Jaya spent another fifteen minutes fruitlessly searching for the missing ruby under the bench. Where had it gone? Rubies didn’t just disappear. Appa was going to be angry. She’d have to have it replaced before she saw him again.

Sighing, Jaya made her way back around the building, to the stairs.

Jaya walked up to the senior wing again after texting Isha that she was ready to eat. Inspired by Daphne Elizabeth, she went to her room to unpack while she waited. She stood undecided for a moment, looking at herself in the mirror. The necklace hung at her throat, its one empty socket mocking her. Should she put it away in her drawer to keep it safe until she could get the ruby replaced? Jaya stroked it. It was a reminder of home, a reminder of happier times. She didn’t want to part with it yet. She’d just have to be more careful. Nodding firmly to herself, Jaya walked to her suitcase. But before she’d even begun unpacking it, there was a knock on the half-open door. Jaya turned to see a girl with peach-pink cheeks and long blond hair in a braid leaning through the doorway and staring at her unabashedly.

“G’day,” the girl said in an Australian accent. “I’m Penelope Grant, your neighbor in 303.” She pointed her thumb to her right.

“Oh, hello! It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Jaya Rao.”

“I know,” Penelope breathed, baby-blue eyes wide. “I heard that you’re a… princess?”

Daphne Elizabeth wasn’t joking; gossip and rumors really did seem to fuel St. Rosetta’s. Jaya had been here all of three hours. “It’s nice to meet you,” Jaya said with a modest smile.

Penelope walked in and sat at the edge of Jaya’s bed, still looking up at her in awe. “I’m Australian, so say the words ‘royal family’ and I’m rapt.”

Jaya laughed.

“Oh,” Penelope said, her smiled fading a bit as her eyes widened. “That is an exquisite pendant. I’ve never seen anything like those rubies.”

“Thank you,” Jaya said, caressing it very gently, in case any of the other rubies were loose. “My father—”

She was interrupted by a piercing squeal ringing out from somewhere down the hallway. She and Penelope looked at each other for a moment before rushing out to follow the screeching.

The door to room 315 stood wide open. A beautiful dark-haired girl dressed in a stunning emerald-green ball gown was twirling in the center of the room. Two others, both more pale-skinned than her, sat on her bed, watching her with slack-jawed admiration.

“I can’t believe Daddy did this!” the girl gushed in a smoky, Italian-accented voice. Tossing a phone to one of her friends, she said, “Take my picture so I can send it to Alaric. I want to make him drool a little.” She laughed throatily as she twirled.