A Hole in the World (14 page)

‘Try me.’ Sands sits on the edge of the desk and watches them. ‘If Alexandra isn’t in the school system but wants an education, I admire that, although I question how you went about it. If there is something else going on here...’

‘I am Princess Alexandra from Calpaea,’ Alexandra blurts out, causing Bianca to hide her face behind her hands. ‘I am from another world and Bianca rescued me, bringing me back here.’

‘No, Alex, don’t say that,’ Cory half-whimpers from the doorway.

‘You’re... a princess?’ Sands says.

Alexandra nods.

‘So, what does that make Bianca? Your Prince Charming?’

Bianca sighs. ‘No, it makes me the idiot who rescued her and is going to get expelled for it.’ She rolls her eyes and lets her forehead hit the desk.

‘You aren’t going to get expelled, Bianca,’ Sands says and she looks up again. ‘But, perhaps your friend requires... mental help?’

‘She’s not insane!’ Cory shouts from the doorway before Bianca can express the same sentiment.

‘Cory, I don’t believe you’re part of this conversation,’ Sands says, his exasperation obvious. He doesn’t look around, but it doesn’t put Cory off at all.

‘Yeah, well, screw that.’ Cory walks in, closely followed by Daisy and Scotty, who flank him, supportively. ‘She’s not insane,’ he says, ‘she proved she’s from another world. She summoned this, erm, Fairy Godmother thing... Nissa, I think she was called. She was
floating
in front of us. We all saw it!’

‘Is this true?’ Sands enquires.

Daisy and Scotty nod, quickly.

‘I can’t decide whether you’re
all
insane or if you’re telling the truth,’ he says, after a moment. Bianca always knew he was a cool teacher.

‘I’d go for Option B, sir,’ Cory says.

‘Can you show me this fairy godmother?’ Sands enquires of Alexandra.

‘No,’ Alexandra says, ‘I can only summon her occasionally and I summoned her recently.’

‘Can you prove it any other way?’

‘Just listen to the way she talks,’ Scotty says. ‘If that doesn’t prove it, I dunno what does.’

Sands sighs. ‘I’m going to have to take you to the headmaster,’ he says, after a moment. ‘It’s up to him what to do about your enrolling yourself without permission.’

He stands up, turning to the others. ‘You’re welcome to accompany her,’ he says.

*

They step out of the school together, the six of them, a mismatched and oddly out of place group, ready to walk across the playground shared with primary school children and enter the headmaster’s office.

‘Can’t she just stay?’ Bianca begs, as they walk across.

‘I can’t have a child in my class who doesn’t belong. She should be in college, at least,’ Sands says. He sighs. ‘If it were my choice, she could stay. She’s a good student and not disruptive.’

Cory makes an annoyed sound. ‘Why do you have to be so perceptive, Sands? No one else noticed.’

‘That’s what makes me a good teacher.’

‘Hey, do you hear that?’ Daisy says, after a moment. She stops walking and turns around towards the exit of the school grounds. ‘It sounds like hooves.’

‘Definitely hoof-like,’ Scotty says.

‘I didn’t think there were any horses around here,’ Bianca says.

The gate bursts open at that moment, a chestnut horse galloping through, a brunette man mounted on its back, a sword held in one hand.

‘Princess! Princess Alexandra!’

Alexandra’s eyes widen. ‘It’s him!’ she exclaims.

The horse gallops right at the group and even as everyone else starts screaming and running away they stand their ground.  He stops a metre from Sands and turns to Alexandra. ‘Princess!’ he says, excitedly. ‘I found you at last!’

‘It’s you!’ Alexandra exclaims. ‘You’re Prince Charming!’

‘Michael, actually,’ he says, with a debonair chuckle and a small grin. ‘Prince Michael of Sabia.’

‘The neighbouring kingdom,’ Alexandra explains, quickly, to those surrounding her.

‘Are these peasants disturbing you, my princess?’ he asks.

‘No! No, they’re my friends.’ She smiles. ‘They’ve been keeping me safe for you.’

‘You talk in a strange manner,’ he says. ‘They have altered your personality.’

‘I talk like I always have,’ Alexandra says, eyes hardening a little.

‘So, you’re her Prince Charming?’ Bianca says, quietly.

‘I am,’ Prince Michael says. He turns to Alexandra and extends a hand, the one not clutching his sword. ‘Princess,’ he says, ‘would you do me the honour of accompanying me back to the kingdom and becoming my bride?’

Alexandra glances at the others, then back to him. ‘I... Yes...’ She nods. ‘Yes, of course. You’re my Prince Charming. Of course I will.’

Prince Michael breaks out in a grin as she places her hand in his and lifts her onto the back of his horse. She turns to look at the others but before she can speak Prince Michael shouts, ‘Onwards!’ and turns the animal around, galloping back out of the school and leaving a dust cloud in his wake.

There’s a long silence, broken only by the sound of the group breathing, and then Bianca whispers, ‘She left.’

Scotty reaches out and squeezes her hand. ‘Maybe she’ll come back.’

‘No, you don’t get it. That’s not the point. She just
left
.’  She looks at the broken down gate. ‘She didn’t even say
goodbye
.’

‘Bianca?’ Daisy steps slowly into the public bathroom. She can hear the sound of a girl crying and she recognises the sound. ‘Come on, Bianca, it isn’t that bad.’

‘Isn’t that bad?!’ The door to the cubical bursts open and Bianca stomps out, emerging with a tearstained face, her long black prom dress brushing against the less than sanitary toilet floor. ‘He promised me he’d stick with me for the whole dance and the first chance he got he went off with Bradley Jacobs!’

‘Yeah, well...’ Daisy sighs and wanders across to her friend. ‘Jason is an idiot. We already established that. I told you he was the last person to choose to go to prom with.’

‘Bradley Jacobs, though!’ Bianca exclaims. She throws her hands up and lets her arms flop down to her sides as she leans against one of the sinks. ‘I know, I know; I should have listened,’ she says, after a second. ‘But it wasn’t like I could go with a girl and I wasn’t particularly interested in going with a boy under false pretences.’

‘I guess Jason was the only option in that case.’ Daisy nods and comes to rest beside her against the next sink along. ‘If only Alexandra was still here. She could…’

‘Let it go, Daisy,’ Bianca says. ‘She left
two and a half years ago
. We need to stop thinking about her and
move on
.’

‘Uh huh. Like you’ve done?’ Daisy sighs. ‘I know you’ve been asked out. By girls
and
boys. You just keep saying no.’

‘Most of ‘em weren’t my type.’ She fiddles with the bracelet on her wrist.

‘Sorry about Jason abandoning you,’ Daisy says, after a long stretch of comfortable silence.

‘Sorry Cory didn’t ask you,’ Bianca replies.

‘Least Jason could have done is ask you to dance before he buggered off, though,’ Daisy says, avoiding the subject.  She pauses as Bianca nods, then grins. ‘Me! Come dance with me! I have no one to dance with and I look
epic
in my dress.’ She gestures at her butter yellow dress.

Bianca gives her a small smile. ‘Nah, Dais, it’s okay. You don’t need to do that, I know you’re not—’

‘I am
not
offering this out of
pity
!’ Daisy exclaims, looking positively affronted. ‘I really
do
want to dance with you and I won’t take no for an answer.’

‘Okay, okay…’ Bianca smiles and nods. ‘You... go grab me some of that punch and I’ll fix my makeup.’ She turns to the mirror, already wiping at her eyes. ‘Then we’ll dance.’

‘Deal!’ Daisy gives her a big grin and leaves the bathroom.

Bianca sighs and examines her face in the mirror.  Her makeup is smudged down her cheeks and she realises, after a moment, that Daisy bringing Alexandra up was the first time she’s consciously thought of the blonde for at least a year. Now she misses her again.

For the first few months after Alexandra rode out of her life on the back of a horse, Bianca was convinced she was going to come back.  Tomorrow, next week, next month… she’d be back soon because it was all a horrible mistake.

And then six months passed. Seven, eight, nine. Twelve months gone and no sign of her. Not even a note to say she was alive and well. Married with a mini-prince by now. Happy. Without Bianca.

Logically, she knows she needs to move on. Take a deep breath, accept she’s gone and just… move forward. Without Alexandra in her life, things are so much simpler. No hiding her from her mother, no sneaking around in school, no coming up with excuses for the things she did. It makes studying easier, living easier and being friends with people easier; Daisy’s become her best girlfriend, she’s even closer to Scotty than ever before, and she and Cory hit it off and exchanged stories of the blonde’s antics over old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer watched late-night with bottles of cheap beer, bought with Cory’s brother’s I.D.

But moving on is only simple in theory. In theory, it should be easy as pie. Deep breath, move forward, one step at a time. The journey of a thousand miles and all that. But it’s not. Until a year ago, she was mentioned so often, Bianca was sure her heart was going to break, a sick feeling of dread rising up from her gut every time she so much as saw a blonde on the street. She wished they’d been together and had had a horrible break-up. If they’d broken up, the pain would have been so much less throbbing.  It would have been a clean break, something to heal from. Instead, it was a knife being twisted at regular intervals, no pain to return to, to remember and realise why this is better. She doesn’t have the energy to pull out the weapon and dispose of it and she doesn’t want to forget. The pain just keeps on coming, a dull, constant ache of loneliness now, but pain nonetheless.

She folds some tissue in half and dabs at the dark stripe down her left cheek, wiping away the evidence of her latest bout of pain. She wishes Alexandra was here. They would have had such a good prom together. They’d have danced, Alexandra’s head resting on Bianca’s shoulder, and it would have been wonderful.

‘
Bianca
.’

She spins around and gasps, her train of thought broken by the appearance of Nissa before her.  She’s standing this time, instead of floating, a worried expression on her face.

‘Nissa, you’re about two and a half years late,’ Bianca says, sniffing and putting the tissue down on the edge of the sink, which she leans against again as she tries to hide the stabbing pain in her chest. ‘She left a long time ago.’

‘For you, perhaps, but to us she returned merely days ago.  I have been waiting ever since, for your mind to open back up to her and accept my presence. Until today you had blocked thoughts of her successfully enough to also block me from your mind.’

‘Eh?’ Bianca gives her a completely flummoxed look.

‘I need your help. Or, rather, Alexandra needs your help.’

Bianca shakes her head and takes a few steps towards the door. ‘Like I say; she left years ago. Cut all ties, got on Prince Hair Gel’s horse and left. She chose him, not us.’

‘He may be Prince Charming, but he is not the one she was destined to be with.’

Bianca sighs. ‘Good. He was a pillock.’

She turns around to leave, but Nissa calls after her, ‘Bianca, she needs you.’

Bianca doesn’t turn back. ‘No, what she needs is a marital counsellor. Or the right Prince Charming. She doesn’t need
me
. I was never anything but a cheap replacement.’

‘Do you honestly believe that?’

Bianca closes her eyes and bites her lip, hand still on the door handle. ‘
Yes
,’ she says.

‘Then why was it you who rescued her so long ago? Why did you protect her so successfully?’

‘I didn’t protect her from anything!’ Bianca exclaims, spinning around. ‘She was hardly being hunted or attacked at regular intervals. I gave her a place to sleep and fed her without my mother realising.’

‘How old are you now, Bianca?’ Nissa enquires.

‘I’m eighteen,’ Bianca says.

‘Do you still have the dreams?’

Bianca closes her eyes and says, ‘No.’

Nissa smiles. ‘Yes, you do,’ she says. ‘I can see it written on your face. You dream the same dream every night. The one that brought you to the hole originally.’

‘I…’

‘You don’t have to say anything. Just listen.’ Nissa steps a little closer, lets her palm ghost over Bianca’s cheek. ‘Alexandra is in terrible danger. Do you remember her telling you that she was captured by an evil enchantress?’  Bianca nods. ‘The Prince who ‘rescued’ Alexandra is her son.’