Anthony and I are currently practicing entering properly, going up and down the stairs at grandmas, while Mia is elsewhere presumably doing the same with Joseph.
"Entering" I say slowly walking down the stairs.
"At the grand ball, you enter with the queen but at the state dinner, you enter unaccompanied" he explains, "smile. They're all happy to see you"
***
As I walk down the stairs, with my head held high I hear things like; "Ah, there she is" "Beautiful"
"Well done. The worst is over. You look stunning" Ant whispers in my ear once i've met him at the bottom of the stairs. "Our diligent Prime Minister, Sebastian Motaz" he introduces me to a man.
"Hello" I say, smiling.
"And his lovely wife Sheila" Ant continues.
"Nice to meet you" I say.
"And their charming daughter Marissa"
"Hello"
"I'm not allowed to go to the party" Marissa complains, we all chuckle.
"Dinner is served" someone announces. We all walk into the dining room. I am sat opposite Mia, the Prime Minister and his wife.
"Her majesty, Queen Clarisse" as grandma walks into the room everyone stands out of respect.
Everyone begins to fall into conversation and Mia has a few "little clumsy moments" as she described.
"Shall we adjourn to the grand hall for coffee?"
***
Mias POV
"I'm sorry I let you down dad. I'm not built for this. Aurora is. She was in comfortable conversation with anyone that introduced themselves to her."
"Goodnight Louie" I say sighing.
***
Back to Aurora's POV
I'm with grandma spraying plants in a greenhouse.
"So Aurora, about that Daniel boy" grandma starts, "tell me about him"
"Well we where friends for years. He was in almost all my classes. He was always so kind to me and he made me laugh. If he saw me in a bad mood, he made it his mission to make me smile. So when he asked me on a date, around a year ago, I didn't hesitate to say yes. We went on a couple more dates and he asked me to be his girlfriend. Actually not long after me and you met we said I love yous. He treated me like a princess before I even was one. When he found out he told me 'crown or not, your still Aurora Thermopolis. The girl I fell in love with'" I tell her, fondly. Even speaking about him puts a smile on my face.
"Well he sounds wonderful. But do be careful dear. The press will do anything to find a story. I highly suggest you keep this relationship as quiet as possible"
"That was the plan. We both agreed that our relationship was ours. A private thing. Neither of us wanted it to be anybody else's business, because it's not"
The two of us spend the whole day together. Going to the pier, walking along the beach, just laughing and smiling. She even tells me about my father.
***
Getting out of the limo, I am greeted by lots of people stood waiting outside school. The second I step out the car camera flashes start going off.
"Hi, princess. May I have an autograph, please?" a little girl asks.
I smile and bend down to be at her level, "of course, sweetheart. What's your name?" I ask taking the pen and paper that she hands me.
"Lily"
"Lily? That's my sisters, best friends name. They do everything together. She's a lovely girl." I say and we both smile. I sign the paper and hand it back to her.
"And what's your name?" I ask the brunette girl, standing next to Lily.
"Charlotte" she replies timidly.
"Charlotte? You two must be twins, huh?" I ask her.
"Yes"
"I have a twin. She's called Mia. We're very close" I tell the two girls, "Having a twin is very special. It creates a bond like no other"
I take a picture with the two girls before Ant leads me away to class. He's with me a lot now for my safety and I don't argue because I know it's important and we get on quite well.
***
"I look like an asparagus" Mia says, trying to pick a swimsuit for the baker beach party, that she's going to with Josh. I don't trust it but I just told Mia to be careful because she seemed so happy.
"But a very cute asparagus" mom replies, making me laugh.
In the end Mia decides on wearing her dark blue swimsuit and I wear a light blue bikini with a wrap skirt, but I put on some denim shorts for on the way.
Daniel texts me telling me he's outside so I go and get in the car and we go to the beach.
*Time skip*
We've been at the beech for half an hour. Daniel and I surfed. He is much better then I am. I can barely even stay on the board. We're now just walking along the beach. Somewhere along the way I ended up with Daniels jacket.
"You wanna go to mine and watch a movie or something?" Daniel asks. Both of our social batteries can either not drain at all or drain very quickly. Meaning either we stay out for hours or we barely make it one. I'm so glad he asked because I'm getting kind of tired. I'd already told mom I'd probably stay at Daniels and she agreed, trusting us both.
"Yeah, let me just go tell Mia first"
I go let Mia know and tell her to be careful before Daniel and I get into his jeep. When we've got to his house we sit and watch a movie before falling asleep, having a lovely calm night.
***
In the morning I wake up and Daniel drops me off at home. I'm not there long before I'm brought to grandmas house. Turns out Mia did not have as calm of a night.
"It was just last night that San Francisco's own little princess partied at the beach but what started out as innocent fun soon turned into allegedly too much fun. This is Suki Sanchez for KPFW." the news reporters voice says on the radio.
"Please say something." Mia says, looking sad and defeated.
"Well, there's not much to say. A picture's worth a thousand words and you have two pictures." grandma says, holding up a news paper showing Josh kissing Mia.
"I embarrassed the family, didn't I?"
"Not to put too fine a point on it, yes, you did." grandma tells her, "I think you're making a wise decision to abstain from the job." Now that, I was not expecting. I mean we're still kids, of course we're going to go out and have fun. I think she's being a bit harsh.
"I suppose I won't come to the ball" Mia says, making me frown.
"What?" I say.
"Of course you should come. You're still family. Just because you don't want to be out princess doesn't mean we're sending you into exile. Your mother's planning to come. All your guests are invited. Except your beach friends." grandma tells her. After saying goodbye Mia leaves but I remain seated.
"You can come in now." grandma says, causing Joe and Anthony to walk in.
"If I may say so that did not go very well" Ant admits, making me nod.
"Is this the way a princess should act?" grandma asks us both.
"No but it is the way a 15 year old should act. We're both still adjusting. And this is Josh. The guy Mia has had a crush on forever" I tell her.
"My information tells me that boy was using her. The kiss was merely a device so that he could get his 15 minutes of fame. And her friends didn't help either. Anna, Falana, Banana, Bandana, Montana" Joe says.
"They're not her friends. They've been awful to her for as long as I can remember. They only recently started to be nice to her because she's a princess and they think being her friend will get them famous. Not nice people" I explain.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Why didn't she have enough common sense to deal with this?"
"Like Aurora said, she's only 15 but today, she acted beyond her years. She showed great respect and gracefully accepted you criticism" Joe says, defending Mia, while still being careful of his wording to avoid coming off being disrespectful.
"You're both saying that as a queen, I was too harsh on her. I was critical of the person who is the princess of my country"
"No. I'm saying, as a grandmother you might have been too harsh on your granddaughter" Joe tells her.
"Do you three think she can do it?" grandma asks Joe, Ant and I.
"Oh, I have no doubts, ma'am." Joe admits and Ant nods in agreement.
"Seeing how much progress she's made in a few weeks? I know she can" I tell her.
"I thought so, too"