Just The Way I'm Not (Prince Harry Fanfiction)

Chapter Four

“Up!” a voice yells. I stir slightly, rolling over in bed dreamily, I feel groggy, I haven’t had enough sleep and I want to pull the covers over my head and block out the world. But someone’s shaking me, a lot. “Holly!  Get up!” I know that voice belongs to my Dad now and I come crashing back down to earth. I’m no longer in a dream land where anything’s possible; I’m in my bedroom, in a boring reality. “It’s going to be a big day!” Dad almost squeals this sentence and I can tell just how excited he is, that’s when I remember what day it is. It’s the day of the Royal Visit. I can hear my Dad scurrying around the room, opening my curtains and getting my uniform out my drawers. “Today’s the day!” he says, I peep my head over my duvet to see him grinning at me “All this hard work has paid off!” he throws my uniform at me and walks off down the stairs. I can faintly hear him chanting ‘The Royals are coming to town!’ over and over again.  Lazily, I roll over and slide out of my bed, this is the day I’ve been dreading. I’ve got to see the Prince I humiliated myself in front of again. I walk over to my mirror and smirk at myself slightly, still, after today I never have to see him again. I don’t take long getting ready, I put on some skinny jeans which show off my figure and then stick my uniform top on. I decide I’m going to look like I do every day for work, I don’t care whether a Prince is coming or not. I brush my soft hair, taking out all the knots and leaving my long blonde curls looking pretty. Though I made a vow to look casual, I find myself applying a little bit or mascara and blusher, and then I add a coat of lip gloss and decide that will do. There. I still look natural, but I have a bit of a shine now. When I get downstairs, I only have time to slip my converse on and grab a piece of toast before Dad drags me out the door. We’ve only got about an hour until the visit and we have to transform the outside of the charity building. We put Save The Sailors flags up outside the front of the shop to make it took more presentable, then we add some fairy lights to the nearest lamppost. After that we get to work on the tables which were outside the building, one table has an array of food, finger food and snacks, not for the Prince, but for all the people he was going to attract today. Then on the other table, I spread out our leaflets and add our badges and t-shirts which were available to buy. I then add a donations basket and helped dad put a little stand up next to the lamppost. This is where Dad will make his speech later, where he describes what we do at the charity, our aims and what people can do to help. It’s also where Harry will make his speech and take some photos with a professional photographer, and award Dad some kind of Royal Plaque for his work. It’s at this point that I remember to ask Dad why he’s so sure it will be Prince Harry making the visit. He answers bluntly “William is on his honeymoon, the Queen wouldn’t come to something so unimportant.” He has a point I guess. When it gets to 1:00pm there’s quite a crowd gathered, it looks like the whole village has come out to see Harry. But being such a small village and there being a big crowd, I guess some people have come from other towns and cities too, wanting a glimpse of him. Prince Harry is late, I guess they’d call it fashionably late, I call it rude. Three bodyguards have shown up but he’s not here. It takes another half an hour of foot stamping, sighing and pouting before I see a black BMW roll up down our street. It has a police motorcycle driving in front of it, which stops several metres away from where the car does. The BMW parks round the back of our building and the crowd waits eagerly. They’ve all gone silent now, occasionally whispering to the people next to them. I can’t help but find these people a bit stupid. I’ve already met him once and it wasn’t that amazing. He’s just a bloke really. However saying this, when Harry steps out of his car I find my heart beating faster. This time it isn’t because I’m nervous, I weirdly find myself wanting to see him, which is ridiculous because this was the thing I was dreading. He’s here again, walking round the side of the building and giving a modest wave to the crowd. People are flashing cameras in his face and I’m pretty sure I’ve spotted a couple of Paparazzi. I’m surprised at what he’s wearing; he’s sporting a pair of jeans, a white shirt and some green converse. I find myself taken back, what would be quite casual, somehow still looks very dressed up on him, I suppose it’s because his clothes were probably expensive. I bet that shirt is worth £300 at least. Still, the outfit makes him look more relaxed, more human. I put it down too this counting as a casual visit for him. When I finally look at his face I’m sure he was looking at me. It’s impossible to tell because as soon as I looked up his beautiful green eyes flickered away. He’s smiling a winning smile at the crowd, going up to them and signing autographs; he sweetly talks to some of the young children too. This makes me want to be sick. I don’t know why, but the whole ‘lovely, sweet’ act isn’t working on me, I feel like he’s faking it. I shake my head at myself and dismiss this thought. “Technically you’ve never properly spoken to him” I think “you have no idea what he’s like.” I decide I don’t like him anyway and be done with it; all this confusing feelings are making me feel stressed. I allow my eyes one last glance at Harry and I see him signing a teenage girl’s shirt. I don’t know why but I don’t like this. I don’t like thinking of people fancying him. Again I get confused and unnerved and decide to avert my attention to his bodyguard, who is trailing him everywhere. Good. At least that means I’ll never be on my own with him.

As far as the charity is concerned the day is a total blast. Everyone ‘ooo’s and ahh’s’ in all the right places at my Dad’s speech and he gets a huge applaud at the end. He meets Prince Harry and shakes hands with him, whilst Harry congratulates him on his work. For the rest of the day the Prince, takes about a million photos, with the workers and the building, he even put’s a Save The Sailors t-shirt on at one point and poses for the camera’s. He spends a lot of time with the public too, laughing and talking. It crosses my mind that he’s probably boosting his image; I’ve done stuff like this at school, its all PR (public relations). But I can hardly complain, seen as he’ll be boosting the image of the Charity too, which is what my Dad wants. He wants to be able to open another branch, and the Prince can help promote that. I spend all day behind the charity table, explaining our work to whoever comes over and politely mentioning that there’s a donations basket. I help raise quite a lot of money over the day which I’m proud of. It’s around 5:00pm when we’re all waiting for Harry to make his speech and award my Dad his plaque. It’s getting later in the afternoon but something tells me everyone’s going to be here well into the evening and way after Harry’s gone. There’s lots of drinks and alcohol to come out yet and my mother made a massive fuss of making sure to bring her iPod dock. It’s just when I’m thinking that I wish Harry would wrap up and go so that I could go home when he appears at my table. I’ve been daydreaming and he takes me completely off guard. I’ve been watching him all day, making sure he comes nowhere near me. Trust him to come over the second I take my eye of him. He swaggers over and casually pretends to browse one of the leaflets “So we meet again” he smiles. I roll my eyes, he’s obviously trying to make a deal of showing he remembers me. So what? Why wouldn’t he, I did embarrass myself after all. “Yes” I scowl, suddenly I feel a rush of hatred for this man, I’d spent all this time worrying I’d insulted him and caring what he thought of me, when actually he annoys me. So he’s a Prince, big deal, it didn’t mean I had to lick his ass. “I take it that if you’re here” I say “You want me to tell you about the charity.” He looks taken aback but he smirks at me “Sorry, do go on.” I look at him for a moment and hesitate, I’ve said this speech about twenty times today but suddenly I’m lost for words. I pause for a second, completely taken in by his eyes, which are fixed on me. I stutter a few times, which for some reason makes Harry smirk more, this annoys me. “So ‘Save The Sailors’ is an independent charity that was set up 10 years ago in 2002...” I continue, barely pausing for breath and all the way through Harry nods, as if he’s totally fixated on what I’m saying. I just know he doesn’t care about the information I’m pouring out, I just think he’s playing some kind of game with me, though I’m not sure why. “So” I produce a sweeter than sweet smile at him, “If you feel like helping us, please stop by our donation basket.” When I’m done I draw breath heavily and he’s still just standing there smiling at me. “Well what can I say?” he says “You’ve won me over Longford.” I frown at him; I don’t like the use of my last name. What is his aim here? Why are we playing games? I don’t know why, but what I do know is, two can play at it. He strides over and pulls out his wallet, putting a chunk of notes into it. I’m pretty sure he’s already signing over a big cheque to this charity so I don’t see the point in this. “Flashing the cash are we Princey?” I say, folding my arms. Harry looks at me, as if he’s trying to conceal his real emotion “I’m just Harry” he says, this honestly feels like the most serious thing he’s said so far, I’m beginning to think he feels a little bitter towards his title. “Sorry” I find myself apologising, I feel bad, I don’t like him, but I don’t want to insult him. “No problem” he grins cheekily, as if happy he got me to apologise. I’m just about to open my mouth to reply when his bodyguard comes over “Sir” he says gruffly “It’s time for the speeches.” Harry looks reluctant but he goes.

“Okay thanks Steve” he says, ushering him away. Before turning back to me, “See you around Longford” he winks. I blush tomato red, and grit my teeth, if he calls me that one more time... Prince Harry gets up on the little stage and starts talking about all the amazing things he’s seen today “The work they’re doing here is inspirational and all of the workers seem motivated and more than friendly” he glances at me when he says that line and I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic. He carries on for several more minutes and I find myself drawn in by his voice, being Royal I’d expect it to be annoyingly posh but it’s not. It’s a typical London accent and he seems pretty normal. Maybe I got it wrong, maybe Harry is different. He awards my Dad the plaque and there’s a loud applause, camera’s flashing everywhere. A TV crew also turned up earlier, I think for the news, but now it’s just the public. Harry spends a lot of time over the next few hours, doing interviews and talking about his future involvement with the charity. After a while I begin to think he’s going to be doing that all night. Somehow I don’t think he’s going to come back to me. I can’t decide whether this annoys me or not.