The Princess

Chapter 17
Aster

Later, I found out through Petraeus that him, Sam, and Jayson had thought that I was ‘visiting’ the principal or our ‘lovely’ secretary. In fact, I was. Just not the secretary.
After fourth period, I went to the office. The secretary was there. Ugh.
“Aster! How nice to see you! What are you doing here?” The first part she said with sarcastic sweetness, and the second part was said in a demanding tone.
“How unpleasant to see you! I’m doing something that’s none of your business.” I told her in a sickly sweet voice. She frowned at me.
“Boy-” I didn’t hear the rest. I just walked past the desk she was sitting at.
As I walked through the doorway that led to the principal’s office, I saw a shocked expression on her face. Too bad I didn’t have a camera.
My dad looked up as I walked in.
“Aster! What brings you here?” he asked with surprise.
“Hey dad. I think I found the Princess.” I told him, getting right to the point.
“What? Who?” he was very eager.
“The girl I was trying to find earlier. She has every sign of being the one. She even talks about a cat named Niya.” I explained.
“She has the birthmark?” I nodded. “She has the bracelet tattoo?” I nodded again. “And she has Niya.” he stated. I nodded in confirmation.
“Oh yeah. I also saw something else on the pad of paper she was taking notes on.”
“What was it?”
“It said, ‘-House on front of book? -Yes’.”
“What book was she reading?” my father asked, kind of interrupting.
“She was reading the history book. I think she was on chapter three or past it.”
“Does she have any suspicions?”
“I think so. She did have ‘Me? Princess?’ written on her paper. But below that, she put ‘No- Niya doesn’t talk’. Apparently, she has the exact Nyager Cat as described in the history book.”
“Is she a sympathizer?” my father asked.
“No. She even wrote on her pad of paper ‘Cleansers= retarded -SO TRUE’.” I told him, laughing.
“Really? Then that's a good sign. Do you know when her birthday is?”
“No. It should be soon though.” I hope! I added silently to myself. I really hope it’s soon. I am so tired of the Cleansers. Sometimes, I just want to yell at them. Know what I mean?
“Let’s hope so. We need to get rid of all this fear. You know where she lives?” he started heading toward the files.
“No. The address she put down is a lie.” that stopped my dad in his tracks.
“What? How do you know?” he couldn’t believe it.
“I went to visit the address. A young man lives there. She doesn’t. I’ve tried to ask her, but she always dodged the question.”
“So.... How can we contact her? I need to talk to her.”
“Dad?”
“Hmm?”
“You’re the principal. You can call her down.” Dad forgets that fact every time.
“Oh yeah. I forgot. Heh-heh.” he pushed a button on his phone. “Cynthia, call down,” he paused and looked at me. ‘What’s her name?’ he mouthed.
‘Sarasi Angeli’ I mouthed back.
“Call down Sarasi Angeli please.” he told the secretary.
“Will do.” she told him.
“Sarasi Angeli to the office please. Sarasi Angeli.” came over the loudspeaker.
“She’ll be here soon. Now we just wait.” he sat down, “You know you can sit, right?” he told me. I sat.
The door opened to reveal Sarasi standing there. She didn’t see me, but when she did, her expression changed to guarded.
“You called?” she asked.
“Yes, yes. Sarasi, it has come to my attention that you have lied on your file. Where do you live, Sarasi?” my dad asked her. When an adult says ‘it has come to my attention’, that normally means that they have found out something that you didn’t want them to find out.
“Astral Avenue.” she answered, glaring at me. What did I do?
“No, your real address.”
“That... is my address.” she started to look nervous.
”You and I both know that that isn’t your real address. Aster here went to it and a young man answered the door. You don’t live there. So, where do you really live?” Sarasi stayed silent. My dad sighed.
“Equally important, why did you lie about where you live?” my dad asked her. She looked furtively around and bolted. I dashed to the window to see her running away from the school.
“Uh, dad? She’s gone.” I told him.
“I see that. I’ll let the police people know about it.” he paused, “I mean the ones on our side. They’ll hopefully find her before the Cleansers.”
“At least the Cleansers are ignorant. They don't know what to look for. Oh dad?”
“Hmm?”
“We need to watch for ‘fireworks’ in the sky. That’s what happens when her magic shows itself. Remember?”
“Okay. I have to make a call now. Go back to class.” he nodded. I left. ‘Will we find her?’ I thought. We need to find her. If we don’t, then life as we know it is over. The Cleansers will eventually find her and kill her, and dad and me and all of the other supporters will be found out and executed. I hurried to class.