1 A Passion for Attention

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a boy, a prince in fact, an 18-year-old prince by the name of Alejandro. He, and his mother and father, lived in a castle on a small hill. His personality was kind, he was pure good and he loved his mother, Queen Victoria. Alejandro was an only child and because of this, he had many bad experiences with other people when he was younger. He was named after his great, great Grandpa, who saved an entire village from severe danger. Prince Alejandro was a tall, slim boy. His face was of the gods, with a soft jaw and light freckles. He had dirty blonde hair, matched by his chocolate brown eyes, which many girls became lost in. Unfortunately for the other girls, this prince had eyes for only one girl, a village resident by the name of Abigail. His one true love. Abigail was head over heels in love with Prince Alejandro and would not trade him for anything in the world. She was 17, with a hard-working personality but when she was not working, one of her favourite hobbies was reading. Abigail worked in a library restocking shelves for a low salary. She is one of the quietest people in the world when she is around new people, but when she is with people she knows and loves, she is a big bundle of fun and laughs loudly. Abigail had beautiful bright blonde hair with, equally as beautiful, dark green eyes. She had an hourglass figure and, unlike Alejandro, was a child of many, 7 in fact. Abigail not only loved Alejandro but loved his family as well, mainly his mother, Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria was a lovely woman, who was married to a not-so lovely man by the name of King Harold. Queen Victoria and King Harold were a part of an arranged marriage, organised by their parents when they were young. Queen Victoria had a kind heart and always put others before herself, which was why Alejandro was so kind, she was slim and had a gorgeous face with soft features, bright blue eyes and mousey brown hair. King Harold on the other hand, wanted to rule the world and was power hungry, he did not care what happened unless it affected him. He had an oversized figure, brown hair and brown eyes. King Harold used to be different, until his son came along, Alejandro ruined everything, he took Victoria's attention away from him and he wanted it back.

King Harold had had enough of this, Victoria paid attention to everyone but him, he's getting his wife back whether she liked it or not. King Harold decided to pay the kingdom wizard a visit. "HURRY UP, I NEED THOSE POTIONS NOW!" snapped the King.

"Calm down Harold, I've only been stirring these potions for 2 minutes," the wizard replied, calm as a feather.

The wizard went back to his cauldron, as the King went back to pacing impatiently. "UH-HA FINISHED!" yelled the wizard in excitement.

"Finally. I thought I'd have to come back tomorrow…now give me!" King Harold snatched the potion bottles, that had been conveniently labelled.

"Wait! Be careful with those you buffoon! I need to tell you the consequences." the wizard told the impatient King.

The King ignored him and left, to complete the deed he had to do to get his queen back. King Harold went back to the castle and poured a glass of beer for himself, thinking about how he was going to get the prince to drink the potion, he looked out the window and saw Queen Victoria comforting a crying child whose knee was scraped, he smiled a small smile and remembered why he fell in love with her in the first place. Meanwhile it was getting close to the end of Abigail's shift at the library and getting close to lunch. Prince Alejandro and Abigail had a picnic lunch planned. Alejandro checked the time and realised he had to get going to make it the library in time to pick up Abigail. Alejandro dropped his royal duties and went to get the picnic basket from the kitchen, then he went to the library just as Abigail finished her shift.

The King watched the day go by until it was dusk, and he still hadn't figured out a way to get his son to drink the potions. All of a sudden, the door slammed open to reveal Prince Alejandro in the doorway to his home, an hour after curfew. "Sorry, sorry! I have a reason this time!" yelled Alejandro scared of the consequences to come.

King Harold had a sudden idea, his wife was asleep and Alejandro was in deep trouble. "No need to apologise, son" The King gave a wicked smirk.

"Uh okay?" the Prince replied confused.

Suddenly, the King lunged at The Prince. The Prince's head hit the wall, knocking him out cold. As quick as a flash the King grabbed both potions from the satchel the wizard had given him. He tilted the unconscious Prince's head back and poured the first potion down his throat. A potion, of attitude conversion. The Prince unconsciously swallowed the potion followed by the second one, a potion of memory wipe. The King dragged the Prince to the end of the staircase, and went to bed.

The next morning The King awoke, frightened by his wife's scream of absolute shock and horror. The King stumbled out of bed and down the stairs to see Alejandro in Victoria's arms while she held an ice pack on the boy's head. "Harold! Did you see anything?!" Victoria screamed out in almost gibberish.

"Darling slow down!" Victoria took a few deep breathes and looked the King straight in the eye.

"Now, tell me what happened."

"Well I was going down the stairs to start breakfast, when I saw a dark figure laying on the floor by the stairwell. I went down to turn on the lights, when I saw Alejandro unconscious! Did you see anything?!" Victoria was getting worked up again as she asked the same question.

"Sorry Honey, I didn't see anything. He must've fell down the stairs when he came home late"

As the King walked into the kitchen to make food, Alejandro started stirring until he was awake. "Oh Sweetie! I thought you were dead! The Lord heard my prayer!" Victoria screamed as tears of joy were now joining the sad tears she had shed.

"Get off of me!" The Prince Yelled, his mother now looking like she had seen a ghost.

Victoria let him go as he got up, rubbing his head from the spitting headache he had. "What happened!" he snapped at his mother.

"I-I'm not entirely sure, but um, we think you might have fallen down the stairs when you came home."

With an eyeroll he was off to the village. Going through all the crowds, he had had enough. "MOVE OUT OF MY WAY" he screamed as all the commoners scattered to get to their side of the path.

He went on his way through the village and saw a child crying, the same child his mother had comforted the day before. He walked up to the child. "Hey! Stop your crying! You're making my ears hurt"

"Bu-but m-mister, my-my mu-mum was t-tak-taken to the d-d-dungeon"

"So?" The child burst out in tears as the Prince just walked away, trying to get away from the noise that was hurting his ears.

Somehow walking through the village, he ended up at the library. "Alejandro! You came to see me!" Abigail yelled to him wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Get off me commoner!" he yelled, making Abigail stumble backwards.

Abigail was quite confused but obeyed his orders. Alejandro walked around the library before pulling out a book and looking at the cover. "Would you like to borrow that book Alejandro?" Abigail said turning a corner around a bookshelf.

"I am a Prince and will be addressed as such!" The Prince snapped, before throwing the book on the ground and storming off and out of the building.

Abigail followed him out, she was determined and was going to find out what was going on. She followed him back to the castle asking questions about what happened all the way back. "ENOUGH! STOP!" The Prince yelled at the top of his lungs with a booming voice.

"What happed? Why are you acting like this? You were never like this…" Abigail said, her voice getting quieter as the sentence went on.

"THAT'S IT! I SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH BY GUILLOTINE!" the Prince yelled as he was becoming more and more enraged by the second.

Abigail's eyes widened as she ran out the castle door and out to the village. She ran through multiple crowds to find somewhere where she could knock him out or at least hide. She found herself in the library once again. She grabbed books and started throwing them at him. He covered his face in an attempt to not be hurt. Abigail kept throwing books as if her life depended on it, and it did. While covering his face, The Prince lowered his hands a little to get a look where she was. When he did this, Abigail was behind him with a hard-covered novel. She smacked it across his head and he was out like a light. Abigail grabbed Alejandro's unconscious body and took him to the back where they kept the new books that they hadn't put on the shelves yet. She grabbed the ropes that they had after untying the new book stacks, and tied Alejandro to a chair before he awoke.

Alejandro was waking up until he heard a cup smash, then he jolted awake in shock. "WHAT?!- "He began as he looked over to Abigail.

"YOU!" He yelled as he began to struggle getting out of the ropes.

"Yes, me. Now, what happened to you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!?"

"What? Don't you remember me?"

"NO! You're just a commoner who followed me to my castle!"

"Don't you remember your mother? Your father?"

"Of course, I remember them! They're my PARENTS!"

"W-What about our picnics?"

"I don't like picnics"

"Uh, when we first met?"

"NO! Like I said before, I DON'T KNOW YOU!"

"Our first kiss?!"

"What?! Bahahaha! I wouldn't kiss a commoner!" he laughed hysterically.

"Y-You really don't remember. Do you?"

"NO!"

As a last resort she walked over to him, while his eyes went wide. She leaned down and kissed him. After a few seconds he began to kiss back, and she broke it, a smile as wide as a freight train. "Alejandro!!!"

"Abigail!!!"

Abigail wrapped her arms around the rope tied Alejandro. "Uh, Abi? Can you please untie me?"

"Sorry, Sorry! Sure!!" Abigail rushed to untie the ropes that held Alejandro in place.

When he got untied he stretched and wrapped his arms around Abigail. She immediately responded by wrapping her arms back around him. "I missed you…" Abigail whispered into his shoulder.

Even though her voice was muffled, Alejandro still heard her and smiled, with his eyes closed against her warm embrace.

Going back to the castle Alejandro told his mother everything, but being the kind human being, she was, she gave the King a second chance and gave him more attention, they became the happy couple they were when they first met. Alejandro and Abigail had a sunset picnic to make up for everything that had happened. But Abigail was more than shocked when the sun went down and the stars came out. Alejandro stood up and took Abigail's hands and pulled her to her feet. Before speaking he took a deep breath, looking into Abigail's eyes.

"Abigail, these past few days made me realize something. And that something is that I cannot live without you. I know we're still young but, I don't care. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you" Alejandro let go of Abigail's hands, got down on one knee and pulled out a box. Inside the box was a silver ring with a 5-carat diamond.

"Abigail, will you make me the happiest man alive and be my beautiful bride?" Abigail was in tears as she nodded her head vigorously.

"Yes. One hundred times, yes!!" Alejandro got back up and slipped the ring on Abigail's finger, perfect fit.

Once the ring was on, he lifted Abigail into the air, spinning her around not able to contain the excitement. He put her back on the ground and kissed her. And they lived happily ever after.

The End