Kalia is a modern day princess. Living with her parents and three sisters in their royal kingdom in London, she had convinced them to let her go to a normal school and live a normal teenage life. And apart from the occasional ball and family dinners...
With only one sleep before the arrival of our special guests, the entire palace had been busy with preparations for the grand meet between Her Highness of England and the Prince of New York.
Kalia hadn't been allowed to contribute and help with the provisions, not that she was exactly keen to, anyway - so she was left with little to no responsibility. The Queen had her on lockdown, which meant that she wasn't supposed to leave the fortress for any reason just in case something would happen. She was also on watch by all of the hands in the kingdom scattered across the palace, so Kalia's sisters had been keeping her company. She wondered where that trust her mother had guilted her with last night had disappeared to.
"Kalia," her youngest sister, Lena, pulled at her sleeve to bring her attention back onto her. "Let's play patty cake." She entertained her while Tessa, second youngest, practiced the new braid Kalia had taught her on Lena's long hair, dark as night. Out of all four of them, Lena resembled Kalia the most, whereas Tessa, with her tight, petite gold curls kept to her own.
Some would say she and Ophelia were almost twins, but there was no way that were true, to any degree, Kalia thought. Ophelia lacked Tessa's unique beauty mark on her right cheekbone, and Tessa didn't have Ophelia's long, flat gold-brown hair. Their natural lip colours where even different tones, and where Ophelia's eyes demanded attention with their size, Tessa's were cat-like and enticing in their own way.
Ophelia's long legs stretched across the coated timber, taking up most of the space around her as she laid on her back reading a magazine. She only tore her eyes from it from time to time to throw in a sarcastic comment at random points of conversation.
This was the stress free break that Kalia felt she needed from the reality of the situation she was in crashing all around her. She loved all of her sisters with every beat of her heart, and it throbbed when she thought about not being able to spend time with them like this again.
"Is this right?" Tessa asks, holding up a braid ready to be tied.
"It's perfect." She was a quick learner.
"Speaking of perfect, how about Kalia's new husband to be?" Ophelia calls behind the back of her book with a raised brow. Kalia wanted to throw a string of profanities her way for bringing him up. Kalia hadn't even met him, hadn't even learnt his name; and he was already riling her up like the piece of work he was proving himself to be to her.
"Kalia's Prince Charming!" Lena squealed ecstatically, her eyes practically forming the shape of hearts. A derisive retort burned at Kalia's tongue, but she had to remind herself that Lena was only ten, and she definitely wasn't going to be the one to crush her dreams. She smiles instead, feigning joy, but felt nothing of the sort. "Kalia, will he be living with us in our palace? Where will his room be?" Kalia's heart went out to her innocence. She wished that she still had every bit of her own, but she'd almost outlived it for sure.
"No, Lena. I have to move away," she started to say and her sisters smile demoted to a frown. "But I'll come back and visit, all the time. I promise." It was an empty promise. Tears gathered in Lena's eyes. Kalia touches her sister's cheeks. "Hey, don't cry. You will see me so much you'll get sick of me." Tessa shot her a knowing look. She knew that Kalia was speaking on hope rather than truth; as she was the most sensible but Kalia wasn't in the mood to break a little heart today, much less one of her sisters'.
***
According to Kalia's knowledge, which was limited within the many corners of the kingdom, there were four steps to the whole "initial meet" process. These were all steps that came before the very last: the proposal.
Since she was on kingdom lockdown, the only way she could get a hold of Lisa was through FaceTime. They had been strategising and formulating the last key details of the plan for the past half hour, but Kalia's doubts were getting the best of her. One half of her had resigned over the past few days, but like Lisa advised, it wouldn't hurt trying.
The day after she was told that she would have to fulfil her duty as a princess did, she thought, there were two ways she could have reacted to the situation. But she chose the one that she believed would help her the most, considering the circumstances. Her father was right, as much as it killed her inside to admit it. She was not a child anymore. She had to set an example for her sisters, as the eldest, and she wouldn't dare betray her parents after all that they have done for her, and how much they have loved her over the years. She had made peace with them, but still hated the idea of moving away, and the idea of him. She didn't know him yet, and she supposed that was the problem, but she definitely wouldn't make it easy for him. No prince desired a princess that wouldn't even give him the light of day - their egos were born too large for that. She would just have to be the opposite of what he is probably expecting of her, long enough before the 'wedding' so that there may be a chance its called off. And if it didn't work, at least she would go down swinging, and having tried not to be moved pretty far away from everything she loved would just have to be enough to get her through. And technically, she wouldn't be betraying her parents if he decided she wasn't right for him.
Lisa reappears onto her screen, back with popcorn. How she could stuff her face at a time of such crisis was beyond Kalia. "Alright, so we have the plan pretty much sorted. But just in case, let's go back over your foursteps to freedom."
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