Of Kings and Queens

Part II/7/Compliments and Comparisons/

"Well, she was an American girl;
raised on promises.
She couldn't help thinkin,'
That there was a little more to life somewhere else,
After all it was a great big world."

•June, 9th•

"I'll text you later, Mads." Perry said with a smile on his face. He took the phone away from his ears and clicked it shut.

"I'll see you tonight, Claire." Robin said hopefully. There was a muffled reply from the phone. "Great! Bye Claire." She sighed happily.

Perry looked over at his sister. "What's gotten you hyped up?"

"I'm going out with Claire tonight." She yelled as she walked into her walk-in closet.

"Claire Sneizka?" He called out to her.

"Yeah." She replied as she returned in a red below the knee dress. "What do you think about this dress?"

"You would look beautiful in a garbage bag, shitface."

"You know what, fuck you—"

"Hey! Hey! Abuse! This is abuse!" He ducked the playful swing she made for him.

The book he was about to read dropped onto his desk and he looked at her like she had two heads. "Wait. Are you going out on a date tonight with Claire Sneizka?" He asked.

Robin grinned to herself while she fixed her dress, "Maybe."

"And what are you planning on telling Dad?"

Her smile faltered. "Oh, yeah."

"Have you told him yet?" He said to her skeptically.

"Am I disowned yet?" She replied rhetorically.

"Point taken. Have you gotten a letter from Bill, yet?" Perry in a hopeful voice.

"Yup, he sent tickets for Tuesday, and they're return tickets too," She said happily.

A handful of minutes later Robin was done fixing her makeup and was about to leave when Perry started fussing, "Take your phone, wallet and be home before 11." He said to her in a maternal tone.

"I know. Don't wait up!" Robin slipped out the door.

"You know I will!" He called back with a grin.

•11:09pm•

Hello Mom,
I haven't heard from you in a while, how are you? Where are you at the moment? Do you like it there?

Robin and I are good. We just started Avarice Academy in Ireland. It's a school for the elite and gifted, or those who are just extremely wealthy. We've made a friend there; he's a nice lad. His name is Bill, I think you'd like him, but he never stops talking. I'm doing okay now that I've pulled myself together. I found a really nice girl too, she's amazing. We've been dating for a couple of months now. Robin's flying through her classes even though they're a hundred times harder than our old schools ones. She's first in most of her classes, second in the others. And that's only because there's another prodigy in our year. His name's Oliver, and coincidentally, he's our roommate.

But that's enough about school. I'm really writing you because of something my friends, myself and Robin stumbled across in school last week. I know Robin usually writes more often than I do, but that's a can of worms to open some other time. As I was saying, there was a portrait of a young man in one of the less used parts of the old building where the dormitories are situated. The man looked an awful lot like me, Robin said. I, of course, didn't see the resemblance, but Robin does tend to know me better than I know myself. Bill ended up finding the name plate on it. I read, "James Dar Daden." Which is, as you are aware, your surname. I got suspicious, so here I am writing to you. Sorry to let you down if you thought I was writing out of the kindness of my heart. I'm not as compassionate as Robin. If you have any information about this, I'd appreciate it.

Peregrine Dar Calzone.