Player's Princess (A Royal Sports Romance)
Abigail Graham
Chapter One
Ana
I draw my hood down to hide deeper within its depths. My nerves are afire. We have never done anything this risky before. Nervously, I scan the crowd, expecting to be recognized.
A football game.
My best—that is, only—friend, Deidre, sits beside me on the bleachers. So far, Dee has been the only person to reach out to me despite this being my second year on campus.
She's the one who talked me into this.
I have no idea what's going on. As far as I can tell, there's just a group of men standing in the middle of a great rectangular field. I know enough to tell who is on what team. The Honey Badgers wear brown with gold lettering. The Knights, "our" team, wear yellow with blue lettering.
They flip a coin, then leave.
I haven't seen a ball yet, much less what this has to do with feet.
"What's happening?" I whisper to Dee.
In answer, she passes me a cheese dog. I hold it in both hands in its little paper boat, a greasy sausage covered in alleged cheese on a thick, crusty bun.
"Where is my fork?"
Dee snickers. "Your what?"
"My fork and knife. How can I eat this without utensils?"
By way of demonstration, she lifts hers and bites off the end, then gulps it down. Despite the roll, she still gets cheese and chili on her hands.
I glance down at mine and gingerly lift it, flinching when warm, gooey cheese touches my skin.
When I look up, the players have taken the field. The Knights have placed the ball on a tee. One man holds it while another dashes across the field, ignoring the oncoming rush of opposing players.
He kicks the ball and it goes soaring away.
"Why did he kick the ball away? I thought they were supposed to get the ball."
"They are. They have to get it back from the other team. The Knights lost the coin toss, so the other team got to pick. They want the ball first."
The ball lands and bounces crazily in different directions before one of the brown-wearing players grabs it and runs hard across the field. My head turns to follow him, until a Knight rams into him and knocks them both off their feet.
"They're trying to get the ball into the end zone," Dee explains. "The Knights want to get the ball back and run it into the other end zone."
I take a bite of the cheese dog while the players set up again. It leaves a smear of warm, sticky cheese on my lips. I sink into my seat, growing more anxious by the moment. I'm going to be recognized, I just know it. We pushed it too far this time.
As I dab "cheese" from my mouth, the next play unfolds. The Honey Badgers push deeper toward the end zone, carrying the ball farther with every play. There was a drizzling rain earlier and the field is slick and slippery, and a wind kicks up, as if it wants to push the ball a little farther.
The Badgers finally make it to the end zone, and there is much booing and shouting, much of it from my friend Dee.
"You shitball cocksuckers," she screams, standing in her seat. "Get your ass back to Baltimore!"
There is a traditional rivalry between the De la Warr Knights and the Rochester State Honey Badgers. I'm not sure what that means, except both teams and fans fervently hate each other for no readily apparent reason. The Honey Badger visiting fans cheer from the far side of the field.
Dee slumps down next to me. "We're off to a bad start."
"Why?"
"They're six points ahead. It'll be seven in a minute. They have to kick an extra point."
"That doesn't seem very fair," I observe.
The teams line up again, and the Honey Badger kicker easily sends the ball through the squared posts at the end of the field. I finish my cheese dog and lean back to eat the nachos Dee bought me. This is a lot of cheese. I have to eat everything with my fingers as well. It seems odd.
The Honey Badgers kick the ball back to the Knights, and it starts again. They make it only to the thirty-five yard line before they're stopped, still having another sixty-five to traverse to reach the goal.
The Knights line the field on our side of the stadium. One of them turns to face our way and scans the crowd idly. He looks ill at ease but unconcerned with us.
Until he sees me.
He's tall, made bulky by the oversized pads that swell his shoulders, but with his helmet off he's quite handsome, with an open, friendly face, bright eyes, and reddish-brown hair.
He's also looking right at me.
I slink down in the seat and tilt my head, trying to hide under my hood. The hoodie I borrowed from Dee makes me into shapeless blob.
He was looking into my eyes, I swear it. He saw me.
"Dee, he saw me," I whisper.
"Stay calm, just act natural. Eat casually. Everything's fine. We're all friends here."
"If I get caught—"
"If I get caught, If I get caught," she parrots. "Calm down. What are they going to do, send you to princess jail?"
I sigh. I like Dee, but she assumes, the same as everyone else, that it's easy.
Being a princess, I mean.
Princess Anastasia Carolien Jacobina Katrien de Vries, Princess of Jyvaslka, Duchess of Karin. Foreign exchange student.
That's me.