Page 13 of Royal Academy

CHAPTER 7

“How could you, Benedict? You used to be my favorite brother!” Lia had spent the last half an hour berating her older brother.

Sadly, he had spent the last half an hour laughing, “Did you really run naked through the castle?”

“No!” heat filled her cheeks, “Is that what he told you?”

Benedict’s amusement shone as he shook his head at Lia, “I have other spies there, Lia. Besides, why are you so certain that I had anything to do with Nick Leham?”

“He’s awful just like you!” she sank down on the bed and glared into the camera of her laptop.

“That is not an attractive look for you, Stinky.” Lia made a piggy face and Benedict shuddered, “That is worse, much worse.”

“Benny?” Lia sank onto her elbows, “Do you think that there is anything wrong with the clothes I wear?”

Benedict’s eyes widened. The last thing he would ever want to do would be to upset his kid sister. Benedict was well aware that Lia didn’t really fit the princess mold or any mold for that matter.

But he felt that her originality was one of the best things about Lia.

“Why?” he asked guardedly.

She groaned and flopped her face into the comforter.

Whatever she said next, Benedict couldn’t understand because it was garbled with her face against the mattress.

“Cut it out, Stinky. Just tell me what is going on.”

Lia raised her head and to Benedict’s dismay, her eyes seemed a bit, glassy.

“Lia, what’s wrong?” he demanded, feeling that surge of overprotective brother coming on.

“Nothing, Benny, it’s nothing,” she grinned brightly, but he could tell that it was her fake company smile and not the crooked endearing one that tugged at his heartstrings.

“Put Nick on,” Benedict demanded.

He knew his mistake the moment she shook the laptop and everything became topsy-turvy for a moment.

“I knew that you had something to do with that man being here!” Lia growled at him, actually growled.

If she wasn’t his sister, he would have thought she had flipped her lid. Granted, since Lia was his sister he already thought she was a bit unbalanced.

“What was it about your clothes?” he tried to change the subject but Lia wasn’t having it.

“They hate me!” Lia wailed out of the blue, “It’s horrible here. The kids hate me and that man is making my life miserable.”

She made quoting gestures with her hands, “And now I have to team teach with him. I’m a glorified assistant, Benny.”

He winced, “How did that happen?”

“Complaints,” Lia grumbled and then scowled when his lips twitched.

“It’s been less than two weeks, Stinky.”

“I can follow a calendar, Benny, thanks for the update. Look, I have to go. One of my student’s is staging a fashion crisis intervention.”

Benedict burst out laughing, his handsome face clearly enjoying her misery.

“I want to go home,” she said softly and he sobered up.

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