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 the deadline there. I have ten chapters written and plan on two to three more for this part of the tale.

I first have to say this is a work meant to entirely be fun and fluffy. It is meant to be one of those popcorn and pajamas tales, not high level fantasy! This was inspired by many a princess movie I've seen, and I hope you enjoy it as a fun tale! (Special shoutout of thanks to Carla Ann for editing this for me! It's a last minute push here and I appreciate her help!!!)

Chapter 4:

TO SAY I slept well that night would have been a lie. I couldn’t stop my mind from racing now that my mom knew about me… and to top it off my dad died without me ever meeting him… I have a long-lost grandmother paying me a visit… and I’m a freaking princess?!?

I gave up on sleeping about five in the morning, and decided to get up. I was exhausted and walked down the stairs to the kitchen to get a drink and eat something.

“What are you doing up?” Mom asked me sleepily with a cup of coffee in her hand.

“Umm… same as you…?”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

I shook my head and found myself giving her a hug. “I love you, thank you for not freaking out on me yesterday.”

She laughed, “Who says I wasn’t freaking out?”

“I’ve read so many horror stories,” I told her. “I’ve been scared…”

I felt more tears at my eyes as she squeezed tighter, “No matter what sweetie I will never stop loving you!” I stood there for a moment before she broke the hug and asked, “Coffee?”

“Please!” I told her with a smile.

She poured me a cup and I added in the massive amounts of cream and sugar that usually had other people joking if I liked some coffee with my creamer! I took a sip and smiled. She sat down at the table and I joined her.

“So…” I said.

“So…?”

I sighed, “So what’s going on today?”

“Well you have an appointment at nine with a psychiatrist that my clients have worked with, and a doctor’s appointment afterwards.”

“What doctor?” I asked nervously.

“For now, just Doctor Haskill, your pediatrician.”

“For now?”

“For now, we’ll have to get you into a specialist, but this way you can get some necessary paperwork to get you started.”

“And I can dress like me?”

“Yes, you can. I do want you to know I think you need to decide soon... Is this for certain what you want?”

“Of course! Why are you asking though?” I asked a bit nervously.

“Because once word gets out over in Osané that the Prince had a daughter that no one knew about… well there’s no going back to being a prince if you change your mind.”

“She’s serious about me being a princess? Like really?” I asked again.

She laughed, “I know, it’s ironic, huh?”

“A dream come true on the girl part though,” I told her. “What if… what if people find out?”

“Sweetie, I’m going to be honest… It’s probably not an ‘if’ they find out.”

My eyes widened, “But…”

She sighed, “Your father and I loved each other a lot. One of the things I hated though was the damn media attention he got sometimes. His cousins a bit more so, since they stayed in Osané, but him occasionally too. One time I even had the misfortune of being hounded by the damn paparazzi myself.”

“You…?”

She proceeded to tell me that story and more about my father.

“I wish I knew him…”

“I know honey, I tried to get him to at least be willing to see you a few times, but he didn’t want to burden us with the attention or anything.”

“Kind of failed at that when he didn’t have other kids?”

She nodded.

“So, what was this succession thing you spoke about yesterday?”

She groaned, “If we had been married it would have been no question right now… If his mom had preceded us in death, I would have become the new Queen and he would have been the King. He was the only child of his parents, so it goes to his child. A son has more weight and would have taken over no matter what.”

“So, as Alan…”

“As Alan your right to be the King would be absolute.”

“But I’ve never even been to that country!” I told her.

She laughed, “Luckily it’s really more of a constitutional monarchy, so that would mean you made big crazy decisions all of the time. Mostly just ceremonial at this point, though the Queen does have some limited powers over parliament.”

“As Alan that’s the way… but as a girl it’s not as clear cut?”

“Well if as a first-born girl you had a younger brother, then he would have taken the throne.”

“Wait, really? What a rip-off!” I told her.

She laughed, “I agree. But it’s a throwback to when women were considered second class citizens,” she shrugged, “I’m not sure where you would fall within the laws there. As it is as far as anyone knows you were never born. Your grandmother would need to introduce you there.”

“So… Do I have to become a princess?”

She shook her head, “You have every right to refuse if you want. Your father never wanted you to feel like you were stuck.”

I sat there for a few minutes, “But this… would he want me to…? How would he have felt about me being Allie?”

She came over and hugged me, “I knew your father very well and have no doubts he would have loved you as Alan or Allie.”

I hugged her back and finished my coffee. “So, I guess I should start getting dressed for the day?”

“We both should… Why don’t you wear that other dress you had hanging in your closet today? It’s a bit informal for hanging out with your grandmother, but I doubt she’ll leave you in cheap middle-class mall clothes long.”

“Shopping?” I asked kind of excited.

She shook her head, “Doubtful, she’ll probably have the shop come to you.”

As I got ready for the day, I couldn’t believe how quickly everything in my life had been upended. I couldn’t care less about the princess thing… sort of… I could really be a princess and stick that in some of the bullies faces from the past! ‘What about school…?’ I wondered nervously as I finished putting my hair into a ponytail with a scrunchie I had. It matched the peach part of the skirt of the dress I wore. The sleeveless denim bodice fit me well, and I smiled as I twirled for a moment in the dress. That was my favorite part of it – designed to twirl outwards!

I heard Mom laugh behind me.

I blushed, “No sneaking up on me like that.”

She gave me a hug, “Princess apparently suits you!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “And don’t forget it!”

“We need to go in about fifteen minutes, are you about ready?”

I nodded, “I think so?” I paused, “Do I look okay?”

She smiled at me, “Definitely… Though I wonder if we can do anything to make you look a bit older?”

I felt my nerves hit, “Do we have to?”

“Not today,” she told me. “But if you are going to become Alexandria full time you’re probably going to want to be seen as an adult?”

I shrugged, “I have less of a boy problem to worry about this way.”

“What is this about boys that has you so nervous?”

I had to tell her a couple more stories and she had the nerve to laugh, “Most girls would kill for that attention sweetie.”

“I’m not most girls?”

“No, you’re certainly a unique one,” she said while giving me a hug. “Finish getting ready, you have three minutes!”

I found a pair of white ballet flats with some rhinestones lining the toe area to wear for shoes. Grabbing my phone from where I’d left it charging, I put into my purse. Seeing the lip gloss, I used some of it, and took a quick peek at myself in the mirror. ‘Not too bad…’ I thought to myself as I came downstairs.

“Those are cute,” Mom told me motioning towards my shoes.

“Thanks… I don’t have a lot of options. Basically these, a pair of tennis shoes, and those sandals from last night.”

“We’ll work on starting a bigger shoe collection later. Come on, let’s get out of here Princess.”

“You don’t have to call me that Mom!” I told her as we went into the garage. “I’m not even sure I have any right to be a princess. I’ve never even stepped foot on their soil? Am I even a citizen?” I asked her as I jumped into the passenger side of the car in back. I was short enough still I could technically be considered needing a booster seat, but so could Mom actually. Age wise I was allowed to sit in a regular seat, and I was also legally allowed in the front seat… but Mom was more than slightly overprotective about it still. I’d been in a booster seat until seventh grade, and anytime we went on long car trips I still had to fight her not to put one back in the car!

Of course, what pissed me off the most about it was she was shorter than I was!

“You’re a dual-citizen actually Allie. You were born here as a US Citizen, and your father made sure you also had a valid passport for Osané too.”

“Huh…” I said in response.

Mom drove us to the more central area of the city and one of the satellite campuses of the University Children’s Hospital system. The front of the separate building said, Pediatric Psychiatry Campus.

I was nervous going in, the last thing I wanted was to be locked up in a mental hospital. “Mom… umm…”

“Relax, it’s okay,” she reassured me. At the receptionist desk she said, “Hi, I’m Karen Nelson, we have an appointment for Alex Nelson.”

I squirmed a bit as the lady looked at her screen, up at me, and then said, “Okay, you’re going to need to fill out this paperwork and we’ll get you back to see Doctor Ramirez.”

“Thanks,” she told her. “Come on, let’s get this paperwork done.”

I followed her to a set of chairs and watched as she filled stuff out without any input from me. Becoming a bit bored with it I pulled out my phone and decided to look up the country of Osané. The main island was only about six-hundred square miles in size, but it also had eight other smaller islands that were inhabited too. A large castle was apparently the main home of the Queen there. ‘Grandma…’ I thought to myself with a bit of a smile. It apparently had been getting built onto since the 1300’s when the monarchy was founded.

‘Cool,’ I thought as I looked at the information about how it had continued to be built and modernized through the eighteen-hundreds. It had recently had a major renovation in the last five years to restore the grand ballrooms, throne room, and dining halls. They were neighbors of France, which explained grandma speaking to me in French yesterday. French was apparently their national language, but most of their citizens were fluent in English too.

“Nelson?” a voice called and broke me out of my phone trance.

“Come on Allie,” Mom told me.

We were led back through the hallways and into a comfortable office where a friendly looking woman greeted us, “Hi Karen, it’s been a while! And you must be…?

“Allie,” I told her.

“It’s nice to meet you. Why don’t you two have a seat on that couch and we’ll find out why you’re here today.”

She closed the door and sat across from us in a matching chair with a tablet in her hand. I looked at her and determined she was probably a bit older than Mom was.

“So how can I help you today Allie?” she asked me. “Your mom was pretty insistent on getting me up here early to talk…?”

I tried to speak but found my throat was suddenly dry. I cleared it and whispered, “I’m transgendered.”

Her eyes went wide and said, “You think you should be a boy?”

That made me giggle, “Other way,” I told her.

“Wait…” she looked down at her tablet and flicked through some info. “You were born male?”

I nodded and Mom said, “Yes… as far as I knew until yesterday, I had a son.”

She looked at me and looked at the tablet some more, “Wait, you’re fifteen?”

I laughed, “I know I look like I’m younger…”

“No doubt, not to be mean Allie, but I thought I saw a nine or ten-year old girl walking in the room a few minutes ago…”

I shrugged, “I’m short, have no chest, and I don’t wear makeup to make me look older.”

“So… what happened yesterday?” She asked me.

I laughed, and then started hiccoughing. “Which…” I hiccoughed, “part?” I breathed “Mom finding out about me, or me,” hiccough, “finding out,” hiccough, “I’m a princess…”

She gave me a bewildered look while Mom rubbed my back, “breathe sweetie,” she told me.

I ended up with hiccoughs when I was extra nervous about something. ‘Like now apparently…’

“Maybe start from the beginning?” she said and handed me a bottle of water from somewhere.

I opened it and nodded. I spent the next twenty minutes telling her about Ellie and I, how long I’d been dressing, our trips out to the mall as her ‘little sister,’ and coming home to find Mom in the living room. I fought my hiccoughs through most of my story about all of that.

“That’s more than enough to be able to talk to you about for today…” she said when I paused, “but you said there’s more?”

I nodded, “So apparently my life is like turning into a Hallmark movie or something… This guy was waiting at home with Mom and told me my father, who I’ve never even met, died a couple weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she told me.

“I am too… I always dreamed of finally meeting him one day… Anyway, that wasn’t the crazy part… Apparently he was the Crown Prince of some tiny country in Europe… and had no other kids.”

“Now, this is just getting silly, right Karen?”

I glanced at Mom who was shaking her head, “I wish she was making this up… In college I met this hunk of a guy and fell in love. Long story short his mom wouldn’t let us get married because I was a ‘commoner.’ I ended up having to raise Allie alone, but he did provide triple the child support anyone would ever expect… and at least sent her gifts during holidays.”

“Nice gifts…” I said quietly.

“So… him dying…?”

“I’m apparently next in the line succession after Grandma,” I told her.

We talked for another twenty minutes after that before she said, “So… Princess or a Prince, huh?”

I nodded.

“Okay…” she looked at a clock, “Look, we need to meet some more. A LOT more, and soon. Allie you really need to be talking through this and we need to evaluate if you truly are transgendered or not.”

“Of course, I am,” I told her testily.

“Allie, I know that you believe that. And it may very well be true… but we have a whole list of procedures and tests that we need to do before I’m going to feel comfortable labeling you officially with Gender Dysphoria.”

I nodded, “I guessed that…”

“Who is her pediatrician?”

“Kenneth Haskill,” Mom told her.

“Oh, well that’s handy. I went to undergrad with Ken. I’m going to write an email to him. Please tell him to check his email before he talks to you if he hasn’t already seen it by then.”

“Got it,” Mom told her.

“I’d like to see Allie next Tuesday if you can arrange it?”

“We’ll figure out a time to get her here.” Mom told her and we stood up, “Come on kiddo, let’s get to your next appointment.”

“Do we have to?” I asked nervously.

“Doctor Haskill has always been nice? Why are you so nervous?” She asked me as we walked out to the car to drive to his offices.

“He’s a guy?”

“So…?”

“So, won’t he think I’m weird?”

Mom laughed at me and hugged me, “You’ll be fine. I chose him as your pediatrician a long time ago because he’s one of the best in the area. I know from my own professional cases you won’t be his first kid with your particular needs.”

“Mom, how do you know so many people that are specialists in this?” I asked as she closed her door a moment later and I buckled my seatbelt.

“I do a lot of civil rights cases Allie. Between those and some of our educational law cases I have had to make sure I am well versed in what little protections you have in this state.”

“Oh…” I said.

“I’ve also had to depose several doctors and psychiatrists in court for different cases. That’s how I knew that both of these will take good care of you, sweetie.”

“Okay,” I told her. I got back on my phone and responded to a couple of messages that Ellie had sent me since she woke up a little bit ago during my appointment.

We pulled into the parking lot of a large pediatric clinic that I had grown up going to. At the receptionist desk the lady greeted us, “Hi Karen!”

“Ala?” she looked at me.

“Allie, please,” I told her quietly. I could barely see over the top of the counter, but recognized the receptionist Mom had gotten to know far too well when I’d been sick as a kid.

“Well then… Allie, if you and your mom will just take a seat, I know Doctor Haskill is just about ready for you. He cleared the slot for you.”

“Thanks,” Mom told her.

We sat there for a few minutes and I watched some sick kids looking miserable while their little siblings ran around and played tag or something. It was pretty obnoxious and I had to deal with my OCD about germs in these places while we waited. Mom leaned over and hugged me, and whispered, “I would have killed you if you did that…”

I giggled, “I know.”

We didn’t wait long before a nurse said, “Alexandros?”

I blushed, but we stood and walked to the nurse. She looked at me in confusion and asked, “Alexandros?”

I nodded feeling like running away was the best option then. She shook her head and said, “Right this way.”

The nurse fortunately didn’t ask any questions about my gender, but did the typical height and weight check. I watched her write down 54.5” and 76 pounds. “Can’t I have the half inch?” I whined to her.

She smiled, “Sorry sweetie, there’s a note in your file from the doctor that he wanted your measurements down to the half inch.”

I grumbled and wondered what that was about. She took my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse before leading us to an exam room. “Doctor Haskill will be right with you.”

“She’s mean…” I whined to Mom.

“So, you’re only half an inch taller than me,” she smiled.

“I’m still taller than you!” I told her as I sat on the exam table and stuck my tongue out at her.

She just shook her head at me. We didn’t wait long because Doctor Haskill came into the room. He looked at me and said, “I’m sorry, I must be in the wrong room…” before noticing Mom. “Alan?”

“Hi Doc.”

“Well this is different. How long have you been presenting as female?”

I smiled, “That my mom has known about? Twenty-four hours? A couple years though?”

“Before we start getting into too much of it, have you seen Doctor Ramirez’s email?” Mom spoke up.

“No… somehow I think I would have been less surprised,” he said and placed a laptop he carried with him down on a standing desk and logged in. “Okay…” he said. “Well, I agree with what she’s asking for. Karen, when we had Al…” Umm… “What’s your name?” he asked me.

“Call me Allie please,” I told him.

“Gotcha… We had Allie in here last… almost three years ago it looks like?”

“Yes, we had a quick physical done for track at another clinic the year before last. She’s been healthy and I’ve been busy,” she told him.

“It happens,” he acknowledged. “At that point we were taking a wait and see approach on his… her height. I’m a little concerned that there hasn’t been much growth in that time.”

“I’m taller than Mom now… I was a couple inches shorter than her back then, wasn’t I?”

“You were two inches shorter,” he said to me. “You should have started hitting at least a bit of a bigger growth spurt between then and now. I want to take a close look at you and have some blood work done. Doctor Ramirez is also asking that I give a recommendation to an Endo specialist for any possible medications down the road for your gender condition.”

“I’d be able to get hormones soon?!?” I asked excitedly.

He shook his head, “Maybe… and a big maybe… you might get some blockers for the moment. My problem with that is you’re already in the first percentile for height right now. When I saw you last you were still above the third percentile…”

“Oh,” I said. “So, something's wrong with me?” I asked nervously.

“Maybe, maybe not?” He told me, “I just want to check and be safe. As you pointed out you’re taller than your mom. Your genes may just not allow you to become a tall basketball player.”

I giggled, “I gave up on that dream in first grade!”

Doctor Haskill put me through the most thorough check-up I’d ever had. I was embarrassed when I had to be completely naked under the gown and he examined my groin. He didn’t say anything was wrong though as he wrapped up his exam, “Let’s get this bloodwork done, I’ll send the nurse in for that. I’ll call you if I see any issues. I’m going to forward your results to Doctor Canales, I think she would be a good endo to send you to.”

Mom nodded, “Thanks. Can she get dressed while she waits for the nurse?”

“Sure,” he said.

He left and I got dressed back into my panties and dress as quickly as I could. “Those gowns suck…” I told Mom.

She smiled, “Yes they do!”

Fifteen minutes later I was whimpering about the needle that had just gone into my arm. “Stop being a baby, it wasn’t even that much blood,” she told me.

I glared at her in response as we got in the car. I looked at the clock, “What time were we supposed to meet Grandma for lunch?”

“Twelve-thirty,” she answered. “Should have just enough time to make it to the embassy…”

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Thank you all who have commented or pressed the Kudos button so far! Please continue to comment and press that button! It helps keep me focused and motivated on finishing this! I may post another chapter tonight, keep an eye out!