If anyone ever tells you that being a prince is cool, you should punch them in the throat. The past month had been one of the most rigorous, exhausting ordeals of my life, and there were a few nights that I sat awake in bed actually wishing I could be back in my high school gym class. I mean, sure, I'd suffered a lot of humiliation in there, but at least humiliation didn't keep you up at all hours of the night and make every part of your body writhe in pain.
The last month had been torture. Literally. My parents and their royal friends had decided it was necessary to put me through every kind of agony imaginable in order to build up my resistance to the Jumerum.
"Someday they're going to capture you," my father had said in not so fatherly tones. "And they're going to torture you until you give up the key to the Gulbranak."
So I had been held under freezing cold water, pummeled by the biggest guys Gulbrania had to offer, burned by hot coals, left alone in dark caves for days on end, and forced to watch every episode of The Brady Bunch. When I wasn't being used as a human experiment in pain, I was training with Sir Almighty Pants. (Okay, his name was actually Sir Alm Hetapats, but my secret nickname for him was one of the few pleasures I had left in life.) He spent countless hours teaching me fencing, marksmanship, and martial arts. I had actually thought I was pretty proficient in martial arts, but the multiple bruises on my backside proved otherwise.
To top it all off, I was being tutored by Zane, my 12-year-old former neighbor and bodyguard. It was really a blow to my self esteem to have to be instructed by a prepubescent kid who spent his free time making sculptures out of baked potatoes. Apparently he'd been a citizen of Gulbrania all along and was shipped over to the States a few years ago to keep an eye on me in Indiana. I spent my evenings being drilled on all the different aspects of Gulbrania: its history, its government and trade, its resources, and its enemies. Zane had smothered me with what seemed like a million diagrams detailing all the properties and applications of Gulbranak, the powerful mineral mined from the ocean floor that the Jumerum wanted to get their hands on so they could take over the world or something.
The Jumerum. Just thinking about that stupid organization made my entire body tense up. They were evidently on a mission to ruin my life. They had killed my grandfather, and because they had almost killed my father he had left my mom and me in Indiana to hide out in Gulbrania. Meanwhile, my mom lied to me about everything, pretended I had a liver disease and made me take something called dissimulation capsules to disguise me from the Jumerum. Yeah, my life was pretty messed up.
I rolled off of my ridiculously huge bed and rubbed my temples. It was four in the morning, but I was wide awake. I started pacing my room, which was housed in the castle's tallest tower. It all seemed a little cliche, but nevertheless, I was starting to get used to this place as my new home. I had hardly left the castle since I had come to Gulbrania, and while I was a little disappointed by how archaic it all was (you had to flush the toilet with a bucket), there were some things that were actually pretty cool. Like the secret passages that tunneled between all the rooms, the awesome kitchen with every cooking device imaginable, and an observatory that was equipped with huge telescopes. My own room was big and circular, encased in big stones and rough wood, with large, arched windows facing the sea below. I glanced at the windows, caught sight of my reflection, and flinched.
I didn't know if I was ever going to get used to the way I looked, even though it was my natural appearance. I had spent ten years looking like a scrawny, spotted geek, so it was still a little shocking to pass by a mirror and see something akin to a male model. I peered past my reflection and out to the dark cliffs and ocean waves below. I hadn't ventured far from the castle because I had been so busy with torture and training, but it didn't really seem like there was much more to Gulbrania than the governmental buildings surrounding the castle and a few villages along the coast. I hadn't seen a whole lot of inhabitants on the small island. The most activity I saw was people going out in boats that never seemed to come back.
I don't know how long I stood there staring out the windows, but I noticed the sun was starting to come up when someone knocked on my door.
"Come in," I called, still facing the windows.
"Hey Freddy!"
I tensed. It was too early to deal with Zane. I closed my eyes until I sensed that he was standing right next to me. With some effort I turned toward him. "What's going on?" I asked, attempting to sound friendly and failing.
Zane held out a duffel bag. "The concealment team was able to save some of your stuff before the Jumerum ransacked your old house," he said. He set the bag on my bed and walked out of my room. I raised my eyebrows. That was the shortest conversation I had ever had with Zane. Maybe he wasn't a morning person.
"Oh! And one more thing."
I jumped as Zane's head appeared through the door.
"I put some googles in that bag for you. Be prepared for a Gulbranak demonstration tonight. It's going to be awesome!" He smiled gleefully and then disappeared again.
I sighed and crossed to my bed, dumping out the contents of the duffel bag. There was a high tech looking pair of googles, as well as a couple shirts that didn't fit anymore, a few books and papers, and my cell phone. I swallowed hard as I picked up my phone, which seemed almost foreign now that I'd been without it for a month. I turned it on, surprised that it still had some battery life in it. I scrolled through some texts from Milo, feeling awful that I hadn't been able to respond to him and that I had left him to fend for himself in that stupid high school, but what really got my emotions twisted up were all the texts and missed calls from Kayla.
To say that I hadn't thought about Kayla Morrison would be a lie. There had been a few nights when she filled my mind so completely that I could almost imagine she was there in front of me. The memory of her kiss still made me a little feverish. And yet, all of my experiences in Indiana seemed like they belonged to someone else, and on some level, they did. I was a different person now, with a different body and different responsibilities. I felt numb as I read through Kayla's texts. There were several asking me if I was alright and where I was, and one where she told me that we had gotten an A on our world cultures project, even though I hadn't been there to present with her. The last thing from her was a voicemail, and I pressed the button to listen to it.
"Hey Frog, I, um… really hope you're not dead, that would be awful." There was a pause as she took an unsteady breath. "Look, I just want you to know that if I did anything to offend or hurt you, I'm really sorry. I'm going to stop bothering you with all my texts now, because you never respond, but if you ever get a chance, give me a call. I… I miss you."
My heart was pounding in my chest. Saying that she missed me was almost as good as her saying that she loved me. For a moment, I was tempted to call her back, to tell her everything, but I hesitated. I could tell her all about what had happened to me and who I was and where I was, but then what? Would she even believe me? Would I be able to prove I was telling the truth? Plus, she was never going to come to Gulbrania, and I didn't know if I would ever make it back to the States. I could call her, but what would be the point?
I tossed my phone in the duffel bag and fell back on my bed, cursing the Jumerum for making my life so complicated. If I had stayed in Indiana, if I had stayed the way I was, I might have actually had a shot with Kayla Morrison. She might have fallen for that skinny, nerdy guy that I used to be. Now I looked like a movie star, and I didn't stand a chance with her. Yep. My life was definitely messed up.