“Today,” My English teacher began, “We will explore the wonders of the Grand Canyon.” Aleisse and Zach chuckled in their seats. They were right next to me. My best friends. Aleisse was on my right and Zach on my left. This was our last year in this school. Finally our senior year. I was starting to miss this school already, but I had other things to think about. My dad said that he wanted to talk as a family. He is the governor of Alaska. Yes, the governor.
“Hey,” Zach said. He was the captain of everything you could think of. Literally. Plus he was maybe the cutest guy in school. It was after school, and I was trying to get home. “What are you doing?” Zach asked me. I closed my locker and tried to walk to the door. But of course, my scarf got caught in it. Great. I turned back to Zach. He smiled. I took a step back to my locker and started to put the combination in. Zach looked at me and smiled. I had no choice but to smile back, so I did. I could see that he was enjoying this extra time with royalty.
“What? I need to leave,” I said, putting my combination in.
“I just wanted to say hi, hi.” Zach smiled. I opened my locker and took my scarf out. Zach closed my locker when my scarf was out. He looked at me; I started to get a little red, like I always did around him. We had been friends since we were little. Like in hospital being born little. He was really tall, taller than the lockers and they are like six feet tall. He was the same age as me. Seventeen. Except, he was older than me by three months. We always would compare thumbs because I had the bigger one when we were little.
Aleisse nudged me. I looked away from Zach’s blue eyes. She smiled and grabbed my arm. I followed her.
“Sorry.” Aleisse said, “Penda has to go home.”
“Wait,” Zach grabbed my other hand, “Can I talk to you for a second?” I looked to Aleisse. She sighed really loud.
“What?” I asked Zach. “I need to leave.”
“Just one question,” Zach seemed to look really nervous, and his hands were getting sweaty. “Do you want to catch a movie later?” Zach looked at me; he smiled a smile that was one that was hard to believe that it was real. “Penda?”
“Um, sure.” I smiled. Zach did too. He held my hand until we got outside, then Aleisse saw me. She leaned over to the steering wheel of the vehicle and honked the horn. My little brother, Robbie, and his friend were in the back of the mustang. Zach squeezed my hand and I got into my car. Aleisse gave me a weird look, and then she squealed.
“He finally asked you, didn’t he?” Aleisse asked.
“I guess,” I said and we drove away.

**********
Three months later, I was coming home from Aleisse’s house. After I got home, I found Zach and my dad talking. They were talking about me. Zach and I had been dating now for three months. Though, the presidential election, and my father had been two obstacles, Zach stood by my side through it all. Zach looked a little upset though; my dad stood and had a face of a little bit of sadness. Zach looked at me and walked to me, he took my hand and I dropped my bag and he led me to his truck. This boy was a country one.
Zach opened my door and I got inside. My parents both were in the doorway, they waved. Zach got in his side. He turned the car on and we drove out and away from my home.
“Where are we going?” I asked Zach. “What was going on at my dad’s study?” Zach ignored all of what I said. All he did was hold my hand.
BOOM!
“Ahh!”
*******
It was night and Zach was out of the car, fixing a flat tire. I got out of the car when I saw that this would take a while. We were a mile away from the town, and a mile away from my home. I suggested that I run back to my house, but as soon as I said run back, Zach turned to me and looked deep into my eyes.
“No,” Zach denied the idea immediately. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.” I started to worry about Zach. I heard a crack.
“Get behind me.” Zach put his arm around me and led me back to the truck. “Get inside, and put your head down.”
I did what he said.
“Who’s there?” I heard a girl’s voice and a few others. “Can you help us?”
A girl came into view, she had long brown hair, but mine was longer, and I had natural highlights, unlike her totally fake ones. She showed an immediate interest in Zach. Plus, she smiled a little too much though.
“Can you help me?” A small boy asked as he came into view.
“Ali,” Zach called. That was my middle name. I slowly walked out of the car and Zach took my hand. He smirked at me. He put his arm around my back. I looked at the girl and what looked like her little brother.
“Hello,” I said to the boy. “And what’s your name?” The little boy smiled at me.
“Andy.” The boy said shyly, hiding behind his older sister. He looked not much older than five years old. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Ali.”
“Don’t listen to her.” A rough voice came from somewhere, almost like it came from everywhere. Zach took my hand back and stared into the forest. “They always lie!”
Zach looked at me.
“Who was that?” He asked. The girl looked at Zach. She looked about the same age as me.
“It’s been following us since Washington.” She replied.
“Washington State or D.C.?” Zach asked
“D.C.,” The girl said.
“How about,” I nudged Zach. “We all go back to my house.”
Zach gave me a look that meant that this was not going to be all that well.
“Okay,” Zach said. “But what is your dad going to say?”
*******
I was in my room. My dad was outside talking to the kids we found earlier. I walked a little towards the window of my room. Zach was suddenly right behind me. His arm was around my waist, and he started whispering to me. I was still looking out the window when my father looked up at us. He smiled at me and I smiled back. The girl that stood beside him was looking at me too, but I had the feeling, it was for an entirely different reasons.
Zach was now leading me away from the window. I faced him and looked deeply into his eyes. He looked at me just as intensely. He slowly pulled me closer to him. I allowed him to pull me into his arm. I smiled as he took his IPhone out and played classical music. He knows that it’s my favorite genre of music, besides jazz.
Zach lead me into a dance, and I couldn’t help but laugh. He smiled as he led me into a spin. The floor of my room is wooden and slick and I had my really slippery socks on, so the spin was a good one. He smiled and changed the music to jazz. Now the song was really fast and had a good beat, so Zach led me into a swing dance. This was the dancing that I loved the most. And since the town I lived in was really southern, the music was always around us.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked Zach, because his smile faded and his attention wavered. The music changed back to classical, and so Zach changed the lead and started a slow dance.
“Nothing,” Zach answered.
“Lies,” I said jokingly. Zach smiled and spun me.
I lost my footing and fell on my leg. A sudden shot rang through my ears. I yelled out in pain, and Zach was immediately on the floor right next to me. He picked me up and placed me on the chair in my room. He quickly left and came back with my very worried mother. Tears started rolling down my checks as the pain in my leg got steadily worse. I looked over to it and saw there was blood seeping through my light jeans.
“We need to get her to the hospital,” My mother said, and Zach soon had my in his arms and running to her car. She got in the driver’s seat, and Zach made me lay down in the back. He went to work. He found a piece of wood and cloth, and attached the wood to my leg. My dad got in the passenger’s seat and my mother drove like a madwoman, going through lights and signs, until she had two cops chasing her, we finally reached the hospital. My father got out of the car and immediately, there were people around him. He got to the front of the hospital and got me help.

“Penda?” Zach called my name. “Penda, just hold on a little longer.”
My mind was fading in and out of whatever was happening. I could see the outline of my dad, towering over me. I felt being lifted out of my car, and onto something. My head was banging all over in my skull. I felt a warm ooze on my side.
“She’s bleeding!” Zach yelled. He was running beside me. But I don’t know what happened next.
*(Zach POV)*
Penda was being run around on a gurney in the hospital. I was trying to follow them until a nurse told me I couldn’t go into the trauma center. I needed to protect her. My mother is never going to forgive me.
“Zach!” Mr. McPye was chasing Penda too. The future president was trying to get to his daughter, but the nurses wouldn’t let him. “All we can do now is wait.”
Just then, Anna and Andy burst through the door. The nurse, who blocked us, suddenly turned to them. She was shocked to see them, almost like them were dead, but now alive. Anna ran over to me.
“Zach,” she looked desperate. “This is the place where Andy and I woke up last night. This is the place where they were going to kill us!” She whispered. She knew who I was. I was guessing that Mr. McPye either didn’t notice, or he didn’t care about my true identity. If he was really that concerned about his daughter he would’ve done a background check on me, and find, that I don’ t exist.
My real life is not in America. It’s in Great Britain. My full name is, Prince Philip Zackary Nickolas, the fifth. It’s not something that I wanted. My mother is concerned about the future of America. There is a mole in the government, who is trying to stay with the Democracy, but change it into a communistic state. But Great Britain wants America the way that it was in 2014.
“Tell me where she is.” Mr. McPye was trying to force it out of the nurse, but she wasn’t moving at all.
“I know where she is.” Anna said. The nurse stared at her.
She started to run into the trauma center. I was right beside her. Doctors and surgeons were all in the hallway. One dropped to their knees in shock. I thought it was Anna, but they were staring at me.
“Prince Philip!” Everyone in the hallway and rooms alike, stared at me, then Mr. and Mrs. McPye came in. “What are you doing here?” The surgeon started at me scared.
“Maybe you can help me. I’m looking for my girlfriend, Penda McPye. Take me to her now.” Mr. McPye looked at me like I was crazy. But the surgeon took me to Penda. The doctor in the room was an older man. A few years senior to Mr. McPye. He was putting something in Penda’s IV.
Poison.
*(Penda POV)*
I woke up. I was what looked like a hospital room, but then again, I’m not sure of anything right now. Though I felt a little woozy, I tried to get up and find out where I was, but my leg had a different idea. It looked like my own room. I heard talking outside. I fell back onto the bed and it made a thump. Immediately, the door opened and three people burst in. They held up guns around the room. They all wore the same tuxedos, and sunglasses. They also all had coms unit on. They moved around the room. One of them came over to me and picked me up carrying me out of the room. A gun was in my face when I was out of the room.
“Penda,” Zach was outside the room, holding a gun to the man that held me. “Gosh, you scared me.” He put the gun down. The man put me down and Zach offered a hand. I took his shoulder. Leaning on him heavily. Zach looked at me sympathetically.
“Is this almost over?” I asked my dad, as he rounded the corner, coming towards us.
Zach answered for him. “It’s just the beginning.”