Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
They shrugged.
Thelma pulled out her phone.
“Wait!” the boy with brown hair said. “We just wanted to see the queen.”
“The queen?” Thelma repeated.
“He means the future queen.” The girl crossed her arms. “My daddy works here, and I know she’s here!”
“I don’t think you heard right. We’ve been looking for days,” the brown-haired one muttered, annoyed. “Now, you’ve got us in trouble, Vicky.”
“It’s an adventure, Leo!” the girl, Vicky, snapped back at the browned-haired one, who I guessed was Leo. “You can’t find the treasure on the first day.”
“Guys...” the blond boy muttered, speaking for the first time and looking directly at me.
“We are not looking for treasure. We are looking for the queen,” Leo shot back at her.
“Guys...” the other boy said, still looking at me, trying to get his friends’ attention.
“A queen is a treasure, Leo,” Vicky said with her hand on her hips.
“GUYS!”
“WHAT, ORIEN?” they both yelled at him, and I sort of pitied the poor kid.
He pointed at me and said, “Found her.”
Both of their heads whipped around Thelma’s body to look at me. I couldn’t help but laugh, waving to them.
“Gerchen,” I greeted them in Ersovian.
Their eyes went wide, and they rushed toward me, but Thelma caught them by the collars, holding them up.
“Hey!” they yelled at her.
“You’ve seen her. Now it’s time to find your parents,” she said down to them.
“Thelma, it is all right,” I said, stepping forward. “It would be a waste of an adventure if you could see the treasure and never come close. Hello, Vicky, Leo, and Orien. I am Odette.”
They stared at me as if I were magic, rushing up to me when Thelma let them go.
“Hi, Queen Odette.”
“You know our names?”
“Can you make me a knight?”
“Are you feeling better?”
“You’re really pretty.”
“Is the Adelaar here too?”
“Can he make me a knight?”
“Whoa!” I held my hands out to relax them. “I cannot answer so many questions at one time. And my Ersovian isn’t that good yet, guys—”
“I think it fine,” Vicky said and looked at Leo. “We can understand him, and he’s from another planet.” She stuck out her tongue.
“And you are from planet butthead.”
It was good to know the insults hadn’t changed since I was a kid.
“Is that the language you use in front of a queen?” Layland called out at him, and they all stopped.
“Sorry.” He held his head down.
I knelt in front of them. “How about we all leave the staircase and maybe get some snacks? Then we can find your parents.”
They nodded, and I reached down to take their hands.
The vending machine snacks did the trick all right. They were able to calm down and sit still in front of me. We weren’t in my room, as I didn’t want to wake my mom. Instead, we were in the playroom on the children’s floor. So far, I’d found out that Vicky was Victoria, the daughter of one of the doctors here and the ringleader between Leo and Orien, fraternal twins and whose parents worked in the hospital as well.
All of the parents were in surgery or busy right now, so I was waiting with the children. Somehow, little Victoria had tricked her father into believing they only wanted to play with the sick kids here. And so, they came during the afternoon after first grade or year one classes. Then at night, they searched the hospital to find me. Leo wanted someone to make him a knight. Orien, the sweetheart, wanted to see if I was okay and just say hi. Vicky, well, Vicky didn’t say why she wanted to, but I kind of had a feeling I knew why. It was funny. They were these happy, bright spots, kids being kids, going about their lives for adventure and fun.
“When I become a knight, don’t worry, Miss Odette, I’ll protect you,” Leo said, lifting his fist.
“You have to be smart to be a knight,” Vicky shot back.
“Then I will be smart,” he shot back.
“Do they always like to fight like this?” I asked Orien as he ate his chips.
He nodded. “Daddy says it’s because they like each other.”
“No.”
“Ew.”
Orien ignored them and looked at me. “Do you and the Adelaar fight a lot?”
“No.” I paused, thinking back to when we first met, then smiled. “Well, we kind of do actually.”
“See,” Orien said to them.
And they made faces at him.
“When do you become queen?” Victoria asked me, smartly changing the subject. For a seven-year-old, the little girl was sharp.
“Why? Don’t you like Queen Elspeth?”
“I like her,” she whispered with less confidence. “But when will it be you?”
I sucked on my juice box, but for once, they stopped talking to look at me with their undivided attention.
All I could do was shrug. “I don’t know if I want to be the queen.”
“Why?” Vicky yelled at me angrily.
“Why do you want me to be queen?”