5,781 Miles Apart

Chapter One

Adalheida's POV

As a young girl, I had traveled all around the world. By the age of seven, my feet had touched the ground on every country on the planet. Some think I'm spoiled, but that's actually false. Ever since I said my first words, I have been trained day by day to run the entire German Federation.

I spoke English, French, and Spanish by the age of eleven, I was almost entirely completed with all of my schooling by the time I was fifteen. I could play seven different instruments and was already making important decisions for my country by my sixteenth birthday.

Sit up straight. Shoulders back.

Maintain eyes contact.

Walk with authority.

All my life, people have been constantly breathing down my neck with more criteria I need to meet up with.

Only cross your legs at the ankles.

Tie up that hair, or straighten it.

I hated it. All of it. I went to three finishing schools, and none of them helped me, so eventually, the strictest woman in the world was hired to follow me around to keep me in line.

Madame Agatha is the worst. She hates me. When she doesn't correct everything I do wrong, she insults me. From my unruly red hair to my constant want of being outdoors. She just never seems to listen. But whenever I try to tell my mother, she ignores it. She has it in her heads that Madame Agatha is the sweetest woman alive.

So many times I have wished I could go back to the time we visited Illéa when I was eight. Things were so much different there. I got to run around like a maniac and I was allowed to speak without permission when we ate. And the Shreave's youngest sun, Osten, was just like me. I actually had a friend. Here, my closest thing to a friend is my maid Gaelle and my younger brother Amey.

I knew not to complain though. That would resolve with me being forced to write lines of Madame Agatha's choosing.

And then there was Ainsley. The prince of the United European Countries that I was betrothed to. I only met him in person once when I was sixteen. He was kind and good looking and smart, and he constantly writes to me and even calls, but I find myself bored with him. We have nothing in common, and he thinks of me as a different person than I actually am.

"Adalheida." Amey says, drawing me out of my day dream. "Come on. I bet I can climb this tree faster than you!"

I look up from the textbook I was supposed to be studying and see my sixteen year old brother, with his blue dress shirt untucked and his suit coat on the ground, struggle to climb the tree.

"You're doing it wrong!" I call to him. "You're putting you're hands in all the wrong places."

"Okay," he says, jumping down from the two feet he managed to climb. "If you know so well why don't you do it yourself."

I look down at my yellow dress. Mother would kill me if I stained it, and it was my favorite dress. "Fine, just let me go change."

I run inside and through the halls to my room. I search through my closet until I find one of my only pairs of jeans, my only t-shirt, and sneakers. I run into the bathroom and pull my hair out from the elaborate updo and let my wild red curls roam free. I then run outside back to my brother. But he isn't alone.

Standing beside him is Madame Agatha. "Agatha. What are you doing here?" I sneer.

"Adalheida, you know that isn't my proper title." She says, faking innocence.

"Yeah, well to you, my proper title isn't 'Adalheida'." I say, repulsed by her mere presence. "Come on, Amey, let's go." I reach out to grab it, but the witch Agatha swats it away.

"Not so fast." She sneers, back to her old self. "You both should be doing your studies."

"We finished." I lie.

"Okay, then what are the main cellular features of organisms of the plant kingdom?" She questions.

I think hard on how to give my answer and end up saying, " Typical plant cells are eukaryotic, autotrophic, and photosynthetic. Plant cells also have chloroplasts and a cell wall, a structure exterior to the plasma membrane, made of cellulose."

Her already thin lips are set into an even thinner line as if she's disappointed I got the answer right.

"Alright, what cell division process is directly related to embryonic growth?" She questions again.

This is something I studied years ago. She just wants to get me in trouble. I think for a while and eventually settle with a simple answer of, "Embryonic growth depends directly on mitosis. Through this type of cell division, the1 zygote divides, producing a series of cells that also compose differentiated tissues and organs via mitosis until the formation of a complete individual."

She again seems upset that I got the answer correct. Too bad for her.

I pull my brother's hand and say, "Come on Amey, let's go watch a movie."

We walk down to the basement where the theatre is. "She is so full of herself. An insufferable idiot."

"I know. Who cares though. Once you're queen, you can fire her and Mother won't be able to do anything about it." He points out.

"True. I can't wait." I say settling in on the couch, ready to watch whatever movie Amey picked out for us to watch.