Fed up with their strong-headed, rebellious son, the King and Queen of the Kingdom of Terrigal come up with a plan for him to settle down by sending invitations to all the eligible young women of the land, to contest for his love, much to the Prince...
The task that Queen Sofia organised for the contestants took half the day to do. It was an mannerism class. It wasn't as easy and simple as it looked, and Avery had a newfound respect for all the royal women who had to go through this.
Once breakfast was over, they practiced the formal table setting and table etiquette. It was nerve-racking because Queen Sofia was there walking around and watching them closely like a hawk with her beautiful piercing doe-shaped green eyes, but when some of them made mistakes, she wasn't hard on them, she would simply show them and encourage them before moving. After that, when all the utensils, plates and cups were taken away and the table moved to one side of the room, the chairs were lined up in orderly manner like the night of the ceremony, then they commenced onto the next exercise. This was walk-and-sit exercise, it was to demonstrate and show how the contestants were supposed to walk into a room and how they sat on the chairs. After that was posture and grace, walking with three books stacked on each contestants heads, whilst keeping a good posture. Head up, back straight.
"Thank you ladies, you may take a break." Queen Sofia told the contestants, before she and Madam Eunice walked out of the room together in deep conversation.
Rubbing her neck where it was beginning to ache, Avery went over to the chairs and sat down on one of them, releasing a small sigh. She now had a newfound respect for all the women of royalty. It wasn't easy. A moment later, Graciella and Fiona joined her on the same row but a few chairs away from her.
"Where were you last night?" Avery heard Fiona ask Graciella, suspiciously.
"I beg your pardon?" Graciella replied.
"I came over to your room to show you this article about the contest that was released last night, but you weren't there."
"Oh, about that. I was with Prince Alexander." Graciella answered almost immediately, like she couldn't wait to say it outloud.
"Oh!"
Avery could hear the clear shock in Fiona's voice and glanced at them sideways, to see her staring at Graciella, flabbergasted while Graciella looked pleased with herself.
"I thought that's not allowed. According Madam Eunice and the royal family, you could get in trouble for that. You can't meet, speak or see the Prince late at night." Fiona stated matter-of-factly.
"Of course I know that, I'm not stupid. We just bumped into each other at the stairs and began talking, so we just took a short stroll around the palace before he came and left me at my door."
For whatever reason, Avery didn't believe what Graciella said to Fiona. It just didn't seem realistic even though she saw them together with Graciella in the Prince's arms, something wasn't right about what Graciella admitted to Fiona.
"Royal life is not as easy as I thought it was." Avery looked up and saw a familiar, tall brunette haired girl with matching dark eyes come and sit down beside her. Miranda McCintyre.
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"Definitely not." Avery agreed as the other contestants came and sat on the chairs too, to rest before the next task.
"I am never believing anything I see in movies ever again. This was harder than they made it looked." Pranali complained, removing the high heels that were given for each contest to wear.
The posture and grace exercise lasted for a full hour, where in the first thirty minutes all the contestants wore their own shoes and practiced to walk straight then for the next thirty minutes, they all had to skip to high heels. It was a nightmare. A few minutes later, the Royals' butler walked in.
"Ladies, please make your way to the back parlour for tea." Terence told the group of eligibles before he walked back out of the dinning room ahead of them.
Once Avery and the rest of the girls made their way to the parlour, they saw a large circular table that was covered in elegant China platters and saucer plates which were covered in all sorts of delicious smelling baked goods as well as sandwiches, pots of teas, jugs of water and fruity punches.
"Please, sit." Queen Sofia gestured to the table from where she sat on the other end of the table with Madam Eunice to her left and Raquel to her right, who had quickly gone over and sat there by herself. "I will be assisting Madam Eunice to mentor you for the rest of the week on table etiquette, mannerism and the behaviour of how royal women carry themselves to help guide you during the tasks that will be coming up soon. Remember, whatever you will be doing will be scored and whoever has the lowest mark at the end of each month will be asked to leave the contest."
Avery's eyebrows dipped in thought at what the Queen had just said. When the competition's layout was revealed to them at the beginning of it, she wondered how the Prince was going to choose a bride when there will be ten of them left at the end of the competition. That seemed a little difficult too because it was literally just half of the group.
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Mɑiɑ Mitchell ɑs Mirɑndɑ McCintyre
~ P.S Hey guys, I've being working on ɑ couple of other books but there is one thɑt I plɑn to post soon, so pleɑse do check it out when it does come out. I'll give yous ɑ heɑd up when I do ɑnd ɑ BIG THANK YOU to ɑll of you thɑt ɑre continuously reɑding TFATP, I reɑlly ɑppreciɑte it.~ ❤
