Part One
Chapter 1. Endless summer
- Oh, my God! Andri, when are you gonna grow up? - The old Antonia generously soaked a piece of cotton wool with iodine solution and ruthlessly carried it over her broken knee. - You're thirteen now, and you're acting like an underage gymnast!
Andri smiled. He was actually a gymnasium student, though not a little one anymore, and even in the gymnasium more than a month after the holidays began. He also knew that the nurse loved him more than all the other children of the professor and grumbles only because she was really tired of getting the iodine jar.
- I'll tell my father to take away this cursed ride from you! - Antonia smeared a lot of abrasions and looked angrily at the pupil, expecting that he would be able to learn at least a little. But Andri continued to smile, even the pain in his knee did not spoil his rainbow mood...
When you are on a scooter through the alleys of the park, the wind throws back the hair to the shoulders and the sunsets in the eyes of thousands of playful bunnies. The wheels of the scooter are blurred on the conscience, and the paths are so flat... It seems as if you are not rolling, but sliding on the ice.
What can be more beautiful than this feeling of boundless freedom?
And how can you explain such an old Antonia, who always walks in strict dresses and stabs her hair in a constant gray knot?
Andrew sighed and sneaked his tongue to the nurse as she stood with her back, putting cotton and iodine in the buffet.
Yeah, well, he was thirteen.
A lot...
Only a year more - and will give in the art academy. And there - goodbye childhood! Farewell to the scooter, games until the night and... meetings with Alexander.
Alexander!
Andrew snapped off his chair, where he was seated by his nanny, and rushed into the living room, where there were big hours with a pendulum.
It's already five! The crew from the palace, of course, has been waiting for a long time at the front desk and waiting!
- Andri, where are you going?! - Antonia's outraged voice was left behind somewhere. Swearing her own sluggishness, iodine, and babysitter, Andrew ran to his room and opened the cabinet doors.
Here... Somewhere here... Yeah, here they are!
He ripped off his hangers, ironed out his elegant trousers, a beautiful white shirt, and threw off his children's sailor's suit, and hastily began to change.
What a bummer! I remembered all day! I waited so long for this meeting!
-Andri! - Antony appeared on the doorstep of his bedroom. - Don't tell me you have a meeting with the Emperor's son today! - Of course, she noticed both the front pants and the desperate attempts of the pupil to brush his hair. - Shame on you, boy! In this form to the palace! With a broken knee, unwashed! Come on, now! - With unexpected dexterity, she grabbed Andri by the ear and unceremoniously twisted it. - Of course, they were dirty! To the bathroom! Quickly! - The nanny's grip, despite her age, was iron...
- I will be late! - Andri cried out. - The coachman is waiting already!
- And it's a done deal. The heir will kick you out, you will know how to fool around! - Antonia put his head under the faucet and quickly soaped his head.
- Ow! - Andri didn't have time to close his eyes, and the caustic water got into them immediately. - It tweaked, didn't it?
But the nurse did not listen to him. In a few seconds, she washed her ears and hair and her skinny boyish neck with her rapid movements. Andri didn't even have time to get angry, and he had already been rubbed with a towel and brushed with a scratchy comb.
- If you try again to go to the Imperial Palace so sloppy, I will pull you out! - Antony promised Antony in the back washed up to the crystal-clear Andrew, who was already standing in the hallway and sticking his feet in the lacquered shoes.
Old Mega!
Of course, Andri knew that she was right, but before the meeting with Alexander was less than a quarter of an hour, and the palace still needs to get to the crowded avenue!
He picked up his cap and, without closing the door behind him, flew to the stairwell. He was still being followed by indignant screams...
The steps were freezing under his feet, and he was jumping over two, with almost no look down. The carpet on the wide front staircase absorbed all the sounds, and Andrew seemed as if he was flying silently...
- The evening is good... - The doorman muttered at random, and the quick-legged boy passed by. Andri just nodded back at him and jumped out into the street.
Here comes the crew with a friendly coachman! Sitting on the light, the man in the palace liver talked about something with a woman in a scarf passing by and a basket full of buns. Andri jumped on the seat from the run.
- Touch it!
Time had become a tight spring from the clock. She was shrinking and shrinking, and her heart was beating like a crazy pendulum in her chest.
On the wide table in the heir's study room could easily accommodate an army of tin soldiers. But Alexander, who was the favorite of the entire ALC court, knew that the strict mentors would not approve of it.
All except one thing...
Continuation in the next part 2.