Arwen quietly crept out of Marchella’s room. The servant definitely had something to hide. As she walked out of the servant’s wing of the palace, she passed Marchella and Princess Rekreh walking to Marchella’s room.

XXXXX

“So if you are going to accompany me to school, then you need new clothes. You dress nice, for a lady-in-waiting. But at school, I am not particularly rich. Silks are fine, but not precious metals or gems. Also, we need to find clothes that are expensive, but not particularly flashy.” Retah paused in her speech and began to survey the looks of her new companion.

Marchella had a nut-brown complexion with light brown hair that came down to her waist. It had red and gold highlights and was very shimmery. Her oval face and almond-shaped eyes were reminiscent of Asian ancestors from Earth. In the right clothes, she could almost be royalty. Right now, she was in a knee-length black skirt and an embroidered red silk shirt. Her soft-soled shoes were a dark blue with tiny diamonds.

Shell felt the younger girl’s stare and looked up into the princess’s face. Remembering her lowly position, she blushed and looked away.

They ambled down to the servants’ quarters and Shell opened to door to her small room. Rekreh was startled by the lack of furnishings. Shell folded a few simple outfits into a battered brown suitcase, then closed it with a decisive snap.

“I’m packed.”

Rekreh opened the suitcase and pulled out the top outfit. She shook it and held it up. It was dark purple with yellow trim on the sleeves and the hem of the skirt. Rekreh folded it up and replaced it in the suitcase.

XXXXX

MegaPixel: Exams are today L. Did anyone study?

Bouncegirl01: Didn’t have to. I’ll just play the lectures in my head.

GigaByte: Same here. Did you forget? We are just playing humans, we have perfect memory.

MegaPixel: I just had other things on my mind.

Shell opened a laptop on the shuttle to Glass City. Rekreh was asleep; it was a twelve hour flight. The other Technopaths had to know that Shell was a personal assistant to the girl who had caused them so much trouble. She also knew why the Technopaths had been spazzing.

She-sells-sea-shells: Hello peeps.

Bouncegirl01: Who is this? This is a secure page.

MegaPixel: Yeah, how did you find this?

She-sells-sea-shells: Ionos told me. Is he on?

Littleboyblue: Hi, I am online, who is this?

She-sells-sea-shells: Shell.

GigaByte: Wow! It’s been a while. What’s up?

She-sells-sea-shells: I am now the personal servant of her Royal Nosiness. She goes by many names.

MegaPixel: How did you get mixed up with Retah?

She-sells-sea-shells: She wanted me, I said yes.

Bouncegirl01: Why would you do a crazy thing like that?

MegaPixel: Yeah, why?

She-sells-sea-shells: I thought I could get her off our backs.

Littleboyblue: Why would you think that?

She-sells-sea-shells: Just you wait. She will have no clue that I am one of you.

XXXXX

Rekreh yawned and stretched. She saw Marchella put away a laptop computer.

“Now for your schedule,” Rekreh pulled out Marchella’s schedule and pointed to her first class. “The first class we are in is social studies, the teacher is nice, and doesn’t give too much homework. Our new unit is the history of Venus, from colony to constitutional monarchy. The teacher emails us the next unit overview so we can study over break if that is our inclination. Then we have dance and band, they are both in the same period, then language arts. Next is math, then science. We will be miniaturized and injected into a frog so we can tour its organs.” Rekreh paused in order to better appreciate the look of pure disgust that would flit across Marchella’s face. It didn’t come. “Whoops, my bad, that’s next year. Then we have art, two hours for lunch, home economics, and then finally gym. We pack up our stuff, put it in our lockers, and take what we need back to our dorm.” Rekreh remembered something important. “Oh I think I already told you, at school I am not called Rekreh, I am called Retah. No one there knows I am a princess. It’s kind of important that you don’t tell.”

Marchella nodded vigorously, “I won’t tell.”

Rekreh nodded. “Good.”