"Not yet," admitted Mrs. Gray. "It seems to be quite random. Oh good heavens, that was quick."
The Mohawk-haired couple was coming back through the diamond archway, their shoulders slumped and minus the pink pony.
"Calling number 4948! Calling number 4948!"
Everybody craned their heads to see who was next and suddenly both Mrs. Gray and Ardy grabbed Nicola's arms and pointed at her forehead.
"That's you!"
CHAPTER 14
Nicola walked quickly through the diamond archway. She had a feeling the princess might be impatient and she didn't want to waste a single second of her appointment. Her hands were sticky with sweat, and the gift-wrapping around the globe stuck to her hands.
This is it, she thought to herself, and was surprised to feel a cool, calm feeling drop onto her shoulders like a soft silk cloak. Everything was going to be okay.Yep, Nicola Berry was going to save the world.
She walked down a very long narrow hallway lined with pictures of the royal family.There was no time to stop and look, but she did notice that there was one girl about her own age who appeared in most of the pictures. She wasn't smiling in a single one.
At the end of the hallway there was another diamond archway, and Nicola could see a room with an imposing golden throne.There was a long red carpet leading up to it.
Nicola walked along the carpet toward the throne expecting to see the princess sitting in it, but as she got closer, she realized it was empty.
Now what? Where was the princess?
She looked around and saw that in the back corner of the room there was a big four-poster bed with gorgeous purple drapes. It was just the sort of bed that Nicola had always wanted.
She could hear a familiar tinny sound--what was it? For some reason it reminded her of her brother, Sean.
As she neared the bed, she worked it out. It was the sound of someone listening to very loud music through headphones. Sean had gotten an iPod for his last birthday and he spent hours sprawled on his bed listening to it.
Sure enough, there was a girl wearing a satin ball gown and headphones lying facedown on the bed.
It wasn't a very regal way for a princess to behave.
"Ahem," Nicola coughed politely.
The girl didn't move.
"AHEM!" Nicola coughed again. "AHEM! AHEM! AHEM!"
She was almost choking from trying to cough so loud.
Nothing.
"Princess Petronella? Excuse me, PRINCESS PETRONELLA?"
Was this how the princess dealt with all her requests and complaints? She just lay on her bed, listening to music and ignoring them?
Nicola wasn't going to put up with that. She did exactly what she did to Sean whenever her mom told her to go and tell him that dinner was ready.
She grabbed the back of the princess's leg and squeezed, though admittedly not quite as hard as she squeezed Sean's leg.
"HUH?!"
The princess flipped over and sat up, pushing her headphones down to her shoulders.
"How DARE you!"
Of course she was very tall, but apart from that she looked like an ordinary girl. She had red curly hair done up in a bun, a silver tiara, about the same number of freckles as Nicola, and a sulky, turned-down mouth.