Princess Who?

Chapter one: it's a long story...

Did you ever wish that you were a princess? Most little girls have at some point in their lives but not me... I was never really allowed to play pretend princesses with my sister or watch Disney movies because my father detested all forms of royalty. It's pretty awkward how that played out, isn't it? But anyway, more on him later.

My name is Ruby Vandercamp, I'm twenty-five years old and recently I moved to a place called Yvernia which is a tiny country in Central Europe that was originally a British colony back in the day. I moved there from my native America six months ago with Drake,my ex,but things didn't quite work out so I moved into a flat with two friends, Ella and Izzy. They're twin sisters and literally do everything together. They're identical with their platinum blonde hair and angular facial features but I can tell them apart pretty well by now. Their family is fairly wealthy but they have decided to do a 'Rachel from Friends' and learn to live by themselves in the capital city, Millwicke.

"Ruby!" Ella's voice called from the living room as I entered the house. "We have some news for you!"

Oh God. Usually when they have news it's a bad sign. They're going to set me up with some weird guy who for some strange reason they think I'll like-not again! "Oh really?" I asked, half scared.

"Yes!" Izzy said. "We want you-" she pointed at me dramatically. "-to come to a party with us!"

That's it? "Sure," I said, taking off my coat (Yvernia has been having a particularly cold January this year). "When is it?"

"In an hour," Ella said casually.

"What?!" I said, startled. "Could you not have told me sooner?"

"Well," Izzy said. "Something came up at the last minute so you can go!"

"Basically what you're saying is your dates cancelled on you," I said.

There was a pause. "Maybe that's true," Ella said avoiding eye-contact with me. "But you should still party with us!"

"You need to get out more," Izzy said.

"No I don't!" I said. "I actually have, like, a lot of work to get through tonight so I can't."

Ella and Izzy crossed their arms over their chests. "Oh really?" Ella asked.

"Really,"I said.

"So your article on 'The Functional Aspect of Formal Fashion' wouldn't benefit you actually testing out the dresses, would it?" Ella said. She had me cornered, that was good.

"Well I, um, oh alright then!" I said rolling my eyes. "But only for for an hour."

*. *. *.

One hour later, after a lot of hair curling and lipstick being messed up while I tried to do it in the taxi, we were standing outside the club James (Ella and Izzy's cousin who was hosting the party) was having his party at. My friends are so posh and they weren't exactly hiding it by the expensive club James had hired put for his birthday. I'm a bit different to them like that. I'm really not rich or fancy in any way, I promise. My father is from Surrey in England and my mother is from Georgia in America. Mom used to be a beauty queen and she was even in the running for Miss America in the early 80's. She raised us-that's my sister Lola and I- in America after my parents divorced when I was six. My father stayed in Europe so I didn't get to see him a lot when I was growing up. Then my mom met and married my step-dad Brett who's from New York when I was eleven which means that I have a crazy accent that only got worse when I moved to Millwicke.

Ella, Izzy and I put on our masks (masquerade parties-sheesh what is this Romeo and Juliet?!) and we went to the door.

Unfortunately, I knocked into a dark haired man and lost my footing making me fall flat on my face and the contents of my bag go all over the place. "Ouch!" I said, checking myself for bruises.