by Mia Archer
“We’ll be going out the front entrance today,” she said. “It’s time to act like the royal on vacation.”
I sighed. I’d really been spoiled the past couple of days living life like a normal person and not having any hint of the princess lifestyle leaking through. Well, almost no hint. I suppose the secret was out after those pictures yesterday from the Princess Cruise. And now the word was really going to be out if they were rolling out the red carpet for me.
I stepped out into a dizzying array of flashes. It looked like every local news organization and even some of the nationals had shown up to see the bad girl princess of Allora making an official state visit. I wondered how many of them would’ve shown up if we did this yesterday before those pictures with Dani surfaced and caused another minor scandal.
Dani. My heart ached. I wondered if those pictures had somehow gotten back to her already. It seemed impossible that someone from her group wouldn’t see them and let her know. I wonder how she’d react when she found out who I really was. I felt guilty for not just telling her when I had the chance, but I’d enjoyed just being a regular person for a couple of days and I hadn’t wanted to shatter the magic.
“Princess Amelia! Can you tell us more about the girl you were with last night?”
“Sources in Allora saw a private jet with the royal crest leaving shortly after those went public, can we expect a royal visit?”
I grimaced. Apparently father was getting a royal welcome from the U.S. State Department, but they’d somehow managed to keep that news from leaking to the press. A wonder in this country where they seemed to circle around any juicy developing story like so many vultures. I could only hope something more interesting than my love life came along to dominate the news cycle.
Then we were through the crowd of reporters and into a crowd of people from the park sent to welcome me. There were various creepy suits representing cartoon characters from the Royal Company lineup. They were rendered even creepier by the never ending smiles frozen on their faces forever. Ugh.
Beyond that was something that really got my attention, though. None other than Princess Reina from Reina’s Love, one of my favorite Royal Company movies. A movie that had gone even higher on my list lately since meeting Dani in the hedge maze from the very same movie.
I mean I knew on some level that this wasn’t really Princess Reina. Cartoon princesses didn’t just come to life and stand right in front of you smiling and waving, after all. Still, there was something about seeing the actress right there smiling at me that turned me into a giggling pile of fangirl mush.
It was almost creepy how well the Royal Company had wormed its way into the fabric of my childhood to get that sort of reaction.
She curtseyed to me, looking absolutely gorgeous in a sparkling green dress. I instinctively curtseyed back at her even though I was in shorts and a T-shirt. Old habits die hard and all that.
“Welcome to Royal Realms Princess Amelia,” she said with a little giggle that was an almost spot-on recreation of the giggle from the movie.
Amazing. They really went the extra mile with the actors at this place. She also blushed just a little. I wondered if she was as starstruck at the prospect of meeting a real princess as I was meeting a fake princess.
Crazy.
“Nice to meet you to, um… Reina?”
She smiled and reached out to take my hand. “Of course! I was so happy to see you’re staying at this resort. They have an exact copy of my hedge maze, you know.”
And so I found myself being led by the fake princess into a waiting limo. Black SUVs that were no doubt filled with Felix and some of his security people. Beyond that were motorcycle cops with their lights flashing, ready to make sure we didn’t have to worry about anything pesky like traffic congestion.
I was pulled into the limo and surprised to see that it was just me and Reina. Or the actress playing Reina. I sat back against the comfortable seat and let out a sigh. I was traveling to the park first class, but what I wanted more than anything was to be taking the train along with everyone else to meet Dani.
Though I guess if what Renata was hinting at earlier was true then I would see Dani during the parade I was supposed to be the guest of honor for later. I didn’t know if I was more happy at the thought of seeing Dani or terrified at the thought of her looking up into the stand and seeing me there and realizing who I was.
I needed to do something to head that off. I needed to know if she knew about the scandal that was brewing around her, though I didn’t think it was fair to think of it as a scandal. Not really. I was just kissing a girl I liked. Why should everything I do turn into a press circus and a scandal, damn it?
I pulled out my phone. At least I could send out a quick message, only as I sat there trying to think of what to say I couldn’t think of any way to say what I needed to. There wasn’t exactly a canned message for telling someone you were actually secretly royalty and oh by the way they should also probably watch out because they might’ve just been put into the middle of a developing international scandal.
Finally I decided to go with something innocuous.
“How’s it going? Having a good day?”
I really hoped she’d respond even as I wondered if this was maybe how she felt yesterday when I didn’t respond to her messages right away.
Renata stepped into the car as well and pulled the door shut. I raised an eyebrow.
“How did you manage to pull being near me after what you did yesterday?” I asked.
“The same way I got to be in your room this morning. Friends in high places,” she said.
“Right. So what’s the plan for today?”
Only it wasn’t Renata who said anything. Reina, the actress playing Reina, leaned forward with a huge smile plastered on her face that just wasn’t natural. I could sympathize. It was the sort of smile I had plastered on my face at public events. Present the perfect face to the world and all that.
“We have a magical day planned for you, Princess Amelia,” she said. “First you’ll be taken to the Princess Breakfast where you’ll get to have a special meeting with little girls who signed up. They’re going to be so excited to see a real princess!”
I held up a hand to stop her. “Can we dispense with the act for now, please?”
The actress shook her head, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“Look, I know you probably have a role to play out there in the park, but it’s just us here in the car right now. What’s your name?”
The girl frowned as though I’d somehow broken her. “But I’m Reina of…”
“Seriously. You’re not going to insult me or anything. I know what it’s like to always have to be on in public. You can relax here.” I extended a hand across the short space in the back of the limo. “I’m Amelia. Just Amelia. You don’t have to add in the princess part every time.”
The girl leaned forward and took my hand. Then she smiled. An actual genuine smile rather than the fake princess smile.
“Sorry, but they really ingrain that stuff in us,” the girl said. “I’m Katie. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Katie. So what can we really expect today?”
Katie barked out a quick laugh. “They’ve got a real princess in the park and you know how princess obsessed this place is. It’s an awesome job, but they’re going to milk you for it. You’ll get to see what a day in the life is like for one of us.”
“I guess that’s not too bad. I’m pretty used to that sort of thing anyways.”
The princes Katie wasn’t as much fun as Dani, but she was cool enough to talk to which I suppose was better than I could’ve expected when I hopped into the car with her. We went over the day chatting like old friends. It was amazing how similar the fake princess and the real princess experience were on the surface.
As we chatted I glanced over to Renata a couple of times. She had a thin smile on her face but otherwise she kept quiet aside from occasionally shooting off
a text message. I thought about trying to text Dani again, but decided against it. If she wasn’t answering then she probably had a good reason, and I didn’t want to get into a conversation that would suddenly come to a stop when Felix was around anyways.
It was time to face the park in an official capacity. I just hoped I could figure out a way to talk to Dani before she saw the pictures that would no doubt result from last night and today and jump to the wrong conclusions. Or before she looked up from marching with her band and saw that I was up there smiling down and watching her.
Yeah, I didn’t see how I was going to get out of this one.
21: Dani
My phone buzzed in my back pocket again and I wanted so desperately to reach down and grab it. There was no doubt in my mind it was Amelia texting me. I was pulling the same thing on her that she’d pulled on me yesterday, but at least I had a good reason.
I knew it was her because the only other people who’d be texting me were standing around me on a backlot in the park getting their instruments ready. None of them had their phones out because Fredericks was watching everyone very closely to make sure they were focusing on getting ready for his precious parade and not texting people. He’d already confiscated one phone, and I didn’t want to run the risk of having mine taken away for the rest of the day or something.
Then I’d have no chance of getting in touch with Amelia. I certainly couldn’t remember her complicated European number. Not that I’d use someone else’s phone to get in touch with her either. Then that someone, most likely Sarah, would have the number in their phone and I most certainly didn’t want that happening.
“You doing okay?” Sarah asked. “You seem a little worried about something.”
“It’s nothing,” I replied. “I’m just glad we decided to go with polo shirts and not the full uniforms.”
“Yeah, that would’ve been a bitch in this heat. I don’t think he was ever that serious about it, though,” she said.
I turned to her and raised both eyebrows to let her know what I thought of that. “Are you kidding? Colin’s older brother was on the last trip four years ago. He said Fredericks made them march in their full monkeysuits. A couple of people passed out and he nearly got fired. I guarantee you that’s the reason we’re all standing here in nice comfy polo shirts. It has nothing to do with him being compassionate or anything.
“Yeah, that does sound like something he’d do,” I said. My phone buzzed again. Not the long buzz that let me know someone was texting me a new message, but a short buzz that was the phone’s way of screaming “hey idiot! You’ve got a message!”
Sarah must’ve heard the buzz. She glanced down and I reached out and smacked her shoulder.
“Checking out my ass you creeper?”
“Not checking out, though if you want to look at mine that’s fine. We can’t do anything since I’m taken, but I have been working out and it’s always nice to get an opinion from someone other than Devon,” she said.
I smacked her again. “Dream on. Even if you did swing that way it would be way too fucking weird.”
“I’m insulted. I thought you were supposed to fall for your best friend or something,” she said. “Has television lied to me?”
“Yup,” I said.
Sarah stuck her tongue out and I giggled. We joked like this all the time. I’m sure someone watching from the outside might think she was actually upset that I wasn’t into her, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I was actually really glad that was one awkward stage of the coming out process I hadn’t had to go through, though she had seemed genuinely disappointed, just a little, when she realized I was coming out to her but I wasn’t hitting on her.
Too bad.
“So are you going to tell me who’s messaging you yet? Or is that still a big secret that no one can know?” Sarah asked.
“Still a big secret that no one can know,” I said.
“So you admit there’s a secret?”
“I will neither confirm nor deny that there is a big secret going on with me right now,” I replied. “Can’t you just drop it already?”
“Of course I can’t drop it! I’ve got nothing to entertain me here. This media blackout we’ve been on all morning is driving me crazy.”
“Yeah, it does seem a little excessive for Fredericks to cut off our morning in the park and force us to hang around back here for a few hours.”
“Something tells me this is our punishment for daring to be out late last night,” I said. “We went off the reservation once. He’s not going to risk people not showing up for the whole reason we’re here at a discount in the first place. Then he wouldn’t get his vacation down here every four years paid in full by the school.”
“I guess you’re right about that,” she said. “Still, it’s a shitty thing to do.”
“Well if this is the worst punishment we get then I’ll take it.”
Even if it was driving me crazy as well. What I wanted more than anything was to see Amelia again. Way more than I’d wanted to see her yesterday morning when I was frantically texting her and worrying that she might not want anything to do with me. After that magical series of moments we shared I needed her. Needed to feel her against me. Needed to chat with her. Basically I needed her in the worst way and here I was standing around in the heat watching people tune their instruments for the twentieth time that morning.
Fredericks was an idiot. By the time we got out there everyone would’ve been playing their instruments out of sheer boredom long enough that they were going to be worn out.
“I want everyone’s attention! Please, everyone look to me up here,” Fredericks shouted. He stood near a white fence that was blinding in the bright sun. Everyone turned to look at him, and there were more than a few hostile stares in that crowd.
No one was happy about being stuck here today when they could’ve been out there enjoying themselves. Luckily no one else had made the connection between us being forced out of bed early to hurry up and wait here all morning and the group of graduated seniors who’d come back late the night before.
Fredericks wasn’t lying when he said he’d think of some way to punish us. He always did.
“This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The moment we’ve been practicing for all year long. I know that all of you are going to do your absolute best out there, and I want you all to remember that you’re representing your Tiger pride!”
He swelled up as he said that and I suppressed a giggle. Sometimes it was hilarious watching the man swell with school spirit when he was such a geeky band dude all grown up. I had more than a sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t gone to any games that weren’t mandated as part of his time in pep band back when he’d been in school either, but he was a school employee now and he had to tow the party line I guess.
“Now everyone get into your positions!”
Everyone milled about for a moment trying to figure out where they were supposed to go. Fredericks went down the line setting everyone up and making sure everything was perfect. I guess it really was a lot of pressure on him considering everything we’d been auditioning for over the past year boiled down to this next half hour.
I had it pretty easy on that score, at least. Sarah and I were at the front of the band and just before the majorettes who were standing around looking even more bored with their flags at all sorts of odd angles. All we had were our whistles. One of the advantages of being a drum major. Majorette. Whatever the word was for girls who directed the band while we were marching.
The upshot is once the band got moving we were the ones in charge. It also meant we didn’t have to carry a heavy instrument in the blistering hot sun which was a plus in my book.
“You ready to do this Sarah?” I asked.
“More than ready,” she replied.
I felt a twinge of sadness as I looked at the band arrayed out before me. This would be the last time I ever got a chance to do this. The last time I ever marched in a parade.
The last time I ever blew the whistle and everyone raised their instruments in perfect timing. The last time I’d get blasted by a wall of sound moving down the street. Thinking about all those lasts made me feel a little misty eyed.
I was lucky that I even got this last moment. If this was a regular year when we didn’t make the trip to Royal Realms then my last parade would’ve been last year at the end of summer for homecoming. I suppose I should be glad that we got this one final hurrah before going off to college.
I heard the drums start up near the middle of the band and then abruptly stop with a shout from Fredericks. I grinned at that yell. Colin was no doubt behind that. He was in charge of the heartbeat of the band, and unfortunately with him running things it meant that heartbeat was off tempo and irregular more often than not. That meant Fredericks would be back there bothering them rather than up at the front bothering us.
And thinking of Colin reminded me of all the things I wasn’t going to miss about being in band. I suppose I could thank him for turning what should’ve been a melancholy moment about growing up into relief that I’d be going off to college soon enough where I wouldn’t ever have to see him again.
My phone buzzed again and out of instinct I reached towards my back pocket. Sarah hissed and I stopped. It was a testament to how crazy not answering my phone was making me that I even reached for it in the first place. If Fredericks saw that when we were standing in position at the front it could’ve been bad, though.
As though thinking of him was enough to summon him Fredericks was there in front of us and he was all smiles. He smacked his hands together and rubbed them.
“So are we ready to do this ladies?” he asked. “This is when the magic happens!”
“Ready,” Sarah said.
“I’m also ready,” I replied.
“Good. Let’s go ahead and warm up. They’ll be opening the gates to get us out onto the parade route shortly.”
For the next ten minutes or so I was too preoccupied with running the band through warming up to think about Amelia, though she was never very far from my mind. I ached when I thought about her. I felt chills thinking about last night. Only for the moment I had a job to do and I concentrated on that. Finally when we were finished Fredericks reappeared off to the side and looked even more nervous than usual.
