A Royal Mess

2. Family

"Good afternoon, mom. How was your day?"

My mom smiles and after giving me a kiss she replies, "Well I've been struggling with an idea for this new novel since the last two weeks as you already know and I've come up with nothing interesting to write. What about you? Did you have fun today?" Her brown eyes shine with genuine curiosity.

I feel like brown eyes are under appreciated. Have you ever looked at brown eyes while sunlight falls on them? If you have then you'll know exactly what I am talking about. They are the color of the ground we walk on, of coffee beans, of autumn. No matter whose but I have never looked at brown eyes and not thought about how warm they look. Blue eyes might be mesmerizing but brown eyes are warm and that I think is the best feeling to have when looking into someone's eyes. When I look into my mom's I am reminded of good times, of happy times. I feel secure and I feel at home. I guess a lot of that may have to do with the fact that she's my mother but I think the brown eyes are definitely a major factor.

I sit beside her on the sofa and tell her about today's incident at the café.

In this house, we follow a strict policy of never lying or hiding anything from each other. My parents are always interested in knowing everything about me no matter how small or insignificant it may be. And if sometimes I don't feel like sharing they understand and show patience. In all honesty, I couldn't wish for better parents.

Before we continue I feel like I should tell you a little about my family.

My father is a well-established lawyer while my mother is a fairly famous author. So we are sufficiently rich and we live a comfortable yet reasonable life in a moderately-sized Victorian house that has vines growing around the front and roses in the back garden (another example of how nothing out of the ordinary my life is). Both, my father and my mother, are very well respected around town.

Everything I am I owe it to my parents, they have taught me some great principles I try my hardest to live by.

In kindergarten I got into a fight with Danny Williamson, we became sworn enemies (proof that something is seriously wrong with me: he was my first boyfriend) and as soon as I got home I asked my mom to complain to his mother but instead mom taught me that I have to fight my own battles (Important life lesson #2). Years later in seventh grade I said something to Danny that I shouldn't have. When I told mom, she thought I should apologize and I agreed, but I was afraid, so I avoided him at school and told mom that I couldn't find the right time to do it. That's when she taught me that there is no wrong time to do the right thing (lesson #3).

So I apologized, he admired that about me, we became friends and an year later that's how he became my first boyfriend. A very cliche enemies turned lovers kind of story but without a happy ending. Now that I think about it, Danny helped me in more ways than I had previously realized (another reason we should narrate our stories), by helping me learn some necessary life lessons, the ones my mom taught me because of him and the one that he taught me when I found him kissing Zara Martinez at her house party, once a dick always a dick (#4 is especially for all my fellow girls out there). Hence for the second time while dealing with Danny I applied lesson #2 and broke up with him. I know that first impressions are often inaccurate but I have started taking earlier opinions much seriously after Danny proved he didn't deserve a second chance at getting to know my awesome self.

In grade 4 after a particularly nasty fight with my mother I wanted my dad to build me a separate house (preferably a tree house) in our backyard. When he tried to reason with me I accused him of being a miser (I admit I didn't quite understand the meaning then but knew it was the right word to use there). My father then told me that even though we have everything we could need, I should always remember that everyone has to go through hard times to get to good ones, I shouldn't take things for granted, hard work is the key element in success (lesson #5, #6, #7 rolled into one). We did spend the next few months working on the tree house that is now proudly perched in our backyard.