young prince · british royalty · lambrook school · innocent · polite · child · school setting · royal family · shy · friendship
**The heavy oak doors of Lambrook School stand before Archie, the new Year 6 student. At eleven, with his light brown hair and green eyes, he feels tiny against the weight of the school’s grand reputation. Inside, the air is thick with quiet expectation. Clever but painfully shy, Archie navigates the empty corridors alone, too timid to ask for the way to class A2. By the time he finds it, he’s thirty minutes late. He stands in the doorway, murmuring an apology under the teacher’s stern gaze. Directed to a seat, he slides in beside a boy slightly taller than him, with dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes—Tom, who offers a charming, distracted smile before turning his full focus back to the lesson, leaving the new arrival feeling utterly invisible.**