Forget Me Not: Princess and the Pauper AU

Chapter 1: The Pauper

                        I woke up. It was early in the morning. Or really late at night. Couldn't tell. All I knew is that it was time to get to work, whether the birds were going to start chirping or not.

                  I carried a list of many chores under my bed. And as I struggled to get out of my cot, I silently added one more to the list.

             Last night I worked overtime sewing the base of a wedding dress. It was long and lavish with many gold trims and diamond sequins, which must mean a royal wedding was afoot. And of course, I wouldn't be told until a month after the grand event. No one ever tells me anything, especially anything this important. But in their defense, I may have, well, done some regrettable things in the past. Which may have probably led to my imprisonment as the castle's maid. Not a maid, with any certain name like scullery or something, I'm a castle's maid, which is just a glorified term for the prisoner that does chores.

            Because you see, when a woman such as I, Bonnette Edouard, who has never had to lift a finger for her 22 years of life, is met with life-time imprisonment as a maid, it may seem a bit difficult for her employer to actually get her something she's good at. Eventually, they just made a list of my few skills and just had me do those. One of these skills being sewing.

              However, when I thought of sewing, I thought I'd just have to thread a hole in a young boy's pants, not make an entire wedding dress from scratch by next week. And what's more infuriating is that I have to do all my other chores on top of that.

              I put my Wednesday uniform on, a plain black dress with a nice apron (which I made myself, not to brag or anything), as I thought of my utter demise. If I didn't get this dress finished by the wedding I will definitely be punished. Maybe this will be the final straw? Perhaps they'll actually kill me. Yes, they definitely might probably do that. The moment they hear I didn't finish the dress by my deadline they'll execute me on the spot and give the job to a more competent person. Yes, and that's why they gave me this job, just so that they could get rid of me sooner. I mean, I admit, I'm annoying, and I would want to execute me to. Honestly, why hadn't I seen this coming? So stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stu-

           A person's touch startled me out of my thoughts. I blushed, thinking the person had caught me while I was dressing, but my wonderful, amazing, and beautiful body had already been covered by the dress. I now realize I had just been standing there looking at my feet contemplating about the many ways how the kingdom can kill me. That's probably, most likely, maybe worse than being caught changing.

           The person's touch was a hand placed on my shoulder, which belonged to the woman that stood behind me. I turned around quickly, obviously startled, and I had failed miserably to compose myself. I had even yelped. Gosh, how embarrassing can I be? But in my defense, it wasn't every day I had visitors. I mean, my room was also my office, so while it wasn't completely rude for someone to barge in, it was still my room and if the woman had come in any sooner she would have seen quite the sight.

          The woman in front of me radiated with a strong magic aura. This was rare. Incredibly rare actually; no creature in the land had the ability to have a magic aura. Especially not a human. Then my eyes darted to the dress that she was wearing, which had a diamond-shaped hole on her stomach. This wasn't an accident however, it was a design. A design that was only worn by the "Powerful Alexis Sawyer".

         What the diamond-shaped hole on her stomach showed was a birthmark in the shape of a snail shell. Or at least it looked like it. Many other people say it looks like a portal or a "swirl" but I always called it a snail cause it always made her have that "I'm annoyed at you, but that was kinda funny" face.

         I don't hate Alex, though, I just make sure to get out of her way. We had once been friends in school... but... stuff happened.

         Suddenly I wasn't as embarrassed anymore. She had also been quite startled to find me here, so at least we both had something in common. Her face softened back to normal, but she darted her eyes away, clearly understanding the awkward tension. Last time we saw each other I had tried to kill her.

               More silence. Not good silence, either, the awkward kind. The kind where you would say idioms like "you could hear a pin drop" and stuff.

           "...So," she managed to spit something out finally. I wasn't allowed to speak unless spoken to, which she must have forgotten up until now.

         I kept my head down in a form of respect, but I knew it was just to show I was inferior. It was weird. Being inferior to her. It was a harsh reality I had to face during my final moments with her. "What may I help you with, all "Powerful Alexis Sawyer"?" I kept my voice from shaking and composed myself to the point that all soul in me had shut down. I did the commemorative bow I was taught to do when addressing someone of her status. This was the first time I had to do it, and I did it right, so points for me.

        "I was j-just, um. I wanted to- I wanted to see how my dress was going?" she was uncomfortable, obviously. I was too, but it was my duty. My room was on constant surveillance and one wrong move would have me on dish duty for months. I couldn't afford that when I had to finish her dress.

        Wait, I only have one dress to make. Only one. The one. The wedding dress. She's getting married.

      Something rock hard dropped down in my stomach. She's getting married. She's getting married. The words were like a knife in my throat. I wanted to yell and scream. I wanted to rebel, or just do something. She's my best friend. We hang out after every class. We eat with each other at lunch every day. We hang out in our dorms together. We have sleepovers every weekend. We tell each other everything.

       But that's not us anymore, is it? I'm not allowed to raise my voice. We aren't friends anymore. I'm isolated from everyone but my employer and the occasional visitor looking to either tell me what I'm doing wrong or see what it takes for me to snap. I have no one anymore because we didn't tell each other everything. It's not all my fault, but it didn't have to go this far, did it?

         I hesitate before leading her to the dress, which was still in progress. When we reach the coat hanger it hung up on, I hear her murmur to herself as if she was in awe. Why? Why was she in awe? The dress's base wasn't even finished. Half of it wasn't sewn completely and all the materials were everywhere in the most undesirable way. Yet, somehow, she's happy with it. I couldn't see her face, but I could just tell she was smiling.

         She turned away from the dress slowly, trying to get one more glance of it, and headed toward the door. I hadn't moved from my spot, trying my hardest to avoid any eye contact. But something compelled me to glance back at the door. A mistake. She was looking back at me, her beautiful blue gaze trapping me. I wanted to jolt my head back, but I couldn't help but swim in her two sparkling pools. She knew what she was doing, she knew what her eyes did to me. She wanted me to look back at her as the little spunky, starstruck partner whom she sparred with every Tuesday. She won every time because no matter how much of her magic she used on me, those peepers were her most powerful assets.

       And before she turned away fully, finally releasing me from this wonderful trance, she asked one simple question. A question I wish I could have said yes to.

         "Will you be there?"

     She was referring to the wedding. I turned my head like a coward, afraid of answering this question. I stumbled on my words, trying to get something out, but, as if to save me the pain, she walked away.