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FIFTY-TWO

DANNI

“I’m so proud of you,” Mom says for the tenth time. “I’ve always been proud of you, you know that, honey. But gosh, you have gotten brave . My brave girl.”

Mom has been cleaning my room. She’s gone through and refolded all the clothes in my chest of drawers, and tidied the mess of papers on my desk, and made my bed so perfectly Harriet would be proud. I love her, and I’m happy to see her, but I am just about ready for her to meet Rose and go home so I can have my space back.

I’m pretty sure I’m bright red right now. “Not that brave.”

“ Yeah that brave. How many times did you flunk an oral presentation in Boulder because you couldn’t speak in front of the class? Now look at you!” She looks me up and down, shaking her head. “I’ve had so many friends from home message these past few days. They’re proud of you, too. Oh, and the people online! They all love you. I saw one of those—what do you call it?” She snaps her fingers. “Articles on my newsfeed about you, and all the comments, oh. So many girls look up to you.”

“Really?” I ask. “It kind of feels like people hate me.”

“Yes, well, you’ve always been someone to listen much more closely to criticism than a compliment. You’re my reward-motivated, inspiring, very brave girl. And I— Oh, Danni, I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me the princess is your girlfriend.” If she’s told me she’s proud of me ten times, she’s said that about twenty thousand times. “I’m your mom . I wouldn’t have told anyone.”

“It’s not ‘the princess,’ Mom. It’s just Rose.”

“Yeah, but…” She gives me a wounded look. “Danni, this is important. You should’ve told me.”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell! Besides, my being bi was probably enough for you to process in one hit.”

“Well, that’s true,” she allows. “Finding out I’m the future mother-in-law to the future queen is kind of a bomb-drop of its own.”

“Please don’t call yourself her future mother-in-law when she gets here,” I say in despair.

“Of course I won’t, Danni. Why don’t you trust me not to embarrass you?”

“Because you’re always embarrassing me .”

“Name one time!”

I am about to do just that, when there’s a knock on my door. Finally, finally. I lunge for it, and let Rose in, throwing my arms around her as I do.

“Hey,” I babble. “Are you okay? What did they say? Did they say what happens now? Are you okay ?”

She extracts herself from my arms, laughing. “Hold on, one second, one second.” Straightening, she turns to Mom and holds out a hand. “Hi, I’m Rose.”

Mom pulls Rose into a tight hug, and Rose lets out an oof as she does. “Hi, Rose,” she says. “It’s just wonderful to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, too,” Rose says. She’s giving my mom a toothy grin, so wide her chin is dimpling. She catches me looking at her, and her eyebrows go up, like she’s asking if I can believe she’s meeting my mom—my mom, who knows about us. Honestly, I’m not sure I can.

“Your parents?” I nudge her, and she snaps out of her happy bubble.

“Yes.” She searches for the words, but she doesn’t seem to find them. In the end she just sighs and shakes her head. “It’ll be fine.”

Mom might not know Rose at all, but like that’s ever stopped her from giving an opinion. “I watched your speech online,” she says in a serious voice. “You did very well. It can be hard to be a good parent when your child does something you don’t think is right for them. They just want you to be happy. When they realize this is what you really want, they will be so proud of you. Anyone would be lucky to have a daughter like you.”

Rose looks touched, but a little pensive. “Thank you.”

Well, as much as I’m enjoying their meeting, I’m dying to talk to Rose one-on-one. We haven’t had a chance to all day, and it’s been a hell of a day. So, I start shoving Mom out of the room, as warmly and lovingly as I can. She goes, but not before making Rose promise to come over for dinner during the break. And making her promise to look after me. And giving her her number, while making her promise to contact her if I ever need her and I’m too stubborn to reach out. By the time she finally leaves, I’m feeling less like Rose is my girlfriend, and more like she’s my mom’s spy on the inside.

Finally, we’re alone. Rose basically melts into a puddle as soon as the door’s closed, leaning her whole body weight against my desk and linking her fingers behind her neck.

“Well,” she says. “Today’s a very different day than yesterday.”

“That’s one way to put it,” I say, leaning against the door as a barricade, like Mom’s gonna try to burst back in any second to keep making Rose promise stuff. “Do you know if Alfie’s seen it all yet?” I ask, and she winces.

“Right. I forgot to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Hmm. Well, to summarize, he’s the one who outed us to my family last year, he ignited the online rumors, and he leaked the video of you and Harriet, so he could get his mother to expel you… so he and William could convince me to marry him.”

It’s just about the last thing I expected her to say. “What?”

“I know.”

“No, seriously, what ?”

Rose touches her fingertips to her lips. “Alfie,” she says, “doesn’t matter anymore. You matter. And I’ve been meaning to ask you, what would you like to do with the press? Regarding us?”

At first, I don’t understand what she’s asking me. Then, it clicks, and I forget all about Alfie. “You mean, you’d be okay with telling them about us?” I ask.

“Danni, I have been wanting to stand on a podium and scream it to everybody who will listen since day one. If I could have, I would have. And now I can. But if we tell them about us, you will be a part of this. There will be more attention. Those photographers at the ice rink, and at the palace? They will become a part of your daily life. Bramppath is a bubble, but we won’t be here forever.” She takes my hands. “If you don’t want that, I understand. We can spin a story. If we do tell the world, there will be hate, and some of it will be directed at you. Some people will be furious about us.”

So much has changed. Gradually, so gradually I barely noticed it happen, my anonymity has been slipping away. I’m not who I was when I first arrived here. I’m the person who can play piano to a crowded room, and a person who the paparazzi know by name, and a person who has stood in front of the country and revealed some of the most private parts of myself. I’m somebody strangers do double-takes at on the street. I’m somebody they write essays about online. And, yeah, I’m somebody lots of strangers hate. But I think I’m also somebody even more strangers kind of like. I’m Danni Blythe, and I’m a future concert pianist, and Rose’s current girlfriend, and I’m still a student at Bramppath College because I stopped fearing the idea that people might perceive me.

Who knows? If Rose never gets tired of me, I could even be the queen consort one day. If they let her become queen, that is. And if they don’t, maybe a future version of me could be the wife of Rose the not-queen.

There’s nothing scary about any of that to me. Not anymore. The only thing I feel is excited to get started.

To take the next step forward.

I walk behind Rose to drape my arms around her shoulders. “I know what being with you publicly would mean,” I tell her. “And we’ve already been over this.”

She grabs my hands and presses them against her chest, squeezing them. “We have?”

“Yeah. You can’t give me simple. But you can give me you. And you’re what I want. No more hiding. No more lies. We’ve done plenty of that for one lifetime.”

The corner of her mouth lifts. “Well, the reporters are still outside. And the headmaster hasn’t thought to forbid me from speaking to them yet, so technically we’re not breaking any rules if we go out there.”

A thrill sparks in my chest. “So?” I ask.

She unravels herself from my grip, then holds a hand out to me. “So,” she says. “Shall we go out and introduce ourselves?”