One warm summer night, when my father got home from work really late; he called a family meeting. That meant bad news because we never have family meetings unless there is dire news. My dad went in and sat on the cream colored couch and my mother sat next to him. I sat on the chair across from them.
My father had a mournful look on his face and seemed to have tears in his eyes.
“I just got news that my father has passed away,” he stated plainly.
My mother gasped and stared at my dad with her bright blue eyes that were now clouded with tears. My eyes turned moist but no tears appeared because I never really knew my grandfather except for the things Dad has told me about him.
“Does that mean…” my mother whispered letting her voice trail off.
“Yes,” my father responded, “That’s exactly what it means.” I couldn’t keep quiet anymore. Questions were running through my head.
I finally managed to get one out, “What’s going on?” My father and mother just started at each other, like they were having their own conversation with their eyes.
“Honey,” my father started out slowly, “We have something to tell you.” He sat there quietly, contemplating where to begin, “Well I guess there is no easy way to say this. Juliana, I’m going to become a king.” I didn’t think the world was spinning right. Maybe I just hadn’t heard right.
“A-a-a-a king?” I stammered. Normally a girl would be excited to hear this, but I was not. I was just getting ready to start high school, and I wanted to start fresh. Become a whole different person. But this wasn’t what I wanted.
“Yes, honey. My father had wanted me to just stay at the palace and work side-by-side with him but that’s not what I wanted to do. We came up with an agreement that I would come back after I graduated. And I did go back but only there was an extra person with me: your mother.” He paused to turn and smile at my mom,
“We had my father’s approval, and so we were married. We lived at the palace with my father so that I could keep to our agreement. A few months after we were married, we found out your mother was pregnant. We then had a decision to make. We wanted to continue living at the palace, but we wanted our child to have a chance at a normal life. So we sat down and discussed it with my dad. We decided that we wanted you to be able to live a normal life. So we packed up and left as soon as possible. We have made very little contact with my dad since, though I wish I would have,” he grimaced, knowing now that he would never have a chance to fix that, “We had decided though that I would come back and be king once he had died. And now that time has come.”
“Does that mean we have to move? I’m going to have to become a princess?”
“Yes honey, it does,” my mother responded calmly.
“But I don’t wanna be a princess,” I whined, “I just want to be normal.”
“Well we’ll have to see what we can do about that,” she said with a glance at my father. “For now, go to bed Juliana.” I walked out of the room and went upstairs to get ready for bed. It took me forever to fall asleep that night. I kept tossing and turning thinking of what I had been told earlier. Me, a princess. Impossible. That’s not what I wanted to be. I was starting high school and I had decided to start with a fresh personality but being a princess was not what I wanted. Maybe… my thoughts trailed off as I finally fell asleep.
