Out From the Rabbit Hole

I never got a chance to do anything. Ever.
'It's too dangerous.'
Well, how would I know? I, Alyson Fayette, had never been twenty feet from home without a bodyguard, much less on a trip around the world.
And just for the record, they wouldn't know either. My parents were too caught up in their empire to concern themselves with the outside world (outside of galas and social events, of course. The Fayette Empire spread from the rural United States to the polluted cities of Beijing, and I have neither seen, talked about, gone to, nor heard about until recently. I was always in the dark about everything. I was always rich, and I knew that, but I didn't know why, and it ticked me off.
I was homeschooled. In everything from history to martial arts to contemporary foods, and I excelled at all of them. Perhaps becaouse I had nothing else to do except learn.
I've asked many a time to leave and travel. Nowhere insane, maybe a big city like Chicago. But no, it's too dangerous. I'm their heir, to that vast empire they call Fayette Enterprises. I'm too valuable. They just didn't understand. But my argument has been "I can't take over your empire without prior knowledge. In the real world, not some mock classroom you remodeled for me." I would comment bitterly. Don't get me wrong, I loved my parents, but they needed to free the reins a bit. Not my best argument, I must admit, but after years and years and years of arguing, debating, and proving my point, they're finally consented, and in a grand way. I'm about to go on a trip around the world. With other kids my age. The best seventeenth birthday ever. It was going to be perfect. I would travel, make friends, and get to see the world! What could possibly go wrong?