From Sixteen to Nineteen

Princess Vittoria Olympia of the Romana family of Olympus

Five years ago when I was still the definition of purity, innocence and at my most gullible just a week before I turned nineteen, my father came into my bedroom as I prepared for my daily royal princess duties.

I still remembered the outfit I wore like it was yesterday. I wore a light purple skirt that had ruffles just above my knee, a cream blouse with the diamond necklace Alexandré had gotten for me for my eighteenth birthday, a matching light purple blazer with gold buttons and covering my feet cream heeled pumps.

My hair had been tied back into a neat ponytail as a light coat of makeup covered my face. It was my first day to shadow my father in parliament and I was nervous as hell. There would be cameras everywhere I looked and if I did one mistake I knew it would trend on the news for weeks.

I had been studying the country's economy for months on end just for this day, all business affairs and making sure I knew every single minister like I had known them my entire life.

Originally I was all about being a princess. I wanted to help Olympus become a great nation and lead with my father. Every Princesses goal was to make their family great or marry into another royal family that would become great allies with ours. It was my duty after all as the only daughter of the Romana family.

"There's going to be a change in plans," Pa smiled as he took his hand in mine and gently kissed the back of my palm. His hazel eyes constantly flickered from my eyes down to his lap. His tanned skin seemed to be glowing as a smile had completely consumed his face.

"What is it?" I laughed wondering what would make Pa suddenly so happy.

"We're going to have a visitor in Parliament today. The King of Asgard just off the coast of Scotland and his son Crowned Prince Campbell will be joining us today," he smiled.

I felt my face heat up instantly as I looked away from my father out the window to hide my blush. "Oh, what are they doing here?"

"You did not hear this from me but it seems Prince Campbell has taken a liking to you," he teased. Pa was very aware of my ridiculous childhood crush on the Prince from the north.

"Oh," I tried to act unaffected but my heart was hammering in my chest so viscously it almost felt like I would faint.

"There's rumours of a possible engagement," he wiggled his eyebrows.

My eyes enlarged so massively I could have seen past Jupiter at that exact moment. There were so many thoughts racing through my mind that I wondered was I even in the same dimension as Papa.

The first time I had met Campbell I was eleven and he was sixteen. He had visited to attend Alex's sixteenth birthday party because they were friends as they attended the same private school together in Italy. I had only seen Campbell on the news and when there were events where the Royal families of Europe gathered for diplomatic events. Yet at that age it was only then I had started to notice boys.

Campbell was taller than most, his skin was fairer than most, he had straw coloured blonde hair that was a bit choppy yet curly on the ends just like a surfer. He had a lopsided smile which exposed his braces that were always coloured green since that was his favourite colour.

When he saw me he simply viewed me as his best friend's little sister but I already saw him to be my first crush at that point. He never really spoke to me much because I was too goofy for him or whatever his reasoning was.

Yet when he left I knew I was going to do everything in my power to make him recognise me. Therefore I spent most of my teenage years studying, being the perfect princess, making sure I was fit and I vowed the next time he saw me my beauty would slap him in the face so hard that he would have no choice but to see me as something more.

When I turned sixteen I had received a letter from Campbell himself requesting we had dinner together. I did not suspect anything could come out of it since he was by then twenty-one but that did not mean I spent the whole day in the royal spa to make sure I looked absolutely perfect.

The time eventually came and I was escorted by my father down to the dining hall where Campbell was waiting. A whole romantic dinner had been set up and I could have fainted. During our private dinner he asked me about myself and what my dreams were.

I answered each and every one of his questions as if it was a job interview and made sure to lay everything out on the table.

It seemed to impress him greatly as by the end of the night he walked me back to my room and just before we parted ways he kissed my cheek then whispered in my ear, "When you are older I will come back for you."

With that he spun on his heel and walked away from me as I stood there with my lips parted in complete shock. If he kept his word that meant one day I stood the chance of being his Queen and that meant I would make my parents more than proud.

That day in parliament when I was a week away from turning nineteen and I had seen Campbell once again I could feel I had achieved everything he had wanted me to be, because not once had he not been by my side throughout the entire event. His eyes were on me twenty four/seven and his subtle advances to try to hold my hand were not ignored.