The Royal Pain (Chapter One)

“Weeeeeeeeeeee! Lilly! Look at me!” Seanna cried out. Princesses Seanna and Lilliana were sliding down the banisters of the grand staircase in the entrance hall of Lilliana’s palace. “Almost!” 7-year-old Lilliana called back to her cousin. Seanna groaned. “How come you can do it better than me?” she whined. A bright, bubbly smile appeared on Lilliana’s face. “What? It’s not funny! You’re better at everything.” Seanna said indignantly. “I had a nice nanny. It’s not your fault your nanny despised you.” Lilliana replied kindly. This made Seanna happier. An excited smile made itself visible beneath locks of Seanna’s long, golden hair. An icy draft of wind blew through the window, ruffling and blowing the cousins’ hair around the place. Just then, Lilliana’s long dress blew up. Seanna was taken into a fit of giggles, as Lilliana struggled to push her dress’s skirt back down. “There’ll be no laughing at finishing school.” Lilliana said, dreading the moment she would be shipped off for 3 months to Miss Pavlov’s School for Girls, where she would be prissed and preened into a beautiful young lady. Seanna stopped laughing instantly. “I forgot you were going there.” She said quietly. There was silence for a while. “Don’t worry; we still have another 2 months together. The holidays have just started. Anyway, it’s only 3 months. ” Lilliana consoled her cousin. But Seanna wasn’t comforted. “Time flies when you’re having fun. And when you come home, you won’t want to play anymore. You’ll be a posh, rule-abiding princess, not a wild, fun cousin.” Seanna argued. Lilliana agreed that Seanna had a point. “You’re probably right, but what if I don’t go to finishing school until you do? I can pretend to go but I’ll actually go to your palace and wait until you go to Miss Pavlov’s School Of Torture.” Lilliana suggested mischeviously. “That might just work…” Seanna considered. “But what if Tatiana catches us?”

Tatiana McLaren was Seanna’s despised nanny. If she caught you sliding down the banisters or running around the palace or doing the slightest thing wrong, it would be straight to Queen Hilary for you! Tatiana was crabby and she always seemed like she had been up all night. Seanna thought she was a witch and she was tired because she was up in the daytime looking after Seanna’s brothers and sisters and up at night brewing spells and potions. It wasn’t just Tatiana’s personality that made them despise her; it was the way she looked. When you looked at her, a tingle went up your spine and you started to shiver. Tatiana had jet-black hair and black eyes that made you think of dark, scary forests. Seanna had said “When Tatiana looked at me; there was such hatred in her eyes that I was forced into tears! Of course, she was ugly then too and I was 2, so it might have just been fright…”

Anyway, Lilliana considered what Seanna said. “I’ll do something about that. I know!” “SAMMY!” the two girls said the name of Lilliana’s kind nanny, the absolute opposite of Tatiana with a mischevious grins plastered across their faces, cooking up a plan to go to the finishing school together, or better, not at all…