Prince Barnaby and Princess Agnetha live in Marbleglow Palace - right in the centre of Marbleglow - the Capital City of the Skylands.
They had both lived in the palace since they were children, and it had been the perfect place to grow up - with hundreds of rooms to explore, and huge kitchens and cellars, and a garden as big as a park.
But now that they were all grown up, they found they didn’t play at all. And that meant - they realized one breakfast time as the rain dribbled down the windows - that they were bored.
It had only been a few weeks since they had hosted their ball, when everyone from the Skylands and everyone from Horsmarlonerpool had filled the palace with laugher and song. The Prince and Princess missed having so many people around and didn’t have any royal engagements to distract them.
“I’ve got a splendid idea!” said Prince Barnaby to his sister. “We made so many friends amongst the children at BlueSky school - why don’t we pop down there today and pay them a visit?”
“Visit the school?” said Princess Agnetha, chewing royally on some toast. “Well… I suppose we should…”
An hour later, just as the first classes of the day were starting at Bluesky school, a large carriage pulled by four white horses pulled up at the gates. From his office, the headmaster, Mr Plumtie, coughed on his coffee, spilling some down his shirt, and stood up abruptly.
He ran down the corridor and opened the front door to the school just as the Prince and Princess were about to ring the bell.
“Your highnesses!” said Mr Plumtie.
“Good morning, Headmaster,” said Princess Agnetha. “My brother and I -
“Good morning!” said Prince Barnaby.
“My brother and I,” continued Princess Agnetha, “decided over breakfast that we might come down to the school to see our friends.”
“Oh. Right…” said the headmaster. “I see. It’s just that… everyone will be in class.”
“Oh how classy!” said the Prince.
“And we can see our friends?” said Princess Agnetha.
“Uh… Well,” said Mr Plumtie. “If you were just to wait here for two minutes, um, I think I might have an idea.”
Two minutes later, the headmaster returned with Scarlett and Cyrano.
“Oh, your Highnesses!” said Scarlett, happily.
“Scarlett!”
“Cyrano!” said the Prince and Princess, happily. “How super to see you again!”
“I thought,” said the headmaster, “that seeing as you all know each other, maybe Scarlett and Cyrano here could give you a tour of the whole school?”
“Oh, yes please!” said Prince Barnaby.
And so Scarlett and Cyrano led their surprise guests to the art room, and the gym, and the main hall, but after a while Scarlett said “Prince and Princess? If you really want to see our school, and really want to see everyone again, why not just join in our classes for the day?”
“That would be most agreeable!” said Princess Agnetha, excitedly.
“Absolutely top show!” said the Prince.
And so a quick walk down the corridor later, Scarlett and Cyrano led the two royals back into their classroom where their teacher, Mr Wiggins, was teaching Geography.
Mr Wiggins looked on nervously as Scarlett found the Prince and Princess two little seats, and they joined the other children at one of the three large round tables.
“Okay,” said Mr Wiggins. “We’re learning today about the coast. So, easy question, who knows the name of the sea that we here in Marbleglow live next to?”
Prince Barnaby’s hand shot up in the air!
“Um, yes, your highness” said Mr Wiggins.
“Is it the Wet Sea?” said the Prince.
“Um, no,” said Mr Wiggins.
Princess Agnetha put her hand up.
“Is it The Tremendous Sea?”
Scarlett looked at the two royals absolutely amazed.
“Scarlett,” said Mr Wiggins. “Perhaps you might know?”
“The Albion Sea,” said Scarlett.
“Yes,” said Mr Wiggins. “Thank you, Scarlett.” And the Prince and Princess applauded Scarlett wildly.
Well it turned out that the Prince and Princess didn’t really know anything about Geography. But the second lesson of the day was Art, and so the whole class - and their two special visitors - walked happily to the art room.
As every student in the class got out their projects and carefully continued work on their paintings of sea life, Prince Barnaby started painting the table (until Cyrano gave him some paper) and Princess Agnetha managed to cover her hands with so much glue and glitter that it looked like she was wearing gloves!
“It looks like I’m wearing gloves now, you see!” she commented happily to Scarlett.
Thankfully, after art came the first break of the day and Cyrano let the Prince and Princess out into the playground. Here, they were in their element: Dashing around - pretending to be aeroplanes - and all with all the friends they hadn’t seen since the ball.
After break came Maths, which… didn’t go so well, but that was at least followed by lunch. Scarlett wondered what a Prince and Princess would make of their Tuesday meal of fish fingers and baked beans? Prince Barnaby stared as his plate after we’d walked it back from the counter, and dubiously sliced the fish finger, spread some beans on top of the forkful, and lifted it to his mouth. Everyone watched… Even the headmaster watched.
The Prince chewed thoughtfully, swallowed his first mouthful, and then got up and ran into the kitchens where the cooks spun around in surprise.
“I demand the recipe!” he declared. “I demand you tell me the recipe to this astonishing dish!”
Well the afternoon classes did go without too much trouble, the Prince and Princess doing their absolute best in science and history (where they did at least remember the names of their grandparents…) and at the very end of the day Mr Wiggins told everyone their homework: To write one hundred words on ‘their favorite thing at the beach’.
That night, Prince Barnaby and Princess Agnetha sat in the royal library of Marbleglow Palace with stacks of paper and - by candlelight - attempted to complete their homework. And by seven o’clock in the morning, when most other people were waking up - they both smiled to each other, exhausted. They’d done it.
Mr Plumtie, the Headmaster, was astonished when, later that morning, a messenger from the palace arrived at the school gates with two scrolls tied in golden thread addressed to Mr Wiggins.
In their classroom, Mr Wiggins opened the scrolls and the rest of the pupils gathered around to look. Instead of writing a hundred words each about their favorite thing at the beach, both the Prince and Princess had drawn some shells and some sandcastles and the sea and - maybe that was a deckchair? - and then written words like ‘fun’ and ‘sunny’ over the top of the drawings one hundred times.
The messenger from the palace coughed politely. It was clear that the homework needed to be returned with their marks. Mr Wiggins looked worried.
“I’m not sure I know how to mark it..” he said.
But Scarlett smiled. “If you’d let me, Mr Wiggins…?” And took his big green marker pen and wrote ‘Very interesting work’ on each of the scrolls and returned them to the messenger.
“Well,” said Scarlett to Mr Wiggins. “They have to be good at something, don’t they?”
