THE STINKY PRINCESS RETURNS

Mum's quick footsteps came through into the living room, "Oh, Sam! Good you're here."

I guess Dad had tag-teamed her over the mindlink. Dad was being very careful today.

And then she stopped and wrinkled her nose at me, "Oh, Sam! Wherever have you been running now?"

She looked me up and down to my mostly white sneakers. I looked down too. They weren't that bad, like I've come home in worse, but I couldn't help remembering that they were brand new when I left the house this morning.

Ki took off his apron and knelt down in front of me. He rested the apron on his knee. I immediately recognized the Lorent gesture and quickly bent over to pull off my sneakers.

There was no way I was going to let Ki clean my shoe on his knee. Ki got the hint and stood up again, but not without holding out his white apron to receive the shoes, "Please allow me, goddess."

He actually made it look like he WANTED me to place my mud clad shoes into his clean apron. I looked from the shoes to the apron.

Of course, I hesitated. What kind of jerk would do that?

Wolfgang, on the other hand, took the shoes from me and plopped it smack into Ki's apron, "No time to dally, princess. Please excuse us, Luna. We will return in a moment."

"Oh." Mum said. I was sure she saw the clean apron being wrapped around the muddy shoes, but she managed a smile, "Thank you, Sir Wolfgang."

She frowned a little when she looked back to me though, "Are you alright, Sam? You look a little tired."

"I'm fine." I automatically gave Mum my wide smile, "Maybe I could do with a quick shower though."

I think I must have looked more tapped out than I realized because Mum only nodded, "Sure. Take your time."

Ki pushed the bundle of apron and sneakers into Fluffy's arms and I was swept off, out through the hallway, presumably to my room, Fluffy following behind us, cradling the bundle in his arms like it was a newborn puppy.

So this was what it felt like to be a pampered princess. There was a part of me that found the entire situation ridiculous. Here I was, in my own home, followed by a Lorent Beta, a Fire Wolf tutor, and a Colored Mountain Prince cradling a bundle of shoes. But I couldn't find it in me to laugh because there was also another part of me plagued with complicated feelings.

Like guilt, and horror, and disappointment in what I had become. I felt really bad. I had never thought myself as a pampered or spoilt princess. And on the rare occasion that someone accused me of being such, I would immediately dismiss it.

But having heard Ben, and Bell, and Dad, and Beta Lucas... Pretty much all the leading men in my life agree that I was... That was kind of shocking. It wasn't even a before-Ki and after-Ki thing. They sounded like I was spoiled from Day 1.

It was like waking up to find myself exactly the kind of person I never wanted to be.

There must be some mistake!

Just as we passed the main stairs, I sidestepped my minders and made a dash up. I banged on Savy's door and barged in without waiting, "Savy! I need to talk to you!"

Luckily, none of the guys followed me up the second floor of the main house.

Savy was on her bed, surrounded by a wall of manga, her noise cancelling earphones were on, but she pulled them down and wrinkled her nose at me, "Where have you been, Sam?"

Savy was growing a lot into Mum's likeness, but I had no time to unpack that.

"Would you say I was a spoilt princess?" I asked.

"What are you talking about?" Savy asked. She got out of bed and pushed me towards her bathroom, "Go shower. You're stinking up my room."

I wasn't that bad!

"Am I a spoilt princess or not?" I demanded even as I was shoved into the bathroom.

"You're a stinky princess." Savy answered and shut me in the bathroom.

I looked about. Savy's bathroom was quite similar to mine... but her shower stall was double the size of mine and she didn't have a tub.

"You have no tub!" I yelled.

"I didn't want a tub!" She yelled back.

I sulked and started stripping for the shower.

Gasp! Was this a sign that I was really a spoilt princess after all? Like bubblebath-loving Oscar?

I could never respect the young beta of Night Forest because of such stories from my cousins. But could it be that I was no better?

I took my shower accompanied by Savy's citrus scented shampoo and soap, got out, wrapped up, and stormed back out into my sister's room, "So tell me straight. Am I a spoiled princess or not?"

Savy pointed to clothes on the dresser, "Ki just delivered these for you."

Eh, I hadn't even heard him come in. It was a good thing I hadn't stormed out any earlier. I grabbed them, noticing the distinct lemon scent of my stuff, and then I stormed back into the bathroom to get dressed.

"I don't care! I'm gonna style you!" Savy shouted after me, "Ki said I could!"

My new change of clothes was a cream pair of tailored slacks and white t-shirt topped with a light grey cowl neck sweater.

It was one of those classy casual ensembles again, which was Ki's idea of what a goddess wore at home. This included a pair of Lorent princess heels because godesses have no need for practical footwear.

Savy was fingering her blue stone pendent as she considered the velvet tray of accessories. River's heart stone. I touched my own red one which I kept inside my clothes.

Was it weird that she ended up with the guy with the blue heartstone, while I ended up with the guy with the red heartstone? Was it weird that the both of us ended up with mates who had heartstones?

What were the chances?

"It's so weird." Savy said, but she was focused on the accessories Ki had provided, "Ki gave you such grown up clothes..."

Yes, I did feel very mature in my outfit.

"But the accessories are so cute." Savy shrugged, "Oh well, maybe he wanted to balance it out."

"It's cos Mum told him to keep it young looking." I told Savy, "Mum wants me to dress my age."

Savy shrugged and held up my anti-dream travel diadem, "Mum also wants you to wear this. She says you looked drop dead tired and Dad says you absolutely cannot slip out of sight tonight."

Now Savy narrowed her eyes at me, "What on earth did you get yourself into now?"

"Nothing!" I crossed my arms to sulk, "Dad's just over-reacting."

"Yeah, right." Savy scoffed lightly, "You come back smelling like Ben and Jonah on a bad day..."

"That's because I was running with Ben and Jonah." I argued.

"Now I know you've definitely been running into trouble." Savy was smugly confident.

Okay, so I smelled like a combination of Rogue Graveyard and Ammo Storage and detention facilities among other things - but that didn't necessarily mean I was getting into trouble!

Savy took out some kind of appliance to work on my hair. She curled the ends making my hair look like ribbons.

"Here, put it on." Savy handed me the diadem.

I put in on without protest. I yawned. I WAS kind of sleepy. I think I woke up too early this morning.

Savy used a white bow under my hair to fasten the diadem. It was very pretty. Then she decided on a chunky white plastic necklace with a gold and white heart pendant.

She stepped back to check out the final effect, "It's nice. Not my style, but I can see what Ki's going for."

"Is it by any chance the pampered princess look?" I asked sourly.

Savy laughed, "What weird thing are you going on about now?"

"It's not a weird thing." I protested, "Everyone says I'm a spoiled princess."

"Who told you that?" Savy asked.

"Everyone." I repeated.

Savy shook her head, "Oh, Sam. You're not spoiled."

"Just pampered?" I groused. To-may-toe, to-mah-toe.

Savy laughed and shook her head, "If you're a spoiled princess, then what does that make me? Or Lizzy?"

And then she shook her head again, "Sam, if you think you're a spoilt princess, you definitely haven't met one yet."

I felt my brow crinkle as I tried to recall.

"Actually, you know Haylee." Savy pointed out. She made a face, "Now that's a spoilt princess."

Harvey's sister?

"I thought you were friends? Didn't the three of you start a manga club or something?" I asked.

Savy shrugged, "Yes, so I would know first hand how Haylee is spoiled rotten."

"Actually, Angela too." Savy said matter of factly.

I shook my head, "Angela's not spoiled!"

I tried to think of the right adjective to describe Angela, "She's strong-willed. She just doesn't know how to take no for an answer."

Angela had said so herself. I thought that was really admirable.

"That's because nobody taught her how." Savy cackled and I realized how much I had missed that sound.

"Okay. You're done. Go downstairs. Mum's waiting for you." Savy dusted her hands after a final adjustment of the bow in my hair.

She opened the door for me, "Shoo shoo... I have club work to do."

I.e. she was going back to reading her manga.

Next thing I knew, I was standing unceremoniously outside her shut door. Oh well, with no where really to go, I headed down the stairs.

I guess no matter how spoiled or pampered you are, there will always be someone more spoiled and pampered than you.