Prince of Gulbrania Page 14
“It’s him! It’s really him!” One exclaimed.
“Frederick! Can I get your autograph!” Another called out.
“Prince Vonnegan! Will you please dance with me at the gala? My name’s Cheryl.”
“No! Dance with me! I’ll make it worth your while.”
They all crowded around me, asking for requests and photos and staring at me, but thankfully, they didn’t touch me. The whole situation was becoming a bit nightmarish, and I didn’t know what to do. Just then, I heard my mother give a loud whistle, and two bodyguards I hadn’t known where there appeared from the back of the shop.
“I’m sorry ladies,” my mother said authoritatively, “but the prince needs his privacy.”
The bodyguards stood between me and the throng of girls, and getting the message, they grudgingly left the shop, but not before a few of them took a hasty picture of me and ran off.
My mother exhaled and sat down again, while the two bodyguards resumed their positions at the back of the shop.
“What was that all about?” I asked, still a bit overwhelmed from the episode.
“You’re the prince! You’re famous!” Mr. Norworth said, waggling his eyebrows excitedly.
“And quite frankly, son, you’re too attractive for your own good,” my mother added with a hint of teasing in her tone.
I shook my head in bewilderment. My life was a lot different than it used to be.
*****
I walked into the training room expecting to see Alm, but when I saw Tabitha Dahl in the far corner, I almost walked right back out again.
“Oh good, you’re here,” Tabitha called out, motioning me over.
I blew out a long breath and forced myself to walk toward her. It wasn’t that I disliked Tabitha, I actually found her to be one of the more honest and level headed Gulbranians that I had encountered, but I just wasn’t in the mood for more etiquette lessons. As I got closer, I saw that she had set up a little table, and that a girl was sitting at it.
“Frederick, this is my niece, Kirsten,” Tabitha announced as the girl stood. “I’ve brought her here so you could practice your courting etiquette with a real person, and also so she’ll stop bothering me about you.”
Now I really wished that I could run out of the room. Pretending to date some girl while Tabitha breathed down my neck about every little thing I was supposed to do sounded miserable. The girl was pretty, very pretty, in fact, with long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, but there was something in those eyes that was a bit frightening, as if she would attack me if she got the chance.
“Hello, Prince Vonnegan,” she said in an overly sweet voice, “it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you.”
I glanced over at Tabitha, who gave me an encouraging nod. I swallowed and extended my hand. “It’s lovely to meet you as well, Kirsten.”
She eagerly grasped my hand, then smiled and visibly shuddered before she let go.
“Wonderful,” Tabitha said. “Now, let’s discuss some of the rules of early courtship.” She crossed to the other side of the table and picked up a large stack of what appeared to be flashcards. “First,” she began, holding up one of the cards, “Look your date in the eye. Don’t let your eyes wander, especially to other parts of your date’s body,” she said with a stern look in my direction. “This shows that you respect your date, and that you are present.”
“Next,” she continued, holding up another card, “always be polite, not only to your date, but to other people you might encounter during your time together. This ensures that each of you will feel comfortable.” She held up the next card. “Respect your date’s personal space. You might hold hands if you feel the action is appropriate, but do not, under any condition, allow your hands to take liberties elsewhere.”
I turned bright red at this admonition, but I noticed Kirsten’s eyes light up.
“Lastly, ask your date pertinent questions. If you spend the entire time talking about yourself, you’ll appear vain and there will be little room for connection.” Tabitha gathered up the flash cards and gestured to the two chairs at the table. “Alright, you two, take a seat.”
Kirsten and I sat down across from each other, and I did my best not to cringe under her intense gaze.
“Remember the rules I just explained, and good luck,” Tabitha concluded, turning to leave.
“Wait, what?” I exclaimed, jumping out of my chair.
“The best way for you to learn, Mr. Vonnegan, is to practice. It would be no good to have me standing there, that wouldn’t be natural.” I inclined my head. She had a point there. “Kirsten will report on how you do. Good luck, Mr. Vonnegan.” She smiled and walked out of the room.
I slowly turned back to Kirsten, who was now looking more eager than ever. I really didn’t want to go through with it, but I took a deep breath and sat back down. I had had my face shoved in countless toilets and been locked in some of the worst places imaginable. Surely I could make conversation with this girl for a few minutes.
I looked her in the eye and smiled. “So, Kirsten, how is your day going?”
“It’s been a dream come true,” she said breathlessly.
I shifted in my seat. “Okay, um, have you lived in Gulbrania your whole life?”
“Yes. Except for a year when I went to study in Greenland.”
“Cool, what did you study?”
“Narwals.”
I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t, so I looked around for something else to talk about. “I, uh, like your sweater.”
“Thank you,” she replied, preening. “I made it.”
“Wow,” I said, actually impressed, “how long did that take?”
She shrugged. “A couple days. I’ve been knitting and sewing for years, so it was pretty easy.” Then she gave me a sly smile. “I can take it off, if you want. You know, so you can get a better look,” she added with a deliberate wink.
I leaned away from her as far as I could without falling out of my chair. “No, no thank you, that won’t be necessary.”
“Well,” Kirsten said, scooting her chair closer to me, “Let me know if you change your mind.”
It seemed to me that Kirsten was the one who needed etiquette lessons, but I doubted it would go over very well if I mentioned that to Ms. Dahl. She continued to ogle me with that somewhat frightening look in her eyes, and all I could think about was how much I missed Kayla.
Chapter Eleven
Kayla
“I’ve given you all several tools to help identify the minerals, “Mrs. Meekum said, pacing in front of the chalkboard. “If you’ve been paying attention for the past week, you should have no problem filling out the worksheet. You have until the end of class.”
I stared at the assortment of minerals in front of me. I hadn’t been paying attention, but I knew what most of them were. Next to me, Milo Kowalski was biting into a piece of pyrite.
“I guess they don’t call it fool’s gold for nothing,” I said with a small smile.
Milo shrugged. “You can’t blame me for trying.” He set down the pyrite and started scratching a nail into a block of calcite.
I’d been interacting a lot with Milo lately. I’d joined him at his table in chemistry lab and I ate lunch with him most days. I guess you could say we were becoming friends, which was nice, because I’d lost all of mine. My social standing had fallen pretty quickly with the way I had been acting and also because of some stupid rumors Wyatt was spreading about me, something about how I had been raised by nuns. It probably didn’t help that I was hanging out with Milo, but I didn’t care. For the most part, I had stopped being concerned about what everybody else thought of me.
“So, has Frog texted you yet?” Milo asked, rubbing some graphite on a piece of paper.
“No,” I grumbled, a little irked that Milo kept asking me this question. “And honestly, I don’t think he’s ever going to.”
Milo shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense! Frog was crazy about you.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, yeah. Couldn’t you tell?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to assume...” I trailed off. In fact, I had suspected that he liked me, but lately I had rationalized that he was just being nice.
“Well, you should have assumed,” Milo said. “Frog would have done anything for you.”
I smiled, oddly comforted by Milo’s assertions. So Frog had cared about me. “Maybe he doesn’t feel that way anymore,” I said sullenly, flicking a broken piece of mica off of the table.
Milo snorted. “I doubt it. Maybe you did something to scare him off.”
I shrank in my chair a little bit. Had I scared him off? I thought. Was my kiss so bad that he never wanted to talk to me again?
Milo glanced at me with curiosity. “Did something happen with you two?”
“I, um, kissed him,” I muttered.
“What?” Milo exclaimed loudly, drawing several looks from our classmates.
“Shhh!” I hissed. “It wasn’t really a big deal,” I said quietly, looking around to make sure no one was listening. “It was just a small peck on the lips, it wasn’t like I threw him against the wall or anything.” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. It had, in fact, been a pretty big deal. Even though the kiss had been quick, I could still remember the rush of pleasant emotions I had felt.
“Well, no wonder he’s not talking to you,” Milo said, staring at me. “You probably blew his mind! He probably doesn’t know what to say to you!”
I inclined my head. That did make a little sense. And I had left him a plethora of texts and voice messages. Maybe I had overwhelmed him.
“I’m telling you, Kayla, you need to just text him,” Milo urged. “Just a simple “hello,” or something. Break the ice. Ease him into it. Guys like us aren’t used to getting any action, so when it happens, it kind of overloads our systems.”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe I will.”
*****
I pressed through the crowd of students streaming out of the front doors. School had just ended and everyone was eager to get to their cars or on the buses to get out of the cold. I had left my volleyball uniform in my truck, and I just needed to get it before practice started. I wove my way around a group of football players and nearly ran into Wyatt and Miranda, who were making out at the top of the steps. Just seeing their mouths interlocked and Wyatt’s hands running all over my former friend made me want to throw up. I quickly turned away and saw something that filled me with an entirely different kind of nausea.
At the bottom of the steps stood a tall man with dark hair and a self-assured smile. Ten years had only given him some gray hairs and a few wrinkles around his golden brown eyes. Eyes that were the same color as mine.
“Dad?” I gasped, feeling all the air go out of me, as if someone had just punched me in the stomach. His saw me then. His sickening smile deepened and he walked confidently up to me.
“Kayla! I can’t believe it! Look at you! You’re all grown up!” He put his arms out as if he was going to hug me, but I stepped back.
“Stay away from me.” I said evenly.
My dad’s face only fell for a second. “Come on, pumpkin, is that the way to greet your father after all this time?”
“Kayla, is this your dad?”
I turned around and found Miranda staring at me. “I thought he was dead!” She exclaimed.
My dad gave Miranda an odd look. “Dead, in prison, it’s all about the same,” he said with a shrug.
“Prison?” Miranda screeched.
“You stay out of this,” I warned.
“Are you kidding?” Miranda replied, a sneer forming on her lips. “You’ve been lying all this time!”
I turned away. I didn’t care to deal with Miranda at that moment. As I focused back on my dad, I noticed that a crowd of students had gathered around us.
“Kayla,” my dad said, stepping closer, “I know I let you down, but I’ve spent the past ten years thinking about you and missing you.”
“Maybe you should have spent that time thinking about the horrible choices you made,” I responded fiercely.
My father was undeterred. “Now that I’ve been released, we can start over. I can make up for all the time I was gone.”
He started to put his hand on my shoulder, but I pushed it away. “No! Leave me alone!” I yelled. “You ruined my life and I won’t let you do it again!”
I pushed past him and ran to my truck. I didn’t look back as I started it up and drove out of the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later I pulled in to the diner and ran inside. I found my mother at the front counter.
“Mom,” I said, trying to keep the hysteria out of my voice, “I just saw dad.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Sir, you’ll have to excuse me,” she said to the gentleman she had been helping. “I’ll be with you in just a minute.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me around to the other side of the counter, then led me into a small storage closet and shut the door behind us.
“Where did you see him?” She asked, frantically brushing my hair out of my face with her hands.
“He was at my school, just outside the entrance.”
“Did he escape?”
“No, he’s been released. At least, that’s what he said.”
My mother blew out a breath. “He spoke to you?”
“Yeah, he just wanted to reconnect, start over.”
My mom rubbed her forehead. “I’m so sorry, Kayla. I should have realized he was going to get out soon. I was just hoping it wouldn’t be until after you had gone to college.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to get rid of the chills. “Can’t we do something to make him stay away?” I asked. “Get a restraining order or something?”
“I really don’t know if we have the grounds to do that right now, but I’ll find out.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head vigorously, as if trying to expel the unpleasant feelings. “I have to get back to work, why don’t you go home, honey?”
“No!” I nearly shouted. “I don’t want to be there alone! I’ll stay here and help out until closing.”
My mom nodded and opened the door to the storage closet. She headed to the front while I went back to the kitchen to get started on the dishes. As I stacked the plates on the racks, I started to wonder why I had freaked out so much about seeing my dad. He hadn’t seemed threatening or even imposing when I talked to him outside the school. Perhaps he had changed and really did want to start over with his daughter. Maybe I had been angry and disappointed with him for so long that I just expected him to be an awful person. I shook my head. He had fooled me before, I wasn’t going to give him my trust until I was certain he was worthy of it.
Later that night, after I had closed down the diner with my mother and followed her home, I sat in my bed and thought about the bizarre and unfortunate events of the last several weeks. More and more, I just wanted to talk to Frog, even though I knew that wouldn’t solve all my problems. I considered what Milo had said earlier that day, how maybe I had somehow inundated Frog with my actions and messages. I needed to be simple.
I grabbed my phone and quickly texted Frog before I could change my mind.
Hi. How are you?
Chapter Twelve
Frog
I was groggy when I heard a text message come through on my phone, but when I saw who it was from, I was suddenly wide awake.
Hi. How are you?
It was so simple, and yet, it seemed so loaded. For one, I really didn’t know how to answer that question. In general, I was kind of a mess, but at that very moment, I was elated. Then there was the fact that the text had come at six in the morning, which meant that it was midnight in Indiana. I didn’t know many people who sent casual texts out at that hour, there had to be something deeper beneath it.
I massaged my neck. I was analyzing this way too much. But one thing was certain: Kayla had not forgotten about me. My fingers itched as
I wrote a reply.
I’m okay. I’m really glad you texted me.
I cringed. That sounded really lame and lackluster, but her response came almost immediately.
Frog, it is so good to hear from you! Did you lose my number?
I stared at the words. It would be so easy to say that I had, but I felt that I should be as honest as I could.
No. It’s just that my life has been a little bit crazy lately. I’m sorry I didn’t respond to your messages, I didn’t really know what to say.
That’s okay. What’s been crazy?
I exhaled. How could I explain this to her without revealing everything? Well, we moved to Gulbrania, and things are really different over here. Oh, and my dad is back in my life. That’s kind of been a huge adjustment.
Wow. That’s a weird coincidence. My dad showed up at school today to see me.
I raised my eyebrows. Is he out of prison?
Yes, unfortunately.
All of the sudden I felt incredibly selfish. Here I had been wallowing in all of my issues and keeping Kayla at a distance when she had been going through some really difficult things as well.
I’m so sorry. That must have been mortifying.
Yep. That would be the perfect word to describe it.
What are you going to do?
Try to avoid him as long as possible. You know how it is, having a father who’s a jerk.
Now I felt even worse. My dad hadn’t left us because he was a jerk. He had left us to protect us. Actually, I wrote, after talking with my dad, I kind of understood why he did what he did.
Really? So you’ve forgiven him?
Yeah, for the most part.
Several minutes passed before Kayla responded. That’s great. Maybe I should follow your example.
I cringed. I really didn’t know what kind of guy Mr. Morrison was, or if prison had changed him. I didn’t want Kayla to get hurt again, but maybe it would be beneficial if she gave him a chance.
You should talk to him. But be careful.
Oh, don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.