderment in her eyes.
"Yes, Mother.", she replied in a monotonous voice. "I heard Elaine talk to her in the school library. What do you think? Is it really her?"
The queen quickly reached for an enormous old book in the library and anxiously flipped over the pages.
"Before I overthrew Arthur... He established a law. A law that can only be abolished using the king's crest. It says that 16 years after the fall of the king, if no heir is found, the throne will forever be transitioned to our family."
Tessa gasped.
"That means... It's next week! If Blair shows up right now, it'll be disastrous! Don't you have the crest, Mother?"
Queen Cassandra shook her head.
"No, because only the king has it. I tried to take it from him the last time I saw him, but I couldn't find anything. This looks like trouble."
"I'm not sure yet, Tessa, but the age, description, especially the birthmark... seems like it's the lost princess. She's a liability, Tessa. We have to get rid of her before she fully believes in her true identity to make sure your coronation goes as planned." Cassandra put her hands on Tessa's shoulders. She nodded.
"I agree. But how?"
Cassandra burst out laughing. It scared Tessa a little bit.
"How? How else, darling? You're the princess. Use your potency to its full potential."
-
"Why did you have to drag us here, Nick? I don't like this place", Paul yawned lazily, looking around.
"I just thought it would be nice for friends to support each other. By the way, don't you want to see that clumsy princess again? The one who wrecked havoc at the Ball? I think she's cute.", Nick playfully teased his friend as they passed a hallway of princesses, who were all staring at them and fainting one by one.
The only ones apparently not affected were Blair, Audrey and Melody, who just returned from Elaine's office discussing the serious matter.
"Well, I don't know what about you guys, but I believe this. I mean, from the first time I met Blair, I knew she was a princess.", Audrey said.
Blair was going to respond, but her voice got interrupted.
"Princess Blair", Nick called when he saw her. She turned around to face him.
"Your highness! I mean... Nick, what are you doing here? And you guys too!", she looked over to Paul and Damian.
"He's here to see Tessa", Paul answered bluntly. Damian immediately gave him a nudge in the ribs. "Ouch."
"Oh. I'll see if I can find her for you.", Blair pretended not to care, but she was ready to punch anyone nearest to her. Which in this case would be Paul. No, that's just too cruel. Besides, Mel said fighting was inappropriate for princesses. Calm down, Blair...
"You won't find her here. She left school this morning. I guess she wanted to do some shopping.", Audrey explained to Nick, and he nodded.
Nick felt strange. The more he was near Blair, the more he felt attracted to her. There was... something about her that was different. A feeling he never felt before. Could it be love? He always thought he was in love with Tessa...
Silence. Unlike Nick and Blair, who did nothing but stare at each other awkwardly, the other 2 couples seemed to get along well. Damian kissed Melody on the forehead before gently embracing her, and Paul and Audrey started a conversation about sports they like.
But their romantic moment was interrupted. In a very noisy way. They could hear Tessa's footsteps from a distance. She came back, and wasn't very happy.
"Nicky!", she screamed. Nick was scared by her "greetings", but managed to stay on his feet. "Why didn't you tell me you were visiting?"
"I... wanted to surprise you.", He choked.
Tessa didn't look impressed. "Well, don't do that next time."
"Blair, I have a surprise for you too.", she turned to Blair and spoke to her with the sweetest voice she could make. "You shouldn't stand that close to us, little peasant."
Everyone was shocked. Peasant? What peasant?
"One more thing.", Tessa showed everyone a piece of paper covered with nice handwriting. Everyone gathered to see it. List of rules at Princess Charm School.
"There's a new rule at school, which I just invented half an hour ago. Commoners are no longer allowed to attend Princess Charm School. You're breaking the rules by standing here. You're expelled, Miss Blair."