We Want To Go To School!

Princess Soph lifted her long dress up and very unladylike sat down
on the kitchen table. Mary gave her a disapproving glance, but since
Princess Soph was a princess, she did not say anything. Mary was the
cook and it was really not her place to teach the princess manners.
Princess Soph grinned at her, and when her act of defiance did not
result in a telling off, she climbed back down and sat on a chair. The
table was really not very comfortable.

"What are you doing in the kitchen, anyway?" Mary asked. "If you are
after a biscuit, I'm not allowed to give you one before lunch." "If you
don't I'll tell my Daddy," Princess Soph said. Mary turned around and
waved the cooking spoon at her. "It was your Daddy who told me not to
give you a biscuit in the first place!" She pretended to chase after
the princess to smack her with the spoon and Princess Soph squealed
with delight. "What are you playing?" Prince AJ asked. He stood in the
doorway and watched the chase. Mary caught Princess Soph and started
tickling her. "Tickling," Mary panted while Princess Soph screamed.
"Want to join in?"

Prince AJ shook his head. "I'm too old for tickling," he said.
"Besides, I'm the prince." Mary and Princess Soph stopped playing and
looked at each other. Then they burst out laughing. Mary went back to
the stove. "So, what are you two doing here?" she asked. Prince AJ
shrugged his shoulders. "I'm bored," he said. "Why don't you go and
play?" Mary asked while she was stirring. "Who with?" Prince AJ said.
"The only one I can play with is Princess Soph, and she can't even play
football." Princess Soph stuck her tongue out. "I don't want to play
football," she said. "I want to play with my Barbie dolls, but I don't
want to play with Prince AJ. He always puts my Barbie dolls on the
motorbike with his stupid action man, but they don't want to go on the
motorbike, they want to go shopping!" "But Action Man doesn't want to
go shopping," Prince AJ said and gave Princess Soph a little shove.
Princess Soph shoved him back and they would have ended up having a
proper little fight had Mary not separated them.

"I see your problem," she said. She got the biscuit jar from the top
shelf and put it on the table. Then she wiped her hands on her apron,
sat down at the table and helped herself to a biscuit. She chewed
slowly while she was thinking. Prince AJ and Princess Soph watched her
closely. "You need to make some friends," she said finally. Both Prince
AJ and Princess Soph sighed. "Don't you have any friends at
school?"

"We don't go to school," Prince AJ said. "Mr Higgins teaches us at
home, remember? We never go out." "Yes, and it's really cool," Princess
Soph said. "We don't have to wear school uniform, we don't have to
stand at the school gate when it rains, we don't have to get up early
in the morning because our school day doesn't start until 11, and
we&;#8230;" "We don't make any friends," Prince AJ finished the
sentence for her. "We don't play in the playground with other children,
we don't get to talk to them about how they did their homework or what
they watched on TV last night, we don't get to swap our lunch with
them," he glanced at Mary, but she pretended she hadn't heard, "and we
don't get to go to their houses to play or invite them to come
here."

Mary nodded. "There's your answer, then," she said. "Go to school!"
She got up and looked around as if she had just invented sliced bread
and waited for applause. Prince AJ and Princess Soph looked at each
other. "And how are we going to do that?" Prince AJ asked. "We are not
allowed to go to school." "Yes, we are not allowed to go to school,"
Princess Soph echoed which earned her another shove from Prince AJ. "So
speak to your father," Mary said and started stirring again. "He is the
king, isn't he? If he says it's okay then you can go to school."

She looked around just in time to see Prince AJ and Princess Soph run
out of the kitchen. She smiled.

"Father, Father!" Prince AJ shouted, running into the royal office.
The king was sitting on the throne resting his head in his hands,
thinking very hard about something very important. "Not now, children,"
he said but the prince and the princess paid no attention. "This is
really important, daddy," Princess Soph said as she climbed onto her
father's lap. The king sighed. "We want to go to school," Prince AJ
said. "Yes, we want to go to school," Princess Soph echoed and Prince
AJ tried to shove her which earned him a disapproving glance from his
father. The king frowned. "Why do you want to go to school?" he
asked.

"Because we haven't got any friends," Prince AJ explained and sounded
a little fed up that he had to spell it out. "Can't you two play
together?" the king asked. "NO!" both of them said at the same time. "I
want to do boy things and Princess Soph wants to do girl things,"
Prince AJ said. "But we don't know any other children we can play with.
Please, dad, please may we go to school?" "Yes, pleeeease," Princess
Soph said. The king realised that the two would never leave him alone
unless he agreed. "If you must," he said. Prince AJ made a fist and
punched the air. "Yes!" he said. Princess Soph looked at him and then
decided to copy him. This time he did not attempt to shove her. "Now
will you kindly leave me alone, I've got work to do," the king said.
Princess Soph planted a kiss on his cheek. "Bye, daddy," she
said.

"What does 'if you must' mean?" Princess Soph whispered to Prince AJ
as they were leaving the room. "It means yes," he whispered back. So it
was settled. The next day Prince AJ and Princess Soph went to school in
their brand new school uniforms. They played with the other children in
the playground, and at the weekend James came to visit Prince AJ and
Jodie came to visit Princess Soph in the palace. Mary provided the
biscuits. As she watched the prince and the princess play she decided
it was time to ask the king for a pay rise.