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!

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 1:

“ALAN, I’M HEADING to work,” I heard as I turned the shower off. “I’ll be back about six and then I have to go to my big event. I’ll make sure you have something to eat then before I go though, alright?”

“Okay Mom,” I responded with a smile.

“Are you going anywhere today?”

“Just to go hang out with Ellie,” I told her as I began wiping myself down with a soft towel.

“If you go anywhere with her make sure you two stay together!”

“Yes Mom, I’m not a little kid anymore,” I griped as I stepped to the mirror.

“You’re fifteen, you are most definitely still a kid!” she reminded me. “I love you; I’ll see you later.”

“Love you too Mom,” I told her.

I used my blow dryer to begin drying my long hair, carefully styling it with a brush while I was at it. ‘I can’t wait to go to the mall today!’ I smiled at myself in the mirror. I brushed my teeth and listened to make sure Mom was gone. Opening the bathroom door, I triple checked her car was gone from the garage before giddily running back to my room.

Inside my closet all of my ‘normal’ clothes hung at the front. School t-shirts showing my participation in band and track hung at the front, leading back to dress-up clothes and a suit that I hated wearing. Behind the suit there was a black garment bag that my mom had bought for my suit, but since you couldn’t see into it, I long ago figured it was a good way to keep some things out of sight. I opened it up and found a few outfits to choose from that Mom didn’t know about.

I texted Ellie, What are you wearing today?

I saw the dots of her writing for a moment before she said, Shorts/tank – you don’t have to wear a dress every day!

I smiled at that. She always kidded me about my love of dresses and skirts. Thinking I would go ahead and blend in though I wrote back, You’re no fun!

She sent me a smiley face back. I’ll be over in five to help you?

I sent my own smiley face and got to looking again at the outfits. Sadly, I didn’t have much hidden in the closet. I dragged my fingers over the textured feel of a sleeveless, pastel blue dress that had large watercolor flowers spread about. It came to just a couple inches above my knee when I wore it. It was really comfy and I loved the look of the thin yoke that came to my neck and wrapped around in a thin half inch of material. My bare arms would feel great with today’s warm weather. I looked at my other dress that had what looked like a sleeveless denim shirt as a top, and connected to a skirt that was a light peach color with little flower designs printed on it. The skirt was made of several light layers that were reinforced beneath by some tulle. Due to the cuts in the fabric, when I twirled in it, I felt so cute and pretty as it flared out!

I sighed as I thought her comment about shorts… it implied a dress wasn’t to be for today. There was a set of shortalls in the bag that had sequins sewn to the bib pocket, and to some ‘patches’ on the legs of the shorts. I had a light purple colored top that was lacey for a top layer with a built-in cami underneath it to make sure I was covered. Given my options it was the best I was going to do!

Almost all of my clothes were hand-me-downs from Ellie since there was no way I could ever ask my mom to go shopping with me for girl clothes! A few years ago, the week before we started middle school, I had come out to Ellie when we were playing games at her house together. Since then she’d had a massive growth spurt, but her clothes from the beginning of sixth grader fit me pretty well.

I had just pulled on a pair of panties, the top, and shortalls when the doorbell rang. I ran downstairs and let her in.

“You are such a girl!” Ellie told me as she came in. “Not even dressed yet?!?”

“I can’t exactly get ready before my mom leaves Ellie.”

“Well, at least you’re not wearing a dress today.”

“I wanted to…” I told her kind of sadly.

“Don’t give me that look Allie!” she told me and proceeded to pounce on me and begin tickling me.

“Stop…” I cried.

“Come on, let’s get my baby sister ready to go.”

“I’m not a baby…”

“No, but you’re definitely not the big sister either?” She kidded me. We walked back to my room and she directed me to sit down in my computer desk chair. She always did my hair for me on these special days we managed to go out together like this. I had a small hidden box of hair supplies that she dug through while grumbling about the small selection. In the end she tied my light brown hair into a pair of braided pigtails with cute bows tied on the ends.

I looked in the mirror a few moments later, “I look like I’m seven…”

“I was thinking five myself,” she said. She gave me a hug and then said, “So, as far from Alan as we can get!”

I nodded. “There is no way anyone from school would think this is me…”

“Nope, just my baby sister that I’m looking after for our mom. Ready to go?”

“Let me just grab my purse,” I told her.

I went back to my closet and dug out the light purple sequined purse that matched with my shortalls. It had been a gift from Allie for Christmas last year - and I loved it! I quickly put my phone inside, wallet, house key, and triple checked for my bus pass. I pulled out the lip gloss that was in there and put some on really quick before saying, “Ready!”

“Remember Mom won’t let you use more makeup until you’re fifteen Allie!” she laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at her and locked our front door behind us as we left. Occasionally we did dress me up with some makeup and it helped me look closer to being a middle schooler in age. I inherited my thin, short frame, from my mom. It meant I was probably forever doomed to be given kids menus at restaurants!

Last year we had a close call with some of the kids who went to our high school when I was made up and looked closer to our age. One of the biggest jerks at school had hit on me endlessly at the mall where we were eating. He’d done so while several other friends had walked by and I’d been scared to death they would recognize me through it all. It was especially awkward when they wanted to talk to Ellie and then meet the new girl. In the end we’d decided it was safer for me to appear the little sister than being a friend that could be recognized with her at school.

It didn’t hurt that I was ridiculously short! I was at least glad that I was an inch taller than my mom, who only stood four-feet six inches. I’d never known my dad, but mom claimed he was a six-foot tall beast of a guy. I dreamed of the height, but not really the beast part… Ellie herself was closing on six-feet after she had a big growth spurt at the end of sixth grade. She’s mostly stopped growing, but being nearly a foot and a half taller than me meant we easily pulled off the big and little sister look.

The mall was about a half-hour journey from our houses on the bus. “Where to first?” She asked me.

“I don’t know…?” I said.

“Yes, you do,” she kidded with me.

I shrugged, “You’re right, I want to go to Justice… they had those leggings and that romper last week that looked comfy.”

“Not to mention we need to get you that swimsuit so you can come swimming at my house!”

“Don’t you still have…?”

She shook her head, “My mom just went on a rampage through my closet yesterday. She found a few things I’d been saving for you and put them in bags for the Salvation Army this morning.”

I sighed, “Okay, well let’s look for that too then!”

She put her arm around me and we walked around together. Even though we had a destination in mind we began at one end, and continued through most stores. Walking into Claire’s, I found myself going through the racks of earrings, and wishing that I could wear some of the cute ones I found.

“Can I help you?” A teenage girl with a nametag asked.

“I wish… Mom says I can’t get my ears pierced until I’m twelve.”

The girl smiled at me, “It’s only a couple more years though?”

I sighed and nodded, “That’s what my sister keeps telling me.”

Ellie walked back up right then and smiled, “Staring at them every time we come in here isn’t going to get Mom to move any faster.” She knew the story we’d use each time she saw me looking at them.

“I hate that…” I told her.

“Come on, I saw a bracelet over here I think you’d like!”

Fifteen minutes later I was walking out of there with a pack of three new bracelets and a necklace that matched. We stopped for a second by a bench and I pulled out one of the bracelets that had three flowers on a chain. The middle flower was bigger than the other two and they had some fake diamonds scattered as bling. I had bought a matching necklace too that quickly went around my neck before we continued on through the mall. I smiled as I looked at the bracelet every few seconds while we walked.

Eventually we came to the store she wanted to visit most, and spent an hour with her trying on jeans, some tops, and at my prodding, a dress I thought she would look great in. “You have to get that!” I told her.
“Nuh-uh,” she told me. “If I buy a dress my mom will expect me to wear it! I have almost all of them out of the closet now!”

“Spoilsport,” I told her as we walked out a few minutes later with her new jeans and a few blouses.

“I leave the dresses to my girly baby sister,” she told me and squeezed me into a sideways hug.

It wasn’t too much further to Justice where I tended to find a lot of things I liked, but only rarely bought for myself. Hiding things wasn’t easy with a mom like mine who happily came into my room on a regular basis to make sure I was keeping my room clean! Since my birthday this past week though I had a couple hundred dollars that were burning a hole in my pocket. An advertised sale of fifty percent off clearance meant I really couldn’t help but go looking around to buy some of my own clothes.

“Look at this!” I said a few minutes later and showed her a cute romper that I liked.

“As long as you’re being my baby sister, that’s cute,” she told me with a smile.

The meaning was clear… someone my age shouldn’t be wearing it, but when you’re a size eight or ten in girls sizes it was tough to find other things. I shrugged sadly and carried it away from the rack and kept looking. They had a limit in the dressing room, so I only took a few items at a time to try on. As I shrugged my shortalls and shirt off I couldn’t help but smile at how much more comfortable I was with being out as Allie now.

I was much happier when I was out doing stuff than being stuck at home in my Allie mode. Ever since I had smuggled my first outfits home from Ellie’s house, I tended to dress as a girl anytime Mom wasn’t home. Summertime was my favorite, with all day to either hang out with Ellie, or just be myself at home. I ended up thinking the romper was a bit babyish even for me, so I put it back in the end. I did go on a splurge and find four tops, two pairs of shorts, another pair of shortalls, a dress, and a tankini swim suit before deciding I was done.

“Geeze, leave anything in the store?” Ellie kidded me as I rang up my purchases.

It wasn’t until we were walking out that I realized she had her own bag from there. “What did you buy?” I asked.

She pulled out the romper I had put back, “You really looked adorable in this. I think we can convince everyone you’re six for sure!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “At least I’m not some old lady…”

She poked me and we giggled walking down the mall hand in hand for a bit. She pulled me into Victoria Secret a bit later as I blushed. “I should have them fit you for your first bra,” she joked with me.

“I’ve already got one,” I reminded her. The one and only time I’d really gone out as my age we had found a small bra to give me A Cup size breasts with some stuffing. Apparently, that was enough to get ogled by the jerks and I had felt really uncomfortable! Being the ‘little sister’ meant the attention was always on Ellie anywhere we went. She dragged me around the store for a while before we found her two new bras at Aerie instead. Looking at the time we decided it was time to return home. We had been talking and having such a good time that I thought nothing could ruin our day!

For some weird reason there was a black car parked in the street in front of my house, but I didn’t think anything of it.

As we walked into the house, I heard a voice say, “Ellie, where’s Alan…”

I turned white, “Mom…?”

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I'm hoping to put this up in its entirety before the contest ends. If you enjoyed this please help me keep pushing to do so, kudos and comments really help me keep my focus on getting this done!