Maureen's POV
"You have to wake up right now princess, you got to school today. You cannot be late on the first day itself," Jane said softly and shook me gently.
"Oh yeah," I grumbled and slowly sat up. "Don't call me princess, Jane. Not even in the house, I don't want to get busted. We cannot risk getting caught especially after all this . . ."
"I'm sorry, wouldn't happen next time," she apologized and I smiled woefully at her.
I could smell some aroma of food and something chocolatey which made me sniff a couple of times trying to guess what it was. Jane smiled and placed the tray of breakfast which was initially kept on the nightstand on the bed. It consisted of waffles, cream, and fruits. She walked out of my bedroom while I had already started eating and reappeared with a mug of hot chocolate. Perfect.
I finished eating when Jane called out to someone. A small crowd of two ladies and three men huddled up together, entering my room. The ladies wore a white shirt, a black knee-length pencil skirt, and block heel sandals. The men were dressed neatly in their black and white suits, cool sunglasses, and their hair was gelled back.
"Before I introduce them, do you want anything added to this room?" Jane asked rather formally and I shook my head.
"Nothing really, this room is very pretty Jane," I complimented and sipped the hot chocolate.
"Wonderful!" Jane glanced at the mini-squad of strange people who I was looking at curiously. I quietly wiped my hot chocolate mustache and raised my right eyebrow at the crowd. Their expressions were very absurd, it was in between looking solemn and smiling, but they pulled it off correctly to let me know that they respected me. But, the uncomfortable silence was annoying me.
Jane flashed a bright smile at them and said, "Er . . . meet the ladies, Rita and Mary. They are the housekeepers and will look after every need. And those gentlemen's over there will be your new bodyguard."
"Cool, but won't these 'bodyguards attract attention?" I asked licking my lips while narrowing my eyes at them.
The tall, muscular, black man from the group of three stepped forward and pushed himself through the ladies who frowned at him. But he smiled cheerfully at us, flashing his pearly white teeth, completely ignoring the ladies.
He bowed his head low and said, "Princess, we won't attract attention because tomorrow, I wouldn't be wearing this suit and sunglass. I'll be dressed as a civilian and I'll be your driver too."
I nodded while returning his contagious smile. He removed his sunglasses and tucked them in the upper pocket of his dres' shirt. He had black, twinkling, and friendly eyes. He seemed to be in his early thirties and looked absolutely charming with his fit body. okay, Maureen, it's not the time.
"Maureen, this is jack. He'll drive you to school from today onwards," Jane said nervously and glanced at jack. Jack winked at her playfully which made her blush. The crowd behind them cleared their throats notifying them of their presence.
"Those two other bodyguards will be called whenever necessary while I'll be staying here in this house. Hope you wouldn't mind princess, it's an order from the King," Jack stated and I just shrugged.
One of those bodyguards that Jack mentioned was short and bald. He had an extra-long, pointed nose resembling Pinocchio but in a very creepy way. He had a big mole sitting on the right side of his cheek. I noticed the mole had a tiny hair growing which made me internally gag.
I snapped out of my weird thoughts and subconsciously nodded again at Jack who couldn't keep his eyes off Jane.
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"Hi, I'm Maureen Harris," I introduced with a lot of confidence in my voice and subconsciously curtsied.
Why even I did that . . . I didn't even know.
All the students in the class stared at me like I had swallowed a faint hippo in front of them and I just laughed, waving off their suspicion.
"Well . . . Okay then, Miss Harris. You may take your seat," the teacher said and I nodded.
I looked thoroughly at the whole class to find a spot to sit while the teacher patiently waited for me. I half-smiled at her and quickly sat beside a red-head, avoiding the death stares of people around me.
I was pretty confident and bold in front of a crowd. I was used to the feeling of being exposed to a huge audience, but today was different. I had to act like a shy nerd who was a social outcast to not attract unnecessary attention. I had to be invincible.
The girl beside me whom I sat had wild curly, red hair and she still wore braces. She welcomed me warmly by flashing her neon-colored braces and I returned a sweet smile while taking out my history book.
I didn't even know the basics of this country's history very well, let alone I had to know this advanced history. I should have learned and done some research beforehand. Besides history, all the other subjects except the every-struggling math, was pretty easy for me, especially languages. I could speak read, and write in English, French, Spanish, and Mandarin, something about these languages was always appealing to me.
So, here I was stuck listening to the French teacher who was pronouncing each word ten times which made it even more confusing because half the time it sounded like some Buddhist mantra.
Noah and pretty much all the students including me had all the classes together since this school was located in the beautiful countryside and did not have many students. Moreover, there weren't many options for subjects either which forced me to take up history.
This was the only high school in the entire town. My gaze swept over the class one more time to notice that Noah sat behind me, leaving two benches. The awkward moment was when our eyes met and we just looked at each other, before I tore my gaze away from him.
I learned that my partner's name was Payton, but people called her Ginger, obviously because of her gorgeous hair. Ginger was indeed pretty with her red hair and tanned skin. Her bright brown eyes and the genuine smile that was always plastered on her face made her look even prettier. She pretty much resembled the female lead from the animated movie, 'Brave.'
At lunchtime, I sat with Ginger and her friends - the bubbly twins, Anne and Marya. Noah was sitting with the large group of noisy boys. I learned from the twins that Ginger and Noah's best friend Chad had something juicy going on. They were the new couple of the town but they hadn't admitted it yet.
"Maureen, I heard you're the next-door neighbor of Noah? It's a small town, so we pretty much know everything," Ginger asked while slurping her milkshake. I quietly bit into my sandwich and nodded. The twins were fighting over a piece of gum and I laughed lightly.
" Ignore Anne and Marya, they're always like that. But you know you're quite lucky to be Noah's neighbor. Look at him, he's hot and single. Besides, he has a good heart," Ginger said sincerely and then playfully winked at me.
"Well, erm . . let's see," I said dismissively which made Ginger laughs and she twirled her curly hair between her fingers.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Noah and our eyes met for the second time as I sat frozen. My heart hammered against my chest wildly and my breath hitched when he didn't look away. Unfortunately, his deep blue eyes left mine as soon as Chad smacked his arm and started to tease him. I sighed wearily and brought my attention back to our table where Ginger was grinning widely at me.