Princess In Training (Book 1)

Chapter 18

I wake up to take a look at the calendar, it's Harry's birthday! I jump out of bed and quickly get ready for the morning! I know that I still won't be announced as royalty yet but I am still excited to celebrate his birthday. This is the first royal ball I will be going to. I quickly change into a blue knee length dress with cap sleeve and a pair of tan wedges. I pull a brush through my hair and head into my closet. I brought Harry a present from America and decided to save it for his birthday. I just really hope he likes it. I grab the gift bag and run across the palace over to Harry's room and knock on the door. Slowly Harry makes his way over to the door and opens it.

"Morning." He says.

"Good morning little brother, and Happy Birthday!" I say pulling him into a hug.

"Thanks, now do not take this the wrong way, but why are you at my room right now?" He asks with a smile on his face.

"Well I got you a birthday present while I was in America and I have been waiting to give it to you. I hope you like it." I say passing him the gift bag. He excitedly takes the bag from me and pulls the tissue paper out quickly finding his present.

"A hat?" He asks.

"Well I know that it might not seem like much but I got it embroidered with your name and there is something else in there for you too." I tell him. He smiles and places the hat on his head and continues looking through the bag. He finals finds them. He pulls out the box and opens it to see keychains from every state in the US. He also finally pulls out the shadowbox frame that is filled with pins from every state in the US.

"Did you actually take a road trip to get these for me?" He asks.

"I wish, but I found a corner store that I picked all of the pins and keychains up from." I tell him.

"This is great, but how did you know I would want this stuff?" Harry asks.

"I remembered at some point hearing about how you want to travel the world so I figured this would be a good present for you." I tell him and he sets all of the stuff down on a table by his door and he pulls me into a hug.

"Thank you." He says. "Thank you so much." He says.

"Alright, well I will see you at breakfast." I tell him and I walk down his hall and find my way down to the dining room. I take my seat towards the head of the table. My breakfast comes out and I eat it in the quiet that is the empty room. Once I am done my breakfast my dad makes his way into the dining room. "Morning dad!" I say and he looks a little surprised to see me there.

"Morning, I was not expecting to see you yet. Normally you come in after me." He says as he walks across the dining room to take his seat next to me.

"I remembered that today is Harry's birthday, so I got up a little early to give him a gift." I tell him as I stand up out of my own chair and head towards the door. "I will see you at the ball tonight dad." I say and run out of the room. I head up to my room and find my dress for the ball hanging just inside my closet. I head over to my vanity and look at the clock that is just off to the side. I notice that it is about 9am now and Harry's ball is starting at about 3pm. An hour of mingling and then dinner followed by dancing. So I start looking through all of my drawers. I look across my room at my dress and smile at the fact that it is royal blue. I find an eye shadow to match and spend the next hour carefully doing my makeup trying to make myself look flawless and surprisingly it works. I take a little while examining my dress and finally decide to just curl my hair and pull it over one shoulder, it takes me an hour and a small bottle of aloe to finish my hair, and surprisingly all the burns are on my hands and none on my face or neck. I take a little break and head into my parlor to see that a light early lunch has been delivered. I quickly eat my salad before going looking for a nail polish that I could use. I finally decide on a silver and start painting. It is about 1:30pm before my nails have fully dried. I walk over to my window seat and grab one of my books off the shelf. I curl up in my window seat and get lost in the mystical shadow world. I get ripped out of my book trance by a loud knock on my door. I put my bookmark back in the book and close it as I yell "Come in!" I stand up and am putting the book back on the shelf as I hear my door close.

"You are not ready yet?" I hear Joye ask me as I turn around.
"I just need to put my dress on. Why what time is it?" I ask her.

"2:40! We need to be in the ballroom in 10 minutes!" She says and I quickly run into my closet and change into my dress and quickly get my wedges on and we run out of my room and down to the ballroom, making it just in time. We grab our drinks and take a moment to try and even out our breathing.

"I did not know I could actually change that fast." I say and Joye laughs.
"Just wait until you actually start wearing the royal dresses. Those almost always have corset backs and take forever to lace up." Joye says and laughs at the look of horror on my face. "Do not worry, they are not actually as bad as they sound." She says and we start walking around the room mingling. Once it is time for dinner I find myself seated at the table with my grandmother and Uncle Zack and family.

"Hello Gram." I say walking over to her and wrapping her in a hug.

"Hello dear, it is so nice to see you." She says returning my hug before taking a seat. I sit between Gram and Joye.

"Oh I never got to introduce myself the other day, I am your Aunt Hannah." A lady who looks like an older version of Joye.

"It is so nice to meet you. I am Mathew's daughter Samantha." I say shaking her hand across the table. We all take our seats and the entire dinner I feel like I am being glared at. Once we actually get into the ballroom and the dances breakout I make my way over to Alex who is on the dance floor with someone who he does not look very comfortable with. "May I cut in?" I ask approaching them.

"Of course." The girl says with a glare before curtsying to Alex and walking away. I curtsy and he bows before we begin a waltz.

"Thank you for that. She was really starting to creep me out." He says.

"No problem, but now you need to do me a favor and answer some questions." I tell him.

"Sure what do you need to know?" He asks.

"Why is it every time I am in the same room with Uncle Zack, I feel like I am being watched but I can never find him?" I ask and Alex kind of laughs.

"Well you see the thing with Uncle Zack is he believes that if he catches us doing something wrong parliament will take the crown from us and will give it to Joye, which by now you probably already know Joye does not want the crown." He explains.

"That makes sense." I say as Alex gets tapped on the shoulder by a cute guy.

"May I cut in?" He asks.
"Of course Prince Ashton." He says and walks off and I curtsy to the prince.

"Hello, my name is Ashton, I am the prince from the neighboring kingdom." He says.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, your majesty. I am Samantha, I am Prince Alex's cousin." I say repeating the lie I have been told to use until I announce my claim at the throne.

"Well that is funny. I thought you two were siblings." He says and I raise my eyebrows.

"What would give you that impression?" I ask him.

"Well considering I know that King Mathew only has one brother, and that brother is Zack, and I just heard both you and Alex call him Uncle Zack...I think you are both siblings Princess." He says. I grab his hand and pull him to the side of the room.
"Listen, no one is allowed to know. King Mathew had me when he was young. He just got back in contact with me and is letting me figure out if I want to be royalty or not. I have not formally been announced as King Mathew's daughter." I tell him.

"Do not worry. I will not tell anyone." He says.

"Thank you, Prince Ashton." I say curtsying to him.

"You do not have to call me prince, you and I share the title so you do not have to address me as so." He says.

"I do for now; in case anyone hears." I tell him.

"Well when you get your title, I would love to become friends with you." He says. "But for now would you mind dancing the night away with me?" He asks and just before I can take his hand we are interrupted by my brother Harry.

"May I have this dance?" Harry asks.

"Of course your highness." I say with a wink. "Pardon me." I say to Ashton and I follow Harry. Not to long after dancing with Harry a girl interrupted us so Ashton came and found me and we danced the entire night, just talking and getting to know each other. Ashton seems like a nice guy but we learned so much about each other that I think about him more like a friend then a boyfriend.

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