The Princess Contract

Chapter Three

          Focus, Abby told herself as she chewed on her pencil eraser and tried to concentrate on her chemistry test. The whole day had been comprised of similar reminders as she bounced from class to class with a new found sense of purpose. The little paper she'd gotten out of the music box was tucked away safely in her pocket. Adam warned her she was going to rub the words right off the paper if she kept pulling it out, but she ignored him and kept checking anyway. At one point she nearly caused a pile up in the hall because she dropped it and had hit the floor without warning to search for it.

          "Five more minutes..." Mr. Diangelo called out as he made his usual rounds. He was convinced that by patrolling the aisle he could catch potential cheaters. All it really succeeded in doing was making the students more creative.

          Abby stared down at her test - she'd only answered a third of the multiple choice questions in the entire hour. Taking a deep breath she began to pick letters at random and hoping she guessed enough of them right to at least make it seem like she tried.

          She was hastily filling in the last little circle when the annoying, beeping, alarm went off on Mr. Diangelo's desk. He ordered all of the tests to be passed forward, and Abby glanced anxiously towards the clock. 

          Three more minutes until the bell rang.

          "I'd like to take a minute to talk to you all about your mid-year projects," he said as he gathered the papers. "As you all know..."

          Abby had stopped listening, she didn't really care about the project or partners or topics. Her thoughts were a million miles away, and had no intention of returning any time soon. What would she do if the ring was in the box? Would she tell her mother? Should she try to find the diplomats? What if the ring wasn't there? What would she do then? What if it was another clue and this time she couldn't figure it out? The bell rang jerking her from her thoughts and effectively cutting short whatever the teacher was talking about. Abby hastily shoved her books into her backpack and raced out of the room before anyone could stop her.

          "You're late!" Abby declared when Adam finally met her on the steps outside.

          Adam looked down at the watch on his wrist. "Abby, the bell rang five minutes ago, you know my last period is on the other side of the building."

          "Oh, right, yeah," she replied an embarrassed blush creeping onto her cheeks. "I'm sorry. Are you ready?"

          "Yeah," Adam nodded enthusiastically. "Let's go."

          They waited at the bus stop for nearly fifteen minutes before it finally showed up. Abby was so anxious that once they had taken their seats, she had trouble sitting still. Abby had used the computer in the school library to find the bank's address, and repeated it over and over for the better part of the afternoon. There was no way she was going to get lost.

          "Geesh, Abby, you're fidgeting like you drank an entire pot of coffee and chased it with a box of pixie stix," Adam commented with his usual lopsided grin. Abby rolled her eyes and looked out the window at the scenery speeding by. There wasn't a whole lot to look at. Businesses ranging from small, privately owned companies to bigger brands like fast food chains and grocery stores.

          "I'm just... I don't know, I can't explain it," Abby replied with a shrug.

          "Excited?" Adam offered.

          "Nervous, scared, I don't know... what if it's not there?"

          "Then there will be another clue," Adam suggested confidently. "We will figure that one out and we'll go from there."