𝐷𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛. ʙʀɪᴛɪsʜ ʀᴏʏᴀʟ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ

19 ♔♕ 𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗮 𝗹𝗮 𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮

december 2004.

Bella had never been to America before.

She had always wanted to go, always heard lots of stories about it, but had yet to visit. Why would she have? At eighteen and one month she still wasn't even fully legal over there which had almost been enough to stop her from coming. Almost.

She was over there to take part in a charity showjumping competition. But she had managed to wangle it so that her and her friends flew out on the Wednesday, the event was on the Friday and then they flew back late Monday night. A nice long weekend which probably wasn't high on the suggested list for a 9 hour flight to Florida.

Still, there wasn't much else they could do. And so on the Wednesday Bella picked up her friends and then they were all driven to Heathrow. Accompanied of course by two protection officers (one more than normal) which had been the compromise she had made with her father for being allowed to go.

They got on the flight last so they wouldn't be seen and spent the 9 hours sleeping, chatting, eating, watching films. It was all working wonderfully until they were in the queue for passport control. Bella was taken to the diplomat entrance, and naturally, her friends followed. However, they couldn't go through there so they then had to go all the way back to the other queue for the normal passport control and wait there. It all caused quite a commotion, with some airport staff not being quite as discreet as Bella had hoped or her PO's had asked.

Thankfully, they all managed to get through, not without someone taking a picture of Bella waiting for her friends though. No, that immediately got sent off to a newspaper and by the time they were settled in their rooms, the hotel was swarmed with paparazzi.

"Bloody paps." Bella scowled as she lent on the windowsill, watching as they tried to push their way further into the hotel. She mentally thanked whoever had put them in these rooms though. Despite how much they tried, the paparazzi couldn't get any closer than the front gates of the hotel. A sight that definitely made Bella smile.

"Sorry." She frowned as she threw herself onto the bed, messing up the pile of clothing that Rose had started to form from her suitcase.

"Don't worry about the paps." Rose quickly replied, tutting as she pushed Bella onto her side to reach the clothes she had trapped underneath her, "you can worry about all my clothes you just trampled though."

"Oh." Bella sighed, rolling over further so she was laid on her front, propped up on her elbows, "I'm afraid I still don't know how to iron though."

"Well that makes two of us." Rose replied, giggling as she called out to Harriet and Millie who were in the adjoining room, "please tell me you two know how to iron?"

♔♕

wednesday

They spent Wednesday battling the jet lag.

Harriet had it the worse having never flown long-haul before. She ended up laying in bed with all the pillows over her head so she could try to sleep.

Rose was okay in comparison but took full advantage  of being able to lounge around in bed, leaving just Bella and Millie the only ones up and about.

They ended up on the balcony playing cards. Spice Girls was playing in the background from the TV, whilst the two of them chatted about the event on Friday.

Millie had been riding as long as Bella and, if the girls hadn't been such good friends, would have been a fierce competitor for her. As it was, they worked together, sharing tips and helping each other out.