ROYAL-TEA [ON HOLD]

5.

"Here's your dress for the day," Sofia told me as I sat up the next morning. "They sent it up."

"Thank you Sofia," I said, gazing at it sadly. I had found myself awake the entire night and only fell asleep at the wee hours of the morning. I wondered what to pack, which bag to carry, what to wear, and how to get out of the palace.

"My Lady?"

"Sofia?" I replied, shaking myself out of my thoughts. "Sorry, I zoned off."

She nodded, before assuring me it was okay. She told me a lot of things after that which I could not remember because my mind had zoned off again. Eventually, she left to go do some other work.

I found myself entering the bathroom and taking a shower before coming out, and starting to pack a few clothes into a bag. I made a few calls before deciding which country I wanted to go to. I narrowed them down to MossDale and Rrandlovski.

The latter would have been safe, except that I never got along with Prince Victor, and I knew it was because we never really saw eye to eye in a lot of things. I found myself thinking of one of his friends from the nearby countries. His name was Prince Elliot. He was next in line to the Zardinian throne. His father had recently passed away, and his mother was Queen Regent. She never liked me, and he was out of town, no doubt coming for the party.

There was another option: India. The royal family had always loved me. However, it was not a guarantee that they would host me without asking for something in return. Like making me promise to marry Prince Miraj or something. I was running away to evade a marriage, not to crash-land into another one.

Eventually, i was forced to pick MossDale over Gardenia. I would hide somewhere as I figured out what to do. Maybe go live with a penpal. His name was Jeremy Hunter.

*&*&*&*&

I didn't want my parents to trace my paper trail, so I used American Dollars and Sterling Pounds and Euros to cover my trail. I called to book a flight while speaking German, and then paid via Euros. After that, I packed up some money in various purses and hid them on me and in my bag. I then hurried out to the roof, and waited patiently till an hour passed when the guard was to be changed. I then threw my bag over the roof to the orchard, and vaulted into the air before landing on my feet. Yes, I did gymnastics when I was younger, and still did it to keep fit.

Then I slithered into the bushes and found a hole in the fence that had been overgrown by vegetation. I army crawled through it, feeling disgusted by the number of creepy crawlies I saw on the ground-ants, spiders, a caterpillar, earthworms...-and made it through to the other side.

I covered my tracks by returning vegetation back to the spot and sighed happily when I saw that it looked even more concealed than ever. I was just picking up my bag to go when I bumped into someone.

"Hello there Princess. Running away, aren't we?"

Oh shoot!