Part Two: The 21st Century

Things only got worse

 “Hey Jay, wanna come over and do homework after school today?” yelled Michael from across the hall. Jayden was the most popular kid in his High School. He didn’t know it, but he was also the great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- grandchild of Prince Nicholas Dylan. Tall, skinny, blued eyed, and perfect blond hair. Everybody wanted to be his friend. Michael was his best friend though. Jay flashed a thumbs-up as he walked into English, his favorite class. For English, he had Mr. Trisdale, the best teacher ever. Right now, they were deep into a unit on fairy tales.

      The class quieted down as Mr. Trisdale started talking, “Today, we are going to study the story of Sleeping Beauty. This classic tale is about a girl named Aurora who is put under a sleeping spell. A prince has to kiss her after 100 years to wake her up from her sleep. This story actually took place in this very town less than 1000 years ago. Of course, Aurora has already been kissed by her prince and she passed away a long time ago. Their castle is still here, but no visitors can go inside.” he explained. Even though he had heard the story many, many times before, Jay was fascinated that it took place in the town where he lives. He wanted to visit the castle, but he knew it was impossible. He wanted to see the bed where the princess had laid for 100 years. Jay made up his mind to break into the castle and see that bed. Not that he would ever get to doing it though.

       The day blazed by quickly. He decided to Google the castle after doing his homework with Michael for two hours. It was only three blocks from his house! The fairies were talking up a storm about how the Princess Aurora was finally going to wake up. It had been 1000 years now! Jay decided to go to the castle tomorrow morning, because tomorrow was Saturday and he didn’t have hockey practice. That night, Jay couldn’t fall asleep. He wondered if any other boys in his neighborhood had already snuck into the castle and seen the bed. ‘I am going to do it.’ he promised himself. With those words, he fell fast asleep. The next morning when he woke up, he had completely forgotten about the castle until breakfast. Jay gobbled down the rest of his breakfast and told his mom that he wanted to meet Michael at the park. He followed the map that he had printed off the internet. Left on Elm Street, right at the corner of Elm Street and Harbor Drive, and straight until you reach the castle.

     He chose to walk instead of run, because it would draw less attention. After executing the instruction given on the map, he finally reached the castle. At first, it just looked like a big wall with vines growing on it. If you parted the vines, you could find the gate. Once you got past the gate, Jay didn’t think that there would be any problems. He ran his fingers through the thick, curly vines. He occasionally squashed an ant, or disturbed an abandoned bird’s nest. He sighed in relief when his fingers hit the iron gate. He stuffed the map into his jean pocket, and regretted that he didn’t bring a ladder. Using all of the muscles that he had built up from baseball and basketball during the school year, he pulled himself up the vines.

      At the top, he could see across the palace courtyard. Everything was composting itself, and it stunk like moldy cheese. Jay hoped the inside of the castle wasn’t half as bad. He jumped down from the gate, landing in mud and dirtying his brand new basketball shoes. He carefully made his way through the disgusting lawn. Everything was covered in spider webs. When he reached the castle doors, they were wide open. There were probably animals living in the castle. Gross.  Jay stepped inside, and the musty smell of dust was almost too much for him to bear. He resisted what his brain was telling him. He wasn’t heading back now.

     He remembered from the story in English class that the Prince would have to go through three hallways and six wooden doors to get to Princess Aurora’s Bed Chamber. There weren’t any wooden doors however. They were all metal. He started off down the first hallway. He came upon a wooden door. It was very decrepit, and almost falling off its hinges. Jay opened it with a creak. He continued down the second hallway. This hallway was longer, and Jay didn’t see any wooden doors until the very end of it. He pushed open the door. Behind the door, there was another wooden door, then another wooden door, and another wooden door. Jay went through all four wooden doors. Jayden was really confused about the architecture of the castle. Finally, he found the sixth wooden door which would be the Princess’ Bed Chamber.

        Jay was kind of nervous about going in. A girl had slept in this room for 100 years until some lucky prince got to kiss her and marry her. Jayden put his hand on the handle. Turning this doorknob could change his life. That was too scary to think about. Jay took a deep breath and opened the door slowly. He took a single step into the room, and what he saw almost made him faint. A beautiful girl with wavy, golden hair was sleeping in Princess Aurora’s bed! That girl shouldn’t be here! That’s illegal! Yet, what he was doing was probably illegal too, so it didn’t really matter.

       She was wearing a beautiful dress. It had real gemstones on the hem of the skirt. He walked closer up to her. He stepped on something, and heard a small crack. He looked where he had stepped, and there was a board with words written on it! He picked up the two halves of the board and tried to read them. The words were a bunch of scribbles. He dropped the pieces of wood in defeat. Suddenly, he recognized the words as the Fairy Language! He had read tons of books about mythology at the library. He reread the words on the wood. ‘IN’ was the first word. ‘THE’ was the second. He continued reading the message. ‘IN THE YEAR 1100, I WILL WAKE UP IF A PRINCE KISSES ME. LOVE, PRINCESS AURORA.’

     Jay was very confused. He stood up and brushed his knees off. He licked one of his fingers, and drew a circle on the girl’s forehead. Many, many, many layers of dust came off and stuck to his finger. He breathed in. This was Princess Aurora. The fairy tale wasn’t true! No handsome prince had kissed her awake yet! Jayden decided that there must have been something wrong with the spell. The fairies had started to gather around the castle once again. This could be it! If he kissed her, she would be saved! If not, she would be sleeping for a much longer time. No boy is as interested in fairy tales as Jayden. After all, Jayden could read the Fairy Language!

 

      Jay was still pondering his situation. He sat on the edge of her bed, and stared at the circle he had traced on her face. He brushed all of the dust off of her. Jay was thinking about kissing her, when he remembered that he wasn’t a Prince. He sighed, and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them a few seconds later, he saw a piece of pink paper lying on Princess Aurora that hadn’t been there a minute ago. He picked it up. It read; ‘You are a Prince! Kiss the Princess! ~ The Fairies’ Jayden couldn’t believe it! There were invisible fairies in the room with him! He was a Prince? Ha! He wished he was, but if the fairies had said it, he believed them. Fairies can’t lie. Jayden dropped the note on the floor, and kissed

 Princess Aurora on the lips.

 

Author's Note

For Cal, who is apparently the only person reading this :(

Reviews

[Cal]

Bah! the other one had 10 views!

[Cal]

Bah! The other one said it had 10 views!!! I like it though! Very nice, can't wait to see what happens next!!!