“Princess,” Amador called after me.
What now? I turned around. Lucas was taking his time, fidgeting with his books, and not looking me in the eye. I felt snubbed, and suddenly furious. I turned to Amador. “Sorry, I have to get to class. Nice talking to you earlier,” I said. I wasn’t going to let her think the future queen was at her beck and call. Before she could say anything else, I turned on my heel and walked off.
21
While the questionof who the mambabarang was remained unsolved, the next few days were uneventful for me. By contrast, the palace staff was firing on all cylinders, preparing for the coronation, which was now only thirteen days away.
“Today we have a special guest instructor,” Professor Manatubay announced. On cue, the classroom door opened, and an older, stern-looking woman marched in. She wore charcoal-gray wool from head to toe, her only jewelry an onyx brooch; had silvery-white hair bobbed severely at her chin; and was very small, not even five feet, and slim, too. Within seconds it was obvious she was not to be messed with.
“Ah, here she is now,” Professor Manatubay exclaimed, beaming. Possibly the first (and only) time I ever saw him look genuinely pleased. “Class, may I introduce Doña Immaculada, our most respected royal instructor. She has likely tutored many of your parents and possibly even your grandparents in their own Pagkahari at Paggalang courses.”
The woman stood perfectly straight, with her heavily wrinkled yet flawlessly manicured hands clasped delicately in front of her. “Hello, children.”
Professor Manatubay looked expectantly at us. We all mumbled greetings politely but half-heartedly, except for Amador, who was sitting with her back flush against the chair and her hands folded primly on top of her desk, in a perfect mirror of our new teacher. She projected her snooty voice above everyone else’s: “Nice to meet you, Doña Immaculada.”
Usually, that got Amador lots of brownie points with teachers, but to her credit, Doña Immaculada didn’t fawn over the goody-goody act. She barely glanced at Amador. For that, I liked her already.
However, that brief respect changed as soon as she announced our task. “I’m here, by Professor Manatubay’s invitation, to assist you in your journey to proper royal etiquette. As you know, we are two weeks away from a very important coronation.” She glanced at me pointedly. “Something none of you have yet experienced. There are certain expectations which must be met, should you desire the respect and esteem of your people. A royal without manners is a royal without clout and is, therefore, a royal without a court.” She walked around the room slowly, stopping in front of each of us and speaking as if she was talking to that person alone. It was pretty intimidating. Kind of felt like she was about to pull out a riding whip and smack our hands with it like an old Victorian schoolmarm. I was so concerned with being under her spotlight that I could hardly pay attention to what she was actually saying.
“Today, for our initial lesson together, I thought we’d do something simple. Something youallshould already know. This will demonstrate the way we will structure our lessons moving forward.” Doña Immaculada stopped in front of me this time. I gulped. Sheglared down at me when she said, “And let it be known that I may seem like a softie, but I have very, very high expectations.”
When she moved on, I exhaled. I wondered if she’d directed that comment to me personally, or whether I just happened to be the one in the line of fire at that point in her spiel.
“And now, if you will, boys on one side of the room, and girls line up on the other, please,” Doña Immaculada commanded.
Everyone jumped up to comply right away. I took my time getting out of my seat and making my way across the room to join Nix and Amador and the few other girls in our class, a futile attempt to get Lucas to notice me. When I took my place next to Nix, she whispered to me in a high-pitched imitation of Doña Immaculada, “Girls on one side and boys on the other.”
“Doña Immaculada hasn’t been introduced to gender theory, I guess,” I whispered back. Nix snorted.
Doña Immaculada side-eyed us as she paced between the two lines. “As you’ve probably guessed by now, today we’re going to dance,” she said. She clapped her hands together on the worddancelike this was an amazing treat. A few students followed suit and clapped politely. Doña Immaculada was displeased. “The lot of you will never make great leaders if you are unable to drum up some enthusiasm in the face of adversity.” That made everyone straighten up a little bit.
And even if they weren’t overly enthused, everyone at least knew what they were doing, having taken dance lessons in the past. I, of course, hadn’t. And there was a good chance this dance wasn’t going to involve twerking—although I didn’t know how to do that either.
Doña Immaculada stood at Professor Manatubay’s desk and lifted the lid on a box. Inside I could see the top of a record player. She held the arm over the vinyl album and shouted, “First, the Biringan Court Dance!” Then she dropped the needle, and classical music began to play.
All the students stepped forward and bowed to the person in front of them. I copied them clumsily. Then everyone took a step back, and I did, too. Out of the corner of my mouth, I said to Nix, “How do you know how to do this?”
“Private lessons. First month I was here,” she replied. “At least, that’s what I called it. Me and a guy at the pub in town.”
“Wow,” I said, laughing.
“And!” Doña Immaculada’s voice boomed throughout the room. “One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three!”
Suddenly they were all doing complicated footwork, which I attempted to duplicate (and failed), and then holding their hand out to the person across from them. My partner was the crowned baron from the Court of Tikbalang with goldenrod eyes, who looked like he couldn’t be more than ten, despite being at least five years older than that, but took his role more seriously than just about anyone in the class aside from Amador. We touched palms and walked a few steps, then twirled around and switched hands. Meanwhile, Doña Immaculada was counting and shouting things like, “Now switch!”
At once, one line went one way, our line went the other, and then both lines did some kind of crisscrossing until we were fully switched around and standing in front of someone else. “What the hell is going on?” I murmured in Nix’s direction. She just laughed again. We repeated the steps, this time with a different partner,and then Doña Immaculada said, “Once more!” and everyone began the weird zigzag.
When we were back in lines again, I was standing face-to-face with Lucas. I looked right at him, but his eyes were focused somewhere over my head. Doña Immaculada began her counting, and then Lucas and I were touching palms—and unlike when I was dancing with the baron, with Lucas I could feel some type of energy, tension, between our hands. I wished he’d look at me, but for some reason he kept looking anywhere but in my direction.
And then, as quickly as it happened, it was over.
For the rest of class, there was no contact between the two of us again.
I never thought I’d be the kind of girl who’d be ghosted after her first kiss—or that her first kiss would be from a boy she was just pretending to kiss. Maybe that was what he thought, that it was just pretend. I was the one who’d demanded he kiss me, after all.
***
A few hourslater, after another unremarkable Hayop at Halaman class ended, I rushed down to the cafeteria. Nix was already there at our usual table. “Hey,” she said after a while. “You all right? You seem down.”
