American Princess

Chapter One

I walk next to the Thames River bundled in a large winter coat. My hat covers my hears and I have my face bundled in my scarf. It's early December, and I'm with my AP European History class in England. My best friend Daisy walks besides me, blowing into her gloved hands. Our Californian bodies aren't used to the freezing temperatures of Europe. Our teacher, Mr. Tanner, is walking in front of us, leading the group to the front of Buckingham palace.
"Do you think we'll see the Prince?" Daisy asks, wiggling her eyebrows at me.
"Probably not."
"Well if he sees me he'll just HAVE to come out," she flips her hair.
I roll my eyes, and we stop to wait for the street light to change.
"You know he's married," I point out.
"Prince Harry isn't."
"You hate red heads!"
"I'd go to the dark side for him," she grins at me evilly.
I laugh at her.
The light changes and we cross the street.
Mr. Tanner stops in front of the gates of the place.
"You guys have fifteen minutes to look around, then meet back at the wall by the river," Mr. Fritz offers, then walks backs towards the crosswalk. Daisy and I press up against the gate, trying to get a full, close up view of the palace.
"Ugh. I'm bored already. Wanna go over to Tanner?" April asks after about thirty seconds.
"You go over. I'll be right there," I say.
Most people have gone over to the river, but I stay at the gate.
History has always fascinated me, and being this close to something so famous made me giddy with excitement.
As I'm about to turn around to go back to the group, someone yells, "Duck!"
A body covers me quickly and a rumble shakes the earth.
People are screaming. My blocker slowly uncovers me and helps me up. What I see is almost too much to believe.
Right across the river, a fire is starting. And further down I see a plane dropping another bomb.
"Come with me quickly."
I turn and see what looks to be an FBI agent standing with his hand out. There's not enough time to fully process the information, so I grab his hand and let him lead me quickly into the gates. Alarms start going off, and guards start to close the entrances with intricate wrappings of chains.
The agent leads me across the gravel front and around to the side of the palace. He stops and quickly punches in a code on a key pad close to the ground. A panel opens, and I see stairs leading down to nothing but shadows. I hear faint whispers under the loud alarms and screams.
"You'll be safe down there. I promise," he says.
Part of me is questioning of the threatening black and the strangely nice officer, but the other part knows that it might be my only chance at finding a bomb shelter.
I take a breath, and step into the darkness.