Chapter 51 - Coming Of Age Gala...

After contemplating for a while, James found his courage and was about to get up and ask Jeffrey to switch seats with him. However, Ms. Shannon was already on the podium, ready to make the announcement. He heard her begin speaking and decided against his plan.

"Good morning, everyone! I'm happy to announce that all the students and faculty of the Royal Academy were invited to the Crown Prince of Stonasia's coming of age. For those who don't know who the Crown Prince of Stonasia is, he is the younger brother of King Alexander." Ms. Shannon announced loudly to the entire auditorium.

"It's well known in the whole kingdom and the whole world that King Alexander and Queen Alexa have no children due to a hereditary disease that King Alexander was born with. As a result, his younger brother was crowned as his successor." Ms. Shannon continued, but she didn't elaborate on King Alexander's decision not to have children.

"Nevertheless, he will be turning 'eighteen' soon, and the King and Queen will host a coming of age gala in three months. It will fall around the same time as the end of the third quarter of the school year. Meaning, all of you will have a week off before the day of the gala." The students excitedly started speaking to each other when they heard this; Ms. Shannon cleared her throat to get everyone's attention back.

"So please do let your parents know about this if they haven't received notice from the palace yet. It's a big event, and we will hand out pamphlets to everyone for the theme, so you will be prepared and know what to wear and not wear. Is that clear?" She finished her speech with a question.

"YES, MS. SHANNON!" All the students shouted in unison.

"Now, you all may go back to your classes." Ms. Shannon said with a smile.

===

Once everyone started to get up, James was the first to leave without saying anything to anyone. That earned another round of raised eyebrows from everyone. No one uttered a word, though, and one by one, they all got up and followed the other students exiting the building to return to their classes.

The Royal Academy hosts less than 400 students. Most of the students were affiliated with Royal families or from affluent backgrounds.

Given this, the Royal Academy would only accept the same number of students equivalent to those who graduated or transferred to another school every year.

It was the first time they made an exception for James and Jeffrey where they let them enroll after the school had already started.

However, without the recommendation of the King and the Queen of Stonasia, the Royal Academy would not accept them no matter what.

While they were walking towards their classes, all the students couldn't help themselves. All of them were excited about the upcoming Gala, especially the girls. However, none of them have laid eyes on the Crown Prince of Stonasia. He had been studying abroad and just recently returned.

Everyone was curious about him, including the three girls and Lady Crystal.

===

The days went by very quickly, and three months passed by just like that. James never joined them again for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Since he lived outside of the Royal Academy, he would eat his breakfast before he came to school. For lunch, he would eat by himself on the rooftop of one of the buildings. And for dinner, he ate at his apartment alone.

Akira was never close to James. So she never bothered him all this time. She also didn't want anyone to find out about their relationship.

When James didn't show up for lunch the first day, they took it upon themselves to think that he didn't want to have anything to do with them since they were all just teenagers and he was much older, already a young man who was almost 18 years old.

However, Prince Edmund liked that James was staying away. He also wished that Jeffrey would do the same so that he could have all of the girls' attention without any competition. But, unfortunately, he wasn't that lucky. Day in and day out, Jeffrey was constantly around the girls. Especially around Ava, he was always clinging to her. He hated him for that, but there was nothing he could do.

Ava had been pondering if she should find James and ask him if he was the big brother she had been playing games with. Also, she had been trying to find out more information regarding James and Ashton from Akira.

However, Akira was quick to evade her questions each time. She had been using the excuse that she had a deadline or had been shutting herself in her room whenever they arrived at the villa. So there was nothing Ava could do but to leave her alone.

===

Every day after school, since James had arrived, he would log in to check if Ava would log in too. Unfortunately, Ava had made a firm decision that she would never play video games ever again and deleted the gaming apps from her computer and all other gadgets. Instead, she had been occupying her time with studying hard so she could advance faster in her class.

During her free time, Jeffrey spent his time with her at the villa, hoping to get a glimpse of Akira, who had been hiding inside of her room so often.

Akira did come out occasionally to talk with them and have a few conversations. Still, whenever they would start to ask questions about her relationship with James and Ashton, she would run away as fast as possible to evade answering. Ava finally gave up and promised never to ask again, so Akira started hanging out with them again.

Pearl was so busy with her blogs and live streaming on top of school work that she hardly ever came out of her room. However, she had been constantly in touch with the EXODUS members more than Akira and Ava. Although they were all in the same chat group, Ava and Akira never logged on to check.

Ashton had been chatting privately with Pearl but always evaded the conversation when talking about James and Ava.. As much as he wanted to know what was going on with Ava, he wasn't interested in hearing James and Ava in the same sentence.