*The picture on the side or above is what Melody's big family looks like(I do not own the picture)*
Mel's POV
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I slowly open my eyes and take in my surroundings. I bolt up sitting straight and start to panic once I realize I'm not at home.
"You're finally awake," a soothing voice says, beside me. I quickly link it with Ethan's and visibly relax. He's sitting on the chair on the left side of my bed.
"Where are we? How'd I get here?" I question confused.
"One of the guards carried you while we took the journey to come here. We're in your castle."
"Where is here?"
"Oh, we're in another dimension. We're not on earth anymore."
I look through the room and see that it's old fashioned, like from the medieval times. Mom wasn't kidding when she said kingdom.
This room makes my room seem so small. Even the bed is huge.
"This is your room," Ethan says, answering my unasked question.
"It's so big!" I exclaimed. I then blushed when I see Ethan staring at me.
"So your mom said to meet us downstairs at the dining room when your ready. Dinner's about to start."
Ethan gets up and exits the room through the double doors. I get up and head over to the draped sliding door on the opposite side. I open the curtains and see that there's a balcony and the sun is setting. The town looks stretched out far and I can barely see the forest from here. I wonder if I have vampire enhanced sight. I sigh deeply and walk back to my bed. That's when I notice my belongings are next to it, including my phone and laptop, thankfully. I notice the big clock over my door and see that it's 6:00.
I grab my phone and put it in my back pocket. I'm still wearing the same outfit from morning. Oh well, I'll change later. I open my door slowly bracing for the looks of the house-I mean castle. I see a woman looking down at the floor as she waits for me. Once she senses me exiting the room, she looks up at me and smiles.
"I'm here to bring you to the dining room, Princess Melody," she says.
"Oh ok, what's your name?" I ask.
"Laura," Laura replies.
"Hi Laura," I say smiling. She's already on my good list.
"Let's go shall we?" She says and leads the way. We walk down the really long spiral stairs.
'I should learn how to use my vampire speed. This is so tiring'
Finally, we reach the second floor of the castle. We walk into the dining hall and I immediately stop. Literally every single person stops talking and turn to stare at me. I start feeling anxious and finally, my mom speaks up.
"Hello Melody, come join your friends. They saved you a seat," Mom says cheerily. I quickly walk to my friends and sit down between April and Jared. Mom speeds up to the spot where I was standing and automatically everyone goes silent.
"Everyone, Melody and her friends have returned to our kingdom safely and we have this feast to celebrate. We will protect Melody and treat her as we should, understand?" she says sternly. Everyone claps as my face turns bright red in embarrassment. I've never had this much attention before.
"Awe she's blushing," Jared says and I elbow him hard in the stomach.
"Oof," he gasps, "that hurt!"
"If you don't want me to do that again you Better shut up!" I whisper back. Some vampires smiled at me and I immediately shut up, remembering that vampires have enhanced hearing.
"Honey I'll teach you how to mind link so that your conversations can be private," mom says sweetly. Jared, Kate, Mason, and Mariana snicker. My face heats up as it turns bright pink.
"Mom" I exclaim. Mom just smiles at me, obviously ignoring my embarrassment. I need to calm down. Finally, a row of chefs bring huge silver platters and bowls filled with food.
'How can ten chefs cook for so many people?' I question in my head, knowing that mom is listening to me. Surprisingly, she doesn't say anything. The chefs place the food down on the table and each give me a smile before leaving. I return the smile. I wait for mom's signal to eat, not knowing the customs of this place. She nods her head yes and I happily dig in. No one stares at me thankfully. When we're done eating, everyone gets up to go to the living room which is three times bigger than my room. I stay to help the maids clean up the table.
"No miss you mustn't help," Laura says as she picks up the plates I'm holding.
"Why not? I do it at home." I say confused.
"Your home is also here," she corrects me, "these are more dishes than you have in your other home. You'll overwork yourself," she says sternly. I'm surprised that she can talk to me that way, but I'm glad because I don't want people treating me like a princess from a fairytale.
"I won't overwork myself," I say. Laura probably knows I'm as stubborn as my mother and drops the subject. I pick up the leftover dishes and follow her into the humongous kitchen. This time I'm not surprised because I expected it to be this big. I see the chefs making dessert. Chocolate pound cake with chocolate icing. Mmm my favorite!
"Princess you should return to your mom. She'll be wondering where you are," Laura says. I nod to show I understand and swiftly walk back towards the living 'room'.
I walk straight to April and sit next to her on the couch.
"Darling, I want to introduce you to your family," mom says.
I gasp in shock l and ask, "You mean all 30 of these people are my family?" I ask in disbelief.
"Yes, they are," mom says confidently.
"Wow" I see groups of five people sitting together in category of male and female.
"This is my father," mom says while pointing at a man with a little grey in his hair.
"And they are my brothers," mom says while pointing at the rest of the men sitting next to grandpa. Wow, I'm already calling him grandpa. Mom moves to the next group of men.
"This is my grandpa," she says while patting a really old man's back.
"And they are my cousins," she says while pointing at the rest of the men sitting next to my great grandpa. Next, she walks over to the row of girls. I tune out until she mentions my guards.
"These are your guards. I like to include them as family because they've been watching over you ever since you were a baby." I blush at what she said and the guards chuckle lightly.
"Nice to meet you everyone," I say as sincerely as possible while smiling. So far no one's frowning at me.
"You will get to know their names in time. I can't imagine remembering everyone's name in one day," she says knowingly. This is the best birthday gift anyone could ask for. To meet your whole family and find out none of them hate you. I wonder if anyone remembers my birthday.
"So where's everyone else in this kingdom?" I ask, wanting badly to know.
"Well, I thought it would be too overwhelming to see every single person in the kingdom, so most of them are in their rooms. Some are outside and some like to live outside the kingdom so you can see some huts surrounding the kingdom. Don't worry, everyone gets fed," mom says seeing the worry in my face.
"Oh OK," I say feeling relieved.
"You look tired, you should go to bed," mom says sensing how tired I am.
"Goodnight mom," I say sleepily as I hug her.
"Goodnight honey," she says back. I step back and turn towards the stairs. April catches up with me and walks at a steady pace next to me. I can feel the presence of Laura walking behind me.
'She's probably making sure I don't get lost'
"My bedroom's right next to yours," April says cheerily. I don't know where she gets the energy to be like that all the time.
'She didn't even scream when the man leaped at us' I mentally shudder at that thought.
"Cool," I say.
"I want to see it before we go to bed," I say. Finally, we reach my room and April guides the way to her room. It's on the right of my room. We walk in and I grin.
"It's the same as my room," I say happily.
"I'm curious about why my family isn't dressed in medieval clothes," I say as I sit on her bed. April laughs at me.
"What?"
"We're in the 21st century! It would make sense to dress like it also, but why the maid?" she asks.
"That is weird," I say.
"What, the castle?"
"Yeah"
"We'll get used to it, give it some time. Lets go check out your room." Leave it to April to make it seem like everything is totally normal. We exit her room and enter mine.
"Wow it's actually the same," April shouts. I hiss at the pain in my ear from her shouting right next to me.
"Sorry, got a little carried away" she apologizes.
"It's ok. Having enhanced hearing can be a pain. Is there wifi here? Since it's the 21st century?" I ask hopefully.
"I don't know silly," April says amused.
"It would be awesome if there is because I CANNOT live without my phone."
"Same girl, well it's time to call it a night," April waves at me and closes the door behind her. I walk over to my closet and open it. It's a walk-in closet like at home. Thankfully, I see that all my clothes are already in there, including some new night gowns. I take out a light blue night gown and smile at how pretty it is. I guess I'm going to wear this to bed. I change out of my dirty clothes and look around the room, searching for the laundry basket. I see a rectangular hole in the corner of the wall and recognize that it's a laundry chute, just like at home. This castle is similar to my house in some ways, it's comforting. I walk over to it and throw my wrinkly clothes in. I walk back to my gown and put it on. 'Hopefully I'm not required to wear gowns for bed, it's annoying.' I climb onto my large bed and pull the blanket over me. Right before I close my eyes, I see a small ball of white light glowing before me.
'Must be the trick of the light' I think as I fall into a deep sleep.