"He even forgot to give me homework. That's new." Aria muttered, looking down at the open notebook in front of her.
The next day . . . . .
Aria was greeted by the sight of her friends just as she was sitting, staring at her barely touched breakfast.
She smiled as they sat down, but both Jacob and Joseph noticed how wobbly her smile was. "What's wrong?" Joseph was immediately worried. "Huh? Something's wrong?" Helen asked surprised, looking around, just as Jacob spoke with a frown, "Did your recovery set back for some reason?"
Helen gasped upon hearing this. Aria blinked and frowned. "What? No!!" she snapped. "It's just . . . . Professor Thomas told me yesterday that the Queen has finally decided to visit me."
"Oh. . . ." was the only reply that came, and Aria wasn't sure which of the three had said it. After a few minutes of silence, Joseph spoke in a small voice, "Will you tell them about the two guys and Susan?"
Aria blinked and turned to look out the window. She had told about the incident with Susan and the two men to Joseph and the three a few days after she had woken up. Truthfully, she had forgotten all about it due to bigger incidents that took place on Joseph's birthday. But when Jacob had told her about the ones who had beaten him and mentioned them saying something about wearing pants, Aria had begun to wonder.
She had thought long and hard about how the night warriors had come to suspect that she was the queen's daughter, and moreover, known that she was in the habit of wearing pants. Then she had remembered Professor Thomas's words about how she had always been suspected to be queen Amber's daughter at the academy. And of course everyone in the academy knew she preferred pants.
And this on top of the fact that Susan had met with two mysterious men and had tried to get them a look at Aria had led to her connecting a few dots. Aria suspected that Susan was the one who had told the night warriors about her being the lost princess, and had told all this to the three of them.
"Joseph, you already know I have no way of being sure. And it is a very serious accusation to throw at anyone." Aria said, her voice exhausted.
"And what if it wasn't her? What will we do then?" Jacob quipped in. Helen also seemed to have an opinion. "But what if it really was her? Withholding vital information could get you in serious trouble Aria." she said.
"There is an investigation going on Aria, headed by the queen's men themselves. And even if this thing with Susan turns out to be a false lead, it might help them find a new direction." Joseph tried.
Aria shook her head. She sounded very exhausted as she said, "Can we please not talk about this? I'll decided whether to tell Professor Thomas or not when I've given it more thought. Anyway, that wasn't even what I was worried about."
Surprised that Aria had more things to be worried about and hearing her exhausted tone and looking at her face, the three decided to drop the topic. "What were you worried about then?" Helen asked.