The Non British Princess

Part 16

I sat in the day room with Stella, a girl who despite being on the shorter side of the girls in the selection, had one of the biggest personalities.
"I'm from Manchester, in the Northeast of England." Stella explained, tucking strands of her short brown hair behind her ear.

"That's awesome. I'm from Melbourne, Australia." I say and Stella nods, slipping off her shoes and pulling her legs up onto the couch to be more comfortable.

"I could tell by the accent." Stella says knowingly.

"Of course." I roll my eyes with a smile and Stella giggles to me.
The midday sun shines through the windows across half of the room and most girls are relaxing and chatting with others.

Harriet arrives back from her date after a while and sits down on a couch across the room with Remy and Yasmin.

They start chatting away as I see Harriet starts talking about her date, her arms moving about as she discusses things.

I go back to talking with Stella and she starts to tell me about her family.

"You what?!"

Everyone turned to Yasmin who had burst out loudly, looking shocked at Harriet.
Harriet looked embarrassed as all the heads in the room swiveled to her and she flushed red.

Indiana stood abrupted, with a look of disapointment across her face as she hissed at Harriet, "I cannot believe you, kissing him already."

The room goes silent and everyone is waiting to see Harriet's reaction.

I pull myself out of my chair and move across the room to where she's sitting so I can hear more of what's going on.

"You kissed him? Is that true?" I ask, a little surprised. We'd all only just met the guy and after two days he's already locking lips.

Harriet flushes, clearly embarrassed by the attention on her about this.

"Yeah. We kissed."

I'm quite surprised, not knowing how to respond. It's weird to think I had been on a date with him the night before and this morning he's already up and kissing other girls. And Harriet out of everyone, who I'd become friends with.

Harriet is looking around at the others girls, slightly embarrassed at the call out, but not particularly sympathetic to everyone else.

I offer to leave with her, "Come on, lets go talk about this somewhere quieter."

She nods, seemingly relieved so we get up.

Yasmin stops us, looking to Harriet apologetically, "Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blurt that out. I was just surprised."

"It's fine." Harriet says, although her expression seems a little hurt that Yasmin had announced it to the room.

I walk beside Harriet as we leave the room. As soon as we exit I hear the volume of chatter increase, probably discussing that news.

I'm torn between wanting to be annoyed with her and wanting to be happy for her as my new friend. I give in to my curiosity.

As soon as we're in the quiet hallway with none of the other selected girls around I start questioning her, "I want to know every detail. What did you guys do? How did it happen? Was it good?"

Harriet laughs, almost relieved I'm not mad, "He took me on a walk around the grounds. It was so lovely. Then we had a private breakfast together in this pretty tea room."

"Sounds romantic." I comment.

Compared to me falling asleep on him during a movie, a quiet breakfast sounds pleasant. I can imagine it's a lovely setting for a kiss.

"I guess it was. And he was being so nice."

I grab onto her arm, pausing our walk down the corridor, "So, did he kiss you or did you kiss him?"

Harriet blushes, "I kissed him."

"Was it good then?"

"Yes I suppose." She says with a nod, "I haven't had many kisses before though to compare it to."

"Well you should be happy. You got his first kiss." I say, wanting to be happy for her, even though I'm a little disappointed.

And she beams, her cheeks still rosy.

And I couldn't do anything but be happy for her.

✿✿✿

Later that day, as we have a free afternoon I invite Hadley to join me to go horse riding, since she knew how and would be happy to assist me in my amateur riding skills. A part of me also wanted to get out of the day room where all anyone could talk about was Harriet's kiss with the prince.

"I'm glad you invited me out today Isabelle. I used your note as an excuse to get away from Lexi actually. It gets awfully stifling inside when all she does is blabber on and on about herself, it's annoying."

I give Hadley a grin as I saddle up the black mare I had chosen to ride.
Hadley chose a brown warmblood, and was taking her time as she stroked its mane.

"I'm glad I could be of help. And from what I've seen so far, Lexi does seem rather obnoxious." I say and Hadley laughs out loud.

"I would agree."

I hook my foot in the stirrup and pulled myself up and into the saddle of the horse.

"You done this before or something? I know a good rider when I see her." Hadley asks, getting up effortlessly onto her own horse.

"Once or twice." I say with a shrug and Hadley gives me an impressed look.

Hadley had her orange hair tied back in a ponytail under her helmet, and the afternoon sun beams shone over her face enhancing the details of her freckles.

We move our horses away from the stable area and out across the oval. I adjust to the saddle and stroke the horses neck softly.

"So what prompted this little rendezvous? I didn't think you liked me much to be honest with you." Hadley said, turning in her saddle to face me.

I give her a half smile, "I may not have made the right impression then." I give her a smirk, "I think we could be friends."

I pull my camera from my satchel that was slung over my shoulder that also had my phone inside.

"You and your photos." Hadley says and smiles as I click a picture of the two of us on our ride.

"It's for my photo wall I'm making, I'll invite you over sometime to check it out." I give her a smile and she raises an eyebrow at me.

She nods, seeming intrigued. 

"I nearly forgot, I brought snacks." I say.

Hadley smiles widely as I show off the stash of food I had in my bag.

I see she was warming up to the friend idea.