The Non British Princess

Part 11

After breakfast we are asked to assemble outside in the main entry to the garden.

Penny, a selected girl with a perfectly cut fringe and a nice mix of blonde and brown hair, speaks up, talking to anyone who would listen.
"I wonder what activities we will be doing today."

"I think there's archery, I can see the targets set up on one side of the oval." Alex points out and most of the girls look over to see that she was right.

Genevieve stood under an umbrella for shade from the sun away from everyone else, looking uncomfortable outside. She had a pair of large, leopard print sunglasses on and was talking furiously into some kind of earpiece.

Prince Thomas finally came outside in a casual outdoor look, a smart T-shirt and jeans. It was a new look for him, not being in a suit, since all my life on TV he had been in one.
A lot of the girls seemed to enjoy his new look, and Freya didn't hide her excitement whispering to everyone around her how good he looked.

"Ladies," he addressed us, "Today you will be competing in your houses in a friendly series of events. Please move into your groups now so we can begin." He said as he stood at the front of the crowd, demanding attention with his stance alone.

I found Harriet and we moved to one side with Yasmin, Indiana and Remy in our group.
We all wore our purple diamond pins, letting people know we were the Amethyst group.

The other groups separated off into Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire.

"The first round will be a tug-of-war. You need to choose 2 members from your group to participate for this round." Prince Thomas told us and every group suddenly started chatting amongst themselves.

Remy and Indiana instantly insisted on doing it together and Yasmin, Harriet and I all agreed that they could do that.
The participants were taken to a large rope that lay on the ground on the oval. A marker on the ground showed the middle of the rope and where the aim of the game was.

"Amethyst and Sapphire will be competing together on one side and Ruby and Emerald are together against them. Whichever two houses win the game together each earn 20 points for their team." Prince Thomas explained.

In our team from Sapphire was Emma and Freya. I think we had a good team, but they were going up against Hadley, Lexi, Ellie and Olive, who seemed determined to win.

"Pick up the rope," The prince waited for all the girls to have their hands on the rope,

Before they started I snapped a pic with my instant camera of the girls doing the tug of war.

"And..go!"

The girls started pulling furiously, both tugging and pulling with all their body weight towards their end. Indiana said something to Remy and she cracked up laughing, causing her grip on the rope to loosen.

Lexi and Olive sniggered and took the opportunity to pull super hard, ending the competition quickly as they pulled the other team easily over to their side.

"And the winners are Emerald and Ruby!" The prince said excitedly and the girls on those teams cheered.

Harriet, being positive, said it was all good and we would smash the next challenge.

After the winners were congratulated and everyone split off into their groups again the prince spoke up about the next challenge.

"The next event is horse riding, this requires two more members from your teams. You cannot participate in any activity twice to make it fair and we need to make sure everyone gets a go." Prince Thomas explained.

"I love horse riding." Yasmin said, offering to do this one. Harriet also put her hand up so they went off to saddle up.
That just left me to compete in whatever event was left.