The Fairy Tale of Quinn

Late Dinner

“Lady Quinn, your father would like to see you.” I looked up from my textbook at Eugine. Eugine was stiff, and boring. I always tried to poke his buttons my entire childhood, but nothing I did seemed to bother him.

“Sure thing Eugine.” I saluted him sarcastically. He had given up on telling me to call him Mr. Scotts. He nodded before exiting my chambers. I slipped off my glasses, knowing father didn’t like them and slipped on my sock monkey slippers. It was late, he rarely ever called me down at this hour.

I looked down at my worn out skinny jeans and my AC/DC blow up your video world tour shirt and shrug. He was going to hate that this is what I was wearing, but it was alright. He always preferred me in a dress, and never allowed me to wear anything but a dress to meetings or events. I decided to leave my hair in a messy bun, and headed downstairs.

“Father.” I greeted him. He was in the throne room, weird. I was behind the throne, and quickly stepped around to face him. Thats when I realized that we were not alone.

Queen Katrina was here along with her son, Prince Alexander. I remembered the day when my father told me I was to wed Prince Alexander. I had never even met the guy. When we did meet though a month later at a Gala, I knew he didn’t know about the arrangement. The way he flirted with every princess in the room, plus how courteous and not angry he was towards me confirmed it. He had no idea. That didn’t stop me from hating him though.

Ever since I have met the man, I have despised him. Maybe its the fact that I’m being forced to wed him or its the fact that he is just an all around charming asshole. Either or doesn’t change anything.

“Hello Queen, Prince.” I did a small curtsy towards each of them although I knew it looked awkward as hell seeing as I was in jeans and slippers. Alexander looked amused, while the queen looked horrified. I could already feel my fathers angry expression, but I knew he would wait until we were alone.

“Hello Quinn darling, it feels like it has been ages.” The queen had quickly composed herself. I bet she was having regrets about promising her son to me now. Usually when women great, they kiss each others cheeks. Or at least that is how we did it here. She had never greeted me in such a way. It was awkward and uncomfortable.

“Quinn, you are looking gorgeous tonight.” I glared as Alexander look my hand, and lightly kissed the back of it. He was being rude by complimenting me. It was obvious I wasn’t expecting guests.

“Quinn, I had just called you down to let you know that the Queen and the Prince will be staying with us for awhile. I expect you to treat them with the utmost respect.” I suppressed a glare and decided on a curt nod. He didn’t look happy with my response but he continued anyways. “They will be joining us for a late dinner in an hour, I expect you to be presentable.” I groaned inwardly, but again nodded.

With that I chose to leave without saying a formal goodbye, not that one was needed. Father was obviously displeased with me. Queen was forcing herself to like me and Alexander was being rude in the kindest way possible.

It was ridiculous that we were having a late dinner, seeing as father and I had already eaten dinner hours before. Not to mention I had homework. Okay, I really didn’t have to do my homework because its not like I went to a normal school. There were plenty of occasions where the homework my teacher assigned was excused because of royal duties. I think she was afraid of me though.

When I made it to my room and closed the door, I let out a scream I had been holding in. My mother had my room soundproofed a couple years before her passing because my music would give her a headache.

I quickly walked over to my wardrobe and pulled out an ankle length black and blue silk dress. It puffed out, giving it a full, ruffled look. It was strapless with a tight bodice. It had black flowers trailing down. The only reason my shopper picked it out in the first place was because she thought it was something my mom would like to see me in. I quickly slipped it on.

I pulled my hair down from its messy bun atop my head and quickly pulled it into a neat, ballet bun. It was my go to hairstyle when I really didn’t want to get ready but I still needed to look together. I decided to leave my face bare with no makeup, but I did put in contacts. No point in trying to look good, I didn’t have to court a guy, nor did a guy have to court me. I was already promised.

The dress was long enough to cover my feet, so I put on a pair of black high top converse. Wearing anything but heels under a gown was pretty much blasphemy in a world like this, but it was even worse to be seen falling, or not knowing how to walk in heels. I felt much safer flat on my feet.

I had ten minutes to spare by the time I was finished getting ready. I decided to start heading downstairs. My room was a good five minutes from the dining hall anyways. I hurried down the empty halls towards the dining hall.

Maids brushed by, each one pausing to nod or curtsy. Most of the staff knew I didn’t like them pausing their business to praise me. Honestly they still did, but they toned it down a lot. Unless father was around of course. Then they were practically on their knees bowing to me.

I was at the dining hall on time. I took a deep breath, walking in. Alexander didn’t even glance up when I walked in. He was busy fiddling on his cell phone. Queen looked at me, and I could tell she approved of my attire. Sometimes I hated feeling so fake.

I sat down in the chair next to the end of the table, where I knew father would sit. It was always how meetings like this worked. Father entered a minute later, and I could tell he didn’t approve of my attire. I expected as much though, seeing as this dress was strapless.

“Richard.” The queen greeted my father by his name. She rose and leaned over, kissing each of his cheeks. He raised her hand to his lips, kissing the back of her hand. I felt disgusted, but intrigued. What a scandal, the media already knew daddy had whores. It would be hilarious for it to get out that Queen Katrina was one of them.

“Katrina.” He said smiling. He looked over at Alexander. “Prince Alexander my boy, how are things going in the kingdom.” He was using his booming voice. He always used that voice when he was trying to be casual, but he was so used to the role of patriarch he just sounded aggressive.

“Apart from the war with the north?” Alexander said sarcastically. He had a smile on his face though so it was light. My father and him laughed. The queen had sat down and had her hands folded in front of her, shoulders back. One of the first things they teach you is that it is not womens place to join in on male humor. It's considered rude, although I don't see how it would be.

Dinner was filled with light conversation between Father, the Queen, and Alexander. I, for the most part, stayed silent. I poked at my lobster with my fork. Lobster was never something I could stomach. I had eaten it before but I also threw it up right away. Whoever picked lobster for me obviously didn’t remember. Eventually though, they had eaten and went up to their rooms to sleep. Alexander’s room, unfortunately, was two doors down from mine. I’m glad the soundproofing went both ways. I didn’t want to hear him and his whores.

“Quinn.” I heard my father's stern voice as I tried to escape. I bit my lip, but turned around to face him. “I want you to get rid of that dress, a princess shouldn’t be flaunting her body around. If I see you in jeans in front of the guests again, I will be punishing you. You are dismissed.” I wanted to scream at him, to tell him that he was an idiot. He was also a hypocrite and wearing a strapless dress wasn’t flaunting anything. My shoulders?

I hurried up to my room and the second I was out of eyesight I picked up my dress and started running towards my room. My room was the one place I could be myself. I had dark red walls, with band posters and the most amazing stereo system ever. The floor was a dark brown, rich mahogany wood. I had my guitars and pianos in there, I had my 60” flat screen television in there, and most of all I had me and only me in there.

My mother had talked my dad into letting me do whatever with my room. Her argument was that the only boy I would ever have up in my room couldn’t run away and not marry me. At the time of course I didn’t know what she was talking about. I was just happy I got to be in my room. I ran around a corner and crashed into something. I fell backwards on my butt, and a tray of food went everywhere.

I realized my eyes were squeezed shut. I opened them to see a boy, about my age. He looked terrified, I automatically knew that he was one of our servants. He had blonde hair, pulled back into a small ponytail and a bit of blonde stubble on his chin. His eyes were a forrest green and I could tell even under his uniform I could tell he was built.

“Princess Quinn. I am so sorry!” I could see his eyes were wide with fear. To ease his mind, I laughed and wiped the ranch dressing off of my shoulder.

“Don’t be sorry. It was my fault for running.” He scrambled up and offered me his hand, pulling me up too. A piece of pizza fell off of me when I stood up and I couldn’t help but giggle a bit. I hadn’t had pizza in ages. “Thank you. What is your name?” I asked after he helped me up. His eyes went wide, but he looked at the floor.

“Brett Sinclair.” He answered quietly. I smiled.

“Well Brett Sinclair, thank you for making me laugh tonight. I’ll send a maid to help you clean up your mess.” I smiled at him. He peeked up at me from looking at the ground.

“You aren’t going to report me?” I raised an eyebrow at how informal he was being with me. I sort of loved it.

“No Brett, I am not. As long as you call me Quinn from now on. I’ll see you around.” I walked around him and hurried to my room, smiling the entire way. I opened my door and was about to step in when Alexander stepped out of his room. I looked down, hoping he wouldn’t notice me and tried to step in my room. I heard his voice.

“Princess Quinn?” I sighed and stepped out, closing my door again. I turned to him and gave him a blank stare. He instantly started laughing when he saw my appearance. I groaned.

“Yes Prince?” I said. He finally stopped laughing.

“Call me Alex. You have a little something on your uh.” He started pointing to my face and then pointed to the rest of my body laughing. I rolled my eyes.

“I bumped into a servant on my way up. If you ever expect me to call you Alex, call me Quinn.” He smiled.

“How terrified was the servant?” He asked smiling. I frowned. What kind of question was that? “Did you threaten to dock his pay or fire him all together? I love their facial expressions when I do that.” I could tell he was being honest. Whats wrong with this sick bastard?

“No, He helped me up and apologized.” I rubbed my converse together, itching to get them off. Alex grunted.

“You are too easy on your servants. They are here to serve, not mess up.” I rolled my eyes, getting annoyed.

“Did you want something specifically? Because I would really like to wash this ranch off of myself and take of this ridiculous dress.” I snapped. I took a deep breath. “I apologize for my outburst.” I hated not being able to speak my mind but it was the way I would have to live the rest of my life. He smirked.

“I like when you are this feisty. Are you this feisty in bed?” He was speaking in a husky voice, and I rolled my eyes.

“I wouldn’t know. I’m saving myself for marriage.” I groaned inwardly realizing that I was saving myself for this jackass. He was completely amused.

“I’m disappointed.” Finally, I reached under my dress and slipped off my converse. My feet hurt. He raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t say anything.

“If you need anything, Eugine is at the end of the hall, its a door with a green plaque on it. He is the middle man between royals and servants. He is great, he’ll get you whatever you need.” I said as politely as I could. He offered a small bow and started towards Eugine’s room. I felt bad sending him to Eugine, especially because it was late but I couldn’t deal with his pretentious ass face any longer.

When I was finally in my room and the door was closed, I let out a sigh of relief. I was safe from all the bullshit. I picked up my remote and turned on my stereo. Green Day started playing through my speakers, and I smiled. Music is what kept me sane.

I quickly unzipped my dress and let it drop to the floor. I grabbed a pair of pajama pants and a baggy shirt, and made my way to the bathroom for a shower.

My shower was quick, I basically just rinsed the ranch and pizza sauce from my hair and body. By the time I was done, I knew a maid had come in and removed my soiled dress. I doubt I would ever see it again. I bet father told a maid to pick it up with the order of getting rid of it at once. Although the dress was pretty, it was worth seeing my father so upset over.

I turned down the volume of my speakers, Simple Plan was now pulsing through them. My hair was wet, but I didn’t care. I was tired from pretending to be an upright, uptight princess. I closed my eyes, and sleep quickly came.