Rise To The Crown- The Story of the Third-In-Line

*Forty-One (2012.04)

The room was decorated with elegant flowers, candles, and a large portrait of the Queen. Delly and her family were gathered in the living room with Queen Elizabeth, Phillip, Kate, William, Charles, and Camilla. They were all dressed in their casual outfits and enjoying each other's company on this special occasion.

The Queen sat on a couch with a smile on her face as Delly presented her with a small gift.

Delly presents the queen with a handmade scrapbook filled with pictures of her throughout her reign, from her coronation to the present day. The scrapbook is carefully decorated with stickers, ribbons, and glitter, and Delly has written heartfelt messages to her great-grandmother on each page. Delly had made this at school with Bella. Their paper-cutting skills were not really good, and on one page the queen's bright yellow hat was accidentally cut off and was attempted to be covered up by a cartoon crown, which looked quite out of place and caused some chuckles from the queen. As the queen flips through the pages, she smiles at the memories and the love that Delly has put into the thoughtful gift. Delly watches on with pride and happiness, glad to have been able to bring a moment of joy to her beloved great-grandmother.

After the Queen thanked her and opened the gift, they began to chat about the passing of time.

"Time passes quickly," said the Queen with a slightly melancholic tone. "That's why it's important to make each day count, to find the things and people you love."

Philip, who was sitting next to her, chimed in with a grin. "And don't forget to have some fun too!"

Delly giggled at the contrast between the Queen's seriousness and Philip's lightheartedness, this is what love looks like, she thought.

Gran-Gran and Philip were so different, while Mama and Papa were so similar. But both of the couples stood the test of time. So Delly began to think about her other half, like what the queen just said, to "find the people you love".

Delly has been having this weird feeling about Brian. When he played with the others, especially girls, she had the urge to push them apart. Even if the girl was her best friend Bella. Delly remembers once in choir class when they had to stand in three rows, and in each row a girl next to a boy, and a boy next to a girl. Because Delly was one of the taller kids, she was placed by her second-grade teacher Ms. Solomon in the back. She was standing directly behind Bella and Brian, standing side by side in the second row. Delly liked choir classes, but she didn't feel like singing that day, she stared at the pair in front of her like she was a wolf about to devour them alive. Brandon, who was standing to the left of Delly, was horrified. :)

Delly thought this kind of feeling towards Brian was the closest she's got to the kind of bond between her parents, or grandparents. Could this be the kind of love that Gran-Gran was talking about?

Delly doesn't know yet.

Then, Delly's mind drifted to what Gramps Philip talked about, the "having fun" part of our life. Delly felt the most at ease when she was on the ice. Even when she fell and fell time and time again from trying to do the spins and twirls, she could not stop doing it. Delly was also having fun with her family, whether that be carriage rides with Gramps, bird-watching with Grandpa, or feeding Gran-Gran's corgis. Having fun could mean having fun by yourself, it could also mean having fun with the people you love. Again, with finding the person you love, you also find joy in their company.

With this in mind, Delly wasn't so sure about her "love" for Brian. Did they share any common interests? She didn't like to play basketball, while he did, for example. Yet she feels so happy while he is around. She just had to make sure he felt the same.

Despite Delly's efforts to win Brian's heart, she couldn't shake off her worry about his potential inability to fulfill the role of future prince consort. Similarly, even if Delly managed to become the world's greatest skater, the public wouldn't approve of their queen engaging in such a daring activity and wearing such revealing clothing on the ice.

As such, Delly concluded, it is difficult to live a full life, in "find the things and people you love" and also "having fun".

It is not impossible, just difficult.

Her parents have done it, her grandpa has done it (though not without a lot of struggle), and her great-grandparents have done it. Why can't she do it too?

Delly also knows that happiness in life, the incandescent happiness that radiates from every elderly's eyes when they look back at life (such as that of her Gran-Gran's and Gramps's), is the satisfaction of the overcoming of the hard times, the gratification of the good times, and something more that Delly could not yet decipher but later on would identify as the ultimate reconciliation with the end of their time.

This is not just the life of a Queen.

This is life itself.

Though being a Queen-to-be, Delly needs to understand this from a young age.

A/N

Charlotte oh my baby Charlotte is eight! What the heck! She looks so adorable in those photos, William and Kate really fed us well on the kids' birthday photos this year LOL. I wonder what George's 10th birthday pictures will look like! Big milestone.

I am just getting into the coronation mode. I plan to just take the day off, its a Saturday you know. I'll just be fangirling over what Kate wears and what the kiddo trio (especially Louis) is up to 😅.

Also, I don't believe the rumors about how kate's gonna wear flowers in her hair (though I think my girl could rock in anything). The media is just trying to create some drama llama.

Fingers crossed, Tiara! 😭❤️