Royal Performer - Chapter 11

Princess Alexandria Alessi’s life has turned upside down in the blink of an eye. Only a few days ago, she was enjoying a clandestine summer shopping with her best friend at the local mall. Coming home, she was alarmed to discover her mom was there, and her secret of being transgender was suddenly no longer secret! Within a few short hours, her life became like a movie as she discovered that her long-lost father was the Crown Prince of Osané, a small, secluded island nation. Alexandria was immediately thrust into the spotlight in a whirlwind weekend that led to a Monday press conference to announce her royal lineage. Royal Performer is the second Tiffany Shar's 'Suddenly Royal' series.

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Chapter 11: Mystery Guests

DINNER AND THE rest of my Sunday evening had passed by quickly. I’d spent an hour chatting with Mom via Facetime and was glad to see her hooked up to fewer machines, and her color seemed better. Her voice definitely sounded stronger! She said the doctors were hoping to be able to discharge her in a few more days. As soon as I hung up with her, I started chatting with Ellie for another hour. At the end, she said, “Allie, just to warn you… Emily said that a few of her friends were trying to figure out who this daughter who would be your sister is. I think people have put together your mom and you?”

“Have they figured out it’s just me yet?”

“Not yet… Maybe they won’t? But Alan sort of disappeared when you appeared. Maybe he needs cover story, like visiting relatives overseas for the summer?”

“Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be that lucky? I guess whatever happens, happens, right?”

“Wish I could be there for you if it does!” She told me sadly.

“I wish you could be here too,” I sighed. We finished the conversation not much later. After some time on my computer surfing the internet, I headed to bed.

Monday morning came far too early, and as I walked towards the bathroom, Anna came in, “Good morning, Your Highness. Madame Lavigne would like you to hold off on your shower until after your morning workout.”

“Workout?” I asked sleepily.

“She asked that you wear tights and a leotard?”

I was both excited to wear that outfit and not in favor of skipping my shower! It took some fiddling with the gaff, the tights, and the leotard, but I smiled that at least I had hidden away the horrible body feature that I hated. I brushed my teeth and used a brush to run through my hair before returning to the room. Anna waited for me there and directed me to sit at the vanity. “Madame Lavigne requested your hair be in the traditional bun,” she told me as she worked on my hair. When she was done, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and noted I looked just like a ballerina should.

“Thanks for doing my hair,” I told her. “Am I meeting her here or in the ballet studio?”

“She asked me to escort you there,” she answered. She provided me a pair of warm-up pants and a jacket to put over my outfit, and I noted it was the first time I’d been allowed to wear pants all week! She also had a water bottle I drank from as we walked upstairs.

The room we had toured before had a bar along both sides of the wall and mirrors on all sides of the wooden room except the wall beside the exterior, where about every ten feet, there was a large window that looked out into the gardens. Madame was on the ground stretching as I entered.

“Good morning. Take off those warm-ups and join me over here,” she said in a stern manner.

“Oui, Madame,” I told her.

I pulled the jacket and pants off and couldn’t help but smile at the fact I looked like an ordinary girl in the mirrors as I walked towards her. “Let’s start stretching and see how flexible you are,” she told me.

For the next thirty minutes, that was all we did! Growing up, I’d been jealous of girls doing things like the splits, so I actually practiced doing those on my own. I couldn’t get into a full front split but could do a side split down to the ground. She had me moving other muscle groups that I was pretty sure I’d never used, though! With the stretching finished, she asked, “What do you know about dance and ballet?”

I shrugged, “Not much. We used some of it in our marching show?”

She looked surprised. “I know you Americans have an obsession with all things related to football, but that’s odd to me.”

“I don’t know; for our competitions, we did more than just march; there were all sorts of poses and dance moves they had us do, too. Some were a bit difficult while carrying an instrument.”

“I’ll have to have you show me some video sometime if you have it.” She stood and asked, “Do you know first position then?”

I showed her what I understood that to be. She made subtle adjustments to my upper body and smiled, “One less thing to teach!” She proceeded to ask and then reteach each of the primary ballet positions. My hands were my biggest flaw; we didn’t focus on them since I’d held an instrument. Our band had been really successful, traveling to a national competition that past year and doing well, so apparently, we were better taught than many.

We worked out for nearly two hours when she said, “Okay, that’s a good start, Your Highness. You told me you had no experience, but you already have a better understanding than I hoped to achieve in our first week! Go shower, and we’ll have breakfast in an hour before getting started on your studies.”

I curtsied, hoping to remember all the elements from her fifteen-minute lesson immediately prior to the basic positions exercises, and said, “Oui, Madame.”

I felt more awake after the exercise, but I felt a lack of training as I headed to the shower. I stood for several minutes, letting the warm water cascade and massage my body aches, which I knew would only worsen the next day!

After breakfast, we began discussing history, “We’re going to start with the Greeks,” Madame said.

What followed was two hours of the most in-depth history teaching I had ever received! We spent the entire time talking about the Minoan and Mycenean period. She assigned me several books she wanted me to read, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, by the end of the week. Madame also had a textbook that she wanted me to keep up with as we worked, and it was thicker than any I could remember back home.

When I mentioned that, she noted that it would primarily be used as a college text in America. At least it was in English, as was the copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey she assigned. She seemed to think I would work on my language skills at other times. She wanted to ensure I comprehended everything.

After lunch, we spent time on math. Madame Lavigne’s efforts began with some review of the Geometry I’d learned this past year and quickly dived into advanced Algebra. Another textbook followed, and I quickly gathered that her primary teaching subject had been advanced math. She was at least a better teacher than I’d had before, so things made sense?

She gave me a short fifteen-minute break, during which I used the restroom, and then began teaching me German, a language I had never studied. I knew English was a Germanic language, but I swore it didn’t help much! I was genuinely relieved when she told me I was to spend the next hour practicing clarinet!

I decided to give the ballet studio a chance as a practice space then and fell in love with the acoustics that the wooden floor and walls of mirrors gave. I worked on the first movement of the concerto very slowly and methodically. The first page wasn’t too bad since most of it was just cues for the orchestra before I entered. It seemed like forever in the recordings, as it was nearly fifty measures into the piece! I made it pretty comfortably through a page and a half of the next part of the first movement. I even started on a couple trickier runs on the next page when Madame arrived and began ‘deportment and etiquette’ lessons.

If things had felt like I had been transported into that famous princess movie before, now was doubly so!

Madame Lavigne talked about posture throughout my lessons and nagged me if I should start to slouch. It wasn’t often, though, as my band directors had already beaten her to the punch for the past several years! She had reminded me to sit tall if I slouched even the slightest amount. Now she was focusing on things like my walk, not looking down at the ground as I did so, curtsying, and things that she insisted were drilled into her as a little girl since her parents traced their lineages from minor noble families in France that had kept up with such traditions even after the revolution ended the monarchy.

We finished the last fifteen minutes with her presenting me with a poster that displayed Osané’s noble families and royal succession. Exceptionally detailed, it listed current ages, professions, and other helpful information. I was overwhelmed, though, at the sheer size of it. Even as a small island, Osané’s royal family had fifteen separate lineages that branched off from my great-grandparents and, in the right circumstances, could rise to the throne.

I couldn’t help but feel drawn to the family line where I saw Mikael Montalvo and, below him, Elodie and Annelise, whom I had run into at the shop. I figured Lola and Anise must have been their nicknames, and I hated how close they were to the throne. ‘I must make sure they never get a chance…’ I thought jadedly.

My head felt like it would explode as Madame Lavigne said, “That’s it for today, Your Highness. Your grandmother wants to eat dinner with you in an hour; she said there may be a guest, so be sure you dress up a little.”

I sighed, “Oui, Madame, merci beaucoup.”

I returned to my room and sat on my bed, looking around the room. I would have been tempted to lie down, but Anna came in right then, “You need to get ready soon, Princess; we have guests coming to dinner.”

I sighed, “Who is it?”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t told. I was just instructed to make sure you were dressed up for dinner tonight,” Anna told me as she walked into the closet. She came back with two dresses, “Which one?”

I looked at two dresses that would not have looked out of place at prom! Both were long and would certainly fall to my ankles, featuring large bell-shaped dresses.

“I thought this was just a simple dinner?” I asked, exhaling. I was excited to wear either dress, but also nervous about who was coming!

“Her Majesty said that you should dress formally tonight.”

I shook my head, “I don’t feel like I’ve dressed anything other than formally this past week!” She gave me a patient look but held up the dresses again.

Both floor-length dresses were a shade of blue that I knew would look good on me. One was just a lighter shade of sky blue, and the other was a shade darker. The first lighter one was something I could see wearing to a homecoming dance if it was a little shorter. It featured a crosshatched embroidery pattern that I was sure was considered smocked, with little pearls inset at the places they crossed. Additional pearls were added to create an organic design from the narrow waist up through the bodice. Short sleeves and a square neck would help disguise my lack of breast development on both dresses. This dress had a multilayer skirt with a top layer of white organza and little glittery foil pieces glued to it.

It screamed, ‘I’m a princess who likes to dress up,’ which appealed to me. Not knowing what kind of guests we were about to have made me worry, though it was too much.

The second dress was simpler. It was sleeveless, but the bodice went right up to the top of the chest. The skirt was a pretty blue silk that was unadorned, while the bodice featured some white embroidery designs of flowers and vines from the waist up. The very top above the breast area was a little more sheer, but the embroidery design continued.

It would have also worked for a simpler dress design at homecoming or prom.

I was torn, and a lifetime of feeling prevented from dressing up as a wannabe princess or even just as a girl made me want to choose the first dress. The second seemed more… mature?

I looked at her, easily holding the dresses up above the floor, given she was more than a foot taller than me. “Which one do you think is more suitable tonight?”

“You don’t have a preference?”

“Well, I love the one you’re holding in your right hand, and I do want to wear it! But I’m wondering if it’s a bit too much?”

She nodded, “It might be, but I don’t think you would go wrong with this other one.”

“I’ll wear that one then,” I said, pointing to the simpler dress.

“Let’s go ahead and get your makeup done first, Your Highness,” she told me after hanging the chosen dress on a hook on the wall and placing the other back inside the closet.

I sat down at the vanity and wondered if I would forever be letting everyone else do my makeup for me? She wiped my face completely clear first before moisturizing my face, applying a foundation, and then moving onto my eyes. Once she applied my mascara, she worked on the lids of my eyes. I sat sideways on the bench so I could catch a glimpse every now and then as she applied a mixture of green and blue that she feathered together and then added glitter to finish it. She gave me a lighter red lipstick that wasn’t too different from my natural lip color.

My curled up-do hung down from a bun, and without the dress on, I looked like I could have graduated high school if you only looked at my face and hair.

You would guess I was a preteen dressing up the second you went lower!

I laughed; I was happy to be that a week ago, so I didn’t get hit on!

Eventually, Anna helped me into the dress, which had tulle to help expand the skirt further out and give it a bell shape. It wasn’t over the top like a proper ball gown or the quinceañera dresses my friends had. Still, it was definitely not a shapeless dress, either. I knew I would have to watch the antiques as I walked around!

Giovanni surprised me by showing up and knocking on the door just after I was dressed. “Your Highness, are you ready?”

I curtsied, “I believe so,” I laughed. “I don’t know who we’re eating with?”

“Your grandmother didn’t tell you?” He asked as he led me downstairs.

“No?”

“I don’t want to step on her toes here, Your Highness…” he said.

I wondered what was up until we reached the main floor and a smaller dining room that was only the size of the house I’d grown up in. He gently said, “Be patient tonight.”

I wondered why he said that until I saw who we were dining with.

My blood ran cold, and the sneer of Lola Montalvo and her sister made any hope of a good evening vanish.