Royal Genovian Bedroom
!!!!!
WOW.
☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺
Okay, maybe things are looking up. Just a little.
I was outside helping the electricians swap out the white party globes for purple ones (which has to be done in secret. Grandmère says it will be a great surprise for Mia to see everyone and everything bathed in soft purple light) when I was the one who got a surprise.
Prince Khalil showed up in the Royal Genovian Gardens!
“What are you doing here?” I asked from on top of my ladder.
“What are you doing here?” he asked from below it.
“I live here,” I said.
“Right,” he said with a laugh. “Sorry, I knew that. What I meant was … what are you doing way up there?”
“Oh,” I said. “Helping to hang party lights for my sister’s wedding reception. It’s in two days and basically nothing is ready, so I’m pitching in to help.”
I could have given him a longer explanation—like how earlier Grandmère had told me another rule for royals: “Better to do it yourself than trust other people to do it, so you know it’s done right”—but I suddenly remembered that I was wearing my uniform shorts, and I wasn’t sure whether or not he could see up them, so I started climbing down.
I was surprised when he reached over to hold the bottom rungs of the ladder to steady it, but I shouldn’t have been. This kind of courteousness is why Luisa has such a crush on him.
“Thanks,” I said as I jumped the last few feet to the garden path. My pink high-tops made a satisfying crunching sound on the gravel.
“No problem,” he said. “Hey, I’m glad we ran into each other. About what happened in school today—”
Oh, no! This was the last thing I wanted to talk about! Especially with him.
“Uh-oh,” I said. “Did you hear that? I think my grandmother is calling me. It’s probably time for high tea. Sorry, I have to go.”
“Wait.” Prince Khalil reached out to grab my arm. “I just wanted to say that I think it was cool how you said you drew that picture so that Prince Gunther wouldn’t get kicked out of school.”
I froze. “You did? I mean, you do?”
“Yeah.” He let go of my arm. “Not many girls would have done that.”
I was shocked, and not only because Prince Khalil had just grabbed my arm and said I was cool, but because he’d ACTUALLY NOTICED SOMETHING I’D DONE.
Not that I cared.
“Uh,” I said. Suddenly it seemed like all the birds in the garden were tweeting more loudly than usual, and the sun was shining a little more brightly, which makes no sense because I do not even like Prince Khalil. “Well, Prince Gunther didn’t draw that picture. So I was only doing the right thing.”
“Yeah,” Prince Khalil said. “But you didn’t draw it.”
This conversation was making me very uncomfortable, because the last thing I wanted to be discussing with Prince Khalil was who really drew the picture, which of course was Luisa Ferrari, who secretly wanted to be his girlfriend.
“Well,” I said. “Maybe not. But it still wouldn’t have been fair if Prince Gunther got kicked out of school for something he didn’t do.”
“No,” Prince Khalil said. “But if he didn’t draw it, and you didn’t draw it, who did?”
“Uh.” I thought it better to distract him. “What’s that?” I pointed at the wire cage Prince Khalil had put down while holding the ladder for me, then lifted again.
“Oh, this?” It worked! My trick worked! He held up the cage so I could take a better look at it. “It’s a live trap. I’m a volunteer with the Genovian Herpetology Rescue Society. We’re here today to trap and relocate your iguanas.”
It was a good thing I’d climbed down from the ladder, or I would have fallen off it. “You are?”
“Yeah,” Khalil said, his dark eyes lighting up the way they had in the school dining room. “I told my friends at the society what you said about all the problems you were having here at the palace with iguana overcrowding, and they got in touch with the gardening and security staff, and they said we could come in and set up these traps. We’re going to relocate as many of your iguanas as we can to the Genovian golf course. They’ll be much happier there and won’t bother anyone.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s, uh, really nice of you.”
“Oh, it’s nothing.” He shrugged modestly. “The society is happy to help. Conserving reptiles and amphibians and educating the public about how critical they are to the environment is what we do. Did you know that without many species of reptiles, some plants wouldn’t get pollinated, and certain pests would overrun the ecosystem?”
“Uh,” I said. “No, I didn’t.”
“Well, it’s true. Where can I put this?” He held out the wire cage.
“Over here,” I said, and led him to the orange tree beneath my bedroom window. I couldn’t see Carlos anywhere, but I knew he was around. Sometimes he hides. “You’re going to need a lot of those, though.”
“I know,” he said. “That’s why we came today. We’ll set as many traps as we can now, and then keep coming back. By the wedding we should have gotten most of them.”
The birds in the trees seemed to tweet even more loudly. “This is going to be the best wedding present for my sister,” I said. “I’ve been wondering what I was going to get her, since I don’t have any money.”
He smiled. “I never heard of anyone giving someone iguana removal for their wedding before, but I guess it would make a pretty good gift, and not just because it’s free. I’d love to be an iguana removal specialist when I grow up, because it makes people so happy, and it’s great for the iguanas.” Then the grin turned into a frown. “Only I can’t, of course.”
I felt a pang for him, since he looked so sad. “Why not? Don’t they have iguanas in your native land?”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “No, because I have to be a prince.”
“Oh, right,” I said, embarrassed. “Of course! I can’t believe I forgot.” I’d also forgotten that his native land was in the middle of a war, and this was why he was a boarding student at the RGA and his parents lived in France. Probably it had been insensitive of me to have brought it up. I decided to change the subject. “You know, I want to be a wildlife illustrator. I think it’s possible to be both … royal and something else. Most people do more than one thing.”
“You know what,” he said, after crawling from the live trap, which he’d finished setting up. “I never thought about it before, but you’re right. Like Prince Gunther. He’s royal, but he’s also a swimmer.”
I didn’t like how our conversations always seemed to go back to Prince Gunther, especially since I don’t even like Prince Gunther … at least, not the way Prince Gunther likes me.
But since making a big deal about it would only make it seem like I do, I said, “Yes, just like Prince Gunther.”
“Well,” Prince Khalil said, looking at the trap, “That’s something to think about. Anyway, one down. About a hundred more to go.”
I felt so grateful and happy that he’d come along out of nowhere and been so nice, I wanted to do something nice for him … only I couldn’t think what. Warning him about Luisa’s plan to make him her boyfriend at the wedding reception ball and dance with him in the moonlight and force him to give up his love of herpetology didn’t seem appropriate.
Maybe he wants to be Luisa’s boyfriend. I don’t know.
So instead I just said, “Well, I’ll let you get to work, then. Thanks a lot. If you or any of your friends from the herpetology society want to come inside for an orange juice or something, find me and let me know!”
“Okay.” He smiled. How come I never noticed before what a nice smile he has? “Thanks. See you later.”
“See you later.”
Somehow as I was backing away from the orange tree I managed not to trip over any roots or anything. I don’t know how.
Reading this over, I know it seems as if I like Prince Khalil, but I swear I don’t! He’s very nice and everything, but I have enough problems without crushing on a prince, especially a prince who happens to be my cousin Luisa’s crush.
But let’s just say if I were going to have a crush on a prince, it would probably be on Prince Khalil. He has very good manners and nice eyes and he’s kind to iguanas.
But I don’t. At all.