Abdicatin' Royalty

la Musique

D'Art is French for 'art' (according to Google translate) and art is clearly the heart of this chapter. All forms, from music and dance to fashion designing and sculpting. Though there's no sculpting involved but the point is that there's a variety of art involved.

We flew from Westdene to la Musique on December 30th and Adrian was radiating excitement and impatience. Roughly, the distance between the two places is 400 km (249 miles) but my 'family road trip' idea was a definite no-no on the security side of things so we had to fly.

Adrian had fun, though; his first time on a plane, first time leaving Sharden province and the rustic camera he was using to take pictures of the clouds and the ground. He and I were watching the cartoons I grew up with on my laptop. He was really enjoying them which really warmed my heart because today's cartoons scare me!

I got Adrian hooked on 'Samurai Jack'; 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'; 'Codename: Kids Next Door'; 'Courage the Cowardly Dog'; the original 'Ben 10' series; 'Looney Tunes'; and 'American Dragon'. I would've shown him 'Kim Possible' but the flight wasn't long enough but I will show it to him and see what he thinks about it.

These are how cartoons are supposed to be, something you can pass down to your children; like an heirloom. Hell, Bugs Bunny's name is in the Apple dictionary! Nowadays cartoon are just something to poison your children. When I was kid, my parents told me that if I didn't behave, they wouldn't let me watch cartoons.

Christian (on the other hand) was dead silent for the whole hour flight, doing nothing but scroll on his phone then write things down. When curiosity's sting pierced deep inside me, I had to ask, "what're you doing?"

He sighed then ran a hand through his curly hair (which was let down to his shoulders, incredibly rare for him to do). I sat next to him and rubbed his shoulder, "planning an itinerary for Adrian and I. We know you can't come with us but I thought it would be nice for him to just get out and not be locked in a palace."

"I'm really sorry I have to do this to you guys," I voiced with guilt. "I really want to be out there, making a fool of myself with this bump but I just..."

"You can't blame yourself for this, Jai."

I rested my head on his shoulder. I knew he was right and that's why it was worse. It's Eddy's fault I can't walk around freely! I can't even pick my nose without The Scoop publishing it like I just broke the most sacred of rules. This is one of the hundreds of downfalls of being under Eddy's care.

I looked onto the itinerary and saw what Christian was planning to do for the next three days. 'Université des Rêves art flea market, Mi Casa pizzeria, Pierre Square, Chanté-Amorey Mall, Lost Kingdom resort, international native arts museum, French Revolution memorial site.'

My brain started aching from the historical places on the list. "I hope you realize that we're only here for three days."

"Give me a little credit," he smirked.

I sighed again then looked up at Christian - my head still on his shoulder. "Christian this my dukedom, you guys can literally come and go as you please. Whenever you like! There's no need to cramp everything into three days."

"When else are we going to have time? Adrian's got school, chemo, soccer and chess, I'll be working a sixty hour work week, dead as a dog on weekends. You'll be on baby duty until God alone knows when! After that, you're back to the charity work and ambassadoring and modeling. Not to mention we have a baby on the way."