Royal Academy Diaries I

Between The Lines ⚜ Ch. 8

While she'd had a tremendous win in orchestra, Gia still needed one in Crownology for their first hands on project.

Professor Amoriel explained. "As I told everyone at the start of term, you will have four projects of creating or re-creating royal jewels. You and a partner will be given wire, fabric, Swarovski crystals, and the proper tools necessary to complete the task. For your first project, you will have the freedom to create your own royal-worthy design. Your design must be based off of your carefully researched style of one famous jeweler. You will need to turn in a scale sketch along with the final creation." The slight woman clasped her hands and smiled. "You have one week, starting now."

Gia turned to Altina. "Well we're definitely not doing fabric," she said straight away.

"What's wrong with that?" she asked.

"Fabric crowns look cheap and fake, like you're trying too hard to be something you're obviously not," she explained.

The princess raised a brow.

Realizing what she was insinuating, Gia pursed her lips. "Shut up."

"What do you try to be?" Altina asked after a moment.

She looked to her, trying to think. "Normal. Likeable. Proud."

Altina leaned closer. "You're not proud?"

Gia was silent. "Like I said, I try to be," she said finally.

Thinking over her answer carefully, she said quietly, "Do you mean that people around you make you feel like you have nothing to hold your head high about?"

The princess sighed and shook her head. "I hope you never meet my father. He is a very broken man and can't help but break everyone around him. Now, for the project, I was thinking of doing Boucheron style."

"Gia," she said gently, "You don't have to try to be anything except what you want to be. You're strong, Princess, I know you won't break."

Tears stung at her eyes and Altina put a hand on her arm. "Thank you," she whispered.

Altina smiled and took out a blank sheet of paper. "So, Boucheron."

She watched her sketch a few tiara outlines, and couldn't help but smile. "You're good. We might just pass this."

Altina chuckled. "My mother made me draw from the time I was little. And funny as it sounds, I think it worked."

As she listened to him talk about her happy family, Gia felt a spark of hope that perhaps she could create that for herself one day. And on the tails of getting first chair, she felt truly happy for the first time in a while.