“Princess Courtney?”

“Hmmmm?”

“Your father wishes to see bạn in the dining hall.”

Princess Courtney, better known as just Courtney bởi her friends, groaned as she gazed out of her bedroom window. Her thoughts drifted away to the current fantaisie she was thinking of; her being a free person. A flying bird. Not here, trapped up in her kingdom with her father and her stepmother.

She thought about how her life could relate to all of the regular fairytales. The type of ideas that Disney would come up with and then make into an animated film. A handsome prince and damsel in distress, the evil stepmother withers away while her father marries the beautiful housemaid. Her life would seem like it would be like that.

Yeah right.

Her life as the Princess of Jeneous was the complete opposite of how it was supposed to be. She was certainly no damsel in distress. Her stepmother wasn’t a bitch. And she certainly didn’t want a prince to come and ‘save’ her from the ‘distress’ she was in. Instead, the case was that she had to be married to a prince bởi the age of eighteen if she were to take the throne. Psh...I don’t even want to become queen...she thought bitterly to herself.

The only things that the queens did in Jeneous was get their nails done at salons, eat the finest food, spend all of their money in their accounts on useless dresses and jewelry, and look pretty. If Courtney were to become queen, she would take complete control of Jeneous.

In a good way, of course.

That was another reason that Jeneous was so different than all of the other kingdoms. They actually had technology. The động vật weren’t Những câu chuyện về rồng hoặc centaurs hoặc make-believe stuff. Just deer and Người sói and other animals, too.

“Princess?”

“Hmmmm?”

“Were bạn Daydreaming again, Princess?”

“Okay, I’ve đã đưa ý kiến this so many times before, but bạn can call me Courtney. The ‘Princess’ name sounds like a pet name to me.”

“Well, you’re going to hate it when your people start calling bạn ‘Queen’ tiếp theo week.” đã đưa ý kiến her servant as she walked down the steps.

“If I ever get married.” she grumbled.

She hurriedly tossed on a váy and a dark green áo sơ mi and gracefully walked down the steps of the tower. She made many turns in the corridors and eventually stepped into the dining hall to see her father beaming at her. Courtney saw there was another man behind him.

A suitor.

Oh crud.

“Why are bạn just standing in the hall, Court?” he asked sweetly. “Come over here and meet Prince Julius of Parhama. He’s here to finally meet bạn in person instead of bởi sending e-mails.”

The man behind her was handsome. His hair was long and sandy, with big brown eyes. He had on a blue polo t-shirt and puffy tan pants. His boots were black and polished, and he was wearing a dark green belt. His eyes were untrusting.

“Hello.” he đã đưa ý kiến in a deep voice. Courtney grimaced at him, but plastered on the fakest sweet smile she could.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Prince Julius.” she đã đưa ý kiến sweetly.

He offered her his hand to shake, but she quickly ignored it. He was about to look offended but then Courtney’s stepmother, Clara, walked in. Go Clara! thought Courtney.

“Well, Charles, let’s leave these two alone to get to know each other.” đã đưa ý kiến Clara as she pushed her husband out the door. Courtney walked over to Clara and put her mouth close to her ear.

“Clara, I don’t like this guy. He seems...sketchy.” she whispered.

“Nah, he doesn’t seem that bad, sweetheart,” she whispered back, “he might not be like the last prince.”

Clara slipped away through the door, leaving Courtney and Julius alone. Courtney’s tim, trái tim thumped in her chest. She knew the only reason that this guy wanted her was for her money. She could tell bởi the envy in his eyes whenever he looked at her stepmother’s jewels.

“So,” đã đưa ý kiến Julius, breaking the silence, “how are you?”

“Hmmm? Oh, I’m fine. Just fine.”

thêm silence.

“Nice weather in the kingdom, huh?”

“Yup. Lots and lots of rain.” she said, glancing outside at the light drizzle that was occurring.

“You look beautiful in that outfit.”

“Um... Thanks? It’s nothing that special...”

Courtney felt that the whole situation was pretty awkward. The prince was inching closer to her, and she didn’t like that. As soon as he was within an arm length away from her, one of her servants walked by. Her least yêu thích servant. His cocky smirk, his sly moves he puts on her when her father isn’t looking, those piercing con le le, chim ưng, mòng két eyes.

Duncan. Duncan, Duncan, Duncan.

She had always told herself to steer clear of him. He walked up in front of Courtney and Julius, glaring at him. His arms were full of dishes.

“Hey, Princess.” he đã đưa ý kiến with a wink. Courtney felt warmth spread over her body, but she forced it down. She glared at him.

“Duncan, how many times do I have to tell you? My name is Courtney. I don’t like being called ‘Princess’.”

“Yeah, but bạn are a princess and I’m just calling bạn bởi what bạn are.”

“Oh, be quiet.” she đã đưa ý kiến menacingly. She quickly blushed, for their argument had left Julius a little confused.

“Uh, Prince Julius, this is my dish cleaner, Duncan. Duncan, this is Prince Julius of Parhama.” she mumbled. Julius looked like he was going to puke for seeing someone other than royalty, but Duncan didn’t notice.

“Well, look at what the maid swept up.” đã đưa ý kiến Julius coolly, looking down at Duncan.

“Excuse me?” he said, eyebrow piercing raised.

“Was I speaking too fast?” he đã đưa ý kiến slowly.

Courtney felt the air grow thin. She didn’t have any idea that Julius could be so...unappreciative.

“You want a mouth full of fist pretty boy?” he said, cracking his knuckles.

“You want a butt full of foot, peasant?” đã đưa ý kiến Julius.

“O-KAY! That was a funny little joke bạn guys! Let’s just stay cool...” she said, dragging away Julius from Duncan.

“Hey! He started it!” đã đưa ý kiến Duncan defensively, “Just because he’s ‘royalty’ doesn’t mean he can insult me like that! What kind of arm muscles do bạn have? They probably feel like plastic bags full of pudding.”

Julius launched himself at Duncan, which left Courtney speechless. She immediately ran up and separated the two with her arms. Duncan didn’t have a scratch on him, but Julius had quite a few bruises on his arms and legs.

“Knew the pretty boy didn’t have any muscles.” he smirked, dusting off his hands.
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All parts of this story are bởi Rrocks95 on fanfiction.net