Runaway Princess || [ A.I. ]

One : [ Princess ]

Paris, France

[ Wednesday 7:02 PM ]

"May I present."

A princess must be prim.

"Your royal majesty, King Antoine François Géroux."

A princess must be proper.

"And his daughter, your royal highness."

A princess must sophisticated.

"Princess Juliette Odette Géroux."

A princess must know how to behave.

"Of the royal kingdom of La Île Verte."

The people of the grand hall applaudded as I made my way through the door. My arm was looped into my father as we walked towards our royal seats at the head of the hall. We made no sound, but we acknowledged the people who came to see us.

Before the royal meeting, the countess made sure I knew how to behave. No sitting down until everyone was greeted, so father and I stood in front of our seats as the royalty from far and wide came to greet us one by one. The Master of Ceremonies called their name and where they're from. Then they made their way to me. I shook their hand and greeted them in their language. Bonjour. Hello. Buongiorno. Then they made their way to father who did the same. There were at least two hundred people.

By the time the last person has arrived, (Guten Abend) it had already been an hour and the ball was in full gear. Of course as the daughter of the royal guest, I had two options; either dance with men of royalty or stay seated. I chose the lather.

It'd been like this for years. Royal balls. Public appearances. Pretending to be royally happy. But to be honest, all of it was just boring. Every last bit of it. Father agreed that it was boring too, but there was nothing we could do about it. We must play the part of the royal.

"Tu veux dancer avec moi, Julie?" (Do you want to dance with me, Julie?) Father asked as he held out his hand for me. I smiled softly and gladly placed mine in his. In sync, we stood from our seats and made our way to the dance floor. He placed his hand on my waist as I placed mine on his shoulder, and we waltzed.

The royal guests are the last to arrive, but the first to leave, so we made sure that everyone was aware of our departure. Again with my arm looped into father's, we made our way to the front entrance where a limo was waiting for us.

Cameras flashed as I threw my brightest smile towards the photographers. They went crazy. It was most likely going to end up on every magazine and newspaper by the morning. My smile lasted until I was deep inside the limo and away from the cameras. Once the vehicle started moving, I slumped down in my seat with a huff. Father chuckled at my actions.

"I know what you mean, Julie," he said with a laugh. I smiled and looked out the window. Paris, France was most definitly beautiful, but my home was a tiny island hundreds of miles away from here. Sure, we came to Paris almost every other week, but to actually live would have been a dream.

Knowing the only place we were headed was the house we resided when we visited, I pulled the pins out of my hair letting it flow down to the small of my back.

~

[ Wednesday 9:49 PM ]

"Father, I can handle my own luggage." I was sitting on my bed as my father made sure the maid, Sabine, placed each of my summer clothes into my suitcase.

"I am aware of that, but Sabine insisted." I couldn't help but giggle at that. Sabine had been my maid since I was a little girl, but I didn't see her as a maid. She was more like a motherly figure to me. After mother passed away when I was eight, Sabine made it her job to make sure I had a woman to help me through life.