The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 68

But suddenly my eyes lock on a figure across the room and I go very still in shock before I suddenly burst out laughing, realizing that I’m looking at myself in the mirror on the far wall.

“What?” Jesse asks, coming to my side.

“Seriously?” I say, grinning at myself as I turn a little, observing my plain face with no makeup, my hair tucked expertly up below my cap, my baggy fatigues. “That’s what I look like?”

Jesse frowns at me for a second and then looks across the room like I’m doing, his face bursting into a grin as he sees my reflection there too. He laughs. “Yup! You look good, Shrimpy!”

“No wonder no one takes me seriously,” I murmur. Because honestly, I do look like a boy, but I’m sure that I’m the smallest, wimpiest, most pink-cheeked little guy that’s ever walked through these doors.

“Don’t worry,” a girl’s voice says, and I go still when I hear it, turning towards it in shock as she laughs a little too and waves me forward. I mean, it’s not like I recognize the voice or anything – it’s just…a girl. “A lot of guys have that reaction when they see themselves for the first time in candidate grey after two weeks,” she says, smiling at me.

She nods to the round platform in front of which she kneels on a little ottoman. “Come forward,” she says. “I’ll take your measurements, and we’ll have you looking dashing in a custom uniform before you know it.”

I hesitate, realizing suddenly that this young woman – she wants to touch my body, to figure out the precise dimensions of my form. And while my baggy candidate uniform conceals everything about my slight figure…

She is going to have access to some details I don’t want anyone to have.

The girl shrugs. “No worries, if you’re shy, I can take someone else first –“

I glance quickly where Rafe and Jesse are already standing on platforms, but when I see that their tailors are older men…

“I’ll go,” Luca says, starting to walk past me and flashing his charming smile at the girl tailor, who is probably just about my age. “Hi, my name is Luca, it’s lovely to meet you –“

“Hey, no cutting,” Ben says as I squeak a little, realizing I’m losing my chance to be measured by the only girl here. Luca falls back a step as Ben grabs him by the sleeve. “Let Ari go first, cheater.”

“I was called before Ari,” Luca protests, but I scurry forward and Luca just laughs, letting me.

Almost shaking with anxiety, because this could go very wrong, I step onto the platform.

“Congratulations,” the girl says, smiling up at me. “Can you tell me your name for the list?”

I do so, and she makes a note on the pad next to her before reaching for her measuring tape.

“Um,” I say, looking anxiously at my brother and cousin for help, but they’re talking to each other and have apparently forgotten all about me. “Listen, you don’t really have to take measurements for me, you can just…give me a uniform the same size as this one that I’m laughing.”

Unfortunately, the girl just laughs as she reaches forward, starting to measure the length of my leg from my hip to the floor. “Cadet Clark, you are swimming in this uniform. Don’t worry – we’ll get you suited up very nicely – sharp and trim!”

“No, really,” I protest, taking a step forward as she stands and moves behind me, tugging the pack from my back even as I try to cling to it. “Honestly, I prefer to be…unfitted…” She scolds me good naturedly for being so shy before measuring the width of my shoulders and then the length from the name of my neck to my lower back.

I jump a little as her hand grazes the top of my butt, but she just laughs at me again, going on with her work, and suddenly her hands appear in front of me as she passes the tape from one hand to the other, starting to loop it around my chest.

“No, please,” I whisper, begging and doing my best to spin around.

But the girl, she just keeps going. “What, are you ticklish?” she laughs, her words kind and teasing as her hands move lightning-fast in a practiced manner, tightening the tape first around my chest, and then my waist, and then my hips.

I hold my breath as her hands go still and she raises her head, her eyes slowly meeting mine as she considers the particular ratio of my dimensions.