Alan and his best friend Ellie are enjoying being able to hang out on their summer break. Ellie has known about Alan's desire to be Allie for several years, and they plan one of their many shopping trips to the mall while their parents are at work. Little does Allie know that her simple day of secretly being out with her best friend would suddenly spiral into a whole new life!

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The Legal Stuff: Suddenly Royal © 2020 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface

I saw the announcement for Erin's Reluctant Princess Contest and immediately had an idea, but with everything going on in the world couldn't get much energy to write it. Since my last book that I posted on here it's been a really busy time in my life, but I really wanted to get a chance to put this story out there! Since I've procrastinated beginning to post there will be some days I'll throw another chapter up in order to make my goal of having it all completed by the deadline for the contest. I have eleven chapters written and plan on two to three more for this part of the tale. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 8:

MY EARS HEARD ‘Alan’ being called from the wrong place. Ellie’s mom Susanne may have recognized me, but she hadn’t said it. Instead Emily somehow recognized me and I turned towards her.

“Umm…”

“Why are you…?” Emily started to ask just as on the other side of the fence I could hear a bunch of screeching of tires in front of our houses.

“What’s going on?” Susanne asked. It sounded like chaos on the front side of the house, “Why don’t we continue this inside?”

I numbly nodded as Ellie grabbed both me and Emily and dragged us inside. “What’s going on?” Emily asked when we were inside.

I sighed and pulled the swim cap off of my head, and then pulled my hair out of the bun that Ellie had placed it in and looked at Emily. “Umm…”

“How about we sit down?” Susanne suggested.

She brought us glasses of ice water and I just kind of stared at Emily trying to figure out what to say. “Okay, so now you want to tell us what’s going on?” Susanne asked gently.

Ellie grabbed my hand tightly and I smiled at her, “I’m transgendered,” I told them both.

“No way?!?” Emily said.

I looked at her nervously, “Please… can you keep this a secret…?”

“Of course, we will,” Susanne said and gave Emily a look.

“Duh!” Emily said. “How long have you…?”

“A long time,” I told her.

“You’ve known this whole time?” She looked at Ellie.

“For a couple years now since she told me,” she told her.

“This is so cool!” Emily said to my surprise.

“It is?” I asked in shock.

“I’ve always wanted to know someone who was trans!”

I gave her a look and said, “You know you really are weird…”

She laughed.

Between Susanne and Emily my hidden life from the last few years was pried from Ellie and my memories.

“So, are you coming to school as Allie next year?” Emily asked me just as Ellie's house phone rang.

I watched her mom stand up to get it and heard her say, “Hi Karen… yes… she’s here…”

I looked up and heard her say, “Yes… I just found out… Yes, I’m okay with that… Sure I can keep her here inside for a few hours…”

She hung up the phone and sat back down at the table. “So… what’s going on with reporters outside your house that your mom wants you kept here for a few hours.”

I looked up and sighed as the towel around my chest slipped. I pulled it back tight and said, “So… yeah, me being trans isn’t the only big thing about me…” I saw the paper from today sitting flipped upside down from the article and just turned it over and pointed. “I’m also apparently a princess.”

“No freaking way?!?” Emily said. “I read this earlier. I’m friends with the coolest person in the world?!?”

Ellie laughed, “Of course you are, you’ve been friends with me since we were in third grade.”

Susanne laughed at that, “So reporters are out there now looking for you?”

“I guess so…”

“You’re not to go looking for them right now,” Susanne told her and Ellie as they tried to stand to go look.

“Yes ma’am,” they both said.

“How long have you known you were a princess?” Emily asked me.

“Two days?” I thought back. “Something like that?”

The doorbell rang then.

“Why don’t you two go get changed into something else and you three can talk up in Elliana’s room?”

I looked up nervously at the door and nodded. It didn’t take too long to get changed. I borrowed ‘my brush’ that Ellie kept for me and was brushing through my hair fully dressed a little while later and sitting in the middle of Ellie’s bed with her and Emily on either side of me. “Oh my God, your nails are gorgeous!” Emily said.

“Aren’t they?” I asked. “The lady who did it yesterday was really good!”

“So, you’re really like a princess? For real?” She asked again.

“Apparently… I’m pissed at my mom for not telling me my dad was a freaking prince!” I actually felt a couple tears in my eyes then. “The worst part is he decided to die without bothering to ever meet me!”

Ellie and Emily both hugged me then and the waterworks got worse. It took a while before I got myself back under control.

“So, what happens now?” Emily asked me.

I shrugged, “I’m sure my grandmother has some sort of plan. With the cat out of the bag I’m sure at some point she’s probably going to want me to move ‘home’ to Osané.”

“Have you ever been there before?” Emily asked.

I looked at her like she was crazy, “Umm… what part of not even knowing my dad was a prince did you miss?”

She blushed, “I guess you’re right, I didn’t think.”

I hugged her, “Don’t worry about it… that’s my normal line.”

The three of us talked for the better part of an hour without interruptions. Everything from jokes about living in a movie, to pretending with a tiara that Ellie had sitting on her desk. “You get one of those for real, right?” Ellie asked me, having put it on her head.

I sighed, “Apparently I do get my pick of the crown jewels. I guess Hollywood has lied to us though, because I don’t get to wear one until I’m eighteen!”

“That sucks,” Emily said.

“Definitely unfair,” Ellie commiserated. “If you have to deal with everything else you would think you’d at least get to wear the tiara!”

“Why is that?”

I shrugged, “Some sort of custom? I don’t know, maybe we should Google it?”

I laughed as Emily pulled out her phone and began doing so. I suddenly realized I probably should have checked my own phone. I felt a little bit of guilt as I saw Mom had tried to get ahold of me. I decided I should probably call her.

“Hi, Mom…”

“You’re still inside Ellie’s house, right?”

“Yes… what’s going on out there?”

“The press figured out you’re my daughter… From there they found our house. Your grandmother and Giuseppe are working to get them moved away from the house, but it’s taking a judge and some work with the police.”

I felt my face flush with embarrassment, “Is there anything I can do?”

“Stay at Ellie’s… They think it’ll be a couple more hours. Hopefully you can come home tonight – if not do you think Ellie’s mom would let you spend the night?”

“Probably?” I said, “She seems like she’s okay with me… she figured out who I was in about five seconds.”

“That quick?”

“And Emily too…”

She sighed and I could almost imagine her headache beginning on that side. “Make sure they know not to tell…”

“They won’t…”

“I have another call coming in. Stay over there and stay safe!”

“Okay, Love you Mom,” I told her.

“Love you too,” she replied.

“Better?” Ellie asked me.

I shook my head, “Apparently they figured out who my mom was… then figured out where we live. What if they figure out the other part too?”

I was wrapped into a hug again then before Ellie said it was time for a movie to get my mind off of this. Of course, it had to be a princess movie according to Ellie. The Princess Bride was one of our favorite movies to sit and watch ever since the first time we watched it together.

“I wish a boy would tell me ‘as you wish!’” Emily said.

I squirmed a bit on that part because I didn’t really have an inkling of liking either at that point. ‘As a princess I’m pretty much locked in…’ I admitted to myself. ‘So much of this is going to suck!’

At the end of the movie Giuseppe came into the room and said, “Miss Nelson… it should be safe for you to come to your house now.”

“Miss Nelson?” Ellis asked.

“That’s the closest I could get him to not calling me Princess or Your Highness all of the time,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “I guess I need to go home. I’ll text you later,” I told them both. I gave Emily a hug, “Thanks for not freaking out on me!”

She smiled, “You’re the coolest girl I know!”

I blushed, “Thanks, so are you.”

I grabbed my swimsuit and towel really quickly before joining Giuseppe at the door. I was nervous as he opened it, but grateful that no news vans seemed to be present at all. We had just about made it inside when a camera flash went off and I heard, “Prin…” before he got me inside and locked the door behind us.

“Is it always going to be like that?” I asked him nervously.

“Sometimes it’ll be worse…” he pulled his phone out and called someone.

“Shit…”

“Alexandria Nelson!” Mom said from nearby.

“Sorry Mom,” I told her and ran up to get the hug I desperately needed from my mom.

She squeezed me back and said, “It’s okay, but you really can’t swear now sweetie.”

I nodded, “I thought they went away?” I asked Giuseppe who had gotten off the phone.

He shrugged, “Unfortunately you have become an A list celebrity overnight… sleezy tabloid journalists aren’t usually as good about following the rules as the big ones who were everywhere earlier.”

“Is there anything we can do about them?” Mom asked.

He sighed, “The only thing that would work for a day-to-day fix would be getting her back to the palace in Osané. Then we can manage when she’s out and has to deal with them. This is why I’m here though,” he said while peeking out the front window.

I started to move towards it but he said, “Your Highness I need you to stay away from the windows. It makes it too easy to get a random picture of you, or something else could happen.”

With that I ran to the bathroom and promptly found myself vomiting.

.

MOM AND I cuddled on the sofa later once she made some homemade soup for dinner. We watched my favorite Disney movie of all time, Beauty and the Beast, and I enjoyed her lightly running her fingers through my hair as I leaned onto her.

“You’re too big for this,” she told me at the end.

“Only you can say that,” I whined.

She laughed, “You’ve at least got a few years to grow yet. I’ve been done growing for over twenty years!” She gave me a hug, “Even if you don’t grow any more, I promise you there’s nothing wrong with being short!”

“Riiiiight,” I told her.

She began tickling me in response and I had no way to fight back the way I was laying. “Stooop!” I told her. She hugged me, “I love you Allie, and no matter what things will be okay.”

“Will they be here though?” I asked her. “Giuseppe is having to trade off with a security team? Are we safe?”

“That’s why they’re here… is to make sure we are.” She sighed, “What would you think about going back with your grandmother to Osané next week after you have a couple follow up doctor’s appointments?”

“You’d come, right?”

She looked at me and said, “Not right away…”

“You’d have to come though!” I told her.

“Allie, even if I do think it’s best to move over there with you… it’ll take me awhile to hand over my cases… and I guess I’d end up losing my chances at being a partner…”

With that I’m not the one crying, she is. I know how hard she has worked to get to be close to that goal.

I hugged her as tightly as I can, “I’ll stay here then! Forget my grandmother and Osané…”

She hugged me back, “I think that would be a mistake Allie.”

“But you’re the only one I have…” I told her.

Mom was in tears then and hugged me, “Look… I’m not saying that you go and stay forever… just maybe the rest of the summer? Give it a try?”

My own tears streamed down my face, “If I don’t like it, I can come back home?”

“Of course, sweetie! You can always come home!” she told me and squeezed me. “I’ll talk with the firm too about getting some time off and I’ll join you for the last couple weeks of the summer?”

I didn’t say anything but just put my head on her shoulder.

We stayed like that for a few moments before she squeezed me again, and then pushed me to stand up off of her. “Come on sweetie, you’re hot and I think it’s time for you to get some sleep.”

I nodded and walked upstairs and began washing my face, brushed my teeth, and put my pajamas on. I was finishing up when she came in, “Can I tuck you in?” She asked with a smile.

“Mommy I’m not four years old anymore,” I told her while sticking my tongue out. She kind of looked hurt, so I said, “But I guess…”

I laid down and she tightly tucked me in like when I had been little. “Allie, I love you so very much, please don’t ever forget that!”

She kissed my forehead and walked out, turning the light off on her way out. I hugged my pillow tightly and wished I had a stuffed animal right then to hug.

‘I don’t want to leave Mom…’ I couldn’t help but think as I quietly cried myself to sleep that night.

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I'll be posting another chapter tonight or tomorrow. Thank you to all of you who have pressed the Kudos button or posted a comment! I very much appreciate it! Though I don't have to have the story finished for the contest entry, I'm still trying to get it completely up by the deadline for my own internal goal. Please consider leaving me a comment to help motivate my brain and fingers! Thanks for reading!