Chapter 2: Boots and Messes
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**1 month later**
"BRITALIA!"
"Shit!" I bolted upright in bed and smacked my face into a pillow and fell back down.
"Talia dear! It's the day of the PRESENTATION!" My mother exclaimed leaning over me.
"Huh? What's that?" I mumbled rubbing my tired eyes and yawning.
"BRITALIA! How could you have forgotten the Presentation of the ladies!"
"Oh that thing. Goodnight." I rolled back over to sleep.
"GET UP! It's already 7 o'clock in the morning and the presentation is today!"
"AT NIGHT! SHUSH! That's at least 12 hours away."
"That's barely enough time to get ready properly."
"I'll get up when I get up!" I shouted as I pulled my second pillow over my face and faced the wall.
"You better get up soon," my mom warned and walked out the door. Ahhh... finally, could she just not. I drifted off back to sleep.
**11 o'clock**
I groggily woke up and rubbed my eyes open. I heard the front door open and my mother say something about not awake yet. Probably talking about me, I wonder who's at the door.
I walked down the stairs and peeked around the corner to see a young man who happened to be the prince of this country. OH MY GOSH! He's soooo hot and gorgeous and....
I'm kidding, why the heck would the prince be at my doorstep and my mother not be screaming her head off. I don't even know what he looks like completely, just the pictures all over the newspapers that I don't really read, and I don't even have good facial recognition. It was Lianna at my door, who else.
The ball started at 8 o'clock at night and I left myself 9 hours to get ready. It was alright because I pride myself in speed getting ready, I could get ready for an average ball in 3 hours, a royal ball 5 hours. It's fine that I have four extra hours because I need some time to relax and color on my black boots. I already have worn them, but I haven't drawn on them with the night sky fabric paints yet.
It's probably a good idea to hide in my room for an hour or so to draw the designs and have my mom entertain Lia because honestly, I cannot deal with both of them nagging me to get ready at the same time, or questioning what I'm doing.
I drew a bunch of purple swirls, accented with silver on the shoes, I had always loved drawing things. I kept most of my sketches in my booklet under the bed because it's more like a diary rather than a sketchbook. It has all of my secrets in pictures, my past crushes (don't act like you've never had one, everybody has had one), basically my life in a nutshell.
I finally decided its a good time to announce my presence to the world, so I went down to begin the early stages of torture. Talking my ear off with commands.
"Hi," I said walking into the kitchen.
"Bri-" my mom started.
"Talz-" Lia said.
"Make-up and dres-"
"hair and sho-"
"Maids and serv-"
"Light food eat-"
"SHUT UP! I'mma do whatever the hell I want, whenever the hell I want." I shouted over them. I swear they are blinking like those animated cartoon characters, in sync, "thank you." I bowed and exited the room. Step one, survived.
I went back into my room to get the dress and a pair of my mom's old shoes that she wore a long time ago. Those are just for showing them the shoes that I paired with the dress rather than my combat boots, I'm not an idiot.
Knock, knock, knock. Probably Lia. "Who is it?" I call through the door.
"Lia!" I knew it. I rolled my eyes and opened the door. "PUT IT ON! PUT IT ON!" she squealed as soon as she stepped foot in my room.
"You. Need to chill out."
"But its just *sigh* I've seen it once and never forgotten it's beauty!"
"Woah. Too much sentiment over inanimate objects."
"PUT IT ON!"
"Damn." I grumbled. I rang for the maids to come and help me with the gown. Further proving my point that ballgowns are useless and frivolous, given that it is necessary for even the most capable women to need help to put on.
I came out of the bathroom and the maids left.
"Woah... It looks... amazing... like you can wear it with bedhead and look amazing! OMG IT'S UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!!! AHHHH!!!!"
"I know that I can look fabulous with bed head, you don't need to tell me."
"No no no. You need your hair and makeup done! What do you want to be? Casualist girl award?!"
"If it existed, yes."
"Wow. Okay, you know what? Just get your stuff done."
"Shush girl."
**11 o'clock**
I'm pretty sure I'm on my tenth cookie tonight. Lianna has been dancing with some duke, I think the Duke of Tredstone? Trivton? Treebark? I don't know. I looked down at my dress and saw the crumbs dotting the front of my dress. I annoyingly just brushed it off a little and wiped my mouth, sort of. I was at the edge of the room at the snack table, the one thing most women here tried to avoid. I looked around the ballroom. I've only been here 2 hours and I'm already so done, and it's too bad because they only start presenting the ladies to the prince at midnight until at least 2 am, and the ball ends at 4 am. Could I last five more hours in this wretched place. Glancing around the ballroom I saw a tall green feather darting through, what I have dubbed the "prince crowd." Mother...I am going to murder you in your sleep! Or maybe right freaking NOW!
POV Prince Jonathan:
Brightly lit room sparkled with all the gems and glaring dresses surrounding me, but all I wanted to do was get away.
"YOUR HIGHNESS!!!! LOOK AT MEEE!!!"
"AHHH!!!! I think he saw me."
"My daughter is a lovely lady you should definitely meet her sometime, perfect wife material you know."
"I am so worthy of you! I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER!"
"OMGGGG I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!"
"My daughter is absolutely perfect for a very very very very very really really really really high important role in our society. Perhaps the highest most powerful role for a woman."
God woman, no your daughter is not perfect for queen get that in your thick skull, and girls I do not love any of you get that in you pea brains. I am stuck on this stinking throne listening to shrill voices vying for my attention... I need to escape.
"Oh your great highness," flattery gets you no where, "My daughter," yay another mother, huh this one had a giant outrageous green feather in her headpiece, "is quite the charmer," hahaha very funny, "I'm sure she is here somewhere for you to meet her," yeah along with all the other girls surrounding me at the mome-
"MOTHER!!!!!!!! I am NOT here waiting for some prince to sweep me off in his arms! I HAVE LEGS YOU KNOW! TO STAND ON! Oh yeah! and a BRAIN, unlike these pea heads shrieking here." a girl in a glamorous silver dress burst through the crowd and yelled at the woman who was just speaking to me. Haha quite a charmer indeed, not.
"Must you do this, mother! I don't even want to be matched up like this! Just stop, it's annoying and stupid." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Your Highness, my daughter is not feeling well, and must be having some slight delusions. She is usually much more behaved and would be honoured to be spoken to by the prince of our land," my mother practically begged apologetically.
She stood up taller and addressed the whole crowd, "A message to y'all from the kingdom of common sense, YOU WILL NEVER CONVINCE SOMEONE TO MARRY A GIRL THROUGH PURE SUGAR COATING, you too mother. You know how much I hate being here and yet you force my hand! I do not plan on staying in this portion of the room for any longer than necessary." The fuming girl declared in a loud defiant voice.
Silence fell over the entire group of girls around me. She turned to face me, and she was beautiful, but her expression was one of pure fury, her hair starting to come apart, a few crumbs were on the front of her gown, and is probably the only girl who wasn't preening herself while in my presence. Then noticing it was me she had turned around to, she managed a short curtsy and stiffly said, "Sorry, your highness. No hard feelings, it's just a ladies being annoying cause you're the prince thing, and an annoying MOTHER thing." She gave her mother a piercing glare.
Well, this was a new one. Probably another crazy girl trying to get my attention, but quite an original way to do so. I wonder when she'll start begging to marry me. 3... 2... 1...
"Well, I'll be going now." What? No, 'OMG I HAD NO IDEA! MARRY ME?!' "Mother, I am going to drag you away from here and if I see you in this proximity again, I will find a way to lock you in the carriage," she turned back to me and bowed stiffly again, whispering, "cover your ears." Oh shoot, I immediately did not doubt her and placed my palms against my ears.
"MOVE!!!!!" her extremely loud voice boomed, rattling my ears even through my hands. The dumbfounded idiots surrounding me cleared a path directly out of the crowd, and even started dispersing! What the heck? She grabbed her mother's arm with an iron grip and pulled her through the path.
The girls around me started looking sheepish and moved slowly away. I glanced at the girl who caused this as she was stomping away, how was she stomping in the 10 inch stilettos that most of the girls were wearing? Momentarily her foot poked under her dress and I caught a glance at what looked like a sparkly black boot. Woah, I did not see that. Impossible, NOBODY wore a dirty casual boot to the royal ball.
I looked back around to find that most of the crowd was gone and those who were left were standing awkwardly. FREEDOM!!! I really felt like screaming that out, but I doubt that would be acceptable royal behavior. I looked back for the girl who had basically rescued me, she was grabbing a cookie then she headed for the stairs up the balcony. Almost no one went there, nobody wanted to leave the ball itself. If they wanted air, they would go to the garden where most of the men stayed to steal kisses from random girls.
Wait, wasn't the balcony locked? Where did she think she was going. There wasn't anything else up there. Maybe she didn't know it was locked. I stood up, wobbly from hours of sitting on a hard chair, and walked to the balcony.
I turned up the stairs and saw the supposedly locked door open to the sight of the girl in a silver dress, sitting on the ledge of the balcony with her feet propped up completely showing her casual shoe wear, leather black boots with laces, painted with glittery paint, quite well actually. She was leaning back on her arms staring out towards the city.
"Ahem," I coughed to announce my presence.
"GOD!!!" she screamed almost falling off the ledge, "Damn, damn, damn it, I knew I should have locked the door again, shoot! Umm... Sorry?"
"Was the door unlocked? Do you have a key or something?" I asked.
She finally looked up at me, and almost fell of the ledge again, finally realising I was the prince. I'm surprised, most women know me by my voice, footsteps, strand of hair, any small thing.
"Well, quintuple damn it! Now what? The friggin prince shows up, and I'm supposed to explain how I picked the lock to get away from the..."
"YOU PICKED A LOCK?!"
"Oh, I said that out loud, great. Fantastic. Look dude," DUDE?! I'm the mother freakin prince, lady, "prince, highness, whatever the hell they call you, I'm sorry and all, but you know ballgowns and formalities, just isn't my stuff. I just wanted to get away that's all, and this was a very convenient place." She stared back out at the fires in the city.
The moon shone on her dress making it look like she was glowing. "You know what? It's fine, just stay here. Balls and stuff, not my thing either, can't blame you for wanting to leave. Eh, but its mainly just the girls." I really couldn't. I had wanted to leave too, when I was being screamed at by thousands of girls. She laughed a little.
"Thanks," she said, "really."
"You know what? I think I'll join you, once I grab something," I announced.
"Go ahead," she said still staring out at the city.
I went halfway down the stairs and down the hallway there and to my art gallery, grabbing a pencil and my sketchbook and racing back up to the balcony. When I got back there, she had undid her fancy braids and knots and left her hail hanging down, stray hairs blowing around in the wind, her back was facing me and she had randomly produced a book out of thin air.
I sat down behind her on the porch and started to sketch.
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Hey Hey!
I think this story is going somewhere? I'm not sure... I don't really have a plan so just writing as I go, but I think it could work. So please continue reading even though I am total s**t at posting/writing quickly.
byE bEloVeD NoNExhiStAnT rEAdeRs!