The Prince's Tutor

As Callie stood from her chair the blood began to rush through her body, a sudden rush of adrenaline. It finally hit her- what she had agreed to.

She was led outside the Great Common Room into a foyer. On her way out she passed beautiful décor that lined the timeless floral walls. The chairs were accented with a gold lining and the mahogany rugs were vibrant in its colors. Portraits of previous Royal Family members gazed down at Callie as she followed His Majesty out. The whole place looked like an exhibit in a historical museum.

Her tour of the wonderland ended abruptly as she stumbled into Prince Charles. He looked down at her and chuckled slightly, then fixed his attention to what had stopped his lighthearted promenade.

“Ah, Harry! Come join us.”

At the sound of His Royal Highness’ name, Callie quickly spun around to get a clear shot of the Prince.

The red headed boy strode up to the pair, effortlessly flamboyant. His face emitted a mischievous glow, equipped with a pair of brilliant blue eyes. His lips were round and gentle, curving in a manner that satisfied his magnificent visage.

He was gorgeous, Callie had to admit.

Callie stood perfectly still, gazing up at the Prince. He was dressed in a pale blue Ralph Lauren dress shirt that accentuated his masculine torso, and plaid Calvin Klein cargo shorts. He gave off an irresistible air of luxury, something Callie was very familiar with.

“My dear girl, this is my son Henry. Harry- this is Miss Caroline Bellhart.” Prince Charles paused, allowing time for the pair to acquaint themselves.

Callie reached out a hand toward the Prince, an act of friendship if you will, but Harry had not looked at her once. He was focused on his father, waiting for the man to continue.

“Harry.” Prince Charles emphasized, growing embarrassed at his son’s behavior.

Harry finally seemed to notice Callie’s presence. His magnificent blue eyes met with hers and he quickly gave her a once over. He outstretched his arm and grabbed Callie’s hand, which now seemed very small and delicate in his large one.

A look of apathy returned to the young prince’s face, and he switched his glance back at his father.

Apparently, he wasn’t as thrilled about all this as he should have been.

“She will be your tutor from now on.” Prince Charles announced more to himself than anyone in the room.

Harry dropped Callie’s hand faster than lightning. His face transformed into three stages: disbelief, amusement, and then anger. Callie watched the three emotions dance across the Prince’s attractive face, each one becoming more evident than the last.

At the anger stage, his gorgeous face turned a light shade of pink and his blue eyes lost all composure.

“You hired a tutor?” he asked demanded.

Prince Charles began to speak, but was interrupted by a sarcastic laugh.

“You’re really loving this, aren’t you? First you send me to school, now a tutor? What next, you going to ship me off somewhere so you don’t have to take responsibility?” Harry spat, venomously. His eyes were narrowed now; the blue crystals were cruel and vile.

Throughout this entire time Callie stood motionlessly next to Prince Charles, terrified of making any sort of sound or movement.

Charles however, remained as calm as his character allowed him, and slowly and articulately, he addressed his youngest son.

“You are being incredibly rude to our guest.” He spoke, through gritted teeth, Callie presumed.

Harry didn’t seem to notice that anyone else was in the room, nor did he care.

“If you think that this is going to change anything, you’re mental. I’m not your precious son William. Stop expecting me to turn out like him.”

The words were cold, unbearably painful, but Charles had to pretend they didn’t hurt. Instead he put on his best emotionless expression, and masked the heartbreak underneath.

~**~

The evening had turned to dusk and the soft pink sky began to fade into the deep horizon. Callie returned home after the long day of events. Her mind was scattered and she was sure she had lost her mind somewhere between the morning and the afternoon. Otherwise she would have never accepted the offer given to her.

Opening the sturdy oak door, her cozy living room welcomed her with the familiar view of her plush sofa, her waning kitchen table, and the smell of sweet lavender. Home.
As she set her keys down on the end table, she began to take off her sneakers when she heard her mother come in.

“Caroline Bellhart! You had me worried sick! Where have you been?” The voice demanded her.

“It’s been a long day, mum. Can you please save the lecture for morning?” Callie replied, sighing deeply.

“Save it for morning? Why, who exactly do you think you’re talking to? Don’t give me any tongue missy, I am fully aware-”

“Mummy, please. I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m just tired.” Callie pleaded her, raising those emerald eyes and winning her mother over instantly.

Worked every time.

Defeated, the woman relaxed her shoulders sighed heavily.

“Oh fine, you must be hungry. I’ll heat up the soup.”

The middle aged woman walked over to the kitchen and began to heat up the stove. Skillfully she began to fix up a warm dinner for her daughter. Callie watched her mother cook and smiled to herself.

“You look beautiful, mummy.” Callie grinned as her mother handed her pea soup and warm bread.

“Oh, hush up and eat.” Her mother replied, but let a small smile escape her fine lips before exiting.

When Callie finished, she set aside her bowl and bit her lip in thought.

“Mum.” She called, attempting to get her attention.

“What, darling?”

“I got a job offer today.”

The woman stopped sweeping the identical tiles for a moment and looked at her daughter who sat in a chair across the room.

“What is it?” she asked unsurely.

“You’re not going to believe me when I tell you….” Callie trailed off, drawing circles with her finger into the kitchen table.

“Try me.”

Callie took a moment, focusing on the lines in the wooden table. She examined each line and traced them with her finger. They appeared so proportional to each other, like perfect geometrical shapes.

Snapping back to reality, Callie replied:

“I’ve been offered a job to tutor for the Royal Family.” Callie didn’t look at her mother, but she could see the woman’s frown clearly in her mind.

Her mother scoffed and answered with:

“Alright, sure darling.”

“No, mum I’m serious. A royal car came to my school today. They think I’m the daughter of a CEO.”

Her mother broke the thick silence with her frantic voice. She spoke very fast, all the words jumbled together in her frenzy.

“I knew it. You remember when Thomas made that fake account, I told you all. I said, ‘Mark my words this will all come back to haunt us one day.’ And look what happened. I’m right, I’m always right but you kids never listen to me-”

“Mum, don’t blame Tommy for any of this. Without him I would have never gotten accepted into Cambridge.”

Another stony silence.

Callie tried to avert the attention back to the main subject. She was too tired to beat around the bush all night. She decided to be delicately blunt. I say delicately because Callie greatly feared her mother’s disapproval.

“They want me to tutor for them.”

After a couple of suffocating moments…

“And?” her mother pressured.

“And I’ve agreed.”

“You what?” The unhappy voice was a lot closer than it had been before.

Callie looked up and searched her mother’s face. Her wrinkles became darker somehow and shadowed over her face. Her dark brown eyes demanded Callie to answer, and Callie obliged.

“You seem unhappy…”

“You agreed? Is this what this family has come to? Have I failed as your mother in raising you?” her mother exploded, her voice unsteady and high pitched.

“Mum, what are you talking about? It’s the Royal Family. Do you know how rare this opportunity is?”

“I don’t care. You’re being bought, and I thought I raised you to value yourself. Who are you tutoring anyway?”

“Prince Harry.”

Suddenly she became very large to Callie, combusting in vibrant authority.

“Absolutely not.”

Her tone was flat and majestic. It dominated over Callie’s small voice in outstanding power.

“Mum. It’s a really good amount of money….”

“No, I will not have it. He’s a very nasty boy, Callie. I’ve heard all kinds of things about him in the papers, you shouldn’t be around boys like him.”

Callie stood up from her chair and walked over to her mother, placing her delicate hands on her shoulders.

“Mum, please. I’m doing this for us. All I need is your permission.”

Her mother’s frown outlined her features, refusing to give in.

After a couple of seconds her mother seemed to think it over. She knew her daughter had good intentions, and she was old enough to make decisions for herself. She finally decided:

“Alright. I still don’t like it, but I want you to be careful. I don’t want you to get wrapped up into a web of lies you won’t be able to get yourself out of.”

“Mum, don’t worry. I’m going to involve myself as little as possible. This is strictly business.”

Oh how very wrong she was.

~~~***~~~

The next morning Callie woke up bright and early, ready to take the world head on.
She was walking aimlessly on the Cambridge campus before classes, when suddenly she saw a herd of women screaming.

It was not the painful kind of screaming- it was the crazy, fanatic kind. The kind that blew your eardrums from the first pitch and left you half deaf for a couple of days.

He was here.

She edged her way to the crowd of socialites and pushed her way through the large mass of people to get a better view.

She was right- there he stood in all his stupid glory. Prince Henry of Wales.

He wore casual jeans- and by casual I mean Burberry or Calvin Klein perhaps- a dark blue cricket sweater and a white collared shirt underneath. Most likely Ralph Lauren or Christian Dior.

He was surrounded by women screaming his name and camera flashes from the paparazzi that had somehow found out he transferred.

Although his form was present, he was not actually there. His eyes were dazed and his face was emotionless. He appeared somewhat sad to Callie. She didn’t blame him, she was certain he hated being in the spotlight all the time.

Finally his body guard, a bulky man with defined shoulders, cleared the way and Harry entered the school. Behind him, the rest of the bodyguards attempted to hold back the crowd.

Around noon, Callie had just finished her Business Law class and was heading over to the other building for her Contemporary Issues class. She was about to open the doors and head inside when she saw him again. This time he was surrounded by a group of guys. It was nice to know he made friends so easily.

Callie stood outside the school for a moment, contemplating whether or not to head inside or go over to him and remind him of their lesson later that day.

She decided it was best to go over to him, what if he forgot? It was her responsibility to make sure her student was there on time. Yes, spoken like a professional, Callie.

As she glided her way across the pavement, she did her best at looking austere. She definitely wanted to be noticed this time and she wanted him to take her seriously.

Walking up to the group, she smiled and began to speak but no one heard her.

Someone was in the middle of telling a disgusting, inappropriate joke that belittled women and the group of men burst out laughing, including Harry.

Callie regretted feeling sorry for him earlier after hearing his response, which was another ignorant thing to say.

She furrowed her brow and attempted to speak again, but no one paid any attention.

Getting fed up with her current situation, she walked over to the other side and stood behind Prince Harry himself.

“Erm, pardon me…Excuse me!” she finally said, or screamed more likely, but whichever.

The group turned their heads and all stared her down. They all seemed so intimidating.

She decided to ignore the dirty looks and addressed Harry, making sure her voice was loud enough to hear.

“Hi, I’m Callie”, she said cheerfully.

The Prince stared at her, his face blank. He didn’t look friendly at all, neither did he seem like he was planning on carrying the conversation.

“I met you the other day…” she added.

He continued to stare her down with those brilliant eyes of his. He made if very clear that he was bored of her talking.

“You’re father introduced me…?” Nothing. “I’m your tutor.” she added gravely.

She was frustrated at his silence; a conversation with a brick wall would have been ten times more exciting.

“Yeah, and?”

That’s it. Apparently that’s all Callie deserved- a stupid “yeah, and”.

Callie grew defensive, she was starting to look like a fool in front of the group, and she was very uncomfortable with that.

“Well, I just thought you should know, seeing that we have an appointment after school.” she spat, making it clear that she was just as thrilled about all this as he was.

He inhaled deeply and looked at his friend who was snickering next to him before answering slyly:

“I’ve got to say, you’re really boring me with all this.”

The group erupted in laughter at Callie’s expense. He probably felt really cool, acting like an asshole and all.

Callie tightened her jaw and stared straight into Harry’s eyes- his gorgeous, cruel, condescending eyes.

“Look, I don’t care if I’m boring you. All I know is that we have a lesson. Today, four o’clock, at the library. Don’t be late.”

And with that Callie swiftly turned around, turning her back to Prince Harry and his little clique. She didn’t care if they laughed at her when she left, she didn’t care if he talked about her to them. She just didn't care. She was in this for the money, that’s it.

“Asshole”, she muttered and opened the great glass doors, heading inside.