The King's Girl

chapter one

I set down my favorite book of all time on my desk, Hunger Games, as I finished it for probably the fiftieth millionth time. I absolutely loved reading, for me it was an escape from reality, I can become any person I want and enter into any world I want while still sitting in my quiet little reading alcove.

I knew it was probably time to head downstairs for the nightly dinner I have with my parents. Every single day we have dinner together, my mom and dad insist it's a good family bonding time. When really all we do is sit there in silence because we have nothing to talk about. You see, I'm homeschooled and my parents own their own small business that they're capable of running from home. Which means none of the 3 of us get out of the house much, which also means we have absolutely nothing to talk about with each other, nothing, nuna, zilch, zap and trust me having to sit at the table with no noise but the clanking of the silverware against plates for an hour is absolute and pure torture.

I lift my wrist to check the watch my parents gave me for my 13th birthday and confirm that it is in fact time to meet my parents in the dining room.

With a groan, that my parents would kill me for if they heard, I stand up from my window seat and rub the tiredness from my eyes. The problem with my parents is they always want me to be perfect, no matter what. They always expect me to be the 3 p's as I call it, prim, proper, and polite. It doesn't matter if we're at home watching a movie and eating popcorn or if we're at the fanciest restaurant in Washington. They expect me to act perfectly the way they want me to, straight back, no slouching, eat daintily (as a lady should), and only speak when spoken to. By now I am accustomed to the way I live, although in the very beginning when my parents starting demanding this of me I fought against it, everything they insisted I do was taking away my freedom to do and say what I wanted. I soon came to the conclusion that they are doing what's best for me though, my mom and dad sat down and explained this to me one time after I was particularly rebellious. After they were done I started to feel guilty about my actions, I had acted selfishly because they were only helping me to become a better person.

When I get to the bottom of the stairs I make sure to straighten my spine and push my shoulders back to perfect my posture. "Good afternoon mom, dad," I smile as I enter the dining room to see them already seated on one side of the table. The other side is already set with a plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

"Please sit Orabella." My mom smiles at me and gestures to my chair while my dad just nods. I sit down in my seat and take the first bite, only then will they start eating. The food is good, as always, but it's also just as silent as usual.

Until my dad speaks up, "So Orabella your mom tells me you've just finished all of the high school curriculum."

"Ahm yes I did..." I pause for a second wondering if I should continue on with what I'm gonna say next. "I wanted to talk to you guys about college." I could tell that's not what my dad wanted to hear. I had brought it up once before and it didn't go over well. Since then, my parents had been avoiding the topic because they knew I so badly wanted to go to a real college just as my brothers had. Looking at where they are now it seemed like a good idea to me.

Jackson and Lucas co-own a multi-billion dollar company called Meier Industries, real original I know. Anyways, the company they have created is based on the production of liquefied natural gas. That and the fact that they were very smart or maybe just very lucky when investing in stocks. The money they got from the stocks they originally invested in more off helped them build up their company. The twins learned most of what they know about starting up and running a business at Cornell University. So it's obvious that going to college greatly increased their knowledge of the real world and that's what I would like to do for myself. I want to strive to be just as successful in my life as they both are in their lives. But the only problem is that's not how my parents seem to see it. They both see going away to college as what ultimately took their boys away from them. Once Jackson and Lucas left for college they never came home again.