Princess for Hire

By Melanie Ezell

Daniel Henderson has managed to beat the odds and been accepted into Kingston Academy, one of the best private high schools in the country. However, when Daniel is invited to take part in a special program, he learns that there's more to the school than he had thought...

NOTE: This story is loosely -- as in VERY loosely -- based on the manga/anime "Princess Princess." After the initial concept, any similarities are mostly coincidental, unless they aren't. (Puzzle that out why don't ya.)

Part 1: The Princess Arrives

-1-

"What am I doing here?" I wondered as I looked out the bus window and watched the trees fly by on the other side of the glass. Just beyond them I could see the brick wall that separated the grounds of Kingston Private Academy from the local farm lands. On the other side of that wall was where I would spend the next four years of my life, if all went well, and I desperately hoped that it would.

All my life, I had been told that I would never amount to anything, by my stepfather, my cousins, even my grandparents. "That bastard father of yours," they would say when they talked about my dad, "he never went anywhere, and you're just like him." I always worked my hardest to make them happy; I had straight A's in school, I never fought, and I always did my best to get along with everybody at home -- but it never seemed to matter. Getting the scholarship to Kingston Academy had been a godsend -- it meant that I wouldn't have to spend my high school years suffering the same abuse that I'd had to deal with in junior high and elementary.

The only downside? Kingston Academy is an all boys private school. The teasing and mocking I had suffered for the last three months had been the worst, with my family going on about it being a "school for deviants" and how I'd fit right in, but I put up with it and held on. In reality, Kingston was one of the most prestigious schools in the state, known for turning out excellent and well liked politicians, business owners, and even a handful of famous scientists. But no, my family wouldn't hear any of that -- all they heard was about how there were no girls, and that was enough to convince them it was nothing more than "a training ground for fags," as my stepbrother had so eloquently put it.

That was all the reason I needed to make myself succeed at the school. No matter what, I was determined to do my best, and continue to be a top tier student. Of course, it was no longer up to me, since my scholarships required I hold a 3.5 GPA or lose them, but I could handle the stress if it meant never having to deal with those cretins again. Even so, knowing how much pressure I would be under couldn't stop me from staring in wonder as we approached the enormous wrought iron gates leading into the grounds. "Kingston Academy," I whispered, and in my heart I knew that things would never be the same.

The bus stopped, and my bags were unloaded by the driver along with those of three other boys, all of us wearing the same charcoal gray pants and blazer with the school's crest stitched into the lapel in purple and silver. I did my best to ignore the odd looks as the others grabbed their leather cases or expensive luggage and I hauled up my ratty old duffel bag filled with the few clothes and books I owned. I was glad they had laundry facilities on campus, as well, because the uniform I had on was the only one I owned, and I knew that until I found some work I wouldn't be able to afford more.

"Hi," I heard from my right side. When I turned, a tall boy with a broad, toothy grin and messy brown hair held his hand out to me. "I'm Andrew."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Dan Hen... Beck. My friends call me Beck." We shook hands, and Andrew introduced me to his friend Bobby. Before we could start a conversation, however, a sharp whistle from the gates caught our attention.

Walking towards us was a tall, sharp featured man with a pair of bifocals perched on his straight nose. One look at him and the word "teacher" immediately popped into my head, followed shortly by "snob" as I watched his face contort into a sneer when he saw my duffel bag. He gave each of the others a cursory glance as well, and I guess deciding that they were good enough, favored them with a hard smile.

"Welcome to Kingston Academy. I'm Professor Swift, and you're late."

"The bus was held up, you know how it is," Bobby returned, with a smirk of his own for the jerk in front of us. Andrew simply stood with his arms crossed, refusing to be intimidated. I smiled; if most of the students here were like Andrew and Bobby, I felt I could really like the Academy.

The smile on Professor Swift's face faltered for a moment, but quickly hardened again. He gave Bobby a cold stare, and said through gritted teeth, "Quite. Luckily for you, however, we are expected to be lenient with students on orientation day, especially freshman who are quite possibly... ignorant... of the rules." He paused for a moment, as though he were finished, but then turned to the fourth member of our bus party, a sort of gangly boy with his hair slicked back and too short sleeves on his jacket. "Mr. Davis, I had not expected to see YOU back this year. I was under the impression that you wished to leave our school."

"N-n-no sir, not at all," the boy stammered, obviously afraid of the teacher. "I had some problems, b-but I'm going to try and do b-better this year, sir."

"I'm sure Mr. Hart will be happy to see you've returned."

The boy yelped and dropped his bag, making me wonder who this "Mr. Hart" could be.

"Come along, then. No use being any later." Professor Swift swiveled around on his heels and started down the drive of the school, obviously expecting us to follow him. We all grabbed our bags, and did our best to keep up.

Soon after we began the walk up the drive, I watched as Andrew approached the Davis boy and began talking to him quietly. After a few surprised glances, the boy nodded, and shook hands with Andrew, finally cracking a small smile. Andrew then slowed down, and soon was in step beside me.

"Don't worry about Swifty. My brother goes to school here too, and he told me over the summer all about who you need to watch out for. And, you know what? He said Professor Swift was the worst of the bunch."

I nodded, but had to ask, "is that what you were talking to, uh, Davis about too?"

"Who? Oh, Stew! Kind of, I told him to look up my brother and say I sent him."

"Wow. What, is your brother part of student council or something?"

His eyes twinkled with humor, and he smirked as he said, "among other things. You'll see soon enough." With that, he sped up again, rushing to catch up to Bobby, who was the closest to Professor Swift.

"You three are lucky."

I jumped at the voice, never realizing that Davis, Stew, had moved back to speak to me. "Well," I argued, once my heart had stopped racing, "Bobby and Andrew are. I feel like I'm on my way to Hogwarts; this is all so surreal for me. Besides, I'll probably end up being a geek here, just like I was at my old school."

Stew let out a "hah!" of laughter. "Really, now, pretty boy? Get real."

"Hey! Just what do you mean by that?" I asked angrily.

He gave me an appraising eye, then frowned slightly. "You'll find out soon enough."

I was really starting to hate that phrase.

I walked the rest of the way in silence, contemplating. My looks had long been a bit of a sore point for me. When I had been about seven, my step-brother had accidentally broken my jaw with a baseball bat. It had been an honest to goodness accident - and as far as I knew the only time any of my family other than my mom had been upset to see me hurt - but the result had been that after the doctors rebuilt my jaw and the bit of nose that had been damaged as well, I had been left with a bit too narrow chin and a slightly upturned nose. When I had been little it hadn't been that bad, and a lot of the guys in my elementary school had thought it was a cool story. However, junior high had meant a different school, and a lot of different students. Nobody cared for the reasons, all they knew was I was a boy with a heart shaped, girlish face.

Because of my family and how they treated me, I had always used reading as a way to escape my problems when at home. When I started facing a lot of the same teasing and name calling at school, I simply started doing it there as well. I had straight A's, and perfect attendance, despite being an outcast, but the one thing I only rarely had was a friend to talk to.

"Hey, we're here." Stew nudged me, breaking my train of thought and pulling me back to the present. Before us stood an enormous brick building facing a large circular drive lined with trees. There were columns in front, and rows and rows of tall windows. I recognized it from the pamphlet as Montgomery Hall, the center of the Kingston Academy campus. It was even more impressive in person, with its square towers and large fountain, and Stew had to poke me again to keep me moving. "Trust me, it looks more impressive than it is," he said, as though he were reading my thoughts. The expression on his face was grim. "Well, back to the trenches."

I followed him to the foot of the steps, more nervous than I had been previously. Why had he been so down on the place? Was it really that bad? Andrew seemed excited, and so did Billy... so who should I believe? How would it be for me?

Professor Swift stopped suddenly at the top of the steps leading to the double doors at the front of the building, and spun to face us. "Gentlemen," he began, "for the next four years this school will be your new home. You will eat here, sleep here, and study here. For better or worse, you are now representing this school. Should I hear that any of you have been involved in behavior not befitting a student of Kingston Academy, I will see to it that you are expelled immediately. Do I make myself clear? Good. Follow me." With those encouraging words, the doors behind him swung open, and we took our first real steps into our new lives as students at Kingston Academy.

I wanted to take my time walking down the halls, to check out the building and learn my own way around, but Professor Swift lived up to his name as he led us down one corridor after another, not pausing once to explain where we were. As I jogged along behind him I would occasionally catch sight of another student through a window or at a locker, but we were in such a rush I never had a chance to speak to any of my future classmates.

The Professor finally stopped walking outside of a classroom that, to my eyes, appeared identical to all the others that we had passed. "Wait here," he told us before disappearing through the door, to return a moment later with two other students in tow. "Mr. Davis, since you are already familiar with our trio of newcomers, you will be helping out with showing them around campus. You will be responsible for... you," he said, pointing towards Andrew, "while Mr. McNalley will show this other gentleman around, and... you." He looked at me pointedly.

"Yes?" I asked nervously. His leer caused a shiver to run up my back.

"You will be escorted by Cartwright. I will speak to the headmaster and let him know you have arrived. What are your names?" As soon as he had our names, he turned his back to us and headed down the hall, leaving us with our two new companions.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Charles," the stocky, tanned boy said as he held his hand out to Bobby.

"And I'm Leslie," the short red-haired girl said as she did the same to me.

Wait... girl?

-2-

I looked around myself in confusion. Andrew was talking animatedly to Stew, who seemed to be trying unsuccessfully to hold on to his bad mood in the face of the optimistic and charismatic youth. Bobby and McNalley were already heading down the hall, with McNalley pointing out the different classrooms and other services. Nobody else had even seemed to notice that Cartwright was a girl except me.

"Umm, hello?" She waved her hand in front of me. "Earth to Daniel, you in there?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." I nodded.

"Come on, I'll show you around. I guess here's as good as anywhere to start. By the way, why weren't you here for the morning assembly?"

We chatted as we walked along, with her interrupting the conversation now and again to explain what a particular room was, or how to get to another building, or who the teachers were. I kept wanting to ask her why a girl was attending an all boys school, but somehow I just couldn't work up the courage.

Finally, after almost a half an hour of wandering about the campus, I couldn't hold it in any more. "Uh, excuse me?"

"Yes?" She asked me, smiling. She had been doing that a lot.

"This school... isn't it for boys only?"

She nodded. "That's right."

"But... oh-kay. Um, then why are you going here?"

She gave me a look up and down, similar to the ones I had already received from Stew and Professor Swift, before giving me another one of her smiles. "You'll find out soon enough."

I swore under my breath, fighting the urge to smack the next person who told me that.

As we wandered the halls, I was constantly surprised by the other students' reactions to both Cartwright, who told me to call her Leslie, and myself. Everybody seemed to give her a great deal of respect, and worked hard to behave gentlemanly in her presence. Oddly, I found myself receiving many of the same courtesies, and it bothered me. What was going on? Why was there a girl in an all boys school? When could I put down my bag?

I knew that at the very least I could get an answer to the last question. "Do you think we can check out the dorms now? I'd like to drop off my clothes and everything, if that's okay."

She passed a confused look over me for only a second before her eyes rested on my duffel bag. "Oh! Yes, sorry about that. Right this way."

On our way across campus to the dormitories, I couldn't help but to yet again wonder at the beauty and size of the grounds of the school. Sports fields, gardens, greenhouses, it all felt more like a small town than a school. They even had an on campus store just under half way between the class buildings and the dormitories that sold items like toothpaste, brushes, and razors.

It didn't take us long to reach the nearest dorm building. "This is Denver Hall. All freshmen and some sophomores stay here. This is where you're probably staying as well. Follow me and I'll introduce you to your adviser." She led me through the doors, and directly to an office on the other side of the room.

"Good afternoon, welcome to Denver Hall," chimed the boy behind the counter happily when he saw us approach. I watched his facial expression carefully, and sure enough after checking out Leslie he gave me a quick once-over as well before grinning broadly. "How can I help you ladies today?"

I was ready to give him a piece of my mind when Leslie's hand on my arm stopped me. "That wasn't very nice, Fred. Be easy on Daniel for me, 'kay?" I watched the boy blush and nod. "Thank you. Do you have a room assignment for Daniel Henderson?"

He nodded again, then spent a few moments typing on the keyboard in front of him. "Yeah, he's in a double on the third floor. You want the key?"

Leslie looked at me and frowned. "Uh, I don't think so. Are you sure that room's right? I'm sure you can find something nicer for him, can't you?" She gave him some kind of gesture with her hands, and I watched his eyes grow wider.

"Oh, yeah, I can do that. Let's see... it looks like the only one available right now is the one connected to your room, ma'am. I'm not sure the headmaster will let me move him there."

She nodded, and smiled again. "Go ahead and do it, I'm sure he won't mind."

I boggled when I heard that. I was being upgraded to a single room? Connected to a girl's room? What was going on here? I took a step away from Leslie, growing more wary of her by the second. Who was she, if she could pull something like this, anyhow? Surely the students weren't given this much leeway in changing things at the school, yet she had talked me into a significant upgrade. Something was going on here, I was sure of it -- but how could I find out what?

"Come on," she nodded towards a door to the left of the lobby once she had the key, "this way."

I followed her down the hallway and up a set of stairs, my mind overflowing with questions the entire time. "I don't know if I should be on the same floor as a girl, or girls, or... what the hell's going on here?" I stopped in the middle of the hallway and refused to go another step. When she finally noticed that I was no longer following her, she turned around and, seeing me standing there, sighed.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't want that room on the third floor anyhow, they're tiny and on top of that they smell like sweaty gym socks. Not only that, but this way you've got a room to yourself, so long as you don't mind sharing a bathroom with me." She grinned again. "Or were you hoping they had you rooming with some cute guy?"

"Hey! I never said I was... grrh. Just show me the room."

Her grin faltered when she saw how upset I really was, and she gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Hey, I was just teasing. If you're that worried about it you're going to have a meeting with the headmaster later today, I can pretty much guarantee it. It's... a little after noon now. Just drop your bag off in the room, you don't even have to unpack yet, but don't worry so much until you've talked to him." She paused. "Nobody's told you anything about this school, have they?"

I shook my head. "I looked up as much as I could online, but there wasn't anything about it being coed. Not that it bothers me, but things have just been so weird since I got here..."

Her face took on a pitying look as she shook her head. "You'll know what's going on after you talk to him. It's too bad you missed the assembly this morning, really, it probably would have saved you a lot of worry. I'm sorry, Daniel, but really, things will be fine."

"Beck," I said, holding out my hand to her.

"What?"

"Call me Beck, all my friends do."

She laughed, and shook my hand. "You'll have to explain that to me later, but it suits you."

"I will," I agreed, grinning.

"Good," she nodded. "Then follow me."

Even given my already more than interesting experiences with the rest of the school, the dorm room I was shown to was quite a surprise. I had expected bare white walls, maybe an old beat up bed and a chest of drawers. Instead, the walls were a pleasant enough cream color, and the furnishings were fairly new, made of bare pine. "The bathroom door is on the wall to your right, and on the left is the closet." She pointed to the double doors on the left hand wall. "There's actually two closets. Usually you would have one and your roommate would use the other, but since you've got a single room both closets are yours, which can come in handy."

I just laughed. "Somehow I doubt I'll need all that much room for my clothes," I replied, hefting the duffel bag I held in my hand. "I think you can count all the clothes I brought with me on your fingers and still have a few left over."

"Well, you'd be surprised how fast that can change," she told me.

"Not on my budget."

She just shrugged, then crossed to the closet nearest the door to the room, opening it and taking down a set of sheets. "Linens are in the top of the left hand closet, and the school insists that all students use the dorm bedding and towels, unless you get specific permission to use your own. Your laundry bin should be right by the door, and our floor gets to do laundry every Thursday, I'll show you where the washing room is later. Room inspection is every other Friday, to make sure we're keeping our rooms clean. Let's see... oh, yeah. You can talk to our resident adviser if you'd like to rent a mini fridge or something, or if you have like insulin or anything you can get one for free. Is there anything else?" I just shook my head, wondering how she could say so much without taking a breath. "Great! If you've got any questions, either knock on my front door or on the connecting door between our rooms on the other side of the bathroom. Oh! There's also a cabinet in there for any toiletries you have. I think that's everything for now, anything else we can cover later."

I dropped my bag on the bed next to the pile of sheets and turned to give the room a quick once over before popping my knuckles. "Alright, I can live with this. So, what's next?"

Her eyes shifted to the left as she thought. "Next, we visit your afternoon classes. You got your schedule, right?"

"Yeah, right here."

"Good, then let's go!"

-3-

As we made the trip back from the dorms to the main building where classes were held, Leslie continued to explain as much about the school as she could. I learned everything I could want to know about where on the grounds were off limits, who the best teachers were, and what kind of foods the cafeteria offered on a regular basis. She also told me what students she knew I should watch out for, and the safest places to meet up with friends after classes, as well as many other things that I had no chance of remembering. In the end, I took to simply nodding along as she talked, until at last we stood before a classroom that after only a few seconds I remembered was supposed to be my Algebra class.

"You ready?" Leslie asked me, and with a last gulp I nodded my head yes.

The room was silent when we entered, but the moment that Leslie and I stepped in a murmur began to pass among the students. The teacher, who had been napping quietly, jerked awake with a loud snort and gave us a bleary-eyed stare. "Ah, can I help you?" He asked, while trying to force back a yawn.

"Thank you, Professor. I'd like to introduce you and your class to Daniel Henderson. He was one of the students on the bus of late arrivals. I've been escorting him around campus, giving him the tour, and your class is supposed to be his last one for the day."

"Ah, yes." He gave me a closer look, and I watched as his face broke into a broad grin. "Oh, splendid! I had thought that I'd missed the opportunity to have one of our special students in my class this year but--"

"AHEM," Leslie coughed from beside me, interrupting the Professor's comment. He gave her a curious look, but at her glare his eyes widened and he nodded.

"Ah, I apologize. Here, let's see... Henderson... yes, you're to be in the second row back, fourth column from the right. Please take your seat. Since today is the first day of classes all that we have done is to hand out textbooks, but starting tomorrow I will expect you to be ready to learn the moment you step through that door. Have I made myself clear?" The Professor gave me a stern look, but I could see the laugh lines around his eyes, and as I had always enjoyed math before I was sure I would like his class as well.

"Yes, Professor," I nodded. Then I turned to Leslie. "Thank you for showing me around today."

"You're welcome." She smiled. "I'll see you later, okay?" She told the Professor goodbye, and waved at the class as she left. I noticed that while several of the members of the class were entranced by her, most of the rest seemed to have grins like they were in on some joke, and a couple had given her creepy looking scowls. Perhaps they didn't approve of the school accepting girls now?

I found my seat, and was pleasantly surprised to see Bobby from the bus ride sitting in the seat beside me. "How'd your tour of the place go?" I asked him once I was seated.

"It went great. I saw most of my classrooms and the dorms; it should be pretty easy to find my way around tomorrow. What about you?"

"Pretty much the same thing," I agreed, "it shouldn't be hard. It's taking me a while to get used to the stares, though." I nodded towards the other boys in the room, several of whom had turned in their seats to watch me from the moment I had entered.

Bobby laughed. "Well, I'm just a new kid, but you're...."

"What," I asked sharply, shooting daggers at Bobby, but all he did was laugh again.

"You're something else. I think you'll find out soon enough."

I wanted to scream out loud, "WHY DOES EVERYBODY KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON BUT ME," but I held myself in check. Instead, I turned away from Bobby, planning to ignore him the rest of class.

Which, for me, turned out to be about ten minutes.

The intercom buzzed, and a raspy voice came over the speaker. "Could the freshman Daniel Henderson please report to the Headmaster's office, Daniel Henderson to the Headmaster's office. Thank you."

"Ah, it would be best not to keep the Headmaster waiting, Mr. Henderson. Mr. Wray, since you two seem to know each other already would you please escort him there?"

"Yes, sir," Bobby stood up and grabbed his things. When he noticed I hadn't moved, he gave me a smile. "Come on, it'll be fine. It's only the first day, you can't have done anything wrong already."

I desperately hoped he was right. I had been warned that I would probably be called in to have things "explained," but I still had no idea what the big deal was. The Professor shook my hand and wished me good luck, and soon after we found ourselves outside of the Headmaster's offices. I was too nervous to even knock on the door, and was on the verge of simply turning around and leaving again when the door swung open on its own before me.

"Finally, there you are!" Leslie said as she smiled at me. "I've been waiting on you, come on." She turned around and walked past the secretary's desk and through a door just across from us, gesturing for me to follow her. I gave Bobby a worried look, but he just shook his head.

"I'll wait out here."

"You can return to class," the secretary, a squat and chubby man with a bad comb-over said from behind the desk. "They will be in this meeting for quite a while, and your escort will not be needed again."

Bobby just shrugged, and offered me his hand. I gave it a quick shake, and after a hurried "good luck," he left the office, shutting the door behind him. With nowhere else to go, I turned around and headed into the inner office to finally meet the Headmaster.

The first thing that struck me as odd about the office was the walls. I had thought that the headmaster's office would be filled with diplomas and copies of famous paintings, to try and give it a professional and scholarly feel. Instead, the walls were covered in sketches and prints of characters from many different anime and manga, most of which I couldn't name. The black and white comic-like drawings seemed to cover almost every inch of free wall space that wasn't covered by bookshelves, and a closer inspection of the shelves revealed several dozen volumes of manga crammed in along with the books on education and the textbooks the school used.

The second thing that struck me as odd was the man behind the large desk in the middle of the room. He couldn't have been older than his early thirties, but his black hair was just starting to show the barest hints of gray. He had on a tie with a print of another anime character on it, and a pair of coke bottle glasses perched on his straight nose. And he was wearing one of the most pleasant smiles I had ever seen. I had expected to be up against some hard-nosed former bully, or blustering old ex professor; instead, it was more like I was about to talk to a mentor.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Henderson, it's very good to see you. Welcome to Kingston Academy."

I realized I recognized his voice from the many calls I had made to the school when applying for their scholarship program. I had been talking to the headmaster that entire time? "Thank you, sir. I'm happy to be here. But... why was I called to your office?"

"Please, call me Mr. Uchiha, everybody does." He gave me another one of his easy smiles, and I felt myself relax. "You're not in any trouble, I promise. Actually, I've got a bit of a favor to ask you -- no, it's really more of a job offer."

"A job offer?"

"You could call it that," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Tell me, have you ever heard of a comic called "Princess Princess?""

"No, sir." I shook my head, then dared an educated guess. "I don't really follow manga or anime or anything like that."

"Really?" He looked a bit let down, but quickly recovered. "Well, as you can see, I'm a bit of what's called an "otaku" myself, or manga fanatic if you will. I'm half Japanese, you see, and when I was young my father... well, I'll save the stories for some other time." He stopped talking, and looked deep in thought. Finally, he resumed, again smiling. "Alright then, here's how I'll start. What do you know about our school?"

I sat up straighter and thought back over what I had learned about Kingston Academy. "Founded in 1889 by Frederick Kingston. Umm, something like four hundred students, grades ninth and up. The second rated private school in the state. It used to be a boy's only school, but Leslie said she goes here too now." I gave her a look, but all she did was grin and wink at me.

Mr. Uchiha seemed impressed. "Not bad. However, you forgot one of our school's most outstanding features: a commitment to experimental education. It is our goal to make sure that all students who attend our Academy receive the best education they can, and in order to accomplish that we are constantly trying new and unorthodox methods of instruction. Tell me, Mr. Henderson, what would you say if I told you that Ms. Cartwright's presence here does not affect our school's standing as an all male institution?"

I looked at Leslie, then back to the headmaster. "So, her being here is an experiment? Is she some kind of observer?"

He laughed, and leaned back in his desk chair. "Not at all. She's just a normal student, like every other boy who goes here. Aren't you, Leslie?"

"Yes, Mr. Uchiha."

The click as my brain turned over must have been audible, and I felt the blood drain from my face. "You mean... Leslie's a guy?!"

Both Leslie and Mr. Uchiha started to laugh softly. "That's exactly what we're saying, Mr. Henderson."

Leslie touched my shoulder. "I told you that us sharing a bathroom wouldn't be a problem."

Mr. Uchiha gave Leslie a calculating look. "Oh? So you have already moved Mr. Henderson into the "P" Wing of the dorms?"

Leslie blushed and lowered her... his?... head.

"What's going on here?" I asked, now more confused than ever. Was Leslie a transsexual? I had heard of them from my dad the last time I had been allowed to visit him. Or a cross dresser? Was this just some kind of joke they were playing on me since I was late showing up to school?

"Mrs. Cartwright is a part of an experiment I have been running for the last three years on our campus. The theory is that having a female presence in an all male school can possibly help to inspire a large portion of the students to work harder. The idea is to give them the opportunity to have someone representing the female of the species to try and impress while removing the distraction of actual romantic entanglement from the equation as much as possible. Despite how absurd it may sound, it has worked surprisingly well so far, with both our academics and athletics departments showing a marked improvement in their performance since instituting the experiment."

"But why didn't I see this mentioned anywhere in the paperwork?" I asked. "This is pretty important not to... wait a minute. What does this have to do with-- oh, no."

"I see you're as sharp as your test scores indicate," Mr. Uchiha crowed happily. "If you are willing, we would like to ask you to take part in the experiment as well."

I could feel my face burning as I blushed bright red.

"Now, it isn't compulsory," Mr. Uchiha continued hastily, "you don't have to if you do not feel you would be comfortable. However, in exchange for participation in the experiment, students who play the role of what we have dubbed our 'campus princesses' do receive a salary comparative to any other on campus job, as well as all materials required for their position for free, including school uniforms."

I felt Leslie squeeze my shoulder again. "I know I don't know you that well," she said, giving me a friendly grin, "but I think you could do it. All you have to do is wear a uniform with a skirt once in a while and attend a few events for the school."

"Hold on, let me think." I collapsed in a leather chair on one wall and put my head in my hands. I already had so many questions, and more kept coming up. Should I do it? I needed to know more before I made a decision, but I had surprised myself by not objecting to the idea outright. Call it my dad's good influence.

"Why wasn't there anything about this on your website? Or anywhere else I looked?" I asked, puzzled.

Mr. Uchiha steepled his fingers. "We work hard to keep some of our more unorthodox experiments out of the public eye. We're not doing anything illegal, but the public opinion of some of our experiments would be less than wonderful. If you were to agree to do it, I could explain more, but your parents do have to agree to it as well."

I snorted. If my stepfather were to hear about this, he would freak out, then tell me how much he knew I was a "delinquent" and a "miscreant" even before I attended the school. Thank the maker that my mom had let my dad take over custody rights for me after the whole fiasco with that bastard's family -- I could never consider them my family. "What about the responsibilities? And the uniform?"

The headmaster grinned, I think taking comfort in my openness to the idea of the experiment. "You would need to attend at least one class a week wearing a girl's uniform like the one that Ms. Cartwright is wearing today." He gestured to Leslie, who gave me a dramatic spin and posed. "When you wear the girl's uniform, you will be referred to using female pronouns and generally treated as a young lady. Whether in or out of the uniform, however, you will be required to attend all school sponsored sporting events as a 'team supporter,' as well as participate in both the drama club and several other campus events. Unlike most of the members of the groups that usually participate in these events, however, you will receive compensation for your time spent as a 'campus princess.'"

The job sounded interesting and fairly easy. My interest was becoming more piqued by the second. "And what is the pay for this job?"

"Each day you wear the girl's uniform is considered as though you had worked a normal shift at a campus job for that day, plus the cost of both your male and female uniforms as well as anything else that is needed for you to keep up with your duties as a 'princess.'"

I thought about it. For an on campus job, that wasn't too bad. Heck, who am I kidding, that was amazing! "Is that it?" I asked.

Mr. Uchiha thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Pretty much, though I should warn you that no matter what uniform you wear, the rest of the students have a tendency to treat those who work as 'campus princesses' differently from the other students. Even if you don't take the job, with your appearance I'm afraid you might still be grouped in with the princesses for most events."

I sighed. Again with my looks! Anyhow... "I'll do it."

I heard a whispered "yes!" from Leslie, and even the headmaster seemed very pleased with my answer. "Very good," he said, writing quickly on a stack of papers on his desk. "In that case, take these papers by the academic adviser's office after you leave my office, and she will provide you with the official paperwork and everything else you'll need. Oh, and I want you to take this as well..."

Soon, I found myself being led by Leslie down one hall after another on our way to the adviser's office, the paperwork clutched in one hand and the first two volumes of "Princess Princess" held tightly in the other.

(End of Part 1)

End Note: I have the first nine chapters (three parts) of this story finished, and the rest pretty much completely planned already. However, I've been in a bit of a slump lately as far as writing goes, and seeing Lillith Langtree's recent comment about posting unfinished work, I had to agree. I've been working to finish things before posting them, but it just isn't working out as well for me. I like to have the feedback! So, here's Part 1 of a new story. If you comment, more will come. IF YOU COMMENT, MORE WILL COME!