Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Fifty-Four: Christmas Plans

18th of December 2006 - Granary Studios, University of Chester

Stepping into her apartment and closing the door behind her, Lucy groaned as she padded dumped her things by the door and toed off her shoes before she made her way across the room to face-plant into the couch. 

She couldn't wait for this semester to be over, she was done with the essays and the coursework that was due in and she hated some of her early morning classes. 

A groan escaped her as she lay on the couch, the silence of the apartment was almost soothing and the only sound that she could hear was the ticking of a clock. 

The material of the couch itched at her face but Lucy didn't move, she just wanted to sink into the couch and stay there forever if it meant she didn't have to attend the rest of her classes. 

There were only a few days left, her last class falling on the 22nd before she was due to head back to Surrey and her family estate there; a constant flow of texts from her mother reminded her quite often not to be late. 

For some crazy reason, her mother had decided to invite her aunt and her aunt's family to spend the holidays with them. 

Her Aunt Mary always made the holidays unbearable, Lucy almost felt sorry for her uncle for having to put up with her all the time but she wasn't always bad, there were the competitive nature of her aunt did come in handy. 

Mainly when the board games were broken out when the younger ones had been sent to bed, her and her older brother being the only two children that were allowed to stay up to play along with the adults. 

Susan, fourteen, and Rupert, twelve, weren't that lucky and were often sent to bed around the same time as their younger cousins, Emma, thirteen, and Michael, seven. 

The door to the apartment opened and Lucy listened to the sound of Adeline step over her things before dumping her bag beside hers and walking over to join her on the couch. Adeline collapsed next to Lucy, staring up at the ceiling as she toed off her trainers and grumbled in complaint under her breath. 

"Whoever decided that 8am classes needed to be a thing, needs pushing into a volcano," Adeline muttered annoyed, it was the only thing that she disliked about her course. 

There was just one class that always started 8am Tuesday morning, then there was a massive gap between that class and her next class that threw off her day entirely.

"I'll help you," Lucy replied moving her head so that she could look at Adeline, the two of them had spent quite a bit of time together since they had started university. 

Even joining the same running group that jogged around the campus on a Saturday morning, the two of them were even considering rooming together next year with two other girls in a flat share. 

The two of them were silent for a moment, both knowing that they would need to move soon enough; they both had afternoon full of classes even if they were slowing down for the winter break.

"When do you leave?" Lucy asked not recalling when Adeline's last class was, both of them were heading back South for their winter break. 

Lucy was looking forward to seeing her younger brother and sister even her mother, it felt like years since she had last seen them properly although she would take some of the blame for the lack of visiting. 

Like her older brother, Lucy had left home as quickly as she could and not looked back to escape their overbearing and ambitious father; he was not an easy man to live with and she was forever grateful for turning eighteen and getting out of the house.