Playing Princess

Playing Princess 2.22

Somebody knocked at the door. I held an arm over my eyes and groaned, rolling off the bed.

For a moment I paused and remained frozen to the spot. This wasn’t my room and whoever was at the door could mistake me for the princess when I’d come here as myself instead.

Nobody’s supposed to know! I thought in a panic and frantically searched the room for a place to hide.

The knocking came again and the person outside the door tried the doorknob. It rattled a couple times and was then followed by a sigh. “Astrid, it’s me.”

At this, I stopped panicking. Undoing the lock, I let Allegra in and was surprised when several others followed suit.

The last person to enter the door shut it behind them and twisted the lock once again. Andrew.

“I’m starving,” I declared. I did my best in keeping calm around my identical sister and older brother, taking the tray of food from Allegra’s outstretched arms. “Thanks.”

She nodded dismissively and pulled out a chair for me. “Great. Now that everybody’s here –”

“Wait,” Izzy blurted out and held up a hand. Obediently Allegra stopped and frowned. “Where’s Joey?”

My chest gave a slight twist at hearing the fondness in her tone. “Stables. He told me he was going to muck out the stalls or something for a new horse coming in.”

Izzy frowned a little and I couldn’t help the shudder at seeing how similar we looked. Heck, we were pretty much identical, just a difference in hair tone and even that wasn’t much of a difference. Everything she did or said was like an exact replica of me – except she had the Aldernian accent of course.

“We should wait for him,” Izzy suggested.

“We don’t have much time,” Andrew replied impatiently. I was surprised at the sharp tone he’d used at Izzy. “It’s two weeks away and we’ve hardly got a skeleton of the plan.”

“Well Joey’s a part of all this,” Izzy snapped and shot her – our brother a glare. “I still don’t see why we don’t tell Slater. He can help us out.”

“We can’t trust anybody, not until everything’s been sorted out,” Andrew told her. “You know that.”

“We can’t even trust Dad?” she shot back angrily. “I don’t like lying to my own father. He’s your father too.”

“That doesn’t mean I feel any less guilty,” he argued.

My brow jumped up at their bickering. Since when had Andrew and Izzy been so hostile towards each other? I thought he adored her. Was I missing something?

My surprise doubled at the harsh tones they used on each other as they continued. The last time I remembered them talking with each other was when we’d found Izzy at the lake house. He’d sounded so relieved and grateful that she was safe and untouched. Had something happened while I was gone?

“Guys, enough,” Allegra cut in but acted as if their interaction was an everyday thing. I really seemed to be missing something here. “We can wait for Joey a little longer.”

“In the meantime, maybe you can at least give me a hint as to how I’m a part of this,” I piped up hopefully.

Izzy turned to me with a frown and looked me up as I gobbled down my pasta. “That is the plan in itself. We can’t start without Joey.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, knowing it would get me deeper into her bad side. Already she didn’t seem too fond of me and whatever the reason was, I wasn’t too sure. Izzy sure wasn’t subtle with her feelings towards anybody it seemed.