Carter

Chapter 9: The First Event

As the roaring of the crowd gets closer and closer, I get more excited, wondering what will happen.

"You're going to be a huge star!" Alexandria says, looking up at the sky. All of a sudden, bright flashes are shining bright in my face and I can't see very well. I hear the noise of cameras, and people talking professionally in a voice that sounds like what a news woman would speak in. I hear the Princess's name repeated over and over again. 

"Princess Carstashia this, Princess Carstashia that." They say. I hide my face from the crowd until I feel the fairy tale carriage come to a stop. I look up, and Jake stands on a stage in front of me. He holds a hand out, and I take it very lady like, and step up onto the stage with him. He has a smile on his face, and I can't help thinking how cute it looks. I don't look away, until he notices me, and the smile on his face turns into a glare. The smile was fake, I realize. 

"Don't look at me, I don't like fake girls." He says, making me feel terrible. I try to pull my hand away from him, but he just hooks his elbow with mine. 

"Smile, sweetie. You're a princess, not a grinch, remember?" He acts, not looking at me. There are still bright flashes in front of me, and then Alexandria walks to the edge of the stage, where a microphone has been set up on a stand. 

I see her cheek flesh move, telling me she's got another large smile on, like the one she had when she told me that the Princess is her daughter. She raised a hand in front of her just to put it back down again, silencing the crowd, and stopping most of the camera flashes. She waited until the chatter had stopped untl she spoke. 

"Good evening everyone." She says. "You might have heard the news recently, that our princess has returned." She folds her hands behind her back, and the crowd's roars start back up again. Alexandria laughs a bit, and then continues speaking. "Yes, it's quite exciting isnt it? So to celebrate the return of Princess Carstashia, we, the kingdom, will be holding different events all throughout the month. We will hold a ceremony to relearn the history of our Princess, and how she was taken away from us at such a young age, and now we will learn how we reunited with her! I will ask the community to please give our princess a warm welcoming to our town, and give her all of your gifts as you wish." She smiles and bows her head awkwardly, then walks to stand beside Jake on my right. I notice that Toni is on my left. Toni was supposed to be my bodyguard right? Then, we walk off stage, as Ted takes Alexandria's place at the microphone, telling the townspeople about all of the events that are going to happen throughout the next month. I didn't get a chance to look at that paper that he gave me, but I have a feeling it was a very long list, because I can still hear Ted's voice talking on the microphone after I'm directed into a large tent like the one from Harry Potter with everything inside of it. There's rows and rows of tables with piles of food on them. I take a piece of cake, but before I get to eat one little bite of it, Tonya snatches it out of my hands. 

"Hey!" I say, reaching to take it back. 

"Nu uh, not in those clothes!" She says. "Charlotte! Get this girl a garbage bag!" She yells across the tent. Charlotte hurries over and pulls a garbage bag and pair of scissors out of her pocket. She unfolds the garbage bag, and snips a good sized hole in the bottom. She puts the garbage bag over my head, and then pulls it down before I suffocate to death.

"Perfect." Tonya says in relief, giving me back the cake. 

"Thank you." I groan, going to work on the cake. 

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About a half an hour later, I'd already eaten half of the cake, and still wasn't full. I wonder why though, I had a very filling lunch or breakfast in that giant room back at the kingdom. I'm just about to pick out a taquito to munch on, when Ted bursts into the tent with a blow horn, and announces that it's time to go to the center of the town so the Princess can properly be shown the way around her town. He also announces that my preperation squad and all the other non royalty will not be going. Laney, Manda, Kelly, Melani, Sally and Shania all sigh, but Charlotte and Tonya are too involved in their phones and the food to look up or acknowledge Ted.