The Cave

Chapter One

*Knock knock knock*

Ali rolled over onto her side and she cursed under her breath. She never was a morning person. She painfully stretched out her arm to reach for her watch on her bedside table: 8:01 AM. She groaned and wiped the drool that had had somehow escaped from her mouth.

*Knock knock knock*

"Alison open up! We're behind schedule!" Anna, one of my serving ladies almost sang. She always had been annoyingly and unnecessarily chirpy for this time in the morning.

"Coming!" Ali replied as she propped up onto her elbows and groggily pushed herself up off of her Queen sized bed. She stroked the comfy linen. "Until next time," she whispered to her duvet. She walked over to the other side of the room and stood up on her tip toes to draw the curtains back, yelping as the bright sun shone straight into her eyes like laser beams. It was a very sunny blue day today without a cloud in the sky. Ali closed her eyes and dropped her head back and just thought for a moment about a normal day, where nothing was expected of you, where you weren't a Princess. She dragged her bare feet across the cream carpet and opened the wooden door to a pair of very stressed out woman carrying two large boxes and a suitcase of supplies for Ali. Yay! Sitting on a chair for an hour while they pull the hair out of my head and slapped sticky stuff on my eyeballs. Another day being Princess Alison Juliet Lilianne Scarlet Allen. Anna and Francesca did a quick curtsy and hurried into Ali's room, making themselves right at home as they skipped to her vanity and laid out everything on the glass in front of the mirror. This was the time of day when Ali could look at herself properly and study her reflection. Her long, light brown hair was matted in knots in some kind of nest on top of her head and her bright green eyes were hardly open because of sleepy dust and eye bags. Anna let out a whimper as she looked at Ali's reflection.

"What is that on your face?" She exclaimed in disgust as she pointed to an obvious drool mark Ali had clearly failed to wipe away.

"Ugh...toothpaste?" Ali laughed awkwardly. "Oh God" she muttered to herself. Toothpaste, really Ali?! Toothpaste?!Anna exchanged a worrying glance with Francesca. "Hey!" Ali exclaimed playfully. "I am right here you know...besides its not that bad, right..?" Ali looked up at them hopefully, making a mental note to sort her life out by tomorrow but they took one more judgemental look at the reflection, paused, and then grabbed the hairbrush off of her dresser in a hurry.

After forty five minutes of hair tugging, face pulling, eyelash elongating, fingernail filing, and a few tears and yelps, Anna and Francesca looked at Ali with a proud smile on their face. Francesca walked over to the wardrobe, swaying her curvy hips as she did so and swishing her platinum blonde, obviously fake ponytail around like it was a pendulum. With an over exaggerated, arm pushing expression, she pushed the two doors open and walked into the wardrobe. Two minutes later she came out holding the outfit: my dress to wear this morning for my lesson and for the lunch gathering. Francesca carefully placed the accessories and shoes on Ali's chaise-long and with some huffing and puffing, managed to pull Ali into her dress, with jewellery and shoes to compliment. Ali walked over to the full length mirror beside her door and stared at herself. She looked stunning. Her hair was loosely pulled back into a low bun and her makeup was minimal, yet classy. Her dress was metallic blue with sparkles from top to bottom. The top of the dress was fitted tightly with a corset, highlighting her figure, whereas the bottom flowed around her feet, puffing outwards slightly. She looked beautiful. Ali turned around as she heard a sniff to see Anna, crying into a tissue. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," She managed to make out in between sniffs. "Its just that you're so big and grown up now." She looked down at her watch and Ali swore her eyes opened so big they nearly took up all the space on her face. "Oh Ali you must hurry. Go!" Anna called trying to hurry Ali outside but she was already halfway out the door.