"Begin."

She makes the first move, using her advantage of being bigger sized than me by throwing her upper body at me, in an attempt to topple me. I then use my height and managed to dodge, going for her leg. I was not fast enough though, because she used her leg to kick me. The only thing I could do at that moment was to use my arms to cover me as I felt my body being push with great force.

Now that there was some distance between us, I seized the moment to stand back up on my feet and aimed my foot at her hip, causing her to stumble back. Not giving her the chance to regain balance, I put my force on my fist and went for her shoulder, causing her to lose her balance completely, falling to the ground.

"Well done, Tiana." Mr Teng, the instructor commended me and weak applause was gained from the rest of the class watching.

When I came back from Russia, I made it through the last week of school, then watching my friends leave one by one; Sha was the only one left. Today is my first day back in karate class, and it was comforting to know that I haven't lost my touch. My stab wound has completely healed, only a scar remaining to remind me of what happened that night. Breton said he can book an appointment for scar treatment to make it more hidden, but I didn't take him up on the offer. I guess I feel proud of myself for surviving a deep stab wound every time I look at it.

Breton's spirit has improved since then; him talking more and socialising with people. I was happy for him, and everything in my life seemed to be going in the right direction. Well, the life in Singapore at least. Peter has been keeping me updated with Operation Safari, which made me more nervous and spending more time thinking about when the explosive showdown with Felon happens. Nicandro and I had barely any contact; between his busy schedule and timezone difference, it was hard to be on the same wavelength. Right now, I forced my mind to drift to the positive side; that I'll be able to make up for the lost time on the cruise.

The cruise; the major event that the Spain royal family has planned to put everything that happened behind for good, was happening in three days. I had asked Sha to be my plus one a few days ago, the reason I came up with was I've got a friend who gave me two tickets, and that friend was Olivia. She doesn't know about it, but Nicandro said I could wing it. Sha instantly agreed to it, excited to be travelling and also use this as an opportunity to come out to her parents. She has a good feeling that her parents won't be accepting of her at first, but will hopefully come around a week later.

"I think this is the one for me!" Sha exclaimed as she walked out of the changing room.

"Definitely." I agreed. "You look stunning."

Two days before the cruise, Sha and I went last minute shopping for gowns for the opening night party. She went off talking about the people she hopes to meet on the guest list, one of them was Nicandro as he was the centre of it all. She even described him as a 'smoking hot cinnamon roll', which I blushed and nodded along.

"Everything is packed?" I heard Breton standing at the door as I put the last things in my luggage.

"Pretty much. Just my toiletries left which I'll put in after I use it in the morning." I answered, looking at my medium-sized luggage. Sha was bringing along a big one as she is taking with her basically her whole wardrobe, she argued that she didn't want to be unprepared for any event.

As I got into bed, I texted Sha and wished her good luck for coming out to her parents tomorrow morning when we leave for our flight to Madrid, Spain. I laid on my pillow and looked up to the ceiling, trying to push the worries of not able to see my half-sister as long as Felon is still in power, Anton knew about the plane crash and did nothing to save my parents, Felon most likely knowing what I have been up to and can send someone to kill me anytime. I sighed, my eyes fluttering close as I felt my phone vibrate on my hands.

Nicandro :) : Can't wait to see you tmr

And maybe that was all it needed for all my worries to go away in the meantime.

I had only three hours of sleep before getting up, but my lack of sleep didn't concern me as I had fourteen hours on the plane later to catch up on my sleep. Breton insisted on driving Sha and I to the airport, even though I said we could've taken a taxi, plus he had to work the next day. When we reached Sha's house and she got into the car, I gave her a look and she shrugged, meaning her parents' reaction were as she expected. I placed my hand on hers and gave her a smile which she gave back, and spent the rest of the car ride looking out the window at the night views of buildings as we passed them.

I spent half the time on the plane sleeping, the rest eating, talking, reading and watching a movie. When we landed, it was a little past noon in Spain, whereas it was evening time in Singapore. But since we slept a sufficient amount on the plane, the jetlag won't hit us as hard. The ship leaves at five, so we had time to find someplace to have lunch before boarding. The food served on the plane was in small portion, so we were both hungry and just chose this Hong Kong restaurant I search up on Google; a three-minute walk from the airport.

When we hailed a taxi and told the driver our destination was the harbour where the cruise ship was, he told us we were most likely not going to make it in time as most of the roads were blocked to allow the important guests from other countries to travel through easily and not be overwhelmed.

So much for me thinking there was time.

"What are we going to do?" I could hear the hope in Sha's voice fading away as the driver told us of the number of people lining up at the harbour since ten in the morning, watching the important guests arriving.

Think. You and Sha have to make it onto the ship.

I leaned forward to the driver. "Are we reaching the intersection of the blocked roads?"

"Yeah, it's just up ahead." He replied and I could see barricades and officers coming into view.

I have to make this quick then.

"Could you slow down a little?" I asked, the driver nodded and I feel the car slowing down, giving me time to tell them what to do. "You're going to drive in the blocked lane?"

Sha gave me a look. "Tiana-" I cut her off because the officers will start to suspect us any second for driving at a slow speed.

"We making it to the ship on time and I have a plan. Whatever I say, later on, do not act shock, just put on a neutral look and I'll do the talking." Both of them nodded their heads as the driver turned to the lane, the officers immediately alerted and started walking towards us.

I took a deep breath as I rolled down the window, a tall and skinny officer was holding a clipboard most likely on it was the list of names registered to be on the ship. My best guess is Nicandro didn't put my name on there to not raise any questions and keep me under the radar. "Your name, miss?"

"Tiana Fletcher." I managed to say without my voice shaking. If this doesn't work, not only will we not get on that ship, I might even get arrested.

I pretended to look at something on my phone while he looked for my non-existent name on that list. I took a glance at Sha who was looking bored as she stared out the window and the driver closing his eyes, laying his head back. So far, so good.

"Sorry miss, but I don't see your name here." I could see his expression becoming more guarded now, ready to report me to the other officers any second.

"Are you kidding me right now?" I scoffed. "First, there was an issue with the driver that was fetching me from the airport that I had to hail a taxi, and now I can't even make it in time. Whatever, let me just get in touch with Nicandro so I can get on the damn ship."

I turned on my phone, went to the call pad before he finally spoke up. "There's no need. I can confirm another way, do you have your tickets with you?" His voice sounded controlled but worried that his unit would get into trouble for having me miss the ship because of their mistake, which is exactly what I wanted.

I took the ticket out from my bag, handed it to him and watched his eyes widened a little as he saw the VIP stamp on the ticket. I insisted Nicandro to just give me a normal one, but now I'm glad he didn't listen to my request as this will sure get us through easier. "Give me a minute to verify if this is authentic." He said and walked to the other officers who were watching us, wondering what was the issue.

Sha immediately turned to me, "Oh my god." She managed to say with no expression even though I know all she wanted to do now was scream at me about how crazy and risky my idea was. I raised my eyebrow at her while still keeping my frustrated face on to stay in character. The driver gave me a smirk before the officer returned and passed me back my ticket and letting us through.

Once we were out of sight, Sha nudged my shoulder. "I can't believe you just did that! I never knew you had it in you to do something so daring!" I smiled at that, I couldn't believe I did that either, and I definitely don't regret it.

"In my seven years of being a taxi driver, this is definitely my most interesting experience." The driver added on and all of us laughed at that.

We managed to reach the harbour forty-five minute before the ship left. I was in awe of the sight in front of me; I had never seen a ship this big. There was also a smaller ship and one smaller than that, which I assume are to follow along to ensure the journey is safe since there will be so many important people on the cruise ship. Thousands of people stood behind the restricted line, officers in position to control the massive crowd.

I saw that there were two entrances, one for the guest and another for the staffs. Sha didn't think much into it when I suggested going in through the staff one as fortunately, it was nearer to where the taxi driver parked. But really, dozens of reporters and photographers were stationed at the guest entrance.

Once I showed my VIP tickets, the security guard widened his eyes and immediately contacted someone through his radio in Spanish, and men were beside Sha and I in no time, helping us with our luggage and showing us to our rooms. Thankfully, Sha was too distracted by our surroundings to hear one of them telling me the exclusives places VIPs can go on this ship. Frankly, I was finding it hard to keep up with him as I was simply amazed by the infrastructure inside the ship.

Sha squealed in excitement when we reached our suite, then settled our things into our respective before we started getting ready for the welcome party. Sha chose a dark red dress; a sparkly top with layered slit bottom, paired with dark red heels and pearl earrings. I went for a platinum slivery-bronze dress with feather prints, paired with nude coloured heels and pink flower earrings. To go with our looks, Sha did a dark bronze eyeshadow with red matte lipstick and I did shimmery eyeshadow with light pink lip gloss.

"Not to get ahead of ourselves or anything, but we look hot as hell," Sha commented as she was admiring herself in the mirror. "I'm so ready to get laid tonight."

I chuckled before there was a notification pop up from my phone. It was an email notifying me that royalTEA has posted another blog. I had never really found gossips or drama entertaining, but I have to admit reading about famous and well-known people's lives was a different kind of spice.

Palencia Odyssey 2020 Day 1

The day that practically the whole world has been anticipating is finally here. Never would we have thought important people from all over the world would be in the same place, let alone be on a cruise ship for an entire week.

At eleven this morning, the Spain royal family, the hosts of this cruise event, were the first to board the ship. Then from noon onwards, guests from all over the world starting boarding, watched by over twenty thousand people crowding at the harbour.

Some of the more anticipated guests are the prime minister of the UK, princess Beatrice and Eugenie from the UK, president of Brazil, president of South Korea, prime minister of New Zealand, king and queen of Norway, president of the USA and I can go on but this is not a news outlet.

Most of you reading this have been wondering if our beloved prince Nicandro has been seeing someone since he bought a date for his best friend, Miguel Velez's sister's engagement party last year. It was also heard that she attended the winter ball and danced with him, although it wasn't clear if she went as his date or not.

But those gossips have faded off a little with the focus on the trial of the royal family and no news about them this year. That was until my sources say she has boarded the ship around an hour ago. Things shall get more interesting...

Signing out,
royalTEA