Melissa Mayo
ENG 112 SA
Mrs. Russell
Spring 2008
Melina
Once upon a time, in a land far away called Ravia, lived an orphan named Melina. Ravia was the picture perfect land with an inviting small town, which sat in the bottom of a valley surrounded by trees and snow-covered mountains. It was also home to the most well-known royal family and the tallest, most beautiful castle one could lay their eyes on. The castle was built in the very middle of the valley, with the town of Ravia built all around it. The privileged family that lived in the castle was the Fulcher’s, best known for their extreme wealth. King Terrence and Queen Alexia had one son, Prince David. They loved that their town was separated from all the others so that there wouldn’t be any run-ins with other towns that could create problems. The King and Queen’s world revolved around their son, which meant all of Ravia revolved around Prince David. Queen Alexia was definitely the matriarch, and since her son was eighteen years old, the number one thing she was most concerned with was finding her son a woman to marry and be his Queen. The picturesque outward appearance fooled many outsiders into thinking the town of Ravia was the epitome of perfection, however, due to this obsession of the Queen towards her son, the actual town and everyone in it was drama-filled to the brim.
Through the early years of her life, Melina lived in the town orphanage, in a large room with six other girls her age. She never knew her parents, for as long as she could remember she had always been in the orphanage. It was the only home she knew. She had always been close with the other girls when they were younger, but little did they know that all of that would change once they turned eighteen years old. When they came of that age that no longer considered them to be children, they were to be made to get jobs by rule of the King and Queen. They would still get to live together in the orphanage, but they would have to stay in the castle all day doing certain jobs to keep it in good working order. All seven of the girls’ birthdays fell in the summer months of June, July, and August. Melina had had the last birthday, on August twelfth. They would all start their work in the on the first of September.
The night before their first day of work, they all gathered in the center of their room, sitting on the floor in a circle. So far, they had talked mostly about their childhood together, especially their most recent birthdays. Each of the girls eighteenth birthdays was of different significance to them. Some were excited to have change in their lives, and some were excited to work under the royal family in hopes of being that much closer to someone whose status is much higher than theirs, who could possibly have some positive influence them. However, all of them were extremely excited about getting a chance to be in close range of the Prince. Melina was the only one who wasn’t excited about this new change. She didn’t exactly have the best view towards the royal family, and every encounter that she had had with Prince David was definitely not a pleasant experience. One specific time, she had gone into the busiest part of the town to buy food for the kids at the orphanage as a favor to the owner, and as she was waiting for help to order the bread, Prince David came bursting into the store.
“Mrs. Bolton, how lovely to see you!” said David with the most cheerful disposition.
“Prince David! What a nice surprise, what brings you into my tiny old shop this morning?” Mrs. Bolton, the bakery owner, had been helping Melina with her order, but stopped all of a sudden just as soon as David had come into the bakery to help him instead. This was the one thing that got on Melina’s nerves about the royal family. She didn’t see how they were that much more important and attention-deserving than anyone else. Melina was getting incredibly impatient about the sudden stop of all business just because David appeared on the scene, so she gave up and walked out of the bakery, and went back to the orphanage without the food she intended on bringing back. This specific occasion as well as many others had just set Melina’s negative opinion towards the royal family in stone, and she didn’t think it could be changed.
Prince David was not the most complex person to understand. He was the type of guy that all the girls loved, had all the characteristics that made him desirable. He was tall, dark, and handsome, and knew how to charm the girls. The two things she heard the most about him was his “electric smile” or “piercing eyes that make the heart melt.” His only flaw was the inability to court one girl for more than a week. He didn’t seem interested in getting married at all, and the Queen was always trying to set him up. There was always news of Prince David seeing a new girl, its all anyone in Ravia ever talked about. Melina had to hear about it all the time even at home, since any new news about David is the most important thing the girls she lived with cared about. They felt like they were going to get their chance one day to get his attention, because, after all, Ravia is not that big of a town. At the rate David was going through girls he was bound to get to them sooner or later. Melina never understood how the girls could have a chance, or even want a chance since it was pretty obvious that no girl, no matter who it was, lasted with David.
She wanted to find out, so she asked, “Why are all of you so obsessed with the Prince?”
“His eyes!”
“His smile!”
“He’s so nice!”
“He’s a prince!” All of these reasons were thrown back at her within a minute of the question being asked. The girls had dreamy looks on their face just thinking about him.
“Well, he plays girls,” argued Melina, “None of those things matter if his actions don’t mean anything.” However, she knew she wouldn’t get through to them so she gave up.
After the girls had all gone to bed that night before they started work at the castle, Melina knew she was the only one up still thinking about it. She was not looking forward to being subjected to the King and Queen and especially the Prince, but most of all she didn’t want to be surrounded by people all day vying for their attention or praise. She knew her six “sisters” would constantly try to be perfect in hopes of catching the prince’s eye for a split second. Melina finally gave up dreading the inevitable, and fell asleep.
The next morning, Melina awoke to find all six of her roommates in a frenzy trying to get ready for the day. She could feel all the excitement in the air from them, but got up slowly and quietly and got herself ready. They all headed over to the castle bright and early in the morning and met in one of the many enormous sitting rooms to be assigned to different jobs. Melina received the job of helping cook and serving meals to the royal family. She wasn’t ecstatic over the position, but didn’t complain either. She set off towards the kitchen because breakfast time was approaching quickly. As soon as she got there, she was greeted with,
“You – dish duty. As soon as a cook finishes with a pot, wash and dry it – quickly.” The man threw her a dishtowel and pointed towards the sink, which was already full of hot, soapy water. Melina washed dishes until the same man came over to her with a white coat to throw on over her clothes, and told her to go up to the dining room to serve breakfast. She took a cart with three silver trays of food down a long hallway and entered one of the fanciest rooms in the castle she had seen yet. As soon as she got there, she realized the King, Queen, and Prince were all seated ready to be served. It was unexpected and she didn’t think she would be this intimidated, but she had never been in a room alone with any of them, let alone all three at once. She walked in slowly and quietly, and stopped the cart near the end of the table, and took the first tray of food off and started walking towards the Queen first. She set her plate down with a small curtsy, but didn’t say a word. She went back and got the tray for the King, and then finally went back to get Prince David’s food. She planned on giving it to the Prince the same way she gave it to his parents, because she wanted to get out of the awkwardly silenced room as quickly as possible. However, as soon as she set his plate down in front of him, he looked up at her with the biggest smile and said, “Thank you.”
Melina sure felt that electric current surge through her. The feeling was definitely unexpected, and she was almost in a frozen state because she had no idea what to do or say. Melina lingered next to him for a few seconds, tried to smile back, and finally turned around to leave. As soon as she got back into the safety of the empty hallway, she hurried down to the kitchen to collect her thoughts. She ran into one of her orphan sisters, Kelsie, who was taking a break to eat.
“Hi! How has your day been so far? What have you done?” asked Kelsie.
“I just worked in the kitchen a little and then served breakfast to the King and Queen and David…” said Melina.
“Ooh really!? What were they like? Did they say anything?”
“The King and Queen didn’t, but David thanked me before I left.”
“Wow, so what was he like up close?” Kelsie asked excitedly.
“I don’t know, it wasn’t that exciting,” Melina wanted to tell Kelsie what she really thought and felt about David, but she mostly didn’t want to admit that the Prince captured her attention when she had just disagreed with the girls the night before. So, both the girls went back to their work and Melina served lunch and dinner to the royal family. The Prince proceeded to thank her and smile each time she came in. The feeling she got when he looked at her was starting to make her feel uncomfortable, and she was a little worried that she was going to have to see him three times a day every day. She did not want to have any feelings for David in the least; she wanted to keep her opinion of him. After dinner clean up, however, she finally got to go home and get some sleep and decided not to stress over this. She kept trying to tell herself that he was just messing with her head. The next day when she went in, she was determined to make it go more smoothly than it did the day before. She got the cart with the trays of breakfast on it, and took it up to the dining room. They were seated just like normal, and she set their food down and the Prince thanked her again. She gave a little smile back, and then walked back out into the hallway and breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she could do this after all.
“Wait!” Melina stopped short, caught off guard. She turned around to see David walking towards her.
“Yes? Can I get something for you?” she asked.
“No, I just wanted to talk to you,” said David, “What’s your name?”
“Melina.”
“That’s a pretty name. How do you like working here?”
“It’s fine…why are you talking to me?” Talking to him this close in person was making Melina feel like she was under a spell, but his Casanova characteristics stayed in the back of her mind.
“Well, I have never met you before so I just thought I would introduce myself personally.”
“Okay, we it was nice to meet you. I should probably be getting back to the kitchen.”
“Goodbye, Melina.” He smiled one last time and turned around to walk the other way. She returned to the kitchen to find Kelsie again, and she wanted so much to tell her what happened but couldn’t. Despite all her former impressions of David, he really was a very nice guy when it was just the two of them. She was confused about how she felt, but knew for sure that her opinions were about to change if they hadn’t already.
Over the next few weeks, David and Melina got very close. They started off by talking a little each day, which built up to David even keeping Melina company in the kitchen while she was working. The first time he came to talk to her there, the other workers were stunned to be in his presence. After awhile, they all became used to him being there. Their friendship made David personable, like he was one of them. Melina’s orphanage sisters couldn’t believe that this happened, but were very excited that it did because it meant they were that much closer to David. During the first few days of this friendship, David tried to move in further on Melina, and it was working. Melina had developed real feelings for David and it seemed to her that the feelings were mutual between them. The friendship then slowly grew into a relationship. The two appeared in town one day together, holding hands, which caught the eye of every single townsperson. They were all shocked, of course, because Prince David had never lasted more than a week with a single girl. Word spread about them like wildfire; they quickly became the talk of the town.
One night back at the orphanage, the girls stayed up late talking, asking Melina questions about her new relationship. She tried to answer as many as she could as best she could, and one by one they fell asleep until it was just Melina and Kelsie awake.
“So, how do you really feel? I know you didn’t like the Prince before you got to know him, what changed?” asked Kelsie. Melina figured this was the one thing everyone wanted to know.
“I don’t know, I just got to know him a lot better. He’s not the person I thought he was. I really care about him a lot and I think he could be my real life Prince. Things are going really well right now. He surprised me at first because I wasn’t sure if he would stick with it, but he really has changed.”
“That’s good, Melina, I’m happy for you then.”
“Thank you!” The girls were all smiles and went to bed, Melina being especially excited to see David tomorrow.
Nevertheless, the Queen had been working on a plan to break the two apart. She had been so used to David’s carelessness when it came to dating girls that she didn’t worry when the relationship first started, but now that it was becoming more serious, she had to stop it. Her one and only son couldn’t marry a poor orphan! Not if she had anything to do with it. She had a plan set in motion for the very next day.
Melina excitedly went to the castle the next morning and hoped she would see David before breakfast, but he wasn’t there waiting for her like he normally would do. She didn’t think much of it, but when she went to serve breakfast and he wasn’t there, she started to worry a little bit. Then, he didn’t show up for lunch or dinner either. She didn’t want to ask the King or Queen where he was because she knew they didn’t approve of her and David being together, so she left and decided to look around the castle for him. She looked in various rooms and had no luck, so she just returned to the kitchen. As soon as she walked in, though, David and Kelsie were in the kitchen together, and alone. Worst of all, she walked in as he was leaning in to kiss her.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” Melina screamed to both of them. In that one split second, she felt so betrayed by the two people she was closest to. David and Kelsie looked up at her in shock, not having a clue what to do. Melina just stood there, also, but recovered quickly and turned around to leave.
“Melina, wait!” David called after her.
“No. That’s exactly what I should have said the first time you asked me to wait. If I hadn’t stayed to talk to you that one day, none of this would have happened.”
“Wait – you don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand. I understand completely. I knew this was too good to be true, I knew you couldn’t change that easily.” Melina was furious at David, but mostly she was mad at herself for letting him lead her on like this. She had really grown to love him.
“Why did it have to be Kelsie? Of all people?” she asked.
“…” David wasn’t saying anything. Melina was entirely too frustrated with this situation, and went back into the kitchen to find Kelsie and try to get some answers, but she had already left. David appeared at the doorway, but he didn’t come in.
“Well?” asked Melina.
“I…have to go take care of something…” said David. He left, and Melina took off her white server’s coat and threw it from her. She sat down at one of the tables and put her head in her hands. She really couldn’t believe what had just happened. She had never felt as alone in her life as she did this moment. Her best friend and the man she loved both betrayed her, and then ran away like cowards. She started to cry, and was so physically and emotionally drained that she fell asleep.
Melina awoke a short time later to find the kitchen area partially engulfed in flames. She panicked, and started screaming for help. She didn’t know what time it was, or if anyone knew she was still there. She didn’t want the fire to spread to the rest of the castle, so she tried to extinguish the fire with some nearby dishtowels. She noticed that her server’s coat was on fire on top of the stove, and figured someone must’ve forgotten to turn it off and her coat burned when she threw it from her earlier. At that moment, David ran into the kitchen.
“Stay back, go out into the hallway!” he yelled at her. She ran outside, coughing, and watched as David took care of the fire. He came back out to meet her in the hallway, exhausted. They hugged each other, but then broke apart quickly because Melina hadn’t forgotten what happened.
“I’m sorry…” Melina said and turned around to leave and go home.
“Hold on, I need to explain something to you first.”
“Okay.” She stayed only because she needed to know what was going on.
“My mother set me up. She has kept me busy with things all day that were coincidentally all near Kelsie. I know she doesn’t like the idea that you and I were together, and I just now talked to her about it, and she told me the whole story. She knew my tendency to move from girl to girl quickly, and if I was around Kelsie long enough I might give in. And I did. I know I shouldn’t have and I’m really sorry.” Melina stared into his eyes to see if his apology was really genuine.
“How do I know it won’t happen again?” asked Melina.
“Let’s leave Ravia. Now. I want to be a whole new person, and I want to be that person with you. I don’t want to live under the control of my parents anymore. There isn’t anything keeping us here, right? What do you say?”
Melina smiled, took his hand and walked out of the castle towards that happily ever after.
