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 5: The Princess's Escort

-13-

The gown was floor length, with a tight slightly boned waist to add some minor curves that I otherwise would not have had and what the seamstress had called "almost a hobble skirt, because you boys always take such long steps and it makes the dress look bad when you do," all in a shimmery light yellow material that I could never remember the name of.

I looked down at myself in the gown.

I looked over at Andrew, standing there in a nicer version of the school uniform and smirking at me.

I looked back down at myself, and vaguely wondered how long I would be able to last on the heels hidden somewhere beneath before my feet decided to stage a mutiny and throw me to the floor.

"I hate you so much right now," I said calmly as I took his offered arm and we made our way for the entrance.

"I know, right?" He replied, confident that I wouldn't hit him since I was relying on his support for balance.

"Ow! Sonuva-"

He was wrong.

We had all been warned ahead of time by the Head that the Alumni Banquet would be boring, and that we would all be expected to remain polite and alert the entire time despite that. It seemed that the Alumni Association had taken an interest in our particular 'alternative education experiment,' and had requested the presence of a handful of representatives of the Princess program at their annual banquet so they might try and see some of the affect we had in person. In the end the names that had been drawn were Sarah's, Julia's, and mine. I had complained, but the Head had said that they would appreciate having a representative from each grade that was participating in the program, and that I was the only freshman with enough experience to pull it off, not to mention the only one who had already been fitted for an evening gown.

I smelled a setup, but I just gritted my teeth and bore it, like I was doing now as Andrew escorted me to our reserved seats with the other Princesses and their escorts.

"Isn't this just so exciting?" Jules asked me as I settled into my seat, Andrew sliding it snugly into place. I was ready to ask her if she was serious, until I saw her look of disgust. McNalley sat next to her with a showman's smile on, and I watched him nod to some of the older men as they entered.

Sarah, in her own baby blue dress, laughed quietly. I looked at her, and my eyes bulged when I noticed the cleavage she was sporting in her strapless gown.

"Are those real?" Slipped out of my mouth before I could slap my hand over it, and I stared at her in wide eyed horror at my own faux pas.

She gave me an odd look, then laughed again and nodded. "I've been on hormones for almost a year and a half now. Why, are you jealous?"

I shook my head and glanced down at my own nearly flat chest, my only enhancement being the small amount of flesh displaced by the corsetry in the dress. That was disturbing enough for me -- the idea of having actual breasts sent a chill down my spine.

"You okay?" Andrew asked me, resting his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, just had a scary thought is all."

He nodded, then sat down across from the boy who was serving as Sarah's escort for the evening. His name was lost on me, but the strange looks he was shooting around at the rest of us grated on my nerves.

It was sometimes hard for me to remember that I had only been in the Princess program for a month. In that time I had already been to two soccer games and a basketball game dressed as a cheerleader, learned how to do makeup and generally dress myself, and managed to be one of the students with clothes in the laundry at the time that a prank gone wrong destroyed the dryer, ruining my only pair of boy's uniform pants in the process. That had been just under a week before, and even though I was supposed to receive a pair of replacements the day after the banquet I had suffered a week of wearing a pair of pants three sizes too big for me. It was either that or my Princess uniform, but I was determined to wear that as rarely as possible.

Not that it made any difference. I know the Head had talked to some of my teachers about watching me carefully and making sure to use pronouns according to how I was presenting, but even with that there were more than enough slip ups with being called 'Becky' or 'girl' even when in class. I was sure now that the Head had been right about me being grouped in with the Princesses regardless of whether I had joined or not -- I just wished that I could be grouped in with the other guys when I was dressed normally.

Instead, I received all the courtesies of a Princess at all times, the same as Sarah. I still was not sure whether to be insulted by this or flattered, but I was leaning toward the former.

A tug on my hand brought me back to the dinner, and when I looked over Andrew was gently pulling me to my feet. Everybody else was already standing up and facing the stage expectantly.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the MC's voice echoed out over the crowd as the lights dimmed and a spotlight was directed on the aging, bald man with microphone in hand. "Welcome to the seventy-third annual Kingston Academy Alumni Banquet. As you all know, I'm Rolph Donner, class of '31, and I was asked to speak at this fantastic event because I am currently the school's oldest living alumni. And, trust me, looking around this room I can tell you that's saying something." The crowd laughed politely, and the old man gave the auditorium a toothy grin. "But I know just what to do to make you all feel just as old as I do..."

What followed was one of the longest, most boring parades of speeches and presentations I had ever witnessed, and to top it off I could not even temper it by attempting to enjoy the food because of the foolish corsetry built into my dress. I looked over at Andrew, digging heartily into his chicken and potatoes, and hated him a little more. Then I imagined what he would have looked like if he had worn my dress. The thought made me smile, and imagining all the torment he would undergo almost made the rest of the event tolerable.

To make matters worse, it felt as though every ten minutes another alum of the school would stop by our table to talk with us and find out exactly what was going on with the Princess program. Apparently the program had escaped their notice some way or other for the past two years, and consequently many of them were highly interested in learning the finer details of what the program did. The three of us Princesses answered questions as best we could, with me being thankful that Sarah and Jules were able to field all the questions unless I was specifically asked.

The mutiny occurred less than ten minutes before the event ended. I had been standing for almost half an hour, greeting alum after alum in my pretty little dress and saying pretty little words so they would all see what pretty little things us Princesses could be. I turned to greet the next alum who had come to ask me some damn fool question about another inconsequential bit of nonsense associated with the program -- I was getting a bit tired of it all, to say the least -- when my ankle decided to collapse, sending me tumbling backwards into the table, sending drinks, food, and dishes strewn asunder.

Or it would have, if Andrew had not caught me.

I recovered quickly, but not before catching the smirk on his face. I was glad he was more comfortable around me now, but his constant smiling like he knew something I was unaware of could get on my nerves almost as much as his constant bumbling had done before.

Or perhaps I was just in a bad mood.

Despite my foul mood and anger at his very presence, I was not above using Andrew as a support to keep weight off my now dully throbbing ankle, and after exchanging pleasantries with the last of the alumni, most of whom gave our entwined arms a somewhat disapproving grimace, he escorted me, slowly, back to my room.

"Some night, huh?" He asked, once we had reached an area of the halls where the constant droning of the old men in conversation could no longer be heard.

"I've had better."

"You do look beautiful in that dress, though."

I glared at him, but all it did was make him chuckle.

"Hey, ease up. You've been tense all night."

I sighed. "This has been the single longest month of my entire life."

He nodded. "Regretting joining the Princess program?"

I started to nod, but something made me stop myself. "I... I don't know. Not really."

A gentle pull on my arm caused me to stop, and when I looked at Andrew again he had a puzzled look on his face.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Why would I?" I asked in response.

He began ticking off items on his fingers. "One, you have to dress like a girl. Two, you have to get treated like a girl. Three, because of your, uh, 'unique' situation, you don't even get a break when you're dressed as a boy. Four, you've got responsibilities to the school to fulfill out the wazoo. Five, you have to dress like a girl."

"You already said that."

"It bears repeating." He stared at me for a moment, making me feel very uncomfortable. "And lastly, six: you don't seem to like having to put up with me all the time very much," he said, with a faintly hurt look on his face.

Of all the reasons he could have given, that was one I had not expected. "What? Why would you say that?"

He grunted and stepped back, crossing his arms. "You're always acting annoyed when I'm around, you try to avoid me, you're always frowning whenever you see me, you-"

"No I'm not!"

He paused. "Yeah, you are. I thought we could be friends when I met you getting off the bus, and okay, so I was a bit freaked out at first by how easily you slipped into the Princess schtick, and the way I acted probably didn't help any, but I've been trying to be friendly to you, and you keep acting like I'm some jerk who you'd prefer would go some place else. Is that what you would prefer?" There was no anger in his voice, nor on his face.

Somehow, that made what he said hurt worse.

I wanted to answer right away, but I knew that anything I said would be the wrong thing, so instead, I gave myself a few minutes to think.

"I..."

"Well?"

"...I think I want to go to bed." I finally said.

He hung his head, defeated, and offered me his arm. I leaned on him as I limped the rest of the way to my dorm, but I dared not say a word.

-14-

I lay in bed and thought.

It was Saturday morning, the beginning of a three day weekend thanks to Monday being Labor Day. I had planned on going into town with Sarah this weekend, as a way to, as she had put it, "see what being a girl is like outside the stuffy walls of Kingston," but after what had happened the night before between me and Andrew I had begged off.

Why did I feel I had to be so rough on him? As much as I complained about him, he and Bobby were probably the only two boys outside of the Princesses that I could consider friends around campus, and of the two of them I much preferred his company over Bobby's constant ribbing, no matter how good natured it was intended. Andrew was always nice to me, and always tried to treat me with respect. So, why did I always feel angry at him?

Or, was that the reason? He might have always been nice, but he also always acted like he was on his best behavior around me. He always treated me with respect, yes, but it was always the kind of respect that a boy would afford a girl friend, and not the kind between two buddies. In short, he always treated me like a girl, and while I knew I really did not hate him, I did hate that he felt like he had to treat me that way.

I rolled over and covered my head with a pillow, trying to stop the flow of thoughts, but they just kept coming.

If that was the reason I felt so angry when around him, then why could I not just pull away?

There were at least two reasons, the most obvious one being that he had been assigned as my personal Protector, which still annoyed me to no end. All the other Princesses, even Sarah, only had Protectors assigned to them specifically when we went to major events off campus, and the rest of the time the Protectors were meant to keep a general watch over everyone. Unfortunately, I knew who was to blame for this one, and Andrew was not it. The downside of calling my dad and letting him know about the Princess program in the way I did was that, unknown to me at the time, he had gotten the school's number and threatened the Head with a gruesome death should anything happen to me. From what I heard later, lawsuits and some kind of LGBT legal organization had been brought up too. The end result was that the Head had gone a bit paranoid over my safety, and when he had learned that Andrew was the first freshman to ask to join the Protectors, and Julia's brother to boot, he had jumped at the opportunity to take care of the problem.

And thus, I had managed to yet again score the dubious honor of another first in the school records, the first Princess with a permanent escort. It was only a small consolation to learn that the head was considering expanding it so all the others had one too.

The second reason was more complicated. I did like Andrew as a person, as annoying as he could be, and even then I knew it was my problem more than his. The last thing I wanted to do was punish him for my personal hang-up.

I spent the entire day Saturday alone in my room, thinking over what to do about the whole situation. All the other Princesses had managed to find other ways to spend their labor day weekend, either at home, with girlfriends and boyfriends, or with town passes, so even at meals I had the table to myself. All in all, it left me feeling abandoned, alone in a school of over five hundred students.

Was I really that dependent on the company of the other Princesses? A quick scan around me at dinner, seeing what student body remained at the school idly chatting to one another at other tables while I sat alone, told me that yes, I was.

"Hey, are you doing okay?"

I turned back to my own table and there stood Bobby, gesturing to the seat across from me and asking permission with his eyes. I nodded, and he sat down, his overfilled tray making a loud 'thump' when it hit the table.

"Well?" He asked.

I started to say I was fine, but found myself shaking my head instead. "I don't know. Things are weird right now."

He nodded. "Andrew looked pretty down when he came in last night. What happened, lover's tiff?"

I shot him a glare, and the small upturn that had begun to appear quickly died.

"Okay, sorry. But seriously, you know I'm here if you need to talk, right? Andrew isn't the only one of us in the Protectors."

I sneered at him. "Is that why you're here? Filling in for him?"

Bobby took a bite of his food, making me wait before answering. "Partly. Mostly, I'm here because I thought we were friends."

That threw me for a second. "Really?"

He nodded, looking at me as though I were an idiot. "Well, yeah! The four of us late arrivals gotta stick together!"

"Four?"

"Me, you, Andrew, and Stew."

"Stew? Oh, Stewart." I had not spoken two words to our sophomore bus partner since that first day, but I had seen him talking to Bobby and Andrew.

Bobby carefully sat down his fork and Looked at me. "Listen. Me and Andrew, we like you, even though you've been a bit of a bitch. Just saying," he said, raising his hands when I glared at him. "But come on, think about it."

"I'm not a--"

"Think."

I frowned at him, but the earnest look in his eyes made me listen to him. Had I really been that bad?

"Oh, god."

I had.

He nodded.

I wanted to sink down into the floor, and the more I thought about it, the worse I felt. He was right. Ever since my first day at Kingston, I had been pretty universally, for lack of a better word, a bitch. Andrew, Bobby, even around Leslie and the other Princesses.

"Why have you put up with me so long already?"

Bobby laughed, and rolled his eyes. "Because, for some reason, I get the feeling that that isn't you." He shrugged, and took another bite of his food. The two of us sat in silence, thinking, while he chewed.

Finally, he sat down his silverware again, his tray empty. "Just do me a favor, okay?"

"What? Anything," I said, feeling more guilty by the moment for my behavior the last few weeks.

"Try and ease up a little. There are some jerks around here, but most of us are good people. Give us a chance, you'll see soon enough." He picked up his tray and walked away, leaving me to stew on his words.

I received little rest that night, instead spending most of it thinking over what Bobby had said. While I felt I had not been as bad as he had made it out to be... I had been coming close.

Was it because of the Princess program? If so, then that was only a small part of the problem, and it was not something I was going to give up. There was no other job left on campus that paid as well, if there had been any others to start with, and there was no longer any way I could separate myself from the program short of shaving my head and growing a goatee, and knowing how I looked that probably would fail as well.

If there was any part of the Princess program that was to blame, it was part that I was only just coming to grips with myself. I liked being treated like I was special. Paradoxically, that was also why it made me so angry and upset all the time. I had thought I had escaped the influence of my stepfather and his insistence on the ways that men and women were supposed to feel and act, but I was finally realizing that his views had affected me more than I had thought.

I did not think it was being treated as a girl specifically that I liked, though; that just happened to be how I guess you could say it manifested. No, what I liked about it was that people looked at me as though I were someone respected, someone important. That feeling was intoxicating, at the same time as it infuriated me that I liked it so much. Or maybe it was the inability to turn it off that made me so mad. The others, except for Sarah, just had to put on a pair of pants and stop shaving and they were accepted as normal guys. Even Bradley/Brandy and Wilson/Wendy, the two freshmen who had agreed to join, could get by as guys without too much trouble, but not me. The closest I came to being treated as a normal guy came from the students who actively disliked the Princess program, and I did not feel that their angry refusal to so much as look at me without a scowl really counted.

For years I had been forced to listen to my stepfather's rants about how men and women were supposed to act and supposed to be treated. I had always told myself I would never let myself think like him, but I was finally noticing just how much of what he said had affected me. Here I was getting angry because I was being treated like a girl when I was a boy.

Why did it matter?

"Why does it matter?" I asked myself out loud. Unfortunately, the room had no better answer to the question than I did.

There and then, I made a resolution. My first day at the school dressed as a boy I had decided that I would be myself despite how the others treated me. That night, I decided that if I chose to do that, then I had no right to object to their reactions to it. If they saw me as a girl, then I could accept that without anger. I HAD to. Otherwise, I was no better than people like my stepfather, who insist on men and women in their places. If my dad could do it, then I could too. I just had to do it on a bigger level, is all, but I had the advantage.

The school was safe. As long as I stayed here, or with other students, there was little danger of me facing the same dangers and persecution I knew my dad had to face sometimes. So, I should just let myself enjoy it. Experiment, and find what makes me happy.

If part of that is that people treat me like I am some kind of delicate flower, then I can handle that.

Just making that decision had me feeling better, and at last, I could fall asleep.

-15-

"I still can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"Oh, quiet, you'll enjoy it. Trust me."

"I'm trying."

I had thought that canceling my plans to go into town with Sarah on Saturday would give me the entire three day weekend to decompress and be alone.

It had been some time around midday Sunday that she tracked me down and informed me that she had talked the Head into changing my town pass to Monday instead of Saturday rather than canceling it, and that since she had gone to so much work to allow me into town I had no right to refuse unless I just wanted to hurt her feelings. I still was unsure of whether I preferred guys, girls, or both, but seeing a girl pouting had the same affect on me as most other guys, and that in combination with my new resolution to be nicer led me to agreeing.

The dress had not been part of the agreement.

"Couldn't you have found me something a little less... revealing?"

"What? Besides, it's nice and cool."

"It's the middle of September."

"And eighty-five degrees out."

"It could start cooling down any time. In fact, I think I'm feeling a chill right now." I said, rubbing my hands up and down my arms for emphasis and trying to ignore the few beads of sweat that collected on them when I did.

She blew a raspberry at me and continued walking along the sidewalk. "Keep up or you'll have to be out like that all by your lonesome."

I rolled my eyes at her, but started walking again. At least the sandals were more comfortable than the heels I had worn Friday, even if they were wedges.

I had agreed initially to go into town with Sarah as a girl more out of boredom than any other reason, but seeing how happy she was to have someone to talk to outside of school made me begin to realize how alone she must feel on campus. Even among the Princesses, she stood apart as the only one of us as far as I knew who actually wanted to be a girl. That, I figured out, was why she had wanted me as a friend so badly -- because, while I had no desire to be a girl, I could never completely separate my boy self from the Princess. She might be officially dating Leslie now, which I knew had a lot of the regular boys at school scratching their heads, but in a lot of ways she was more comfortable around me.

To top it off, she was right. The dress was cool, and the strange padded bra-like object she had taped in place on my chest gave the impression of breasts beneath the yellow and white checkered material while still allowing the halter neck to showcase my bare back. All in all it was one of the oddest feeling outfits I had ever worn, and it was little comfort that she was wearing an almost identical dress in a solid green color.

"Ooh, come on in here! This is one of my favorite places in town!"

I followed her into "Chocolate Heaven" and up to the counter.

"Two large Chocolate Heaven Specials to go, please." She turned to me, her grin nearly splitting her face. "My treat."

"Coming right up, Sarah," the pimply faced boy behind the counter said before turning to the machines behind him.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when he handed her two massive styrofoam cups with clear domed plastic lids, the kind with the large round hole in the top. The cups were filled to the brim with a dark, thick chocolate ice cream, and I could see large chunks of brownie and fudge penetrating the top. With a practiced hand, Sarah took a large canister of whipped cream off the counter and filled both plastic lids until there was an inch tall crest of white sticking right out of the top, and then handed me one of them, along with a long red spoon.

"Dig in!" She said, then took a large spoonful of her own, her eyes rolling back as she moaned in ecstasy. I looked over at the counter, and the pimply faced boy was watching her with a wide grin.

I hesitantly dipped my spoon into the sea of whipped cream, pressing downwards until I felt the ice cream begin to resist. I carefully pulled the spoon out, and looked at the dollop of chocolate topped in white cloudy cream. I closed my eyes so I could not see the boy behind the counter, and took a bite.

I heard another moan of pleasure, and opened my eyes to see Sarah giving me a triumphant look. The moan had been mine.

"I think we have another convert, Chuck," she said to the guy, and he just nodded before turning to the next customers in line.

We took our shakes and continued our exploration of the downtown area, Sarah giving me a brief history as she navigated.

"Persistence isn't a huge town, but that's one of the things I love about it. You can walk from the outskirts at one end all the way to the edge at the other in about seven hours, but in between there's lots of great little shops, restaurants, and places to hang out. It was great growing up here."

"You're local?" I asked her, surprised.

She nodded. "When I was offered a scholarship to Kingston my mom and dad were ecstatic. They thought that going to an all boys school, my dad's own alma mater in fact, would make me less girlish." She made a face, then laughed. "Luckily for me, I started the same year that Professor Uchiha took over from his dad and started the Princess program. My parents didn't like it much, but when they saw how much happier I was..." She grew quiet, a dark look crossing her face.

"Sarah? Are you okay?" I asked, approaching her and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

She nodded. "Yeah. It was a lot harder that first year, you know? Now the students are more used to it, and the older ones help newer ones to not be so mean, but that first year there were... a few problems. That's why the Protectors were started, originally just by a few of the students who wanted to help us, but eventually the Head decided to make them part of the program so they would be compensated for what they were doing."

I squeezed her gently, and she wrapped her arm around me and squeezed back. Suddenly my dad's insistence on personal protection seemed much less overbearing than it had.

"Then why didn't they shut the program down if there were problems?"

"Because it also did what he had hoped it would. By the end of the first semester most of the troublemakers had been weeded out, and at the end of the second most of the student body agreed that they liked having the Princesses around. When we find two more freshman Princesses it'll be easier for you to see some of the things that caused so much trouble the first year."

"Like what?"

She sighed, but gave me a sad smile. "I think you'll probably find out soon enough."

We had been wandering around for a little over two hours when Sarah recommended we stop for lunch at a place called "Gizmo's," with a sign featuring a poorly drawn version of a mogwai holding a hamburger. Inside, the place was covered in old, dark paneling, and the booths looked like they were long past needing reupholstered. It was also stuffed full of kids around our own ages, all laughing, talking, and generally making a nuisance of themselves around the pool table and ancient pinball games in the far corner.

"Hey!" She called, waving to someone in a corner booth. I looked over, and there sat Leslie in boy mode waving us back, facing towards us across from someone else.

We pushed our way through the crowd and eventually reached the booth. Sarah slid in next to Leslie, giving him a quick peck on the cheek when he wrapped his arm around her, so I slid into the booth on the other side and out of the crowd before looking to see who was with us.

Almost like magic, all the noise around us died down at once, then after a few seconds, started up again.

"Did you eat already?" Sarah asked Leslie.

"Yeah, I hope you don't mind?"

"Nope! I'm not that hungry. Welp, we'll just leave you two alone, shall we?" She said, then stood up, pulling Leslie with her. I just continued to sit there, mildly stunned, while Leslie gave me a look that said 'what could I do?' before following Sarah to the counter to procure stools.

Andrew slid around the back side of the booth until he was sitting across from me, looking down into his plate of fries. "This wasn't my idea," he said, picking up his fork and idly playing with the soggy bits of potato, rolling them about in ketchup.

I nodded.

"If you want me to go, I can." He went to stand up.

"No! Don't leave me alone!"

He gave me a scornful look. "So now the Princess doesn't want to be alone?" Then his face fell. "Sorry." He sank back down.

I shook my head. "No... I'm sorry. About what I said Friday night..."

"Look, you don't have to explain," he started to say, but I raised my hand to quiet him.

"Yeah, I do. Look, I talked to Bobby on Saturday. Did he tell you?"

The beginnings of a smile quirked one corner of his mouth. "He said you looked real cute when you pouted, but that's it."

I rolled my eyes. It figured. "Well, he really put it in perspective for me how I've been treating you. Listen, I know I've been, well, a bitch, and I'm sorry. It wasn't fair to you."

"It's okay."

I shook my head. "It's not. You're probably the only guy at school who's really tried to be friends with me, and I've done nothing but push you away. Can you forgive me?" I lowered my head and looked up at him through my lashes, intentionally going for a girly pouty look like I had seen Sarah use when she wanted Leslie to do something for her.

Andrew laughed, loud and long, and when he looked at me again, he had an honest smile on his face. "Well, since it's rare for a guy to get a girl to admit she was in the wrong--"

"Hey! I'm not a--"

"I guess I have to accept," he finished, sliding back around next to me. He hesitated a moment, looking nervous, then dropped his arm around my shoulders. How could I help but laugh? I leaned into the gentle hug, and after a second he took his arm back away.

We sat there in silence, but a comfortable one this time, for almost a minute.

"He was right, you know." Andrew said, looking at me strangely.

"Who?"

"Bobby. You really do look cute when you pout."

"Oh, shut up," I told him, but I was laughing and smiling when I said it.

(End of Part 5)

NOTES:

I think this is actually one of the longer parts I've done of this story. Hopefully everybody likes it!

I know I've been focusing kind of heavily on the interplay between Beck/Becky and Andrew, but since I consider them the two core cast members there's a good reason for that. Don't worry, though! The other cast members, including out two newest Princesses who you haven't had a chance to really meet yet, will play more major roles as the story goes on.

As a side note, I think I'm finally getting into the swing of things and actually developing a stable voice for the story. Horray!

Thanks for all the comments on the other chapters! And as always, if you comment, more will come. IF YOU COMMENT, MORE WILL COME.

Melanie E.