Royally Normal

3

I'd been out of the country before but only to Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas. I'd never been to Europe or so I thought.

We left New York at 8:15 at night and landed in London at 8 that morning. I slept all of the flight there and my parents were making us wear hats and sunglasses.

I'd seen so many pictures of this city on Google and in textbooks, it was weird to see it in real life. Of course, I was seeing it from the backseat of a car so it wasn't quite the same.

We pulled up to this large brick house that had a half-moon driveway and a gate around it.

I turned to my dad. "Where are we?"

"Hampstead. It's about twenty minutes away from Buckingham Palace," he explained to me. "this is the first place your mom and I lived together. It's also where I proposed to her and where we brought you home from the hospital.

I gave him a smile. "It's pretty and there's away more space than New York."

"I know this is a lot of change in a short amount of time but I'm so proud of you bean." he expressed as someone opened the car door.

The inside of the house was in such pristine condition. The decor was so posh and the furniture choice was immaculate.

"All of the rooms are upstairs." my mom told us. "There are going to be a lot of people coming within the next five minutes."

Ari frowned. "Like who?"

"My old friend David who is coming to dress us, people with food, hair, and makeup, and someone to brief us on what's going on." she explained.

"What? I thought we were just going to meet with granddad?" I asked her.

My mom put her hands on my cheeks. "When your grandfather is the king you can't go up there looking any kind of way. Come on, I'll show you around."

The house had an indoor pool, a cinema room, and an amazing courtyard. My room had a beautiful statement floral wall, a king-sized bed, and knowing that it was my nursery when I was younger was a cool thought.

My mom was right.

Within fifteen minutes, caterers arrived with a full spread of breakfast. Maybe being royal wasn't so bad.

But then fifteen minutes later there were four people here to dress us. and three to do our hair and makeup. Thankfully all three of the hair and makeup artists were black. I didn't want to look like a ghost or have someone that didn't know how to handle my hair type.

"Oh my goodness Alena! They're all so big now!" my mom's friend, David squealed.

I recognized him from fashion weeks all over the world. He designed beautiful dresses but especially bridal gowns.

"Aiyla is sixteen, Ariella is thirteen, and our little Angelina is eight on Monday." my mom pointed us out to them.

"Yes, I love all of this girl power." he grinned. "Yvonne is dressing Ariella, Emily is dressing Angela, Stuart is dressing Archie, and I'll be dressing you and Aiyla. I set up our station in the master bedroom."

I nodded. "I can't wait to see what you have us in."

"I agree, bean. Let's head upstairs." my mom patted my shoulder.

David showed my mom and me all of the pieces that he pulled for us while people did our makeup and they told me crazy stories.

"Dad really shut down the London Eye for you?" I ask my mom in shock.

She smiled. "He did. We had a really good night that day."

"When you guys go to the palace, you have to show her your wedding dress," David told my mom. "it was designed and handmade by yours truly."