Page 18 of The Princess's Pet

“Can we please have one class where the two of you aren’t at each other’s throats?” Jasper sighed, loudly.

“Maybe if you could remove whatever Eddie has stuck up his…” Evie began.

“That’s quite enough!” Edward almost shouted, interrupting her.

“Yes, I agree, that’s quite enough, I’d like to start my lesson,” a man in a white chef coat spoke loudly at the front of the class, and my attention was captured by the trolleys of food that were being wheeled into the room.

“I am Chef Ahamed, and today we will be covering dining etiquette. I have served the king himself and regularly prepare meals for the most lavish and talked-about parties and balls. As servants, you may serve at or find yourself participating in dining events. It is of the utmost importance that you all know the basics, from how to set a table and plate food and drink to your guests, to how to eat the food that may be presented to you.”

I was disappointed when I realised that we wouldn’t be eating any of the food. The lesson consisted of learning to put knives on the left and forks on the right, or maybe it was the other way around.

I seemed to get every task wrong. Evie kept snickering at me and Edward followed behind me pointing out my mistakes. But really what did it matter what side of a plate a knife or fork sat? And what on earth was with all the different sizes of utensils?

“What is a fork this small even used for?” I asked incredulously, holding the offending object up.

“It’s called an Oyster fork, and it’s the only fork that goes on the right,” Edward answered, taking the fork from my hand and setting it beside the plate.

“No one eats oysters with a fork like that. You don’t even use a fork!” I said, finding myself getting upset, it was all just a bit ridiculous.

“It’s used for other seafood too, like lobster,” he continued, unaffected by my incredulous stare. I couldn’t respond.

Eventually, we got the pleasure of putting food onto plates only to be told that there was a special and appropriate way to eat different types of food: including holding a fork backward to eat rice by pushing the rice onto the fork!

I’d never heard anything more, just… silly.

“Where did the Princess find you, living in a cave? Do you usually eat with your hands?” Evie mocked as I struggled to put the rice on my backward fork, and something in me snapped at her continued mocking and tone. Who did she think she was? There was nothing wrong with me, or anyone else, that didn’t need a thousand knives and forks to eat a meal.

“Where I’m from, if there is food on our plate, we don’t worry about which sized spoon to use; we’re grateful for the food on our plate. There is a whole country outside of the mansions and castles and Royalty and nobility. We don’t all have so much food that we waste our time playing with it!” I seethed loudly and angrily, and as I spoke the background chatter of the class lessened until I was met with silence when I finished.

The silence lasted all but a brief moment before there was loud clapping from Harris and Dylan across the room. I noticed a few other students join them, with Harris yelling “You tell them, Percy!”

“Quiet, quiet!” Chef Ahamed called, and the class silenced instantly. “My class is concerned with etiquette, not politics. Save your opinions for outside my classroom,” he said, looking to me. I balked at being called out, mainly at the use of the word politics, because I didn’t have any and I certainly didn’t mean to express any.

I was silent for the rest of the nonsensical lesson.

Evie packed up and stormed off angrily, rather quickly followed by Justin and Jasper who gave me small smiles.

“I’m afraid I will have to make a report of your outburst today, Percy,” Edward stated as he made to leave.

“Fuck you, Dickward,” Dylan called as my group of maybe friends from the previous day approached. I cautiously made sure to stay away from Dylan.

“Why didn’t you sit with us?” Ana asked, seeming genuinely upset at my absence.

“Yeah, we could have laughed at all these fools with their fancy forks,” Harris added.

“Why’d you ditch us?” Dylan asked. I looked at him seriously for a moment, and his face fell. “Oh,” he said in understanding, and I knew then that he had purposefully marked me with his scent the previous day.

“What did you do!” Ana asked, frustrated, turning to Dylan.

“Look, Percy, I’m sorry, I just wanted to poke the bear,” he said, hand rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re lucky that bear thinks you so completely insignificant,” I said coldly.

“Someone tell me what’s going on, please?” Ana said, looking between us all.

“Don’t look at me, I’m as clueless as you are,” Harris said, holding up his hands.

“You can ask Dylan,” I said. “I thought we were friends,” I continued sadly as I walked past him.

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