Royal Limousine
Got the biggest jolt when I walked into class today:
Prince Gunther wasn’t wearing kneesocks or shower shoes!!!
He was wearing long trousers, proper shoes, and his uniform tie, and his shirt was nicely ironed and tucked in, the sleeves rolled down so he wasn’t showing off his “guns.”
He actually looked … well, less horrible.
All the girls were buzzing about his transformation, even my cousin Luisa.
“This is because of you!” she ran over to whisper to me. For once, she didn’t look angry. She looked excited. “Gunther gave himself a makeover because you told him to!”
“Me?” I was confused. “I never told him to—”
Then I remembered guiltily that I had. Sort of.
“Wait,” I said. “I never told him to get a makeover. All I told him to do was to stop flinging boogers and making fart noises. And flexing.”
“See!” Luisa looked triumphant. “It is because of you!” She turned to Victorine and Marguerite. “I told you. A man will do anything for the woman he loves!”
I felt a little sick. I hadn’t meant for Gunther to stop wearing his shower shoes. Although I had to admit he looked—and smelled—a lot better. Those shower shoes were pretty old.
“I wish a boy would do something like that for me,” Victorine said with a sigh.
Marguerite agreed. “I know, right? He’s almost as cute as Prince Khalil!”
I expected Luisa to say something like “How dare you!” or “No one could be as cute as my darling Khalil!”
But she didn’t. She was staring at Prince Gunther and his makeover as moony-eyed as all the other girls!
I couldn’t believe it.
Not that Prince Khalil even noticed, because he was busy reading yet another book about reptiles and amphibians. He barely looked up when I crept away from the other girls to tell him that the cages he and his friends had left were full this morning.
“Oh, cool,” he said. “Some of the society members will be over to transport the iguanas to the golf course. Then they’ll set the cages back up and see how many more we can catch.”
“Great!” I said. “Thanks again for doing that.”
“I’m glad I could help.” He smiled, and even though I don’t like him as anything but a friend, I have to admit I can see why Luisa likes him so much.
I was turning around to go back to my desk when the worst thing happened.
Prince Gunther came leaping forward, bowed, and held my chair out for me (the way gentlemen sometimes do for ladies, except NOT IN CLASS IN FRONT OF EVERYONE).
Then he said, “Good morning, Your Royal Highness.”
AGGGHHHH.
But all the girls in class loved it. They giggled and clapped, even Princess Komiko. Even Luisa.
“Uh,” I said. “Good morning, Prince Gunther.”
I pretty much wanted to die on the spot. Although Grandmère told me it is humanly impossible to die of embarrassment. Unfortunately.
“I hope you are having a lovely day,” Gunther said.
“I am,” I said. “I hope you are, too.”
“I am,” he said.
“Great,” I said. He was leaning right over me! He wouldn’t leave!
“Great,” he said. “Do you notice anything different about me?”
“Yes,” I said. “You aren’t wearing shower shoes.”
“Yes,” he said. “I did it for you.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s nice. I think you should go sit down now. Monsieur Montclair is going to be here in a minute.”
“All right,” Prince Gunther said, and smiled really big. “I’m very happy to see you this morning.”
“Great,” I said. “But we’re still just friends, remember?”
“Yes,” he said, still smiling. “That’s what you told me yesterday. I haven’t forgotten. But you’re my first friend at this school! No one else has ever been so nice to me. Last night on the telephone I told my parents about you, and they want to invite you to come to Stockerdörfl to visit us this summer.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s great. We’ll see.”
Grandmère says when you don’t want to do something, just say, Great. We’ll see! because that way you’re not really saying yes or no. You’re saying, Actually, my schedule is quite busy and I have to check with my royal secretary. But I’ll get back to you quite soon.
“You will really enjoy Stockerdörfl,” Gunther went on. “We are known for our excellent skiing.”
Luisa overheard all this and started to laugh. “I bet Olivia’s been skiing lots of times.”
She is such a pill.
“I haven’t, actually,” I said. “But I would love to learn.”
No. Not really. I only have time for one hobby, and that’s drawing. I just said that because Luisa was being so annoying.
But it was the wrong thing to say, because it made Prince Gunther look excited.
“Really?” he asked. “I could teach you to ski! I am as good at skiing as I am at swimming!”
Oh no.
Then, thank GOODNESS, the door to the classroom opened.
But instead of Monsieur Montclair walking in, it was my bodyguard, Serena.
At first I thought she was there to tell Prince Gunther to please back away slowly from me, because that’s what bodyguards are trained to do.
But instead, she held out my cell phone (we aren’t allowed to carry our cell phones in school—unless we sneak them, like Luisa—and are instead supposed to leave them with our bodyguards, who are to contact us about calls if there is an emergency).
Which is what I thought there was when I saw Serena holding my cell phone toward me. My heart gave a double flip, and I stood up.
“Oh no,” I said. “Is there something wrong?”
Was it Dad? Had he had a heart attack from all the stress of the rising wedding costs and sinking foundation? Was it Grandmère? Had something gone wrong with the purple dye? Or was it something even worse … my sister, and the babies? “No, no,” Serena said. “It’s your friend Nishi. Did you forget she’s arriving today? She and her family just landed at the Genovian airport.”