The Princess Contract

Chapter One

          "So sensitive today," he chided. "I know what this calls for. Extra cheese, greasy pepperoni, two-for-one Wednesday down at Papa Tony's."

          As tempting as it was to procrastinate, she knew it would be better if she got the paper signed sooner rather than later. Besides, if she waited too long her mother may not be coherent enough to hold a pen.

          "Can't, because I'm a failure," she said with a heavy sigh. "Gotta get the she-beast to sign this before she's too drunk to remember how to spell her name."

          Adam grabbed the paper out of her hands again. "I'll sign it," he said.

          "No way," Abby replied, trying to take it back. He pulled it just out of reach.

          "Come oooon," he insisted. "It'll be just like old times."

          When they were younger, Adam had made it a hobby to forge her mother's signature. It started in the fourth grade with a school field trip. The trip was to the zoo and Abby wanted to go so badly that she cried her eyes out when her mother refused to sign the permission slip.

          Adam spent two days practicing the signature and when they were confident it was close enough he signed the real deal. They were terrified to turn it in and she remembered the expression on her teacher's face as though it had happened yesterday. Adam was positive they got one over on her, but Abby was still confident that the teacher had known. Forging a signature and getting busted when you were a kid was one thing, they might get a slap on the wrist and a call home. At their age the punishment would be much more severe.

          "I'll just suffer through the moment," she declared, finally getting her hands on the paper and pulling it from his grasp. "Then I'll move on with life."

          "If you insist," Adam replied with a heavy sight. "See you later then?"

          "Yeah, catch you later," she called after him, waiting until he disappeared around the corner before turning and continuing on her way. It was moments like this, when they parted ways, that Abby wondered how they'd stayed friends all these years.

          Adam was an average guy, made friends with relative ease and had a smile that melted hearts. His shaggy red hair made him stand out in the sea of blond and brunettes that populated Walden High and simply added to his charm. Both his parents had those 'community service' type jobs and were involved in everything. All in all, they seemed to be the poster family for middle class Americans.

          Abby couldn't have been more different. Her father died when she was five, in a car accident out on Old Millers Road. Her mother had been a heavy drinker prior; but losing her husband had made it a hundred times worse.

          Not long after she lost her job, mostly because she was too drunk to show up. From that point on they scraped by on the generosity of the U.S. government. The only community service her mother did was offer an endless stream of business to every liquor store in a ten mile radius.

          Even then things hadn't been all bad. Back then, she still had her grandfather. He'd come to visit and bring her treats and toys. She loved to climb into his lap and listen to him tell stories of his life after the war.

          He'd take her for ice cream on Sundays after church and every Thursday they'd go see a movie at the old theater before it finally shut down. It didn't matter though, because her grandfather died not long after and Abby was left with no one.

          No one that cared anyway.

          There were times when she wished she was an orphan. It wasn't all that far from the truth. At the very least, if she was an official orphan, she'd have the chance to find a family that cared – as improbable as it was for a girl her age.