Status: On-going

Start of a Lifetime

Chapter one

I was sitting on my plane back from doing a 23 day guided tour of China. At least one of the positive sides of being the guide was that you had the option of sitting in first class.

After graduating 2 years ago at Ghent University. I immediately applied with several British organisations to become a tour guide.

being lucky for once in my life I got hired after applying with intrepid travel. Just one day after graduation I was invited to go on an interview. So two weeks after graduation I started working as a touring guide with intrepid travel my dream job. The first four months I was only allowed to guide tours in England so that I could adjust to the job being so young and all.

After a year of working, I bought my family: (grandparents, sister and my two youngest brothers) a farm in Sussex.

I became guardian to my sibling after I had enough of my mother telling us that we were just a waste of her time and stuff like that.

So here I am working my butt of barely having the time off so that I could be a good guardian for them. So they could attend great schools and finish their education, with the best education. Guess I’m lucky that this job pays so well.

But after I arrive in Heathrow I only need to make sure that the people I got to know on this tour are okay to leave the airport. Then I’ll be taking a five week holiday. My first holiday in 11 months, 6 weeks of freedom.

Just when I started to think of my own holiday my friends had planned to Cancun. I heard the pilot say:“Ladies and gentlemen, as we start our descent, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position. Make sure your seatbelt is securely fastened and all carry-on luggage is stowed underneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead bins.

Please turn off all electronic devices until we are safely parked at the gate. Thank you.” I did what the pilot asked. I always had a love of flying ever since I flew for the first time on our senior year trip to Greece.

I even had a Phase where I wanted to become a pilot and flew a small plane a couple of times. But having Dyscalculia stood in the way of becoming a realising that dream. So I did the next best thing studied History with a minor in geography and art history.

Looking through the window I saw the approaching lights of London and Heathrow airport. I always loved this part of the flights take off and landings were my favourite part. I kept looking out the window while we were descending onto the runway. Then I felt it the shudder that accompanied touchdown and was being taxied to the gate.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London Heathrow Airport. Local time is 9:10 am and the temperature is 2°C.

For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. This will indicate that we have parked at the gate and that it is safe for you to move about.

Please check around your seat for any personal belongings you may have brought on board with you and please use caution when opening the overhead bins, as heavy articles may have shifted around during the flight.

If you require deplaning assistance, please remain in your seat until all other passengers have deplaned. One of our crew members will then be pleased to assist you.

We remind you to please wait until you are inside the terminal to use any electronic devices (or to smoke in the designated areas.)

On behalf of British Airlines and the entire crew, I’d like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future. Have a nice day”!

Walking towards the luggage carousel I was joined by Michael, one of the younger people of this tour. I was guessing that he had a thing for me cause ever since I introduced myself to this group he has done nothing but been attached to my hip. Several times he’d even suggested to go and get lunch or dinner separately. “So are you happy to be home?”

“ Of course, I am.” I was hoping that he would take the hint that I wasn’t interested in any conversation and leave. But guess I ran out of luck. “So is somebody here to take you home?” “No, there isn’t after I make sure everyone left alright I will take a cab,” I answered politely.

“ why don’t you take a ride with me and my friend that is picking me up?” I knew that would be way out his way on his way home cause I had learned that he lived near Oxfordshire. “No, but thanks anyway.”

Seeing my luggage approaching on the carousel I started walking towards it. sensing that he was following, I felt like I was the mother of a duckling. When I reached out to my luggage I was stopped by his hand. “Wait let me take that, guess it must be heavy.”

“Thanks,” I said trying to be nice. “so will you please give me your phone number so that I can take you out.” He almost begged for the umpteenth time since this journey started.

“ Look, Michael, I’m not interested okay not now and not the dozen previous times you asked for my number. The answer is no. So deal with it.” I said maybe a little too angry but I guess it got the message across cause he just took his luggage and left.

“he bothering you again sweety.” I heard and I saw that it was Albert one of the elderly people joined by his wife Lucy. “Yea but I took care of it, I mean I tried to let him down every time and didn’t get, guess it did now.

“Yea, I guess he was smitten by you, who wouldn’t be smitten by your beauty.” “Still, your wife Lucy here outshines me far more with her beauty.” I said blushing“ “definitely, but you look half as beautiful as my wife was the day I met her.” Albert said.

“now that I believe” I answered. I couldn’t stop smiling at the couple ever since my internship at an elderly home in secondary school I felt a lot of respect for elderly people and their wisdom and who wouldn’t look up to them 45 years of marriage and still as happy as the day they met.

After I made sure that everybody left I walked over to a cab and gave him my address. I was finally going home. As much as I love travelling once in a while I still like to be home and after 11 months of continuously travelling, I like to enjoy the comforts of home.

looking out of the window I saw everything flashing by and started thinking about the holiday I had planned with my friends to Cancun in 2 weeks time. But firstly I would visit my grandparents in Sussex.

When the cab driver pulled over to the apartment building I asked him how much I owned him and paid him. As I was walking into my apartment my phone rang and that it was my boss.

“Hello Luke,” I said politely. “ Hey, Liv how was China?” he asked me and I immediately knew that something was off. Knowing that he always wanted to know how the tours went but seeing as he always gave us the day we got home off. Him calling only two hours after having arrived predicted trouble.

“ It was fine, successful even, but I’ll give you the report tomorrow when I come into the office.” “yea about that.“ he took a dramatic breath.

“Would you be able to come in now? we sort of having a crisis going on and I know that you’re the only one who can help us out.” he continued.

Although I wanted to say no and just go to bed to sleep off the jetlag. But against my better judgment, I said that I would be there in the next half hour. So I put my luggage on my bed and went down to take a cab once again.

When I stepped into the office I knew something had to be incredibly wrong cause it had never been as busy as it was now. I knocked at the door of my boss and told me to come in. “Thank god you’re here, you’re my last only hope,” he said getting up to shake my hand. “ Okay, what’s going on?” I said as I looked over to the other person in the room.

It was Conrad, one of my colleagues and a great friend although he could have been my grandfather he was a great friend. he was the one who took me under his wing when I started working here 2,5 years ago and always cared for me. “well here’s the problem, Conrad should be taking a group on an expedition to Greenland the day after tomorrow. He has been training for close to a year with them but last week on his expedition to the north pole. He fell on one of the ice parts and broke five of his ribs and his leg as you can see?”

“Oh My god, Are you alright now? Did they get you out quickly?” I started rambling of questions at my friend worried for his wellbeing.

“I’m fine now, but I’ll tell you everything once this has been solved.” “okay, but I don’t know what that has got to do with me.” “Olivia, Conrad took you with him on some of his expeditions to the north and south pole and trusts you to take over.”

“oow, wait a second.” I tutted, leaning forward. “I just got back from china, I haven’t slept yet , I’m supposed to be on holiday from tomorrow. I planned a holiday with my friends and you want me to guide them on this expedition that leaves in a day.” I paused, looking at them as if they had grown a second head.

“ I don’t know anything about them, I’ve never even done a solo expedition to the poles. Conrad was always there with me.” I told them, Conrad had always been there, a steady guidance.

“I know you’re not happy about this neither are we. And if somebody deserves some time off it’s you. You’ve been working 11 months without a break. But I do support Conrad on his decision,” Luke answered.

“ And if you do this I promise you I’ll give you and your friends a holiday to Cancun for free. But I really want you to do this, there’s nobody else that will understand this group like you do,” he explained, clasping his fingers in front of his head

“ what”s that supposed to mean?” I asked a bit confused at the statement.

"well, this group is sort of fundraiser thing. It’s called walking with the wounded. There basically wounded soldier that want to prove that you can recover.” Luke explained, leaning forward in his chair.

“I know what the organisation stands for. I researched them for my thesis on disabled people in secondary school.”I told him.

I had to agree with them I was known within the organisation to work with disabled people. Because of my experience with them at secondary school.

Having studied Science in Health and Welfare in secondary school. I’ve had to do several internships with different target-groups. disabled people were one of them.

“Come on Liv I know you can do it,” he said, looking at me with a tilted head. “I taught you how to do this expedition. you were even the leader of the last expedition we did together, I know you can do this. Please do this for me?” Conrad asked me. And I looked over to him I knew that he was incredibly sorry for not being able to do this, and I had to give it to him.

I did feel sorry for the team that was supposed to leave after all they did train for this and that couldn’t ’ve been easy. I could not believe I was about to agree but I would do it for the soldiers. “Okay, I’ll do this.” I said. “thank god for that, thank you so much.” Both Luke and Conrad said.

“hold your horses, I will do this on a few conditions. Firstly I want you.” I said turning to Conrad. “to fill me in on this entire expedition, who is going, how their condition is, how good they are on the ice. Everything there is to know about them.” I paused

“I do not want to go unprepared and be blamed later,” I explained, Conrad agreeing knowing how important it was to know how ready your team was.

“and you will not blame me if something goes wrong, and will give me some time off afterwards,” I said turning back to Luke. He immediately agreed to the conditions and said that he would book a holiday for me and my friends to Cancun for the week after I returned.

After discussing the agreements we discussed the expedition itself. “Before we start discussing this team, I will have to inform my friends,” I said, not really looking forward to that conversation.

“Sure do what you need to do and afterwards, I’ll give you an update on the team. Then you will meet the entire team seeing as they are here worrying that this won’t go on.”

As I walked into my office I knew that the next phone calls were going to be anything but fun but had to do it anyway. After half an hour of informing my family and friends, I walked over to Conrad’s office. To discuss the team I was going to lead.

After an hour and a half, I felt confident with the knowledge I knew. “ I’m scared they won’t accept me, I mean you trained with them and already know them I don’t even know who is going. What if they don’t like me.” I said to Conrad.

“Hey don’t worry about it. they’re a lovely bunch of people, it isn’t a big bunch but they are a lot of fun and they will love, it’s hard not to love you. So just be yourself and they’ll like you. And Luke and I already told them about you. They were glad that you would be taking over for me, they’re really looking forward to meeting you.” He said taking my hands in his. I took a deep breath and stood up.

“Okay, I’m ready to meet this bunch.” I breathed. “ that’s the spirit.” he chuckled.

We walked over to the meeting room and Conrad pushed the door open. “Hey, guys this is Olivia or Liv. She’s the one who’ll be taking over for me.” He said to the room of people

Going around the room, meeting each member of the expedition team. And in my exhausted state I had to have looked over the fact that a prince would be joining us. And the fact that he was in the room. That was until I looked him right into the face and reached out to shake his hand.

“I’m Harry Wales and I guess we’ll be sharing the tent then.” He said taking my hand in his and it was almost like a shock of electricity went through my entire body. And I knew he felt it too.
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So earlier I posted the prologue and now I’m posting the actual first chapter. I really hope you love this story, there will be some hardship and some difficult subject but I’ll always put a warning before I begin the Chapter. Sorry for the Language English is not my mother Language so if you see any mistakes let me know. So enjoy the chapter and Let me know what you think.

Liv's outfit as she meets Prince Harry: https://phff-start-of-a-lifetime.tumblr.com/Chapter-two