Royal Performer - Chapter 2

Princess Alexandria Alessi’s life has turned upside down in the blink of an eye. Only a few days ago, she was enjoying a clandestine summer shopping with her best friend at the local mall. Coming home, she was alarmed to discover her mom was there, and her secret of being transgender was suddenly no longer secret! Within a few short hours, her life became like a movie as she discovered that her long-lost father was the Crown Prince of Osané, a small, secluded island nation. Alexandria was immediately thrust into the spotlight in a whirlwind weekend that led to a Monday press conference to announce her royal lineage. Royal Performer is the second Tiffany Shar's 'Suddenly Royal' series.

Available Now! on Amazon Kindle Store

Chapter 22: Primary Pranks

I WOKE UP that morning and found myself reading and almost completing the first novel as we drove to school. I was back on the ‘A’ day, so things at least made a bit more sense with the more familiar classes. I noted Lola was back at school from a distance but was relieved when she didn’t sit beside me in orchestra. Her friend glared at me, but I also pointed out that there was an easier fingering for a passage, and she looked at me gratefully.

It was hard to read her!

I’d met queen bees in my old school, but everything was different here. Of course, I was going to school as a girl now, which was guaranteed to change things! The other side of it being weird was that no one could seem to completely put my being a princess out of their minds.

‘I wished Ellie was here to help,’ I thought sadly as we waited for Fontaine to run through a string-only section of the concert. I pulled out one of the books I was supposed to be reading for French and finished several chapters before he moved back on to one of the pieces with us in it again!

At the end of class, I learned that there was an extra dress rehearsal that afternoon on the stage. Many of the girls in my year griped and groaned about the fact that we had PE that day and would have to go to the rehearsal afterward. For my part, I was mainly concerned about informing all of the adults!

Lunch went quickly for us all, and in geography, I managed to avoid making myself look like a total idiot by knowing some of the answers this time. I was still not great with European geography, but some of the questions delved into Africa, which made more sense even though there were more countries. I felt like there was an intentional choice to avoid talking about the Americas, though!

Fortunately, changing for PE was uneventful again, as I left my clothes in the locker basket they’d given me. It was weird that they just used baskets and locked the doors, but Noémie had assured me it was quite safe.

That day, we were playing field hockey, which was at least a game I remembered playing in elementary school. I’d ended up on opposite teams from Lola and her couple of friends and dealt with constant hissed taunts. At one point, Lola was trying to take the ball down the field right past me, so I made a legal move with my stick to strike the ball and send it back the opposite way. As I did so, she ended up with her legs in front of the stick, and I watched her pull the biggest fake flop on the ground, pretending to be injured that I’d ever seen!

“You bully!” the girl screamed at me as Madame Langlois came over.

A look in her eye made me fear being in trouble, but she shook her head. “Montalvo, get over yourself. I saw the whole thing. It was a legal move, and she didn’t even hit you that hard.”

“If she didn’t hit me that hard, then why is my ankle hurting?!?” she complained.

“Fine, go to the nurse. Léna and Lilou can go with you and help you,” she said.

“We need our clothes?” Léna asked.

“Alice, take my keys and unlock the door for them, then come back with my keys? Please don’t lock them inside?”

“Yes, coach,” she said.

I watched the worst B movie performance of an injury then, as the girls ‘helped’ Lola hobble by taking her arms over their shoulders.

“What a dingbat,” our coach said. She turned to me, “Let me know if they make it to the office with that nonsense. I watched everything, including what she was saying to you.”

I blushed, “Thanks.”

Without the trio, we all had a much better time playing! Two of the players from our team swapped over to theirs to keep the sides more equal, and we had a good couple of games before it was time to go inside. I was sweaty and wanted nothing more than to shower then!

If I was going straight home, I would have just skipped it, but with the called rehearsal, I knew I needed to shower so the people around me didn’t complain. I grabbed my bag with some essentials and my clothes inside and hopped in one of the private shower cubicle stalls. They did lock, thankfully, but I hated that there was a foot gap at the bottom like a toilet stall. I couldn’t imagine someone crawling to that level to look, but I didn’t like the idea either!

After scrunching my hair in a shower cap, I undressed in the shower area with the curtain blocking the way before hopping out and turning on the stream. I hissed at how cold the water was initially. Still, I appreciated that it eventually reached a temperature that was at least above lukewarm. I wasted no time hopping back in and using the shower gel I’d packed. I didn’t take overly long to shower due to my privacy concerns. I pulled the shower cap off and soon dug into my bag to pull out my clothes.

‘Those aren’t my clothes…’ I thought!

Of course, my sweaty PE ‘kit’ was right where I’d taken it off and folded it, but the uniform I had worn to school that day, the bra I’d worn before switching to my sports bra, and the spare pair of panties I’d brought in case I needed to shower like this were no longer inside!

No… I pulled out the ‘panty’ that was on top and grimaced that even a couple weeks ago, this might have been a bit juvenile for my act of being Ellie’s baby sister! It was pink with a Disney Princess printed on it in different action poses across the fabric. The back said, ‘Princess,’ and I noted the size was an eight, but it would probably even be a little tight for me. Underneath the panties was a bralette that was pink with hearts all over it, and I knew it would be of no help with showing that I belonged in high school!

Beneath those items was a white polo shirt, and then I noted the fabric pile next to it at least looked like my skirt’s tartan.

Unfortunately, as I unfolded it, I discovered that it was the jumper dress that the girls in the nearby elementary school had to wear. I’d never seen any students wearing it in the past days on the secondary campus. I remembered a couple of conversations about them being for ‘little girls’ only amongst the students.

I blushed and tried to figure out a solution!

‘I bet it was Lola!!!!’ I seethed. ‘That damn ‘injury’ was just the act it seemed to be!’

My phone was locked in the form room locker per the rules, so I needed help with the locker room sounding empty by then.

I looked down at the PE kit but didn’t want to put those sweaty things back on. ‘It’s probably the least embarrassing option?’ I groaned. One touch of the panties there, though, made me realize that was not something I wanted to do! My running skort and shirt were drenched, too, and I didn’t want to sit in a rehearsal like that!

I sighed, grabbed the panties, and pulled them up over my legs. I pulled the bralette over my chest, then the polo, and finally the jumper. It took me more than a few minutes to fiddle with the zipper to get it up the back, and then I used my white locator scrunchie to tie my hair in a ponytail.

I looked for my school shoes, remembered tennis shoes were only allowed for PE, and found they were also replaced. The replacements actually made me smile, though, as they were genuinely kind of cute. They were a Mary Jane-style shoe with a Velcro strap that came across the middle of the foot to secure them. The adorable part was that the designers used thread to stitch in a cat face in the middle of the toe area in matching black and then added two pieces of leather cut into triangles to make ‘ears.’ I was shocked that my foot had a little room, even inside the shoe. I decided I might actually not throw those away at the first opportunity!

I placed everything back in the duffle bag and then walked out to an empty locker room. There were mirrors along the walls in places above sinks, and I caught a glance at myself, though.

I looked like I was eight years old at most right then!

Knowing nothing else I could do, with everyone seeming to have hightailed it out of there, I walked down to the form room. Inside, I found a few people lounging on the sofas. One girl, I thought her name might have been Julie, looked at me with that welcoming smile you give a young kid.

“Well, hello there. Are you lost, sweetie?”

I rolled my eyes, “No, just dealing with stolen clothes.” I told her.

“Wait… Your Highness…?” She asked. “Why are you dressed like a primary school kid?”

“Someone swapped my clothes while I was in PE,” I said as I walked to the locker I was assigned and opened it. Fortunately, it was lockable, and my clarinets and the rest of my stuff were still inside. I found my phone but chose not to text anyone just then.

“Who would have…?” She asked.

“Lola?” I heard the last voice I wanted to hear right then see me.

I may not have been boy-crazy, but Ioannis was one of the few boys I could see myself growing interested in. I turned and looked up at him, nodding, “That’s my guess?”

“That little bitch,” he seethed.

“You’re going straight home to change, at least?” the girl asked.

I shook my head, “Nope, I need to go to our orchestra dress rehearsal. Any chance either of you could show me the way to the auditorium? I haven’t been there yet?”

Ioannis said, “Sorry, Allie, I need to get to a practice I’m late for.”

“I’ll take you,” the girl said.

“Thanks,” I told her. “You’re Julie?” I asked.

She nodded, “Good memory! I don’t know how you could possibly have remembered that!”

I shrugged, “some things I do tend to be good with.”

“Let’s get you to the auditorium,” she said with a smile. “The last thing we want is for them to send you to an after-school care place instead!”

I groaned, “When was the last time you wore this style of uniform?”

“I was eleven, came home for summer break, pulled it off, and burned it?” she smirked even as I caught odd looks from a few people in the halls.

“Somehow, I’m guessing you’re not alone?”

“No,” she said as we approached a door labeled auditorium. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Your Highness. From what I’ve seen, you’re a really nice person who doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.”

She turned and walked in the direction we had come from, leaving me stunned and unable to respond. I faced the door in front of me.

Steeling myself, I pushed open the door and found myself in the audience seating area of a beautiful hall. We had a nice concert hall at my school back home, but it was very plain in comparison. This hall was designed to look like it had been around for nearly a century or something, and it was clear to me that it was a jewel for the school!

I saw steps beside each side of the stage, so I walked down the aisle and soon looked at my shorter seat beside Lola. She seemed bemused by my appearance, even as Lanie caught sight of me with a look of horror.

She stood up and asked me, “Why are you wearing this?!?”

“Someone switched my clothes in PE,” I said while moving my eyes to land on Lola.

“That bitch…” she hissed.

“Mélanie, why did you bring your baby sister to rehearsal?” a girl asked behind me.

She sighed even as I turned to look up at Lilou and initiated an app on my phone, “Someone decided to play a prank on our best person in the group.”

“Oh, is that the princess then?” she smirked. “She doesn’t look big enough to be here? I bet she’s still wearing the cute little girl panties with cartoon princesses on them.”

Having her completely confirm they were responsible was probably the best thing that could have happened then. Before we could end up with a bona fide catfight, I said, “Lanie, let’s just sit down and play. We’ll deal with these ‘ladies’ later.”

My tone of voice was cool, and I actually thought there might have been a tremble of fear in the larger girl’s eyes then.

As I sat in my chair to take out my clarinets, Lola taunted me, “You really are just a baby, huh?”

I shook my head, “No, that would be the girl who, for some reason, has deigned it necessary to cause problem after problem. I’m sorry you’re so immature. This ‘prank’ is nothing more than a sign of that immaturity. Just remember who the actual princess is,” I added the last part with the same cool voice I’d used with her partner in crime.

To my dismay, she didn’t even seem taken aback by that.

“We’ll see who’s the real lady, Your Highness,” she said sarcastically.

At that point, the rehearsal began, and I hurried to catch up as we started with the Barber of Seville Overture. The day before, I found myself playing the A part instead of the Bb part because it fit on the instrument better. I noted a look from Lola as she realized I was playing a different part than she was, even as her fingers were working more awkwardly than mine.

When we finished the overture, Maestro Fontaine gave us all a few comments and said, “At this point, the winds will leave us to go off stage, and we’ll just have strings here. We’ll skip the Vaughn Williams piece for a moment and return to it at the end so as not to waste their time. I figure you all are smart enough to know how to go off stage and come back!”

I heard some groaning from the oboe player beside me before we moved on to Capriccio. I nailed the parts and had a great time playing it better than Lola beside me. I could sense her intense hatred for me as I was the better player and showed it! ‘I may not be able to beat her into a bloody pulp physically, but I can destroy her musically!’

We finished the piece and received some notes and a quick run-through of some sections of the second movement again to fix some problems. At that point, I watched as a massive screen came down above the strings, and a projector turned on behind us, facing the screen. I then realized they had put parts of the movies with the music we were playing. The result was that when I was resting, I could just make out the reverse image of the film playing above us. It was really cool!

I was enjoying myself playing enough that I had mostly forgotten about the afternoon’s events so far as we finished the piece. Then I looked down and saw the bottom of the dress and groaned.

“Very good!” Maestro Fontaine said to us. “I’m sure we’ll bring down the house with that tomorrow night! Winds, you all are excused. Strings take a five-minute break, and we’ll work on the Vaughn Williams.”

He looked at me, puzzled for a moment, but Leto and another girl approached him, and he was distracted. I watched as Lola and Léna put their stuff up quickly and exited, even as I put up my first clarinet. Lanie came up to me, “What are we going to do about her?”

“I don’t have the slightest clue,” I told her. When I had the other clarinet up, I gathered my bags and walked outside with Lanie.

Lola and Léna were waiting right outside the door.

“Oh, look at the little primary girl?” Léna cooed. “So cute in her little school dress?”

“Doesn’t even look like the boob fairy has ever visited her yet, huh?” Lola said.

“Definitely not! I dare say even the kids in your sister’s class would all be bigger than her!

“I think we can safely say this ‘princess’ doesn’t look like she belongs in our school, huh?” Lola asked. “Let alone as the ruler of…”