AS I SHUT the door behind Hana, I sighed. Why hadn’t I helped her more? Maybe she could have found a way to care for me! Is that really why I’m here? I asked myself. I’ve been having these thoughts since I first met Hana. Am I really - no. No, I’m not. If I am, then - then I’ll just have to deal with being her friend. But what if she’s… I smiled for the first time in my life. It felt wonderful! I hastily put my frown back on in case anyone noticed, but I still couldn’t stop my thoughts from wandering to those hazel eyes. I scurried to the lists to figure out what my first chore would be before I could get caught idly walking rather than doing my job. I scrutinized the list until I got to the “O” section. Of course, my name wasn't on the list, I was underneath a fake name. All the meanwhile, I was thinking of those hazel eyes. I switched over to the “J” section in remembering that my fake last name was Javernick. I found my name at the very end of the list. Why? Probably because I was new. My first task was to sweep Master Wahl’s classroom. I couldn’t! If he was in there, he’d recognize me and report me to the king! Plus, it was still during school hours, I couldn’t just barge in on my other classmates. I read on to the second assignment. “Mop the stairs.” I read. This was going to be a long evening. Turns out, mopping stairs is harder than it looks. I had seen a servant boy doing it when I was still “Prince Vigilius Ouellette XVI,” and it didn’t look too tiresome. I discovered I was wrong the hard way. After each step, I plopped the rag into the dirty water and looked up to see how much more I’d have to do. I now felt apologetic for the things I had said and done to that boy. It must have taken him a long time to get even halfway up the stairs, needless to say, two thirds! Halfway up the staircase, my knuckles started bleeding. It felt like they were on fire, and dipping them into the lye-infused water I had gotten from the servant’s storeroom to clean the rag off made them burn even more. Calluses started appearing on my palms. They hurt, too. My knees ached from kneeling on them for so long. They longed to stand up and stretch out. My elbows yearned to stop moving my arm back and forth with the rag. The water had turned a dark shade of gray when I had finished one hour later, but the stairs were sparkling clean. I stood over my glittering staircase with pride. My next job would be to tackle the dishes. I entered the kitchen still bleeding. Cook (I never have known her proper name) fixed me up in a jiffy. I never knew how delightful she was. I relayed my chore of washing the dishes, and she led me to the sink where one boy had beaten me to it. “Hello,” He said. “Salutations,” I replied. “You wanna dry?” He had an awful accent. He pronounced her “y’s” as sharp “i’s,” and clearly had a disrespect for grammar, the way he said “wanna” instead of “want to.” “Dry…?” “The dishes,” He looked at me awkwardly. “Oh. Of course.” I picked up the towel. He pointed at the enormous pile of wet dishes on the side of the sink. I gaped at it. The dishes were strewn over every part of the counter and piled almost as high as the ceiling. “How long have you been doing this? I asked.” “‘Bout half an hour.” He replied. “And you did that much?” I gawked at him, rather than the dish pile. He chuckled. “No, we switch off. I bet you didn’t notice the little times next to your chore, did yeh?” I turned a bright red. If he’d known my true identity, he would have been oh, so sorry. But I couldn’t give my identity away now! He’d make me known to the King and Queen. “Hey, I recognize yeh from somewhere.” He said, finally looking up from the sink. “Not likely.” “No, really. Where have I seen yeh?” I coughed and tried to change the subject. “So, uh… how long have you been working here?” “Don’t change the subject!” “I wouldn’t have if I wanted to.” He disregarded this. “I swear I’ve seen yeh somewhere in the school.” I was beginning to recognize him, too.I tried to recall when I had seen him. Ahh yes, I had kicked his bucket on the stairs. My face felt as if it were on fire! “Oh yes, you were the one who kicked my bucket on the stairs, ‘ey?” “Um…” “Did you think you were a higher rank than me or something? Is that why you did it?” I was relieved that he didn’t know I was the prince. “Uh… yes. Quite so.” I said. “Yeh was dressed funny.” “Yes, I was, but that doesn’t’ matter now, does it?” “Eh, I suppose not, but now, I’m a higher rank than yeh.”
Read ^ First! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “How so?” “See these tassels on my uneeform?” I nodded. “‘Dat means ‘dat I am ‘da head assistant.” “Of which class?” I asked. “The twelve and thirteen-year-olds, mostly.” He said. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we were introduced properly.” “I’m Aidan.” “Bert,” I responded. We shook hands and got back to work. Drying dishes is the simpler of the two jobs revolving around washing the dishes. I know because once Aidan’s shift was done, I had to take over the job. I dunked my hands into the freezing water and picked up the sponge. Each dish was disgusting! They had the remains of food, and some of it was growing this green fuzzy stuff. How long have these been sitting here? I wondered. I particularly hated washing the cutlery. People put their mouths on them, and I hate touching people’s mouths! And the fact that there’s rotting food on them makes it worse! I was now having second thoughts about remaining disguised as a servant. I’d rather give the orders, and stay tidy rather than taking them, and getting messy. Plus, there are much more hazards to be worried about. When you’re lighting the fire, you could accidentally set the building ablaze, too. When you’re ironing, you could overheat it and burn the clothing, then get beaten by your master. Maybe I should just stop, I thought as I reached into the dirty water for another dish. Get back to the castle, and stop getting orders. But what about Hana? Am I just going to leave her here with never anything between us? That seemed like a waste of both her and my time. Once my shift had ended, I decided to go searching for Hana. It seemed as though leaving us untied, as we were, was the wrong way to go. I caught a few glimpses of her in the halls, but she appeared to be busy, and I didn’t want to be rude and interrupt - well, whatever she was doing. I eluded her the rest of the day and resolved to catch up with her after supper. After a hearty meal of rotten potato and moldy cheese soup, I found Hana, grabbed her arm, and dragged her to my room. I figured that would be better than her room, which I had already barged into. To my surprise, she didn’t fight me. I think she liked being gripped by the arm and hauled to my quarters. Maybe she liked me, because all the while, she looked up into my eyes as if she were searching for something. She only came up to my chin, so I had a perfect view of her face when she was doing this. In my room, I plopped onto my (terribly uncomfortable) cot. She did the same. “I’m glad you brought me in here,” she said. “Why?” “I wanted to talk to you.” “About-” I started getting excited, “About what?” “The truth, of course!” “What truth?” “About me.” “Okay…?” “When we ran into each other earlier to-day, well, you ran into me, I told a lie.” “You? Never.” The words came out before I could think. My face felt as though it were on fire. I shunned myself for saying such a childish thing, but I didn’t take the words back. “Why, thank you!” She looked genuinely happy. “Anyway, I told a lie, and I feel terrible about it.” I nodded for her to continue. “I want to tell you the truth, so here it is. I miss my home in Stonedocliffe, I miss my friends, I miss my siblings, I miss my mother, my father, and even the bullies who used to tease me -” “You were bullied?” I cut her off. “Yes, but that’s not the point! You’re not letting me finish. I need to tell you my real feelings.” “Feelings?” The word squeeked out, and I got even more excited. “Yes. I miss Peter most of all. Now you’ve heard the whole of it.” “Who’s Peter? I don’t want to seem intrusive, but I really want to know.” “He’s my very best friend.” “Oh.” My heart sank. So she already had her special someone. “I also wanted to tell you that some girls were whispering about you in the hallways. It seems as though they really like you.” She winked at me. “Oh.” “You don’t seem very happy,” She seemed worried. “Nope, perfectly happy.” I lied. “You sure?” She scooted closer to me. I scooted further away. “Yes.” “Well, I guess I’ll be going then.” “You probably should.” She stood up and walked towards the door. “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “It’s fine,” She continued out the door. I wish I had said something to make her stay, but I couldn’t think of anything that would. -------------------------------------------------------------------- With 1669 words, this was a very long chapter, both to write and to read I'd bet. DWBH! -Oreo ------------------------------------------------------------------ Next chapter: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/484408681/ © @OreoTurtleBear © Please give me credit if you use my writing for any purpose. The time it took to write: About... a week. Maybe more, maybe less. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits: Some of the names: https://www.name-generator.org.uk/
