After school ended everyone started spreading rumors on what happened in Lyrica's class that morning. People were describing how the Prince's advisor was there to personally find Lyrica to give her a gift from the gift. It was then she was revealed as the engaged partner to the Prince, something Lyrica was unaware of and something she doesn't want to believe.
"So Lyrica how are we getting home?" Lyrica and Alice were hiding with their hoods on when they saw a bunch of reporters right outside of their school entrance. They were being held off by their school's security guards, but they knew they were there to find Lyrica.
"Ryan texted me that he'll find a way out into the student parking lot." Lyrica explained to Alice, "Seriously this is ridiculous. We need to get home..." Inside Lyrica wanted an explanation one what was going on by her aunt or grandmother since they probably knew why this was happening.
"Hey you guys!" They both turned around and saw Ryan running towards them and he stopped near them to catch his breathe.
"So what's the situation?" Alice asked him.
"There's not a lot of reporters in the back entrance so you guys should go there instead. I'll help bring you guys over there too."
"Honestly what is the principal doing about all of this?" Lyrica wondered, "I mean you have a bunch of reporters in the school, yet he's in his office probably playing eight-ball right now."
"Pfft." Ryan chuckled even in the most serious situation Lyrica could crack a joke, "C'mon let's get going. Keep your hood on Lyrica." He pulled her hood to the top of her head, "People are going to recognize you."
"Yea your right."
Alice looked at the two staring at each other and shakes her head.
Honestly he should just confess at this point.
The trio walked towards the back of the school. It wasn't too far from where they already are. As they walked the hallways were full of voices talking about the whole incident.
"I heard this from that girls class!"
"Really the fiancé? From our school?"
"It must be a load of fake news."
Lyrica felt embarrassed. It seemed like everyone only knew part of the story. No one actually thought about how Lyrica felt in her shoes. She was scared and nervous about the whole situation. Did she have to continue the whole week like this? With all the attention Lyrica only grew anxious.
"Hey are you okay?" Ryan looked back at Lyrica.
"Me? I'm just...A bit confused right now."
"Hey trust me, you'll make it through the week." Ryan always knew when Lyrica felt down. He always knew what to say to her when she was worried and she gave a small smile back to him.
They made it to the back entrance and there were only a few reporters there. Then there was a person who yelled out to them.
"I SAW HIS FIANCÉ AT THE FRONT ENTRANCE! YOU GUYS GOTTA CHECK IT OUT!"
The reporters ran like sheep's in a herd and made their way to the front entrance. The trio was surprised to see who yelled out, it was Lucia and she was standing there proudly.
"Your welcome." She winked at Lyrica, "Think of it as an apology gift for what happened in Hazel's."
"Thank you Lucia!" Lyrica hugged her tightly, "C'mon Alice we have to go run to the car now. I'll see you both tomorrow!" She waved goodbye to Ryan and Lucia.
They both booked it to the student parking lot. As they were running Lyrica caught a glimpse at the crowd waiting for her arrival at the front entrance. She was lucky enough to avoid that and they were able to make it to her car safely. She unlocked the car and threw her bag at the back of the car. She buckled her seatbelt, adjusted her mirror, and turned on the ignition.
"Am I going to have to carpool with someone else now?" Alice asked.
"I...I'm not sure yet. Let's see what your mom says." Lyrica looked behind her and backed out of the parking lot. They made their way home to find out the truth of it all.
- twenty minutes later -
"Aunt Mei were home." Lyrica yelled out. She took off her shoes and walked to the living room. She found her Aunt and her grandmother sitting across from each other, it looked like Lyrica had interrupted them. The TV was on and they were both watching the news.
"At Logan High School a young girl named Lyrica Park has been announced to be the First Prince of Valentino's fiancé." The news reporter announced, "Everyone was in shock when the news came out after a morning class at the school. Here is one of her classmates with what they saw happened." She pointed the microphone to the guy.
"Yea, so like uh, this good looking guy was like hey I'm the Prince's advisor here's your gift. But, then Lyrica was all like dude I don't even know you...So then like..."
Aunt Mei quickly pointed the remote to the TV to turn off the news when she heard Lyrica walk in.
"Lyrica." Her grandmother smiled with that warm smile she had always given her, "I cut you guys some persimmons." She pointed to the coffee table and on a plate were orange persimmons.
Aunt Mei looked at Lyrica with an anxious look on her face. Lyrica sat down next to her Aunt and then Alice walked into the living room.
"Are we having some sort of family meeting?" She joked.
"Alice, go to your room first, while we talk here." Her mother looked her straight into the eye.
Alice could tell her mother was serious so she just obeyed her, "Okay..." Alice walked away from the living room, but she wondered what was going on.
"So I'm assuming we're going to talk about this whole Prince thing right?" Lyrica asked them. She was a bit frustrated with the whole situation and wanted answers.
"Look Lyrica...Don't pay attention to what's happening. This whole royalty thing...We didn't want this for you at all." Her Aunt spoke, "Your mother...God this is a mess." She lowered her head and placed her hand on her forehead.
Lyrica looked at her a bit worried and looked back at her grandmother hoping for answers.
"Lyrica...Your mother, my daughter, went to Valentino one day on a college school trip. She was an art student and her class went their to study the architecture of Valentino. That was when she met your father." Her grandmother explained, "They bumped into each other and it was love at first sight for the both of them. But, your mother didn't know that...Your father was actually the Duke of Valentino. His last name was Castillo. Your grandfather and I were against them being together at first because she was so young. She still had her whole life ahead of herself. But...She truly loved your father and after a few years they married. Then a year after that they had you. Your mother's name was Lyra and your father's was Eric, they combined the both of their names to get Lyrica. You..." her grandmother pulled out a photo album from her side and opened it up, "You have your father's eyes. The eyes of the Castillo family. You are the daughter of the former Duchess and Duke of the House Castillo."
Lyrica picked up the photo album and looked at the photo closely. It was her mother who looked like Lyrica and her father with his pink eyes. Her father was holding an infant Lyrica and they were all smiling in that photo. Lyrica looked at the photo with sorrow knowing that both her parents are gone, yet this photo showed a memory she doesn't even remember. She then looked back up to her grandmother.
"So why...Why keep this from me? I don't understand?"
"We kept this from you to protect you." Her Aunt spoke in an angered tone, "I...I don't trust that royal society anymore after my sister died. Lyrica this was for your own good. We made sure to ignore those Valentino's and Castillo's even though they sent letters every holiday."
"What?" Lyrica said with dismay.
This whole time they wanted to contact me, but she stopped them?
"But why!" Lyrica shot up from her seat and furrowed her eyebrows, "What's the point of hiding it from me when this whole engagement thing is now known to the whole world? I mean you guys could've at least told me about my parents. This is the first time I've ever seen my parent's face's or even heard about them! What's so wrong about knowing the history of my family?"
"Because then you'll end up like your mother!" Her Aunt shouted, "You'll end up being curious and try to go over there too."
"What..."
"Mei calm down." Her grandmother looked a bit sad and got up, "What happened was in the past..." she reached out to Mei but she moved her arm away.
"I don't get how you could accept it so easily." She said in a dark tone, "This is why I was happy when you had lost your memory."
"I..." Lyrica was shocked about hearing everything. She felt a bit betrayed. How could they have not told her anything about her parent's, she was lied to for all these years. Lyrica walked away from the living room and walked upstairs to go to her room.
"Lyrica..." her grandmother faintly said. She looked at Mei, "You didn't have to yell at her like that. This is all new for her you understand that right?"
"Tch." Aunt Mei walked away to her room to calm down a bit as well.
As Lyrica walked upstairs she saw Alice sitting on the floor. It looked like she was listening to everything that happened downstairs. Alice didn't know what to say to Lyrica at first when she met her eyes, but words came out her mouth moments later.
"So...Are you going to drop me off tomorrow?" She asked quietly.
"I...I don't think it's a good idea. Your going to have to carpool with someone." Lyrica walked passed Alice and went into her room and locked it. She flopped onto her bed and stuffed her face onto her pillow. It was a eventful day for her, finding out she was of royal blood. But, it just didn't seem like a fantasy like how they portray it in the movies. A few minutes later she got a phone call from her phone. She picked up her phone from the side of her bed and it was Ryan calling her to her surprise. She placed the phone to her ear and answered him.
"Ryan what's up?"
"I should be the one asking you that." He told her, "How are you feeling right now? Are you okay?"
"I...I'm just a bit conflicted right now."
"Tell me about it." His words reaching out to listen to her really helped her out. Ryan had always been there for Lyrica through her toughest times. He had been there through heartaches and even mishaps with other people. She knew he always had her back.
"My grandmother had a talk with me...She said I'm the daughter of the Duke of Valentino."
"Woah, woah, woah. So the whole thing with the Prince? That's legit? They didn't just get the wrong person."
"No they some how found me. I just don't get why I never knew or why no one told me. I mean you would think that your father being that famous or maybe even important in another country...You would think someone would've recognized you by then. You know what I mean?"
"Yea I get you. I mean it's quite the hard thing to hide something as big as that. So does that mean your going to marry the Prince?"
"What! No! Ryan I don't think I'm at the age where I could get married, let alone be engaged to someone. I barely even know the guy except that he enjoys surfing at the beach!"
"How do you know that?" He chuckled.
"Twitter, anyways, I obviously don't want to be engaged to him at all. At most I would like to know more about my father's side, but I don't think that's going to happen."
"Why's that?"
"My Aunt is totally against me digging deep into this...It's a bit complicated I don't know if I can explain it. But, she just has a grudge against Valentino ever since my mother died." She explained to him, "I mean I could always just search online about Valentino and the royal families...But, I really just want to see it in person. I want to experience it first-handed what it was like when my mother went there. But, I know my Aunt would literally kill me if I tried. So...I think it's just best to forget about that idea."
"Lyrica..." Ryan sympathized with Lyrica. He could tell by hearing her desperate voice how much she wanted to learn about her family. He felt ashamed that he couldn't do anything for her in this situation, but only to give her some words of advice, "You know...I'm sure if you keep waiting a bit, maybe your Aunt will be okay with you learning more about your dads side. I mean I'm sure she just feels angry inside since that place has only brought bad memories for her. But, I'm sure after a bit more time she'll come to accept it. I mean there's no way she'll carry the grudge to her grave will she?"
"Yea your right." Lyrica stared at her ceiling light.
"For now just be patient with her. I'm sure she just wants the best for you." Ryan looked at the time and he needed to go hit the shower, "I need to go take a shower right now, but why don't you distract yourself a bit by doing homework. Have you even started on the AP Biology assignment?"
"I literally just got home Ryan, but yea your right. I'll go ahead and do that. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Mhm, see ya." He hanged up and walked out of his room.
Lyrica looked at Twitter and saw what was trending on number one.
The Prince's mystery fiancé, who is that girl?
"Haha, they make it seem like I'm a Pokémon or something." Lyrics threw her phone to the side, got up from her bed and stretched her arms out.
Ryan's right I should just do my homework to keep my mind occupied.
The rest of the day Lyrica tried to put her mind off things by continuing her homework. She never went downstairs to eat dinner because she didn't want to see her aunt. So she spent the night finishing up her homework and went to sleep.
- the next morning -
Lucia she wanted to carpool with me today...I wonder where she is?
Lyrica was standing in front of her house early in the morning. Lucia asked to carpool with her today so she decided to leave early. Lyrica told Alice this, but Alice didn't want to wake up early so she stayed behind to get picked up by a friend. The other reason why she came to her house early so she could also avoid talking to her Aunt since they haven't talked since yesterday's argument. Lucia texted Lyrica that night that she still felt bad about what happened at school so she said she would help her out. A few minutes later Lyrica saw Lucia's car pull up to her house and she waved at her.
"Hop in, I have a disguise for you." Lucia pulled out a blonde wig and big black sunglasses.
Lucia got into Lyrica's car and looked at Lucia in a questionable manner.
"Lucia there's no way I'm going to wear the wig. It wouldn't make sense either since I don't have one of those hair nets to hide my hair."
"Oh yea your right. I forgot about that...Well, you can still wear the glasses!" Lucia pointed out and placed the sunglasses on Lyrica, "See you look fine. If no one sees your pink eyes then you'll be fine. Plus I heard the reporters are outside school again."
"This early in the morning?" Lyrica said surprised she reached over to the seatbelt to buckle it.
"Yea...It's a bit crazy out there. It's a good thing we're going early so hopefully there aren't too many. But, some people were already posting about it on Instagram." Lucia looked behind and entered the road, "Anyways, you gotta tell me a bit about this whole fiancé thing. Did your Aunt tell you about it yesterday?"
"I'm the daughter of a Duke in Valentino." She bluntly said.
"Shut up, your kidding right? Your not joking or anything, theres no hidden cameras?"
"Lucia if I was kidding we wouldn't be hiding from the reporters."
"Oh yea...Your right." Lucia looked over to her mirror, "So I mean that's something to be happy about?"
"Happy about?" Lyrica didn't understand what she meant by that.
"I mean being of royalty isn't necessarily a bad thing. Aren't they rich? Maybe you have loads of money in Valentino."
"I guess your right, but that never really crossed my mind either."
"So what are you going to do about the whole situation? I mean if you are the Prince's fiancé, oh my god!" Lucia stopped the car harshly when she hit the red light.
"Lucia!" Lyrica had to grab on the handle on top when Lucia braked hard.
"My bad sorry! It just came to mind, but does that mean your going to be the one to escort the Prince? I mean remember what I was saying yesterday! If your his fiancé that's probably why they're announcing it right now! I mean his birthday is only kind of two months away? So does that mean your going over to Valentino?"
"No Lucia I'm not."
Lucia furrowed her eyebrows, who wouldn't want to escort the Prince of Valentino, "What! Why not?"
"Well first, I'm not interested at all of being someone's fiancé, especially if I don't even know the person to begin with. The only thing I know about the Prince are things I find in articles. He's good looking and all, but something about that smile screams to me that he's faking it. Secondly, my Aunt does not want me to go to Valentino at all. She will literally drag me out of the airplane if I even attempted to."
"Your Aunt is against it?"
"She just has this grudge against Valentino after my mother died." Lyrica explained, "Maybe shes just a bit traumatized about the whole incident. I'm not entirely sure."
- twenty minutes later -
Lucia and Lyrica walked to the back entrance of the school. There wasn't a lot of people out there other than a few reporters and some students walking outside. Lyrica had her big sunglasses on to make sure no one would recognize her. Suddenly, they both heard a voice call out to Lyrica.
"What are you wearing?" The voice said.
Lyrica and Lucia turned back and saw Aubrey. This girl used to be Lyrica's friend back in grade school to middle school. Until, she turned her back on her after a falling out. Ever since then Lyrica and Aubrey never got along. Aubrey had blonde hair that was always perfectly curled and wore the prettiest clothes she could find every day to school. Some wondered how she was comfortable showing up to school like that, but she always managed to pull it off. But, her spoiled and bratty personality was mainly because her father was a rich businessman who is currently the CEO of one of the biggest groups in the States. So whatever she wished for, her father would give to her easily like food.
"Aubrey..." Lyrica said in an annoyed tone, "We're just minding our business, why don't you try that?"
"Pfft!" Aubrey giggled, "And miss this?" She pointed at Lyrica, "What are you trying to do hide from the paparazzi? Are you some sort of celebrity now?"
"Nope! Just trying to try out some new looks." She said in a sarcastic tone.
"Well you look better than most days." Aubrey scoffed.
"Honestly with your dad's money why couldn't he buy you a better personality?"
"Ouch!" Lucia was laughing on the inside because of that burn.
"You!" Aubrey lifted her hand, but they heard Ryan's voice who rushed to the scene.
"You guys knock it off." Ryan looked at the two of them, "It's too early for this."
"Tch, she was the one who started it!" Aubrey crossed her arms.
"Whatever Aubrey. Honestly your so immature." Lucia said to her.
Aubrey had a angry look on her face knowing that she had been beaten there. So she angrily walked away from them to cool off.
"Honestly, I still don't understand why she's acting like that!" Lucia exclaimed.
"It's whatever. It's all in the past now. I just don't get why she always provokes me. If she didn't do that maybe I wouldn't be talking back to her."
"I mean Lyrica your just wasting your energy and time on her. Why don't you try to ignore her?"
"I wish I could..." Lyrica really missed being friends with Aubrey. She wanted things to go back to how they were in middle school, but, she gave up a long time ago since it seems like Aubrey had no interest in being friends again, "Let's just go to class."
The trio went to Ms. Hazel's class. Like always Ryan opened the door for the two of them and Ms. Hazel like every other day greeted Ryan. But, this time she also greeted Lyrica which was new to her.
"Oh Lyrica good morning!"
"Good morning Ms. Hazel...?" Lyrica looked over to see Lucia's reaction and she also shrugged.
"So is there any news about the Prince?" Ms. Hazel asked.
That's when it hit Lyrica why Ms. Hazel wasn't like her usual self today. She just wanted to get more insight about the Prince from her. Lyrica saw through this and on the inside she wanted to laugh out loud. Out of all of the times she could've chosen to be nice, she all of the sudden wants to be nice because she's connected to the Prince. Lyrica knew she would rather deal with Aubrey then have to deal with Ms. Hazel's fake attitude.
"Nope sorry." Lyrica faked a smile to her.
"Aw too bad. I mean I find it so crazy that you know the Prince."
"I actually really don't."
"She just found out yesterday Ms. Hazel." Ryan stepped in when he could feel that Lyrica was going to burst.
"Ah I see. Well maybe you'll be able to find out more sooner or later!"
"Yea..." Lyrica sat down at her seat and she sat there for a moment, "Guys I feel like I'm forgetting something?"
"What do you mean?" Lucia cocked her head.
"Did we have homework?"
"Yea we did." Ryan showed her the assignment.
Lyrica grabbed the paper from him and noticed they had to read a few paragraphs of the essay Walden. Lyrica totally forgot since she was focusing on her harder classes yesterday night.
"Crap I forgot.." she quietly said.
Ring!
The bell rang for the class to start. Some more students came in to sit at their seats and Ms. Hazel walked to the front to do her regular routine of doing attendance and announcing what they were going to do that day.
"Okay class so you should've read the paragraphs on Walden, today we're going to discuss a few questions about it in front of the class, so be ready to be called on."
Lyrica felt butterflies in her stomach. She wasn't prepared to talk at all since she barely read the excerpt.
Crap what am I going to do now!
Lyrica turned around and looked at Ryan's paper for a bit. Ryan looked at her and smiled. He could tell she was panicking since he knew she didn't like to speak in front of the class. He switched his papers with hers to help Lyrica out.
"It's fine, just give it to me after." He whispered.
Lyrica gave him a thumbs up and read Ryan's annotations on his paper. He was always a detailed person and he wrote a lot which helped Lyrica understand the text a bit.
"Okay so let's start with question one...What do you think the main idea of the first paragraph is...Let's have..." Ms. Hazel looked down the attendance list to pick someone, "Lyrica, why don't you answer this question. What's the main idea of the first paragraph."
"Right...The main idea..." Lyrica began, but was interrupted by knocking on the door.
"Uhm come in?" Ms. Hazel answered.
The door opened and it was the Principal of the school Mr. Rabra. He was an old man who was starting to bald. He always wore the same colored suit, but different colored ties. Today it was green.
"Mr. Rabra!" Ms. Hazel said surprised, "What brings you into my classroom?"
"I believe Lyrica Park is in this class correct?" He asked.
Ms. Hazel nodded her head to answer the question.
"Great! This way your highness." Mr. Rabra used his hands to motion the person to come inside the room.
"NO WAY!" A persons shouted.
"Oh my gosh he's here!"
"I can't believe it!"
"What is he doing here?"
Lyrica could here her classmates shouting and yelling. All she could do was tune everyone out to try to ignore what was happening in front her.