~Louis~
I pulled away from the girl who was clawing a hand up and down my chest, pawing at me like I was a piece of meat. Granted, I was basically no different than her, but there was a slight difference: I knew when to back off, she didn't.
She got the idea and backed away from me slowly as I surveyed the people around me at my table and the table directly to my right.
There were four regular commoners at the table directly to their right but I tolerated them because they were actually pretty great people, but only the people of highest echelon could sit at this table-the security guards made sure of that for logistical reasons as they were the ones with my family's permission to be closest to me. The rest were as close to royalty as one could possibly get, and then there was me.
Kara, the girl currently on my arm, was of noble birth with easily forgettable features but a nice enough demeanor, and then Jessica was born a baron but her family fell out of favor. William was Jessica's brother and they looked every bit almost identical had it not been for their different genders, and then there was Edmund, one of my very distant cousins, but he was born out of wedlock so he wasn't in line to the throne like my other cousins were.
And lastly there was Henry, the darkest of all of them and most certainly the outcast of the group despite being the one closest to the throne despite myself. He was My cousin on my father's side, making him the next person in line to take over the throne if something happened to me since his father, my uncle, had already passed away and Henry was his only child.
He kept to himself and was always a bit moody and unlike me he was never found in a precarious position with other females, putting him in a better light with the paparazzi despite his darker nature and always wanting to draw within himself regardless of the many trainings that were mandatory for the both of us to attend because of our duties.
The four commoners were Elizabeth, or Lizzy, Robert, Raina, and Mary. There were more females than males that surrounded me at our tables and for that I was happy, until they all started complaining at once and then I tried to tune everyone out.
"Did you hear about the Spencer's finding out they had a long lost granddaughter out there? Apparently, Lady Penelope Echols ran away with an American commoner and had her in a marriage that wasn't approved of. She died and now the daughter is coming here to live with the Spencer's and she's coming to school here!" Jessica squealed. Literally squealed.
I rubbed the space between my eyes to ward off the headache that was sure to come from the unnatural noise that came out of her mouth.
"So what? Who cares?" I asked them, not seeing the relevance.
"You've been in your own little bubble lately, haven't you?"
I just shrugged a shoulder at them.
"The Spencer's are the only living family left that could possibly have a legitimate claim to the throne that has no relation to your family. It has something to do with Mary Queen of Scots a long ass time ago but- whatever it takes too long to explain. Anyway, this new girl has even more influence than we do, the only person who comes close is you or Henry," she said to me and I quirked my eyebrows up in surprise.
"Maybe she'll be enough to please your grandfather, Louis. God knows none of the other girls you've ran around with has," Edmund teased me and almost all of the girls that I had a past with turned their heads sharply at Edmund in anger.
"What?" he asked them innocently. "It's true! The King doesn't approve of anyone for his grandson, not even almost royalty. Maybe he was just waiting for someone like her to come along," he said, defending his words with his hands up in mock surrender.
I rolled my eyes. I liked the idea of someone coming into my life that I could share adventures with, but I didn't want my family to approve, that would just mean one step closer to taking on a throne I never wanted. No, if I was to find a girl to be happy with, it wasn't going to be this new Spencer girl.
I would do everything I could to stay far, far away from her.
**********
~Malia~
The following week and a half consisted of paperwork, physical therapy, more paperwork, lab tests at the hospital, a few court hearings via video message about my legal guardian and some legal mumbo jumbo that I didn't bother understanding.
Most of my wounds had healed, but the bruises were still there and slowly fading, the ribs still fractured but they would heal in due time. The scars would never go away though, and that was the saddest part. Scattered across my body, there were many to choose from but the most chilling was the one where my step-father had held the broken bottle shard to the side of my neck, directly next to my carotid artery. I could pass that one off as an accident, maybe I was in a 'car wreck'.
The one on my cheek from the brass knuckles he'd used? That one was going to be a little harder to explain. Then there was the fact that I'd had three broken ribs and I still walked with a limp...Maybe I could say the car wreck was recent?
I groaned inwardly. If I wasn't going to be enough of a weirdo transferring in the middle of the school year, then there was no doubt I'd be treated like a leper after they saw how banged up I really was. I groaned inwardly, ready to be there already and to throw myself down onto my new, and hopefully comfy, bed.
"Ugh, how long is this plane ride anyway?" I asked Marissa, who I had come to affectionately refer to as Mar. She and I had grown close over those past two weeks, her showing me old pictures of my mom when they were younger and the fact that she loved her as fiercely as I did only strengthened our bond.
The hole in my heart from where I'd lost her started not to throb as much with her presence surrounding me, and if I squinted my eyes just a bit it was almost like I had my mom back.
The stuffy, freezing cold stale air of the cabin in the airplane was eating away at the calm atmosphere around me and I was starting to get restless.
"Just try to sleep, only seven more hours to go," she joked and I groaned, hitting my head against the seat rest.
Obviously I wouldn't be getting any sleep in mid afternoon, so I decided to pick up a tabloid from England in the mesh pocket of the seat in front of me.
Just as I was about to find the cover story about a playboy prince in some fancy boarding school, the stewardess announced that it was okay to turn our electronic devices back on and I almost thanked god out loud.
Putting the boring magazine back, I grabbed my phone and googled the differences in schooling in England and the US.
Everything. Everything was different. I groaned again and then went to my old photos. I scrolled through all of the crappy selfies, all of the screenshots of funny pictures, past the old pictures of me with my mom and settled on looking at the pictures of Daniel and I together that weren't far from the top.
When I got sad, I would re-save them so they were one of the first things I saw when I opened my photos.
We were smiling, kissing, happy in every one of the pictures. I only had nightmares about Daniel and what he went through in that war when I missed him too much, or when I was severely stressed out, and lately I had been having them again.
Visions of him walking in his army gear across a barren, desolate desert in the middle east and then the confusion as he stepped on a land mine. The split second of panic rushing across his features and then the inevitable moment when he accepted his death.
He closed his eyes and then...BOOM!
That was always when I woke up, the sound of the explosion shaking me to my very core. The fact that he came home in pieces making me want to vomit every single time I thought about it.
I couldn't stop the single tear that slid down my face as I thought of it and suddenly thought that sleep might have been a better alternative than strolling down memory lane.
"Wake me when we get there," I told Mar, but she was already conked out, her earphones in and the neck pillow firmly in place.
I reached in my bag and got out some antihistamine that I used for my allergies but also when I couldn't sleep and allowed the medicine to aid in knocking me out, shutting the window to the outside world and hopefully when I awoke I'd be somewhere much better than where I had come from.
***
"Wake up sleepyhead, we're here."
I opened my eyes groggily and sniffed, confused at where I was, and then it all came rushing back.
Robert didn't die, unfortunately, from his bullet wound. He was sentenced to twenty five to life for attempted murder, assault in the first degree, child abuse, neglect, endangering the welfare of a minor and a few other crimes that I couldn't quite remember in the moment.
I was going to live with my newfound relatives in England, and although it was new and terrifying, the situation was distinctly better than the life I'd previously been living in.
I gathered my things up as quickly as I could and opened the blinds to the window of the airplane just in time to see us touching the ground in England.
This was it, my fresh start, I thought to myself as I subconsciously made my way off of the plane and out onto the tarmac. Then came baggage claim and suddenly we were outside in the different England weather. It was dreary, but the strong sun rays were starting to poke through the light gray clouds.
Mar stepped up where the taxis were shuttling people to and from the airport and it was so strange to seem them driving on the opposite side of the road than what I was used to.
"Should I call and get us a taxi or-" the words died in my mouth as a shiny black limousine pulled to the curb right beside us and the driver stepped out and immediately got to work gathering our belongings.
I didn't have much with me considering I barely had a dollar to my name after the whole ordeal with Robert, but I did have my keep sakes, journals, pictures, collectibles and other knick knacks that I'd kept of my mother's...things I'd kept hidden from Robert so he wouldn't sell them to feed his gambling or alcohol addiction.
"Is this for us? Seriously?" I asked Mar, my mouth hanging ajar as I took in the vehicle before us.
"You'd better believe it. And you might want to get used to it. The Spencer name is a bit famous here in England, you'll grow to learn," she told me and I gulped, a feeling of butterflies racing through my veins.
"My last name is Echols. My mom changed it back to her maiden name when my dad left us, and I never took on Robert's last name when she remarried him. Where does the Spencer name come into all of that?" I asked her once we were situated inside the limo.
"Well, it's a double name, like the royals for example. Their name has multiple facets to it, the Windsor-Breckenridge name is a mouthful so they tend to shorten it to just Windsor. We are the Spencer-Echols, but we prefer to use the name Spencer at more formal events, and Echols when it is more casual or laid back. On important documents we use the entire surname."
"Huh. That's going to be confusing. So wait, I have been saying my name wrong my entire life?!" I asked her, wondering how my mother could have failed to tell me this.
"Not necessarily. Your official name here and what they will call you at school should be Lady Malia Elizabeth Spencer-Echols. Since you're not a royal you don't have a title such as Duchess or Countess or anything like that."
"Okay well at least I'm not some long lost Duchess or something."
"No, those higher titles are reserved for your grandparents, my mum and dad."
If I had been drinking water, I would have spewed it out all across the entirety of the extravagant limousine we were currently sitting in.
"You're kidding me, right?"
She quirked her eyebrows at me as if to say, 'not in the slightest.'
I drew in a deep breath, scared at the news of what she just told me.
"So what are their titles?"
"Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. My aunt and uncle are Earl and Countess of Wales."
My mouth was literally open, gaping wide at the news of what she'd just told me.
"Great. So my family is what exactly, royalty?"
"Eh, not quite, but we are the closest you're going to get without being actually born into the direct royal bloodline. My family had been trying to pawn your mother off on the Crowned Prince for a while, but once he married they set their sights on having a granddaughter to marry off to the son of the Prince."
"So what I'm a prostitute they want to sell out to some playboy who thinks he can control anyone because of some high and mighty title given to him just for being born? I don't think so. I don't care what anyone says I'm not going anywhere near any princes. Ever."
"That might be a bit of a problem..." Mar started.
"And why is that?" I questioned her sassily.
"Because you might be going to the same boarding school as him for the next year and a half..."