Annoying visitors

Aria once again spent the rest of the day till lunch wickedly swamped with visitors.

"How on earth can they never get tired of hearing the same story over and over again." Aria muttered to herself and let out a small smile as one of her classmates left.

"Oh god no! I can swear she has already visited me once today." Aria almost exclaimed out loud when a girl with long black pigtails walked in, beaming from ear to ear. Aria had to give her one of her own smiles in return as she sat down.

"Oh my god! I cannot get over the fact how bandaged your face is!! Do you think these will leave scars? It's such a pity. You had such a beautiful face! You know, I have . . . . " the girl rambled on and Aria kind of guiltily zoned out. She hadn't wanted to, but the girl had been way too loud and Aria thought she was developing a headache.

Aria was lost in her own thoughts, wondering how she was going to convince Miss Anhao to let two people in at a time, and what was she going to say if and when they were actually allowed.

She was brought back to reality by a hand pulling on the bandages on her face. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?!?!" Aria thundered, which led to the girl jumping back a few feet in fear.

"I-I. . . I asked you if I could remove your bandages to see your face. And since you didn't say no . . . I . . " the girl trailed off and Aria sighed. Had the people seriously lost their minds? How could anyone on earth think it was okay to peel off a person's bandages when no one was allowed to touch them for fear of infection.

Luckily, Aria was spared the need for answering as Miss Anhao had rushed in the ward hearing Aria's shout and had heard enough of the girl's answer to get an idea about what had happened.

Miss Anhao, after rather pointedly asking the girl to leave, turned towards Aria with an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry my dear. I will make the rules regarding visiting more strict. Do you want me to set up some kind of railing so that people cannot reach you?"

Aria sighed and shook her head. As much as she would have liked that, it would just have increased Miss Anhao's work-load. Moreover, she didn't want to appear standoffish by not letting people close to her. That would just reinforce their suspicions about her being the Queen's daughter.

"No it's fine. The railing will be too much of a hassle." Aria replied with a sad sigh.

Miss Anhao nodded and said, "I wish there was something I could do to let in only people who are genuinely worried about you. But sadly, there's no way to tell."

Aria shook her head. "It's fine." she said, "It'll be better in a couple of days." She had been in these kinds of situations a lot of times. People were somehow always curious whenever she got injured. The first few days were the worst, everyone wanted to get a first-hand account of all that had happened. But the number of people visiting slowly got reduced as people's curiosity was fulfilled.