Athelinda : The Forbidden Name

Ch 30 : Exams

Classes for the day were over. Finally.

Afternoon classes were less compared to morning ones and so the last class ended at 3:30 P.M.

The cafeteria was open till ten o'clock, which was the curfew for all students.

The group of friends decided to go and eat , more so because almost none of them ate during the break thanks to a certain someone.

As soon as the group set their plates down and were about to munch, Athelinda noticed it.

Their table had empty tables around it. The students were avoiding them. Ah, well that's quite the typical thing.

She did talk back to Isabelle Quweez.

"So, I was wondering if you guys wanna sit somewhere else, that's fine with me." Athelinda told them.

"A bit too late to say that, I think" Rosalia said.

"We already sided with you and have been added on her target list so no need now." Philip spoke in a monotone voice as he munched on his sandwich.

"What's the worse that little kid can do?" Cabel spoke and Rosalia stood up.

"Ohkay there Sir Cabel Ernst. I've been meaning to ask this since you're introduction in the morning. Wh-"

"YEP!" Gabe slammed his hands on the table, causing Rosalia to stop talking. "Well said Cabel! I didn't wanna say this, but now that we're stuck together anyways, might as well let the tea slip!"

The ladies looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

He sat down again and spoke in a whisper. "So. . . actually I come from a more influential family than that dead duck Quweez. "

Jane looked amazed and afraid. Athelinda was a bit surprised seeing as how Gabe acted less noble like. And Rosalia just blinked.

Gabe smiled and just grabbed his glass of juice.

"M-More influential than the Quweez? C-Could it be. . . the royal family?"

Gabe choked on his drink.

"N-not that influential!" He whisper-shouted.

"There aren't grand dukes in Arlanta, so you're from a Dukedom with more Influence than Quweez." Athelinda concluded.

"A dukedom with more influence than the Quweez." Athelinda repeated as she thought of one. ". . . The Ernst Duchy?" She blurted out.

The boys flinched.

"T-Thats right." Gabe whispered.

Athelinda suddenly realized something and turned towards Cabel.

"You're from the Ernst Duchy." She stated.

"That's. . . right." He avoided eye contact.

"There's three brothers in the Ernst Duchy and one sister. But the brother have gaped ages so I doubt you're both from the Ernst Duchy." Rosalia pointed out and Gabe began coughing.

"Cabel is from the Duchy, I'm just his devoted fan." Gabe spoke in pride. "And Philip's my devoted fan."

"Ohkay."

"But-" Rosalia protested but Cabel stood up with force, pushing his chair back.

"I-I'm done, I'll go put my tray." And with that he was gone.

"He, He's really sensitive about his family's discussion. . .especially after the recent incident." Gabe tried to explain Cabel's action.

"Oh. . . right I'm sorry. I was prying too much." Rosalia apologized.

Athelinda was just blinking with confusion.

"Um. . .what incident?" She asked in a low and polite voice.

"The youngest daughter of the Ernst Duchy passed away a year ago. The parents supposedly couldn't bear the loss and adopted a look alike of their daughter. The family's a mess right now." Philip concisely explained.

"Oh. . ." Athelinda took a moment to process that.

"Don't worry though princess, he doesn't like when his family's mentioned, other than that he wants to enjoy a good school life, which is why he's attending a boarding school."

". . . Right."

"Since I'm done, I'll excuse myself. Today was a pleasure. Thank you very much young Lords and Ladies." Jane bowed before leaving.

Athelinda and Rosalia looked at each other before standing up as well. "We should get going as well."

"Uh wait! Lady Heinrich, I'd like a minute."

"Why of course Lord Gabe." Rosalia stood behind while Athelinda went towards the girls dorm.

Today was so hectic.

For the first day of school she sure did so many things. So very many things that she didn't know how to write it all down for her letter to Athanasia and her personal diary.

Athelinda sighed as she thought about it, but eventually got to the dorm, changed and went to her desk.

Three letters.

One to Athanasia.

One to Lucas.

and one to her uncle, Claude.

She had to keep in touch to know if he'd found out about her yet, or not.

A letter out of formalities one might say.

Zuri sat calmly on the table and snuggled with Athelinda every once in a while as she wrote.

_______

Suprisingly tima went by fast. Extremely fast. It had now been a month since she had been attending school. Isabelle hadn't acted up and everything with her friends was going well.

Now that one month had passed, the time Athelinda was dreading for finally came.

Monthly Exams.

Fast forward to the last day of the exam, which was none other than History. Everything was normal. Athelinda had prepared it well enough to not panic during the starting.

Everything was going good. It really was, until "Sir!" Isabelle raised her voice.

"Yes." Professor Po walked towards her.

Isabelle whispered something in his ear and pointed towards Athelinda.

Athelinda had no idea what was going, but the professor suddenly came up to her and told her to stop writing.

He took Athelinda's half attempted exam sheet and went through it. Now this, this was nerve-wracking.

Extremely nerve-wracking.

Professor Po just gave her exam back to her and went to the door, talked to someone outside and came back inside.

But the real problem arose later when after all her classes, Athelinda was called to Professor Po's Classroom.

"It saddens me to see a member of the royal family of Obelia do this. But your actions are enough to get you expelled."

"Excuse me?"

"Please forgive me your highness!" A girl, completely unfamiliar to Athelinda suddenly shouts.

"You told me to keep it a secret! But it wasn't right!"

Athelinda just blinks confusedly and looks at the professor.

"Princess Athelinda, I believe you can stop acting now." Isabelle Quweez appears out of literally nowhere, with a stapled pile of papers.

"You cheated in History Exam and you asked none other than Miss Lucy here to help you." She smiles, that wicked smile. Athelinda could already connect the dots and realize why the hell this dead duck was so quiet up till now.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
Vote and Comment!