Royal Genovian Gardens
High Tea
Nishi finally texted back, but she didn’t say what I was expecting her to.
School? Who said anything about school?
I think Nishi must be confused. Grandmère and Mia give me princess lessons every day so I won’t embarrass myself (or the rest of the family) at the wedding or in front of the paparazzi who follow us around every time we leave the palace, trying to get a photo of “the princess bride.”
I’m getting a princess lesson right now, as a matter of fact, which is the only reason I’m allowed to be writing in my journal during high tea. Everyone thinks I’m taking notes … which I am, sort of.
But princess lessons aren’t the same as real school.
They’re still super important, of course. Nobody wants a loser who doesn’t have any manners representing their country, even a country as tiny as Genovia (which is only two miles by four miles long).
Then again, I’m sure nobody wants a loser who doesn’t know what the capital of France is representing their country, either.
So maybe Nishi is right.
But Dad said I need to take time to adjust to living in a new country (with a new family) before starting at my new school. And even though I’ve been here a month, I don’t feel that I’ve totally adjusted yet. I don’t even know the names of all my cousins or my way around the palace. There are more rooms in this palace than there are days of the month! I haven’t even been in them all yet.
Not that I don’t think education is valuable. It’s important to learn stuff like math and geography in addition to curtsying and drinking out of the right glass. There were so many glasses on the dining table in the Great Hall at the fancy dinner I went to last night in honor of all our out-of-town guests who’ve started to arrive for the wedding, I couldn’t even tell which water glass was mine and which one belonged to the very large man who was sitting next to me. Finally Mia nudged me under the table.
“Olivia,” she whispered. “Do this.” She made circles with her index fingers and thumbs and held them in front of her, making the letters b and d. “The bread plate on your left—‘b’—is yours, and so are the glasses on your right—‘d’ for drink. Get it?”
I got it, but too late. I’d been drinking out of the very large man’s water glass the entire time!
And so was he! We were drinking out of the same glass.
Being a princess is way more complicated than I ever thought it was going to be.
So given what an embarrassment I already am, it’s totally possible they want me to go to some school to learn how to be a better royal.…
But I don’t know. Right now, with the wedding only a week away and Grandmère needing me so much? Something like that, you’d think someone would have mentioned it.
Normally I’m not allowed to look at my phone during meals—especially high tea!—because Grandmère says it’s extremely rude not to give your full attention to the person sitting in front of (or beside) you.
“For all you know, Olivia,” Grandmère always says, “that person could be the leader of a country that is much, much bigger than yours.”
“Or,” Mia says, “they could just be very nice, and you don’t want to act like a jerk by sitting there looking at your cell and not paying attention to them.”
But since this seems very important and Grandmère and Mia are still fighting disagreeing over the color of the bridesmaid dresses, I figured no one would notice if I quickly texted Nishi back. So I wrote:
But it’s been nearly ten minutes and I haven’t heard back.
Which reminds me … it’s June. No one starts a new school in June. That’s when school gets out for summer vacation! Nishi got out of school last week!
So she must be wrong. Why would I be starting school now, right when everything is getting busiest with the wedding planning? That would be simply— WHA!!!!!
